Spencer kept his eyes trained on Mother Mary. Mother Mary as she stood vigil in a vase of dying roses. He was bleeding rather profusely now from the wound in his side. It had grazed his hip in its ricocheting path and bounced off his knife lodging directly in one of his ribs. He'd braided his belt in his teeth. The knife that had caused the bullet to bounce was now scratching along his rib to cut the bullet from the wound. He smiled around the belt at his ridiculous situation. With his head made into a patchwork quilt of stitches. His eyes were watching Mary and Mary was looking toward God from her place mounted on a cliff, quietly standing above the dead.
He felt none of the pain as he watched Mary praying, praying with all his might that Pepper had made it here first. That she was still hiding in the missing graveyard, the place where the people who died without family were laid to rest by those in the community who knew coroners and others would do nothing but to leave them on ice. Oh, God. She was only a kid. How did she get mixed up in this?
Emily woke up. About the time she did her eyes flashed around her surroundings. She was laying with her back to a headstone, and Spencer had piled flowers around her as a sort of makeshift blanket. The blood flow from where she'd fallen and busted her jaw had stopped. Spencer had stitched her chin. She would be okay, but she felt as if she had died a little. She sat bolt upright and the roses fell away from her. She stared, wide-eyed at Spencer as he fought with the bullet in his rib.
At last, he had stabbed deeply enough. At last he cracked the bullet free. He screamed and God heard him but the belt muffled it so all that was heard was a low growl. The bullet slid out into his hand. Emily's mouth fell open. Spencer ripped the belt from his teeth.
"Hey? You feel okay? Took a pretty nasty hit to the head..."Reid looked up and forced a smile. Emily marveled at him for a moment. He pressed his hand heavily to the wound in his side and blood bubbled up. Blood gurgled over his hands, but he never broke eye contact with her.
"Now I know..."She whispered. He knew what she'd understood. How he was alive, of course. He laughed. Then, he reached and shimmied his sweater off. He tied it doubly tight around his wound. The blood welled up and soaked it. He wrung it out. It did it again and by now his face was the color of ashes. He wrung out the sweater in the dust, dizzy eyes looking toward Mary. Finally, the blood flow stopped. He had tied it tightly enough, compressed it enough, and finally stopped the blood flow.
He kicked dust over the blood, burying it. Emily tilted her head.
"Coyotes..."He whispered. Then, he explained.
"They will be more likely to come into the camp if they smell blood..." He smiled.
"Camp?" Emily looked around. Reid nodded.
"Well, we can't stay in the church, it's known too well known to the Ghosts. The Ghosts, they were the guys who opened fire on us a while back. Anyway, we have to stay here and..." Reid stood up stark still, hands up. A rifle's hammer clicked, locking, ready to shoot. He had heard it even if Emily hadn't. She sat up wondering why he was scared.
A young voice shouted in Spanish. Spencer answered in the same and turned. It was Pepper. She was at the wrong end of a rifle. She looked hysterical and couldn't see well because she had mascara blurred in her eyes.
"Story? Story, is that you?" She safetied the gun and set it on a grave. He laughed.
"It's me and my friend_Are you okay?!" He reached out and hugged her hard. She hissed.
"Ooh, you got stung?" She sucked up tears and scratched frantically at her bleeding mascara. She was a cheetah of the desert, wary, swift, and weeping. Spencer looked at her as if Mary sent an angel.
"Yeah, I did. Are you okay? Did they hurt you?"
"No, I'm good, 'mano. Except, this place is scary. That stuff...That stuff they give you_I don't know, it makes you see weird things...Weird things. It's like the cactus was walking a minute ago, but that's the best part. I saw ghosts, I saw demons...I saw...I don't know what I saw but when I saw you I couldn't believe my eyes, you feel me?" Pepper looked at Emily who was standing up now, groggily.
"Oh, what happened to her? She's got some pretty heavy stitches on her chin, huh?" Pepper winced.
"She got hit on the head." Reid looked back at Emily, face suddenly frantic. Emily smiled.
"I'm okay. I'm just a little dizzy..." She waved it off.
"No, you really need a CAT scan and a PET scan and..." Reid listed off a million different terms.
"English or Espanol, mano, we're not tracking." Pepper shook her head, smile foxish. Reid sighed.
"Yeah, I guess we don't have time. Okay, listen, ladies. We cannot stay here. We could camp in these tombs, but we're out in the open, exposed. We'll have to crack open the old vaults. The ones that have been here forever. They'd never go in_too superstitious. Also, the incense tables for the candles? We could make a fire and it wouldn't be seen..."Spencer's eyes were darting a million places.
"Why can't we go back? Join the team?" Emily swayed.
"Because by now your team is like a little flock of pigeons, you know? They will get straight up iced if they're within 100 feet of us. It's against the rules. Of the game, I mean." Pepper frowned.
"She's right. They've changed the rules. Now instead of kids, now we're playing for team members. We have to play for keeps. Means that, if we step out of line, they choose which one of our team dies. We have to make sure that we hit the sudden death round every time so that they always choose me." Reid and Pepper exchanged a knowing look.
"Why you?" Emily frowned, not liking that.
"Because they can't kill me outright. There's a rule that I have to be taken out by the Lone Wolf. He has to choose the terms based on the score from this game. The rules are more complex than I could explain in just one set up. We have to get out of sight..." Reid looked over his shoulder. Pepper grabbed up her rifle.
"You lead the way. I've got her. Take care of yourself, you look like you're gonna keel over..."Pepper wrapped an arm around Emily, training the long gun to the ground. They slipped like shadows in the sun out from under the lofty eyes of Mary and right under the noses of the team as they rolled up to the church. The graveyard was west of the church. With the sun in their eyes, burning low now in the west, they didn't see them knock open the door of a decrepit mausoleum and climb inside.