"I-I just d-don't get it," Chet shook his head, pulling the sleeping bag around his shoulders a little tighter as he looked up at his friends around the table, "H-how can someone t-think that it's o-okay to hunt another man?"
"I don't know, Pal." Cap sighed as he found himself wondering the same thing.
"Hemingway did." Mike answered quietly, surprising them all.
"Hemingway?" Marco frowned as they all turned to look at their normally quiet engineer.
"Ernest Hemingway, the writer." Mike continued, "He once wrote that 'There is no hunting like the hunting of man, and those who have hunted armed men long enough and liked it, will never really care for anything else thereafter.'.
"T-that's crazy!" Chet muttered, his eyes wide as he stared at Mike, shocked by Hemingway's quote.
"It's a quote from one of his short stories that he wrote after World War 2 titled 'On Blue Water'." Mike began to explain, softly, "The story's about two friends who are discussing their favorite types of hunting."
"R-r-roy? … R-r-roy?"
The soft conversation was immediately forgotten as the men turned towards the bed as Johnny began to call out weakly for Roy. Rising immediately to his feet, Hank quickly crossed the small distance the separated the table from the bed and knelt at the edge of the bed as he reached for the youngest member of his team. "Easy , Pal, easy. Roy's safe, John, and so are you."
"C-c-cap?" Johnny whispered as he tried to focus on the face that was hovering just above his.
"Yeah, it's me, Johnny." Hank smiled as he reached up and brushed back a dark, lock of unruly hair from Johnny's face, shocked at just how cold Johnny still felt despite the blankets, dry clothing and the fire warming the cabin.
"C-c-cold." Johnny complained.
"I know John." Cap nodded, "We're trying to warm you up now."
"I-I- hate c-c-cold water r-rescues." Johnny complained, slightly confused with the memory of just how he had managed to have gotten so cold. "N-next t-time, R-roy, c-can d-do i-it."
Hank laughed softly and nodded as he tucked the blanket a little tighter around the shivering man. "I'll make sure Roy does." He promised, "But first how about I get you something warm to drink."
Licking his dry lips, Johnny nodded as Cap lightly squeezed his shoulder and rose to his feet. "C-c-cap." John called out as Roy's warning about hypothermia and giving the victim warm drinks suddenly popped into his head. Not questioning or wondering about his friend's warning or why it should matter to him, he added softly, "N-not c-coffee-"
"Or tea." Cap nodded, instantly understanding what John was trying to tell him.
E!E!E!E!E!
Glancing down at his watch, Lee sighed as he turned and peered back out of the window, looking for his partner. He could just make out the vague outline of the well through the heavy blanket of rain, but it was too dark to see Jim against the backdrop of trees. A sick feeling settled in the pit of his stomach. The well wasn't that far from the cabin, Jim should have been back by now. What if they had been wrong and the killers had managed to cross the flooded stream? What if…
His question was forgotten as he heard the injured paramedic weakly call out for his partner. He turned back and watched as Hank rose from his chair at the table and hurried across to the side of the bed and knelt beside his wounded and hypothermic man. He couldn't hear just what Hank said but whatever it was, it calmed the young paramedic. He watched the fire captain nod and smile as he tucked the blanket a little tighter around Gage, lightly squeezing Gage's shoulder before rising back to his feet and walking across to small sink bench, near where he was standing. "How's he doing?" Lee asked softly.
Looking back over his shoulder at Johnny, Hank sighed as he turned back and glanced at the detective and answered, "Not good." Grabbing a mug, he reached for the pot of warm water that Lee had heated up earlier to make Chet a warm drink and poured some into a mug.
"You don't have to drink water, I can make another pot of tea if you like." Lee frowned. "I know it's not coffee but-"
Hank shook his head, "Thanks but no thanks, this isn't for me, it's for John. He needs something to warm drink to help bring his temperature back up. And I remember Roy and Johnny once telling us when they were giving us some advanced first aid training that a hypothermic patient who is as cold as Johnny is now should never be given tea or coffee to drink." Lee stared questioningly at Cap he shrugged and explained, "Roy explained that the caffeine can actually lower the victim's core body temperature. I'm not totally sure just how or why it does but they recommended if someone was hypothermic, it is better to give them warm water and not coffee or tea, to drink."
Lee nodded as Hank picked up the mug that was now half filled with warm water.
Turning back towards the others, Hank unconsciously checked where everyone was, a habit he had picked up after being promoted to captain. He frowned as he realized that one of them were missing. Turning back to Lee, he asked softly, "Where's your partner?"
"He went outside about half an hour ago to get some more water from the well." Lee answered succinctly.
Hank frowned, "Alone?"
Lee swallowed hard, aware that he had made a grave mistake by allowing Jim to go outside alone, especially when they were not certain of where their suspects were. And now his partner was missing. He nodded as Hank turned and peered out of the window trying to see the detective in the darkness and heavy rain, as he softly answered. "He should have been back by now."
Hank's heart began to race as he turned and glanced across at his guys huddled around the table before he turned back to looked at Lee as he asked softly, "You don't think that-" He was cut off mid-sentence by the loud crack of a gunshot, less than a heartbeat before the window beside him shattered, showering both him and Lee in glass.
"Get down! Get Down!" Lee shouted as he heard Hank gasp in pain before Hank dropped to the floor. He wasn't sure if the fireman was hurt or just diving for safety as he also dove for the safety of the floor, confident the others were doing the same thing around the table as he yelled, "And someone kill that damn light!"
E!E!E!E!E!
Returning to his hunting nest, Cedric wiped the blood off his hands onto his pants before he removed the night vision glasses and carefully placed the guns, he was carrying, onto the ground beside him. He had forgotten just how much enjoyment he got with the up-close and personal killings that came with using a knife to dispatch his prey and now he was eager for the rest of the hunt to carry on.
Peering through the curtain of ferns at the now well-lit cabin, he watched the figures move around the cabin through the cabin windows. His anger and annoyance rose as he continued to silently watch the men within the cabin, and he growled in frustration. They were making it too easy for him, this wasn't the way the hunt was supposed to go. They were taking all the fun and challenge out of the hunt. He was going to have to make them come outside and play the game by the rules and he knew just how to make it happen.
Picking up his gun, he carefully lined up his sight on two figures who were standing in front of one of the windows. Although with the light shining behind them, hiding their features, he could not identify either men, he was certain they were two of the hikers, they were both too tall to be either of the cops. Honing the crosshairs of his gunsight on the taller figure as he prepared for the kill, he began to murmur his own version of his favorite, lucky Ernest Hemingway's quote to himself to himself, "There's no hunting like the hunting of man -"
Squeezing the trigger, he felt the renewed thrill as the rifle recoiled into his shoulder and he saw his prey jerk back through the lens of his gunsight before both men dropped out of sight. Pausing a moment to soak up the sounds and fear of the startled and confused shouts that were coming from within the cabin before the cabin light suddenly went out, plunging it into darkness. Satisfied that he now had his preys' full, undivided attention, he knew without a doubt that after the disappearance of the first hiker and now with the death of the second within the cabin itself, that the rest of them would soon run, despite having to drag the injured injun along with them, the darkness, and the cold, rather than be trapped.
Grinning, his anger forgotten and feeling excited for the hunt again, he lowered the rifle as he finished his own twisted version of the quote the same quote that Mike had just told the guys inside the cabin, "And those who have experienced the thrill of not only tracking but also hunting down a man for the kill will never, ever want to hunt anything else…"
