Hearing the soft twittering of birds, she opened her eyes, amazed
that she had been able to achieve sleep at all. Her mind had been racing
all night, until she had remembered nothing further than O'Neill's constant
ranting about how he hated it when people wandered off.
But she had been the one to wander off... not the 'civilian', who the Colonel usually liked to blame for their own abduction, or whatever danger they had managed to get themselves into.
Teal'c was already awake, and Sam supposed he had been all night. The Jaffa very rarely rested when a member of their team went missing under such mysterious circumstances. Like when Daniel had been taken by Chaka the Unas... but that was different. There hadn't been evidence of Daniel having an injury... unlike Jonas.
She still blamed herself, but as she pulled herself out from her sleeping bag, she looked over at the slumbering O'Neill, and realised how he would say that no one was really to blame. He was snoring lightly, and seemed to be in quite a peaceful state of rest.
Tapping him on the shoulder, Sam muttered, "Colonel?"
He was awake immediately, although he opened his eyes slowly, squinting in the light that shone through the trees.
"We should continue our search, O'Neill," Teal'c stated matter-of- factly.
O'Neill groaned, and sat up, soon scrambling to his feet, and recovering his head with his fallen hat. It had become dislodged during his sleep, sometime during his shifting and rolling over and over in his sleeping bag. He had a tough time of retracting his legs from the sack, almost stumbling in the process.
"You're right," he agreed, and started rolling up his sleeping bag, and shoving it haphazardly into his pack. He seemed to have very little patience with the equipment this morning, and Sam knew this to be regular agitated behaviour for the Colonel in the face of such dire circumstances.
The Major looked to her watch, uncovering it, and saw it was close to seven in the morning. They had overslept, and should have restarted their search at about five to get a good deal of travelling in during the day. Who knew how such time wasting would affect the situation?
"Did you see anything during the night?" O'Neill asked of the Jaffa.
He shook his dark head, and replied, "I did not. I observed many nocturnal creatures watching us in the darkness, O'Neill, but nothing of the sheer size which I saw yesterday."
"Right," O'Neill mumbled, and hoisted his pack onto his shoulders, feeling the weight before leading the other two out of the clearing, and in a direction they had figured out last night. The trail they seemed to be following suggested they go this way.
As she followed at the back of the line, holding her P-90 securely, Carter let her eyes wander, and her mind also. She heard that same cry for help, and recalled that same feeling of anxiety at returning to the empty site where she had left Jonas no more than two minutes prior to his disappearance.
With a sigh, she let her head hang in guilt.
* * *
Leading the way, Jack knew without looking back that Carter was wearing a look of utter misery. He knew she blamed herself, and he knew that was useless, and unfounded. It wasn't her fault. How could it be? She had heard a noise that she had perceived to be threatening, and had moved off to investigate, as any soldier would have.
But this was different, and he knew that she realised that. Jonas hadn't had much in the way of protection, and in all truth, the Kelownan didn't really know much about defending himself against attack, especially if -as Jack supposed- it had come from behind, unexpected and sudden. That would have explained the random gunshot he had heard.
Jack heard the crunch of foliage underfoot as Teal'c's boots crushed them whilst he moved, the Jaffa's concentration on their surroundings.
"Alright, fan out a little, look for any sign of Jonas," Jack ordered the remainder of his team. He heard their mumbled acknowledgements, and saw them move off to a safe distance, far enough to cover quite some distance, but not far enough so that they wouldn't be able to leap into action if one of them was taken by surprise.
Hopefully, the predator wouldn't think of attacking one of them whilst they were all within such close proximity of each other.
Jack let his feet kick up some leaves and branches as he moved slowly, his eyes considering every small detail that covered the ground, until something rather alien to the environment caught his attention.
Looking over at the other two, he bent his knees to crouch, and wiped his hand over the fallen object. Picking it up, he sighed. He recognised it instantly, and blew off the remainder of the damp soil that clung to the exterior of the water canteen.
"Have you discovered something, O'Neill?" came the call of Teal'c voice from not too far away.
"You could say that," Jack heard himself mutter in response, as his eyes travelled along the obvious site where someone, or something had been dragged. And then his vision rested upon a larger object that he should have seen first. Standing, he tread carefully over the dirt, and flipped the large object over with his booted foot. He took his hat off his head, and took a hold of the strap of Jonas' shoulder pack, lifting it off the ground, seeing mud and leaves fall off of it gradually as he turned it in the light. There was no visible damage other than the obvious marring of its surface from foliage and damp soil. It was probably a little damp inside too.
"Sir?"
He felt Carter's presence as she arrived at his side, even as he carefully opened the satchel, and peered inside. Everything was still inside, despite the obvious violent way in which Jonas had been initially attacked. Jack would have thought at least one or two items would have been lost along the way.
"Is that what I think it is?" came Carter's inquiry, and her voice was soft, and hinted at with concern.
Jack nodded with a deep sigh. "Yeah. On the plus side, I think I've found a definite trail for us to follow." He pointed with his hat, flipping it back onto his head, pulling it down so that the peak shaded his eyes from the sun above. Before setting off again, he placed the strap of the satchel over his head, sliding the water canteen inside.
* * *
Forcing his eyes to open, using a great amount of his waning strength in doing so, Jonas found that he could barely move his head anymore. He felt the cold of the bonding substance over the back of his head now, and almost completely over the entirety of his neck. Some of it was even stretching on to the side of his head. It was difficult to move at all.
Without looking down, he could feel the presence of more of the substance covering a lot more of his body now as well. It was growing, whatever it was, and Jonas surmised that it wouldn't be long before it covered him completely. He had to get out of here.
Understatement of the month, he told himself, clenching his right fist, amazed that it was still mostly uncovered. Part of his right leg was also free, but moving it proved to be too painful, and he recalled the injury he had sustained there.
Letting his eyes wander, he saw a stream of light from the far corner of the cave, where he now noticed a tunnel connected with the cavern. He could clearly see the interior of the cave now, and he swallowed dryly at what he saw. The skeletons were all too frequently dotted around the walls, and the same white substance was stretched over all of them, the same kind that covered him now. Not comforting.
The creature was gone now, and he found this slightly reassuring. Perhaps it would be gone long enough for him to figure out a way to free himself.
But as he attempted to move again, he realised just how futile that would be, and just how much of an opportunity this really wasn't. He knew that further attempts to move would only result in obvious exhaustion again... he just didn't know why.
* * *
"We can't be too far away," O'Neill noted as he led the way along the trail of where someone had obviously been dragged rather forcefully.
Sam Carter just hoped her commanding officer was right. He had found the trail about a half hour ago, and she had seen evidence of animal prints since then, along the same trail. Every now and then, she saw a worrying darkening of the soil, and she knew precisely what that darkening was. She just didn't want to say it to herself, or to anyone else for that matter.
"I think you're right, sir," she said to him, hovering some five feet behind him, having switched positions with Teal'c after the discovery of Jonas' dropped satchel. He had surmised that being at the back was safer for him, after all, he was a Jaffa.
"What do you think, Teal'c?" O'Neill called to the large man.
"I am in agreement, O'Neill," Teal'c responded simply, not speaking again.
Carter sighed, and found her eyes looking around. Furrowing her brow, she stated, "Does anyone else notice how the trees have gotten progressively thinner along this trail?"
O'Neill stopped, and looked around for himself, frowning. "Now that you mention it..." his voice trailed off into silent consideration, until finally, he added, "what happened to the birds?"
Carter tilted her head to listen, finding that there was nothing but silence for her ears to pick out in the woodland surroundings. "They're gone," she noted aloud, "come to mention it, I can't hear anything. No mammals... nothing."
"I concur," Teal'c murmured pensively, glancing about. "We are indeed close to the predator's lair, O'Neill. Clearly, it is a place where no other animal wishes to be close to."
"Yeah," Carter mumbled, nodding. O'Neill muttered something under his breath, and with a sigh, continued along the trail.
Staring up at the trees, Carter felt her eyes drawn to a shadow just up a long winding path to a hill that she could see just in the distance. "Colonel..."
He turned to her, looking a little impatient all of a sudden. "What?"
She pointed, pulling out her small pair of binoculars, and putting them to her eyes.
"What is that?" she heard him ask in confusion.
Narrowing her eyes in thought, she brought the binoculars down, and met the gaze of the Colonel, saying, "I think it's a cave, sir."
Shaking his head, and turning to look for himself, O'Neill said quietly, "I told Jonas that thing probably lived in a cave."
Carter rolled her eyes, and took another glance through the binoculars before she confirmed that it was indeed what she thought it was, a cave. Everything suggested that was what it was. There was an obvious jutting of rock from the hillside, and a trail that led into it. A few bushed were scattered about the shadowy opening.
"Okay, kids, that's our target," O'Neill concluded, replacing his equipment into his vest, Carter following suit.
"How can you be certain that this is where Jonas Quinn was taken, O'Neill?"
O'Neill looked back at Teal'c shortly before he headed off at a swift pace, taking a firm grip on his gun. "Call it an instinct."
* * *
It had come back. Not long ago, he had seen its shadowy form slink back into the cavern, and stride up on four legs to the other side of the wall, where it started to sniff at the skeletons that resided there.
Jonas had picked out another word, even through the haze of nausea that had a tight hold of him.
Death.
It had glared with yellow eyes at him when muttering bestially to itself, and Jonas knew what it had meant from its single audible word. That stare had told him the same thing too. He didn't need to be a zoologist to figure it out.
It wanted to kill him.
But he just didn't understand why. He hadn't seen it eat a single thing whilst he had been here, and if he was intended to be the next meal, then why was it waiting? What was the delay?
There was still the mystery of all the remains littering the walls as well. He hadn't been able to pick out any evidence of gnawing or shredding on the substance, suggesting that they had simply been left to die on that wall.
It didn't make any sense. None of it did. It was obviously a carnivore... Jonas had figured that much out from the teeth and claws, and the way it growled menacingly. No herbivore acted or looked that way.
At least not that he knew of.
His entire body felt cold, even through all the layers of clothing he knew he was wearing. But he felt the substance touching against his skin, suggesting penetration at some point. It hurt to move, probably as a result of hours on end being stuck to the wall.
He didn't know what else it could be.
He wondered what had happened to the others, and he thought for one terrible moment that they might have left him behind, thinking him dead.
No, he told himself sternly, they wouldn't do that. O'Neill doesn't leave anyone behind.
But what was taking them so long?
They have no idea where I am, he resolved, and he felt a sigh escape him then. How where they going to find him? He didn't know where he was.
He knew one thing though... time was running out.
But she had been the one to wander off... not the 'civilian', who the Colonel usually liked to blame for their own abduction, or whatever danger they had managed to get themselves into.
Teal'c was already awake, and Sam supposed he had been all night. The Jaffa very rarely rested when a member of their team went missing under such mysterious circumstances. Like when Daniel had been taken by Chaka the Unas... but that was different. There hadn't been evidence of Daniel having an injury... unlike Jonas.
She still blamed herself, but as she pulled herself out from her sleeping bag, she looked over at the slumbering O'Neill, and realised how he would say that no one was really to blame. He was snoring lightly, and seemed to be in quite a peaceful state of rest.
Tapping him on the shoulder, Sam muttered, "Colonel?"
He was awake immediately, although he opened his eyes slowly, squinting in the light that shone through the trees.
"We should continue our search, O'Neill," Teal'c stated matter-of- factly.
O'Neill groaned, and sat up, soon scrambling to his feet, and recovering his head with his fallen hat. It had become dislodged during his sleep, sometime during his shifting and rolling over and over in his sleeping bag. He had a tough time of retracting his legs from the sack, almost stumbling in the process.
"You're right," he agreed, and started rolling up his sleeping bag, and shoving it haphazardly into his pack. He seemed to have very little patience with the equipment this morning, and Sam knew this to be regular agitated behaviour for the Colonel in the face of such dire circumstances.
The Major looked to her watch, uncovering it, and saw it was close to seven in the morning. They had overslept, and should have restarted their search at about five to get a good deal of travelling in during the day. Who knew how such time wasting would affect the situation?
"Did you see anything during the night?" O'Neill asked of the Jaffa.
He shook his dark head, and replied, "I did not. I observed many nocturnal creatures watching us in the darkness, O'Neill, but nothing of the sheer size which I saw yesterday."
"Right," O'Neill mumbled, and hoisted his pack onto his shoulders, feeling the weight before leading the other two out of the clearing, and in a direction they had figured out last night. The trail they seemed to be following suggested they go this way.
As she followed at the back of the line, holding her P-90 securely, Carter let her eyes wander, and her mind also. She heard that same cry for help, and recalled that same feeling of anxiety at returning to the empty site where she had left Jonas no more than two minutes prior to his disappearance.
With a sigh, she let her head hang in guilt.
* * *
Leading the way, Jack knew without looking back that Carter was wearing a look of utter misery. He knew she blamed herself, and he knew that was useless, and unfounded. It wasn't her fault. How could it be? She had heard a noise that she had perceived to be threatening, and had moved off to investigate, as any soldier would have.
But this was different, and he knew that she realised that. Jonas hadn't had much in the way of protection, and in all truth, the Kelownan didn't really know much about defending himself against attack, especially if -as Jack supposed- it had come from behind, unexpected and sudden. That would have explained the random gunshot he had heard.
Jack heard the crunch of foliage underfoot as Teal'c's boots crushed them whilst he moved, the Jaffa's concentration on their surroundings.
"Alright, fan out a little, look for any sign of Jonas," Jack ordered the remainder of his team. He heard their mumbled acknowledgements, and saw them move off to a safe distance, far enough to cover quite some distance, but not far enough so that they wouldn't be able to leap into action if one of them was taken by surprise.
Hopefully, the predator wouldn't think of attacking one of them whilst they were all within such close proximity of each other.
Jack let his feet kick up some leaves and branches as he moved slowly, his eyes considering every small detail that covered the ground, until something rather alien to the environment caught his attention.
Looking over at the other two, he bent his knees to crouch, and wiped his hand over the fallen object. Picking it up, he sighed. He recognised it instantly, and blew off the remainder of the damp soil that clung to the exterior of the water canteen.
"Have you discovered something, O'Neill?" came the call of Teal'c voice from not too far away.
"You could say that," Jack heard himself mutter in response, as his eyes travelled along the obvious site where someone, or something had been dragged. And then his vision rested upon a larger object that he should have seen first. Standing, he tread carefully over the dirt, and flipped the large object over with his booted foot. He took his hat off his head, and took a hold of the strap of Jonas' shoulder pack, lifting it off the ground, seeing mud and leaves fall off of it gradually as he turned it in the light. There was no visible damage other than the obvious marring of its surface from foliage and damp soil. It was probably a little damp inside too.
"Sir?"
He felt Carter's presence as she arrived at his side, even as he carefully opened the satchel, and peered inside. Everything was still inside, despite the obvious violent way in which Jonas had been initially attacked. Jack would have thought at least one or two items would have been lost along the way.
"Is that what I think it is?" came Carter's inquiry, and her voice was soft, and hinted at with concern.
Jack nodded with a deep sigh. "Yeah. On the plus side, I think I've found a definite trail for us to follow." He pointed with his hat, flipping it back onto his head, pulling it down so that the peak shaded his eyes from the sun above. Before setting off again, he placed the strap of the satchel over his head, sliding the water canteen inside.
* * *
Forcing his eyes to open, using a great amount of his waning strength in doing so, Jonas found that he could barely move his head anymore. He felt the cold of the bonding substance over the back of his head now, and almost completely over the entirety of his neck. Some of it was even stretching on to the side of his head. It was difficult to move at all.
Without looking down, he could feel the presence of more of the substance covering a lot more of his body now as well. It was growing, whatever it was, and Jonas surmised that it wouldn't be long before it covered him completely. He had to get out of here.
Understatement of the month, he told himself, clenching his right fist, amazed that it was still mostly uncovered. Part of his right leg was also free, but moving it proved to be too painful, and he recalled the injury he had sustained there.
Letting his eyes wander, he saw a stream of light from the far corner of the cave, where he now noticed a tunnel connected with the cavern. He could clearly see the interior of the cave now, and he swallowed dryly at what he saw. The skeletons were all too frequently dotted around the walls, and the same white substance was stretched over all of them, the same kind that covered him now. Not comforting.
The creature was gone now, and he found this slightly reassuring. Perhaps it would be gone long enough for him to figure out a way to free himself.
But as he attempted to move again, he realised just how futile that would be, and just how much of an opportunity this really wasn't. He knew that further attempts to move would only result in obvious exhaustion again... he just didn't know why.
* * *
"We can't be too far away," O'Neill noted as he led the way along the trail of where someone had obviously been dragged rather forcefully.
Sam Carter just hoped her commanding officer was right. He had found the trail about a half hour ago, and she had seen evidence of animal prints since then, along the same trail. Every now and then, she saw a worrying darkening of the soil, and she knew precisely what that darkening was. She just didn't want to say it to herself, or to anyone else for that matter.
"I think you're right, sir," she said to him, hovering some five feet behind him, having switched positions with Teal'c after the discovery of Jonas' dropped satchel. He had surmised that being at the back was safer for him, after all, he was a Jaffa.
"What do you think, Teal'c?" O'Neill called to the large man.
"I am in agreement, O'Neill," Teal'c responded simply, not speaking again.
Carter sighed, and found her eyes looking around. Furrowing her brow, she stated, "Does anyone else notice how the trees have gotten progressively thinner along this trail?"
O'Neill stopped, and looked around for himself, frowning. "Now that you mention it..." his voice trailed off into silent consideration, until finally, he added, "what happened to the birds?"
Carter tilted her head to listen, finding that there was nothing but silence for her ears to pick out in the woodland surroundings. "They're gone," she noted aloud, "come to mention it, I can't hear anything. No mammals... nothing."
"I concur," Teal'c murmured pensively, glancing about. "We are indeed close to the predator's lair, O'Neill. Clearly, it is a place where no other animal wishes to be close to."
"Yeah," Carter mumbled, nodding. O'Neill muttered something under his breath, and with a sigh, continued along the trail.
Staring up at the trees, Carter felt her eyes drawn to a shadow just up a long winding path to a hill that she could see just in the distance. "Colonel..."
He turned to her, looking a little impatient all of a sudden. "What?"
She pointed, pulling out her small pair of binoculars, and putting them to her eyes.
"What is that?" she heard him ask in confusion.
Narrowing her eyes in thought, she brought the binoculars down, and met the gaze of the Colonel, saying, "I think it's a cave, sir."
Shaking his head, and turning to look for himself, O'Neill said quietly, "I told Jonas that thing probably lived in a cave."
Carter rolled her eyes, and took another glance through the binoculars before she confirmed that it was indeed what she thought it was, a cave. Everything suggested that was what it was. There was an obvious jutting of rock from the hillside, and a trail that led into it. A few bushed were scattered about the shadowy opening.
"Okay, kids, that's our target," O'Neill concluded, replacing his equipment into his vest, Carter following suit.
"How can you be certain that this is where Jonas Quinn was taken, O'Neill?"
O'Neill looked back at Teal'c shortly before he headed off at a swift pace, taking a firm grip on his gun. "Call it an instinct."
* * *
It had come back. Not long ago, he had seen its shadowy form slink back into the cavern, and stride up on four legs to the other side of the wall, where it started to sniff at the skeletons that resided there.
Jonas had picked out another word, even through the haze of nausea that had a tight hold of him.
Death.
It had glared with yellow eyes at him when muttering bestially to itself, and Jonas knew what it had meant from its single audible word. That stare had told him the same thing too. He didn't need to be a zoologist to figure it out.
It wanted to kill him.
But he just didn't understand why. He hadn't seen it eat a single thing whilst he had been here, and if he was intended to be the next meal, then why was it waiting? What was the delay?
There was still the mystery of all the remains littering the walls as well. He hadn't been able to pick out any evidence of gnawing or shredding on the substance, suggesting that they had simply been left to die on that wall.
It didn't make any sense. None of it did. It was obviously a carnivore... Jonas had figured that much out from the teeth and claws, and the way it growled menacingly. No herbivore acted or looked that way.
At least not that he knew of.
His entire body felt cold, even through all the layers of clothing he knew he was wearing. But he felt the substance touching against his skin, suggesting penetration at some point. It hurt to move, probably as a result of hours on end being stuck to the wall.
He didn't know what else it could be.
He wondered what had happened to the others, and he thought for one terrible moment that they might have left him behind, thinking him dead.
No, he told himself sternly, they wouldn't do that. O'Neill doesn't leave anyone behind.
But what was taking them so long?
They have no idea where I am, he resolved, and he felt a sigh escape him then. How where they going to find him? He didn't know where he was.
He knew one thing though... time was running out.
