Trolley Pushers

by Acologic

Part 1: The Store – XII

‘Is he alright?’ said Lime, throwing open the door to his car and stepping out. Ale stepped aside to admit his bulk automatically, then rushed forwards, as did Lime, towards Hull, who was on the ground and clearly in pain. His face was twisted and tight and he waved to them as they approached.

‘What’s happened?’ Ale asked, unsure what to do. He very much hoped it was nothing serious. He remembered that once he’d been forced to call for help when one of the checkout staff had passed out in the shopper park. It had been an embarrassing, humiliating experience.

‘My leg,’ said Hull, pinching his eyes shut as he swayed from side to side. And Ale saw the impossible.

Wrapped tightly around Hull’s hind leg was what looked like a sheet of rubble, and the leg seemed diminished, but Ale realised this was because half of it had sunk into the road. And then he realised, with alarm, that Hull had somehow fallen into what had been, minutes before, a shallow, relatively harmless pothole. If its movement had been unexplainable, then Ale hadn’t the slightest start of a clue what to make of this.

Lime looked less confused, and perhaps it was because he hadn’t put a hoof on what the problem was. Ironically, it had been a stroke of good luck that Ale had been chatting with him. It was Lime who was bending down to offer Hull his help, not Ale. Hull struggled, but couldn’t shift his leg.

‘I’m stuck,’ he managed.

‘Stuck in what?’ Lime said, frowning again.

‘Are you blind?’ said Hull.

‘It’s the pothole,’ muttered Ale, and Lime looked at him. ‘How could it be the pothole?’

‘Can you get me out?’ said Hull, his face dismayed. Ale had no idea how to react. He just stood there, trying to think, then trying to remember that he was supposed to be thinking about helping. He looked at Lime.

‘Should we pull him?’ Ale asked him. Lime shrugged, his eyes now serious and wide with confusion.

‘Alright,’ he said, grabbing Hull by the forelegs and pulling. Hull grimaced as he was stretched. Ale stumbled forwards, grabbed one of Hull’s legs and added his own weight to the pull.

‘Stop! Stop!’ gasped Hull in pain. ‘It’s not working!’

‘What do we do?’ muttered Ale, feeling lost and horribly, horribly uncomfortable. And he felt a paralysing guilt as he realised how he cared much more about getting out of the situation he’d fallen into than actually helping Hull get out of it himself.

‘Get a first-aider,’ said Lime. ‘Go into the store and get them to tannoy for one.’

Ale’s mind span but he said, ‘Right.’ And his hooves carried him unwillingly quickly to the store, when all he wanted right now was to lie down.

The store doors opened to admit him as he stumbled inside and through the inner doors as well. The desk was at the front of the store floor, and he held up a hoof to wave at whoever was on, helping a shopper buy cigarettes for whichever ponies he was representing. They didn’t see him, so that left him little choice. He pushed past the queue that had formed, much to the indignation of the shoppers, and stuck his head over the counter.

‘We need a first-aider in the shopper park,’ he said loudly, and he was pleased, at least, to hear that there was what sounded like genuine concern in his voice. ‘Can you tannoy for one now.’

Mercifully, the desk pony, who Ale knew only by face, did not ask why. She strode at once to the corner of the desk and picked up the intercom. Ale waited for her to make the announcement, and once she had, he decided to wait by the desk for the first-aider to arrive. He hadn’t a clue how to explain, then thought it would simply be easier to show them. But then what would they do when they saw the state Hull was in, welded to the ground by a pothole? What could they do?

‘Ale?’ It was Elm, her checkout-support earpiece still in. ‘What’s wrong?’

‘Are you a first-aider?’ he asked her.

‘Yes,’ she said, and she followed him out of the store as he rushed to take her back to Hull. ‘Is anyone hurt?’

‘It’s Hull,’ said Ale, walking quickly beside her. ‘He’s... well, you’ll see. Stuck. We need to get him out, but I don’t know how.’

‘Stuck? What do you mean stuck? Where is he?’

‘Just up here,’ said Ale, pointing. Lime and Hull watched as they approached. Elm looked down at Hull curiously, frowning as both Ale and Lime had while she took in and processed the peculiarities of the situation. She looked up at the former two, visibly confused.

‘How did this happen?’ she asked.

‘I don’t know,’ said Ale, but Hull hastened to answer.

‘I was about to put the cone on, and it grabbed me!’ he said.

‘It grabbed you?’ echoed Lime emptily.

‘What grabbed you?’ said Elm, deeply perplexed now. Ale was too.

‘I don’t know!’ said Hull, with a touch of ordinary impatience that did something to ease the tension. ‘I felt something around my leg, and it pulled me. Does it matter? Can’t you just get me out?’ he said.

Lime and Ale looked at Elm, who seemed lost for words. Eventually, she rallied.

‘We’ll have to call Emergencies,’ she muttered, pulling out her Com.