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“Suspect is on the move!” Jay Halstead shouted into his radio, not even having to glance over his shoulder to know Hailey was on his heels. He easily cleared a small fence in pursuit of their runaway and growled under his breath. So much for the element of surprise. Something—or someone—must have clued their suspect in to the fact that the cops were after him.
“He’s headed into the old warehouse on Lakeview!” Jay alerted Atwater and Ruzek, who had been in a separate car as backup. He raised his voice. “Stop, CPD!” His warning went unheeded as Jahri disappeared into the abandoned building on the corner.
Jay charged in after him, eyes on their man as he raced around the chunks of concrete and debris littering the floor of the warehouse. Their foot chase took them around a corner and up a flight of stairs.
Jay called out to the suspect again but was ignored. His hand went to his holster as he ran. Maybe the threat of using lethal force would be enough to frighten Jahri into complying, although he doubted it. The man was intent on eluding him and Hailey. His best bet was to catch up to the guy and take him down the old-fashioned way.
However, as Jay rounded the slight corner, he wasn’t expecting the sudden dropoff caused by a partially caved-in floor. He scrambled to avoid the hole, but his right foot slipped on the edge of the broken concrete, and he found himself falling.
By some miracle, his reflexes were quick enough that his hands managed to latch onto a tiny ledge created by the flooring surrounding the giant hole, keeping him from what would most likely have been a fatal drop. That was close. The detective grunted when his body came into contact with the layer of concrete that served as the second story’s floor.
"Go, go!" he hollered as he heard Upton’s worried call and approaching footsteps. He grunted as he desperately tried to maintain his grip on the edge of the hole. "I'm fine!"
It was about five seconds after Upton skirted around the debris and disappeared after their suspect that Jay realized that he was not, in fact, fine.
“Ah!” he cried out. It shouldn't have been a problem. He should've been able to easily hike himself up and continue the chase. But he was...caught on something?
He was suddenly aware of the feeling of warm, sticky liquid dribbling down his side. That's when the pain struck him. He clenched his teeth together as his fingers dug into the thin ledge. Crap . He tried to glance down to figure out what he'd been caught on, but he was barely able to hold himself up as it was—which meant there was no way he was letting go with one hand to reach his radio.
Trying to swing a leg up over the side sent a stabbing pain twisting in his lower left side, and Jay gasped. His grip was already wearing out...he didn't know how much longer he could hold—
"Halstead!" Atwater's worried voice echoed through the giant warehouse, and suddenly there were hands on his, keeping him from losing his grip and dropping through the floor.
"I've got you, man," Atwater grunted. He moved as if to pull Jay up.
"Wait—” Jay's warning was cut off by a cry of pain as he jostled against whatever was caught in his side.
Atwater froze, eyes widening. "Crap, man, what's wrong?"
Jay gritted his teeth. "Caught...on somethin'."
Ruzek ducked down next to the two men, trying to get a clearer view. His face scrunched up in a "this-is-not-good" kind of look. "I think he's stuck on a piece of rebar. Stabbed right into his side."
Jay barely processed the words. His mind was other places—like, what about the suspect? "Where's...Up—Upton—?"
"She got Jahri," Ruzek told him. "Burgess is with her." He offered no further explanation, instead craning his neck toward his radio to relay their predicament and call for more backup. "We're gonna need CFD up here. Fast." He shot a worried gaze at Jay.
For his part, Jay was just glad he had Atwater holding him up. Otherwise, there was no way he wouldn't have fallen. His side felt like a dagger had just been shoved into it—which, he guessed, really wasn't that far from the truth.
"Stay with me, man," Atwater was saying, keeping his hands clasped tightly around Jay's wrists. "Breathe."
Right. The short, shallow gasps he was huffing in and out didn't exactly qualify as breaths, considering how empty his lungs felt. He tried to suck in a deep breath and regretted it. Sharp pain tore through his impaled side. Everything hurt.
"Hope you're up to date on your tetanus shot, bro." Ruzek tried to keep his tone light, but even in his injured, unfocused state, Jay could make out the underlying concern in his fellow cop's voice.
"They're here." Ruzek's voice cut through Jay's jumbled thoughts again, drawing his attention to the approaching crew of firefighters. "That rebar's digging into his torso," he explained quickly, moving aside for Squad 3 to take over.
"We've got it from here." Kelly Severide appeared in Jay's line of vision as two other squad members took Atwater's place holding him up, squinting as he took in the situation. "Yeah, it's in pretty deep. We need to move quick." He glanced over his shoulder.
"What do you think? Cutters?" Jay knew the voice sounded familiar, but he couldn't quite place it and from his current position he wasn't able to see whoever had just spoken.
Severide shook his head. "No, cutters would cause too much of a jolt. Tony!"
"Yeah?"
"Grab me the whizzer saw."
Now that sounded intense. Jay let out a stuttering gasp as another wave of pain hit him unexpectedly.
"Hey, it's okay, Halstead," Severide tried to calm him, taking a piece of equipment from another fireman. "We'll have you out of here in no time. Just try to stay as still as possible, all right?"
Jay gave a tired nod, trying to figure out just how much time had passed since he'd fallen. There was a definite possibility that he'd blacked out for a few seconds there, but even so it felt like he'd been dangling in this precarious position for hours.
He squeezed his eyes shut as the CFD crew worked to free him, trying to think of anything but the sharp piece of metal he could feel stabbing into his torso.
"Hold him!" Severide called. The rebar broke free, and Jay couldn't help but let out a pained yelp when they pulled him carefully out of the hole and back to safety.
"Okay, okay, watch that side." Voices blurred together as Jay felt himself being shifted around. Ouch ouch ouch .
"Some stab wound you've got there, man," Atwater told him as the paramedics worked to secure the bit of rebar still in his side to prepare him for transport. "You've got to stop doing stuff like this to yourself."
Jay wanted to shoot back a sarcasm-laced retort, but he just didn't have the energy or brain-power to come up with anything worthwhile. So he settled for an annoyed glare, doing his best to ignore the pain while he was moved out of the warehouse and to the waiting ambulance. Jahri had better be their guy, because if Jay took a piece of metal to the abdomen in an attempt to catch him, it needed to be worth it.