Written for my pal, Hope.

Over the Edge

Guns firing rapidly in their outstretched hands, John Sheppard & Teyla Emmagan ran steadily towards the western horizon.

"How many are there?!" Teyla shouted as they continued, her breath slightly rasped.

Sheppard took another shot behind them, this one over his left shoulder and hitting the chest of one of their oncoming attackers who fell awkwardly face first onto the dusty ground.

"I don't know!" he yelled back watching Teyla hurtle over a large rock in her way. "Maybe fifty!"

Their mission to this world had obviously gone very wrong. They'd been sent to Planet YMA626 in hopes of meeting a much-talked-about race called the Morrows, a traders group who were highly regarded on many other planets.

But their arrival to the planet had only brought Colonel Sheppard and his team to meet another race; one far less peaceful as they ones they'd hoped to meet.

The town had been empty; presumably the entire Morrow clan had been killed though none of them had found any bodies.

Ronon and Rodney had gone back through the Stargate to assemble reinforcements to help them scour the planet while Sheppard and Teyla remained behind to begin the search for any survivors.

It wasn't more than thirty minutes after the other two had left before Teyla had heard a soft sound from the nearby woods that she thought could have been a moan; some sort of cry for help.

She radioed Sheppard who then met her by the tree line and together they had entered, ready for anything.

But not ready for them.

Human-like creatures with strange marks and tattoos covering their faces had come from practically every angle surrounding them, all of them with sneering lips and deep guttural sounds emerging from within. They carried deadly looking spears, blades, and arrows; the tips dripping with blood from freshly killed victims.

Sheppard, aware they held no technological weapons, tried to ward them off, pointing his gun at them and saying gently, "Now, now boys. See this? This will kill you in an instant, so you should really rethink this strategy you got going……"

The nearest of the strange tribesmen lunged at Sheppard; an eerie shriek escaping him as he flung himself through the air with arrow raised.

Sheppard shot him straight through the neck leaving a spurt of blood to come flying out the back end and spraying over several of his kin.

"Teyla…..," Sheppard said warningly, realizing that may have not been the smartest move considering how many of them were increasingly emerging from tree and brush.

She took his unspoken message and the two of them began slowly retreating back towards the tree line keeping their weapons poised in hand.

It wasn't more than five seconds or so before the entire swarm of tribesmen came rushing towards them like a pack of wolves, primal and unrestrained.

Sheppard and Teyla each shot a few of them before turning their slow back pace into a full out run heading towards the Stargate.

Here, they were running for their lives again; something to them that never seemed to get old.

Sheppard clicked his hand against his earpiece letting it squawk once before shouting into it, "Ronon, Rodney, get your asses back here NOW with those reinforcements! Teyla and I are heading back towards the ridge and are being pursued by a bunch of freaking cavemen!"

"Roger that Sheppard," Rodney's voice came back a little too calm, causing Sheppard to grimace outwardly.

"Roger that; I'll give him 'Roger that'….," he muttered angrily to himself.

Sheppard had been leading the way and his momentary distraction had caused him to make a slight error in direction.

There had been two paths in the direction they'd taken. One towards the Stargate and the other….well, they really didn't know where it went.

In all the excitement of being chased and dodging the whistling thump of incoming spears that seemed to never end, he had chosen the wrong path and Teyla only came to realize this as he did to which they both exchanged a troublesome look.

"Well be fine," he reassured her over the rushing air of their run. "There must be another way to the gate from here, wherever this comes out."

She nodded and just barely escaped catching a throwing knife in the back, hearing the whoosh-whoosh of it turning over through the air a second before it would hit.

They ran for almost an hour. They were beyond tired and had no idea where they were headed. The adrenaline within them was winding down and fatigue was starting to wear their muscles thin. The pack of blood-thirsty warriors were relentless behind them.

"Well be fine," Sheppard said again.

"Yes, you keep saying that Colonel," Teyla said back pointedly.

Sheppard shrugged, "Yeah, well……"

Then they both stopped dead in their tracks. Sheppard put out a hand to even ensure Teyla had stopped so that she would not fall off the unending cliff they had just emerged upon. It ran straight along the edge of the woods and Sheppard could see no other paths. He looked down over, watching the skidding rocks and dirt sift down from their stomping pace and listened to them echo and clatter against the rock wall and assumed it splashed into the faraway water he could barely see below.

"Crap," he said aloud.

"Yes," Teyla repeated. "I believe so."

Before Sheppard had time to even consider forming a plan or reassuring Teyla once again, their enemies gathered behind them and Sheppard felt a hard knot form in his chest.

Panic.

"Teyla, get behind me," he said, trying to think of anything.

"Never," she said, raising her gun high and taking perfect aim on one of their heads.

Boom.

Her shot rang out and it had been perfect indeed, landing right in the center of the forehead of the far left tribesman.

But as the noise in her gun had emitted, one of the other tribesmen had released his spear from the far right and it nicked Teyla's shoulder hard and sent her spinning into the air and over the cliff.

"NOOOO!!!!" Sheppard screamed, reaching out pointlessly towards her blurred form.

He watched her fall down the abyss towards the dark waters below and anger washed over him and he turned back towards their attackers.

"I'll be back for all you sons of bitches….." he said calmly and evenly looking at many of them directly in the eye, just as they released a swarm of arrows towards him. Then Sheppard took a running jump over the cliff after her.

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