Thanks for all the kind comments folks. It's always nice to get some inspirational feedback! Upward and onward...
::Matty and Riley::
"Angus, listen to me! You can't help Jack this way! DISENGAGE! ANGUS, PLEASE DO NOT DO THIS! MACGYVER THAT'S AN….."
Suddenly there was only silence as Mac went over the edge without a sound.
Riley couldn't breathe.
It was just so quiet.
After what felt like an eternity, Riley could hear the Director of Operations try to pull in a steadying breath, which ended up sounding more like an abbreviated sob.
That scared the young hacker more than anything. She looked over at her boss in shock.
Matty was as still as a statue and had her head bowed. Riley couldn't see her face.
"Matty?" whispered Riley.
The small statured women didn't respond.
"Matty? What do we do?"
Riley's voice was cracking as tears ran down her face. She could feel herself start to fall apart. There was no way Jack survived his encounter with Temar and Mac had little to no chance of surviving his attempt at a rescue.
She had just lost her father and brother in the span of less than a minute.
Her mind was suddenly a blank. She couldn't even remember the last thing she had said to Jack. Had she ever told Mac how much she idolized him? How safe the two guys made her feel? Why couldn't she focus? It felt like all the regrets, both realized and unrealized, were bearing down on her all at once. She was starting to become crushed under the weight of the sudden loss.
She had nothing left.
She was going to fall apart.
"Riley."
Startled, the young agent turned back to her boss.
Matty sighed fully this time and turned around.
Riley could see that the Director had recovered from whatever emotional slip-up she had made moments earlier. Her face was now all hard edged determination.
"Everything we do from her on out is to help Jack and Mac. Do you understand?"
Riley wiped her tears away in confusion. "What?"
"Riley, I know this is hard, but there is a mission in progress and we have two priorities. Apprehend the remaining targets and find Mac and Jack."
"But…"
"Riley, look at me. We need to understand what happened here. We have a two pronged priority now. Get me eyes on the location of the fence, I need to make sure the second suspect is, or has been apprehended. Once that task is complete, you immediately connect to every satellite, camera, video feed, dashcam, and snapchat along a 3 mile stretch of that river. Mac is the most logical and resourceful person that I know. He would not throw his life away if he didn't think there was a chance. Do you understand?"
Riley stared up at the War Room's main screen still in shock.
"Riley! Do you understand?"
Something snapped back into place in Riley's mind as she fully focused on what Matty was saying.
It suddenly occurred to the young agent that this force of nature before her could move mountains with her will alone.
Riley couldn't help but feel that Matilda Webber was going walk through Hell and back to protect this team- to make sure it made it to the end complete and whole.
"I need you right now Riley. So do Jack and Mac. If they don't give up, we don't give up. Do you understand?"
The older women was radiating determination and purpose.
Riley surprised herself with a steady "Yes Ma'am."
The hacker turned back to her computer and began to type like a concert pianist, reaching out into the world with her fingertips.
They were going to get these sons of bitches and bring their boys home.
Riley could hear Matty barking orders through com sets, making calls on secure private lines, and a myriad of other things that began to fade into the background.
The hacker gritted her teeth and whispered more to herself than anyone else in the room, "I understand completely."
::Mac and Jack::
Air.
He needed air.
Mac spun around in his murky surroundings completely disoriented. Involuntarily, he let out a painful, choked cough that immediately caused him to inhale water back into his burning lungs. Panic almost overwhelmed him at the first sensations of drowning, but then his mind latched onto the thin trail of bubbles that lead up and away from his current position.
'Up', he thought, 'You need to go up now!'
He swam with everything he had in the direction he knew would lead to the surface.
When he broke through, he expelled what felt like a gallon of water as he sputtered and gasped for oxygen. Something warm began to run into his eyes and he was vaguely aware that his left arm wasn't paddling properly.
What had happened? Where was he?
In his confusion, he looked towards shore, his eye landing on a beautiful cottonwood stretching high into the sky. It must have been over 60 feet tall. It was magnificient.
The cottonwood.
Something about it caused a scratching sensation in the back of his memory.
What was important about the cottonwood?
In the blink of an eye, everything came flooding back to him like a tidal wave.
"J-::cough:: Jack!?"
He looked around him frantically. He couldn't see Dalton, or Temar.
'Think Angus...' his mind screamed, '...what did you work out before you hit the water? Jack landed about 6 seconds before you….trajectory was sixty feet down stream….been traveling at least 50 feet….meaning the current should put Jack…THERE!'
Mac launched himself towards where he glimpsed a flash of black jacket bobbing just above the surface of the frigid water.
"Jack! I'm coming!"
After what felt like a lifetime of clawing his way through the water, Mac's fingers finally brushed against his partner's arm.
There was no response at all from the limp figure.
Mac knew he had to get to shore before he could do anything for his friend, so he locked his injured arm across the Texan's chest and neck and began to kick as hard as he could toward a sandy beach that had built up along a bend in the river.
As his legs finally hit land, his body almost gave out on him. It took all the mental discipline he could muster to fight back the darkness that had started to cloud the periphery of his vision and there was blood everywhere now... on his sleeves... his shirt... Where was it all coming from?
He drug Jack about 10 feet up from the waterline and proceeded to strip both their jackets off. He needed to keep Jack off the wet sand and insulated from the cold as much as possible. He then focused on the man's vitals.
The older agent was pale. Mac could find neither breathing nor a pulse.
Immediately, Mac started to perform CPR.
"Jack. Please don't leave me like this."
Mac fell into an automatic rhythm.
Despite how cold and numb his body felt, Mac could feel sweat dripping down his face, into his eyes, down his neck.
He paused to wipe it away.
As his hand came down, he looked at it uncomprehendingly. It was bright red. He didn't understand.
He wiped the red off of his hand and returned to the task of trying to revive his partner.
"Jack!... ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen…..JACK! Do not leave me like this!
Mac gave two deep breaths and cursed as he had to swipe his face again. His head must be bleeding. Damn if he could keep the blood out of his eyes.
He started compressions again.
"This is going to break me completely Jack. Do you understand? You cannot die!...five, six, seven..."
A convulsive heave from beneath Mac's hands was the best thing he had ever felt in his life. He tilted his partner onto his side as Jack gagged and coughed out literally lung fulls of muddy water.
Overwhelmed with emotion, the blonde allowed tears to begin falling uninhibited down his face.
"Jack? Just breathe man. Alright? I have you. You are with me now."
Jack tried to swing out with his hands in confusion, but immediately curled into himself as his injuries made themselves known.
Mac tried to calm his friend as best he could by putting both of his palms hard against the sides of the other agent's face in an effort to make direct eye contact.
"Jack. It's me, ok? It's Mac. Listen to me. You are hurt and we need to get you to a hospital. Do you understand?"
Dazed, Jack's eyes swam around in confusion for a second before landing on Mac's intense blue stare.
"Mac?"
"Yeah man. It's me. I have to go get help, ok?"
"Bud, you're bleeding…"
"No. No. It's ok, but I need to go get help now. Do you understand what I am saying?"
"Yeah, man."
Jack let out a groan and clutched his midsection as a wave of pain hit him. Mac tried to comfort his friend as best he could, but he felt rather useless. They needed medical assistance and they needed it now.
As Jack finally began to relaxed again, Mac could tell that the older agent was beginning to realized the extent of his injuries and that there was blood- too much blood.
Dalton grimaced.
"Yeah man, you better do that. Looks like I went and got myself stuck like a…like a pig."
He tried to put on one of his reassuring, Texas sized grins as he looked back up at Mac.
"None of us are…uh...lookin' too good at the moment, huh?"
Mac could no longer tell if the wetness on his own cheeks was from tears, blood, or a mixture of the two.
"Understatement of the year, big guy."
Mac tried to flash an equally big grin, but worry was starting to pull at him again.
"Jack, listen. I'm going to try to make my way up to street level and find us some help. You just hang in there ok?"
The ex-Delta nodded his head, "You do that."
Mac looked hard into his partner's eyes before he turned to leave, "Don't leave me."
Jack nodded his head in understanding and then made a move to stop the blonde.
Mac looked back confused.
"You are going to be ok kid. You hear me Mac? No matter what happens. You are going to be ok... Just remember that."
Mac felt a surge of panic as he reached for Jack's hand, but the ex-delta pushed him back.
"I'm not going to hold on forever tiger, so go get me some help, yeah?."
Mac swiped the blood out of his eyes yet again and felt torn. He absolutely had to get Jack out of here. He gave his partner's shoulder a squeeze and stood up.
"I'll be back in no time."
::Mac::
It was so frustratingly close.
He could hear traffic in the distance.
The further he tried to climb up the river bank, the more he took note of all the injuries he had sustained after he and Temar had made their final plunge off the Wabasha Bridge.
Hitting the water felt like being hit by a freight train.
He must have blacked out for a time immediately after as he couldn't remember much else. Being alive at all was a bit of a surprise honestly. Unfortunately, if he could beat the odds, that meant that Alex Temar could too.
A shiver ran through Mac. He just needed to keep moving.
As he tried to reach up with his left arm, he realized that he had finally lost all use of it. He had also started to noticed that his breathing was becoming more labored. What is that a symptom of? Mac's mind was murky and dark. He didn't seem to be thinking clearly. Breathing issues...He couldn't quite grab onto an answer.
It didn't matter. He was almost at the lip of the riverbank.
His right hand grasped the root of a tree, which he used to drag himself up the final two feet of the muddy embankment and onto what felt like manicured grass. The cool vegetation felt good against his face as he lay there catching his breath.
It was all he could do to keep from passing out. He couldn't tell if it was mental shock, blood loss, or something else?...Was there something else? This 'something' was trying to pull him under, but he continued to refused to give in to it.
He struggled to his feet and staggered across what looked like a park area.
If he could just make it to the street.
"Help! Somebody help!"
He continued to move towards the sound of cars.
"Please, someone help!"
Suddenly a hand was clutching his arm, and a face appeared before him. The face was saying something that he couldn't quite make out.
"Please, my friend is hurt down on the river bank. He needs ::wheeze:: an ambulance."
The face before him turned into two, no three faces, all saying different things. Now there were loud noises. Was someone screaming?
"My friend Jack."
Mac couldn't catch his breath.
"He's hurt on the river bank. He needs help. Please help him….he's…..."
The pressure in his chest finally became too great. He simply couldn't breathe anymore.
Mac felt the muddy dark rush in as his eyes rolled back into nothingness.
It was like sinking down into the river all over again.
To be continued...