Allison pulled out her old phone with a cracked screen and dialed emergency services. The recorded voice told her all ambulances were currently busy and arrival might take time. She looked down at the man, then up at the rain, then toward the hospital three blocks away at the end of the avenue.
She made a decision that would echo through both their lives.
“Alright, sir,” she whispered. “I do not know who you are, but I am not leaving you here.”
She hooked her arm under his shoulder and pulled with all her strength. The man was heavy, taller than her, but adrenaline pushed her forward. Step by step, she dragged him along the wet pavement. Drivers slowed to stare but did not stop. Pedestrians watched from beneath umbrellas but kept walking. Her shoes soaked through. Her muscles burned. Her breath shook.
By the time the glass doors of Briarwood Municipal Hospital slid open, Allison was trembling from exhaustion. Nurses rushed forward with a gurney, lifting the man from her arms.
“He fell,” she said between breaths. “I brought him.”
A doctor looked at her with surprise. “You saved his life,” he said. “Another few minutes and his heart would have failed completely.”