Chapter VI

She was getting really concerned now. She could understand the colonel's wish for them to stay in a secure area while she was unconscious, but now she was on her feet, shouldn't he press on? Try and find some way out of the chaos that they had found themselves in? Was he just not caring? Or… The thought had struck her some time ago, and it bothered her greatly. His actions and his decisions spoke of a desire to do nothing, to just sit and wait. That was not the Colonel O'Neill she had gotten to know.

Was he someone how being affected by something? She recalled that while under the influence of Artemis's collars, they had been turned into what they feared the most. For the Colonel that had been helpless. Useless. Prey. That was how he was acting now, and it worried her severely. Because if the Colonel could act that way, was it possible that they all were? Well, she and Daniel would probably be showing more aggressive tendencies if that were true, and she certainly wasn't feeling the need to go o9ut and hunt something.

She was however, feeling the need to go off and find a way out. Was that bad? She shook her head. No, it couldn't have been. It was normal for her. She was military. Trapped on an alien environment, it was her training to get back home. No matter where she could be trapped, either another country or a planet, it the training of every soldier to seek a way home. Getting up, she walked over to the colonel, who was currently lounging against the hut that she had woken up in. "Um, Sir?"

He raised his hand to her. "Hey Carter, come and sit down, you must be tired after all that walking around you were doing." He shifted over and patted the ground next to him. She decided that if she was going to try and convince him, then she would need to comply at least a little.

Sitting down, she shifted her weight to compensate for the lower centre of gravity. Putting her head back against the wall, she looked up the perfect sky again and tried to hear something. There was still nothing. It just seemed… odd to her, that there would be no sounds, other than those that they made. "Colonel, don't you think we should be getting a move on? We need to be finding a way home, and we can't do that when we're sitting on our behinds, can we?"

Jack sighed heavily, as if he didn't really want to talk, just sit. "You know, Carter, you're over-thinking does sometimes annoy me. We're in a beautiful place; can't you just for once unwind? Take the rod out and stop being so stiff." He stretched out, crossing his legs at the ankles.

She couldn't believe what she was hearing, it sounded like he had complimented an alien planet. That was erratic behaviour. Getting up, she walked away from him, skirting around where Teal'c was, and headed straight for Daniel. He was busy using a piece of chalk to draw on the wall what looked like a map of the farm. "Planning something?" She asked, sitting next to him and getting comfortable.

Daniel merely grunted and tapped the wall, at a point she knew was on the other side of the compound. "There." He looked over his shoulder slightly at her. "I'm guessing he didn't like the idea?" He said, now talking to her and using a cloth to wipe his hands clean.

Sam shook her head sadly. "No, it's making me worried. What if he's acting like he did last time? Could we deal with that?"

Daniel's eyebrows moved up and down, and then settled into that classic Daniel frown. "I don't know. I mean, if he is acting like it, do you have any authority to do something about it? I'm not up on the military ways, so I wouldn't know what to do."

Sam thought heavily. Under normal circumstances, there wasn't anything she could do, but could she claim medical incompetence? Simply take Daniel and head back, get a Medical Team together and come back for them? Would they even be alive? It was a sticky situation. One she did not like, but one she had been forced into. She ran the situation over in her mind. Looked at it from all ways. In the end, she could see no true escape. Going without them could cause some serious reprimand issues, maybe even a court-martial, but then, if it got them back safely, she'd brave it.

Looking over at Daniel, she sighed heavily. "Okay, I say that if we head out, get back to Earth and come back with reinforcements, then we can get them out and hopefully avoid any serious repercussions. It's risky, however."

Daniel nodded. "We really don't have much choice, though, do we?" His expression told her that he already knew the answer, and was just confirming. She looked back at the map. "Where are we?" He pointed. "You said something about here." She indicated where he tapped the map earlier. "Were you planning on this before I came over?" His sheepish expression told her that he had more of a tactical mind than any of them had given him credit for.

She glanced back at the Colonel, who hadn't moved. Then at Teal'c. He wasn't doing anything, just standing, trying to look like he was busy watching. Tapping his shoulder, she motioned to Daniel to be quiet. Crouching down low, she moved around the building, keeping it between them and the others. "Okay. Our exit is that broken gate. We'll need to run. Wait for me to reach there then give it a count of five."

Peeking around the corner at the Colonel, she waited until she was sure that he wasn't [paying any attention, and took off. Keeping her head low and moving as silently as she could on the gravel. It wasn't hard, but she had reached the gate, and thus the tree-line without anyone calling after her. Dropping to her knees, she looked back. He hadn't even moved an inch. Teal'c was still doing whatever it was he did.

She could see Daniel preparing himself for the sprint. The whole scene seemed to slow down for her. She watched Daniel took off, just as Jack moved. He followed the linguist for a second, and then their eyes met. She stared into his expression, and saw the confusion there, but only for a moment. Daniel had reached her, and she spun on her heel to dart into the confines of the trees and out of his line of sight. They ran for a time she couldn't count, and then stopped, breathless. Daniel staggered to the ground, gasping for breath.

Sam looked back the way they had come, wondering what Jack would do. Would he come after them? Or just sit there and shrug it off? She couldn't guess at this point, but she needed to work under the assumption that he would be after them. To do anything else now would be stupid. They had had the advantage of surprise, but that was lost. Now they had distance. They couldn't loose it. She gave Daniel as much time as she dared before dragging him to his feet and heading deeper into the forest.