The Conspiracy
Chapter 11
Out of the Hole

My life is important to me, and I have and will entrust it to you. – Aaron Hotchner

As the dust settled, Dave painfully twisted in his seat and leaned over the back.

'Take my hand and climb up here.' he said, reaching down for Ana and Garcia

'Reid first.' Garcia said, and she and Ana lifted Reid towards Dave's hands. Trying to be gentle, but realising the danger they were in, Dave quickly pulled the young man up over the seat back and into the front. Reid slumped in the front seat, sweat glistening on his forehead. He groaned as Dave leaned across him and opened the door. He pushed Reid out of the car onto the ground, and turned back to the two people in the back of the car. As he reached for them, the car shifted.

'Quickly, both of you, get up here.' Dave shouted against the sound of falling rocks. Garcia pulled herself over the seat back and through the door next to Reid. Ana followed, and Dave followed Ana. As he fell out into the sun, the car creaked and shifted further into the hole.

Dave leaned against the sheriff's car and looked around at his men. There were things he needed to do, but he wasn't thinking straight.

Garcia took some water from the back of one of the sheriff's cars and gently moistened Reid's dry lips. He opened his mouth slightly and licked the water. Very carefully she poured a little into his mouth and he reached up for the bottle and held it to his lips, and drank gratefully.

'Penelope.' Dave gasped. She left Reid's side.

'Sir?'

'We need to get .....uh....' He leaned forwards with his hand on his forehead.

Garcia tentatively reached out to Dave, touching his elbow.

'Sit down Sir. The emergency rescue services are on their way.' Garcia helped Dave to the front door of the sheriff's car and he sat gratefully in the passenger's seat.

Garcia went back to where she had pulled Reid from the cavern, but the hole she had made was no longer there. She began to pull away at the rocks again, afraid for her three friends who were buried beneath the ground. She felt her fingernails break and her finger tips bleed as she frantically pulled at the ground.

'Hold on....' she said out loud. 'Help is coming......'

-0-0-0-

When the shaft of light had disappeared, there was a crashing sound as more ceilings collapsed in other parts of the tunnel. Morgan didn't know how they were going to get them out. He looked over to where Emily was sitting in the yellow light holding Hotch's hand, gently talking to him. Her dark hair was covered with a layer of dust, as was the man to whom she was talking.

At least the air was more breathable now.

He went and sat by her.

'You ok, Emily?'

'I'm ok. Hotch isn't though.'

'Let me take over for a while.' Morgan said, taking the bulb from her, and squeezing it to inflate Hotch's lungs.

'I can't feel a pulse, Morgan. I think we've lost him.'

Tears cut clean lines through the dirt on her face.

'I'm not giving up, Emily. He once said he would put his life in my hands and trust me with it. I am not going to let him down now.'

Emily sat back on her heels. 'Could be my hand is shaking too much to find a pulse.' she said, touching Hotch's neck with a steadier hand. 'He has a pulse, Morgan.' she said with obvious relief, 'But it's faint and weak.'

Morgan lifted her face towards his. 'We're going to make it, Emily, all three of us.'

She blinked in the fading light of the torch.

-0-0-0-

Garcia waved her hands at the approaching helicopter, pointing away from where she knew the ground was weak. The chopper set down about a hundred yards away, and four men wearing hard hats got down off it. They unloaded digging equipment from the back, and wheeled it over to where Garcia and Ana were waiting with Dave.

'We are not going to be able to dig here.' one of them told Dave. 'We will dig a hole parallel to the shaft, and dig across. It will be safer to do it like that. We don't want to risk a further cave in.'

'One of the trapped men is seriously wounded.' Dave said. 'For god's sake, hurry.'

The four men set up the digging equipment a few yards away from the group. Garcia and Ana carefully lifted Reid into the back of the Sheriff's car. He opened his eyes as they laid him down. He took Garcia's hand.

'Hotch?' It was barely more than an exhalation, but the strength of his grip on Garcia's hand surprised her.

'They are getting him out now, Spencer.' she said. The sound of the digging split the air, and a plume of dust rose from the desert floor.

Reid's eyes were filled with tears. 'This is all m-my f-fault.' he stammered softly. 'I am s-so s-sorry.'

'Save your strength, Spencer.' she said. 'They are getting the others out. Don't fret.'

Reid blinked back the tears, but he didn't say anything more. In the distance, they could hear another helicopter and Garcia hoped it was the ambulance. As it got closer, Garcia got out of the car and looked into the sky. The silver of the helicopter stood out against the deep blue of the cloudless sky. She watched as it came to rest next to the rescue helicopter. Garcia ran across the space between them to meet the paramedics who alighted the helicopter.

'We have managed to get one victim from the mine.' she told them, leading them over to the car where Reid was lying. 'He's got a gunshot wound to the chest, a through and through, a broken arm, and he is dehydrated. I've given him some water.'

Two of the medics got into the car and began to work on Reid. The first thing they did was put in a wide bore IV to get fluids into his body as soon as they could. They splinted his broken arm, and checked his pupil responses.

'What's your name?' on asked as she shone a pen light into his eyes.

'Sp-pencer Reid.' he answered.

'Well, Spencer, you don't need to worry anymore, you are going to be ok now.'

'Hotch – help Hotch ......first.....'

The medic turned to Garcia who was standing outside the car.

'Who is Hotch?' she asked.

'We haven't got him out yet.' Garcia said. 'But David Rossi in the front seat needs you too.'

Dave was still in the front seat of the car. He had fainted with the exertion, and was lying sideways across the two front seats. One of the medics went to the front and checked him over.

'His vitals are all ok, except his pulse is a little fast. We will need bloods to check for infection, but he needs to have an IV set up now.'

Quickly and skilfully the medic put an IV into Dave's arm ready for the antibiotics that would probably be needed later. 'Whoever treated him for this gunshot wound did a good job, but he should have been in hospital long ago.'

'We couldn't take him to hospital, it would have been too dangerous.' Ana said. 'It was my Mum who treated him.'

'She did good.'

Ana smiled for the first time in days.

-0-0-0-

'I really can't find a pulse now.' Emily said.

Morgan used a free hand to touch Hotch's neck.

'Nor can I.' he said. 'Start CPR.'

Emily knelt across the still body of her boss without putting weight on his hips, careful not to touch the spike that was through his body, she pressed down on his chest.

'Come on, Hotch......'

They could hear a loud sound and a vibrating, as the rescuers dug down towards them, causing more dust and small rocks to come falling around them. Emily leaned forwards and protected Hotch from the most of it, while Morgan continued ventilating him.

Come on, Hotch, don't give up now....

'I think they are digging down to us.' Morgan said. 'That's what the noise is.'

He was having to shout over the sound, and he prayed that it wouldn't set off another cave in. The light of Morgan's torch was failing, and Emily continued administering CPR in the failing torch light.

'Morgan,' she said between chest compressions. 'Are we going to get out of here?'

'I hope so, Emily. I want all three of us to make it out of here. Now they are digging down to us, it shouldn't be too long. We just have to keep Hotch alive until they get to us.'

She tucked her dirty hair behind her ears as Morgan inflated Hotch's lungs.

'Come on, Hotch, don't give up now.' she said to the figure lying in front of her, unaware that she was echoing Morgan's thoughts word for word.

She felt a movement under her hands, as if in response to her plea.

'He moved!' she said excitedly. 'I'm sure he moved.'

'I think he did. Check his pulse.' Morgan said, shouting over the approaching sound of the digging. More dirt and stones fell, and together they leaned across, protecting Hotch from the worst of the fall.

'They are almost here.' he said. 'Hold on just a little longer.'

It was at that moment that a new beam of light cut through into their prison, lighting up the dust in the air in a yellow cone.

'Hello, can anybody hear us?'

'Yes! Yes! We are here!' Emily cried.

They looked in the direction of the voice, and were dazzled by two strong lights moving towards them along the tunnel.

'OK, please let us see what we have.' the medic said. Morgan moved back, and Emily stepped away. Now that Hotch had a pulse, her chest compressions were no longer necessary.

'We need to cut him off this spike.' he said. 'We need to turn him without pulling on it. On three.... one.... two.... three..... turn.'

Morgan and the other medic, turned Hotch onto his side, and a set of bolt cutters were applied to the base of the metal spike that had impaled Hotch. As soon as it was cut, the broken pieces of the stretcher were shoved aside, and a new one placed beneath him.

'Now, on three, lay him back down. One.... two.... three.... now.'

The movement had started the puncture site to bleed again, Emily reached for Hotch's hand. She understood that he was deeply unconscious, but just in case she wanted him to know that they were there, and were not going to leave him. He didn't respond to her touch.

'We are going to have to get him up the shaft we dug vertically. We will need to strap him down onto the stretcher so that he won't move.'

While he was saying this, the medic had placed a restraint around Hotch's head and neck, and the other was strapping him onto the stretcher.

'Ok let's get him out of here before the tunnel collapses.'

The two medics picked up the stretcher upon which Hotch was strapped, and carried him the few feet to the newly dug shaft. There were ropes hanging down the side, and they attached the ropes to the head of the stretcher.

'Ok, we're ready here!' one of them called, and the rope was pulled up from the top. Slowly, Hotch was drawn vertically, and with the help of the two medics holding him steady, he was pulled up the shaft to safety.

Emily and Morgan watched to procedure with a mixture of hope and relief. As soon as Hotch was out of sight, a ladder was dropped down, and Emily, Morgan, and the two medics climbed out into the sunshine.

-0-0-0-

Garcia had been pacing the desert floor. They had taken Reid and he was now in the helicopter, ready for take off. He was being administered glucose and painkillers by drip, and his heart beat and respiration was good. Because he had been starved, his potassium level was high, so there was saline in the IV in his arm.

He was always thin, but he was emaciated now. It had been over a week now and all he had eaten was some bread the day before when Hotch had been chained up with him. He was beginning to come round, and Garcia wanted to be in the helicopter with him.

'You can sit with him for now.' the medic had told her. 'But you won't be able to fly out with him, because there won't be space in the helicopter with both casualties.'

Garcia was sitting with Reid, talking to him, when Hotch was pulled out of the hole. She stared across in horror.

Hotch was covered with dirt and blood. What she could see of his skin was bruised and cut. There was the spike through his abdomen, and it was glistening in the sun.

There was so much blood. She felt tears of fear pricking the backs of her eyes. One of his hands had slipped from the straps holding him. Even his fingers were broken.

She jumped down from the helicopter as Emily emerged from the hole.

'Is he going to survive?' she heard Emily ask the medic who was checking Hotch.

'He's a strong man, and he's in the best hands.' was the answer she was given.

Garcia watched as a heart monitor was attached to his chest, and his throat tube attached to a ventilator.

They carried him to the helicopter and slid the stretcher in next to Reid.

Ok, Hotch, Reid, it's up to you now.........