"I told you not to turn down this dirt road," Patty Johnston complained at her husband as the car hit another large bump in the road and she grabbed the dash to stop herself from painfully bumping against the window. "We should have stayed on the highway."
"You always said you wanted to see the real Hawaii." Her husband grinned as he took his hand off the steering wheel and waved towards the thick rainforest that grew close to the road's edge before he quickly grabbed the steering wheel again as the car's rear wheels slid in the soft mud as he teased. "How more real can you get than this? I keep expecting to see a Hawaiian warrior step out from the trees any-"
"Oh God, Brian, stop the car!" Patty gasped staring out of the window at the disheveled figure that staggered out of the tree line and collapsed next to the road.
"What?" Brian asked in confusion as he turned and looked at his wife,
Patty turned, her eyes wide with shock and her face as white as a ghost as she grabbed her husband's arm tightly. "Please Brian, stop the car!"
"Why?" he asked as he slowed the car to a complete stop as fast and as carefully as he could on the slippery track. "What's wrong?"
"There's - there's a man…back there." Patty stammered pointing back in the direction they had just come as she turned and opened the car door and began to scramble out. "I - I think he's hurt."
"A man? Where?" Brian frowned as he followed Patty out of the car and down the road, his eyes scanning the side of the road for the man his wife had seen.
"Over here." Patty called as she slid down the slight embankment and dropped to her knees.
Sliding down the embankment to join his wife, Brian stared down at the bloodied and mud smeared man who was lying face down in the lush undergrowth.
"Do you think he's alive?" Patty whispered as she looked up at her husband, as her hand hovered uncertainly above the man's back, almost as if she feared touching him.
Kneeling beside his wife, Brian gently placed his fingers against the man's cool neck, releasing a breath he had not even realized he was holding as he felt a weak beat beneath his fingertips. "He's alive." He told Patty as he rolled the unconscious man over onto his back.
Patty gasped at the sight of the deep rugged wound on the side of the young man's head that was clotted with a mixture of mud and blood.
"That's a gunshot wound." Brian frowned as he pulled his handkerchief from his pocket and tried to wipe some of the burgundy gore away.
"Are you sure?" Patty whispered as she glanced at her husband before looking back down at the injured man.
"Of course, I'm sure," Brian snapped, "I saw enough of them when I was in Vietnam to know one when I see one." Lowering his voice and gentling his tone, he reached down and slipped his hands beneath the unconscious man's shoulders and began to pick him up as he softly instructed his wife, "Patty, I need you to help me get him into the car. We need to get him to a hospital."
Nodding silently, Patty grabbed the man's legs, staggering a little under the man's weight as she helped Brian carry him up the embankment and to their car.
H50 H50 H50
Duke glanced up from the notes he had just jotted down as Chin's car slid to a stop just behind the HPD patrol car. He turned to the woman beside him and quickly excused himself before he hurried across to Chin as the Hawaii Five 0 detective climbed out of the car.
"Is there any updates on Danny's condition?" Duke asked as he reached Chin.
Chin shook his head and sighed. "Not yet. Kono's at the hospital, she promised to update us as soon as there is any word." Glancing at the grey haired, frightened looking woman whom Duke had been talking to when he had arrived, the Five 0 detective asked, "Is that one of the tourists who found Danny?"
Nodding as he turned to lead Chin back to where the woman stood waiting, Duke answered softly, "Her name is Patty Johnston and her husband is Brian." Canting his head in the direction of the man who was giving his own version of events to another HPD officer, several feet away from where his wife was now waiting, Duke continued, "They're from New York and are visiting Hawaii to celebrate their forty-fifth wedding anniversary. According to Mrs Johnston, today her husband decided to get away from the usual tourist spots and explore the island a little. That's why they were driving along this road. She saw Danny emerge from the rainforest and collapse near the side of the road. She made her husband stop the car and check on him. As soon as they realized how seriously he was injured, they placed him in the car and raced him to the hospital. I took their initial statements after I arrived at the hospital, but I thought I would bring them back here to the precise location where they found Danny and so they could walk us through what happened."
"Thanks Duke," Chin said softly as they reached the older woman who was watching them.
After introducing the Five 0 detective to Patty, Duke asked her to tell Chin just what had happened when she and her husband had first seen Danny.
Chin glanced at the thick rainforest surrounding them before returning his attention back to the petite woman as Patty bit her bottom lip. She hesitated for a moment as she looked around, re-orientating herself before she pointed to a small break in the trees. "That's where I saw him come out of the rainforest, he was covered in dirt and blood. At first I thought I was imagining things but then…" she paused and swallowed as she remembered the sight of the bloodied young man as he staggered towards the road. Shaking her head, she turned and pointed to an area where the ferns and undergrowth was crushed and flattened as she forced herself to continue. "That's where he fell. I told my husband to stop the car and when we ran back to where I saw him. I- I honestly thought he was dead when we reached him."
Chin nodded as Duke turned and headed across to the area where Patty had indicated she had first seen Danny emerge from the tree line and began to search.
"I was really scared that he was going to die in the car when we raced him to the hospital. I mean he was shot in the head and there was just so much blood." Patty rushed on, before she hesitated and asked, "I overheard one of the policemen talking, he said that the young man was a Five 0 detective just like yourself. Do you know if he is going to be okay? The doctors wouldn't tell us anything at the hospital when we asked."
"I don't know." Chin answered honestly as he glanced across at Duke who was searching the area where Patty had indicated that she had seen Danny emerge from the tree line.
"Chin, I've got a blood trail." Duke called as he turned back to towards Chin.
Excusing himself, and asking Patty to remain where she was, Chin hurried across to where Duke stood, waiting for him.
Following the droplets of blood and trampled undergrowth, being careful not to disturb any evidence that might be collected later, they made their way back through the thick forest, retracing Danny's steps. Several slip marks and handprints in the mud along the trail they were following, where it was evident Danny had fallen and then had made himself get to his feet again to continue, told the two men just how hard the hard the journey to try and find help had been for their friend.
Reaching a small clearing, Duke froze as he found himself staring at the pile of broken branches, dirt and mud that lay scattered around a shallow, man size hole dug into the damp ground that the trail of blood and broken underbrush they had been following led back to. "Oh, my God." Duke gasped as Chin stepped around him and froze, staring at the now empty grave as Duke whispered in horror, "Danny must have been buried alive."
Swallowing the hot bile that rose in the back of his throat, Chin could only nod.
