I struggled to even stand in the elevator I'd gotten in.
The tiredness all over my body kept dragging me to sleep, while the pain in my fractured legs wanted me to lean on the walls.
But I knew. As long as I rested, I wouldn't wake up again. Not for some time.
My vision, turning red due to the blood that was trickling into my eyes, started to darken from the edges as the adrenaline rush that had kept me protected from pain and awake had died down.
*DING!*
"Am I here?" I asked myself, since my eyes had nearly stopped seeing.
'Are the doors even open?' I thought, waving my arms ahead. They felt like mountains, but I kept at it for now.
'Or have my hands just stopped feeling anything in front of them?'
'No, I think they are.'
I pushed through as long as I felt no obstructions and stepped out.
The recognizable slightly velvety texture, that increased friction under my boots, allowed me to conclude I'd reached the landing deck.
A breath of fresh air only made my headache terribly, so I desisted from doing such things.
Following the loud blaring emergency system sirens common in PTV's I oriented myself and began walking. I stepped with my knees higher than usual in every step, crushing any metallic scrap that came under my boots with force.
'Come on! Move damn it!'
'I don't want to lose another one!'
'Not so soon.'
I could barely make out a faint outline that resembled what I imagine a PTV would look like after a crash in front of my eyes.
Stepping through in a hurry, I felt my shin get nicked quite a few times before I could finally make it through.
My hands patted the surface of whatever I could feel.
First was just the exposed metallic frame that had turned hot due to the crash.
But soon my hands froze and stopped wandering as I found myself making contact with a body. A body that wouldn't respond even after shaking it.
The chest had stopped rising.
Blood pooling under it couldn't be clearer.
Its head had split open with the crash, its joints and its limbs twisted at absurd angles.
It had gone cold.
'What did I do to deserve this?'
"I didn't know you were into feeling corpses." A feminine voice sounded from behind me as I felt anger bubble up in my chest.
'What sort of crazy person talks like that when you see a mourning person and a dead person together!?'
"Dave! Hello! Are you alright!? Don't ignore a lady when she calls on you!"
'Dave?'
"You know my name?" I asked, turning around to the voice.
"EEEEEKKKKKK!" The voice screamed in fright after having looked at me.
'Wait a second, where did this person come from? Was she already on the roof? I don't remember anyone standing on the roof when I looked out of the PTV.'
"DAVE!! WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU!? YOU LOOKED SO FINE JUST A FEW MOMENTS AGO!" The lady rushed towards me and I felt her hands uncomfortably roam all around my body, spinning me around, trying to get a better look at my injuries, I think?
'Is she trying to kill me by spinning me around?'
"Who're you?" I finally asked.
"*Gasp*! Don't tell me you have amnesia!?"
"....lady, I can't see."
"Then my voice!? Can't you recognize my pretty voice?!"
'Is this someone I know?'
"....I think my ears are buzzing. My own voice sounds quite weird right now."
Phew.
I heard the lady exhale deeply and relax a little before she tensed up again.
"How do I help you!?"
"Elixirs, the PTV emergency kit probably has some." I pointed at where I thought was the driver's seat.
"Yes, yes! How could I forget! Oh! No! I might be getting dumber! Maybe a receptionist might've been the right job for a dumb girl like me!" The lady exclaimed and left me to rush towards the area I pointed.
'Anneliese?' a thought rose in my mind.
I heard Velcro being stripped open and someone fiddling with the things inside the pouch they'd broken into.
The lady stepped over the same metallic debris I had to and quickly moved near me.
"Alright! This will hurt a little, hold on!"
"Wha-"
*Puchi!*
With a forceful stab, I felt four needles pierce into my arm in the same spot.
"WHAT THE HE-" I began to shout, but my words were cut off when everything around my body started to painfully shift around.
I closed my eyes and bit down tight on the knuckles of my right hand, no doubt burning my teeth marks into them, as I tried to control the egregious screams that were waiting to escape the absolutely hellish pain I was feeling all over my body right now.
First I felt bones in my head snap in place like puzzle pieces with clearly audible clicks.
The glass shard stuck in my forehead was pushed out, introducing me to a feeling I'd never liked, the muscles wriggling into place and closing down under the skin after forming my brow perfectly.
My hands healed next as I felt a deep gash on my forearms close and seal up.
My chest healed soon after with the several small splinters that had found their way in being shot out.
I wouldn't be surprised if someone thought I'd been blasted with a shrapnel explosion device.
Then the nerves around my legs that had been damaged started to heal, only amplifying the hellish pain from the fracture still remaining.
Painful grunts escaped my throat while I tried to balance myself best so that I wouldn't suffer more pain by putting weight on the fractured regions of my legs until they were fully healed.
After what felt like an eternity from my standards, I could finally place all my weight on my legs and stand like a normal human being.
"That was quick!" Anneliese exclaimed while clapping a little.
But I just waited. I knew the real pain was about to hit n-.
My back stiffened all of a sudden as I felt my pelvic bone snap like magnets as the muscles twisted and held them in place so that they could be rebuilt.
My gut clenched along with my legs as I felt pain that was always the worst, for everyone.
It took a full half minute before I was able to relax my muscles again and properly stand and open my eyes.
Anneliese was the first to come into view and other than the smudges of blood she had on her face there seemed to be no immediate danger to her.
"Are you alright?"
"Luckily! I didn't even get it! Looks like you got hit for the both of us! Haha! Like my knight! Crazy right! I wonder if I'll have any colleagues to tell this story to soon! Maybe I can brag about how close to death I was! Literally and figuratively."
I pulled off one of the syringes on my body and stabbed them into the unsuspecting and laughing lady in front of me.
"AAHHH!!!!!"
Anneliese tried to pry off the syringe, but I wouldn't let her. I pinned her hands to her sides and pumped the entire syringe into her blood and pulled it out.
Anneliese held her head as I could feel the pain she was going through.
I left Anneliese to her own devices as I scanned around the area on the landing deck.
The driver looked like he'd made it if his breathing was any indication, but what caught my attention was not the driver's body, it was the body above it. The one on the roof of the PTV. The one I guessed had started all this trouble in the first place.
'What the hell…'
'Did h- they want to kill themselves?'
I thought as I remembered the second crash on the car in front of ours, while the first one had crashed on top of mine.
Quickly walking over to the edge of the landing deck, I peered down into the streets and saw the absolute chaos that had unfolded in them.
Although none of the vehicles had fallen out or been severely damaged any further, most if not all the traffic lines had been blocked.
All of it had happened since the second PTV that was in front of us hadn't been as lucky.
The second PTV had crashed directly into a building and started a fire that had engulfed an entire floor.
Nothing a few fire engines wouldn't be able to handle, but still risky. Very risky.
I moved back to the body on the PTV I'd crashed in and started to inspect it.
The body was of a man's. Short black hair, brown skin, simple old clothes that didn't have any brand name on them, and what looked like a toy strap of a coin from a video game fixed on a belt hook on his pants along with his office ID?
Apart from the broken bones, smashed skull and the several nicks and bruises that were consistent with a fall, I looked for any interesting clues that might indicate what exactly had happened.
But there was nothing.
No signs of strangling, physical fighting or even skin and tissue under the nails of the victim.
"Anything interesting?" Anneliese asked, trying to pretend nothing had happened before, but I wouldn't let her forget so easily, not after she stabbed me with four damn syringes at once!
"No, nothing quite as interesting as a woman rambling off like a little girl about every little thing."
"..." Anneliese turned her face away and hid herself as she walked away to the edge of the landing deck to look below like she was investigating something of prime importance.
"What did you say? Yeah, 'I didn't know you were into feeling corpses.' How rude!"
"Hey! In my defense! It really did look like that! You were trying to smile all creepily while touching the damn thing! Why were your lips quivering so much if you don't like touchi- Oh."
I expressionlessly looked at her while shaking my head and then spoke, "Call the cops. I broke my AR glasses. Call this number, 4 15 14 20 3 1 12 12."
"Oh? Whose number is it this time?"
"Agent Gracewell."
Anneliese quirked her eyebrow at me, but I just shook my head and explained, "She's the first response officer for any disaster happening around the headquarters. Tell her not to go to the accident below, but to come to the top first."
Speaking an inaudible 'Oh.' Anneliese used her Neural interface to place the call, while I walked to a corner and sat down after taking support against the wall, giving me a clear view of the street that I'd just been flying in.
A puff of my own smell swam into my nose as I sat down, causing me to gag uncomfortably.
'The heck. Anneliese wasn't lying.'
"Sergeant Dave asked you to come to the landing deck two buildings before the major accident that occurred in the vicinity."
"No, I've not been hired."
"Sergeant Dave said you'll be fired-"
'The heck is she talking about!'
"Lieutenant Gracewell! Please come to the landing deck two buildings before the major accident. A PTV I was riding in crashed there. The driver is still unconscious and is possibly suffering from a concussion. We don't have any more elixir syringes, so please arrive at the earliest." I shouted over, interrupting Anneliese.
"Yes. Do that." Anneliese spoke in an authoritative tone.
'What the heck! Why are they still fighting like children!?'
*sigh*
'What is wrong with my life?'
Anneliese moved to sit similarly beside me, but after she smelt the smell that wafted out of me, she chose to sit a few feet away.
"What's her probl-"
Unfortunately for her, just as she opened her mouth, a slight breeze carried my smell downwind to her anyway, causing her to gag and glare first at the wind but then at me furiously like I'd wronged her.
I chose to ignore her and her ramblings, 'Must've been the wind.'
This case. Did the guy really just want to kill himself? Or did the two people kill themselves after a fight or some agreement?
My eyes drifted to the building, that had the same logo on its head as the ID card of the victim, under which the accident had occurred as a strange thought floated in my head.
Or was it for me?