Everyone around me jerked in alarm. The sound was too loud, too violent, and too close. Equipment rattled, someone yelped, and in the next second, we were all turning toward the slope as smoke began curling into the air.
"What was that!?" Yun Si gasped.
"We need to check it out!" someone shouted.
We all rushed toward the sound. The meadow sloped downward, and as we descended, the scent of dust and torn bark grew heavier. My steps slowed when the wreck came into view.
The car was a mangled mess against a thick oak tree. Metal had folded inward, the hood crushed nearly halfway into the cabin. One wheel lay several feet away, still spinning. Smoke billowed through the broken windshield. Glass littered the road like scattered ice.
A couple of people gasped behind me; someone made a choked sound. The sight was enough to make my stomach drop.
But the world seemed to narrow into a pinprick when I noticed movement, a trembling hand pushing weakly out of the shattered backseat window.
