Thanks again for all your lovely reviews, they really make my day!
Here's the next chapter, a little earlier than intended, but I'm sure you don't mind ;-)
Chapter 6:
"Let's get back to where we found that last imprint of Steve's sneakers," Kono suggested, puffing out a frustrated sigh as she stared down at the chaos of footprints on a particularly muddy spot of the path.
Wiping the sweat from his face, Danny threw her a gloomy look before he turned around to look out for Chin. The older man had gone ahead a few minutes ago to check around the next corner and still hadn't come back.
By now Danny's mood had almost hit the rock bottom. He was sweating in the hot and humid morning sun, his shirt was clinging to his body and his initial confidence that they would be able to find Steve if they only followed his footprints had soon vanished into thin air. At the beginning of the trail it had been relatively easy to follow Steve's tracks but after about a mile the path got less and less muddy because it was covered by lush, almost impermeable trees that had successfully kept away the previous night's rain.
For the next one or two miles Chin, Kono or Danny found another faint imprint of a sneaker every now and then, relieved to find themselves still on the right track but then suddenly they seemed to have run out of luck when they weren't able to find another imprint during the last fifteen minutes.
Danny looked up when he heard Chin coming back to join him and Kono. "I checked the path in that direction," Chin said a little breathless, pointing over his left shoulder. "There are a lot of big muddy spots, but the strange thing is that there are no footprints at all, not from trekking boots and certainly not from sneakers."
"I'm pretty sure that here's also no imprint of a sneaker," Kono said, still staring at the mud beneath her feet. "There are a lot of footprints but as far as I can tell, they all belong to trekking boots of various sizes."
"Okay, so we know that Steve probably disappeared somewhere between here and that last imprint half a mile down the path, right?" Danny said hoarsely, gingerly tugging at his sweat-soaked shirt.
"That's the only hint we have," Kono confirmed with a sad little shrug of her shoulders.
"Then what are we waiting for?" Williams asked, firmly pushing his own needs for a cold shower and a break to the back of his mind. Taking a deep breath he readjusted the heavy backpack on his shoulders as he exchanged grim looks with his friends.
"Let's go," Chin said, motioning to the direction they originally had come from. "I suggest we check the sides of the path for anything unusual. Look out for broken branches or twigs and of course for more footprints."
"Okay," Kono replied, nodding in agreement. "You take the left side, Danny and I will check the right side."
Twenty minutes later they were almost back at the place where they had found the last visible footprint of a sneaker and so far nothing had raised their suspicion. The bushes on both sides of the trail were dense and the green leaves didn't give a single hint that maybe someone had stepped through them.
Getting more and more nervous with every passing moment, Danny had the strange feeling that they were slowly running out of time. He didn't know where that feeling came from but he suddenly knew for sure that they had to find McGarrett soon or otherwise it might be too late. Hesitantly slowing down his steps until he came to a halt, Danny furrowed his brow in concentration, trying to dismiss the sudden emotion as nothing more than another touch of nervousness. He closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths, hoping that the knot in his stomach would loosen a little bit, but if anything the weird feeling settled even deeper in his gut.
Williams felt the heavy backpack painfully press against his collarbones and he rolled his shoulders in a vain attempt to relax his muscles. With a last heavy sigh he opened his eyes and let his gaze travel over the lush vegetation. Deep down in his heart Danny was and always would be a city boy but if he was honest, he somehow understood why Steve preferred to spend a lot of his spare time out here in the woods, not that he would ever admit such crazy thoughts in front of his partner. But the rich vegetation, the trees that slightly swayed in the gentle breeze, the multitude of different colors, all imaginable shades of green, laced with a tiny bit of red or yellow here and there really helped to calm his frayed nerves and he finally felt the nervousness slowly retreating bit by bit.
But then the weird sensation was back with a vengeance and Danny had the feeling that someone had just punched him in the gut when his gaze fell upon a group of head-high bushes with fancy wine-red leaves a few steps away from the trail.
Without questioning the strange feeling any further Danny swiftly left the trail and squeezed through some plants at the right side of the path, heading directly toward the red-leaved bushes.
"Danny? Did you find something?" Kono asked curiously when she noticed that her teammate no longer followed the trail.
"I'm not sure," Williams replied vaguely as he pointed at the bushes that had caught his eye. "Just a feeling… let me quickly check something…" His voice trailed off as he cautiously stepped around the bushes and disappeared from Kono's view.
At first glance Danny didn't notice anything unusual, and he was just about to ultimately dismiss the strange feeling that had brought him here, when something grabbed his attention.
"Kono, Chin, over here!" he shouted loudly, rushing forward toward a small muddy path that lay hidden between some small trees. The beginning of the path looked like a whole company had repeatedly marched over it, covered with two different kinds of footprints, one of them definitely the imprint of a sneaker.
But the most worrisome discovery was a large spot of something dark that had soaked the light brown soil. Taking a deep breath, Danny crouched down to have a closer look at it, and he felt his heart constricting painfully in his chest when his worst fears were confirmed.
Only a heartbeat later, Chin and Kono broke through the bushes behind him, breathlessly coming to a halt by his side.
"Danny? What is it?" Kono asked as she knelt down next to him, gasping in surprise and horror when she realized what he was looking at. "Is that…"
"Blood," Danny nodded grimly, his lips pressed together in a thin line.
"You think it's Steve`s?" Kono wanted to know, her voice lacking most of its usual confidence.
"I have absolutely no idea," Williams answered quietly as he struggled back to his feet. "But knowing Steve's exceptional gift to attract trouble, I'm pretty sure that the answer is 'yes'."
"Look at all those footprints," Chin tossed in, pointing at the muddy spot that Danny had already noticed earlier. "Don't you think that looks a lot like some sort of fight took place right here?"
Nodding in agreement, Kono slowly circled the chaos of footprints, her gaze glued to the traces on the ground. Narrowing her eyes she pushed aside a few small branches to have a better view of the narrow path. "And that looks like something heavy has been dragged toward that clearing over there," the young woman exclaimed, already darting forward before the last of her words had trailed off.
"Something heavy…" Danny repeated pensively, exchanging a determined look with his teammate.
"… or someone," Chin finished the sentence, briefly locking eyes with the younger man before both of them hurried after Kono.
Not even a minute later all three of them stumbled onto the small clearing, breathing heavily from the short run along the slippery path. The abused ACL in Danny's right knee was screaming at him since he had slipped on a particularly muddy spot a few moments ago, but he pushed the pain to the back of his mind, solely concentrating on the task to find his partner.
"Over there!" he whispered hoarsely, pointing at a metal plate that was almost completely hidden in the ground.
Carelessly dropping their bags onto the floor, Chin, Kono and Danny knelt down around their finding, immediately starting to examine the plate.
"It's the lid of a box," Chin said harshly, his voice laced with surprise and anger, already digging his fingers into the moist soil around the metal plate to clear the edges.
"Steve? Hey, Steve?" Danny shouted, banging his fist against the metal plate. "Steve? You in there? Can you hear us? Steve?"
"Do you really think he's in there?" Kono asked when there was no answer, clearly taken aback by the idea that their boss might be buried in a narrow metal box in the middle of the forest.
"He'd better be," Williams answered through gritted teeth. "Because we've obviously run out of other options." Briefly raising his gaze to look at Kono, he noticed the same amount of fear and concern in her dark eyes that he was sure was showing in his own, blue ones. "I've packed a few things – have a look if there's something we can use to pry open that damn lid, okay?" He asked, nodding towards the two black backpacks they brought with them.
"I'm on it," Kono nodded back as she grabbed the nearest bag, emptying its contents on the floor next to her, immediately repeating the action with the second backpack.
"A few things?" she whistled through her teeth once she had taken a look at all the equipment that was lying in front of her. "You're better equipped than a Himalaya expedition. Where the hell did you get all that stuff, brah?" Kono asked while she handed Danny and Chin a small folding shovel each. Rummaging through the pile of tools, knives, flashlights, ropes and hooks, she also found some other items she was not really sure what they were actually good for.
"I raided McGarrett's locker," Danny answered, briefly looking up from his task, a bright smirk on his face. "You won't believe what else he's keeping there."
"You're unbelievable," Kono said with a small shake of her head before she quickly returned her attention to the metal lid. Narrowing her eyes, she moved her fingers over the edge of the box where Danny and Chin had already removed a bit of the soil around it. "The lid is sealed with some kind of silicone," she said, trying to dig her fingernails into the almost clear mass but it proved to be impossible.
"Take one of those knives and see if you can cut it away," Kelly instructed quietly, putting away his shovel. "We need to get access to those rivets to open the box." Without looking up, he also grabbed a knife and started to work on the silicone, his voice dark and grave when he added, "And hurry up… I think the only purpose of the silicone is to seal the box airtight."
"Airtight?" Kono repeated wide-eyed. "For all we know Steve's been in there for probably more than four hours. Is there even enough air…" her voice trailed off in mid-sentence, her unspoken question hovering gloomily over their heads.
"Don't even think about it," Danny angrily growled through gritted teeth, forcefully digging a knife into the rubbery mass of silicone. "We're not too late, okay? We're not too late!" Putting all of his power in the task at hand, he breathed heavily from the exertion, ignoring his aching fingers that cramped around the handle of the knife.
After about five or six minutes that seemed like an eternity to Danny, he finally managed to cut a small hole into the clear mass. Digging the blade as deep as possible into the small opening he twisted and turned the knife to extend the hole as far as possible.
"Danny, I think that's enough," Chin said after another minute, gently grabbing the younger man's forearm to stop any further movement. "Now let me check on the rivet."
Breathing out a shaky sigh, Williams hesitantly backed off to give Chin enough space to work on the now exposed rivet. Slowly uncurling his trembling fingers, Danny let the knife carelessly drop to the ground before he placed his right hand on the lid in front of him. Briefly closing his eyes, he licked his dry lips, then he clenched his fingers into a fist and banged once more against the metal plate.
"Steve? Hey, Steve, hang on, okay? We'll get you out of there. Hang on, man, do you hear me?" Danny shouted, desperately waiting for an answer that never came. "We'll get you out, just a few more moments."
"Danny, I managed to cut away another piece of silicone," Kono said excitedly, digging her slender fingers into the tiny hole she had created. "Help me peel off that stuff so we can open the lid."
Together they were able to remove a decent portion of the sealant when they were interrupted by Chin's dark voice. "The rivet is gone," he said, the words sending a tiny wave of relief and hope through everyone's mind. "Now give me something I can use as a lever," Chin ordered quietly without looking up.
"How about that, cuz?" Kono asked grinning as she handed him a small crowbar that she had found amongst the many items of Danny's life-saving equipment.
Raising his eyebrows, Chin threw a brief look at Danny as he took the offered tool from Kono's outstretched hands. "Kono is right, you're really unbelievable," he said, a small grin playing around his lips when he saw Danny nonchalantly shrugging his shoulders. "And I don't think I want to know what else McGarrett keeps in his locker and most of all how you know about all that stuff, brah."
Forcefully ramming the crowbar into the tiny space that had been formed after the small rivet had been removed Chin gathered all his strength and tried to break open the lid of the metal box. Two times the tool slipped off, causing Kelly to restore his grip around the handle, but then the third time he was finally lucky and the lid burst open with a sickening metallic screech, only to bounce back immediately and fall shut again, allowing the three people outside nothing more than a brief glimpse into the box.
"He's in there," Kono breathed out faintly at the same time as Williams darted forward.
"Steve!" he shouted, helping Chin, who had dropped the no longer needed crowbar, to open the metal lid of McGarrett's prison.
"Oh God," Kono whispered hoarsely at the sight of their boss, raising her left hand to cover her mouth in shock.
Steve's broken form, much too tall for the narrow dimensions of the box, was lying curled up on the metal floor plate, his legs and arms folded to his body, his head at an uncomfortable looking angle leaning against one of the walls. He was dressed in nothing but gray shorts and white sneakers, his clothes stained with dried mud and blood, a dark blue piece of fabric tightly wrapped around his right wrist.
Eyes closed, the blue-tinged lips slightly spread Steve lay perfectly still. Danny could see no movement of his chest, the deathly pale face slack with an almost calm expression. The ashen complexion and the dark smudges under his eyes formed a sharp contrast to the blood that had run from the nasty wound on Steve's temple, caking the whole left side of his face and neck.
Time seemed to stand still while Danny noticed every tiny detail of his partner's injuries with cruel clarity; the deep wounds on Steve's wrists and ankles, most probably caused by the pieces of thin red rope that lay in a corner of the box. The bloody scratches on his bare arms and legs, most of them covered with a thin layer of dried mud; the swollen right hand underneath the makeshift bandage around his wrist. The fingers of his left hand loosely curled around his broken watch.
The raw and bloody fingertips that looked too much like Steve had literally tried to scratch through the walls of his metal prison. Danny had to forcefully fight back the rising nausea when his gaze fell on the lid of the box and he briefly closed his eyes in disgust when the smudges of blood confirmed that sickening and horrible thought.
A sharp intake of air somewhere behind him jolted him out of his trance and in the blink of an eye Danny leaped into action.
"Help me get him out of there," Danny addressed Chin in a low growl, climbing half into the box to grab his partner's legs while Chin put his hands beneath McGarrett's shoulders. Together, with Kono's help as she gently laid her hands left and right of Steve's head to prevent any unwanted movement, they managed to heave their leader out of his temporary grave.
The term rushed unbidden through Danny's mind when they gently placed Steve's lifeless body onto the soft soil, causing him to grimly shake his head in denial. No, no, no, not grave, he thought desperately, looking up at Chin who just pressed his fingers against Steve's carotid in search of a pulse.
"Is he alive?" Williams asked hoarsely, his brow furrowed in pure fear and worry, not caring at all that his voice was audibly shaking.
Chin's lips were pressed together in a thin line, but after a moment he nodded grimly. "I have a weak pulse, very fast, but I think he's not breathing," he said through gritted teeth. Briefly holding his hand in front of Steve's mouth and nose he slightly shook his head before he bent down, bringing his ear closely to Steve's face.
"No, he's definitely not breathing," Kelly confirmed a moment later, his dark eyes black with worry when he threw Danny a brief glance. "Do you have some sort of respirator or oxygen in your bag? Otherwise I'm starting rescue breathing right now."
"In fact I have," Danny answered with a mirthless smile, already busy rummaging through the huge first-aid bag and only a heartbeat later he handed Chin a small blue Ambu bag.
Placing the mask over Steve's mouth and nose Chin immediately started to pump air into Steve's lungs, noticing with a tiny hint of relief that McGarrett's chest rose and fell each time he squeezed the bag.
"It's working," Chin said quietly, turning his head to face his teammates just in time to see Danny tossing Kono a bulky black device.
"Call a medevac team," Danny said, grabbing the first-aid bag as he moved closer to his unconscious partner.
Easily catching the device with her right hand, Kono immediately folded out the antenna of the satellite phone, waiting for a signal before she hit a few buttons.
"Rescue's on the way, they're sending an Army Evac chopper," she said only half a minute later, nervously fidgeting with the phone in her hands. Staring down at Steve's prone form for a long moment, Kono finally heaved a deep sigh, hesitantly kneeling down next to Danny.
Biting back the rage and sorrow that rushed over her at the sight of Steve's injuries, she put the satellite phone on the ground, her gaze darting between Danny and her cousin. "Will he be alright?" she asked tentatively, her voice trembling ever so slightly.
"Yes, he will be alright," Danny replied fiercely through gritted teeth without looking up, not ready to accept any other outcome. He was tending to the nasty wound on Steve's left temple, awkwardly working around the mask that Chin still pressed tightly against Steve's face, stoically squeezing the Ambu bag in a constant rhythm.
"You hear me, Steve?" Danny asked hoarsely, addressing his injured partner in a desperate attempt to provoke any kind of reaction. "You'd better be alright or I swear to God, I'll kill you myself for all the trouble you're causing us. I had to go for a hike in order to rescue your lazy ass and you know exactly how much I detest hiking, especially in the middle of a godforsaken jungle on probably the hottest day of the century. I'm telling you once and for all, Steven, if that trouble was all for nothing, you'd better be prepared for my revenge."
Raising his left arm to wipe the sweat from his forehead, Danny's blue eyes were clouded with worry when he looked up to meet Chin's gaze. "Is he breathing on his own now?" he asked softly, biting on his lower lip when he noticed the defeated expression on Kelly's face, telling him everything he needed to know.
"No," Chin answered with a sad shake of his head, trying to hide the fear that colored his features when he once more pressed his fingers against Steve's neck. "Pulse is getting weaker," he said, not able to choke back his next words. "Prepare to do chest compressions in case…"
"No!" Danny exclaimed angrily, clenching his fist around the gauze pads he had used to clean the wound on Steve's temple. "We're not losing him! His heart won't stop beating! We are NOT losing him, okay?" Taking a deep shuddering breath, wrapping his fingers around Steve's left hand as he begged desperately, "Fight, Steve, I know you can do it. You were hanging on for so long; now keep fighting just a little bit longer. Do you hear me, buddy? We found you, but now you have to hang on, okay? Hang on…" His voice trailed off and his head jerked up when a familiar sound reached their ears, huge rotor blades that noisily cut through the air.
"Army Evac's here," Kono commented unnecessarily as she jumped to her feet and rushed to the middle of the small clearing to indicate their position.
"Thank God," Danny whispered, immediately returning his attention to his partner. Noticing that his right hand was still clenched into a fist, Danny willed himself to relax his tense muscles a little bit. Uncurling his fingers, he carelessly dropped the crumpled gauze pads to the floor before he took McGarrett's limp hand in both of his own, hoping that the physical contact was enough to bring Steve back from the dangerous abyss he was heading to.
(tbc)
Next chapter in a few days, thanks a lot for reading :-) I'd love to hear what you think...
