Chapter 10

Hey guys, here's another one, i hope you like.

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"I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do."

...

Hastings held his patched up shoulder as he led the way out of the woods, he knew the area well and could now walk just fine on his own two feet. But Steve was the survivalist, and it wasn't long till he was the one leading the way.

"Not that way, for someone who knows these woods too, wouldn't the straightway be the obvious clue?" Hastings looked at him half puzzled and half annoyed at Steve's automatic seizing of control. Yeah, the guy had saved his hide just now, but wasn't he supposed to be at least weak in his knees from the snake poison? He could swear the guy was half human, recovering that fast. Last time Hastings had seen him in the Cabin before he took off, the guy hadn't looked like he was going to make it, threshing about in his fever like that. Or, the Doctor had a magic touch. Frankly he was surprised she hadn't taken a pillow to him and snuffed the life out him, there had been really little of it left at that time. But loath as he was to admit it, Steve was right.

Steve directed them to another path,

"Continue that way, I'll go this way and create a diversion." Steve said, giving military hand signals. He guy was now in what Danny would call, 'SEAL mode'. Hastings used to laugh at Danny's complains every time he called to complain about his new partner the first months he relocated to Hawaii. Hastings would laugh him off, sure that Danny was exaggerating. Now he wasn't too sure. The guy was sure a control freak, but he was talking sense. So, Hastings nodded, and he and the Doctor took off in the opposite direction while McGarfreak went his own way, breaking twigs and setting booby traps or God only knew what else with this guy. Hastings wouldn't be surprised if the guy donned on some face paint- just to be one with the jungle.

Steve made his way through the woods making sure to leave telltale signs in the snow, footprints, broken twigs and such. The way Danny talked about Jersey; you would think there was not a single tree on the mainland. It might have clearly defined pathways but jungle it was still.

….

One group reached the cabin first.

"They're gone." One said, assessing the situation, three bodies on the ground, none which they were looking for. "We gotta move."

The other group following not far behind, realized they had been surpassed, opened fire. It was a mini war in the woods for a few minutes as different kinds of fire power exchanged.

Steve had just rejoined the doctor and Hastings when the war broke out.

Laura turned to look at him in alarm. "They've found us."

"No, they've found the cabin, let's move."

"Then why are they making such a ruckus?" Hastings asked.

"My guess is, they are either trying to scare us by randomly opening fire, knowing that we're still in the jungle somewhere. Or, there are two opposite sides exchanging fire here." Steve said, hoping for the later.

"Danny." Hastings said. "You think Danny found us? Brought some reinforcements, maybe?"

"That would be my prayer." Steve said hopeful. Then immediately froze in horror.

"What?" Hastings asked, looking at Steve.

"Oh crap, if the other group is friendly then…"

"Then what?"

"Then I hope they won't run into…uh…some of the traps I set for the not so friendly group."

Hastings snorted; he had known it. The guy was crazy, and right now, he might just be their best chance at survival.

"And God, I hope Danny's alive." Steve said with a little bit more hope.

"He is, and I bet you fifty bucks he's the friendly fire." Hastings reassured. "But right now, we gotta move, there's no telling who will get to us first."

…..

The gun shots had stopped, now it had become a cat and mouse game, the hunt and the hunted. A tracker hunched down, feeling the tracks on the path, looking around the area then gave direction to follow a certain path and directed the others to spread out.

Another tracker followed shortly behind, did the same and came to the same conclusion, follow the marks and have one or two spread out.

"No."

"No what?"

"Look at these marks, these footprints all this…it's too obvious. Trust me, I know him. He's not that sloppy.

"That is if he's even alive and leading this pack."

"He's alive, and he's leading this pack." Came the reply with more faith that fact. "And I'd advise you don't take that path, the guy likes booby traps and if I'm right, then this will be full of them."

The others made to argue but then they heard gunshots.

"Well, I guess this solves the problem, lets follow the war zone."

…..

Hastings was trying, Steve could see that. The guy was bleeding, he could tell he was still losing a lot of blood from his shoulder wound, the patching up was not holding. Steve had more of an ally in their 'prisoner' than the seasoned cop right now. Hastings was slowing them down, understandably so in his condition, Steve suspected the guy would be going into shock soon if he kept losing blood like that but Steve could not risk stopping to take a look at the wound. He could feel that the enemy was quickly closing in. How many they were? He didn't know. He just hoped that his trapes had go one or two. The odds were against them, they were obviously outnumbered if the mini war he had heard earlier was anything to go by. They had sure brought reinforcements and he wasn't sure if any were on their side. They had three guns between them against what he could decipher to be a small army. He doubted Hastings could shoot straight in his condition right now, and he was himself still suffering the aftereffects of the snake poison although he had no choice but to suck it up or die. As for the doctor, well, the way she had been holding that gun earlier, Steve doubted she even knew how to shoot a gun. He had commented at it and she had stuck that stubborn chin of hers and claimed she had gone rusty. Steve didn't buy it, which led him to wonder how she could have opened fire on her colleagues, with precision, one shot at a time ten years ago. His curiosity about this whole thing was nagging him again and this time he was not going to suppress it. He was getting to the bottom of this case if they came out of this little jungle alive.

A bullet whizzed just passed his head to get lodged in a tree trunk. Great! They had caught up with them, and clearly not the good guys, if there were any. Random gunfire started towards them. For now, he could tell two shooters, that was before the others followed the sounds and came to render reinforcements. Steve took cover behind a tree, the others had done the same, he noticed.

He started shootings, hoping to pick one or two out before they became too many to handle, he didn't have much ammo to waste.

"I'll cover, Go!" He yelled, opening cover fire while Hastings took off with Laura.

"Moving!" Steve yelled.

"Move!" Hastings called put, opening cover fire for Steve. They were coordinating well but Hastings shots were off, Steve managed to move. At this pace they were going to run out of amor without even shooting at a single target. Dr Mallory was carrying her own weight, if one could term it that. She was firing, head slightly averted, eyes half closed, and Steve wasn't sure if she was just aiming at the ground for fear of hitting a live target or she had just gone rusty, like she had said. Steve would bet the former. Then why was she trying so hard to wear this 'I'm a dangerous criminal' badge on her sleeve still? Maybe he was mistaken, maybe he was seeing what he wanted to see. She did save his life. What was that syndrome again? Maybe it was working on him, seeing goodness where there was none. Who was to say she just didn't want to shoo the bad guys because they were actually her friends come to finish some sort of prison break or something? But that wasn't adding up in his mind anymore considering all that had happened.

The reinforcements had come it seemed, the gun fight was on but now it seemed their enemies were exchanging gun fire with another group, their friendly? Or maybe they were fighting over the trophy, which right now seemed to be Laura. Steve didn't wait to try and analyze it; Hastings was losing strength and they were running out of amor. So, they ran, leaving the two groups fighting it out.

Laura took her place on Hastings' other side while Steve took the other as they helped him navigate the rough terrain at a breaking pace. Steve had to give it to her, she was strong willed, picked up her part of the slack, all of that without a single complaint or even a scream as the gunshots were whizzing past her head, sometimes too close. He was just beginning to admire her gumption; or had that ship sailed a long time ago?

They came to a small creek with large boulders for them to cross but the water was rough. They tried to cross it as quickly as they could with Hastings between them, now more like a dead weight. The gun shots were getting closer. Hastings took another bullet in the leg which brought him down, taking the whole team with him. Steve and Laura stumbled into the creek, Hastings still between them. It looked like they had been adequately cornered and outnumbered, but Steve wasn't going down without a fight. He turned and pointed his gun at their assailants. Two, and counting, Steve would bet. Steve could take only one, but he'll be dead before he could pull his trigger on the other one. He instinctively moved to shield Laura. He didn't know why but it was almost like it was out of his control, almost involuntary. He didn't have time to analyze it, he knew that even with his last breath, he would protect her.

Steve smirked, looking with last minute bravado and mockery at the guy pointing a gun at him, "Are you deliberately trying to miss or are you just really bad at this?" Steve said sarcastically.

"We're not trying to miss you." The other one said, pointing his gun at Steve. "It's the doc we want alive," The shrugged, "But her head will do if we can't achieve that."

Steve took a shot at one of them who went down in surprise, he hadn't counted on Steve making that shot. But that was as far as his skills with a gun could get him, now Steve prepared to feel a bullet pierce his head or chest form the other guy, he hadn't said they wanted him alive too.

A shot rang out, but Steve didn't feel anything. Steve watched in shock as the second guy's face transformed, the gun dropping before hid, a red hole on his forehead. Steve looked up in shock and saw Danny standing behind the guy, his gun still drawn.

Steve breathed.

Other shots had rung out just around that same time. Now he saw US Marshalls and FBI Agents crawling out of the jungle, must mean they had cleared it of enemy influence.

Danny reached out a hand to help him up, Steve took it, heaving himself up, and went in for a hug.

"You're alive." They both said almost in unison, with relief and wonder.

"I wasn't too sure there for a minute, you were bitten by a snake Steven." Danny laughed, "Now I know you're a robot."

"I never said otherwise." Steve said with a smirk. They turned to reach out to Laura and Hastings, helping them out of the creek. It seemed the war was over for now. Hastings needed medical attention, but he was going to live. And Dr Laura Mallory had a lot to explain!

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