Hopping on one foot might be fun on solid ground, but on mud, it's not such a good idea. Less than three hops from the gate, Lennon sank up to her ankle in sludge, lost her balance and fell face first into the mud.
McKay, naturally, thought this was the funniest thing that'd happened all day and cackled accordingly.
Catching him off guard, Lennon started laughing as well. At first he thought it was the effects of the tranquilizer pumping through her veins, but she came up from the muck, chuckling and wiping the mud off her face. "Don't tell me you bought it too," she said, standing up without a single hint of a wobble in her gait.
She was completely sober.
"I can't believe that actually worked," Touchstone said, shaking her head.
"Told you it would," Lennon said smugly, fishing a towel out of her pack--mercifully a plain one--and wiping off the last of the mud.
McKay was confused. "What...you mean you weren't stoned?"
Charlotte let out a bark of a laugh. "Of course not."
"Then why--"
"No imagination at all, I swear, McKay," Lennon said with a touch of disappointment in her voice. "The more incompetent they think we are, the more aggressively they'll keep an eye on Atlantis' bunny populace. If they think we'll always swoop in and play the heroes, where will we be?"
Charlotte laughed at McKay's bewilderment before sobering. "Alright people. Enough playin' around. McKay, which way was it that you saw the first bunny?"
McKay stood still, thoughtful for a moment before he pointed to the west. "That way."
"Right then," Charlotte gestured for Lennon to travel on her left side and Touchstone on her right with McKay at her side. The more distance they kept between the two shipped people, the better--but not enough to make them go insane.
Not that they were all that close to perfectly sane to begin with, but best not make the problem worse, yes?
The going was slow and the scenery was nonexistant, and if that wasn't bad enough, every few minutes someone's ankle got sucked into the mud and the other three had to pull them free.
"Have I mentioned yet that I hate mud?" Lennon asked conversationally as she stared at the miles and miles of muddy landscape stretched in front of her.
"Only once every two minutes, Lenny," Charlotte replied, pulling her shoe out of the sludge beneath her forcefully, almost losing her balance in the process. "Is there anything in this place other than mud, McKay?"
"There's a village a ways up but--"
THUNK.
"What was..." Lennon glanced around. "What was that?"
SPLASH!
All four people's eyes suddenly widened as ominous music started to float over the wind and Lennon blanched.
"No. No horror bunnies. God, please no horror bunnies."
Thud. Shluck. Thunk. Flack.
The music intensified, forcing a shiver to slither down Charlotte's spine. It was like this the first time around...
There was an 'Argughah!' noise and the four companions turned to see an army of eight foot tall, lumbering mud men.
They'd come out of nowhere and were advancing insanely fast on the Bunny Busters' position.
"Rodney?"
McKay went ashen. "Did I mention the mud people? I think I neglected to mention the mud people."