The Danger of a Flat Tire

[Jason Campbell]

It was never fun when your car breaks but it could also be incredibly dangerous when you ended up walking out of your car to check it up. Jason did everything that was supposed to be done. He pulled over to a side of the street and his lights signaled that he was stopped here. And then he got out of his car to check it out.

It did not break per se. It was a flat tire. Or more like a tire that looked as though someone managed to rip through it with claws or something. Clearly, an object on the road made it tear up. Nothing to make a fuss about. It was just a little annoying. And hard to believe the tire could have torn like this. He even checked the other tires, just to be sure but it was only this one. That was actually a small consolation since he didn’t carry around four new tires. Going to the back of his Jeep, Jason pulled out his spare tire and went to replace it. It was at that moment that a car passed real close of him. Jason could almost feel the mirror as it went on. Startling from this, Jason ended up dropping the spare that rolled a little away from him as he fell down on the pavement.

“Are you crazy!?” Jason couldn’t help letting out. Hadn’t they seen him coming from the back of his car? What were they thinking? Jason groaned as he sat on the pavement and tried to locate where he dropped everything. Who would have thought it was dangerous to change a tire on a quiet street of Kalispell? It was not like he was on a highway. Now, he better get that spare tire before another car came in and rolled on it. He didn't want to cause an accident.

TAG: Levi Alexander Wolfe

[Levi Alexander Wolfe]

Today it had been decided. Levi was going to attempt to go to his spot. It had been so long. He wasn’t sure if he was ready. He didn’t know if he should even go. Perhaps he was better off with just his memories. Or maybe, he should find a new place? The thoughts were loud in his head, one after another, no flow or reason. They were all sort of screaming over each other, hoping that Levi would listen to one of them.

He knew if he didn’t leave his house and at very least attempt to go he would remain stuck in his apartment all day. But then again, a quiet day at home with his pups and a good book didn’t sound so bad either. No. He had to go. He knew he did. He looked over at his babies “Maybe one day I’ll take you two with me.” He said with a genuine smile, for it was something he really hoped that he could do. They would enjoy it, and more importantly so would he.

Levi grabbed his keys, threw on his leather jacket and made his way to the lot where his bike was waiting for him. It was too nice of a day to bring his truck. Although that meant he had to leave his bike unattended far from where he would end up having to walk to, but it didn’t matter. Not today. He just needed to get there first.

As he positioned himself on his bike, he grabbed his sunglasses that were hanging from the front of his shirt and put them on. He wasn’t the safest he could be on his bike. He hated wearing a helmet. He had one, but he never used it. He didn’t see the point in it. After talking a much needed deep breath, he held it for a moment before he exhaled. “OK.” He said simply, as some nerves escaped from his breath.

The local made his way down the all too familiar streets, purposefully avoiding certain ones. It sometimes made his trips to certain places a bit longer, but he didn’t mind, it was worth it. Hearing the wind fly past his ears, he felt himself becoming lost in the drive. His mind was silent. Odd. He was headed down one of the more quieter streets, when suddenly he felt panicked. Levi had made it about halfway there and stopped. He pulled over onto the shoulder of the road, and just sat there for a while, in silence. Every so often there would be a car that would whiz by. Not wanting to be seen. He left his bike and made his way further off to the side of the road, staying close to the road, but remained hidden in the tree line. He headed in the opposite direction of his intended destination. He walked at a normal pace, and ran his fingers through his hair every so often. It was weird, his body was at unease, yet his mind was silent, absent even. “What is going on with me?” He whispered to himself.

Just as another car flew by, Levi heard a voice off in the distance. Ignoring it, he tried to focus on calming his body down. His heart was racing, and his stomach felt as if it turned upside down and twisted itself into a knot. He hasn’t felt like this since...No. In the distance he spotted a car that was on the shoulder of the road. His interest was slightly piqued. He made his way back to the shoulder as he came across the front of a Jeep. He was instantly relived. It couldn’t be anyone from his family. He knows all of their cars, and a Jeep is not in their collection.

Levi slowed his pace as he made his way to the side of the car. “Hello?” He said, not wanting to startle anyone, if they were still there that is.

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Tag: Jason Campbell

[Jason Campbell]

Jason’s heart was still racing. It tended to do that when your brain just processed the fact you could have died. It was a quiet street, a place you were not supposed to drive so fast you’d just fly off the pavement. Some apparently didn't learn that however and Jason almost paid the price of it. Even if he knew he had to change his tire now, and even more get the spare tire back to do that, he needed a moment to catch up his breath and calm down. He believed it to be unlike him, to want to just keep yelling at someone over how stupid they could be. Yet it was what he wished he could do. Understand what kind of sick logic this moron can give him to justify nearly rolling over someone. Were they this afraid to be late they had to cause an accident in their midst?

Once he believed he calmed himself enough, and made sure he had nothing but scratches from falling over, he stood up and looked around for the tire. It was then that he heard a voice and saw the tall man not too far from his vehicle. And suddenly, the anger he thought had left his body came back. “You’ve seen this?” he asked, gesturing towards the road where that driver took off. “God forbid you’re late to whatever it is you have to go and who cares if you have to roll on a few people, so long as you’re right on time.”

Jason breathed out deeply. Now that he worded out his anger, he calmed down and could look at the man, feeling slightly sorry for him to have to listen to some stranger’s rant. “Sorry about that. It had to come out. Have you seen my tire? I dropped it, ah, there it is,” he said, seeing it on the road. No need to say that he was more than careful, fearing some other road hog to be driving by in order to finish what the other failed to accomplish. But no car passed while he came to fetch it and he could return to his Jeep safely. “It’s still unbelievable how some people just lose all form of common sense when at the wheel. Sorry, again, you did not come here to listen to this. I’m fine, I assure you. I little shocked maybe but I did not hit my head on anything.”

[Levi Alexander Wolfe]

As Levi rounded the back of the car he saw a man, who was clearly agitated. He raised an eyebrow as the stranger began to vociferate his anger towards reckless drivers. He couldn’t blame him. It was infuriating when people drove so carelessly not realizing the danger that they put themselves in as well as others. Yet, on the other hand, it was also just as irritating when people drove too slow or too cautiously. There needs to be a middle ground. Most of the time Levi usually kept a steady pace, never in a rush or hurry to be anywhere specific. It was one of the things he enjoyed about being back home. Although, he’d prefer a good walk to a drive any day, but for certain things you just needed a car.

He watched as the man took a deep breathe and began to apologize for venting. Levi was about to speak when the stranger asked if he had seen a tire, but just as he asked the question he answered it himself. He listened to the man, as he continued to share his frustration. It was interesting, this man slightly reminded Levi of himself. No doubt, that he would more or less be behaving the exact same way as this man had if he was in the situation. It was a weird realization.

“It’s alright. I’d probably be just as pissed to be honest.” Levi said with a half smile. “You’d think they would slow down if they saw a car on the shoulder.” He added, as he watched another car zoom by. It was odd, if a cop pulled someone over, most people slow down. Not necessarily because of the cars pulled over, but more so because of the presence of the police. He ran his fingers thru his hair, and the placed his hands in his jean pockets. He had almost forgotten what he was doing previous to this moment. Should he go back to his bike? Or should he keep walking in the opposite direction? He pondered his options for a moment, ignoring the fact that he was in the presence of a stranger.

He decided to go with a third option. “Need any help?”

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Tag: Jason Campbell

[Jason Campbell]

It seemed like nothing today was meant to go right. First the tire, then this car that nearly ran in him and now he was throwing a tantrum in front of a complete stranger. He had no idea what was going on but one thing for sure, he didn’t think it represented who Jason Campbell really was. He normally kept his composure at all times, even knew how to calm people since it was part of his job. There was nothing calm about him right now however and it was rather embarrassing to think this man’s first impression of Jason would be this.

The man understood however and assured Jason he’d certainly be in the same state had this happened to him. “Must be the shock of it. I’m usually not like that but I’ve got to admit that it feels good,” he added. And to feel good, it did. He just needed it out of his system to no longer feel anger about this all. He was still pissed at reckless drivers who couldn’t take two seconds of their time to realise they nearly killed someone, but he wouldn’t lash out about it any further. Still, would have been nice to have that person’s plate. Then again, what could he do? Knock at their door and say they were a menace at the wheel? He’d have more chances to end up in trouble than the other one and Jason didn’t think it was worth it. Sadly, bad drivers didn’t seem to learn their lesson, no matter how many accidents they almost caused.

He nodded at what the man said. “Exactly. But some are just too curious about it and forget to pay attention. Oh well...” Like he told himself earlier, no point in dwelling on this. He had another, more pressing matter to deal with. His slashed tire. He figured the man would be on his way by now, having done more than what civility asked of him. But he heard his voice again and it had Jason looked up. “Would you? Yes, that would be nice of you, but don’t feel forced to,” he replied. Why was it supposed to be something men excelled about, he had no idea but it might not exactly be something he was all that good at. He could change a tire, he was pretty sure of it, even if it was not something he did all that often in his life. Barely ever to tell the truth. His hands might be good at holding a scalpel or taking a pulse but anything mechanical was not exactly his strong point.

[Levi Alexander Wolfe]

Instead of questioning his own motives to stay and help a complete stranger who was probably more than capable of doing it himself. Levi decided to just go with the moment. It was better than getting sucked into his head. That was a more dangerous place than the side of this road.

He nodded his head faintly in response to the strangers comment. He thought back to all the time he spent running to channel his anger and frustration into positive energy, instead of his old way of exploding on people. Though, there are few situations that he can’t help but to revert back to his old ways. Fortunately, that hasn’t happened in quite sometime. Two years roughly.

He couldn’t help but chuckle, “Forget? To pay attention to the one thing they are suppose to be focusing on?” He shook his head in slight disbelief. Not at the stranger, but at the simple fact that it was true. That’s exactly what people did. They were more focused on the radio or checking their phone. Heck, maybe even eating or doing some other menial task that could most likely wait until they were done driving. It was bothersome.

Levi shrugged and looked around him. “Don’t worry about it. It’s not like I was doing much anyway.” He said with a light laugh. He wished he had his truck with him instead of his bike. Nevertheless, he was sure he could manage without his own supplies. He slowly approached the car, and kneeled down next to the flat tire. He took his sunglasses off and placed them in the collar of his shirt. “Jeez. How’d this happen? Looks like it was a tiger’s play thing or something.” Levi jested.

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Tag: Jason Campbell

[Jason Campbell]

“Hey, I’m agreeing with you here. The road and whatever’s on it should be the only thing you focus about. Doesn’t mean everyone does it,” he told the other man. It would have been pretty frustrating to know he would have died because some idiot was in a hurry and didn't pay attention to what was going on right in front of them. And there never was any cop around whenever you saw one doing something dangerous like this. They couldn’t be driving at the legal speed. Sure, Jason didn’t always and he probably lost some attention a few times, but he never almost ran into someone like this.

Of course, when you were ranting like this, it was always ‘the others’ who did the wrong things, you, you were the good one following the rules. It was this that forced Jason to calm down. There was nothing to do about it anyway and he could only hope not to hear that some kid had been run over by whoever was at the wheel.

There was also the fact that another man was near and even if he let him spit out whatever venom he had to get off his chest, he didn’t really ask to be the ear to listen to all of this and Jason didn’t want to be the angry man yelling at everything to him, even if they might never see again. Taking care of the flat tire would help. Or not, since it was pretty unbelievable what happened.

The man seemed to think the same when he saw the damage. “Don’t ask me. I don’t know what was on the road to cause that, I’m just glad it’s only one tire.” He should probably hope it was out of the road now as well but since he had no idea what caused it exactly, there was a hole at some point maybe something was in it, it was hard to tell. One thing for sure, that’s a new tire he’ll need right there.

[Levi Alexander Wolfe]

Levi simply nodded in responses to the man’s comment. It was true. People didn’t always do what there were supposed to. Perhaps that’s one of the great things that what makes us unique. Free will. But who knows. Levi knew there was a handful of times where he was a bit distracted behind the wheel. It happens from time to time. There wasn’t much point in getting any more riled up about the situation. It’s passed and at this point there was nothing they could do about it. Just have to hope the cops do their jobs in detecting reckless drivers. That was probably easier said than done.

After examining the tire, he looked back at the man and let out a small laugh. “You are extremely lucky that it was only one tire.” He reiterated. He was luckily that it only damage the tire as well. Levi had never seen anything like this before. It was alarming. “You got a tire iron?” He asked, as he wiped his hands on his pants and stood. ”We can loosen the nuts and then jack it up.” He said looking back at the tire. “Were you in a hurry by any chance?”

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Tag: Jason Campbell

[Jason Campbell]

“Or that I didn’t lose control,” he agreed with the man. He was quite lucky yet at the same time he was intrigued. What could rip a tire like this? A mere hole in the pavement wouldn’t have caused this, right? Nor would some glass. Cause a few holes, maybe, but not that. Maybe they’ll discover something while they took the tire off. In a way, Jason really hoped not. He was not all too sure he wanted to know what was the cause of this, even if he also really wanted to. It was quite the dilemma.

The man wanted the tire iron and Jason might have said ‘yes’ or something of the like as he took it and gave it to the man. He also nodded at the plan, making sure he had the jack ready to do that. Being two on the tire would only resulted in them getting in the way of each other and this man seemed like he knew exactly what he was doing. Jason would leave him to his work.

“Luckily, I wasn’t. I can’t imagine what would have happened if I had been called for an emergency and this happened,” he let out. Yes, in the end, he was very lucky in all of this bad luck. The man might wonder why he’d be called for an emergency. He had a Jeep, maybe he’d think he also had a family. This was not the case though. He decided to clarify this. “I’m a doctor.” It was best to point it out indeed since he had a first aid kit that had more in it than any first aid kit you’d normally get. It was true he rarely had to use it when called, his power was normally the one thing required, but it was there. With far more syringes of adrenaline than you should own. And lots of energy bar. That was for him of course, but he didn’t want to explain that to anyone.

[Levi Alexander Wolfe]

“That too.” Levi said in agreement. The man was right. His one tire suffered the most of the damage. It could have been much much worse. It could have been another or all of the tires, not to mention the car could have rolled which would probably have resulted in Levi having to probably help the man out of his flipped car off the road in the woods somewhere instead of just helping him replace the one tire. Yes, there was much to be thankful for at the moment. Not for Levi of course, well, perhaps him too. This provided enough of a distraction from his original plan of the day. That was clearly not going to happen. Not today.

The real troubling question is not all the “what ifs”, it’s the most obvious thing that hit you when you looked at the tire. What did this to the tire? Levi knew better to think a pot hole did this, and he had a feeling that the man thought so too. Levi twisted his mouth, feeling a bit stumped. He heard the man say something indistinguishable, but soon after saw that he had brought Levi the tire iron.

He adjusted his weight awkwardly as he was still squatting next to the tire, and began loosening each nut one at a time. Each one was a bit stuck a first, but after a few good tugs they budged. Levi was on the last one when he heard the man answer his question. Levi stood as he finished the last one, wiping his face on his sleeve. He raised an eyebrow, “A doctor huh?” He nodded his head in approval. “That’s awesome man. You do a lot of good in this crazy world of ours. Do you have a specialty? Or you just a generalist?” He asked. Levi could not think of the last time he went to a doctor. Maybe it was that time in Ireland, but that was not by choice. It wasn’t that he didn’t like doctors, it was just that he felt he didn’t have a need for them, luckily. He did however, have the upmost respect for any doctor. He could only imagine all of the things this man has seen.

He shot a glance to the car, then back at the stranger. “Ready to jack it up?”

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Tag: Jason Campbell

[Jason Campbell]

Jason was quite thankful it caused no accident. He could have helped healed anyone he injured but if he ended up with a concussion or something broken, if not worse, he wouldn’t have been able to do anything other than sit there and slowly lose consciousness. He was very lucky. At the same time however, he was curious what could have caused it. But, again, unless some piece of woods with nails was stuck somewhere next to the tire, finding out the cause of it would be hard. Jason would still make sure to go to a garage and have them look at it. Maybe they’d understand better. He didn’t think his tire was so used it could open like this.

Jason was also thankful that the man who came to help out looked like this. Out of the two men, one certainly looked more fit to fight against the tight nuts and get the tire out. There was little Jason could do here, other than stand and wait for the man to say he wanted something. He didn’t want to be in the way and he seemed like he had things under control. He even took the time to talk about Jason’s profession. He nodded, although he might not be able to see it. Yes, he did a lot of good, more than he could imagine. “Mostly family medicine at the clinic. I used to work at the emergency before that. Too crazy though,” he answered. Explaining that his specialty was aiding the mutants was not a good idea, not when he didn’t know this man. “What about you? What are you doing for a living?” Then he thought that this question about his work actually started with how he might have been in a hurry. “I’m not taking too much of your time either I hope?” Maybe he should have thought of that before. Oh well.

And now was time to jack up the car. Something he could actually help with. He nodded but again realised he might not see so added “Yes,” and placed the jack near so they could do that and finally get that tire out.

[Levi Alexander Wolfe]

It was fascinating how quiet Levi’s mind was. He was actually fully present for once. Which was great, but it also concerned him as to why. He also couldn’t help but feel slightly bad for taking over in replacing the man’s tire. Although the stranger seemed to be content with it. If it would have been the other way around. Levi would not have taken kindly to a stranger fixing something that Levi was more than capable of doing himself. He would have felt almost emasculated, yet here he was doing what he wouldn’t like to a stranger. Hearing what the man did for a living though did the same thing. Here he was saving lives, actually contributing to society, and the most Levi has done was help someone change a tire. “Oh yeah. I can only imagine.” He said nodding. “The ER must be the most stressful place to work. Kudos man.” Levi said giving a nod of endorsement.

If he hadn’t felt unworthy already the stranger’s question got him there in a heartbeat. Levi ran his fingers throw his hair. He really hated that question, but seeing as though he had asked it first it was only fair. “Uhh…nothing as of now actually.” He said with a hint of embarrassment in his voice. Here he was standing next to a doctor, and Levi’s biggest accomplishment was that, well maybe he didn’t even have a biggest accomplishment. There was nothing really he could be proud of, with the exception maybe of his dogs. He was most certainly proud of his dogs.

Levi shifted uncomfortably trying to redeem himself somehow, “I’m thinking about doing something…” He began with a shrug. “…maybe. I’m not sure.” He shook his head, and turned back to face the car. “And no you are not taking up too much of my time.” He added. The man was actually helping out Levi more than he’d care to admit.

He watched as the man brought the jack over, and as soon as they got the car up, Levi removed the tire, or what was left of it. “You got the spare?” He asked, hoping the man could put it on for him.

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Tag: Jason Campbell