Hannibal heard the gunshot form inside the cabin and knew instinctively that it was Will. He always had a talent for getting himself into difficult situations. What he didn’t know was whether Will had fired or he had been fired upon.
“What was that?” Jack asked crossly, thinking one of his officers had fired a gun.
“Will,” Hannibal told him and ran out of the cabin. He stood in the yard, listening for some kind of clue as to where Will was. He didn’t have to wait very long as a pain-filled scream pierced through the heavily-falling snow. Hannibal took off into the woods, following the sound of Will’s scream.
When Hannibal was in practice as a physician, he was renowned throughout the hospital for being able to tell the name and brand of a nurse’s perfume from fifty feet away by the chemicals used in it, so it wasn’t long before he could smell the coppery scent of fresh blood. Soon, Hannibal could hear gasps of pain and then the gruffness of a man’s voice, but it wasn’t Will’s. Slowly, Hannibal took out his gun as he drew closer to the voice.
“Don’t worry, William,” a voice said that Hannibal assumed to be Doctor Gideon. “I’m going to honor every part of you,” he said and chuckled. “Oh, that sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Wasn’t that his saying? Garret Jacob Hobbs?” Gideon taunted.
Hannibal got closer and saw Doctor Gideon straddling Will’s legs. Will was laying in the snow on his back with his hands tied above his head and to a tree with a short length of rope. Gideon had cut Will’s coat and shirt right up the middle and they were peeled back away from Will’s body like he had been skinned and gutted. Hannibal was at the wrong angle to see what Gideon had done to Will, but he saw the red glint of fresh blood on the knife in Gideon’s hand and there was a red smear across Will’s stomach.
“Step away, Doctor Gideon,” Hannibal called out, stepping out from the cover of the trees and into the clearing.
Gideon looked up and grinned at Hannibal. “Ah, Doctor Lector. Have you come to join us?”
“On the contrary,” Hannibal said.
“Well, in that case,” Gideon said, grinning like the madman he was, “I’ll take my leave,” he said, shoving the knife deep into Will’s side. Hannibal kept his gun on him as Gideon got up and backed away, smirking.
Hannibal waited until he was sure Gideon had left before he pocketed the gun and rushed over to Will. Will had lost a lot of blood, the snow next to him was stained a dark red, and he was barely conscious. Hannibal dug around in Will’s pockets until he found Will’s small pen-knife and used it cut Will’s hands free from their restraints. There were abrasions across his wrists from where Will had tried to get free and some of them were bleeding.
Quickly, Hannibal scooped up a handful of snow and packed it gently around the knife to numb it a bit. He couldn’t remove the knife as Will would bleed out, so Hannibal removed Will’s ruined coat and took the remnants of his shirt to gently bind the snow to the wound to at least slow some of the bleeding.
Hannibal took out his phone and called Jack. “I found Will. He needs an ambulance,” he said.
“Is he alright?” Jack asked.
“Just call the ambulance!” Hannibal told him crossly and hung up.
Hannibal took off his coat and covered Will with it; snow had begun falling again and staring covering his torso, the skin was a pale white. As gently as he could, Hannibal put an arm under Will’s legs and one behind his back. Lifting Will off the ground, Hannibal was once again surprised at how much weight his friend had lost. He resolved to fix that as soon as possible.
Halfway back to the cabin, Will began to push Hannibal’s coat off of him. “You’ll…get blood…all…over your…coat,” he protested weakly.
Hannibal looked down at Will. “It’ll be fine, Will,” he said and moved the coat back into place. Shortly after, Hannevil could see flashing red and blue lights through the trees and snow and he quickened his pace.
The paramedics had a gurney waiting and Hannibal quickly laid Will on it and stepped back as they strapped him in and put him into the vehicle. Ignoring Jack completely, who was hovering around the ambulance, Hannibal got in and sat down on the bench next to Will, who had finally gone unconscious.
As they drove away, Hannibal glanced out the windows on the rear doors. He saw Jack glaring at the back of the receding ambulance and Hannibal smiled to himself.
