Chapter 8

Desperation

The bullet tore through Aaron's hair, slicing into his scalp. It ripped the top of his head open, and embedded in the wall behind him. Almost at once, blood poured down his face into his eyes. He fell backwards and the back of his head cracked onto the floor. For just a moment, Aaron blacked out, but as he came round, and he felt the blood pooling around his head, he had to fight against the panic that was crouching, ready to spring and tear him to pieces.

For a moment he lay there on the floor.

He felt himself drifting into unconsciousness again, but he needed to stay awake for Spencer.

At that moment, he doubted that any of them were going to survive this.

He heard the voice of the terrorist from a long way off.

"I don't intend to kill you yet." he was saying, "You will be the last. But each time you refuse to cooperate, you will be shot." He swung the gun to cover the hostages. "If you survive the last hostage and don't bleed out, the last bullet will be to your forehead."

He began to pace up and down in front of the hostages, tormenting them with the shotgun.

Then he randomly shot one of the women in the second row. Her face disappeared and was replaced by smashed bone and gore. Brain tissue spattered on the women sitting around her and the screams of horror from the other hostages intensified. The woman's body slid off the seat she was on and gently landed on the floor between the seats, her dead arm still cuffed to the arm rest. The woman next to her was screaming hysterically.

The UnSub pointed the shotgun at her. "Shut up! Or you will join her!"

The screams degenerated into terrified whimpering as she stared into space with terrified eyes.

Oh god. Now he's started, he won't stop until they are all dead

Aaron pulled himself into a sitting position and wiped the blood from his eyes, but it continued to run down his face.

He could feel it on the back of his neck, and dripping onto the floor. He looked over at the weeping hostages.

He had never felt so useless. He was a leader of a team of some of the best people on the planet, and yet he felt helpless in the situation he was in.

He had put a plan into action, but there was so much depending on things he had no control over.

Beaten and bleeding, and grieving for Spencer, he was reaching the point where he didn't care anymore if he lived or died.

But looking at the hostages, all of whom desperately wanted to live, he knew he could not give up.

He thought of Spencer lying in a coma, vulnerable and unprotected.

He had to do something.

The terrorist turned and pulled Aaron up and made him stand. He stood swaying for a moment, unsure whether he was going to be able to remain upright. He wiped the blood away again and looked into the man's eyes, hoping to see some mercy buried deep within. The pale eyes were hard and cold. There was nothing there. Aaron thought, 'This man expects to die.'

He led Aaron over to the end of the second row where the dead woman was lying where she fell. He put the gun against the head of a young girl on the end of the row. He gave Aaron a key. Aaron looked at it in his open hand. Blood dripped from his face and painted scarlet drops on his open palm.

The bleeding from Aaron's head wound was showing no signs of slowing down, and tears of grief for this unknown woman were now wetting his face, cutting through the blood smears.

"Free the corpse from the cuff, and bring it out." He didn't need to tell Aaron what he would do if he disobeyed. He had just seen this man's form of justice.

He moved between the rows, and released her. He bent down and lifted the woman's body gently from the floor, and backed out of the row again.

He whispered, "Forgive me."

……………………………………………………………………………………………...

Outside the theatre lying on his side, Spence suddenly became aware.

The sensation that greeted him was pain. His eyes felt as if they had been burnt from his skull. The muscles in his neck were torn and movement was excruciating.

Spencer lay still as his body woke up. Every part registered pain as it emerged from the darkness where he had been nestling.

He didn't move. Slowly he became aware of where he was, memories of the last few hours coming back to him.

He could remember his eyes being hurt again, he could remember choking, losing his breath.

And now he was here.

Aaron? Did Aaron find me?

Softly he called his name, but there was no answer.

He tried moving his arms. That was when he found the gun beneath his fingers. He ran his hands along the barrel of the shotgun, up onto the buttstock. The M1014, one of the guns that the terrorists were carrying.

Aaron had left it for him.

He moved his hands to his eyes. The pain in his head throbbed in rhythm with his heart beat, his eyes in agony.

Very carefully he touched his eyes. He felt tears running from the corners of his eyes, and he thought he could feel blood.

He knew he wouldn't be able to open them and even if he could, he had doubts that he would be able to see.

This time, kid, you will hear your eyeballs pop when I push them into your skull

Had that happened?

He couldn't remember.

He turned from his side onto his hands and knees, clutching the M1014, and felt his way along to the end of the merchandise stand. He concentrated on remembering the layout of the foyer.

The theatre was to his left, the foyer to his right. The stand was in the wide corridor leading to the theatre. He knelt in a firing position, and wondered how he was going to use the gun properly when he couldn't even distinguish dark from light.

Aaron had left him the gun for a reason. He just had to figure it out.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

Aaron handed over the key back to the UnSub. Aaron was ordered to carry the body to the back of the theatre, and to open the door.

"You are going to take the corpse out into the foyer and leave it with the corpse of your partner."

Aaron pushed open the door and slowly walked down the ramp. The blood was drying in his eyes and sticking his eyelashes together. He forced them apart, wiping the blood from his face onto his shoulder.

"When is…."

"Shut up and walk!"

Spence heard them coming. He heard Aaron's sweet voice.

Whatever Aaron's plan was, he got himself ready.

Spencer got onto his feet, but remained crouched down behind the stand.

Spence! Now!"

As Aaron threw himself to the ground, the UnSub fired.

Aaron felt the bullet hit him in the back. He clutched at the hole above his heart where the bullet exited, and wondered if Spencer was even alive. His senses began to blur.

As his world darkened, he heard another gun fire.

Spence!

Bullets cut through the air above him, and he watched as the terrorist tried to steady his shotgun to fire back at Spencer. Aaron wanted to shout to Spence to get down.

The man let off several rounds before he crashed to the ground.

You did it Spence……you did it………………

DARKNESS