"Hello, hello

Anybody out there? Cause I don't hear a sound"

John became aware of the wind first, gently brushing against his face and tugging at his hair. The cool air gradually brought John to consciousness. Prying his lids apart he saw a vague blur of green, brown, and blue. Once he had blinked a few times his vision cleared and he could see trees and sky. He felt hard ground of the woods beneath his back.

"Ronon, Teyla, Rodney?" John called softly. "Anybody there?"

Gingerly he rolled over, scanning his surroundings in search of his teammates. However, his looking produced nothing. All that the pilot could see were dead leaves carpeting the forest floor, tall trees of various widths crowding around him, and a bright blue sky overhead. No sound reached his ears, the forest was deadly silent. Seeing no other option John crawled to his feet, picked a direction, and started walking.

"Alone, alone

I don't really know where the world is but I miss it now"

By nothing other than pure chance John found the Stargate. After hours of wandering the sight was heaven on earth, or whatever this planet was called. Scurrying towards it, John looked for the DHD. For a moment John wondered if it had been overgrown with weeds or, for some unknown reason, the Ancients had put it somewhere other than normal. A more careful search proved as fruitless as the first. The DHD was nowhere to be found.

John dropped to the ground next to the Stargate, desperately fighting against the onslaught of depression the news brought on. On his aimless trek he had found nothing to suggest he had ever been here before, and it was definitely not the planet he last remembered being on. He didn't know what world he was on or how to go to his own world. John already felt loneliness grip his chest, he missed Atlantis and his team. If they were there they would know what to do. But they weren't.

John was alone.

"I'm out on the edge and I'm screaming my name

Like a fool at the top of my lungs"

After an impossibly long night spent hoping his team would come and no man-eating predator was nearby, John left the comforting sight of the Stargate in the hopeless search for one or more of his teammates. The only thing he had to go on was the hope that one of his team was on the planet with him. Most of him didn't think so, the rest of him didn't care what most of him thought.

It was getting dark when John came to the edge of a deep canyon that would have given the Grand Canyon a run for its money. He stood staring at it for a long time. It was a breathtaking sight. The layers of orange rock shone in the sunset which in itself was beautiful and full of color.

Frustration tugged at John, making itself known for the first time. He couldn't get off this planet by himself, his team was nowhere to be found, and he had no way of knowing if they got home or if they were dead. John wanted to be with people, a strange concept seeing as how he had been a loner for most of the first 35 years of his life. Yet he did. John wanted – needed – his team, his family. He wanted someone to talk to, someone to simply share in company. If only to hear someone say his name with warm recognition John would have given an arm and a leg.

In frustration he yelled into the canyon at first only a yell but then his echo responded, copying the sound. Then, still wanting to hear his own name, he yelled his name and heard it repeated back to him as it bounced of the canyon's walls. It was a pretty stupid idea, he'd no doubt alerted anything and everything, prey or predator, to his presence. John wasn't fully certain he cared at that point.

"Sometimes when I close my eyes I pretend I'm alright

But it's never enough"

John kept track of the days, though he didn't know how many hours composed one of the wretched planet's days. He counted 34 days so far on a little stick which he added a tally on every day with his knife. He had made a home in a cave he had found, nothing special. All it consisted of was a fire pit in the center, a pile of skins that John had acquired from a shaggy lion-like animal, and his weapons.

Silently John dropped himself onto his furs and took up the bow he'd been trying to make. He remembered making one back when he was a teenager, it had been a fairly good bow but he'd been much more interested in guns and airplanes at the time. Running his hands across the wood as he felt for rough spots John closed his eyes and leaned his head against the solid rock of his cave. John's mind conjured up worthless lies that he was going to be fine, his team would still find him, he could survive okay by himself until they came.

It didn't work though, not anymore. He had stopped believing his lies a long time ago.

"Cause my echo, echo

Is the only voice coming back

My shadow, shadow

Is the only friend that I have"

Visiting the canyon was somehow relaxing for John. Some days he would walk to the canyon and stare at quietly it for hours. Other days he would shout, if only to hear a voice respond to him. John hadn't found any natives on the planet to talk to other than the wildlife and, frankly, they didn't have much by way of conversation.

Today John did shout. "Where are you guys, huh? Did you forget about me?"

He didn't know how long he spent asking the canyon where his friends were but he stopped when his throat began to hurt.

"Where are you," John whispered brokenly. No answering echo told John where.

John turned away from the canyon, his heart weighing down his chest and his feet shuffling against the dirt and patches of grass.

All the way back to his cave John watched his shadow, his sole friend in that quiet world.

"Listen, listen

I would take a whisper if that's all you had to give

But it isn't, isn't

You could come and save me and try to chase the crazy right out of my head"

On a dreary day when the clouds flocked around the sky and rain drizzled against the vibrant grass John wished more than ever for a companion. He listened carefully to the sounds around him hearing the rain, the fire, and his breathing. He flipped his radio between both hands, wanting nothing more than for it to crackle to life with the sound of Rodney's voice.

John wondered if maybe he would go insane from the loneliness. He wondered if he might go crazy if someone didn't show up to save him. John could think of no better cure for craziness and insanity than his team, or even a friendly face. That cure would have been very nice right about then.

"I don't wanna be down and

I just wanna feel alive and

Get to see your face again"

John loathed depression, it dragged him down into depths he didn't like falling to. He wanted to feel alive again, to feel the thrill of flying through the air in a Puddle Jumper. He wanted to listen to Teyla's laughter and to hear Rodney's non-stop rants. Hell, he even wanted Ronon to beat him into a pulp again. He wanted to see their faces again.

"But 'til then

Just my echo, my shadow

You're my only friend"

One stick had grown to two. Both sticks together counted 67 of the planet's days, however long those were. Now John felt a near imperceptible change in the weather, it seemed to be getting cooler and the trees began to turn brown. Winter was on its way. John knew it would be a struggle to survive winter on his own, but if nothing else he hadn't lost the will to live.

He killed an animal very similar to a beaver, it had two huge front teeth that John fastened to a sturdy stick and used to hack down trees. It took several days of hard labor but soon John had ten thick trees leaned up against the cave entrance. Using some of the thicker branches John was able to link them together with a strong vine and create something of a door.

Sometimes when John was working he thought he saw people out of the corner of his eye but whenever he turned to look more closely the image would be gone. His mind must be playing tricks on him, if people knew he was here they would tell him. Since there were no other people then the only possible explanation was his friends, and his friends wouldn't be hiding and watching him when they could be get him of this stupid rock of a planet. A stupid rock where his only friends were his echo and his shadow.

Rocking back on his heels to admire his handiwork John's mind wandered to his team once more. Certainly they couldn't have forgotten him, there was still a chance they would come for him... right? John wasn't so sure anymore, he would have to except the fact that this was his home. No, not his home, his cage. Atlantis was his home, and always would be. This place where he must live, where he was confined, held captive, was his prison.

It was a lonely prison.

"Hello, hello

Anybody out there?"

Okay, I've never ever done a songfic before but as I was listening to this song an image of Sheppard alone on a planet popped into my head and this came out in a couple of hours. The song is called Echo by Jason Walker and it is a beautiful song in my opinion, I do not own it so I put it in quotes. In any case I hope you enjoyed my attempt!

P.S. If anyone knows of a happy song that could serve as a sequel, I'm open to a happier ending.