Story war, huh (grins evilly) you're on my friend...


Jack took off to search the base. No one, not even janitors or whatever, were here. Then where were they? Jack was curious, kinda freaked out, and a little nervous. Damn, at the moment he'd even be willing to find Rothman – and that was scary in itself.

Scowling heavily, he stumbled back to the elevator. He was going to find out what happened here. Waiting for the elevator, Jack peered at his watch quickly. 8:30, he'd been running around the base for an hour and a half. O'Neill stepped in as the doors opened, completely in his own thoughts.

"Hey Jack."

"Hey Daniel." Wait a sec… "Daniel!" He almost hugged the man.

"Yeah Jack, it's me," Daniel said warily. What did he do this time? Jack punched a button and the elevator started back down again.

"You have no idea how much I wanted to see you."

Daniel looked suspicious. He folded up his newspaper. "Oh? Jack, what's going on?"

"I don't know, but the SGC's empty!" he proclaimed.

"Riiight Jack. You haven't seen anyone today have you?"

"No one!"

"Let's go check in the Briefing Room."

"Been there."

"Gate Room?"

"Yup."

"Control Room, infirmary, mess?"

"Yup, yup, and yup."

"Oh." The doors opened back at the 27th floor. The two men stepped out. Daniel frowned as he stopped to listen. There was nothing. No murmurs, no feet pounding, no weapons clicking, nothing. "Jack, are you sure this isn't just a very bad dream?"

Jack tilted his head. It said 'no-Daniel, I'm-positive.' "Danny, how can we share the same dream? Besides," Jack pinched the younger man, "did that hurt?"

He nodded. "I see your point. So, is it a surprise party or something?"

"No."

"Okay."

Pause

"So?"

"Yeah?"

"Whadda we do?"

"I don't know Jack, I just work here."

"That deserved a good beating."

"I know." The two friends stepped into the Control Room to find it as eerily empty as before. Daniel shuddered a bit. "That's just unnatural. It's so… quiet."

"I know, creepy huh?"

"Heck yeah. You know, it reminds me of that book... umm… no, that Twilight Zone episode. With the guy who reads books and a bomb comes and he locks himself in a vault or something and when he comes back, there's no one there."

Jack threw him an estranged look. "Jee, thanks for the imagery."

"Right, sorry." On the contrary, Daniel didn't look remotely sorry.

"Yes, I'm sure you are," Jack mumbled sarcastically. O'Neill looked down suddenly at one of the computer consoles. He'd been alerted by a small sound of the machine doing something. It was making that whirring sound. Daniel's gaze was fixated on it too.

"Huh… that's odd," Jack muttered looking around for any surprises.

"Uh Jack? This is too." He looked back. The computer was flashing something familiar.

It read: 'WILDFIRE INITIATED AUTH # 348039/4-H.'

"Well that could be a problem," Jack stated obviously. "Hell, but nothing I can't fix. I've never seen that authorization code before, hmm," he added as he bent to put in his own to reopen the SGC. It beeped at him.

'AUTH INVALID.'

"Jack?"

"It's not accepting my code. Shit…" Jack was beyond worried now. He looked at Daniel with the utmost seriousness. "We're stuck here."


A/N: To tell truth, I've never seen that episode of Twilight Zone, but hey... what can ya do?