Faking It • Queen FanFiction

Cʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ 13

Out on the field, the early summer breeze swirled in the air and pleasantly swept over the warm police-in-training's faces. Tight low buns snd strict uniform procedures ruined the cheeriness of the warm weather. The group of twelve were standing before an outdoor agility course, made up of artificial barriers that could naturally occur on the job. Like a low board for a fence, a high board for a wall and sheets strung on a line for imitation brambles.

In turn, they were all to complete the course and keep going until they had every obstacle mastered. After three people had gone, Bernie's turn began. Clearing her mind of the last dregs of yesterday, she channelled her focus on the task in front of her and began by scrambling through the large tube made from tires, representing an ambiguous small gap that she could occur oneday. This was relatively straightforward, simply army-crawling through, but the final tire was smaller than the others and she struggled to get her hips through. Eventually she made it through in good time and went onwards to the second obstacle.

Effortlessly, she weaved her agile and thin frame around everything and a worn out flush had arisen to her cheeks. This whole exercise would have been a lot easier, had they been in something more flexible than uniform, she thought to herself as she took a moment to catch her breath. By now the sun had become more spiteful and was attempting to frazzle the team's minimal amount of showing skin.

Bar the increase in body temperature, Bernie was holding up okay. Pushing her silver circular glasses further up her nose, she was ready to confront the wall in front of her. It was actually a thick, seven foot high piece of plywood that she would need to climb over in under 30 seconds. It was certainly daunting, but nothing Bernie couldn't handle by now. She only had a month left of her training: almost a year had taught her quite a bit about scaling high walls.

And so, with a feeling of slightly sweaty confidence, Bernie leant down to retie her shoelaces and then began to hoist herself up the wall like a spider. It didn't take long at all for her to scramble her way up there, but as she did she felt the makeshift wall wobble precariously. "Okay, not that sturdy," she said aloud to herself, twisting her body round ready to fall back to the ground safely on the other side in the way she had been taught.

However, as she shifted her weight, the 'wall' had other ideas about how long it would stay erected. Simultaneously, Bernie swung her legs over the other side of the wall, just as it had began to collapse. Feeling her centre of gravity change, Bernie's emerald green eyes popped out of her skull as she saw the inevitable. Somewhere in the distance, the sound of Mr Bletch's whistle filled the air and pierced her eardrums. An incoherent yell came from him too, but she didn't quite catch what he was saying, her attention was elsewhere.

Weighing it up sharpish, Bernie made the rash decision to leap and hopefully land on all fours. However, she greatly underestimated the size of the wall and before she could hurriedly crawl away from its landing zone once she had leapt, it came careering down to the ground. She squeezed her eyes shut tightly...

A searing pain shot through her right leg and in the distance she heard a shrill whistle sound again, twice in short bursts. Uh-oh, that was the Emergency Stop signal. Whilst the entire team and trainer crowded round Bernie, she didn't quite realise why until she opened her eyes and realised that the agonising pain in her leg wasn't because of the rough landing on her part, it was because of where the wall had landed. Directly on her right calf.

"Janine, go and dial 999!" Mr Bletch, the trainer, yelled at another team member, who raced inside to the phone as quickly as her short legs would carry her. "Bernadette, are you still with us?" He fell to his knees at Bernie's side, dispersing the other team members, who were all muttering in a daze. Agony ripped through her body like hellfire and she let out a bloodcurdling scream. Mr Bletch didn't even try and comfort her, it was evident that she wasn't okay.

"We have to get the wall off of her!" The youngest trainee, Kourtney, cried.

"No!" Mr Bletch hissed, putting his hand out to ward off help. "If we move the board improperly, not only could we hurt ourselves, but we could cause Bernadette even more damage. A series of grazes shone on her face where she had made contact with the ground. She'd never felt any pain like it; and she was confident she never would again. How had this even happened? Everybody else had gotten over just fine. Questions came in left, right and centre.

Odd questions. Personal questions. Questions Bernie did not want to answer. Questions like: does it hurt more than period pain? have you ever broken a bone? What do you think has happened? It was all so overwhelming, all Bernie wanted to do was cry. But she couldn't shed a single tear, not in front of all these people. Plus, she was stronger than that.

Soon the high pitch of sirens echoed around the field that had descended into panicked silence. Bernie's heart pounded uncomfortably in her chest and she could feel her knee straining against the fabric of her trousers as it swelled rapidly. The ambulance drivers raced over with a stretcher and when they approached the scene, the two burly men went completely pale, looking like they were about to pass out from shock.

"Righ'! We're gunna need all o' ya to grab an edge of this...wooden board...and Toby 'ere" - the biggest bloke pointed to another by his side - "will move this lady's body outta the way before droppin' the board back down again. Everyone gottit?" The driver ordered in his thick Norfolk accent and everybody nodded in agreement. One by one, the entire team lined themselves up and on the blow of a whistle from Mr Bletch, lifted it up with great effort. The wall certainly wasn't light.

Bernie felt a pair of hands pull her from the waist and as she was gently yet hastily dragged, it felt as if her leg was being ripped off. Her vision was hazy due to the sheer amount of pain and she just willed somebody to make it stop, even if they really did have to sever her leg off right then and there. But the agony persisted and only got worse as she was lifted onto the stretcher and wheeled into the ambulance.

"Do you know what's wrong with her?" Mr Bletch asked the ambulance drivers before they made haste to the hospital.

"I dunno ma'e, I'm juss the driver." And with that, he closed the door of the ambulance and they were off.

23/10/22