Evolution, a Spencer Reid/Criminal Minds Fanfic

Chapter 13. Into the Woods

Outside in the crisp, mountain air, Reid revived a little.

But he didn’t have time to consider anything other than the slowly fading images swirling through his mind. Their urgency drove him. He dove behind the wheel of the Range Rover they’d rented on arrival. He ignored Morgan’s protests that maybe someone else should drive. If the others hadn’t kept up with him, Reid would have abandoned them. As it was, J.J. and Garcia were left behind. In J.J.’s case because Hotch had signaled her to stay. In Garcia’s, because she would be useless in the field and she wanted very badly to clean her shoes.

The lone squad car serving the town trailed after them. Chief Mayhew opted against turning on his siren. He didn’t know where these crazy feds were headed. And he had no idea what had transpired in the interrogation room. He decided the only reasonable explanation for it all was that the two agents conducting the interview of Arthur Brandenhoff must have picked up a bug of some sort. They’d thrown up almost in unison and both looked a little shaky. He admired the devotion to duty that spurred them out the door and in pursuit. He just wished he knew what they were in pursuit of.

Morgan and Prentiss were watching Reid with deep concern. He was mumbling to himself and actually did close his eyes at times while driving; something completely outside their comfort zone.

Meanwhile, Rossi was equally concerned with Hotch in the back seat. Their leader kept blinking and shaking his head as though trying to focus his vision or clear something from it. A number of times he buried his face in the palms of his hands and shuddered. Rossi kept an arm around him, patting his shoulder in an effort to comfort. In his other hand he clutched the crumpled clothes Hotch had discarded.

“White house, white house, white house…” Reid was muttering to himself. He came to the corner of a street containing a number of white houses, paused and stared to the left. “No, too late, too late, too late….” He jerked the Rover to the right and accelerated, disregarding stop signs and the one traffic light they encountered before leaving the city limits.

Morgan was hanging on at every precarious turn. “Too late for what, Reid? Talk to us!”

The young doctor startled, seeming to notice for the first time that he had passengers. “Too late for the one under the porch. She’s dead.”

Prentiss and Morgan exchanged looks. This was beyond their experience. The best they could do was stay alert and be ready to shout at Reid in case they encountered any obstacles like other vehicles, pedestrians, or, as seemed likely in this rural setting, livestock in the road.

Reid tore out of town. He slowed the frantic pace after a few miles, looking for they knew not what. Morgan saw the trailhead a split-second before Reid plunged the Rover off the pavement and bounced into the darkness beneath old-growth forest. After a bone-jarring trip between towering fir trees, he slammed on the brakes at the edge of what looked like a precipice in the murky light.

Leaving the key in the ignition, the engine running, and his teammates behind, Reid launched himself out of the Rover. Prentiss and Morgan scrambled to follow, but he was already over the edge and tearing down the needle-covered incline at breakneck speed.

As the younger agents pelted off into the woods, Chief Mayhew bumped his car to a stop behind the idling Rover. Rossi and Hotch struggled out, Hotch doing a poor job of keeping his balance. With the forethought of experience, Rossi asked the Chief if he had any tools in his trunk. Within minutes, shovels and flashlight in hand, he was making his way toward the sound of Reid’s name being shouted along with pleas for him to slow down.

Chief Mayhew shook his head and looked at the Unit Chief who’d been left behind. He turned the Rover’s engine off and helped Agent Hotchner back into his clothes. He had no idea why he’d shed them in the first place. He concluded that fever had made the man undress in an attempt to cool down. As he listened to the turmoil deeper in the woods, Mayhew decided when he wrote this up at the end of the day, he’d attribute a lot of what had happened to that new strain of flu that had been making the rounds. Really, there couldn’t be any other explanation that made sense. He gently patted the swaying agent’s back.

“Take it easy, son. Everyone gets sick sometime. Let’s just hope it’s one of those 24 hour types.”

The Chief’s words didn’t register in Hotch’s brain. He was still trying to erase the echo of a laugh that chilled and sickened him more deeply than any virus ever could.

xxxxxxx

At the bottom of the incline, Reid shut his eyes and turned his head from side to side in a way that made Prentiss and Morgan think he was looking at the terrain through closed lids.

“This is creepy.” Prentiss had stumbled and slid the last few yards. She brushed moldering leaves from her pants as she waited for some sign of how she could help.

“Got that right.” Morgan had caught himself on several sharp branches. He rubbed at an especially long scratch scoring one forearm.

Without warning, Reid’s eyes flew open. He moved several yards to the right and dropped to his knees, scrabbling at the forest floor with his bare hands.

“Reid! C’mon, man.” Morgan stood behind him and tried to stop him from tearing his flesh on the rocky soil. “Stop it!”

“She’s here! She’s here! He put her here!” As the young doctor pulled soil away, the end of a slender piece of plastic tubing was exposed. Morgan blanched, dropped down and added his efforts to Reid’s.

Rossi’s arrival with appropriate tools was a great relief. The two agents dug. Reid kept talking under his breath. The others couldn’t tell if he thought he was actually conversing with someone or if the steady stream of dialogue was meant as self-encouragement. When they hit the wooden surface of the crate, the shovels were abandoned. Reid brushed soil away from the hole where the tube entered and pulled it free, opening up a larger airway.

There was no sound, no answer to Reid’s shouted pleas for someone named ‘Sarah’ to answer him. Morgan’s brute strength pried off the lid. Inside, the frail form of a teenaged girl was curled into an impossibly small space. Morgan freed her and attempted CPR. When he thought he detected a ragged, thready pulse, he scooped the girl into his arms and sped back toward the trail.

Rossi and Prentiss watched Reid sink to the ground, panting.

“You knew her name, Reid?” Prentiss crouched beside him, glad he seemed to be back to normal awareness.

“Yeah. She’s Sarah.” His breathing slowed. He turned his head toward a place where the trees seemed to close in. Silence and darkness gathered under the ancient limbs. “And over there are C-Cindy, Katherine…and, Jean…I think.” He looked up imploringly at his teammates. “Too late. Too late for them. I was too late.”

Reid bent his head and cried. Only his heaving shoulders let Rossi and Prentiss know. Spencer Reid’s tears were as silent as the graves beneath the forest floor.