Author's Note: In the autumn when I was a kid my parents let me rake all the leaves into piles in the front yard (for jumping into later). One time as I was doing this, a friend came by just as I was finishing up – it was dusk and she was riding her bike home. Upon seeing me she paused, surveying the numerous mounds that littered the yard, remarking, "Ooo, that looks neat in the dark," and then what she said next would haunt me for many years to come; "Wouldn't it be creepy if the piles started moving and tried to eat you?"


The Gloaming

by Bremm

Chapter 2

"Is it dead?" Rodney asked in a small, quiet voice, as if he were afraid that asking the question might suddenly bring it back to life.

Ronon, in what Rodney thought was an impressive feat of courage, strode forward and nudged the remnants of the dirt pile with a boot. Rodney cringed, but the dirt pile remained just that – a dirt pile.

"Oh thank god..." he breathed, and leaned over and rested two hands on his knees, just concentrating on catching his breath and getting rid of the excruciating stitch in his side.

Teyla crashed through the brush next to them the same moment Sheppard's voice came over the radio, worried, "Are you guys alright? Did it work?"

"It's dead." Ronon remarked.

Sheppard's sigh of relief was audible over the radio connection.

"Ronon!" Teyla hissed, and something in her voice made Rodney's head jerk up and Ronon raise his gun.

The sun was almost set – it was just a splash of red on the horizon – and in the dim light, Ronon squinted into the trees. Rodney fumbled with the P90 he'd let hang from his chest, saying with dread, "Oh god, what is it now?"

Teyla had her own P90 trained on the forest line of the small clearing they'd made with the explosion. She took slow, careful steps until she and Ronon were standing shoulder to shoulder. "I am not sure." she said softly.

"Guys?" Sheppard asked, the trepidation in his voice palpable, and Teyla slowly keyed her radio and said, "Not now, Colonel."

The noise reached them first. A faint rustle that Rodney mistook at first for the wind through the trees; only to realize, like a punch to the gut, that there wasno wind.

"Move!" Ronon suddenly barked and in tandem the three of them turned and bolted before even seeing why.

Unable to help himself, Rodney threw a quick glance over his shoulder- the entire forest bed was alive, rising up and seeming to surge from nothingness, plowing forward with chilling speed. Trees were knocked down and the foliage was eaten up by a massive, undecipherable mass-

Teyla turned and fired an experimental burst of P90 rounds at the approaching tide-

"It's useless," Rodney moaned, his legs churning and eating up the distance. "We've just woken up the dirt pile's friends-"

"Guys, the LSD is going nuts! I've reading massive, massive power-"

No one bothered to reply, focused on simply running. The sun was falling lower and lower on the horizon, giving off a practically useless amount of light. Rodney tripped on something and stumbled, almost falling if not for Ronon seizing the back of his vest and keeping him upright. Rodney and Teyla powered on the flashlights mounted to their P90s almost simultaneously, not even having to voice it, training the twin beams of light on the ground a few feet ahead of them.

"We can't run forever." Ronon remarked through gritted teeth. He holstered his gun and darted closer to McKay, barking, "Your rifle, give it to me!"

Rodney's gut instinct screamedno! but almost thoughtlessly his hands were shoving the P90 into Ronon's outstretched arms-

Behind him, Teyla stumbled in the suddenly diminished light, Rodney was grabbing at her, hauling her along and keeping her upright, one hand reaching down and grabbing her arm that held the P90, lifting it up along with her and keeping it trained forward so they could at least begin to see where they were going-

Ronon turned and let loose with a full automatic spray, long and hard, round after round after round until Rodney's ears were ringing. Ronon kept his finger on the trigger until the chamber clicked empty, empty-

"McKay, how do we stop them?!" Ronon roared, and Rodney's mind was completely white, his body moving on autopilot, his breath thundering in his ears-

How do we stop them? His mind was like molasses, worse yet because there was a nagging feeling that he was forgetting, some trivial little thing he saw that was the key to it-

"McKay!" Ronon yelled again, his hands fumbling and tugging at Rodney's vest, pulling out the spare P90 clips. Teyla groped at her own vest, handing her spare clips to Ronon as they ran and staggered through the forest, moving as one around tress, crashing through low-growing foliage-

The light from Teyla's P90 was weaving crazily on the ground in front of them. Rodney wracked his brains, the P90 fire cutting across the sound of cracking timber and low rumbling of vast amounts of earth rolling forward...

They're machines, energy signatures, self controlled or remotely? He can't tell, but they all move with one purpose – the death of the first machine must have triggered an alarm, bringing all of them to life, meaning all the machines were linked together, feeding off a unified awareness. Stood to reason that they could all be stopped simultaneously. But what was their purpose? What ultimate command directive were they following?

"Sheppard-" Rodney gasped into the radio, "The energy signatures, what does it say about them?"

"Rodney, I have no idea how to read this thing! I can't understand any of these symbols!"

Oh, for the love of- "The right-hand column, there should be several lines of writing. What's on the first line?" he demanded.

"McKay, we don't have time for this!" Ronon growled, moving mechanically and yanking another empty P90 clip and slamming home a fresh one.

"Just a bunch of Ancient symbols... the third one I recognize, it's the last chevron for the gate address to Atlantis from Earth... the rest I have no idea, one's like a backwards F, there's a upside-down 4..."

Rodney's brain ran into overdrive as soon as Sheppard mentioned the Pegasus galaxy gate symbol, "The energy signature is Ancient!"

"Why is it attacking us, then?" Teyla asked, sweat running down her face. One hand was balled up into a fist, grasping Rodney's sleeve, to keep the both of them balanced and to prevent either of them falling. "Should it not recognize the Ancient gene in Rodney?"

"Maybe it does," Rodney rasped, the stitch in his side feeling like a spike driving into his flesh, "Maybe it's not even after me, just the two of you because you don't have it. I've been with Ronon this whole time, we never split up after we triggered the first one-"

Ronon's huge hand was on Rodney's shoulder, gripping tight, "Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm not sure!" Rodney replied, eyes wild. "I could be completely wrong!"

"Go help Sheppard!" Ronon said fiercely and shoved Rodney away. Rodney barely had time to let out an angry shout. Teyla's fist released his sleeve in surprise as Rodney staggered to the side, balance gone and arms flailing as his feet caught in the underbrush. He tumbled into a painful heap on the forest floor, feeling the long pine-like needles digging into his skin. He closed his eyes, waiting for impending death. The low rumble of vast amounts of moving earth was loud, the ground beneath him shaking with the force of it-

The machines passed by him harmlessly. Rodney cringed and opened his eyes, watching in disbelief as the earth rushed by with terrifying speed, moving around him as if he were surrounded by a protective bubble. Once the initial shock passed, Rodney's hand flew up and keyed his radio, sputtering, "Ronon, you reckless, moronic-"completely beside himself, Rodney snarled, "I could have died!"

"You didn't,"was the calm reply.

Pulling himself to his feet, feeling winded and shaky, Rodney retorted in a wavy voice, "Don't ever, ever, do that again." Sucking in a deep breath, he demanded, "What are the two of you planning to do now?"

"We'll make it back to the Jumper."

"The Jumper is well over two miles out from where we are – you can't possibly think you can maintain that pace all the way there. Plus, what's to stop the machines from-"

"Attacking the Jumper? The same thing that prevented them from attacking you."Ronon stated. "Do you have a better idea?"

Rodney swallowed a scathing reply – he didn't. "I'll, uh..." he wracked his brains, trying to come up with anything, but there just wasn't enough information. "I'll figure out how to turn them off. Once I rescue Sheppard, I'll find a way. Just... just make it to the Jumper, okay?"

"We'll be fine, Rodney." Teyla's voice said reassuringly.

"Like I haven't heard that one before," Rodney muttered darkly to himself. Belatedly realizing that Ronon still had his P90, Rodney felt oddly naked without it. One hand dug into his vest pockets, noticing with a start that he was standing in a rapidly darkening forest full of killer robots with nothing more than a .9 millimeter hand gun.

He pulled out a small flashlight, wondering depressingly if he'd remembered to change the batteries recently. Apparently not, for the beam came out low and weak, but it was better than nothing.

"Sheppard," he called over the radio, feeling very alone and lost."Do you have me on the life-signs detector?"

"Yeah. I'm southwest of you... start walking towards me and I'll correct you as you go along."

Rodney started off slowly in a vaguely southern direction until Sheppard had him pointed the right way, then set off at a brisk walk, heart still hammering in his chest and the pistol grip of his sidearm warming in his hand.


-to be continued