Disclaimer: Same as usual.
Title: City Lights
Chapter Two: What you fear is your desire
"How many people are in this building?" One of the masked gun men asked the old lady who had greeted Nick and Greg earlier that night. "Besides us that is."
The old lady was almost in shock at the sight of the machine guns in the gang's hands.
"I asked you a question." The man yelled as he pointed the gun in her face. "Answer it or I blow out your brains!"
"Ah!" She yelled as she covered her face, tears falling from her eyes. "There are…are…six people." She said in between sobs.
"Find all of them." The tallest masked man ordered to the other gang members as they divided up and went their ways.
"Nick?" Greg asked softly as the two CSI's lay on the floor, debris and glass covered them both. Greg had a deep wound in his arm from a shard of glass that had been blown out from one of the many explosions that were set of earlier in the building.
Nick slowly looked over at Greg and forced a hopeful smile. "Shh. I overheard the gunman's conversation."
The lab tech's brow furrowed as he looked at Nick. "Yeah, so what did they say?"
"Well, how do I put this in a cheerful way?"
"Probably can't."
"True so they're going to kill everyone in here."
"We should escape."
Nick shook his head at Greg. "There's no way we can without being seen."
"I'll check aisle seven!" one of the masked men yelled as he began to turn down the aisle of goods that Nick and Greg were currently lying in.
"Nick," Greg whispered quickly, "we're in aisle seven."
Footsteps became louder as the man began to walk over to the area where Nick and Greg were laying. The man had to admit that it was very hard to even see the two of them with glass, ceiling debris and food products covering the whole aisle. When he did notice them he yelled, "Found two in aisle seven!"
Greg was shaking uncountable. He was beyond scared at the thought of what these men were capable of.
Silently Nick lay still trying not to show any signs of life to these men. Out of the corner of his eye he could see poor Greggo beginning to shake and the thought killed his heart. He felt horrible for bringing Greg along in the first place. Making sure no one would notice him; Nick slowly searched for Greg's hand and grasped it gently just before the man had stopped next to them.
"I think they're dead."
Another voice then appeared. "See if they are then."
The man reacted and kicked Greg hard in the side of his stomach making the young lab tech yelp up in pain and squeezed Nick's hand harder.
"Get him."
The strongest man grabbed Greg by the back of his shirt and pulled him to his feet.
"What about the other?"
"Get him too."
Now the gang had surrounded Nick and Greg as both of their hands were tied behind their backs. The rope made Nick's skin itch as he glanced quickly at Greg who looked scared and defeated. Biting the inside of his cheek, Nick felt worse than he had ever felt. He should have left Greg at the lab, Grissom told Nick to get it anyway.
"Where's Snake?" the smallest member asked as the man in the corner of the aisle yelled, 'Over here Weasel, you moron!'
So they have nicknames. Nick thought to himself as the man named Weasel and the rest of the unknown men led Stokes and Sanders over to Snake. Instantly Nick noticed that Snake was holding a young girl by the hair. She had to be at least seven years old.
"Only last survivor I could find," Snake told them as the girl looked fearfully at Nick. "Everyone else is dead. I shot them just to make sure of course."
Snake was obviously the boss since even the rest of the gang members feared him. "So anyway, what do you have?"
"Two survivors," Weasel said proudly.
"I know that," Snake rolled his eyes, "Did you check for wallets? ID's? Tiger, you look."
The man closet to Greg reached into the young man's pocket and pulled out his wallet. Tiger flipped the lab tech's wallet and saw the license. "This man is Gregory Sanders."
"Hey, look at this," the man, Hawk, on Nick's left said doing the same thing Tiger was doing to Greg, looking through the wallets. "This is Nicholas Stokes and he works at the Las Vegas Crime Lab."
And then it all happened. Greg had managed to slide his way out of Tiger's grasp and began to take off, which much difficulty thanks to his hands tied behind his back, as Snake quickly re-acted. Snake pulled his gun before anyone could stop him and shot at Greg.
Greg had no idea what he was thinking when escaped Tiger's grasp and ran towards the door. Fear and confusion had taken over his mind and he couldn't handle seeing Nick so calm about it. It wasn't long when Greg heard a gunshot and felt something pierce his back, sending pain through out his body. Greg gasped as he realized he had just been shot. He fell forwards onto the ground and tried to breathe as best he could.
"Greg!" Nick yelled as he watched Greg fall to the floor and lay motionless. "WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO THAT FOR?"
Snake slowly walked up to Nick and stared at him in the eyes before speaking. "Don't ask questions. You're friend is a moron for trying to escape. Consequences. Now, do you want to start anything?"
Nick feared the guy and didn't say anything but instead glared at him. If Greg died because of him Nick wouldn't be able to live with it.
"So, now we've got another dead body to deal with." Weasel complained as Snake just laughed a cold, evil laugh.
"Not really my good friend. That Mr. Sanders is still breathing but you see, he will live until he dies from loss of blood. Should suffer for a bit."
"So, what do we do with him?"
"Leave him. Take this Mr. Stokes with you and we'll go. Let his Crime Lab figure out their murders." And with that Snake grabbed Nick and began to lead him towards the exit of the store.
As Nick passed Greg, he wanted to run free from Snake and run to Greg's rescue but it was no use. Nick didn't even get to say he was sorry for bringing Greg into this mess in the first place.
"Walk faster Stokes," Snake demanded as he yanked Nick from the store and led him towards a black van parked in the corner of the parking lot.
As Nick got into the back of the vehicle Greg Sanders was trying his best to pull his cell phone out of his pocket and dial 911.
"Where are Nick and Greg?" Grissom asked Catherine as he began to get impatient. "It doesn't take 2 hours to get rope, tape and the rest of my cherished materials."
"Maybe they stopped to grab something to eat. You know Greg, he eats anything."
Then Brass walked into the room, a grim expression was on his face. "We've got some D.B's at the little grocery store down the road from here called Charles Mary. But it's not an easy crime scene. The place was burnt down to ashes."
"Then how do you know there are dead bodies?"
"Well, seems like a work of a gang because the D.B's are hanging in front of the store, gang symbols engraved into their skins. Do you want to hear the worst part?"
"Could there be a worst part?"
"Greg is in the hospital and Nick is taken hostage."
"Sara is going to the hospital," Grissom told Catherine and Warrick as they left their vehicle with their field kits in their hands.
"I thought it was Sara's day off. Wasn't she going out of town or something?" Warrick asked as the three of them ducker under the yellow crime scene tape.
"She was going to but when she heard about Nick and Greg she immediately offered to go to the Hospital."
"Whoa, Brass wasn't kidding. Look at this place." Warrick said as the three CSI's glanced at their new crime scene. The only thing left of the store was the huge pile of ashes that rested in the middle of the lot followed by a trail of blood which led to the dead bodies, hung by rope connected to a telephone pole.
Warrick felt his stomach turn as he looked at the four dead bodies, dangling from rope. But then something clicked in his mind and he turned to face Grissom. "Hey Gris," he said as the supervisor turned to look at him, "I've seen this type of work before, some gang that is called 'PAMPA'."
"What does it exactly stand for?"
"No one really knows. Anyone that did found out died though. Pleasant?"
"Well, we've got to start working right away if we even want to find Nick in time." Grissom told the other CSI's as they began to investigate.
After minutes of hard investigating, even though they were coming up short with evidence, Catherine found something. She had found a note, dusted for prints and had found nothing. "I've got a note. These gangs new much about evidence because I'm guessing the guy who was holding this had on gloves."
Warrick put his kit down and walked over to Catherine followed by Grissom as they looked over her shoulder to read the note.
Dear whom ever this may concern (probably you CSI's)
You guys have a scene to investigate so I won't keep you long
Is it true that we have done this? Me? Us? Who knows? Do we take Nick? How did we find out his name? How do we know about you and Mr. Sanders? Let's just say we have our ways.
If you want to know more about us then, investigate my good friends.
PAMPA
(Will write more! :D)