Part 2.

"His names is Isaiah Travis Williams. Just turned 7. Walking with his sister to meet their mom. No connections to the suspects, definitely just a random grab." Adam Ruzek announces, holding out his phone with the kid's picture on the screen. It's a standard school one, big toothy grin against a faux marbled backdrop.

It's been approximately 28 minutes since Jay and the boy were taken. Intelligence was scrambling to get back on track with their chase. The van had been lost in traffic, knew which roads to avoid traffic cams, and even with an APB out they still were still without a lead.

"Get his picture out and what he was wearing. That blue jacket. We need to get eyes on him as soon as possible." Voight gruffs, taking his on phone out. "Sooner we locate him, sooner we locate Halstead. Keep searching for the van. We know they frequent Old Town and the Gold Coast. So best chance is to head that way."

He dismisses them with a nod. As they separate to follow various ends, Voight lets out a sigh he's been holding in.

Damn. Leave it to Halstead to volunteerly get taken in one of the busiest places in the world and disappear without a trace in less than 30 minutes.

While he's lamenting the split second decision not to tell Jay to stand down, Antonio jogs up. "Think I got something."

"Let's hear it."

"Both Vaughn and Lee have familes in Bucktown, if you were accostemd to daddy's money getting you out of trouble wouldn't you go home?"

Voight nods taking it in. "Go get Burgess and knock on their doors. Even if they haven't seen them, I bet they'll know where to look."

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Isaiah has never been more scared in his entire life. This is even worse than that one time he snuck downstairs and watched the scary movie his parents were watching. He was supposed to have been asleep and after watching a few minutes of it from behind the couch, he definitely thought that would be the scariest moment of his entire life.

But one minute he's out walking with Jade, listening to her whine about not having a cellphone and how she wished their mom let her pick how her hair was done. The next, some weird, giant guy was grabbing him and pointing a gun at him.

Things went from bad to scary movie bad then with all the yelling between the old cop and the weird guy and his sister screaming and crying. He could feel himself being pulled towards the van and no matter how hard he struggled and pushed away he couldn't budge the big guy's arms.

Out of nowhere the young cop had appeared, almost right beside them. He gently grabbed Jade and ushered her behind him, sending her to the lady cop with the long blonde hair. He had tried his best to get them to let Isaiah go but the guy refused and so the cop had went with them. He watched him lie in the back on his belly, hands pressed to the floor in front of him. He had occasionally looked up at Isaiah and smiled, trying to make it not so scary.

Now, it's even worse. He's in the middle of nowhere, alone with one cop and some weirdos in the woods. This is how people die. Isaiah wants his mom so bad he wants to start crying.

"Listen to me, okay?" The man is talking quietly to him. But the words coming out of his mouth were even scarier. Run, go by himself, run to the road, find cars, find help. But go by himself. "Okay, buddy? Count to three and go."

"Hey!" The cop yells and lurches forward, he pops the first guy he comes to in the mouth and Isaiah takes off. Another one grabs him and slings him to the ground but the guy keeps struggling. The big guy that grabbed him breaks away and runs behind him. It crosses his mind that he doesn't remember if he told his mama he loved her this morning when she dropped him off at school. He can't think about that now as he runs though. This is worse than running laps at the soccer field. This is so much worse. He glances over his shoulder and by some miracle the man chasing him trips and falls. Hitting the mud with a soft plump.

He makes it all the way out to the roadway but before he can celebrate something worse is happening. By some unfortunate circumstance, there isn't a car in sight. Isaiah takes several deep gulps of air trying to catch his breath. This is horrible. He feels like crying. He can hear two of them running through the woods towards him. He sighs trying to stay by the pavement, there's headlights now but it's too far away and on the opposite side of the interstate. The two weirdos will have caught him before it gets here. With one sad sigh, he takes off running back into the woods and finds a hiding spot.

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"I'm so ready to be get into bed." Sylvia Brett complains as she leans forward in the driver's seat of Ambo 61. Her and Dawson had driven a little piece out of the city as a favor to Chief Boden's wife to show the ambulance at a campout the school was having and do a first aid talk. It had been a fun evening but tiring, they had stayed a little longer for s'mores and campfire stories. It had gotten late before they realized it, while Brett had chatted up one of the camp leaders.

Gabby Dawson-Casey laughs. "Well you had an offer back there."

Brett rolls her eyes and glances over at Gabby. "Right. Nothing like Camp Counselor Dan to keep me..."

"Wait, wait, wait. Brett, did you see that?" Gabby interrupts, motioning towards the other side of the road.

"Uh." Brett slows the ambulance and squints across the highway. "Nope."

"There was a kid, I swear." Gabby insists, she unbuckles her seat belt and leans forward as the ambulance comes to a stop. "Right over there. Across on that side by the trees."

"A kid, on side of the road, at one am. Okay." Brett says nodding her head. She takes her foot back off the break and starts to go again. "It's late, I think you need sleep. We both need sleep."

Dawson sighs and turns to her partner with pleading eyes. "Can we just go over there and check? It won't take but a minute."

Brett rolls her eyes before finally flipping on the lights. "Only for you."

She steers carefully across the median and towards the area Gabby directs her too. They both get out and at first they are only greeted by the quite chirping of crickets. The flashing lights are the only thing providing any light around them.

"I know I saw him. Small kid. Blue jacket." Gabby insist walking hesitantly towards the edge of the woods.

It's only a second later he appears. It takes everything in Brett not to scream. His khaki pants have mud stains on the knees and shins, bright blue rain jacket. He's crying hard. "Please, I need help. They took me and I hid but the guy is in trouble. The guy they took he's in the ground. I just want my mom. Please."

"Call it in." Gabby tells her as she rushes towards the kid. "Come here, sweetie. It's okay. You're safe now. What's your name?"

"Isaiah." He tells her sniffing hard. She squats a little to get a good look at him, no visible signs of injuries is always a good thing.

"How long have you been out here?" She asks. Brett has already made it back to the ambulance and is on the radio calling for backup.

He shrugs. "A few hours, maybe. You gotta help the guy in the ground. I think he's hurt. He's in the ground, you gotta help him. But as soon as he is okay, can you take me home to my mom?"

"Of course." Gabby tells him. She glances up at Brett's face and sees her partners eyes change. "Now tell me about the guy in the ground?"

Brett comes back out of the ambulance. Her face serious as she glances around them several times. "Let's get him in the ambulance."

"What's going on?" Gabby asks as she guides the kid around back and opens the doors. They help the kid in then climb inside themselves. Brett quickly locks the door and hurries back to the driver seat. Brett nods her head to the passenger seat, so Gabby has Isaiah sit on the stretcher, gives him a warm smile, and then ducks her way back up front. Brett has locked all the doors and keeps eyeing the roadway suspiciously.

Brett leans into to whisper, her blond braid falling over her shoulder. "This kid got kidnapped today, broad daylight. They've been looking all over for him. PD is on their way, they just picked up all but one of the guys that did it. They told him they lost the kid."

"Okay. Well great, we found him. They like left him here or something." Gabby says with a shrug. "Happy ending?"

Brett shakes her head. "They grabbed the kid in the city, PD was chasing a suspect and he grabbed the kid. But Jay Halstead went with them, tried to go as their hostage but they wouldn't swap. He went too. Jay is supposed to be with him."

Gabby takes it all in for a few minutes. The silence echoes around them like the flashing lights bounce in the darkness. "The guy in the ground?"

"I think so. The two they caught said that he was 'alive for now'. What if they..." Brett trails off looking towards the wooded area again. What if they put Jay Halstead alive in the ground?

"Hey Isaiah," Gabby turns around. "The guy they put in the ground, was he a police officer?"

The little boy nods. "He wasn't dressed like one but I think so."

"How long ago?" She continues. There is a terrible feeling working it's way into the pit of her stomach. They put Jay Halstead in the ground. Probably alive. Maybe hours ago. She's torn between not pressing the kid but also finding Jay as quickly as possible.

"I'm not sure. But it was along time ago, the sun was still kinda up." He starts crying all of a sudden. "I'm so sorry, he told me to go get help. But they chased me, so I hid and I got lost. He's still out there, I saw them drop him in the box in the ground before they left."

"It's okay. We're going to help okay? You did good. You've been very brave." Gabby tells him. She can't find any tissues right off hand so she goes back to him and hands him a few gauze pads to wipe his face with. "Can you show us where he is now?"

Brett whips her head back around and shoots Gabby a look. But even deep down she knows. Backup is probably still a good twenty minutes away. If Jay Halstead was put alive in the ground maybe six hours ago, time was running out. The boy directs them to where the dirt road to an abandoned construction site is. There's a dip in the dirt ahead, three feet below the surface there's a glimmer of metal. There's no dirt on top, just a large container of sorts.

"I'm going to go check it out." Gabby says. "Stay here with him."

"Wait, take this with you." Brett says passing her a crowbar she has hidden under the drivers seat. "I'll explain why it's here some other time."

Gabby nods, climbs out, and makes her over to the hole. The bright lights on the ambulance help illuminate the area but not much. Thankfully, the only thing keeping the thick metal lid is two four latches that can be popped open from the outside. She kneels down, setting the crowbar beside her, and leans carefully over to open each one. Taking a deep breath, Gabby steals her self for whatever's inside. As silent as it is, she doesn't want him to be in there. It's almost heavier than she was expecting but she leverages herself and moves it, flipping it down into the other side of the hole in the ground.

Jay Halstead is in there. Flat on his back. Not moving and seemingly not breathing. She bites her lip and shuts her eyes for a second. Blinking back tears, she reaches down and unfortunately from this angle she can't reach his carotid artery in his throat. There's just enough room for her to step down in the box beside him. As careful as she can, Gabby gets down and then leans over him. She presses her fingers gently down...

...in that same second, Jay's whole body reacts. He gasp for breath and comes too, grabbing Gabby's arm and yanking her down. She hears Brett screaming through the open window of the ambulance and the familiar wail of sirens in the distance but all she can focus on his Jay. His blue eyes are aren't focusing on anything, they just keep rolling back and forth while he gasps for air.

"I.. I.. I... want my.. my mom..." Jay gasps between breaths before his eyes roll back in his head and his whole body goes limp releasing Gabby.

TBC.

Part 3 - the ending - hopefully will be up in the next couple of days.

Thank you for reading!