Fighting Wars

Chapter 1

Jennifer Porter hoists her umbrella up into the air to shield herself from the snow falling from the sky. She walks down the busy streets and after some time she finally reaches johnson apartment complex, it's small but a perfect size for only one person. She closes her umbrella and steps inside the door after shaking herself off from the snow, "Any mail?" She asks the front desk man, Henry is his name. He turns around to face the mail slot and looks through her box, "One for you Jennifer." He says handing her a letter neatly pressed. She smiles and says "Thank you." He nods and hastily returns to his book. Jennifer takes the letter and walks towards the stairs.
    She opens her block's door and slides in locking the door behind her as a precaution, who knows what kind of people could get into your house. The open familiar space greets her, she has a small kitchen, a TV with a mini couch, and only two rooms are blocked off by walls. Those are her bedroom and the bathroom. She sets her old messenger bag down on the couch as she simultaneously slides her shoes off. She sits down on the little couch and pulls out her laptop, she logs in and then remembers about the letter. She picks it up out of her bag and opens it. Her little puppy runs up to her and jumps up on the couch. She reads it out loud to her dog and the otherwise empty apartment block "Jennifer Porter, we are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted to work in the FBI. Report to the office in Quantico Virginia tomorrow at 05:00. Signed, Unit Chief Aaron Gideon." She clutches the letter to her chest and squeals from  joy. She very excitedly runs over to her room and pulls out a duffel bag to start packing her go bag.
    Jennifer wakes to her alarm and quickly gets ready, grabbing her go bag along the way. She pops her mini cooper trunk open and gently tosses her bag into it. She sits down in the driver's seat and picks up her phone. "FBI Headquarters." She says into the mic of her headphones, her radio sadly broke a while ago so she has to listen to music on her phone. She starts the car and pulls out of the parking garage listening to the GPS' voice.
    She pulls into a parking space and turns off her car wrapping her jacket tighter to keep herself warm. She opens her door and notices that she pulled in as the same time as somebody else. She closes her car door and starts to walk towards the office door. She steps up on the sidewalk and slips on hidden black ice. Preparing for the cold ground to hit her she winces only to find out that someone has caught her hand saving her from the frostcovered sidewalk "Thanks." She says as the man holding her hand lifts her up "No problem." He says his eyes seem to sparkle in the darkness of early morning. "You look new?" He asks Jennifer nods and reaches into her messenger back to pull out her badge that came in with the letter "Yes I'm Jennifer Porter the new behavioral analyst." She says holding out her badge "Excellent. I'm Aaron Gideon, Unit Chief." Jennifer's cheeks start to turn rosey. I just met my new boss in the most embarrassing way possible. She shakes his hand and he looks down to her now empty hands "No time for coffee?" Jennifer looks down to her own empty hands and says "No, I didn't know how long it would take me to get here." He nods and they walk inside the heated building
    "Do you see the dark haired woman there?" Aaron asks motioning towards a direction, Jennifer follows the motion and sees the dark haired woman bent over a desk "Yes?" Jennifer says "The desk next to her is open, you could drop your things off there." Aaron suggests Jennifer nods and they part ways for a little bit. Jennifer sets her bag on the desk and the dark haired woman looks up "You're the new behavioral analyst! Right?" Jennifer smiles and says "Yeah, I didn't think that people would know..." she extends her hand and Jennifer shakes it "Emilie Kingston, media liaison. I set up all the press conferences, cases, things like that. I also help in the field." Jennifer smiles at Emilie's eagerness "That sounds cool! I'm Jennifer Porter, the behavioral analyst... which you already knew." Emilie laughs and says "Well let me introduce you to the rest of the team! I assume you met Aaron?" Jennifer's cheeks grow hot as she remembers the encounter not even ten minutes ago. "Yes I have." She says hoping Emilie won't notice the roseyness of her cheeks. "Great! Follow me!" Emilie exclaims waving Jennifer to follow we walk up to two men standing by the coffee machine "This is Charles Finley." Emilie introduces "Call me Charlie." he says Jennifer smiles and shakes his hand "And this is Derek Whiteman." Emilie says Jennifer smiles and says "Jennifer Porter." The men smile and realization strikes Emilie "You haven't met Kyrsten!" Jennifer chuckles "I haven't met half of these people before now." Emilie nods and grabs Jennifer's hand "True, come on."
    Emilie leads Jennifer to this little office at the end of the hall. Jennifer is starting to like Emilie her overeagerness and openly optimistic attitude. "Kyrsten this is Jennifer our new behavioral analyst!" Emilie says Krysten smiles and shakes Jennifer's hand. "Im Krysten Allred, technical analyst. I'm here for all your searching needs. I go in the field every now and then as well." Jennifer smiles and says "It's very nice to meet you." Kyrsten nods and realization strikes Emilie once again "Oh we should get to briefing!" Kyrsten laughs and says "Emilie you always forget briefing! Now go on." Jennifer laughs while Emilie leads her out to the briefing room. "It's formally called the briefing room but we call it the roundtable room." Emilie explains when they reach the roundtable in the middle of the room. "Alright, Long Distance Serial Killer. The first victim was found last week in rural Nevada. Yesterday the second victim was found in just five miles off with the same M.O." Jennifer joins the team flipping through the profile. Aaron turns the conversation to Emilie who goes over the littlest details "Alright, the jet should be at the landing spot by the time we get there." Aaron says when Emilie finishes. The group nods and stands up tucking their files back into the manila folder.
The jet comes into view and they all file on and Jennifer takes a seat next to the window, and crosses her legs flipping through the file. "May I sit here?" Jennifer looks up and It's Agent Gideon "Agent Gideon! Yes of course." he chuckles and says "Please call me Aaron." Jennifer nods "Right." He sits down and Jennifer takes her folded legs and tucks them to her chest. "You're uncomfortable?" Aaron asks, Jennifer shakes her head "No I just like to sit this way sometimes." He nods and looks back at his case. After a while Aaron decides to start a conversation "Do you have any kids?" Jennifer smiles shaking her head "You seem like a caring type, just haven't found the one yet?" Aaron asks, Jennifer chuckles "Nope, have you?" He shakes his head. "Oh I forgot assignments. Emilie, Derek, Charlie come here." They come around our seats and Aaron softly commands "Charlie work on a geological profile, Emilie see what you can get out of the police when we land, and Derek work on victimology." they nod and go back to their spots on the jet. "And Jennifer we're going to the last crime scene, that should help build a profile." She nods and leans her head back to the window.
The team lands in rural Nevada and the valet man pulls out their SUV's. Jennifer gets in the back of the SUV and Aaron sits in the driver's seat. "Okay, what's the police stations address?" He asks, Emilie gives him the address, and Jennifer looks at the map Charlie is working on. "So the middle dot is his dump site?" Jennifer asks he shakes his head and says "No, the middle dot would possibly be his home. The two dots around the middle is the places where they have found the victims." Jennifer nods "Makes sense." he nods and keeps sketching out things and she turns back to the file.
Aaron pulls into a parking space and they file out of the car. "Thank you for coming." the Police chief says. They all nod and Aaron shakes his hand and introduces us. "This is SSA Kingston, Whiteman, Finley, and Porter." Jennifer smiles and the chief smiles back "Alright so the case. We just found another body right after your Agent Kingston called to tell me that you were coming down." Jennifer takes a deep breath. I can't mess up. Aaron nods and says "May we see the crime scene." the chief nods and says "It's just down the road." Jennifer whispers to Emilie "Back on the road again." Emilie giggles and the team gets back into the federal provided SUV.
The team pulls up to the crime scene in the woods. They get out of the SUV and walk past the yellow caution tape. "The body's over there." the chief says "So you didn't take the body?" Charlie asks "No we didn't, we haven't gotten pictures of the body yet." Chief answers. Jennifer smiles to herself that makes her job a lot easier. "Agent Porter you're up." Aaron says she nods and walks through the fallen crisp leaves to the body. The body lays there in with a bullet in their forehead. "Execution style." she says. She feels the team's eyes following her as she walk around the body. "Seemed to be running at a high speed. You would only run that fast for your life the footprints are spaced and deep." They nod and then an idea flies into her brain. "Chief do you have a hunting rifle?" he nods and grabs one from the back of his station car. "Hey, Agent Kingston could you stand right here?" Jennifer ask pointing to the spot she's standing at. Emilie nods and stands at the spot. Jennifer walks up the hill and lays down hunter style in the leaves. Through the trees she has a perfect view of Emilie. Jennifer nods and walks back down quickly. "I have a profile and need to give it fast." Jennifer gets back to the cars turns to the chief "How fast can you get your unit here?" "In about five minutes." He responds Jennifer nods and says "See if you can get them here quicker." he nods and picks up his wakie to call his unit in.
The last station car pulls up so Jennifer decides to stand down by the body. "Thanks for coming so quickly, I'm Agent Porter the behavioural analyst. I have prepared a basic profile to describe this Unknown subject. Unsub for short." they nod and some start pulling out notes. "Our Unsub is probably a sibling duo one is very confident and dominate while the other is very shy. They seem like a perfect family when in reality their home life would be broken. Because it is winter hunting season the two would be regulars at the nearest hunting supply stores. The two are very efficient and have probably found another victim by now." They all nod and then Aaron raises his hand "Yes?" Jennifer says motioning to him "When you were assessing the body you said that they would only run that fast for your life. What do you mean by that?" Jennifer nods and says "Yes we need to look through your missing persons files these two..." her voice dies and then recovers "These two kidnap people and drops them off here in the woods, it's a game to them the first person to find the victim wins the other has to buy lunch."
    After everyone leaves the team groups together "How could you figure all of that off of just a body?" Derek asks, Jennifer shrugs "It's simple really the last victim in had hesitation while this one had none at all. That means that there are two." They nod impressed and Aaron says "We should probably head to some of the hunting stores we don't have a lot of time to waste." The team nods and Aaron says "Meet back at the station. Stay in pairs. I don't want anyone alone." They all nod and break into pairs. Jennifer with Emilie, Derek with Charlie, and Kyrsten heads to the station with Aaron.
    Jennifer and Emilie go to the closest store to the dot Charlie mapped out "Hi, I'm Agent Kingston and this is Agent Porter, we are with the FBI." Emilie says Jennifer shakes the owners hand and says "Have you seen two men come in, more than likely siblings one would generally do all the talking while the other looks around practically avoiding all conversation." The owner thinks for a second and then says "Now that you mention that. I think that sounds like the Redding boys." Jennifer writes that down and Emilie says "When was the last time they came in?" The owner turns around to look at his calendar and says "Last tuesday." Emilie looks at Jennifer panicked and Jennifer says "Thank you so much sir." He nods and they run out. Emilie picks up her phone and calls Aaron while Jennifer starts the SUV "Aaron, I think that we found our criminal." Jennifer taps Emilie's shoulder and mouths "Unsub." Emilie nods and says "Sorry, unsub." Jennifer pulls onto the main road and Emilie decides to put the phone on speaker. "Who's our Unsub?" Aaron asks Jennifer speeds up as a light turns yellow "The Redding brothers." "Okay, Kyrsten can you get the redding brothers location?" They keep driving listening to Kyrstens fast typing until she says. "Goodsprings road." "Just passed it." Emilie says but Jennifer is one step ahead. "Hold on Em." She hits the breaks and turns the wheel to make a fast screeching U-Turn. "Jeez Jennifer!" Emilie screams. Jennifer chuckles and says "Sorry Emilie, by now they probably have found a new victim." Emilie nods and then says "Why unsub?" Jennifer glances her way and then back to the road "Short for unknown subject. The second you give them a name like Criminal or a case name we make them known they go down in history and that's just what they want." Emilie nods and they turn onto the street. "Do we just go door to door?" Emilie asks when they get out of the car "Normally I'd say no but because they kill outside in the woods I'm saying yes." She nods and they part ways to the different sides of the street. They knock door to door with no luck until the very last house. "Emilie! I think I got something!" Jennifer calls down the street. "What?" Emilie calls back running across the street. Jennifer points to the sign on the door "Out to hunt be back later." Jennifer reads Emilie nods and Jennifer pounds on the door "Mr. Redding! FBI Open Up!" Emilie says through the door. No response someone steps outside "Excuse me ma'am is this Mr. Redding's house?" Emilie asks. The woman nods and Jennifer says "I'm going to have to ask you to go back inside." She nods and walks back inside her house. "What are you going to do?" Emilie asks Jennifer looks at her and asks "You got my back?" She nods and Jennifer kicks down the door. "Where did you learn how to do that?" Emilie says astonished at the now open door. Jennifer shrugs and they walk inside. They split up checking rooms "Clear!" They call from around the house. "Emilie! You need to see this!" Jennifer calls from the kitchen, one of their kitchen cabinets holds wedding rings and bands, and pictures from the scene. Emilie gags and the team comes into the house. "What took you guys so long!" Emilie exclaims turning away from the cabinet. "Traffic. What are you doing in here?" Aaron asks "We have our unsub and we need to find them fast." Jennifer says motioning towards the open cabinet. "Alright let's go."
    They pull up to the woods "Stay in pairs!" Aaron commands as we run out of the SUV "Emilie!" Jennifer calls running in one direction. Charlie and Derek run in the opposite and Kyrsten and Aaron runs in between. "Jennifer!" Emilie calls, Jennifer stops and looks where Emilie is pointing. "Oh no." up in the trees are bodies. "Aaron." Jennifer says into her watch. "What's up?" he responds "Emilie found more bodies." He sighs and says "Alright keep looking." She nods and Emilie says "I saw a bit of smoke down there." Jennifer nods and they run down the hill crunching leaves on their way. "Stop." Emilie whispers Jennifer stops at the bottom of the hill. "There they are." she says, "Mr. Redding! It's the FBI put your hands where we can see them!" Emilie commands, one turns around and complies while the other says "There are more." "We found them in the trees. there's nowhere for you to go." Emilie says Jennifer pulls out her gun and he turns around with his gun. He fires and it hits the gun right out of Jennifer's hand. "Agh!" she cries bending down. The Unsub cackles and Jennifer remembers her second gun down at her ankle. She grabs it and stands up fast and fires at his shoulder, his scream fills the woods. The two girls hear leaves cracking and they turn around. There are Charlie and Derek stunned by the one gun in the leaves and the other in Jennifer's bloody hand. "Don't just stand there go get them!" Emilie commands, Jennifer winces as the stinging sensation grows in her hand. "Aaron!" Emilie yells up the hill to a now appearing Aaron and Kyrsten. "God Jennifer what were you thinking." Emilie whispers. Jennifer stands up and Aaron stands next to her. "Come on let's get you to the ambulance." He says Jennifer shakes her head and says "I don't need to go to the hospital it's just a graze." He nods and says "All right just let them check you out." She nods and he leads her back up the hill where the ambulance is parked. "Check her hand please." Aaron says to the paramedic sitting there, he nods and Jennifer says "Could you get my other gun?" he nods and says "Let me clean up this gun." she hands it to him and says "Thanks." He nods and goes back down the hill to the rest of the team.
    Sometimes, for some, hunting is the only thing that makes sense - Unknown