Hunting Grounds

Chapter 1

Thanks to his training Rick didn't groan as he woke up. Making a sound when he shouldn't might possibly cause a problem and the worst case scenario was getting himself killed. Not that he didn't want to groan because he did. He felt like shit and some guy with a hammer was inside his head.

Opening his eyes only made things worse. It was the bright light that did it. So he closed them and tried to figure out what had gone wrong using what little information he had.

So he opened his eyes again and looked up since apparently he was on his back. He saw sky and a whole lot of trees. Wait! TREES? Rick tried to concentrate and ignore the guy with the hammer in his head. There shouldn't be trees, certainly not trees like these. They were seriously tall and green and that was what he didn't understand.

He had recently landed at Al Udeid Air Base located in Qatar. In fact he was so new there he hadn't had a chance to change from his city fatigues to desert fatigues.

That suddenly had him thinking and he began patting down his body. He had his vest, helmet, goggles, main weapon, sidearm strapped to his leg, canteen, and he could see himself moving his feet so he had his combat boots.

He was in one piece so he twisted his head left first and then right. He was literally right next to a tree, he realized. There didn't seem to be a clearing. Now he listened but didn't hear much. He did, though, now feel the heat and the humidity. It was hot and humid and naturally he was overdressed for this type of atmosphere.

Sitting up didn't get the guy with the hammer to stop. He became aware that he still had his mic near his mouth so his communication suite was still with him. Rick used his tongue to make two clicking sounds and waited for his team to respond. When they didn't that told him either he was alone or they were still unconscious like he'd been or perhaps were out of range.

He ejected his clip and looked it over and slapped it back into place since he was satisfied. Now he twisted to look around and got his first shock. Well, maybe the second or even third since he'd woken up.

He wasn't alone. There was someone lying on the ground just above where his head had been. It looked to be a woman based on the hair. She had no helmet, and appeared to be wearing a flak vest that was deep blue in color. As was her long-sleeved shirt and pants. She wore black high-heeled boots, a black belt that held a holster, and she had cuffs on her belt, mid-back.

Nothing was making much sense to him so far. He wasn't afraid of her even if she did have a weapon. His vest should stop the round since he was pretty sure it was a 9mm much like his sidearm. He was also betting he could take her in hand-to-hand. Still he needed her awake so he could ask questions. Maybe she knew something he didn't.

So he reached out and hit the bottom of her shoe. It didn't get him a result so he did it again. That got a groan out of her. If she was suffering like he was he could feel for her.

Finally her hand moved to her head and she moaned. "Oh, my head." Kate could only remember feeling like this after she'd had far too much to drink. She wasn't addicted to the stuff like her dad had been but that didn't mean she didn't drink. However, she also never drank alone.

Kate opened her eyes for a moment and then closed them again. Still she needed to figure out what was going on so she opened them again. This told her she was on her stomach, practically face down in dirt, weeds, and a plant of some type.

She chose to roll over and found herself looking up at the sky. She also saw a number of really tall trees. Now that didn't make any sense at all to her. New York City didn't have trees this tall. Not even in Central Park.

Rick was watching and noticed that when she rolled over the vest she was wearing said POLICE in big white letters. She also had three pouches on the front of her vest at about her midriff. In addition he saw a badge attached to her belt. So a police officer for some city somewhere. It meant she was a civilian. A little training perhaps but he was betting he could still take her easily.

Kate groaned as she sat up. That was when she saw someone sitting on the ground not far from her. Her instincts kicked in; she drew her weapon and pointed it at him.

"Who are you? Kidnapping a police officer is a felony offense," Kate snapped.

"Relax, Officer. If I wanted you dead you wouldn't have even woken up and I didn't kidnap you."

Kate tried to not take her eyes off him but took a quick look around using only her eyes. "Where am I?"

"That's the million dollar question. Who are you?"

"You first." Kate kept her weapon trained on him. Especially given that he had a much bigger weapon than hers. It had a design that screamed Bullpup firearm. It was just her head hurt so much she couldn't get her mind to function properly.

He gave a quick nod. "As you wish. I am Captain Richard Rodgers. Squad leader of SEAL Team 12. My team and I were just recently deployed, however, this isn't to where." Rick looked around again and didn't see much. It looked a lot like a jungle and here he was wearing grey and black while this female was wearing all dark blue.

Not really a good choice for either of them.

"Navy SEAL." Her mind was working better but there was till this evil little guy hammering away inside her head. It explained his weapon and what he was wearing. Kate lowered her weapon but didn't put it away and glanced around a little. What she saw was a lot of plants, trees, and jungle. At least it looked like a jungle.

"You are?" Rick asked her again.

"Kate Beckett, homicide detective, NYPD. This is not New York City." She pointed out the obvious.

"Noticed that, did you? I should be in Qatar or at least I was in Qatar." That had Rick questioning what the hell was going on here. These two locations were thousands of miles apart and yet here they were. Wherever here was.

"We should move." He stood up and did his best to ignore the hammering in his head.

"Why?" Whoever brought them to this place would come looking for them here. They would be found and rescued.

"To that I have a question for you, Detective. I was in Qatar and you were in New York City. Whoever took both of us was good enough to render us unconscious and drop us here. Does that sound like something a friend would do?

"Granted hazing does take place, but I'm team leader so they wouldn't dare do this to me. What I could do to them would make their heads spin." Rick waited for an answer.

"No." He had her there.

"Since a friend wouldn't do this that leaves the opposite. Given whoever did this, I don't want to be found so easily. I would prefer to be somewhere else. Plus just where are we?"

"Point taken." Kate stood up, put her weapon away, and did her best to ignore the wretched guy with the hammer in her head. "Which way?"

She watched him open one of his eight pockets on his front. Maybe another at his shoulder and she saw a canteen on his side. He had a hand weapon strapped to his right leg, not to mention his main weapon.

Kate saw him pull out a compass and look at it. "That's odd. It shouldn't be doing that." Once again Rick didn't like this. He handed it to her so she could see.

"Why is it spinning like that?" It should be pointing at just one direction, not spinning.

"Another good question." Rick took it back and put it away. It might not be useful but he didn't want to just give up on it.

"This way, the jungle looks thinner this way." He chose a direction and the detective walked next to him.

"So, New York City?" He waited for her story.

"I was with my team and a SWAT team. We were going to search a building for our suspect. I was at the trunk of my car putting on my vest and getting ready to join the others and go inside."

"Now all of a sudden I'm here. Wherever here is." Nothing looked familiar. Nothing at all "You?"

"My team of 8 was ordered to deploy to Qatar and report for deployment after being equipped for the desert. We had landed in our transport and deplaned. I had ordered the others to report to the Admin building. I wanted to use the toilet. Now I'm here."

"An air base and New York City." Kate didn't see a connection between them.

"I do see one thing we have in common." Rick had spotted that right off.

"Oh, yeah? Care to share with the class?" Kate didn't see it.

"Somebody managed to get on the Air Base used by the United States Air Force, the Royal Air Force, and is operated by Qatar. They managed to capture me, render me unconscious, which I can assure you is no small feat, and then transport me here.

"Sounds like you were in downtown New York City. Maybe easier to reach you and get you out of the city. But to do it without your team noticing?" Rick gave her a quick look.

"My head's killing me. If I asked Lanie I'm betting she would say I was drugged." Kate offers.

"Lanie?" Maybe she wasn't alone or maybe neither was he. Just not right here.

"My best friend. She's an ME," Kate said. "She wouldn't have been where I was."

"Drugged sounds plausible." Rick liked it. It explained why everything hurt and why his head still hurt. "They've gone to a lot of trouble. So why?"

"I don't have any connection with the military. The FBI might show up but not you. Why would a SEAL team even be in the city?" Kate didn't get it.

"What are you carrying?" Rick needed to figure out how bad off they were.

"Service weapon, a Glock 17, two spare clips, a little medical kit, cuffs, radiation detector, and that's about it." She abruptly realized she had no food and no water.

"I wouldn't even have the two clips except for where we were going. Oh and my 38 special strapped to my ankle. I don't have any spare ammunition for it."

"9mm, my sidearm is 9mm so that's good. I also have two spare clips for it. This is my main weapon. It's an Israeli Tavor CTAR-21 variant. 5.56 x 45mm NATO rounds. I have two spare clips for it as well. Medical kit, canteen, radio, 2 power bars, tactical knife, water purification bag, 5 zip ties."

"An Israeli weapon for a SEAL?" Kate questioned. SEALS were US so they should have US made weapons, shouldn't they?

"I'm team leader so I get to pick what I want to use. I try and give my team a little choice in weapons so long as they don't go nuts on me."

"So why are we going this way?" Actually any direction looked good to her.

"This way is currently downwind and since I don't know where we are and don't like how we got here, I don't want to give ourselves away. This way the direction we're going no one can smell us."

"OH!" Kate didn't see the necessity but it was as good a direction as any so she didn't mind. She preferred to be in control but he was a Navy SEAL so she let him lead.

[_] /\ [_]

They had been walking for what felt like hours. "Why do you keep looking up?" Kate queried.

"Looking for the sun. We've been walking for almost 2 hours. So where is it?" Rick muttered. "Even if it had just come up when we woke up it should be directly overhead but it's not."

That had Kate looking up to try and find it. It was just that the trees were tall and thick. Thankfully the ground was mostly flat so the walk wasn't hard.

"No birds, no monkeys, not even so much as a wild pig. I was thinking maybe Columbia or maybe Honduras but something's off about this place." He just couldn't place what it was.

Now that he had mentioned it Kate hadn't seen any kind of wildlife. Bugs, yes, but nothing flew and nothing was bigger than an insect. She added her voice. "Strange."

"Very," Rick agreed and looked at his watch as did Kate. "Two hours." Both Rick and Kate looked up and neither of them saw a sun. There was sunlight, just no sun.

[_] /\ [_]

Rick checked his watch. "Three hours." He didn't get it. However, he had only made it a few yards when he stopped and breathed in deeply. "Smell that?"

Kate took in a deep breath. "Death. I've been to a lot of dead body sites." She definitely recognized the smell.

"Yeah." Rick raised his weapon and that had Kate taking out her service weapon and looking around for any movement at all. "We're still downwind so it's that way." He motioned with his weapon. "You watch that flank and our back and I'll do the same," Rick told her and Kate nodded.

[_] /\ [_]

Eventually Rick stopped and Kate stopped with him. They could both smell it a lot better. Whatever was dead they were getting closer and closer.

Rick put a finger to his lips first. Then he motioned that he wanted her to walk that way and signaled he wanted her to go slow. Kate nodded and paid close attention to where she was walking. Now was not the time to make a noise by stepping on something.

Rick thought he saw a small clearing. Their very first so far. He raised a fist to get Kate to stop who did. He, though, moved forward very slowly and looked everywhere till he reached the tree line. He didn't like what he saw.

He waved Kate forward and motioned for her to stay low. She understood and bent way down and moved practically on her knees till she was next to him.

What she saw she didn't like either. "They're dead," Kate barely whispered since he was right there.

"What do you see?" Rick replied in muted tones.

That had Kate looking at the bodies. "Military fatigues, green instead of grey and black like yours," she said very quietly. "Weapons, lots of blood that's dried." She looked intently. "Where are their heads?" she breathed. She saw bodies but no heads.

"Anything else?" Rick asked in his normal voice. He saw far too much and he didn't like any of it. He watched her shake her head. "They were in a firefight. I can see the shell casings from here."

Now Kate saw those and in one location there were a lot of them.

"When you don't know what you're fighting and are caught in the open you form a circle with your backs to each other. Do you see how they've fallen?" Rick thinks it was time to see just what this Kate Beckett was capable of thinking.

Now Kate was looking more closely. "Mostly in a circle. But if they were being attacked why are they still in a circle? Attacked from all sides maybe?"

Rick shook his head. "What's the safest and yet most challenging place to be while they're all firing outward?"

She frowned as she thought about it. "Flat on my stomach? Foxhole, any hole."

"Not bad, but no," Rick said. "Think if you were dead center of them. They would all have their backs to you."

Kate tried to picture it. "That's nuts. How would he even get there in the first place?"

"Now that's a good question. Yet he took their heads. All of them. There's one sword I can think of that would do that if he was dead center. Think Japanese." Rick turned his head to look at her.

"A Samurai sword? That's still nuts. Why even try?" Kate didn't get it.

"Another good question. This is old. Old enough for the bodies to start to decay," Rick noted and Kate nodded. "Now why aren't there any scavengers feasting on the dead bodies? Does it look like anything has?"

Kate chose a body and looked it over. "No. Strange." Vultures or something should have shown up. The smell of blood should have brought them. "So what are we going to do?"

"We watch and wait. Six of them lost and they're more heavily armed than I am." Rick didn't like this at all.

Kate watched Rick sit down so she did as well but she kept her weapon out. If she was going to die she damn well was taking someone with her.

[_] /\ [_]

"Two hours and still no sun." Rick looked up. He had been hoping for some darkness or at least the sun was thinking about going down from some direction but it wasn't.

"You take right, I'll take left. Try and stay nice and low. We're going to search them. We want water, food, ammunition, grenades perhaps, and any information they have on them. When you're done we go to the far side so we can keep going."

"Got it." Kate raised her weapon, crouched low, and approached the first one. She was going to take the three on this side and Rick could have the other three.

Kate was trying to be careful while avoiding stepping in dried blood. Each of them had a flak vest a lot like hers so she opened each pouch and soon had a pile but only two hands to carry it all with. One had a knife so she cut off his shirt and filled it. Still crouching she made for the far side and waited for Rick to join her.

Apparently they thought a lot alike since he had a shirt all bundled up. "We move. I want to be away from here first," Rick told her. Kate nodded and walked next to him holding her weapon and her bundle.

[_] /\ [_]

Rick checked his watch. "Two hours." He was thinking they were far enough away to stop and look. He opened his shirt and Kate did the same.

"I took their clips since they looked like 9mm. I got two MREs, more medical items, and spare clips for their AR-16s that my three had. One had a grenade launcher attached. It looks used and was empty. Oh and three canteens." That was Kate's bundle.

"Nice. See if you can find room for the 9mm clips. They might not fit your Glock but you can empty them and reload yours. I'll take the AR-16 clips since AR-16s use the same NATO ammunition. I can't use the clips themselves but more ammunition is nice. Three canteens, no MREs, two medical kits. One of them had a mini with a backpack for the ammunition. It was empty. That thing holds hundreds of rounds." Risk lists what he had.

"JEEZ! What the hell were they shooting at?" Kate asked him not really expecting an answer.

"Dangerous as hell whoever or whatever it was they were firing at. I found these, too." Rick held them up for Kate to see.

"Dog Tags?" Kate knew one when she saw one.

"United States. This was a team and they died," Rick pointed out grimly.

"AR-16s and a mini gun? I don't like this place much." They were armed and died and they had next to nothing in comparison.

"Join the club. And just when does the sun go down around here?" He looked around again up at the sky. He still didn't even see any clouds.

Rick began stuffing the clips for the AR-16s where he could as did Kate for her 9mm. She got his in addition to her three. Next came taking her belt off so she could try and carry at least two of the canteens after making sure they were both full. She filled them from the others and put her belt back on.

"MREs?" Kate asked him and watched him motion for her to turn around. One of them was being stuffed down her back under her vest. It was uncomfortable but they needed the food. She in turn did the same to him with the other one.

"We keep moving. Keep an eye open for a place where we can rest. Something that looks safe and easily defended," Rick told her and started walking, forcing Kate to catch up and walk next to him. Since they had dead bodies behind them, she kept her weapon out for anything.