He was pale, his lips blue. A burn on his arm where he’d touched the cable, and when Matt tore his shirt open and bent down to listen for a heartbeat, there was nothing.
Hannah was behind him somewhere and when he turned he saw her running towards them.
‘Stay away from those cables! One of them may be damaged.’ She swerved suddenly, giving the dark coil snaking through the grass a wide berth.
‘Okay, I’ll get them to switch the power off before anyone else gets hurt.’ The van that held the camera crew, who’d been filming their progress, had stopped and Hannah hurried towards them.
Matt quickly checked the man’s pulse again. A few thready irregular beats, which stopped again under his fingers. He positioned his hands carefully on the man’s chest.
He’d done this many times before. Not here, under the heat of the afternoon sun, with a hundred different variables, one of which was a live electric cable, situated right behind him. Hannah was dealing with that... Matt forgot everything else, and started CPR.
Death could happen so quickly. And life equally quickly. As Hannah reached him, kneeling down on the other side of the man’s prone body, Matt heard a rasping breath. He checked the man’s pulse, and felt the regular beat of
a heart that had responded to the rhythm of the chest compressions.
‘Got him...’ He murmured the words and Hannah nodded. The man’s lips were rapidly regaining their pink colour, and his eyelids were fluttering, as if struggling to open.
She nodded. ‘The camera crew have radioed down for a crash team from the hospital. They’ll be here soon.’
People were running towards them now, and he heard someone shout at them to stay back. As the man’s eyes opened, Hannah was there, taking hold of his hand, positioning herself so that her shadow fell across his face.
‘You took a bit of a jolt there.’ She smiled down at him. ‘Just be still for a moment. The doctor has everything under control.’
The man nodded weakly. He still needed care, he had burns and the CPR would undoubtedly have bruised his ribs badly. But his pulse was beating under Matt’s fingers. Hannah was checking the burns on his hand, and then she carefully took off his trainers, inspecting his feet.
‘Not too bad. He must have been thrown clear.’
Matt realised suddenly that she hadn’t seen what had happened. Hannah had reacted so quickly to the situation that he’d forgotten that.
‘Yes, he was.’
By the time the medical team arrived, they’d ascertained all of the young man’s injuries. Minor burns that were immediately wrapped with cool packs. There was a bump on the back of his head, and Matt borrowed a penlight to check his responses before he was loaded onto a stretcher to be ferried down to the hospital.
Hannah sat back on her heels, watching them go. Matt recognised her smile. It was the one that someone who knew they’d made a difference wore.
Then she turned, shading her eyes as she gazed towards the finish line. The yellows had already completed the course, and were celebrating their win, while the blues and greens fought it out for second place.
‘I’m glad Laura and Jack made it this time. They had bad luck this morning.’ Hannah turned the corners of her mouth down.
‘Yeah. They deserve it.’ Matt had made the only decision possible, but all decisions had a price. ‘I’m...sorry.’
‘What, that you forgot all about a stupid game and decided to go and save a man’s life?’ She shot him a reproving look.
She must feel it. Winning meant so much to Hannah. But she was the same as him, first and foremost a healer. Matt sighed, trying to make sense of his own feelings.
‘We got to him quickly, and I think he’ll be okay. That’s more important than anything, but I think it’s okay to wish that it hadn’t happened. I imagine he does too.’
She nodded, tears suddenly forming in her eyes. ‘Yeah. Let’s not talk about that right now, eh?’
They sat for a moment in the sunshine. The generator had been turned off, and technicians were checking cables and coiling the damaged one. The director of the unit walked towards them.
‘Nasty business.’ He sat down on the grass. ‘I’m glad you were there.’
‘Me too.’ Hannah was making an effort to smile.
‘I...um...don’t know what we can do about this. In terms of the competition... We want to make this fair.’ The director seemed intent on catching Hannah’s gaze, and she seemed intent on not looking at him.
‘Give us a minute, will you?’ Matt spoke firmly. ‘Hannah needs to go and see her son, he’ll be wondering what happened. I’d like to check on the man who was hurt, and make sure that he’s all right before we do anything else.’