Stay with me

chapter 16

Mayfield barn:

While JJ and the remaining living SWAT agents and police officers were going back the way they came, Hotch and Reid pressed on through the inner networks of the underground tunnels. Most of the doors they passed were locked but the ones that weren't typically housed different sets of scientific tools and equipment that they didn't even want to think about their uses. At this time, they weren't interested in opening the locked doors, their main goal was finding Mayfield- they could search every inch of the compound once he was behind bars, for now they pressed on. Everything was moving as smoothly as it could be considering the circumstances, until they heard the sound of something metal being dropped onto the floor from a distant room; Reid and Hotch swiftly made their way down the hall and surrounded the accused door. A silent 3,2,1 was spoken before they charged into the room, guns drawn.

The room was a state; streams of multi-coloured chemicals spilling from the metal tables on to the concrete floor, in a mosaic of a thousand shards of broken glass. Posters were ripped from the prison-like walls into tattered shreds as though it had been attacked by a mountain lion, and any other paper residues were being burnt in the golden flames of several small, trash can fires, thrown around the room. It was clear Mayfield had been alerted to their presence and had escaped in a fury less than a minute ago- but he couldn't have gotten out the way they came in, otherwise they would have crossed paths.

"There must be another way out," Reid declared.

There didn't seem to be any indication of a secret door hidden in the smoke-filling room, so the two men hurried back into the hallway and continued further into the depths of the maze. There wasn't much to observe until they reached a cross-roads- two identical corridors, with a swift nod between them it was decided, Reid goes left, Hotch goes right.

Guns drawn, flashlights up, they stalked down their respective tunnels. They seemed to continue on forever, Reid thought, but maybe that was just the unusually still, cold air and his fear of the dark talking. Hotch tried to keep his mind focused on the task at hand, but every so often, his unconscious thoughts would drain in and fill his brain with unhelpful feelings; Emily was living on borrowed time right now, and if they didn't find Mayfield soon, that last grain in the hourglass would fall and they would lose her again. Hotch shook his head in defiance, he was the leader of this team and he had to show strength, even if he was the only one there to witness it- if he started slipping, what good would that do Emily?

They kept their line of communication open, whispering an 'all clear' every minute or so, just to ease the worry filling their stomachs. Just as his nerves started to settle, Spencer heard the recognisable clicking of a concrete trigger plate. He froze instantly, his blood running cold with the realisation that he had just set off the trap. Without another second to move, an arrow came whistling from the wall on his left, slipping through the gap in the side of his vest, piercing him below his rib cage. A rattled gasp fell from his mouth as he staggered backward, he legs giving in beneath him. He crumbled to floor with an echoing thud, the grip on his gun loosened as he fell, slipping from his grasp. Spencer had been shot before but the pain in his side was nothing like that. It was searing hot and every small jolt and breath had him writhing around in pain.

"All clear," Hotch whispered again.

He waited for a response, but nothing came other than a weak groan.

Hotch instantly turned on his feet ready to run and find Reid, but the younger agents hoarse voice finally coming through the comms stopped his movements, "I'll be fine, go find him."

Hotch had a moment of internal debate, but he knew that if they didn't catch Mayfield now, they would likely lose him forever, so he continued on, picking up the pace.

Luckily for Hotch, due to his longer running strides, he unknowingly jumped over his hallways pressure plate, saving him from the same fate as Reid. After two minutes of running, he reached another door at the end of the hallway- this one was metal, electronically locked and required an 8 digit passcode to open. He didn't have time to think through why he needed a significantly more secure room here unlike any of the others- it's not like the other rooms didn't contain any incriminating information, what else was there to hide? He couldn't just kick open the door this time, but fortunately, Hotch had an amazing tool called a gun that could just shoot out the fuse box- brilliant, very helpful. The door put up no fight and creaked open as soon as the bullet hit the box, 'Mayfield really should've really thought through his security measures better,' Hotch thought. 

He pushed through the doorway carefully, realising halfway that the gun shot had already given away his anonymity, so stealth mode was pretty fruitless now. He struggled to see much in the room, but from what he could tell, it seemed relatively bare, but he could just make out what looked to be newspaper clippings plastering the back wall. Hotch found a long white chord dangling to his left, he tugged on it without averting his forward gaze and a single light bulb, dangling from the centre of the ceiling flickered on.

"Hello Agent Hotchner."