Chapter 03

Station 7
Manzanita County Sheriff's Department
Manzanita County, OR

Morgan

Six weeks.

Six weeks and not a single call. Not a message. Not a dime spent from any of his accounts. Six weeks with no sign that Reid was anywhere on this planet. Six weeks was a long time, anything could have happened.

For example, the forest fires in the area could start, and get a whole lot worse in six weeks.

The SAR station was also a great place for fire teams to stage, which meant that the offices were a whole lot busier than they had been when Morgan first landed there. All he could do was stay out of the way. He was grateful to the locals who kept anyone from Mariposa County well away from his corner; they didn't want the Mariposa County Sheriff to know that the FBI was still in town.

But all thoughts of staying under the radar went right out of his head when his phone rang. "Morgan."

"You have a collect call." The impersonal voice of the recorded operator said sweetly in his ear. "This is a call from..." There was a horrible , raking coughing sound. "If you accept press one."

Morgan was curious enough to press one. A rattling, hacking cough rang over the line. It was so bad he had to briefly pull his ear away. "Who is this?"

The coughing continued, the kind that made it nearly impossible to catch your breath, the kind that bruised your ribs and tore at your throat and left a pounding headache and bloodshot eyes. The kind that made rational people look at you and offer to take you to the hospital because a doctor ought to do something about that. The person on the other end coughed and coughed until he finally, finally managed to catch his breath. "Morgan." He managed to gasp out before the coughing started again. "Help."

"Reid?" Hells yes! Finally! "Where are you?"

Spencer was gasping out words between bouts of coughing. "Don't...call Sheriff...He's...the Unsub."

"I won't. I'm coming for you myself. Where are you? Reid!" Morgan flinched. His little brother was coughing so hard.

Morgan heard a mumbled "Here" and then the tenor of the coughing changed to something more feminine. She wasn't coughing quite as hard, but pretty damned close. "Please help us!" She said.

"I'm going to help you. Help is on the way. Where are you?"

"At the jetboat dock on the river." She coughed again. "Don't call 911! The Sheriff will kill us if he finds us!"

"I'm not calling the Sheriff. I'm on my way there now. You two stay out of sight, I will find you."

"Please hurry!" She gasped out between bouts of coughing. "Spencer's really bad!"

"I am on my way!" Morgan got off the phone and went to find the Captain.

Five minutes later he was on the road, lights and sirens going, heading north on the highway as fast as they could. Deputy Wilmer was driving, he knew the way to the jetboat dock and even where the pay phone was located near it. And looking in the rearview mirror Morgan could see two ambulances in the distance, following them up there. But right now he was more interested in his phone. "Baby girl." He said. "I found Reid."

"Oh my god!" Garcia replied. "Is he okay?"

"I don't think so. I'm on my way to him now. I need you to get Doctor Kimura on the phone and get Hotch in the loop for me."

It was thirty minutes from Station 7 in Manzanita County to the off ramp for the biggest town in Mariposa County. They made it in fifteen. The highway was the jurisdiction of the State Police and Sheriff Johnson had given them a heads up as to what was going down. The state parks were State Police territory as well, and there was one just on the outskirts of town. Morgan left the ambulances there, as close to town as he could get without alerting the local Sheriff, and headed in to enemy territory after his partner.

They cruised into town quietly, just another anonymous SUV, nothing to look at here. Not that anyone was looking, the town looked dead, shrouded under a pall of thick grey smoke from the forest fires raging not nearly far enough away. It looked like some post-apocalyptic movie, Morgan thought, like there ought to be monsters roaming the town. But the worst monsters were the human ones, he knew that perhaps better than nearly everyone out there.

They drove through the quiet town to the river. The jetboat tours were popular with visitors, who brought in a major chunk of the local economy. The dock reflected that, clean and well put together, with a vibe reminiscent of an amusement park, theme restaurant, big gift shop, landscaped area leading to the river dock. Right now all of it was closed; the fires were too close to the river down at the far end of the tour. So there was no one around. No one at all.

They had to wear respirators, masks that covered their mouths and noses, just to get out of the car. "Pay phone's over there." Deputy Wilmer said.

Morgan walked across the parking lot. Sure enough, this was the phone used to call him. Reid had stood right here, but where was he...

Someone was coughing over in the bushes on the river bank.

That was where Morgan found them. Spencer was sprawled out on the ground, half leaning against a small tree. He was barefoot, in too-loose sweat pants and a too-small t-shirt, hard to tell what color since he was covered in a layer of fine grey ash. He had clearly been trying not to cough and was losing the battle; he half rolled and let the spasms come deep from his lungs, his whole body contracting from the effort to try to breathe.

"Easy." Murmured the woman with him. She was strong, Morgan could see that, but with fine bones and a delicate face nearly obscured with ash. She gently held Spencer as he coughed and coughed, rubbing his back in soothing circles, even as she coughed herself.

"Let's get them up." Morgan said. He climbed the short distance down the bank and helped Spencer to his feet while Deputy Wilmer helped the woman. They started half-carrying, half-dragging them back to the car.

Spencer felt too light, too insubstantial. It was hard to tell his skin color under all that ash but he was working so hard to catch his breath. But he still managed a small smile. "Knew...you would...stay." He said between coughs.

"Yeah, you knew I wouldn't leave you behind. Come on. Here" Morgan stuck his own mask over Spencer's face, if only to stave off any more damage. The air felt thick and hot, and it burned and scratched the throat with every breath. "We're going to get you to the hospital. Come on."

"Unsub team." The mask didn't stop Spencer from coughing. "Sheriff is...leader. Ten...victims...dead..."

"We only found seven bodies. Wait..." They found the last one after Spencer went missing. "Don't worry about that now." He opened the back of the SUV and lowered Spencer to lie on the blanket he'd put there. "Up you get." He said to the woman as he got her in next to Spencer. When he looked he saw that she was crying.

Morgan couldn't think about that, or about how Spencer took her hand. Right now he had an ambulance to catch. He had to get his little brother safe before he could get him home.

.

Casting note: Jaimie Alexander, currently on Blindspot, as the mystery woman.