Third car in has been accordioned to a pancake of metal and glass no more than ten feet thick, and driver and passenger are still in it, both unconscious. Viciously Abe pulls over his primary cutter from the truck, goes to work on the passenger side. The passenger, an older woman, is dots. “A definitive case of the dots,” as X mutters while crawling over her toward the driver. “Real chicken pox.” Driver, an older man, is thrashing around suddenly. Abe leaps over to his side of the car, X is slapping on the drug patches and trying to assess the damage. “Here, Abe, chop a hole for me to get in th’other side.” Screech of metal cut like paper, waldo Superman yanks the roof up and X slithers in, cursing at a sharp edge that catches at his crotch. He flops over the front seat and goes at the driver, Abe continues to widen the door, snip snip snip, Chippie puts a halogen floodlight on them and it’s all overexposed, howl of approaching sirens, it’s loud out here on the freeway but Abe doesn’t hear a thing, it’s only stubborn metal here. He chops away the whole side of the car, looks up to see the hundred cars passing slowly, vampire eyes feasting on the sight.

“Abe! Abe!” X is hanging down underneath the steering wheel. Abe leans in. “Look man, he’s caught here, the driveshaft wall has snapped over and crushed the right ankle.”

Abe can see that.

“Cut that loose, will you?”

Abe goes to work on it.

“Not so close!”

“Well shit, how else can I get that sheet turned back?”

“Work higher around it, man this guy’s gonna bleed to death from his fucking foot! Can’t get the patch all the way around—”

Snip. Crrk. Crrk. Crrk. Snip.

“The driveshaft and the motor are pressing down on that wall, I’ll have to get the crane on it and yank it up—”

“No time for that! Okay—I got a tourniquet on the calf. That foot is almost torn off anyway, and he gonna die if we don’t get him out of here right fast, so listen here Abe, take those snips and cut his foot clear—”

“What?”

“You heard me, amputate right here. I’ll get him to the car. Do what I say, man, I’m the medic here!”