Pressing himself against the outside wall on one side of the door, while the L.A. homicide lieutenant took up his position on the other side Tom turned and watched the two uniformed officers disappear around both sides of the cabin as they moved into position. Turning his head, he then checked that both his two detectives had also moved into position next to the windows, ready to break the windows and cover not only Crockett and himself at the door, but also the hostages, from any threats from anyone within the cabin. He gave a single nod of acknowledgment as one of his men silently pointed to the shattered window before he turned back towards Crocket and mouthed, "Ready?"
Crockett nodded, "Ready."
Turning just enough so that he still was protected by the cabin wall, Tom raised his fist and rapped it loudly against the cabin's wooden door as he called out, "Santa Barbara Police! Open the door!" He waited for a bullet to pierce through the door and was surprised and relieved to hear Lee's voice call out in response to his demand. "Tom, is that you?"
"Yeah Lee, it's us." He answered lowering his gun as he heard soft voices inside before footsteps approached the door from within. He heard the sound of something heavy being dragged across the floor before the door opened and Lee stepped into the doorway, urging him and the other officers to get inside as fast as they could.
Slipping past his detective, Tom glanced at the other men in the cabin, his eyes lingering on the man on the bed and the other man with his eyes loosely bandaged who was sitting on the floor beside him before he returned his attention to his detective. "Our missing paramedic and our missing firemen?"
"And one of the hunters!" Lee answered as he quickly closed the door behind the officers who had followed Tom into the cabin before he turned and nodded towards the dead man lying on the floor.
"One of the hunters?" Tom asked, looking back at his detective, frowning, "So, your wild theory about two killer hunters was right."
Turning to look at Johnny as Crockett stepped around him and hurried across to the two injured firemen and Chet who had uncovered Johnny and was busy checking his bloody bandages, Lee nodded, "Gage said that he was hunted by two of them. He also warned us that they both were armed with high-powered hunting rifles." Turning to look down at Cedric's body, he added quietly, "I guess that wasn't the only weapons they have in their hunting arsenal. This one managed to almost blow his hand off with a stick of dynamite that I suspect he was intending to use on us and then he went for my gun after we brought him inside to treat him." Lee jumped and stopped speaking, his hand tightening on the gun he still held in his hand as the cabin door open. Spinning around, he relaxed as two uniformed officers stepped inside.
"We checked the woods surrounding the cabin, Sir, we didn't find any signs of anyone else around." One of the officers told the S.B. police captain.
"You didn't see any sign of Jim? He went for water about an hour ago and he hasn't come back." Lee's voice trailed off as he saw the look of sympathy and grief on the other officers' faces.
"I'm sorry, Lee," Tom said softly as he reached up and placed his hand on his detective's shoulder, giving it a quick sympathetic squeeze as he gently broke the news of their discovery of Jim's body before they rushed the cabin, "We found Jim's body in the woods near the well. His throat was cut."
The younger man nodded, unable to look his boss in the eye as he swallowed hard, swallowing the sob that had caught in his throat. He had gotten Jim killed, he had known the danger that lay outside the cabin, but he still allowed Jim to go outside by himself, and because of his screw-up, Jim had paid the ultimate price.
Turning back to the officer, Hynes ordered softly, "The ranger is still hiding in the underbrush outside where I ordered him to wait until I gave him the all-clear. Go out and get him but stay in the shadows and hug the wall. We don't want to give anyone who might still be out there any more targets to shoot at."
"Yes, Sir," the officer answered before he turned and hurried out of the cabin, his foot missing the deadly trap by mere inches as he took a running step off the old wooden landing.
Turning back to look at the injured man lying on the bed, who was now surrounded by the other missing fireman and the LA detective as they began to tend to his injuries, Hynes asked softly, "Is that our missing paramedic?"
Lee nodded, "The bastards shot him twice, but he still managed to escape. If Lopez and Kelly hadn't decided to go searching for him on their own, and then rescuing him from a swollen creek when they found him while the bastards were taking potshots at them as they did, I have no doubts at all that he would be dead by now. He would be another trophy on these animals' wall." Nodding towards Chet who was helping Marco redress Johnny's leg as Mike and Crockett carefully redressed Johnny's shoulder, he added, "Kelly was hit in the side while trying to rescue Gage. Gouged him good." Nodding towards Cap who was now sitting on the edge of the bed, talking softly to Johnny as he eased the younger man back against the pillows after the others had finished their ministrations before feeling around for the sleeping bag and wrapping it around Gage again, Lee continued, "Captain Stanley was hit in the face with flying glass when our hunter took a pot shot at us through the window."
Tom glanced at the blanket-covered broken window. "I'll get three of the guys to take up positions to guard the cabin for the rest of the night, but I think after seeing his partner get caught by you and with so many officers arriving afterward, the other perp knows the game is up and is probably long gone by now." Returning his attention to the LA lieutenant who had risen to his feet after talking to the firemen as he helped them tend to Gage, turned and began to walk across to where he and Lee were standing.
"We need to get Gage out of here tonight," Crockett announced softly as he reached his two S.B colleagues, glancing back over his shoulder at the dark-haired paramedic who now appeared to have lost consciousness, lying on the bed. Returning his attention to the S.B police captain, he added, "I suspect one of the bullets may have nicked a vein in his shoulder. He's hypothermic, which helped to slow down the bleeding but now he's warming up, he's beginning to bleed more and there's no way we can control the bleeding. Johnny's going to bleed to death if we can't get him to a hospital and get him more medical help than we can give him here soon."
"And just how do you propose that?" Tom hissed angrily, glaring at the L.A lieutenant, "You heard what the ranger told us before we set out for the cabin, Crockett, there was no way we could get a helicopter in the air to help search for him. And there's no way they are going to put a helicopter in the air now, not until there is a break in the weather and the way this storm has set in, I can't see that happening until morning if we are lucky and then only if the second storm front doesn't move in as fast as this one did. So, there is no way in hell that we are going to be able to get a helicopter here to medivac him or any one of the other injured firemen out, and there's no way that we are even being able to radio for one, not until we are somewhere where we can get some radio reception."
"Then we hike out." Tom spun around to find Mike with his arms crossed, standing behind him.
"Hike out?" Tom's eyes went wide at Mike's softly spoken suggestion before he began to shake his head, dismissing the idea, "Look, I know you want to get your friend some medical help, so do I. But we need to be realistic here, we both know that trying to hike out of here with an injured man, especially someone as injured as Crockett just told me that Gage is, in this weather, will take hours. And we both know the chances are Gage will probably die before we can even make it to the cars."
"And Johnny's going to die if we stay here and wait here for much longer. He's bleeding to death and there's nothing we can do here to stop it. He needs a doctor and as you just pointed out, there's no way we can medivac him out until morning, so if he is to have any chance at all, the only way we can get him any help is to hike out with him. " Mike insisted, refusing to take no for an answer.
"He makes a good argument." Tom spun around and stared at the ranger standing in the doorway, listening into the softly spoken argument. "There's no way that they are going to be able to get a helicopter into the air tonight, not with this storm front and they probably won't be able to get the helicopter in the air in the morning if the storm front behind this one moves in as fast as this one did. Which means we won't be able to medivac anyone out until tomorrow afternoon and that only if the fronts move out as fast as this one moved in, and if the front stalls," he glanced across at the man in the bed before he looked back at Jim. "I think …" he frowned at tall, dark-hair fireman who had been arguing with the police captain when he had entered the cabin, questioningly.
"Mike… Mike Stoker." Mike answered his unspoken question.
"If Mike and the lieutenant are right, and John is slowly bleeding to death, then we don't have any other choice but to try and hike out with him. It's the only chance he has." Looking across Jim's shoulder at Cap and Chet's blood-stained shirt, before returning his attention to Jim, he added, "It also looks like we have at least two other men who also need medical attention."
"You both seem to have forgotten, there is still another killer somewhere out there!" Tom growled.
"I know it's a big risk, Cap, but you said it yourself, the other killer is probably long gone by now." Lee interrupted, waiting until he had his captain's full attention as he swallowed hard and pleaded softly for his boss to change his mind. "Listen Tom, I lost Jim, tonight, and I don't want to risk losing Gage as well if there's even the slightest chance that we can save him by hiking out of here with him. I don't want Gage to become another trophy on these two bastards' wall like Jim did."