The helicopter descended rapidly as the occupants could start to make out the details of the objects ahead of them. There was a small wooden shack with a low, flat topped roof and two vehicles; a large SUV and a sturdy looking sedan parked a little ways away. Suddenly, the pilots noticed motion coming from the vehicles. Two men had exited the SUV brandishing what appeared to be pistols.
"We've got two armed guys down there!" one of the pilots shouted as the helicopter approached, the landings struts mere feet off the ground as it came down for a landing. The sound of gunshots could be heard, as the two men began firing at the aircraft. The occupants heard the sound of something ring off the metal of the helicopter, as one of the bullets made contact with the door.
More people began moving around as the team could make out somebody in the sedan. Somebody in the back frantically gestured to an occupant in the SUV, as one of the doors opened and a man came tearing out into the driver's side door of the sedan. Another person came running from the direction of the shack and leapt into the passenger's side door of the sedan, while the two men with guns began shielding two more individuals who came running from the structure. Hotch could instantly recognize one of the individuals as Reid, while he could make out a gun in the other's hand pressed into Reid's back.
"There's Reid!" Hotch shouted. "Move, now!"
The helicopter touched down and the doors burst open as the SWAT officers all stormed out of the aircraft. The two men with guns fired at the SWAT team as one of the officers returned fire, hitting one of the men as a mist of blood burst from the man's chest as he collapsed.
"Get to the safe house!" the man following Reid with the gun screamed, as he approached the SUV, opening the passenger's side door and shoving Reid inside. The man slammed the door shut as he ducked behind the SUV, making his way to the driver's side door as bullets began ringing off the side of the vehicle as the unsub climbed in before slamming the door shut.
Morgan and Callahan exited the helicopter next as the second man shot at the SWAT team. Another officer fired two shots at the man, hitting him with one bullet in the chest and the other in the head as he collapsed to the ground, his blood almost instantly soaking into the dry desert earth. The sedan roared to life and began speeding away as Morgan desperately shot at the tires. He heard the sound of the back window shatter as his bullets pelted the rear but the vehicle continued to speed away, the occupants uninjured. The engine of the SUV fired up next, roaring away in the opposite direction of the sedan as it left a rooster tail of dust behind in its path.
"Hold your fire!" Morgan screamed at the SWAT officers who were aiming at the SUV. "We've got a federal agent held hostage in there!"
Hotch ran from the helicopter, tossing Morgan a small radio as the EMT came out of the aircraft next.
"JJ could still be inside!" Hotch shouted over the din of the helicopter to Morgan and Callahan, as the SWAT officers raced towards the shack. "Find her, and we'll follow the SUV in the chopper. Contact me on the radio the minute you find anything!"
Morgan nodded as he trailed Callahan towards the shack, the EMT following close behind while Hotch ran back into the helicopter, the aircraft lifting off the ground the minute Hotch stepped inside.
"Follow the SUV!" Rossi shouted to the pilots from inside the helicopter, as the aircraft began gaining altitude, tearing off after the vehicle.
"I'm putting out an APB for the other vehicle now!" Hotch shouted, as he pulled out his cell phone, frantically dialing a number. "They're not going to get far."
The helicopter screamed overtop of the shack as the SWAT officers reached the front door, bursting it open and piling inside, their guns drawn. The four officers nearly instantly filled the small space, as they quickly realized the assailants had all left.
"We've got Agent Jareau!" one of the SWAT officers yelled, as Morgan and Callahan entered the shack, followed by the EMT. Their blood ran cold whey they saw JJ lying motionless in the chair, her shirt soaked in blood as it dripped to the floor.
"JJ!" Morgan hollered, as he holstered his gun and rushed towards her body. Morgan held her face in his hands, trying desperately to wake her.
"Come on, Jennifer…" Morgan pleaded, as Callahan froze by the door of the shack. "Come on, JJ, don't give up on me!"
The EMT entered the shack and immediately rushed towards JJ, quickly opening his medical bag and whipping out a stethoscope.
"Do something!" Morgan hollered, as the EMT began pulling out more equipment.
"You're going to have to step back, agent!" the EMT shouted back, placing the stethoscope on her chest as he listened intently. Morgan slowly backed away from JJ as Callahan approached him, resting a hand on Morgan's shoulder.
"I've got a pulse!" the EMT shouted, pulling the stethoscope away from her body and tossing it back into the bag. "It's extremely weak, but it's there, and her breathing is very shallow."
The EMT lifted JJ's shirt up, exposing the gunshot wound on her stomach as he began stuffing cotton into the area to stop the bleeding.
"Is she going to be okay?" Morgan asked desperately, as Callahan looked on in horror.
"She's lost a lot of blood," the EMT urgently said, "And the location of the wound likely means the bullet has damaged several of her internal organs. She's going to need emergency surgery immediately."
"We'll get an ambulance out here, now!" Callahan cried, as she pulled her phone out.
"We don't have time for that!" the EMT exclaimed. "She needs to get to a hospital now, or else she's not going to make it!"
The EMT pulled a syringe from his bag and injected something into JJ's arm, while he continued trying to stem the bleeding from the wound.
"The helicopter…" Callahan said to Morgan. "They can get to a hospital in twenty minutes."
"Get these handcuffs off of her!" the EMT shouted, as he tried wrapping a blood pressure cuff around JJ's arm.
"I've got it!" Callahan called back, producing her own set of handcuff keys. Morgan grabbed the handheld radio and pressed a button on the side, desperately radioing Hotch in the helicopter.
"Hotch!" Morgan's voice shouted through the radio, his voice ringing out inside the aircraft as the pilots handed a second Radio to Hotch and Rossi in the back of the chopper.
"Did you find her, Morgan?" Rossi called into the radio.
"We've got her, but she's in bad shape." Morgan urgently replied. "The EMT's working on her now, but she's not going to make it unless we get her to a hospital."
Hotch and Rossi quickly exchanged horrified glances.
"You've got to bring the chopper back!" Morgan shouted through the radio. "It's the only way we can get her to a hospital fast enough!"
"Her blood pressure's dropping!" Hotch and Rossi heard the EMT shout from the background through the radio.
"We're going to lose her, Hotch!" Morgan cried. "We need the chopper back here, now!"
Rossi looked at Hotch desperately. They were in an impossible situation. One way or another, they would be abandoning one of their team members for the other.
"We can't let this guy get away." Rossi said to Hotch.
"But we can't let JJ die, either." Hotch replied.
Hotch looked over at Rossi and took a deep breath, every second feeling like an eternity as his mind raced as to what he should do. Finally he set the radio down and approached the pilots, the SUV speeding away in full view out of the cockpit windows.
The SUV sped through the desert, the barren shrub flying past the wheels as the vehicle reached near highway speeds as it tore over the dry, cracked desert ground. The helicopter could be seen in the rear-view mirror as it chased after the vehicle, flying about one hundred feet above the ground as it tailed the SUV. The unsub had secured Reid's handcuffs around an arm rest underneath the door handle on the passenger's side door, immobilizing Reid's hands as he sat terrified in the vehicle.
"This is an armoured SUV…" the man said as he increased the vehicle's speed even more, "They're not going to be able to stop us unless I let them."
Reid glanced in the side mirror at the helicopter, the sound of the rotors slicing through the air getting louder as the aircraft approached.
"Just stop the vehicle!" Reid cried. "The police have found you. My team has got you surrounded, and they're going to get your associates too. It's done. It's over."
The unsub looked over at Reid, smiling.
"It's not over." The man said to Reid, laughing. "No, agent… In fact, we're just getting started."
Suddenly the helicopter increased in altitude and made a sharp turn away from the vehicle as the unsub glanced up to the rear-view mirror, watching the aircraft as it turned around and began speeding away in the opposite direction. The unsub laughed, as he looked over at Reid.
"Well, well, Spencer." the unsub said with a chuckle, "This is going to be even easier than I thought."
Reid watched, devastated as the helicopter began turning around until he slowly realized the reason why. The only reason his team would turn around was if they could help JJ. It would take forever for an ambulance to arrive, but the helicopter would be able to transport her to a hospital in minutes. A glimmer of hope skimmed across Reid's mind. There would be no need to airlift her to a hospital if she was already dead, which could likely mean only one thing. Somehow, after everything that had happened, JJ was still alive.
Thank you all for reading! Stay tuned for the next chapter...