THE VILLAGE
Chapter 1
Nevada

"You should not see the desert simply as some faraway place of little rain. There are many forms of thirst." - William Langewiesche

The drive was going to take the best part of a day across the Nevada desert. Hotch wanted to visit Reid's Mum, and the last case was only three hundred miles or so east of Vegas. It had been a good case, solved before the UnSub could kill again, and the whole team were given a week to do what they wanted, unless a new case came up. It seemed like an ideal opportunity to visit Diana.

Reid took the first turn in driving. It was blazing hot, and they had the roof down. Hotch had his head back on the head rest, eyes shut, enjoying the feel of the warm air rushing past his face.

'Perfect.' he murmured. He reached over into the back of the car and got a can of Coke. He opened it and offered it to Reid.

'Cheers.' he responded, as Hotch got a second can. 'Bit warm though.'

'Sorry about that.' grinned Hotch. 'We should have hired an RV.' He took a drink.

Reid grinned. This was wonderful. A holiday with Hotch. They had booked into a hotel in the heart of Vegas, and Reid planned to take Hotch to some of the places he went as a teenager.

'Do you want me to drive for a bit?' Hotch asked. Reid jumped out of his reverie back to the present. He pulled over to the side of the road.

'Ok, your turn for a few miles.'

Reid got out and walked round to the other side, Hotch shuffled across into the driver's seat. As soon as Reid was in the car, Hotch put his foot down.

'Even more perfect!' he said, breaking the speed limit on the long straight interstate highway. Reid's eyes were open and huge.

'It's....erm.....' He didn't feel comfortable asking Hotch to slow down. Ok they were on holiday together, but it was hard to switch from boss/subordinate mode to friends and equals mode. But Hotch read the fear in his eyes.

'We won't hit anything!' he smiled happily, but slowed down anyway. Reid visibly relaxed. Hotch laughed, and the sound was good to hear. Hotch rarely socialised outside work, and there was little enough to laugh at in work.

But he was right. The grey snake of the highway cut through the grey/brown of the desert, with hardly a stunted tree to break the monotony. There really was nothing to hit. They hadn't passed another car in the last thirty miles or so, and that one had been stopped outside a dusty diner.

"Last watering hole for over one hundred miles" the sign had said. Did that mean there was another diner stuck out here? Reid couldn't imagine there being one now until they reached the outskirts of Vegas. It was an old sign. Maybe there was one when the sign was written.

'Reid?' Hotch said, and Reid realised that he had been falling asleep.

'Huh?'

'It looks as if there might be a storm up ahead.' Hotch said.

Reid looked at the sky and was surprised. Black skies were almost unheard of in the desert, and rain? He doubted it. But Hotch was right. It did look dark up ahead. Hotch stopped the car, and they put the roof up. It felt almost claustrophobic in the car now.

'We can stick on the road or drive cross country around it.' Hotch said. 'It shouldn't be too difficult to skirt it. We could find the road on the other side. Or we could drive straight through it.'

'Let's go round.' Reid said. 'Is it me, or is it getting cold.'

'It is. I thought it was my imagination now the roof is up. There's a jacket on the back seat if you want it.'

Reid reached over and slipped his arms into the jacket. It felt better, but he couldn't understand how he could be cold in the Nevada desert.

The car bumped as Hotch took the car off the road onto the sandy ground. Reid looked behind him at the rising dust. Hotch drove at right angles to the high way in an attempt to circumvent the storm. After about ten miles he stopped the car again. Reid was asleep.

'Hey Reid.' he said, shaking his shoulder. 'The storm is travelling in the same direction as we are. Should we go through it, or go back to the road. I don't know much about these Nevada storms.'

Reid sat up straight in his seat in surprise. 'I can't believe this. I don't know much about them either.' he said. He got his camera off the back seat and snapped a photograph. 'I hope we won't hit a tormado.'

'Great!' said Hotch. He started the car again, and turned towards the dark patch ahead. They couldn't out run it. They were going to have to hit it head on.

It was really quite cold now. Hotch shivered slightly wishing he'd put two coats in instead of one. Reid had said it was always hot in Nevada. Well, not today it wasn't.

As they approached the storm, the clouds began to be lit up by lightening. Hotch could taste the ozone in the air, and it was suddenly very dark. He wished he had stayed on the road. He didn't much fancy getting lost in a storm in a desert with absolutely no equipment – not even a coat.

'It is probably going to be a dry storm. Plenty of lightening, but no rain. There can't be rain!'

'Reid, is there any cell signal?' he said. 'Try calling your Mum's place and tell them we're going to be late.'

Reid checked his phone. 'No signal.'

Hotch leaned over and switched on the heater. The rush of warm air was a relief.

'What on earth?......' Reid exclaimed. 'Hotch, stop the car.'

Hotch did, 'What is it?'

'Hotch, it's snowing!'

'It can't be!'

The two men got out of the car. Reid was right. It was snowing. Huge wet flakes melted on Hotch's bare arms. He quickly got back in the car again.

'I don't believe this!' Reid said. He opened the window and put is arm out. 'Hotch, we need to get moving. The wind is coming up.'

He closed the window and Hotch started the car up again. He switched on the headlights. It was hard to believe this was the summer and it was three in the afternoon. He drove faster across the rough terraine. The wind started in earnest, and Hotch could feel it tugging at the car. He had a nasty gut feeling, and tried to drive faster through the darkness, but without being able to see any land marks, he wasn't even sure he was driving in a straight line. The heater as blowing at full capacity, but he was still shivering.

He slowed the car right down. Reid was sitting forwards in the car, hanging onto the dash.

'Should we stop and wait for it to pass?' Reid asked. The wheels skidded on the snow.

'I think we are going to have to.' Hotch said. 'I can't see where I'm driving. He stopped the car and the two men sat shivering. The snow was settling fast and Hotch turned off the engine before the exhaust pipe became covered by the drifting snow.

'I think we ought to both get into the back.' Reid said. 'We can warm each other.' He climbed over the back of his seat into the back of the car. Hotch got out, and pulled the seat forwards to get into the back with Reid. He pulled the door closed and they huddled together. Reid undid the coat and pulled it around both of them. Hotch tried to cover Reid with his body to keep him warm, but it was too cold for it to make a difference. He felt the car move with the buffeting wind, and he wondered how long it would take for them both to die of hypothermia.

In the Nevada Desert!

He thought that at any moment he would wake up and Reid would be still at the wheel of the car driving in the hot sun.

The wind threw itself at the little car, and pretty soon, the windows were covered with snow. The blizzard howled like a banshee trying to get in. After some time, Reid said,

'I don't think it is safe to stay in here. The car is being covered. We will suffocate.'

Hotch shivered and looked through a tiny patch of glass that had not yet been covered.

'We can't go out in that.' He said. 'We won't last five minutes.'

'We can't stay here!' Reid shouted at Hotch, who looked at him in surprise.

'If we get lost in that we're finished. We have a better chance here.'

Reid pushed the seat in front of him forwards. 'I've got to get out of here!' he said, his voice becoming higher as he began to panic. He opened the car door and staggered out into the blizzard.

'No! Reid!' Hotch shouted. 'Come back!'

He slid across the seat and got out of the car in pursuit.

'Reid! Where are you?'

Hotch wrapped his arms around himself in an effort to keep warm. His eyes stung as the wind blew ice crystals in his face.

'Reid!'

It was a white out. Hotch's eyes were sore now, and he smacked at his arms to try and keep the circulation going.

He saw a movement ahead and he pressed on towards it. Spencer was lying on his side, curled up in the snow. The ice crystals were settling on him. Hotch reached down to him.

'Reid,' he shouted above the storm winds. 'Reid, you have to get up!'

Reid turned his head and looked up at Hotch. His mouth moved as he spoke but the words were drowned out by the wind. Hotch knelt down in the snow.

'Reid we have to get back to the car. You will die out here.'

Spencer took Hotch's arm, and Hotch put his other arm around Reid's waist.

'It's this way' he said, and they started to walk. Hotch was shivering hard, and was disoriented. He wasn't sure where the car was. He peered through the storm to try to pick out the red of the car, but he knew that by now it would be covered with snow.

He thought he saw something. A light up ahead.

'Hey Spence.' he shivered. 'There's someone out here' He tried calling out to the owner of the light but his words were snatched away by the wind.

'Hey!' he yelled again. 'Can you help us?'

The light came closer. The man carrying the torch said, 'Follow me.'

The two men pressed through the howling wind to follow the man. Hotch was freezing, the snow settled on his skin and in his hair. Reid automatically put his arm around his friend and they supported each other. Every few yards the man with the torch stopped and waited for them to catch up. The wind twisted the light snow and formed miniature cyclones on the surface of the snowdrifts, and still more fell and added to the depth. Reid tried to remember if he had ever read about this happening before in the desert, but the cold had got to him. He couldn't even remember how they got there. They took another step into the wind. Suddenly Hotch was on his knees and then face down in the snow. Reid knelt and tried to lift him out of the drift.

'Help me!' he cried out to the man with the torch. The man stopped and looked round. He watched but did nothing to help.

'You have to get up, Aaron!' Reid said, trying to pull him into a sitting position.

'Please help!'

The man did nothing. Just stood there and watched while Reid pulled Hotch up and leaned him against himself.

'Come on Hotch. It's not much further.' although Reid didn't think he was going to be able to carry on for much longer. He was soaked through and he could feel ice settle on his eye brows and his lashes grew heavy with ice and he just wanted to lie down again. He knew he was crying, but the tears froze on his unprotected skin.

Hotch was too heavy, and he slipped out of his grasp. He knelt down beside him and tried to get him up again.

'Please help us.' he begged softly. He felt his vision fade to black and he passed out in the snow.