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Spencer groaned as he woke up.
"Hey. Finally awake?"
"Yeah... What hit me?"
"A determined unsub," Luke replied grimly.
Spencer sat up and realized they were trapped in a small cave together.
There was a stack of rocks and a bit of empty space for air and just enough light to see shapes at the top on one end, and solid rock everywhere else.
"Looks like we're in some sort of cave," Luke told him. "This is where he's been keeping his victims. No wonder we've been finding them too late."
Spencer nodded. "There's some underground caverns, a huge system... even if our team realizes that's where he's holding us, they're likely not going to find us in time."
"I know." Luke sighed. "It'll be up to us to escape. But it won't be easy. Those rocks are heavy, and if we try taking them down from this side, we won't have room to put them down and still be able to move past the first few."
"And I take it there's not much leverage to push them either."
"I tried already." Luke sighed. "They're pretty well balanced."
Spencer nodded again.
"We'll need to see how the unsub acts, if he has any weaknesses, then we can figure out an escape plan."
"Of course." Spencer agreed.
.
It took a long time for the unsub to show up, removing just enough of the stack to peer at them in the hole in the wall he made.
By then, both Luke and Spencer were starting to feel hungry and had pressed together for warmth, since it was rather cool in the cave.
The unsub watched them, eating something out of a bowl.
"You're eating them, aren't you?" Spencer asked.
Luke's eyes widened.
"That's why you hunt your victims... you want to eat them. But that doesn't explain why we're still alive."
The unsub said nothing, merely finished eating and replaced the rocks.
Luke turned to Spencer. "What makes you think it’s cannibalism?" That hadn’t previously been part of the profile.
"The missing body parts, mostly. We’ve been assuming that he’s keeping them as trophies, but the way he was just staring at us while he was eating is a good indication that he’s eating them. His lack of denial is another one.”
"But how does someone turn to cannibalism, there's something very wrong with him, right?"
"Yes, but not necessarily. A lot of people turn to cannibalism when they're desperately hungry. They would have never done it until they experienced a situation where they were starving and the only source of food was the dead people around them. If this unsub lives off the grid, it's entirely possible that he did get that hungry at some point, and decided he never wanted to stop eating humans, or he could be off the grid because he never fit into the world because of his cannibalism. We don't know enough to say for sure right now, we haven't seen enough of the area or anything."
"But that's a good point," Luke mused. "If he... wait, weren't some of the more recent victims showing signs of starvation?"
Spencer sat up, recalling the reports. "Yes, they were. And those that weren't starving when they died showed signs of having recently been starving..."
"He's starving his victims to try to get them to enjoy his food the way he does, so that he's not alone."
Spencer's stomach growled. "...and now he's doing it to us."
"...he really was eating human meat when he was staring at us, wasn't he?" Luke managed, suddenly feeling nauseous and not at all hungry. "He wanted to know how hungry we are."
Spencer closed his eyes, not that there was much to see with the limited light the unsub allowed them. "We're going to have to try to escape sooner rather than later. Before we get too weak from hunger, and long before we hit that point of desperation."
Luke nodded. "Right. We just need the right opening. You're skinnier than me, you could probably squeeze through if we could move just the top couple of rocks and then you could move a couple of more and get me out. They didn't look too big and heavy when he moved it."
"You're right." Spencer nodded. "I think we should be okay to wait a bit longer. We don't know what time it is outside, and we don't know this cavern system. We could easily get lost."
"Kind of think that's better than waiting for the unsub to follow through on his plan to force us into cannibalism or killing us after we've been starving for a while."
"You're not wrong," Spencer agreed with a sigh. "I wish there was a way we could inform the team."
"I know. It's you and me, though. And we make a pretty good team, don't we?"
Spencer smiled. "That we do." Deciding to forgo their usual appearance of professionalism since they were in a bad situation, he leaned over and kissed Luke's cheek.
Luke wrapped his arms around Spencer. "We'll get out of this," he repeated. "It's going to work out."
"I hope you're right. Let's get some rest and evaluate when we're both awake?"
"That sounds like a good plan."
.
They were able to get out through the rock wall by waiting a bit after the unsub left them alone.
The cavern was dimly lit with Christmas lights and glow in the dark stickers, but it was enough for them to find their way to what had to be his usual way out.
There was a heartstopping moment when they realized they were going the wrong way and almost revealed their escape, but then they corrected their course and made it to the open air.
Spencer closed his eyes and breathed the fresh air, doing his best to ignore the gnawing hollow feeling of hunger. "Okay, that's step one. Now we need to find help, or a way out of this forest."
"Or a way to signal for help." Luke looked around. "At least it looks like it's dawn, it could be a really bad time to have escaped into the woods."
Spencer grimaced, not wanting to think about it.
Luke took his hand and squeezed it. "Hey, we're okay. We found a way out. We might be starving, but we both know how to survive, and we should be able to find some food to hold off the hunger a bit."
"I know, I know. I just... A lot has been happening and I'm not sure what is going to happen."
"I know. But we have each other, and we've made it, Spence. We're out. We just need to find the team."
"Too bad the unsub is probably going to go free, there's no way we'll be able to find him, since he doesn't keep those lights all the way to the entrance, starting them where no one would see them if they stumbled in there by accident."
"Yeah, I know. That's okay."
They wandered the forest all day, starving, but able to find some berries that were safe to eat. They found a clearing and Spencer squinted at the sky. "Are you- It looks like it's going to storm." He sighed.
Luke followed his gaze. "Hey, maybe it won't. Hard to tell with those forming clouds."
"I don't usually believe in luck but it kind of feels like the only lucky thing we've had so far is escaping the unsub."
"...fair enough. But I think I know where we are! We're almost to the trail! If we can get there, we aren't far from help!"
Spencer let out a sigh of relief and followed Luke.
He remembered the map but he didn't know exactly what the landmarks would look like.
Just as they made it to the trail, the first drizzle of rain started, and the first lightning flash and rumble of thunder started up.
They exchanged exasperated looks.
Regardless, they started down the trail, hoping to make it as far as they could before they could not make it any further.
The lightning and thunder grew more frequent and the drizzle turned into a steady shower.
They stuck close together, continuing to walk until they could not anymore.
To their relief, just as they sat down to huddle together and try to stay warm and ignore their grumbling stomachs, David Rossi and one of the police officers they had been working with appeared.
"Reid! Alvez!" Rossi rushed to them. "Are you two okay?"
"Starving, might have concussions and a chill, but otherwise, yes," Luke responded quickly.
"He had us in a cavern system. Not sure you would be able to find him, but if you can get into the caverns, look for the Christmas lights and glow in the dark items," Spencer added as he stood. "Can we go get food now?"
"Paramedics and possibly the hospital first," Rossi said firmly while the police officer relayed that Luke and Spencer had been found to the other search parties that were starting to retreat back to the town for the duration of the storm.
"I can live with that," Spencer sighed. "We did come to conclusions about the unusb, actually."
"Yeah, how long have we been missing?"
"Three days," Rossi replied, as he wrapped his arms around them to guide them down the trail. He was very relieved to have found htem.
Luke nodded. "We got out of the caverns at dawn this morning, so I guess he had us for about two days, maybe two and a half?"
"Explains why you're so hungry," Rossi replied, attempting to herd them down the trail.
"Oh, it's more than that," Spencer replied, before he launched into an explanation of what he and Luke had discussed, with Luke adding helpful interjections.
Rossi sat them down with the paramedics once they arrived. "Great job, I'll tell Emily, now you two need to stop thinking about the case so much and worry about yourselves, once you're clear to eat, you can get food. It's on me," he added as he turned away to call Emily and give her a proper update.
Spencer and Luke gave each other a relieved look and leaned on each other as they answered questions.
They really were mostly just hungry, and no signs of a concussion.
So Rossi drove them to a restaurant to get them some food, and make sure they didn't make themselves sick.