Avenger of Blood
Chapter 3
Search and Rescue

First there is the search and rescue phase that is now ending. It is a cruel reality." – Jan Egeland

JJ tried to turn her head but there was something holding her. Her mouth was full of dust and she spat it out and tried to moisten her mouth so that she could cry out for help.

'Can anyone hear me?' She tried to shout, but it came out as a hoarse whisper.

Her arms were free and she began to pull the weight off her head and back, to dig herself free, all the time calling out to anyone who might be able to hear her.

Had it been an earthquake? A bomb? She had been unconscious for a while, and she couldn't remember what had happened. One second she was on the phone organising a press conference, next she woke up here.

She tried to remember where the others were. Reid, Emily and Morgan were leaving the building to canvass the courts with a photo. Hotch and Rossi were still in the basement.

Oh god. Hotch and Rossi........ were they alive?

She felt an increased impetus to escape from the tomb she was in and reach her friends.

'Help me!' she shouted as she fought to move the weight that was holding her down.

-0-0-0-

Suddenly a shaft of dusty light shone into Reid's blackness. He heaved a sigh of relief as he heard Morgan calling to him.

'I'm here, Morgan!' he yelled. A hand reached through the gap in the concrete.

'Reid, take my hand if you can.' he said. Reid reached up and clasped Morgan's hand.

'I can't get out.' he said. I'm trapped by my foot.

'I won't leave you, Kiddo. Search and Rescue are on their way. We'll have you out of there in no time.'

Reid clung onto Morgan's hand.

'Thank you.' he whispered. 'Thank you.'

-0-0-0-

Dave was unconscious. He was still losing a lot of blood despite Aaron's efforts to slow it down. Aaron grasped the wound in his thigh, fighting to stay awake.

'Why did...... you do that?' he stammered. 'You could have left me under the beam.'

'I needed you free, but I need to be able to turn my back on you.' he said.

'I think you have killed Dave.' Aaron said. 'Please, help him.'

'Too late if he's dead. I only need one of you anyway. He's expendable.'

Aaron groaned as a wave of pain engulfed him. The man turned his back and began a search of their prison.

'We will have to wait fro rescue to dig us out.' Aaron said softly.

'And then what? I go to prison? It won't happen I can assure you. I was prepared to die, and I still am. But if there's a chance I can use you to get me out, I will do it.'

Aaron removed his belt and tightened it around his thigh. He had to slow down the bleeding otherwise he'd bleed out long before the Rescue people got to them. There were many others he thought trapped above them.

He pulled the end of the belt tight, and turned to Dave. He felt for a pulse and was relieved when he found one.

'Dave, wake up for me.' he said, gently touching his friend's face. Dave's eyes flickered open.

'Now I want you to stay awake for me.' Aaron said to him. Dave managed a half smile.

'I'll ..... do my best.' he said.

Aaron loosened the tourniquet slightly and tightened it again. He pulled himself up onto his feet.

'There's little point in trying to find a way out of here.' he said. 'There are tons of rubble on top of us. How do you expect to get out?'

The man ignored him, and picked up the evidence board that was on the floor. There was a picture of UnSub One on it. H snatched the photo off the board.

'This is my son that you murdered.' he said to Aaron.

'Like I said, you got the wrong man. I wasn't.....'

He didn't get any further. The man pushed him down onto his back and stood on his wounded thigh. Aaron screamed despite himself, and tried to turn away from him. He pressed down harder.

'If I say that you are responsible, then you are. As the man in charge of the investigation, you hold responsibility.'

'I wasn't here.' Aaron gasped. 'My team only just arrived.'

My team...... had they made it out of the building? JJ was going upstairs. Was she safe? Did I even have a team?

The man released the pressure on Aaron's leg, and he clutched at it, willing the agony to stop.

'What do you propose to do?' Aaron asked. The man kicked at his leg again. Aaron pulled away, groaning with the new pain.

'I don't know! Now shut up or I'll shoot your friend dead.' and he sat on the block again with his head in his hands.

Aaron manoeuvred himself between the guns and Dave. If he was going to kill Dave he had to get past him first. Not that it would be difficult, He just wanted to slow him down.

'Let me help you?' Aaron said, hoping that the man wouldn't go for him.

'Why should I listen to you?'

'I'm trapped down here too. I want to get out alive.' Aaron replied.

The man went up close to Aaron, and grabbed his hair, pulling him up with it. Aaron grabbed at his wrists trying to lessen the pain. He hit Aaron's head onto the wall of the tomb and dropped him back down. Aaron fell semi conscious onto the floor, blood seeping from a wound in the back of his head.

-0-0-0-

'Kid, we've almost reached you.' Morgan said, feeling the grip on his hand tighten.

Spencer didn't say anything. He felt movement of the crushing on his foot, and he wondered if he would lose it to get out of there.

Suddenly the concrete above his head moved out of the way, and hands reached in for him.

'My foot is stuck.' he said between gritted teeth. But he could see sky now. And the sun was shining, and Morgan was there. He smiled.

'Hey kid. We've got you.'

-0-0-0-

JJ called out again to anyone who was listening. She could hear something and it was a moment before she realised it was a dog. They had found her and she would soon be out.

'Hang on in there, Miss. We know you are there, and we are trying to reach you.' called a voice back to her. Are you hurt?'

'Not hurt.' she called back. 'Just stuck.'

She sensed movement above her and turned her face away from falling dust and grit. She wondered where the others were. Hotch and Rossi........

'We're almost there. Just hold on........'

-0-0-0-

'You have a cracked pelvis and broken ribs. To say nothing of the cuts and bruises. You can not go back to the blast site. You won't even be walking for a while.'

'But I have to.' Emily protested. 'My friends are trapped.'

'That's why we have Search and Rescue.' the doctor said, beginning to get cross.

'Please can you find out if any others have been brought in?' she insisted.

The doctor pursed his lips. 'Very well. I'll check.'

He left Emily fretting in the cubicle

She felt completely useless lying there, but the doc was right. She couldn't even stand up, let alone help the S & R dig in the rubble. She laid back and tried to relax. The doctor returned.

'They are pulling people alive out of the rubble. But no one from the list you gave me has been admitted. If anyone does, I'll let you know.'

Emily closed her eyes and tried not to sleep.

-0-0-0-

Dave opened his eyes again and he turned sideways to Aaron. Aaron wasn't moving. He reached out a shaking hand and touched his friend.

'Aaron, are you awake?'

Aaron groaned and turned to his friend.

'You ok?'

'I'm fine.' Dave said. 'What about you.'

'Ok I think.' Aaron said. He needed to engage the man, but if he tried to move he felt sick. He thought he had concussion from the blow on the head. He ignored it, and turned into a sitting position. The man turned to him.

'Where do you think you are going?'

'I want to talk to you. I'm in pain and.....'

Aaron clutched at his stomach and vomited onto the ground in front of him.

'I don't want to know about your pain. I have my own pain.' He thrust the photograph of his son at Aaron.

'I am sorry for your loss, but your son was shot in a self defence move when.......'

The man swung at Aaron and hit him in the mid section. He doubled forwards and vomited again. This time blood was left on his lips.

'....when he pulled a ....' The man kicked Aaron in the face as he struggled to stand.

'I told you to SHUT UP!' He punched Aaron in the side of his face and he fell to the ground. Aaron didn't move. Dave reached forwards to him.

'Aaron.' he said. He turned to the man who was standing over Aaron. 'What are you doing? Trying to kill him?'

'If he dies, it's nothing to me.' he said, taking another kick.

'Leave him alone.' Dave shouted. 'He is not responsible for your son's death.'

'Yes he is!' yelled the man. 'He said he was in charge of the investigation. As such he is responsible.

Dave attempted to stand to face off the man who was beating his friend. He pulled himself onto his feet and leaned back against the wall.

'If you are referring to collective blood guilt, then we are both as guilty.'

'Get back down, or you will get the same.'

'Just leave him alone.' Dave sank down onto his haunches, unable to stay upright any longer. Aaron still didn't move. 'Aaron, wake up.'

He reached to check on Hotch. He wasn't responding, and Dave was afraid for him

-0-0-0-

Reid felt the weight loosen from his foot, and he was pulled out and strapped to a spinal board.

'I don't want to be on this thing.' he shouted, squirming under the straps.

'You need to be checked first.'

'Morgan! Tell them!'

'You're going to be checked, Reid. You're no good with a broken foot.'

Still protesting, Reid was loaded into an ambulance. Morgan watched the ambulance drive off, and turned back to the pile of rubble that had once been the police station.

'There's a survivor here!' a rescuer shouted from his place near the top of the pile of rubble. Morgan quickly climbed to him.

'Let me help you.'

'Sure. It's a woman. She's trapped, but you can hold her hand.'

Morgan reached in through a gap in the rubble and took a hand.

'What's your name, Miss?'

'Jennifer.'

-0-0-0-

Dave couldn't wake Aaron up. He looked at the man who was holding them.

'I can't wake him. I will not co operate with you if you don't help him.'

'I don't need him if I have you. I only need one hostage.'

'But two is better. Help him. You have the guns.'

The man knelt next to Aaron and pulled him onto his back. Aaron's eyes were closed, his forehead beaded with sweat. His skin was pale and clammy.

'He doesn't look too well.' the man said. 'I'll put him out of his misery and kill him now.'

'NO!' Dave shouted, trying to put himself in between them, much as Aaron had done earlier

The man picked up Aaron's head by his fringe, and dropped his head back down. His head cracked onto the concrete and the blood flowed more strongly. Aaron made a gagging choking sound. Dave tried to turn his friend over, and Aaron vomited again.

'You can get back from him now.' and he swung the gun, catching Dave under the chin with the butt of the shotgun. Dave fell back with a cry; he touched his face where he had begun to bleed.

Aaron was on his hands and knees vomiting blood onto the floor. His arms were shaking as he held himself up. He coughed and choked and his stomach twisted and gripped at him. His eyes were watering as he tried to stop.

At last the spasm subsided, and he collapsed onto his side, carefully shielding Dave with his body.

'We are going to be down here for sometime.' he said between coughs.

'I don't want to hear your voice.' the man said, and pressed his foot onto Aaron's wound. Aaron fainted.