Mike had lost track of how long he'd been laying there, rolling back and forth, writhing in the unbearable pain that was quickly drowning out everything around him.
The forest had fallen strangely quiet after his shootout with Sawyer, leaving the fire fighter sprawled out on the ground, eyes unseeing, ending his reign of terror in the worst way possible, at least as far as Mike was concerned.
Letting out another groan of pain, he blinked his eyes, fighting the cold sweat seeping through his layers of clothing, the rhythmic pulsating from the left side of his body becoming almost unbearable.
The thick canopy up above drowned out most of the daylight, making a helicopter rescue a futile effort. Roy would have to rely on foot troops to canvass the area and look for them, something that was both, time and people-intensive when they could at least afford it.
Steve.
His mind was going nuts worrying about his partner's whereabouts, wondering if he ever caught up with Milan after all, or if he ran into that lunatic Mahoney beforehand, causing a clash of characters and shooting skills that would undoubtedly leave one of them dead.
The fatality hopefully being the disgraced MP detective.
But thus far, no shots had been fired, no yelling or foot traffic in his general direction suggesting that anything had happened. It was a tense situation that was quickly robbing him of all his remaining patience and energy.
When another gasp of pain escaped his dry lips, Mike wearily lifted his head, risking a glance down at the wound that had left him stranded in the middle of the forest.
Moving his hand that had clamped down on the injury, trying to limit blood loss to no avail, he stared at the crimson circle to the left of his bellybutton, comfortably far away from the center of his body, but close enough that it hadn't just scratched skin and gone right through him.
Instead, the bullet was deeply embedded somewhere inside his body, causing a significant amount of bleeding and a stabbing, burning pain where it least belonged.
Trying to take in a deep breath but finding that his body was growing too tired from the effort, Mike let himself fall back again, resting his head against the comfortable bed of pine needles, hoping that help would get here soon.
As his mind drifted into the abyss of shock-induced unconsciousness, he never heard a single shot being fired, not too far off to the west.