CHAPTER 11 – A CAMERA NOT A WEAPON

John led the scientists to the area where they needed to be to collect their samples and found himself automatically scanning the area again to make sure that they were alone. A tiny, very subtle spike of unease had begun to creep it's insistent finger down his spine. Not enough to cause his extremely sensitive 'spidey senses' to kick in, but enough that he remained more vigilante than usual, aware that he had not only his science team to look after, but a photographer as well – a woman who had begun to insert herself rather firmly under his somewhat jaded and hardened skin. And he was not sure that he was entirely comfortable with the ease with which she appeared to do it.

Nicole changed to a macro lens to get close up shots of some of the plant foliage, the indigenous insects and some particularly stunning flowers that grew at the edge of the clearing in which the scientists were working. They were a deep tangerine in colour, ringed in purple with black centres and similarly shaped to a tulip, but not as closed. They emitted a sweet, almost overpowering scent that left her feeling a little light headed and it was only after dropping down to one knee on the ground to get the close shots with her macro lens that she heard one of the biologists call out to her not to handle any of the plants without gloves, particularly the untested ones. John's ears had sharpened when he heard the scientist call out, and his eyes automatically tracked Nicole's actions.

"Nicole?" he called across the clearing to her, eyes narrowing when he saw her down on one knee, close to one of the beautifully coloured flowers. "You didn't touch anything, did you? Sort of an unwritten rule out here. If you don't have prior approval, don't touch, , drink, taste or sample in any way or form. Got that?" His expression had hardened as he waited for her reply and he began to close the distance from where he stood keeping watch.

"Does that include smell?" Her voice sounded far away to her own ears and seemed to go in and out of clarity. She sat back on her foot, feeling a slight dizziness and brought her camera down, blinking rapidly. She watched as John's face swam in and out of focus like a lens that needed adjusting and no longer held sharpness. She saw him moving across the clearing towards her as if in slow motion and shook her head to clear the fogginess from it, her camera dropping down to her side, falling hard against her leg. Her axis seemed to tilt and her body listed sideways just as John reached her side and he reached out to grip her arm tightly.

"Damn it! Did you touch anything?" Not waiting for an answer, he looked anxiously toward the scientists. "Peter? Michael?". They were across the clearing busily collecting samples and oblivious to what was happening.

Michael raised his head and replied. "What's up Colonel?" He straightened from his task and began to move across the clearing towards them while Peter remained focused on his task.

"This plant? Any testing been done on it yet?" John indicated the brightly coloured flower, his eyes flicking sideways to Nicole and Michael shifted his attention from John to the flowers, looking down at them thoughtfully before transferring his attention to Nicole. John had her in a secure grip and the biologist noticed the unfocused look and the listless way she held her camera. He moved forward, alarm registering in his eyes and placed a hand on her brow finding it cool to the touch and shrugged his shoulders at John.

"I'm no medical doctor, but there appears to be no fever. By outwards appearances it would seem that she is suffering from some sort of hallucinory effect. Narcotic symptons maybe?" He knelt down beside the plant, taking care not to inhale too deeply and took a small sample before indicating that they should distance themselves until they knew what properties the plant contained.

Nicole watched the proceedings as though she was a third party observer. She watched Michael take the samples, felt John's hand tightly clamping her arm, then suddenly felt the overwhelming urge to simply get away. She pulled her arm sharply out of his grip and forced her legs to move, fast – then faster, hearing the sound of swearing then movement behind her. She didn't know where she was going, had no concept of direction or distance, just the overwhelming urge to simply get away. She barely registered the bushes and leaves that slapped at her face and carelessly disregarded the fact that these may have contagions or other debilitating properties, both blatently and unwittingly ignoring the rule of 'do not touch' out there in that alien landscape. At some point her feet became entangled but she righted herself before she fell and pushed on faster. Then the sensation of falling through nothing, as darkness enclosed her.

John was momentarily frozen when she broke free and it cost him several precious seconds before he was able to mutter an oath and send the appropriate response to his legs to begin the chase. The crashing of bushes and branches alerted him as to the direction she had taken and he instantly registered the speed with which she appeared to be moving away from him. He threw a hurried command behind him. "Peter, Michael – need some help here! Head her off – she's gone in that direction... We need to stop her before she hurts herself!"

Peter had looked up startled as John called out and spying his teammate about to move off in the opposite direction to the one that Nicole had taken, he put down his collection containers he had been holding and quickly followed.

John easily followed the path through the bushes. Even without his excellent tracking skills, he would have been unable to miss the trail of broken bushes and the flattened undergrowth. Stealth was obviously not on her agenda. It appeared that simply fright and flight had been the only thing driving her and wondered briefly, at the demons that infilitrated her mind now, making her see something that was simply not really there. He thought he heard her cry out but the sound was slightly distorted and seemed to come from a long distance away. A portion of his mind took in the fact that there appeared to be a new quality in the air. It seemed much damper and with that came the realisation that a heavy mist had begun to infiltrate the previous still and clear air, seemingly coming out of nowhere and settled down, pushing towards the ground from the tops of the trees, beginning to enclose them in an eerie veil of white.

"Peter! Michael!" John called out urgently to the scientists in an attempt to get a lock on the direction they had taken and heaved a sigh of relief when they called out in response from his immediate left. He heard no sound from Nicole and the noise of movement through the bush had ceased after he had heard her cry out. His own movements had become more cautious and less hurried as he continued, his visibility reduced almost to none with the enclosing heavy mist of white that had settled so completely over everything. He felt the ground move slightly beneath his feet and catching himself sharply just as the two scientists moved into his line of vision from the left side, having circled back around at the sound of his voice. He peered down through the swirling white, amazed at how fast the mist had come down and saw the deep black hole that he teetered on the edge of, and motioning wildly with his hands, he indicated to the scientists that they should stay back until he had time to investigate the circumference of the hole.

He called down into it, squatting down carefully at the edge and cupping his hands around his mouth. "Nicole! Hey, Nic... are you down there? Make a sound, anything... let us know that you're ok..." He waited a full sixty seconds for a response and when none came, he tried again.

"Nic?" Silence, then a far away groan rose up to meet him and he immediately drew himself up from his squatting position and walked carefully around the hole, stopping every few feet to call down again, attempting to get an accurate bearing on where she had fallen in.

Another groan sounded, still reasonably faint and far away and he tried to think quickly, knowing that she had likely slipped and falled down into the hole and while he knew at least that she was alive, it was inevitable that she was hurt and would require assistance to get herself out of the hole. He mentally catalogued the equipment that he had in the jumper, skimming over the ropes and other likely equipment that he would need, and called back to the scientists.

"Peter, Michael. I need some climbing equipment out of the jumper. I think she's down there and likely injured. You two wait here – keep talking to her while I double back and get the equipment I need to get down there. Ok?"

Michael grabbed at his arm as John moved past him, heading back to the jumper, peering half blind into the swirling white. "Colonel, I've had climbing experience. You want me to go down there?"

John's response was immediate. "If you've got climbing experience, then I want you up here manning the ropes. I take the risks around here, I'm responsible for the lives of the people I take out on these missions. This one's on me." His voice was terse and Michael's hand dropped quickly away as John continued past him, pushing himself into a run and arriving at the jumper breathless and a little disorientated by the thickening mist. He slipped into the back of the jumper, quickly gathering the equipment that he needed, tossing the coiled rope over his shoulder, and retracing his steps as fast as he was able to.

He heard Michael calling down to Nicole, and used the sound of Michael's voice to help guide him back to the exact spot and scanning the area as best as he was able given the reduced visibility, managed to locate a sturdy tree and secured one end of the rope, bringing the still coiled end back to where the two men waited, peering anxiously down into the dark hole.

"Nic? You ok down there? Come on sweetheart, give me some sort of sign...I'm coming down to get you out." He waited a moment but there was no response, so taking a deep breath and mentally crossing his fingers, he tested the security of the rope after securing it around himself and stepped over the edge after checking to see that Peter and Michael were standing by to assist.

The hole was much deeper than he thought. It took him a good 30 seconds to reach the bottom and an unwelcome thought flickered through his mind, skating around the fact that if she had fallen this distance, then she was likely hurt, and hurt badly. Once he hit the bottom, he gave a tug on the rope to let them know that he was down and pulled a flashlight out of a pocket on his vest, shining it around the dim interior of the hole experimentally. He did not see her immediately, but a small groan from his left had him pushing away from the wall quickly and moving in that direction.

"Nic?" His voice echoed slightly in that damp chamber and a shiver moved involuntarily down his spine. His flashlight beam spiked through the gloom and picked up a small bundle ahead, catching the barest movement.

"Damn it Nicole!" Angry at both her and himself, he dropped down beside her and ran a gentle hand up her back and down her legs, testing for obvious breaks. Finding none, he turned her over, eliciting a cry of pain and watched with narrowed eyes as she attempted to clutch ineffectually at her shoulder.

"Ok, not so bad. Dislocated shoulder." His long fingers probed gently as he muttered to himself, carefully easing them around the swollen joint, knowing that she was going to hate him like hell in just a minute, but unable to get her moving until he had put the joint back into place, a task he had performed previously on a team mate in Afghanistan. He had not however, tested out his expertise on the much smaller build of a woman. "This is gonna hurt sweetheart... I'll put that out there right now. But I need to do it, ok?"

Carefully, he eased in behind her and using his deft fingers to locate the socket and the joint, he made the movement sharp and as accurate as he could and closed his eyes briefly as she screamed in pain, then became mercifally silent as she slipped out of consciousness.

"Colonel? What was that? Are you ok down there?" One of the scientists, John wasn't sure which one, called down urgently. John was slow to answer.

"Yeah, we're good... but someone's gonna hate me when she wakes up. I'm securing the rope around her now." He gave a sharp tug on the rope and guided Nicole into position as the rope tightened. Between them they got her to the top and John was beside her as quickly as he could, undoing the rope and glancing around a little uneasily at the thickening mist. It was becoming difficult to breathe and Peter, punching a sample of the air into his hand held computer, found that there was now a higher concentration of oxygen, making the air exceptionally rich and making it harder to function with these levels.

Peter raised his eyes to John's and the Colonel took a step back at the fear he saw there. "Colonel... there's something about this mist. Something not right. I'm a scientist... but if I was a betting man? I would go so far as to say that this mist was... alive."

And a sickening feeling of fear found it's way into John's stomach and those spidey senses? They were scittering with rapid descent from the top of his head, moving downward. They were about to be mired in the proverbial crap, of that he had no doubt.