Buried Treasure - 1. Part 1

“Get a shovel, it’s getting deep in here,” I called out as I dropped to my knees to try and use my hands to shift the dirt I had uncovered when I moved the boulders. “I can sense someone down here and they’re running out of air!”

Thomas ran up with two shovels and handed one to me. “Here and here,” I pointed to where I wanted him to dig, “about four feet down you’ll get to a wooden board, the person is under that.”

We both dug fast and after a few minutes we hit the board I had sensed. I dropped to my knees again and cleared more dirt as Thomas used his shovel to pry the board up so we could get to whoever was under it.

As the board was lifted away I was struck speechless, when I saw the light hit a head of black hair and I looked down to see the pale skin of my best friend, Craig. He was half buried under more rubble but I could see his face and there was blood on the ground under his head.

“Craig! Can you hear me?” I called and reached down to pinch the edge of his ear. His face flinched at the pain but otherwise he didn’t make a sound.

The EMT’s arrived and Thomas gave them an update. One of them knelt beside me. “He is responding to pain but nothing else,” I told him and after getting a nod I moved out the way so the man could work.

Another EMT arrived with a board and after some more digging they managed to get Craig on to the board and out of the hole.

As I was about to follow the EMTs, Thomas stopped me. “I need you to stay and help find anyone else, you’re the only psychic we’ve got that can sense people when they’re unconscious.”

I knew he was right and after another look at the ambulance, I turned and followed him back towards the wreckage the landslide had caused.

***

Much later than I had hoped I finally finished and I was exhausted, filthy and not in a good mood, when I finally arrived at the hospital.

“I’m looking for Craig Patterson?” I said to the receptionist.

“Are you family?” she asked looking at me suspiciously.

“No, he doesn’t have any family, but I’m…” I started to answer answered as politely as possible.

She interrupted me before I could finish, “You will have to wait for his named emergency contact to arrive and it will be up to them if you see him or not. I’m just going to call them again now.” With that she turned away from me and picked up the phone.

I tried calling through the glass that covers the front of the reception area but she had turned off the mic and speakers so she couldn’t hear me. Well, all I had to do was turn on my phone and wait.

On cue my phone started ringing, “Locke,” I snapped into the phone.

“Hello, Mr. Locke,” said the receptionist’s voice, that now sounded all professional, “You are the named emergency contact for a Mr. Patterson and he has been brought in to East Bridge Hospital ER.”

“Yes, I’m aware of this and if you turn around you will see that I am still standing in front of your desk waiting for you to tell me where I need to go to see him.”

I watched as the receptionist turned and looked at me, then she looked at the phone in my hand. When she looked back at my face I raised one eyebrow and waited to see what she would do. She hung up the phone and turned the mic back on.

“I apologize, Mr. Locke, but you must understand we get a lot of people who have no right to know where people are.”

I sighed, I wasn’t in the mood for a fight so I let it go, “Look, I just left the landside and I need to know that my friend is okay.”

The receptionist nodded quickly and scribbled some directions down on a scrap of paper before passing it through a gap in the glass by the mic. I thanked her and headed off to find the room I needed.

I finally found the room I needed in the maze of corridors and found Craig propped up on pillows.

“Well, nice to know I worried for nothing,” I joked as I entered the room.

A grin spread on his face when he saw me. I stopped in my tracks, even with the bruises I could see starting to appear, he was gorgeous when he smiled. I quickly schooled my face to only show a friendly grin and moved the head of the bed.

“What’s the damage then?” I asked.

“Broken left leg, broken right ankle and a severely bruised left hip. Oh, and a concussion which means I’m stuck here for the night.”

“What will you do when you’re released?” He lived in a top floor apartment and there was no lift.

“Weeeelllll,” he drawled looking at me with what I had always called his puppy dog look. Whenever he wanted something from me he always stuck his bottom lip out in a pout and dropped his head till he was looking at me through his long eyelashes. “I thought I could crash at yours.”

I pretended to think about it, “Of course,” I smiled, but inside I started to panic.

What was I going to do?

I had loved Craig since we were kids but he didn’t even know that I’m gay.

Craig couldn’t go back to his apartment and I had a house with a downstairs guest bedroom that had an en-suit bathroom.

I would have to extra careful while he is staying to make sure he didn’t realize the truth. I couldn’t lose my friend.

Help Me!!!