Reid was actually having a pleasant dream for a change. It wasn't a very complex dream, just him floating along through space with the whole universe out before him. He could faintly hear his mother reading one of her favorite's in the background.
It was simply peace, and Reid hadn't felt peace in a much too long time.
But he should know that all things must come to an end for he woke with a loud scream of his name. Somewhere in his subconscious, Reid recognized the name of the voice, but it didn't seem important as he awoke to a knife in his face.
The man wielding the knife must be their Unsub for Reid found it highly improbable that there were two serial killers running wild through the wilderness of Alaska.
The Unsub was unkempt for a general description. His face was cut in a variety of places, some of them still bleeding. His hair was almost to his elbows and had sticks and leaves stuck in its tangles. Not an inch of the Unsub's skin was clean and Reid found himself scrambling away from the dirt alone.
With the scream of Reid's name, the Unsub directed his attention to the trees where the voice had come from. The young genius saw his one and only opportunity, and he took it.
Ignoring his injuries, Reid kicked out at the Unsub and managed to hit the man in his stomach. The killer doubled over and clutched his stomach, but never once losing grip of his impressively sized knife.
The solid weight of his gun in his hands reminded Reid to use it this time and not like himself get attacked again like with the bear. He raised the gun and took aim at the currently preoccupied Unsub. The words of Hotch rang through his mind after all their hours training together, but Reid ignored them.
He knew how to shoot a gun much better now than he did two years ago.
Just as Reid was about to fire, someone else ran from the forest and tackled the Unsub to the ground. Recognizing the man immediately, Reid couldn't help but call out:
"Morgan!"
But his friend and colleague didn't respond for he was currently in the midst of a struggle with the Unsub. Morgan had straddled the killer and was attempting to pin down the hand that held the knife.
"You'll never stop me," the Unsub hissed, revealing sickening yellow teeth as his lips curled up in a smile.
"Watch me," Morgan only growled in response.
The Unsub's other hand raised up and he got a punch in directly at Morgan's face. Reid was sure he heard a sickening crack and there was blood now splattered on Morgan's face and on the Unsub's tattered shirt.
Morgan's steel tight grip released and the Unsub got the upper hand. He flipped the FBI agent off him and stood to his full height. Morgan had stopped clutching his nose by now and was trying to stand as well, but was stopped when the Unsub landed two solid kicks to Morgan's ribcage.
Reid decided he had had enough of simply sitting and watching his friends get hurt. He ignored his pulsating injuries and raised his gun. He now had a solid aim as the killer stood above his friend, and what limited light that remained gave him a clear look.
Reid released the safety and shot once. The bang of the shot rang out through the forest, echoing throughout the trees and a few birds took off from their safety in the branches.
The Unsub had moved at the last second, but the bullet still managed to lodge itself in his upper left shoulder. He let out a cry of anguish and grasped his steadily bleeding shoulder.
"Mother will make you pay!" he shouted at both FBI agents and took off into the forest, disappearing only seconds later into the shadows of the night.
Morgan stood quickly to his feet and looked as though he wanted to chase after the Unsub, but then turned back to his friend. There was blood still trickling down from Morgan's nose and Reid knew that his friend's ribs had to be at least bruised, but that didn't seem to matter to Morgan.
His only concern was Reid.
"You alright?" he asked, carefully examining Reid's two injuries. They had finally clotted, but the remains of the parka bandaging the wounds weren't doing much good for they were soaked in blood.
"I'll live."
"You know you're supposed to use this as a jacket," Morgan said with a grin, gesturing to the remains of the parka.
"It was all I had," Reid said as his friend poked and prodded. "How did you find me?"
"You could hear that bear roaring for miles in the forest. I was walking around trying to find you when I heard it and ran off towards the noise. Figured if anyone could make a bear that made it would be you. Guess the 'Reid Effect' also applies to killer bears."
"It was huge!"
"And you have gun which can kill bears," Morgan replied, taking a seat against the trunk.
"I forgot about it…" Reid said, feeling a flush of embarrassment coming over him.
"You mean the kid who never forgets anything, forgot he had a gun? Oh this is just fantastic." Morgan's laugh rang out in the silence of the trees and Reid couldn't help but smile.
He would rather have a Morgan who teased him than be by himself again.
"What happened back at the grave site…after you told me to run off?" Reid asked after he had sat for several seconds with his friend.
Morgan sighed, "Well, the Unsub was pretty smart. He didn't come out from the shadows and kept firing his gun at me. I got in a few shots as well, but neither of us hit each other. Then he ran off into the forest and I ran after you."
"What about Ranger Marks? What did you do with him?"
"Left him there. I'm not going to drag a dead body around with me when it's hard enough to get through in this forest already."
Reid felt a slight chill go through him that had nothing to do with the dropping temperature. Even after several years of being in the FBI, he still didn't feel comfortable talking about deceased human beings like they were just inanimate objects.
"So, he is dead…correct?" Reid asked, just wanting someone to confirm it before he officially gave up on the Ranger who had been so kind to show them around in the forest and now was dead for his kindness.
"Reid, he got shot in the head. You can't survive that."
"I know."
Morgan had always seemed to have a sixth sense when it came to Reid's pain, whether physical or emotional. His colleague didn't ask any more questions and Reid couldn't decide how he felt about that.
"You got any statistics on bear attacks?" Morgan asked and in the dying light Reid couldn't see his friend's smile, but he could hear it in Morgan's voice.
"Well, they are very unlikely. You're actually more likely to be killed by a bee sting than an actual bear attack and ten times more likely to be killed by a dog than a bear. And 1 out of 16,000 people will commit a murder, but only 1 bear out of 50,000 has killed someone, so in truth, we're more frightening than bears," Reid explained, gesturing with his good arm. Using knowledge and numbers helped him to escape from the throbbing pain or the bitter cold.
"So why did you get attacked?"
"It was a mother bear and they're much more aggressive than any other bear. Her cub was pretty close by so she was even more aggressive than usual. If it was any other bear, I would have gotten off without any scratches."
"What about people getting lost, got any statistics about that?"
"Not really, I mean people get lost all the time…in malls, theme parks, museums and forests like we are, but there aren't exactly statistics for there are too many variables I suppose. I guess if you have a bad sense of direction and get distracted easily it is very likely you will get lost," Reid said, his voice growing softer.
"You alright there kid? Not going to pass out on me are you?"
"No…but we're really lost aren't we."
Morgan sighed, "Kid let's not talk about this right now."
"Morgan seriously, we're completely and totally lost right now. And are we even sure that Hotch or anyone is looking for us? How are they going to find us even if they do? There are seventeen million acres in this forest and we're just two people," Reid couldn't keep the panic from rising up in his voice now that he finally had someone to voice his fears to.
"Hey, we lost you once and had the entire state of Georgia and beyond to look for you. But we did look for you and we did find you," Morgan said and placed a comforting hand on Reid's forearm.
"And that didn't turn out to be one of my best adventures now did it?" Reid's voice grew softer, "I don't want that again."
"Reid, has Hotch ever let us down before?"
"No…"
"And he won't let us down now. Because let's face it, you and me…we're practically the entire team. You're all the brains, I'm all the handsomeness and everyone else is there because we need normal people to balance out our awesomeness," Morgan said.
The sun had completely set by now, enveloping the two FBI agents in complete darkness. Morgan's hand never left Reid's forearm which the younger agent was extremely grateful for. He was worried that if Morgan let go, he might not be able to find his friend again in the darkness.
It was a childish fear, but then again most of Reid's fears were quite childish. All fears were.
"I guess you're right," Reid mumbled, trying to ignore how his heartbeat sped up with the darkness descending. He had never gotten over his fear of the dark and now here he sat with a forest full of dangerous animals and no light to give him hope or protection.
"Reid, you're not still scared of the dark, are you?" Morgan asked as he sensed how tense his friend had gotten.
"So what if I am?" Reid asked, not wanting to hear his friend's teasing over being afraid of something that couldn't even harm you.
"It's alright if you are. You know, I used to be scared of snakes."
"Really," Reid said, though his voice was shaky with fear.
"Yeah, when I was little I was terrified to go near one. I saw this movie where this guy got swallowed whole by a snake and ever since they have freaked the crap out of me. A kid in my class brought one for Show N' Tell and I nearly fainted," Morgan said and laughed softly at the memory.
"How'd you get over it?"
"Faced my fear. I went to the zoo once with my sisters and they had this guy showing all the snakes. He had them out of their cages and everything. I was petrified, but I didn't want to seem like a wimp in front of my sisters. So I went up there and held one of them and I've been fine ever since."
"I've faced my fear plenty of times…doing it right now…but nothing ever seems to work," Reid said, trying to keep his voice stable.
Morgan gave his friend a soft squeeze. "Well you're doing just great so far."
"You know the number one fear is fear of public speaking."
"No I did not."
"Kind of silly actually…but then again most fears are."
Morgan didn't respond, he only tightened his grip on Reid's forearm to anchor his friend to reality and not let him loose in the imagination and fears of his mind.
A few minutes later, Reid drifted off to sleep.
Morgan followed soon after.