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Agent Stark strode into the computer room where Agents' Curtis and Brooks were working. The two of them were sitting in front of the computers with plates of food, chatting about something unknown. Lynch was at the surveillance cameras
"What's this, a picnic, I hope you're all making yourselves comfortable."
"Oh relax Gene; the good doctor is as snug as a bug in a rug."
"I don't know about that." Lynch said suddenly.
Stark was at his side in a flash. "What's going on?"
"Someone's going up in the elevator and since we're all in here…"
"Where's Ramirez?"
"Calloway sent him to check up on Dr. Reid. He gave our guest a bribe."
"What kind of bribe?" Agent Curtis demanded.
"He gave him a dose of Dilaudid."
"What!"
Stark rounded on the woman who'd shot out of her chair. Her light brown hair had been twisted up on the top of her head, but now locks of hair were falling out of the up-do onto her neck and face. One hand was twisting the pearls she wore around her neck. The other hand was shaking visibly. Her face had gone white and her eyes were blazing. Still, he walked right up to her and got into her face.
"Calloway knows what he's doing? So settle down and get back to work!"
"I don't think he does." Lynch said. "No one is supposed to go up without checking out and Ramirez didn't check out."
"Brooks, take Curtis, and go check out the doctor's room. Make sure Ramirez hasn't screwed up in there."
"Can I panic now?"
"Shut up Curtis!"
"Don't you tell me to shut up Stark? We agreed to this plan because Calloway is paying very well and we were promised that we'd be the darlings of the BAU instead of Hotchner's team."
"Don't worry about how this is going to play out for us. You just keep in mind all that money that's going to keep your mother in the home!"
"You keep my family out of this!
"Your family is in this up to the hilt. You should've thought about that before you agreed to do this."
"Guys, shut up and listen to me!" Kevin shouted over the arguing agents. Stark opened his mouth, but Lynch cut him off. "I've got the footage from the camera in the hallways and the elevator."
Kevin ran the footage and it looked like a tall, thin man with Ramirez's clothes was headed away from Dr. Reid's room, directly to the elevators.
"That's not Ramirez!"
"How do you know?"
"Because you can see that he's hiding his face from the camera. Ramirez may be a stuck up son of bitch, but he never walks looking down at the floor."
"He's gone and Ramirez is passed out on the bathroom floor." Brooks had sprinted back into the computer room with Agent Curtis on his heels.
Stark rounded on Lynch. He lifted the shorter man out of his chair by his shirt. "Why didn't you realize this before Dr. Reid got as far as the elevators?"
"I was trying to tell you -"
"Stop it Stark. We have to get him back before Calloway comes back, or there will be hell to pay."
Stark dropped Kevin back into his chair. "You and I will be having a discussion when I get back!"
He left the room with Brooks and Curtis. Kevin rubbed the front of his shirt as though something nasty had been deposited on the collar, "Just following orders, sir."
--
The doors opened up at the first floor without the usual pinging announcement. He stepped out of the corner he'd been waiting in.
You mean you were hiding in it!
No one was waiting on the other side of the steel elevator car doors. The entryway was empty except for an emblem hanging on the white painted wall.
"Well I'll be damned!"
He couldn't help turning in a circle to take in the room. It was like the lobby of an expensive lawyer or accountant.
Nice carpet! I suppose I should find it comforting that the dark blue color matches everything else.
There was a highly polished, wood stained table with claw feet standing to one side. The crystal vase was filled with what looked like red roses.
He reached over and touched the velvety looking petals of the flowers. Hm… silk flowers!
Yeah, and while you stand here admiring the décor, someone could be coming up in that elevator. Get the hell out of here!
The door at the other side of the room looked like the door to the room he'd been kept in. There were no windows. If he opened it, would there be an exit on the other side, or just more hallways? He walked hesitantly over to the door and tried the knob. It opened and he saw light. It wasn't the light he'd seen for the last four days. It was the light of day. It was the sunlight. He stepped forward into the light and blinked like an owl before bedtime. Behind him a shrill alarm began to sound, startling him into a stumbling run into the light.
Something crackled under his feet as he ran away from the doorway. Trees were all around him and their leaves littered the ground in brown, gold and red piles. They snapped and popped as he moved as fast as he could run from the deepest part of the forest.
Someone was running to catch up with him. He could hear them breathing hard behind him. The labored breathing grew closer and the footsteps louder as he tried not to let the smell of the leaves make him sick. The faster he tried to run, the closer the pursuer seemed to get.
One of his feet slipped on the soft ground and the rotten leaves. He pitched headlong to the ground and landed with a bone jarring crash. He tried to roll over and confront the person that was following him, but the fall knocked the wind out of his chest. He couldn't breathe and his heart was stuttering like an old sewing machine.
Don't panic!
He gasped for breath and finally took in the smell of the trees, and the ground, and the rotting leaves under his body. His stomach heaved and nausea swept everything else out of his mind.
Tobias shoved him hard and he fell to his knees in the soft earth. The smell of rotten leaves was the only smell there was in the universe.
"Get up and walk you sniveling little weakling."
No, if Tobias was going to kill him, better that it is right here right now. It didn't matter anymore. The team wasn't going to come for him. His clues has been too little too late.
"Get up or I'll shoot you like a rabid dog."
NO!
This wasn't Georgia, and Tobias was dead. He was over this. The drugs and the smell of rotten earth couldn't hurt him.
Austin is waiting for you. The team must know that you're missing. You have to meet them halfway. You know where you are now.
What about the one that was following you?
He rolled over and saw that no one was there. The breathing and the footsteps had been made by him, running through the forest. He got to his feet, wincing at the pain in his knees. There were holes in the knees of Ramirez's pants. Blood was seeping through the hole in the left knee and it stung in the cold evening air.
Forget it! It's not the worst injury you've ever had.
A snapping twig behind him made his heart jump into overdrive. He looked behind him and saw in the distance a door open out of the hillside. He saw the tall figure of Stark emerge into the deepening purple light. The Agent he recognized as Brooks followed Stark. Reid jumped behind a tree and watched them talking to each other. He couldn't hear what they were saying, but they seemed to be arguing which way to go.
Don't just stand here and watch them. Get going…
He was afraid to move. After that first dash behind the large tree with rough brown bark, he was afraid to move. What if they saw him?
Yeah, just stand here and they'll find you in no time. Do you want to go back to your prison?
He turned and ran to the left. Branches whipped his face and made it sting. One branch slammed into his nose and it began to bleed. He put out a hand and tried to keep more branches from slapping him in the face. Water droplets hit his face, neck and hands. Hadit rained recently?
He slipped again and nearly fell. Morgan would laugh to see him flailing around like a seal on ice and what he wouldn't give to hear that laugh. Then he could pretend that he was out in the woods searching for someone. He could pretend that it was someone else that was missing, not him.
He slipped again and fell. He felt his body roll down a hill, slamming into rocks and tree roots that had made their way to the surface of the ground. Pain exploded in his leg and his shoulder. He bit down hard on the scream that wanted to leave his chest when he landed on another rock. He barely missed slamming his head against a tree.
He tried to turn over onto his stomach without groaning. His leg felt like it was on fire and he cursed himself for not watching was he was going.
Nice way to escape genius. Just run till you fall down an unfamiliar hill and kill yourself.
There's no need for sarcasm!
The light wasleaving the sky fast. He had to find some way out of the trees before it was dark. He couldn't take another night in the forest with rotting leaves and the sounds of water dripping on the leaves.
Remember the two pissed off agents looking for you?
Yeah, he could hear voices behind him and footsteps. He looked around and saw that he'd landed on a foot path that looked very familiar. He followed it, trusting in his instincts telling him that he'd been here before. The path curved around as he half limped and half ran-hopped down the dirt path.
The voices sounded like they were getting closer and this time it wasn't his imagination. He looked back over his shoulder, but the light was too dim to see anything. He should go slower, but if he didn't hurry he'd be back in that prison again.
The path curved again in front of him. There was an opening coming up and he thought he could hear more voices. He stopped and stared at the fading light and the trees. What if the agents had someone coming form the other direction to stop him?
Are you going to stay here all day and wonder who it is?
Anything was better then going back to Calloway and his team of crazies!
The path ended suddenly about five minutes later. When he skidded to a halt at the opening, the sign on the brick wall in front of him was all too familiar:
Hurt
Agony
Pain
Love it!
He was so stunned at seeing the outer wall to Quantico military base, he couldn't move. He didn't hear the footsteps behind him or feel the hand on his arms till someone hit him over the head and once more the world was black.
A/n I stole the sign Reid sees, from a movie that I'm sure you've all heard of. If anyone can guess, you'll get virtual chocolate from Adele!