All was going well in the case...the bad guys had been caught and were being tied up, when one of the men somehow gotten loose and a fist fight broke out.
All four ended up escaping and took off into the surrouding woods...thick with growth and trees. Not seeing which was the goons went, the guys decided to split up...BA and Murdock in one direction...Hannibal and Face went the other way.
After fighting their way through the undergrown and briars, Face caught sight of one of the criminals and he and Hannibal took off after him.
The chase led directly to the old abodoned shack. Face chased him through the door, Hannibal noticing that there was only one other door in the back, decided to go that way in hopes that Face ran him straight into the mouse trap. That would make it one down and three to go...
He had been standing there a few minutes...nervous and worried that the other three goons would come up any minute...Hannibals ear and eyes were on alert...finger close to the trigger of his gun. Normally calm and cool...his nerves was more on edge this time because they were up against cold blooded killers.
Standing just to the side of the door...he heard something in the woods and his eyes darted in that direction...at the same moment, the back door of the house shot open.
On instince, Hannibal spun the gun around and pulled the trigger...Face looked at him a second, fear and shock in his eyes...then slowly went down. The Colonel threw the gun down and dropped to his knees beside the man he saw as his son... already applying pressure to the clearly visible close contact wound to his abdomen. "Oh God, I'm sorry kid".".
"You're going to be okay, you're going to be okay, just say with me, Face". The object of his attention was quickly losing his battle with conciousness. A few minutes later, he lost that fight.
Hannibal frantically checked for a pulse and to make sure his lieutenant was breathing. After satisyfing himself, that for the moment, he was, his mind shot back to the four murderers running around in the woods.
"Do I hide Face and try to find BA and Murdock?"..."No, I can't leave him alone...he might be found by the wrong people..or he may bleed to death without anyone with him. I can't risk that.". Thoughts are ideas run through Hannibal's head in frantic motion.
Finally he chooses to wait where he is...propped against the door holding Face against him and holding his own shirt tight against the wound, which is leaking blood at an alarming right. He holds the gun tightly in the other hand..eyes and ears on alert...apologizing to his prone Lieutenant and praying to God in the same breath. Then, stopping to talk to the man which is his Son in every sense but blood..
"It's okay kid...I'm sure Murdock and BA heard the gun shot...they'll be coming this way. You're going to be okay."
BA was ahead with Murdock right behind him...looking for signs that the goons had gone before them and so far they had found none.
Murdock was just about to suggest they head farther to the right when they heard the gunshot. "Hannibal and Face must have found atleast one of them"
Murdock quietly said. Ba nods his head in agreement and then turns toward the sun of the shot. "We better go find them, fool". They take off..though not in a run,
due to the fact that they don't know how many more goons are still loose in the woods, but also because at this point, they have no fear or worries. They assume the gun shot came from Hannibal or Face to scare a bad guy, and said bad guy will be restrained when they get to the scene...neither man had no clue of the scene they would find when they reached their destination...