Collapsing to his knees as his legs gave away from under him as they reached the relative safety of the trees, Johnny hugged his chest with one arm while the other arm hung uselessly by his side, gasping for air, trying to greedily draw as much as he could into his aching, oxygen starved lungs. The soft gasps turned into harsh coughs as he struggled to get his breath. He was only remotely aware of Marco dropping to his own knees and wrapping a firm arm around his shoulders, stopping him from collapsing completely onto the ground as the coughing spasm racked his body while he gasped desperately just for a lungful of air.
"Easy, easy," Marco murmured, his heart sinking as he noticed the ragged, bloody hole in the back of Johnny's bloodstained shirt and felt the icy coldness of Johnny's skin as he held his friend upright. "Just breathe, nice and slow, Johnny."
Johnny nodded breathlessly as more painful coughs racked his body and he struggled to bring his breathing under control.
"H-how is he?" Chet asked as he joined them, quickly kneeling on the other side of Johnny as he allowed the backpack to slip from his shoulder onto the ground beside him.
Glancing across at Chet, Marco nodded towards the bloody hole in the back of Johnny's shoulder as he answered softly, "He's been shot in the back of his shoulder."
"I-I-I'm 'kay," Johnny managed to gasp as his coughing spasm began to ease before he weakly turned his head to look up at Chet as Marco settled him back against a tree and asked through chattering teeth, "R-r-roy?"
"T-they found him t-this morning, Johnny, he's in S-santa Barbara Hospital." Chet answered, not surprised that, even after everything he had just gone through, the first question from Johnny's mouth was a question about Roy. Chet forced a small smile, trying to stop shivering as the cold breeze blew though his wet clothes as he reached down and opened the backpack, he had dropped beside him, quickly searching through it until he found the first aid kit. "J-J-Joanne's with him at the hospital. They're b-both waiting for us to b-bring you home." Opening the first aid kit, he grabbed out a dressing and bandage as Marco, supporting Johnny with one hand as he leaned him forward just enough to treat his shoulder, tore the wet material that covered the back of Johnny's shoulder, exposing the ragged bullet wound beneath.
Chet wasn't sure whether to be worried or relieved when he saw only a small amount of blood trickle from the wound. Quickly placing the dressing over it, he began to wrap the bandage around Johnny's chest and shoulder as frowned and looked up at Marco, frowning, "I-I'm not sure if i-it's good or bad t-that it's not bleeding m-much."
'I-it's cause I'm c-cold." Johnny murmured, struggling to open his eyes that he had not even realized had drifted closed to look at Chet. "M-My s-shoulder's gunna bleed m-more when I-I warm up." Swallowing a moan as Chet finished bandaging his shoulder, he added almost as an afterthought, "S-so's my l-leg."
"Y-your leg?" Chet asked through chattering teeth as the icy, wet breeze blew his wet, cold clothing against him, chilling him even more than he thought possible.
"T-they winged m-me. G-Guess t-they wanted- t-to slow m-me d-down." Johnny murmured, trying hard to ignore the light-headedness and the feeling that his head was full of cotton wool that was slowing his thoughts. Something warned him that the fuzziness was not a good sign, but he couldn't for the life of him remember why.
"J-jesus, G-Gage, y-you're a d-disaster m-magnet!" Chet growled worriedly as he quickly leaned Johnny against the tree and began to search for the bullet wound that Johnny was talking about, finding it a few moments later.
"A-am not!" Johnny's weak protest ended with a pain filled gasp as Chet grabbed a second dressing from the backpack, pressing it hard against his wound in the back of his leg.
"A-are too, G-gage!" Chet gently teased his wounded pigeon as he tightly wrapped the bandage around Johnny's leg, over the wet pants, hoping to temporarily secure the dressing beneath.
Glancing worriedly up at small patches of the black angry clouds that peak through the canopy before looking around, through the heavy rain, at the darkening forest around them, Marco felt Johnny's violent trembling beneath his supporting hold. Glancing back at Chet, he could see that Chet was also shivering violently, "We're gunna need to find some shelter and we need to find somewhere fast, Chet. It's going to get dark soon and it's going to get a hell of a lot colder than it is already. There's no way we are going to make it back to the car before it gets dark. And we've got to get Johnny and you out of the cold before you both get hypothermia."
Chet nodded his agreement as he looked back at Johnny and gave his shoulder a light squeeze shoulder, "D-do you think y-you can walk?"
Johnny swallowed hard and gave a curt nod, biting his lip to stop himself from crying out in pain as Marco and Chet carefully lifted him up onto his feet.
Johnny's face lost all its color and he blinked hard in an attempt to stop himself from passing out as the pain in his shoulder that had been numbed by the cold water, suddenly reawakened with a vengeance, sending shards of white-hot agony which shot down his arm to the tips of his fingers and through his chest and back and his leg almost collapsed beneath him as he placed some of his weight on it.
Holding onto Johnny to stop him from toppling over, Chet nodded towards the backpack as he told Marco softly, his voice stuttering from the cold, "G-grab the backpack and t-t-then start heading upstream with Johnny. T-try and stay in the tree line but m-make sure you can see the stream. I-I will catch up with you in a few minutes."
Grabbing the backpack, Marco frowned as slung it over his shoulder. "Why? Where are you going?" he asked, as he reached for Johnny's uninjured arm and carefully placed it around his shoulder, grabbing it firmly as his other hand snaked around Johnny's waist.
"I-I left the other b-backpack on the bank." Chet told him, "I-I'm going back to g-get it. You heard J-johnny, he's not bleeding m-much now cause h-he's so cold but once he s-starts to warm up a b-bit, we're gunna n-need more b-bandages."
"Chet-"
Marco began only to be cut off as Chet turned his attention to Johnny and asked, "J-Johnny, do you know h-ow many s-shooters there are?"
"T-two, they b-both have high-powered h-hunting r-rifles." Johnny told him, swallowing hard as he tried to push back the darkness that hovered at the edges of his peripheral vision, threatening to rob him of his consciousness, as he added slowly, "B-be careful, C-chet, t-they're crazy. T-this is j-just s-some sort of a s-sick hunting game t-t-to them -"
Chet nodded and forced a small smile as he tried to stop his own violent shivering, "You d-don't think t-that you are g-going to get r-rid of the Phantom t-that easily do you, G-gage?" Looking back at Marco, he reminded Marco, "R-remember to stay i-in the tree line, M-marco, and try and k-keep the stream in your sight. I-I'll catch up w-with you as soon as I g-g-get the backpack."
Adjusting the firm hold he had around Johnny's waist, Marco nodded unhappily, "Okay, we'll head upstream, and try and stay within the tree line and we won't let the stream out of our sight."
"A-and I will c-catch up in a c-couple of minutes. So, g-get going." Chet ordered his reluctant friend before he turned and started to head back towards the stream.
"If I hear any trouble or you don't catch up with us in the next ten minutes, I'm coming back." Marco called out after Chet as Chet disappeared from his sight.
E!E!E!E!E!
Watching as Cedrick rushed ahead and disappeared out of sight, Jesse began to take a couple of steps to follow before he stopped and turned back towards the stream, staring at the object the cops had left behind on the rocky bank. Taking a small step forward he squinted at the object through the heavy rain. His frown morphed into a smile as he realized just what the object was. The cops had dropped one of the backpacks, full of supplies and maybe their guns, in their haste to make a hasty retreat.
Movement within the shadows of the tree line caught his eye and he dropped down into the cover of the underbrush and crawled forward in an attempt to get a better look. Waiting patiently, he was rewarded a minute later as a figure gingerly emerged from the tree line and cautiously looked around. Chewing his bottom lip in excitement, Jesse carefully cocked his rifle and lifted it into position, aiming it at the cop as the cop ducked low and ran, half crouched, across the bank towards the dropped backpack.
Looking through the rifle's scope, he carefully followed the cop's movements, keeping the cop in the middle of his crosshairs as he waited, holding his breath until the cop reached the backpack. A small chuckle erupted softly from Jesse's lips as the cop picked up backpack and straightened up, quickly glancing around again. Looking through the crosshairs, Jesse carefully lined his target up and slowly releasing his breath, gently tightened his finger on the trigger.
"Chet, look out! Gun!"
Instinct took over as Chet heard Marco's desperate shout from somewhere behind him and he dropped immediately onto the ground as a shot rang out. Keeping his hold on the backpack that he had just retrieved, he began to wriggle, keeping as low and as fast as he could, backwards, back towards where he heard Marco's shout and the safety of the tree line. He jumped as he felt Marco grab his ankle before reaching for his belt and dragging him back into protection of the undergrowth.
"W-what are you d-doing here? I-I thought I-" he managed to gasp, shocked but grateful for Marco's sudden and unexpected appearance that, he had no doubts, had just saved his life.
"You did, but I decided not to listen," Marco answered distractedly as he continued to stare at a spot on the other side of the swollen stream, searching for the any sign of the gunman he had seen.
Chet nodded as he looked across at the other bank. "T-thanks, Marco." he murmured, shivering, as he searched for any movement that might give away the location of the hunter.
Marco smiled as he cast a quick at his friend, "To be honest, the only reason I came back for you was because I didn't one to be the one who had to explain to Cap and the guys why I let you get yourself killed by trying to retrieve a backpack." Looking back across the swift flowing water and seeing no sign of the gunman, he looked back at Chet and lightly squeezed Chet's arm, "Johnny's waiting for us and he's in pretty rough shape. So, how about we get out of here and find some shelter before it gets dark?"
Chet nodded as another bout of shivering shook his body. Casting a last look across at the dark shadows on the other side of the flooded stream, he followed Marco, crawling backwards until they crawled back far away not to be seen by anyone watching on the other bank, before rising to their feet and turning away from the stream. Swallowing a groan as he felt a deep, burning pain in his side, Chet pressed his hand against the large, wet tear in the side of his shirt as he began to follow Marco through the trees to where Marco had left Johnny, just minutes before, resting against a fallen log.