Yay, new readers and reviewers! Yes, BlueEyes, I was (and am) REALLY TICKED at Renee's senseless death, so I decided to do something about that. :) LOVED the scenes of Jack and Renee together in combat, and I wish we could have seen more. They were a great team!

Thank you for the reviews! I really do appreciate them. I like knowing my readers' opinions on scenes, characters, etc!

Here's some more for you.

Chapter 4

Jack hadn't thought it was possible, but it seemed as though the chaos had actually increased as time went on.

Trembling, terrified students and teachers had been found hiding throughout the building, and were gradually being escorted outside by tactical teams.

The bomb squad had determined that there were no explosives in the building.

As the steady exit of students, staff, and some tactical officers continued, medical personnel began canvassing the building to locate, assess, and evacuate victims.

Dozens had cuts and bruises from the rapid mass exodus, many were hyperventilating and hysterical, and almost all were in shock. First priority, however, were the shooting victims. They lay sprawled in hallways, classrooms, and bathrooms, creating a chaotic trail of the shooter's movements.

Jack grabbed one of the neon orange field medical bags and strode purposefully towards the building, with Renee right behind him.

A paramedic standing inside the doorway handed a black Sharpie marker to Jack, and a handful of triage tags and a roll of neon yellow tape to Renee. "We don't have ID's on everyone. Anyone who doesn't have ID gets a number. Write it on their hand, foot, forehead, wherever. Write the same number on a piece of tape and leave it in their place, so we can figure out who was where later."

The victims who could move had walked or dragged themselves over to those who couldn't. Belts, socks, t-shirts, and sweatshirts became makeshift tourniquets and bandages. Crimson blood stained school logos, designer labels, and plain fabric alike.

Renee and Jack joined the dozens of EMT's and paramedics moving through the building, offering aid to whomever they could.

The teams worked like a MASH unit, doing rapid triage and assessment, simply trying to keep victims alive and relatively stable until more medical personnel and transport could arrive.

-o-o-o-o-o-

By the time an EMT found folding chairs for Jack and Renee and pressed water bottles into their hands, they had lost all sense of time.

"Patients are en route to the hospitals, slowly but surely. Our work, for now, is wrapping up. Now it's the forensics teams' turn to deal with this mess." He shook his head.

Jack's cell phone rang. "Bauer," he answered.

"Jack, it's Chloe. How are things there? I-I mean," she faltered, "obviously they're not good, since this is terrible." Her voice trailed off.

"Ambulances are en route to the hospitals, and forensics teams are on their way in here to begin collecting and analyzing evidence," Jack told her. "They're working on ID'ing the victims and notifying families." He didn't envy whoever had that job. "This is a massive crime scene. Every footprint, every shell casing, every shard of glass…. Forensics has their hands full."

Renee reappeared from somewhere, holding a handful of papers. Jack put the phone on speaker and held it out towards her. "What've you got?"

"Preliminary injury reports. It's bad." Renee's tone was grim. "Chloe, in addition to a Beretta pistol, the shooter had an M4 carbine." They heard Chloe's sharp intake of breath.

"A student reported hearing what sounded like multiple-shot bursts of gunfire, and he was right. The M4 was firing three-shot bursts." Renee leafed through the pages. "Close quarters, hundreds of people, and wildly flying bullets….There's going to be a lot of injuries." Her jaw clenched. "I don't think I need to give you any specific examples. The reports are here if you want to read them."

"The only thing I want to know right now is who the shooter is," Jack said wearily. "All we know is that the weapons were found along with two students and a teacher. Which one of them was the shooter? And how the hell did they get a hold of an M4? That's not a civilian firearm. So it was either stolen—but from where?—or secured in some sort of black-market deal."

He ran a hand through his hair. "I want to talk with some of the victims at the hospital as soon as possible. And I want to see the forensics reports. Hopefully they'll give us some answers and not just more questions."

TBC