Jesse groaned softly. His head was aching, and he didn't feel that he was in a very comfortable position. He tried to move his limbs but felt something digging in to his wrists and ankles preventing him. He opened his eyes.

The glaring light was still on, shining right into his eyes. Jesse screwed his eyes almost shut to try and see. He was tied to a chair, each ankle attached tightly to the two front chair legs and his hands secured awkwardly behind his back. A couple of metres away on the right Jesse could see Steve tied to another chair in the same way. His head was slumped forwards and he looked unconscious.

Jesse was aware of a movement in front of him but before he could focus he was drenched in icy cold water. Gasping in shock, he watched as a figure dressed in black doused Steve with a bucket of water too, throwing it at him as hard as possible. Steve jumped as much as was possible from his encumbered position and lifted his head as he came round. He looked around blearily.

Jesse shivered. The temperature in the cave was cool to start with and now he was soaked to the skin with water. His eyes began to adjust to the bright light and he took in the details of his surroundings. Two figures dressed in dark clothes were smirking at them from the edge of the light. A huge floodlight was set up to illuminate the captives, and Jesse could hear the hum of a generator somewhere that must be supplying the power.

"Steve," Jesse called across. "Are you okay?" He didn't know what the men had done to Steve.

Steve grunted, then, seemingly with an effort, said, "Yeah. Just peachy. You?"

"Fine," said Jesse hurriedly, not elaborating as he saw the two men in front of them take a step forward. Then another man appeared between them.

He had an air of importance and self-satisfaction about him. From his body language it was clear that he was used to being obeyed. He was dressed in a black suit and was tall and fairly thickly built. He looked strong.

"Dr Travis," he said, with loathing evident in his voice. "How wonderful to come face to face with you at last. And your friend is very welcome too."

Jesse felt startled. Although he hadn't verbalised it, he had assumed that the trouble they had been experiencing on the mountain had something to do with one of Steve's cases, or someone who he had sent to jail and had a grudge. But it sounded as if he was the target.

"You probably haven't heard of me," the man continued. "I am known to many as Heavy Jake."

"I've heard of you," Steve spoke up. "You're well known to the police. A local gangster."

"And a successful one," Jake replied. "I know the police are so eager to send me to jail, but they've never been able to pin anything on me." A smug note entered his voice.

"That's because you get other people to do your dirty work," Steve said.

Jake frowned with an expression of annoyance and he pointed a finger at Steve. One of the other men stepped forward and gave Steve a sharp punch to the side of the head which set his head spinning, but he had been powerless to resist.

"Take that as a pleasant warning," Jake said calmly. "I'm not interested in you." His gaze turned to Jesse, who felt a shiver of dread run through him.

"My colleagues Billy and Dylan here have been tormenting you at my command," Jake said, getting straight to the point. "I wanted to cause you as much grief, fear, discomfort as possible. I hope you enjoyed my mountain of fun. It's a shame your buddy had to come along and get mixed up in it. No hard feelings, I have nothing against you," he said to Steve, who looked back at Jake with disbelief, but wisely held his tongue.

"But… why?" Jesse stammered. "Why do you want to hurt me?"

Jake took three large strides to place himself right in front of Jesse. "Because you killed my daughter."

"What?" Jesse said falteringly.

"Jesse would never kill anyone," Steve said.

Jake ignored him. "A couple of months ago we did some business with a rival gang, but they didn't appreciate the way we went about our custom. They came onto my turf and started a gun fight. My daughter," his face hardened, "my daughter shouldn't have been there that day but she was paying me a visit. She got caught in the cross fire and shot."

Jesse and Steve exchanged a glance but kept silent, letting Jake continue his tale.

"Before I could get to her to take her to my preferred doctor someone picked her up and took her to Community General. You, Dr Travis, were the doctor who treated her when she came in. She wasn't badly hurt. But your incompetence shone through, and she died."

"I remember her," Jesse said in a distressed voice. "She was badly wounded. The bullet had hit an artery and caused internal bleeding."

"You're lying!" shouted Jake. "She would have been fine. You made mistakes, many of them. You killed my daughter!"

"No!" cried Jesse, clearly upset. "We did everything we could! There was nothing anyone could have done. The position of the bullet… I'm sorry for the loss of your daughter, but sometimes injuries are just too severe to treat successfully."

Jake just looked at him passively. "I hope that your adventures on the mountain gave you a taste of what is coming to you. Because now things are going to get even more interesting. You killed my daughter, and now you will die too. But not before you experience much pain." He smiled humourlessly, and beckoned with a finger.

Dylan pulled a table out of the shadows. Lined up on top of it was an unpleasant looking collection of knives and other pointed metal instruments.

Jesse's eyes widened and Steve strained to free himself from the chair but his bonds were tight.

Jake observed them with a look of satisfaction. "Let's try a little emotional trauma for Dr Travis first," he said to his thugs.

Billy selected an object from the table. Steve and Jesse recognised it as a stun gun of the sort often kept by women for use in the instance of a personal attack. He went over to Steve, pressed the device against his chest and switched it on. Steve's body shook with the electric current and he yelled loudly.

"No!" Jesse shouted, trying to move but unable to do so. "Stop it! Please! He's done nothing to you. Let him go!"

Steve's movements led to the chair overbalancing and it fell over on its side, taking him with it.

"Enough!" Jake called. Billy returned to his side.

Steve felt awful. The experience of the stun gun was one he never wanted to repeat. Every muscle ached, and his head was pounding. He lay on his side on the cold, hard floor, his limbs incapacitated by the current. Not that I would have been able to move much even if I could, he thought bitterly.

Jake's attention was now on Jesse, who was desperately looking at Steve to see some sign that he was not badly hurt. "He won't be able to move for a few moments," Jake said. "But I've got plenty of things planned for you."

Jesse swung his gaze back to meet Jake's and shuddered at the look he saw there. He realised there would be no mercy.

Steve flexed his fingers to test his ability to move. They twitched a bit, and he tried again and moved them further. One finger brushed against something that felt cold and sharp. He reached for it again as more muscle ability came back to his body, and couldn't believe was he was feeling. It seemed to be a knife or something metallic that had fallen on the floor. It must have been dropped by one of the men and not noticed in the shadow of his chair. Eagerly, with hope returning, he pulled it carefully nearer and felt for the sharpest edge. Then he manoeuvred it round and started to attempt to cut the ropes on his wrists.

Jake reached into his jacket and pulled out a hand gun. He examined it slowly, pulling out the cartridge and putting it back, making sure a bullet was loaded in the chamber, all the while aware of Jesse's worried eyes on him.

Steve felt a moment of lesser pressure on his wrists, then the pressure was gone. He flexed his hands, checking that he had full control of his limbs. All attention was on Jesse. He moved his eyes quickly around and focused on a fist sized rock within reaching distance.

Jake smiled nastily at Jesse. "I'm just going to give you something to think about and focus your mind when we're doing the, shall we say, slower processes in a few minutes," he said, and swiftly raised the gun and fired at Jesse's leg.

The bullet hit him a few inches below the knee and he yelled in pain.

The shot spurred Steve into action. He pushed himself away from the ground, picked up the rock, and in one fluid movement threw it as hard as he could at the light. The rock landed right in the middle of the bulb and it smashed with a satisfying crash of breaking glass. The cave became pitch black. Steve swiftly cut through the ropes on his ankles and ran over to where Jesse was, trusting his memory to guide him. Jake was shouting at Billy and Dylan to fix the light, and Steve knew he didn't have long before one of them came over to find their captives in the dark.

"Jess, you okay?" he asked quietly as he sawed as quickly as he could at Jesse's bonds.

"Yes," Jesse gasped, and Steve knew he was in pain.

"Where did they get you?" he asked, having not seen where the bullet had landed.

"Leg," Jesse grunted.

Steve pulled him up and headed towards the back of the cave. He reasoned that there must be another way out other than the place where they had come in, as Jake wouldn't have trapped them all in with a rock slide. Steve had one of Jesse's arms over his shoulder and half carried him along as best he could. Jesse was breathing shallowly with the pain of his leg and was not able to put much weight on it.

To their relief, at the back of the cave they felt a draught of air and smelt the scent of pine trees. A faint glimmer of light came from ahead and they hurried towards it.

They heard a shout from behind and footsteps getting closer. Shots were fired at them and Jesse heard a bullet ricochet off the cave wall beside him, but luckily none of the shots hit them.

The two friends emerged into daylight, blinking at the sudden light. They had come out beside a rough track, and two jeeps were parked there. Steve let go of Jesse and ran towards one. Jesse hobbled after him, biting his lip as he put weight on the leg. In this light he could see the blood coming from the wound and his doctor's mind kicked in, telling him he needed to keep it still and get it seen to. But there was no time for that.

Steve let out a whoop of triumph as he found the keys in the ignition. "I don't suppose they expected anyone to be around except for them. It looks pretty remote."

"Let's get out of here," Jesse said, climbing into the passenger side.

Steve started the jeep and pulled away quickly, sending a shower of pine needles up into the air. As they pulled away Jake, Billy and Dylan surfaced from the cave, and raised their guns at the departing jeep. A bullet hit one of the tyres and the vehicle swerved dangerously close to a tree. Steve and Jesse were thrown about but Steve managed to keep control and kept the jeep going down the track. Jesse looked behind and saw the men climb into the other jeep and accelerate away.

"Step on it Steve," Jesse said.

"I'm trying!" said Steve through gritted teeth. "This thing wants to get away from me with its one flat tyre."

The road sloped steeply downwards. Steve was going as fast as he dared. He risked a glance behind. The other jeep was catching up.

"Steve, look out!" Jesse suddenly yelled, and Steve whipped his head round in time to realise he was on a collision course with a car that had just appeared from a track off to the side. He slammed on the brakes and yanked the steering wheel over to one side, but too late. The jeep smashed into the front end of the car and both vehicles went sideways and came to rest against a tree. The jeep following also tried to swerve. It clipped the very back of Steve and Jesse's jeep and was thrown into the air. It went into a roll and went on down the hill, over and over on its roof, coming to rest the right way up against a tree several hundred yards further down the track.

Steve and Jesse looked at each other. "You hurt?" Steve asked.

"Just shaken, I haven't gained any more injuries," Jesse said.

Steve jumped out of the jeep and went over to the car they had run into. To his astonishment, Mark and Amanda got out, also looking a little shaken. However when they caught sight of Steve their faces changed to show intense relief. They moved towards each other. Jesse opened the door of the jeep and made to get out, but winced in pain and decided to stay where he was. Mark and Amanda's expressions quickly changed to alarm.

"Are you hurt?" Steve got in first.

"We're fine, but just look at you!" Mark said in horror. "You're all scratched and bruised. Steve, your face looks burnt… and Jesse, is that a bullet wound?" he exclaimed, moving over to the open door.

"Fraid so," said Jesse, wincing as he shifted his position. "I have never been so glad to see you!"

"What on earth has happened to you?" Amanda asked.

"Later," Steve said, looking anxiously down at the crashed jeep belonging to Jake. He didn't want his father and Amanda to get mixed up in this. He picked up a large branch and hefted it in his hands. "Dad, you got any rope in the trunk?"

"Yes, I think so," Mark said, and fetched it.

"Stay here," Steve said grimly, and started down the slope towards the jeep.

"Not on your own, you might need help," said Mark, coming after him, as Amanda got her medical bag and started examining Jesse.

"Dad!" Steve said in exasperation, but he didn't have the energy to protest harder.

They cautiously approached the jeep. Jake was slumped over the steering wheel, blood on his face. Billy had been knocked to the floor from his seat on the back and was also out cold. Dylan was semi-conscious, stirring slowly and groaning. Steve quickly went to him first, pulled him out of the car and tied him tightly. Then he did the same to Jake.

"You really shouldn't move them," Mark said.

"I'm not taking any chances," Steve replied firmly. "Does your cell phone have any signal here?"

Mark looked at it. "Yes."

"Fantastic," Steve said wearily, taking it and punching in the number for the police.

Mark's car pulled up beside them and Amanda got out. Jesse was seated in the passenger seat looking pale and shattered. "I've stopped the bleeding for now but he needs to get to a hospital. Is everything okay?" Amanda asked.

"I think it is now," said Steve with a tired smile. He handed the cell phone to Amanda. She turned away to give instructions to the police, and then called for some ambulances.

Steve suddenly felt exhausted; his head throbbed from multiple bruising and bashes, the skin on his face and hands suddenly felt like it was on fire, and all his muscles protested at once as the effects of the stun gun and lack of sleep caught up with him. He sank to the floor, leaning against the car, and rested his head in his hands.

It was over. And they were both still alive. He took a deep breath of the fresh mountain air, and despite everything, smiled to himself.

THE END

Hope you enjoyed it! Reviews welcome.