Searching the muddy bank for any sign of disturbance as he moved along the edge the forest that lined both sides of the stream, Jesse ignored the sudden heavy shower of rain that drowned out most of the sounds around him and washed the bank clean of any prints that might be present, whether made by animal or man. Looking across the fast-flowing stream, he called to Cedric, "Any sign of him yet?"
The older hunter shook his head, "No, he must still be somewhere ahead."
Jesse nodded as he turned and studied the underbrush in front of him before he looked back and peered as far as he could around the bend in the stream. A wide grin spread across his face as he saw the dark shape of a man in the middle of the stream through the pouring rain. Turning back towards the other side of the creek, he waved his arm to get Cedric's attention before he pointed towards the figure he could see ahead in the stream. He saw Cedric nod and hurry towards the bend, he unslung his rifle from his shoulder, quickly checking that there was a live round in the chamber. Silently moving into the dark shadows of the trees that lined his side of the bank to help hid himself from the paramedic in the middle of the stream, he moved a little closer before he raised his gun and carefully lined up his target, adjusting the sight slightly as he zoomed in on his prey.
The sudden and unexpected heavy down pour of freezing rain, momentarily startled Johnny as he waded through the water. Looking back over his shoulder, through the now heavily falling rain, Johnny wasn't sure just how far he had come or how long he had been wading downstream in the frigid water, all he knew was he was cold, so cold that he could barely feel anything below where the fast-flowing water came up to his waist. He was unable to stop his teeth from chattering as he paused and looked over his shoulder, searching for any signs of the two hunters. He knew that they would not have fallen for his attempt to throw them off his trail for long and were probably already following the stream downstream.
Listening hard, he thought he heard two faint voices calling to each other over the sound of the now heavily falling rain and the water rushing around him. Looking around, he desperately searched for a safe place to climb out of water, he needed to hide before they caught up with him and he needed plan. Spotting a large, flat rock on the side of the bank, he changed his direction and fighting against the strong current that threatened to topple him and pull him under the icy water if he took a misstep, he waded as fast as his wounded leg would allow him could towards it. He prayed that the rock combined the heavy rain would leave no discernible evidence that he had left the safety of the stream, hopefully forcing the two men hunting him to have to backtrack to find where he had emerged from the stream. And maybe, just maybe, it would give him enough time to get some distance and enough time to make a plan on just how he was going to survive this hunt between him and his hunters before they found his tracks and started hunting him again.
Reaching the flat rock at the edge of the stream, Johnny took several small tentative steps before he turned and looked down, relieved to find that the rain was washing away any sign that he had emerged from the stream. The rain made it hard to see anything or anyone who might be standing in the dark shadows of the trees on the other bank. Turning back towards the thick forest, he took another two unsteady steps towards it before a loud gunshot rung out from somewhere behind him and he felt something slam into the back of his right shoulder, sending white hot shards of agony through his chest and down his arm to his fingertips as he was thrown to the ground.
Standing in the shadows of the other bank, Jesse slowly lowered his gun and smiled with satisfaction. Hell, his aim was good, he had no doubts that he could easily shoot the eye out of a gnat if he wanted to. He chuckled with delight as he watched the Injun crawl to his knees, using just his left arm before he struggled back up to his feet and, clutching his right arm closely, staggered unsteadily out of sight.
E!E!E!E!E!E!
"Damn it, it's a mess in here," the surgeon muttered, his nose wrinkling as a strong odor assaulted it, as he swabbed more of the bloody, puss-filled gore away. "More suction!" he ordered as he glanced across at the nurse who nodded her acknowledgement before he looked across at the anaesthetist. "How's his blood pressure?"
"70/40 and dropping," the anaesthetist answered as he quickly adjusted the flow of the gasses to the mask covering Roy's mouth and nose and nervously watched the green dot on the heart monitor as it danced across the screen, spiking with an occasional, irregular beat.
"There it is!" the surgeon murmured as he carefully rolled the intestine in his hand and finally found the small leaking tear before demanding the needle and thread and carefully began to stitch.
"Ok, I've just finished suturing the tear, I'm just going to remove the contaminated dressings and repack the dressings in his liver," the surgeon warned the anaesthetist, aware that even though it was risky, it needed to be done, "then we can get him washed out and close up as fast as we can."
The anaesthetist nodded as he turned and adjust the combination of gasses before he glanced back at the heart monitor.
After quickly pulling out the wad of blood drenched cotton swaps from Roy's liver and replacing them with fresh ones, the surgeon looked across at the nurse as he ordered, "Okay, let's get another bag of blood up and start washing him out with three litres of warm normal saline…"
"Whatever you're doing, you better do it fast," the anaesthetist warned as he adjusted the oxygen flow before he returned his attention back to the heart monitor, monitoring it closely, "Because he's not going to tolerate being under much longer. BP is dropping and he's starting to throw pvc's."
"Just a few minutes more…" the surgeon murmured distractedly as he concentrated on washing out the contaminated fluid from around his patient's intestines, nodding at the nurse for more suction.
"You better hurry up, 'cause we're losing him…" the anaesthetist announced as the green blip on the heart monitor danced erratically across the screen before it suddenly changed into a continuous green line as the heart monitor alarm began to echo around the operating room.
E!E!E!E!E!E!
"Damn it!" Lee cursed as he gently coasted his car to a stop behind the red Dodge Challenger that looked so out of place beside the trail that led to their crime scene. "What the hell is that doing here?"
"Do you think it could be hikers?"
"I hope to God it's not!" Lee frowned, his stomach flipping at the thought of some innocent hikers unknowingly walking into what potentially could be a death zone, as he reached for the radio mic and requested a registration tag check.
Opening the car door, Jim climbed out and across to the other car, peering into the windows as they waited for dispatch to respond with the car registration details. Straightening back up as he heard another car coming along the road, he turned and watched as a wood panelled station wagon appeared around the curve and slowed down before pulling up behind their car. Walking back towards the car that had just pulled up, he was surprised as Captain Stanley and one of the other firemen, Stocker…no, Stoker, Mike Stoker, that was his name, climbed out and hurried towards him. "Captain Stanley, Mike, what are you doing here?" he asked surprised just as he heard his own car radio crackle back into life behind him and he heard Margie at Dispatch tell Lee that the car belong to Avis Rent A Car and had been hired out just over an hour before to…
"Either Chet Kelly or Marco Lopez." Hank told Jim, overhearing the call, a heartbeat before Margie confirmed the car had indeed been hired out to a man named Chet Kelly from Carson, Los Angeles. "We realized after you left that they must have left the meeting before it was finished without anyone noticing." He began slowly as he saw Lee slowly hang up the mic and poked his head around the door, as he continued, "And we suspect…"
"That since we told Kelly, it was Kelly. wasn't it?" Lee asked softly, continuing as Hank sighed and nodded, "And since we told Kelly that you couldn't join in the search, that he and Lopez would search on their own."
Mike glanced uncomfortably towards his captain as Hank reluctantly nodded again.
"Great! That's just great!" Lee growled angrily as he climbed out of his car and slammed the door closed before waving his hand towards the trees that surrounded them in frustration. "Not only do we now have two serial killers somewhere out here who are getting their jollies by hunting and murdering humans, but now instead of just one victim to try and find and rescue with only a couple of hours of daylight left if we're lucky and a cold front that's moving in faster than predicted, we now potentially have three! Just how the Hell did they think they were helping?"
Mike winced at the detective's justifiable anger as Hank said softly. "Look, I'm as angry at the two of them as you and when we find them, you can kill the two twits after I do! But as you just pointed out, there's only a couple of hours of daylight left and a cold front that's moving in faster than anyone anticipated. And we all know that if these two hunters get my three men in their sights, there's no way that the two of you are going to be able to treat and rescue them before it gets dark on your own, that if you are even able to find them. Look, we all know now that you are going to need help. Look, these are my guys out there, please let us help you find them before these killers do. We both have some basic medical training and before you ask, I might not know how to track, hunt and I might not be able to survive in the wild as well as Johnny can, but I have led a few boy scout hiking and camping trips, so I know the basics about hiking."
"And I been hiking and camping, myself." Mike added softly.
Jim eyed the two men closely before he turned to Lee and sighed, "You know he's right, Lee, you know that there's no way that we are going to be able to do this on our own, not now, not with three potential victims to search for." Looking up at the sky before looking back at his partner, he added quietly, "And not with the cold front rolling in as fast as it is. I'm betting the river and streams are already rising, wouldn't be surprised if its already raining hard upstream."
Lee sighed before he looked at Jim and reluctantly nodded his agreement, "You're right, I guess we don't really have much choice now!" Turning looked back at Hank and Mike, he pointed his finger at them as he warned them, "Ok, you can help, but you stick to us like glue, understand? You do what we tell you when we tell you to!" Cap and Mike nodded their agreement as Lee looked across at Jim and added, "I guess we are going to have to go easy on our supplies, now there are four of us."
"There's no need to," Mike announced, tilting his head in the direction of his station wagon. "We brought our own."
"Well, what are you waiting for, grab it!" Jim ordered them as Mike turned and hurried back to his car before opening the rear door and pulling out two full backpacks, handing one to his captain before shouldering into his. Turning back to Lee, he smothered a smile, just as aware as his partner that if they had not been here before the two firemen arrived, they would have had four firemen somewhere out there on their own, searching for their missing friend, instead of two. Hurrying back to the boot of his own car, he shrugged into his own backpack that Lee handed him before accepting the scoped hunting rifle. After doing his customary check to ensure that the weapon was loaded and ready to use as his partner shrugged into his own backpack and checked his own scoped hunting gun, Jim slammed the boot closed before he turned back to Hank and Mike just as the first heavy rain drops fell and announced, "Ok, let's get going!"
E!E!E!E!E!E!
Stopping as Chet knelt to lightly fingered the partially water-filled muddy footprint, which was half hidden by leaf litter, Marco adjusted heavy backpack he was carrying as he looked around at the trees that surrounded them before he looked up at slivers of ominous dark clouds that peeked through the canopy. They had been hiking for over an hour and even though it was still mid-afternoon, the light in the forest was fading, casting everything into an almost twilight aura and making it hard to see too far through the trees surrounding them. Looking back around at the dark forest surrounding them, he frowned as he saw a small flash of blue amongst the green ferns. Looking back at Chet, who was now studying a broken fern frond, he swallowed hard before he asked, "Didn't the cop say that the hunters had removed Roy's shirt?"
Startled by Marco's question, Chet looked up and frowned as he tried to remember what the officers had told them. "Umm, yeah, I think so."
"Do you also remember if they said they thought Roy's shirt was removed before or after the hunt?"
"I don't think they knew." Chet's frown deepened with confusion and he rose to his feet as Marco turned and began to push his way through the ferns, "Why?"
Reaching the spot less than twenty feet from the trail they had been following, Marco pushed the ferns aside, his heart sinking as he looked back at Chet and announced softly, "We've got a body over here."
Chet felt the blood drain out of his face as he forced himself to ask, "Is it Johnny?"
"I don't know," Marco answered as he knelt and pushed more ferns aside exposing a body lying face down in the leaf litter. His felt his heart miss several beats as he saw the blood matted black hair and blue shirt stained red with the blood from two bullet wounds in the man's back. Reaching down, he gently rolled the body over, releasing his breath as he looked back at Chet. "It's not him."
"He's only a kid!" Chet breathed as he reached Marco and peered over Marco's shoulder at the body.
Marco swallowed hard and nodded, "He can't be much older than sixteen years old."
Chet's hands tightened into tight fists or rage as he stared down at the boy's sightless gaze. "What king of bastard uses a young kid as prey?"
"The same type who kidnap two paramedics from LA for their sick games!" Marco sighed, gently closing the young boy's eyes, before whispering in Spanish something that Chet thought was a soft prayer as it began to rain.
Closing his eyes, Chet lowered his head as he began his own silent prayer for the young boy, but the prayer was quickly forgotten as he heard what he thought sounded like a distant gunshot, muffled by the now heavy rain. Snapping his head up and looking in the direction of the shot, he asked, "Did you hear that?"
"Yeah," Marco nodded as he quickly rose to his feet and adjusted the rifle on his shoulder, "That sounded like a gunshot and it sounded like it came from somewhere north of us."
"Yeah," Chet agreed as he forgot the trail he was following and began to push through the undergrowth towards the direction that he thought that the gunshot had come from with Marco following closely behind.
"Think it could be the hunters?" Marco asked as he lifted his hand to push a branch out of the way.
"Yeah," Chet answered over his shoulder as he placed a hand on top of a fallen tree and jumped over it, "And it sounds like the hunt is still going on."
E!E!E!E!E!E!
Wading as fast as he could back across the stream, Jesse laughed with delight as he reached the other bank and high fived his friend. "I got him!"
"Ya got him?" Cedric asked, excitedly, looking towards the forest where he had seen the paramedic disappear. "You sure?"
"Yeah, just winged him a little more, to slow him down a bit." Jesse grinned, reloading his gun before he turned and hurried to where he had seen Johnny disappear into the tree line as he called over his shoulder, "So come on, will ya, before he manages to get away!"