Authors Note: Sorry, I know this is very, very late. I hope it's worth the wait, let me know what you think!

Chapter 12

The town already looked like a war zone, John had lost track of the number of bodies he had already seen, some of them having been fed on, others just killed in the fighting. There were very few Wraith bodies among them, he had to wonder how many of the creatures were on this planet for them to cause this much damage so quickly.

He clicked the radio at his ear, relieved when Laura's voice responded. "We've had to fall back twice already," she told him as she gave her report. "We've lost a lot of people already and the Wraith just seem to keep coming. Lorne's here with me but McKay and Dex went to the south to try and help out there, we haven't heard from them in a while and neither are answering their radios anymore."

"How long can you hold your position for?" he asked, his mind working quickly to determine where he, and the Daedalus officers that were accompanying him, were most needed.

"I don't know," there was a pause, John could hear gun fire and shouting in the background, Laura's voice came back a moment later. "We've managed to hold them off here for a while but there's a lot of them and they keep getting around behind us, we just don't have the resources to barricade every street and secure every building. We've got some people setting up a new fall back position a couple of streets behind us."

There was the sound of an explosion somewhere to the south of town, it pretty much sealed John's decision on which way he was going. Marcus and Laura seemed to be holding their own for the time being but he had no idea what was happening to the south. If the Wraith there advanced too far then this battle would be over quickly.

"I'm heading south, do we have McKay's and Dex's last known location?" John asked, it was a few moments before Laura responded. She relayed everything she knew from her last radio contact with the other half of his team and John looked at the men surrounding him, all of them on guard. He gestured for them to follow him and they made their way through the war torn streets.

As they moved away from the western edge of the town, the state of the streets improved briefly, a few of them appeared to have been left completely untouched by the fighting so far. He cast his eyes over the dark windows, how many people were hiding behind them, staying quiet and hoping to go unnoticed? He wished he could stop and do something for them but there was little he could do, they were probably safer where they were for now.

The improvement didn't last long, once they began to approach the south side of the town things were even worse. A couple of buildings were on fire, some had been damaged by explosions, there were more bodies on the streets and the glass from shattered windows covered the ground. The fighting here had not gone well.

He tried his radio, hoping Rodney or Dex would answer but neither did. As they passed from one damaged street to another, he began to feel dread pooling in his stomach.

A few Wraith rounded the corner in front of them, John lifted his weapon to fire, the Daedalus officers following suit. One of the creatures went down quickly, the other two advanced on them even under the hail of bullets. A second one finally succumbed and fell to his knees, John turned his fire on the third who got frighteningly close before it too went down. Once he was sure all three were dead they continued on their way.

They had barely made it to the next street when more Wraith found them. Stunner blasts headed in their direction as five Wraith moved in on them. John and the officers scattered, each of them seeking cover. John ducked down behind a car, narrowly avoiding a stunner blast as he moved, one of the officers wasn't so lucky. He was hit square in the chest, his body jolting as the stunner took hold of him before he collapsed in the middle of the street.

The Wraith moved forward, some of them taking bullets that barely seemed to faze them. They only managed to take down one of the creatures before the rest reached them. John fired continuously as one advanced on him, it knocked away his weapon, sending it skidding across the concrete. The Wraith slammed a hand into his chest, John flew through the air, his back colliding painfully with a wall before he slumped to the ground. The creature walked toward him as John grabbed his side arm and fired, he hit the creature several times, slowing it's approach long enough for one of the soldiers to come to his aid. Bullets hit the Wraith from behind in quick succession until the creature finally succumbed.

John managed to get to his feet in time to hear one of the soldiers cry out, a wraith was feeding on him, the creature's wounds healing quickly. John fired, the bullets hitting the Wraith who was only momentarily distracted. He looked at John, smiled, then continued to feed, the new wounds healing. John bit back a curse, raised his weapon and fired on the soldier who looked to be near death already.

The creature turned to John again, this time with a look of anger. John and the soldier wasted no time firing every bullet they had into the creature and without someone to feed on, the wounds mounted until even the Wraith could no longer survive them.

John quickly assessed the situation, three Wraith were down, but so were two of his people. The remaining two Wraith had, at least for the moment, taken cover but John doubted they would stay there for long, he could only hope they hadn't called for backup. He picked up his rifle from where it had come to a stop after hitting a lamp post, finding his own cover and firing on the Wraith. A small group of men and women appeared behind the Wraith, firing on the enemy from the other side and with nowhere to hide, the Wraith were taken down.

John stepped out from his cover slowly, his eyes scanning the street and lingering on the forms of the Wraith, looking for any sign of them getting back up. None of them moved and John made his way over the group of locals. When he got closer he saw there were a few police officers, several civilians… and Rodney.

"McKay," John said, breathing a sigh of relief. "Where the hell have you been?"

Rodney gestured around him, "It's been a little busy around here in case it escaped your notice."

"You weren't answering your radio, where's Dex?"

"I lost my radio in all the chaos," Rodney admitted, all sarcasm gone from his tone now. "I don't know where Dex is, we got cut off while we were retreating, I haven't seen him since. He's not answering his radio either but things were pretty… messy, when we got separated. We tried to hold the Wraith back as long as we could so the civilians could evacuate towards the police station but we've been losing ground fast. We heard gunfire over here so we came to investigate, you're lucky we were close."

"Sir," one of the Daedalus soldiers came to stand beside him, John felt bad that he hadn't taken the time yet to learn their names, especially since one of them had just died on his watch, at his hand. "Crewman Mathews is still unconscious, Granger is dead, what are your orders?" she asked. He had expected some kind of recrimination for killing Granger, but there was only understanding on her face.

One of the police officers approached, "We can take your unconscious man to the police station with us, we can treat him there. As for your man, Dex, he was last seen heading east," the officer pulled out a handheld device, quickly bringing up a map of the area. "This is where we last saw him, he was heading in this direction, that was about 30 minutes ago. There's some warehouses here, they'd be a good place to take cover."

"Thank you," John said, he looked over the group of locals, they all looked determined but exhausted, they'd been getting battered since the start and they weren't trained for this, not even the police officers among them. "Lieutenant," he looked at the soldier beside him. "Escort these people to the police station."

"What about you sir?"

"I'm going after Dex," he told her.

"You'll need back up," she said but John merely shook his head. She gave one quick nod, then moved to relay their orders to the other officers.

"It's suicide to go out there alone, there's a good chance Dex is already dead," Rodney pointed out, then sighed, "not that I'm gonna be able to talk you out of it. Don't die."

Rodney handed him some ammo, shaking his head and muttering to himself. John clicked his radio as he watched them leave. "Lorne, Cadman, come in."

The silence lasted a little too long for John's nerves until Lorne's voice finally came through, "Lorne here."

"I found Rodney, he and some others are heading toward the police station. I have a possible location for Dex in some warehouses not far from my location, I'm going after him," John reported as the last of Rodney's group disappeared around a corner. Their voices faded out and the street was so quiet it was creepy, only the distant sound of gunfire could be heard.

"Understood, be careful boss."

"That's the plan," John replied, clicking the radio off and, with one last look at the officer he had been forced to kill, he headed towards the warehouses.

Ronon ducked down behind some crates, taking a moment to catch his breath while listening for any sign of movement. He didn't know how long he'd been dodging his way through the streets of the small town but he'd had a group of Wraith on his heels the entire time. He'd managed to lead them away from McKay and the small group he'd left the scientist with but that was a small consolation now. He knew many of the Wraith had followed him into the warehouse… maybe too many.

He was low on ammo, there was a good chance he didn't have enough bullets left to get himself out of there. Even if he did, what then? The streets were a mess and the Wraith were quickly overwhelming the small amount of resistance the locals were putting up, they were going to lose. There hadn't been any sign of help from the Daedalus so far, he didn't think Sheppard was the type to abandon the people here but who knew how much back up he would get from the ship's crew.

He tried for a moment to figure out how he had gotten himself into this mess. He'd gone from a highly respected and feared Vernai Commander to hiding behind a wooden box from life sucking creatures, he had no back up, very little ammo and his only chance of surviving was if the damn Alliance came to his rescue, which was unlikely.

He took one more deep breath as he heard footsteps move quickly somewhere beyond the crate. The Wraith were getting into position, they were going to flank him, give him nowhere to hide. Well, if he was going down then he was taking as many of these creatures down with him as he could.

He thought briefly about Teyla, he wouldn't get to see her wake up, if she ever woke up. "Sorry Teyla," he whispered quietly to the air. He grabbed his weapon in one hand, and one he'd picked up from a dead civilian in the other, then took a breath and leaped out from behind the crates.

The Wraith were surprised enough by the sudden attack that he was able to get several shots off before any fire was returned. He knew he hit the one that was peeking out from behind a support pillar several times, enough that the creature fell to its knees. There was one standing behind some boxes, he missed him with the first couple of shots but the rest struck their target.

Weapons fire came back in his direction, Ronon rolled over a couple of crates that had been left in the middle of the room, avoiding the bolts of light that he knew would have taken him out. He fired again on the creature by the boxes, then spun to target the one jumping out from behind another stack of crates. He narrowly avoided several more bolts of light as he reached a fork lift truck. He was able to duck down behind it, reloading his weapons with the last of his ammo.

He spotted an open doorway to the side, he might be able to reach it if he could hold back the remaining Wraith long enough. He had no idea where it would lead, but he wouldn't last more than a few minutes if he stayed where he was.

He moved out of cover again quickly, targeting two Wraith and hitting them with enough bullets to drop them both. The civilian weapon clicked several times to tell him it was out of ammo, Ronon dropped it and continued his move toward the door, selecting a new target for his remaining weapon.

He spotted a Wraith stunner on the ground, just slightly out of his path but if he could get it then it would buy him more time. He ducked to avoid incoming stunner blasts and made his move toward the weapon, diving toward it and rolling back to his feet as he picked the stunner up from the ground.

He wasted no time in using it, a few bolts took down one of the Wraith, a few more ensured he wouldn't be getting up in a hurry. He made his way toward the door again, aiming and firing along the way. As he reached the door he felt a sharp pain in his leg that spread quickly through his lower body, followed by a wave of numbness that rendered his leg useless.

He hit the ground hard, his vision narrowing as the stunner blast tried to claim his consciousness from him. Ronon fought it, held on long enough to drag himself through the doorway. A Wraith followed after him, expecting to find his prey unconscious which gave Ronon enough time to fire his own weapon. The creature's body jolted several times before falling, just as a clicking sound signaled the last of Ronon's ammo.

He pulled himself further through the door, swung it closed behind him and laid himself back against it. He barely had time to register the empty room, or the lack of another way out before he felt darkness claim him.

TBC