THE MIND THIEVES
Chapter 10
Crash Site

"Have the courage to live. Anyone can die." Robert Cody


David Rossi woke up slowly. He couldn't move. Something was pressing down... up?... on his head and upper body and his chest was injured, something had broken through his chest wall and he was bleeding...

What had happened? – Dave tried to remember... The child Rita had pulled the wheel and he could remember trying to regain control of the vehicle.

He had obviously failed.

He tried to turn his head to see Emily and Rita but he was trapped.

"Emily!" He called to her but it resulted in an agonising coughing fit and he spat blood and pink bubbles. He could only take shallow breaths and imagined that he was probably dying. He tried to call again to her, and this time there was a response.

"Dave? Are you ok?" She sounded fragile and in pain.

"I'm fine, Prentiss. I just can't move. Can you?"

"I think so. There's something stuck in my arm but there appears to be a tourniquet around it." He heard her cry out as she snapped off whet ever was in her arm. "Plastic off the door." She said, getting her breath back. "I can get down now. Who tied the tourniquet?"

"Rita has gone. Someone has called the EMS." She reached for the clip of her seat belt and released it. "I'll find the others."

She climbed into the back of the ambulance and found the doctor's body. She checked him, but it was obvious to Emily that he was dead. Spencer and Aaron weren't there, but the back door was open. She leaned out and looked down into the wide dark eyes of Aaron, just below the surface. His hand gripping onto a root on the side of the ditch.

"Aaron!" She climbed down into the muddy water and pulled Aaron back into the ambulance. His staring eyes scared her, and she started to pump his chest to get the water out of his lungs.

"Dave I've got Aaron, but he was thrown clear into water." Her voice was breaking. "I don't think I can revive him this time!"

There was no answer from Dave. He just thought, keep trying! Breathing had become too painful for him, and he was near to passing out. Speaking would necessitate breathing, so he didn't speak. He could hear his blood dripping. It seemed to echo through his being. He knew that when he was released from the steering column, his lungs would deflate and he would die. He tried to ignore the pain and he just wanted to sleep as the life blood in his body drained away. Emily was shouting at Aaron.

She was pumping hard, and shouting at him. "Breathe, Dammit!" She heard a rib crack and suddenly, he coughed. Filthy water shot out of his mouth, and he tried to breathe on his own, followed by more coughing.

She pulled him into a brief hug. "I have to find Spencer."

"He's long gone, Emily." He said between coughing. "I need to go. I tried to follow him."

"You need to stay here. It's safe here."

"Please, Emily, take me to be with Spencer."

"I can't Aaron. I have to stay here and wait for the EMS."

Aaron had tears in his eyes. "I have to go, Emily. They are calling us!" He tried to drag himself to the doors but he was too weak. He rested his head on his fore arms and cried. Emily was at a loss how to handle it. She climbed back into the cab.

That was when she saw the blood.

"Dave you are hurt!" She said. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Dave was unresponsive.

"DAVE!" Emily tried to waken him. Where the hell were the medics?

The sound of sirens in the distance, and Emily climbed from the cab and stood in the road and waved her arms and waited.

-0-0-0-

The driver saw her standing in the road. The headlights picked out the deep red of the blood down one arm, and the smears across her face. The second ambulance pulled in next to the wreck of the first.

"Ok, what have we got?" the medic said in Italian as he jumped down from the cab.

Emily didn't understand. She just said, "Two men in the back, one's dead, the other was, but I revived him." Emily said quickly, nervously. "One man trapped up front, with crush injuries." She added softly, "I think he might be dead too, although he was alive earlier." She didn't know how much he understood, but he said something in Italian and he ran round to the front of the wreck and indicated for his colleague to check the men in the back.

The guy in the front was in a bad way. "He's alive, just passed out." He said, checking his radial pulse as he was unable to reach his neck. We need to get him oxygen...Hey! Oxygen here please!"

A third medic brought the oxygen and with difficulty, put a mask across Rossi's mouth and nose. Brown eyes slowly opened and looked at the medic.

"How bad ...is it...?" he said, struggling with each word. "Need... to know."

The medic took hold of Dave's hand. "Che cosa è il vostro nome, amico?"

"Dave." He whispered.

"Non è buono, Dave. Sono spiacente. Dobbiamo tagliarli fuori." Dave closed his eyes and opened them in acknowledgement.

The medic called Emily. "You talk him. We cut ambulance, get Dave out."

Emily nodded and took Dave's hand.

"I need to keep you awake." She said, adjusting the mask on his face. "They are going to cut you out. Why did you say you were fine, Dave?"

"You couldn't do ...anything."

"They are here now, you will be fine."

"I will die... when the pressure... is gone... seen it bef...fore."

"No Dave. You will survive this. Be positive."

Emily had tears in her eyes as she heard the sound of cutting equipment. There was a slight movement of the vehicle, and Dave moaned and the blood stopped dripping and became a continuous stream. Emily tried to reach in and press the wound but she couldn't reach. All she could do was hold his hand and pray that he didn't bleed to death.

-0-0-0-

Aaron was pushing the medic away.

"You don't understand! I have to go! I have to get out of here. I need to go!"

"Non capisco." The medic said, kept on saying. Aaron was delirious, shouting and crying with pain.

"Please!" he cried. "I must go! No! Don't give me that I don't want it!"

His vision began to fade as he tried to push the medic aside, but now his arms were as useless as his legs and everything was heavy and he closed his dark frightened eyes and succumbed to the second dose of Valium. With a soft sigh he relaxed onto the floor. The medic carefully lifted him out of the ambulance and into the second one. Aaron rocked his head from side to side, in the grip of a dream. The medic touched his forehead with her cool hand.

"It's ok, Mr Hotchner. You are going to be ok now."

But Aaron wasn't ok, couldn't be ok, unless he could follow Spencer and Rita into the forest.

-0-0-0-

It was a long walk and Spencer was tired now. The forest held no terror for him, as long as he could reach the family and become one with it. To die and return to the ground and become one with the family.

Rita was ahead of him but that didn't matter. As long as no one tried to stop him, everything would be just great...

Ha! Hotchner wasn't coming! Useless pathetic Hotchner, thought he could contribute to the central mind, but he has nothing to give! There is nothing he could give that I have not already given. And he wanted me to carry him? What a joke – a sad feeble joke of a man.

I have always hated him. Leaning on the knowledge and skill of others all the time with none of his own. Special Agent Aaron Hotchner. About as special as a dog turd! Ha! Pushing and shoving and never a smile or nice word for anyone. Well Special Agent Aaron Hotchner, you won't be pushing and shoving me around any more! God I hate the excuse for a man

"I hate you Hotchner!" he shouted to the trees surrounding him. "And I'm glad you are going to die without going back to the family!"

Laughing and feverish with borrowed power, he cackled out loud and stumbled on deeper into the forest.

-0-0-0-

"Ok."

Emily still held Dave's hand although it was doubtful he could feel it. The ambulance had gone with Hotch, and another one had come for Dave. Emily was frightened that it wouldn't be necessary.

A medic stood as close as was safely possible, ready with a pad and artery clamps. They had to be fast to save this man's life. The damage was serious. Often in these cases the aorta or the pulmonary artery or vein was damaged, split seconds mean life or death. The chest housed some of the most important circulatory systems. The medic held his breath as the pressure was released.

Arterial damage. Bright red blood shot in a brilliant arc from Dave's chest. The medic felt in his chest for the aorta and pulmonary vessels and found the broken one. He clamped it quickly and strapped a head collar onto him. There was a spinal board ready. He held it while the other medic slid Dave out of the wreck and strapped him down on the board. Within seconds he was intubated and was on pure oxygen. He was managing to take small shallow breaths, but he had a haemothorax, preventing one lung from inflating.

Counting up the ribs on his right, the medic stuck and empty syringe through his intercostal muscles, and drew off the blood that had leaked into his thorax. As soon as he was breathing, they took him to the ambulance.

"You, come. Arm hurt."

"No." said Emily. "I'll follow you later. If you could just cut the end off and bandage it. I have a friend who is wandering in the forest. He could be concussed. I need to find him."

She had no idea how much of that he understood, but he did understand that she wanted her arm bandaged.

With a sharp pair of scissors he cut off the protruding piece of plastic. He quickly bandaged it, and he and his colleague rushed off to hospital, taking Dave to safety.

Now she had to find Spencer. She searched the back of the wrecked ambulance for a flashlight and a weapon of some kind. There was a knife in one of the cupboards, a surgical knife with a serrated edge. The flashlight was on the floor where the medic had left it after working on Aaron.

-0-0-0-

Emily didn't like the woods, not at night, not when the unsub was completely unknowable. She was afraid for Dave and Aaron, and she had no idea where Spencer had gone. The forest was silent as if even the birds knew that there was evil in the air. She could almost feel it on her skin – a palpable physical thing that crept into her with each breath. She was cold, but that wasn't why she shivered as she followed Spencer's easy trail of broken branches and spots of blood.

At least he had made the way for her by treading down the undergrowth, and cutting back the more stubborn branches. Her flashlight lit the way ahead and when it moved and the shadows moved in the opposite direction she kept thinking she saw things in the sickly yellowish beam. A shudder passed through her as once again an insubstantial shadow took form and reached towards her. She started to stream when a hand clamped around her mouth and nose from behind. She struggled for breath, but there was no chance of her getting away as she felt the assailants forearm press her head forward on the back of her neck.

The flashlight dropped from her hand and as her world darkened she fell back into the arms of her attacker.

What is your name friend?
It's not good, Dave I am sorry. We must cut you out.