Their prison was a wooden cottage that on the outside bore little difference to Jareil's home. Inside however, the closed shutters and failing light made it difficult to see anything. The only light in the room came from two oil lamps, which sat on the floor near the middle of the room. Apart from the lights, the only furniture in the room was four uncomfortable benches, presumably meant to serve as beds. Each had a blanket neatly folded and placed at the end.
The benches were positioned two at either side of the room, leaving a large space near the door. Ford and Teyla sat on one bench, while Sheppard had another to himself. McKay paced up and down the darkened room, pausing only to bang on the locked door.
"This is ridiculous," he said, trying for the fifth time to open the door. "We were going to come back and look for the weapon. With reinforcements! We would have shared anything we found. There are four of us, the city is huge, how are we going to find it even if it is there?" He tried the door a sixth time, this time pulling and pushing at the handle. The door barely moved under his efforts. It was definitely sturdily built. Sheppard half expected him to climb onto the door cartoon character style, pulling with his hands while pushing with his feet. Instead he gave up the useless attempt to open it and instead hammered on it with his fist. "Let us out!" he yelled, "I know you can hear me! Open the door!"
"McKay," interrupted Sheppard, not too loudly but, but it should have been loud enough to distract the ranting scientist.
McKay either didn't hear him or chose to ignore him, instead hammering on the door with both fists, "At least bring us something to eat!"
"McKay!" Sheppard yelled this time. McKay jumped and turned around. "Rodney, for God's sake shut up! You're really not helping; all you're going to do is piss them off. They haven't hurt us and it doesn't look like they're planning to. We were supposed to be back over an hour ago, Dr Weir has probably already sent someone to look for us. If not, she will soon. I'm not saying this is fun, but none of us are having a great time either and you're just making things worse. Now shut the hell up."
"It's going to take days for a search party to find us. Maybe longer. You know how well hidden this village is, and anyone looking for us is going to go to the city first."
"McKay…" said Sheppard warningly."
"But…"
"Were going to be in the city. That's where they want us to look for the weapon. They will find us. And if we're lucky, maybe the villagers won't already have killed you to shut you up."
McKay opened his mouth to protest, then thought better of it. He paced the room several more times, then finally sat down on the bed nearest to one of the shuttered windows. He took a deep breath, "Sorry," he said, "look, I'm sorry, okay? It's just, have I mentioned I'm claustrophobic?" He looked at the door, as if willing it to open. It stayed firmly closed.
"Yes, you might have mentioned that once or twice," Sheppard told him, "but you're making the room seem smaller with all your pacing and yelling. Just…calm down, okay? Give us all a chance to think."
"You fear small rooms?" asked Teyla incredulously.
McKay nodded, "Enclosed spaces, yes. But I'm not afraid, it just makes me…uncomfortable."
"But there are many rooms in Atlantis smaller than this hut."
Rodney drummed his fingers on his knee, "It doesn't help when I can't get out," he snapped.
Sheppard's voice adopted a less harsh tone, "We'll get out, Rodney. Tomorrow." He had never had claustrophobia, but he recognised the symptoms, the rising panic, the cold sweat, the pumping adrenaline making your body shake because it couldn't run. He could see all of this in McKay. Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do to help. The fear reaction would burn itself out eventually. It seemed to already have started.
McKay was still drumming his fingers anxiously on his knee, "You're not really planning on helping these people, are you?"
"We might not have a choice. Besides, we were going to look for the weapon anyway. Might as well get a head start while we wait to be rescued."
McKay looked at him in astonishment, "So you're not planning on, I don't know, escaping?"
"Of course, if we get the opportunity. Not from here though. I don't think any of us could find our way back to the 'gate from here," he turned to the others, "could you?"
"Unlikely," said Teyla, "after seeing the way again, perhaps, but now I do not think so."
"Right," said Sheppard, "so we'll play it by ear. If we get the chance to escape, we'll take it. Until then, we'll play at being good prisoners and hope they let their guard down."
Outside, the rain started to fall. Despite their rustic look, the village cottages kept the water out well. McKay lay back on the uncomfortable bed, resting his head on the palms of his hands, closed his eyes and tried to imagine that he was safely home in his quarters in Atlantis. It didn't work. He sighed, "I can't believe we were outsmarted by a bunch of guys with bows and arrows."
"We weren't outsmarted," Sheppard told him, "we were outgunned."
"Yes, by a bunch of guys with bows and arrows."
Sheppard shrugged and lay down himself. If they were to have any chance of getting away tomorrow, it would help to be well rested. If it was possible to be well rested while locked in a hut on an alien planet with nothing but a hard bench to lie on and McKay snoring nearby. Yes, snoring. Loudly. It was amazing how he had gone from pacing the room shouting and banging on the door to fast asleep in under ten minutes. Enviable, really.
Sheppard rolled up his blanket, placed it under his head and curved the edges around his ears. It muffled the sound a little. Then he closed his eyes and tried to get some sleep.
The sun was still below the horizon when the door opened the next morning. Three villagers walked in, two holding bows, the third with a tray containing four bowls of soup and some water. He set the tray on the floor and backed away. "We will be back soon to take you to the city," he said, "and you can start the search."
The door closed before anyone had chance to answer, leaving them locked inside once again.
McKay groaned as he sat up and rubbed his arm. "That was the most uncomfortable night of my life," he announced, "I didn't sleep a wink. Did anyone else?"
Ford stretched and stood up, "I might have grabbed a few minutes," he said, "when you weren't keeping me up with your snoring."
"Snoring?" McKay looked affronted, "I don't snore. I heard someone snoring last night too, so I'm sure it wasn't me."
"That might have been me," Sheppard said, "but you were definitely snoring too. You were the first one to fall asleep, I know I heard you."
"You might have heard me too," Teyla admitted.
Ford sighed, "So you all snore? I really picked the wrong people to be kidnapped with."
"Not me." McKay was already helping himself to his breakfast, the same soup they had eaten the day before, "Like I said, I don't snore."
A change of subject was probably in order, Sheppard decided as he started to eat. "Try not to antagonise our 'hosts' today," he said. "We want them to think we're willing to help. That way if no one shows up to provide backup, or if they manage to hide us, they might trust us enough to get slack."
"So just do whatever we're told?" asked Ford, not sounding happy with the plan.
"Within reason, yes. But look out for any weaknesses in their strategy that we might be able to exploit."
McKay finished his soup and rummaged in his pocket, pulling out an energy bar. He opened the wrapper, broke the bar in two and ate half. The remaining half, he pushed back inside the wrapper, folded the plastic down and replaced it in his pocket. "Don't look at me like that," he told the others, noticing their curious glances. "I've only got three, I'm rationing myself as it is. If you wanted some, you should have brought your own."
"It's not that," Ford told him, "I was just wondering why you didn't do that last night when you were banging on the door yelling for food."
"Like I said, I'm rationing myself. I don't know how long we're gong to be stuck here. If we're going to have to be ready to run for it at any moment, I need to have a clear head, and unless I've eaten something slightly more nutritious than this disgusting, watery soup, I'm not going to have a clear head."
Ford opened his mouth to reply, but was cut off by the door opening again. They all turned to watch as Jareil entered, followed by two guards.
Unlike the day before, when he had tried desperately to charm them into staying, the village leader looked anything but friendly. The guards stood at either side of him, ready to shoot their bows if it was necessary. "Outside." he said.
They were met by two more guards outside the hut. Jareil certainly wasn't taking and chances just yet.
The two guards that had entered the hut with Jareil now joined the others. They stood in a row, each one with his bow loaded and pointing at one of the team. McKay noticed with some dismay that the guard currently aiming a deadly weapon at his chest has Daynen, the boy they had met the previous day.
"You will walk to the city together," Jareil told them, "once there, you will split up, each one of you escorted by one of my guards. You will go where they send you, you will do what they tell you, and you will not try to escape, or you will be shot. Do you understand?"
"We're not going to split up," Sheppard said.
"Jareil looked at him as though he was something unpleasant that he had stepped in, "You will do as you are told," he said.
Sheppard stood his ground. "We agreed among ourselves to do what we're told within reason, but splitting us up is not acceptable. We stay together or we stay here."
Jareil looked at Sheppard, then at the other members of his team, who stood with equally determined looks on their faces. He nodded. "Very well. You will go in groups of two, each group with two guards. Agreed?"
"Agreed," said Sheppard, managing to keep a victorious grin to himself. That had been a lot easier than he had expected. Whatever his reasons for this insane plan, Jareil seemed to genuinely believe that he needed their help, that they could help him find their weapon. That meant that he was unlikely to carry out his threat of killing them. One less thing to worry about at least. "Just so you know," Sheppard added, "we were going to come back and look around the city anyway. With more people. Anything we found, we would have shared. With just four of us it will take forever to search the whole city."
"More of you would not have helped," Jareil told him, "they would only have been in the way." He nodded to the guards, turned and walked in away. One of the guards indicated with his bow that they were to start walking.
This was the fourth time that they had made the journey through the forest and Sheppard was beginning to notice landmarks. The route they had taken had been the same each time. That was definitely a mistake on the part of the villagers, and one that he hoped they wouldn't rectify. Sheppard was hoping that they would be able to escape today, while in the city or on the way, but he knew that they chances were low. The villagers knew the land much better than they did, and the area between the city and the Stargate was mostly flat ground with the occasional tree. It would be difficult to hide. Not only that, but being split up meant that it would be more difficult to escape together, and even given the opportunity, he knew that he wouldn't desert his team, and he was almost certain that the others felt the same way. They would be doing this together or not at all. That only left them two real options; encountering a search party from Atlantis while they were in the city, or escaping from the village.
That was why he was so pleased to be noticing landmarks, if you could call them that. Until he tried to look for differences, one tree looked just the same as any other to Sheppard. Especially on an alien world where there were no species that he recognised. There were differences though, probably many more than he realised. He congratulated himself inwardly as they passed a large, thick-branched tree with an oddly patterned bark and knew that they would soon turn to the left, where the trees would begin to thin out.
The city looked every bit as foreboding as it had the day before. The dust still crunched under their feet and the sense of stillness was still almost overpowering. The change in atmosphere was obvious almost as soon as they entered the built up area. It was not surprising that the villagers feared it.
One of the guards stopped walking and turned to face the others. "You and you," he pointed at Sheppard and Ford, "come with me."
One of the other guards stepped forwards too, leaving McKay, Teyla and two other guards, one of whom was Daynen.
McKay and Teyla watched as their companions were marched away in the direction of the nearest building, a tall, thin tower with at least twenty floors. Once they had seen them enter, that guard who was not Daynen turned to McKay. "Which building?" he asked.
"You're asking me?" said McKay, "Why would I know the best place to look? This is your planet."
"Which building?" said the guard again; his voice tight with suppressed anger and his left hand hovering near the knife that he kept in his belt.
"Perhaps you should choose one," Teyla suggested.
McKay nodded and pointed to a building at random, "How about that one?"
The guard nodded and they crossed the street and walked inside.
Ford drummed his fingers on the floor next to where he was sitting. They had paused for a break and a drink of water after three hours of fruitless searching. There was little difference between each of the rooms. Every one was empty and full of dust. The only real difference was that there was less dust the higher up the building they moved. He didn't know whether it was the lack of dust, or that fewer people had ventured this far into the building, but in the higher rooms they did find some evidence that the city had not always been deserted. Looking at it from the street or the lower rooms, it was almost possible to believe that it had simply been built and then abandoned before anyone moved in. Higher up they found objects. Pieces of wood, scraps of a plastic-like material, even what looked like an old doll, discarded on the floor.
He wondered about the child that had owned the doll. Had she been there when the Wraith had taken her parents? What had happened to her next? Was she one of the many that had died of disease, or had she fled with the survivors into the forest? It was even possible that the guards that watched them as they sat on the floor, leaning against the wall, half way up what had probably been an apartment block, were in some way related to the child that had once lived in that room.
He glanced out of the window and looked at the city. It was vast. It seemed to carry on for miles. It probably did. He wondered how many people had lived here when the Wraith had come. Millions probably. If you didn't look too closely at the destruction, it was almost possible to believe that he was in a city on Earth. He closed his eyes, trying to wipe that thought from his mind. This world had nothing in common with Earth. The Wraith had destroyed this world. That would never happen to Earth. Never.
But even as he thought it, he knew that it was possible. They would do anything they could to keep the Wraith from accessing the Atlantis gate, even destroying the city to prevent it from happening, but there was still a chance that they could still get through. And if they did, this world and Earth would become almost indistinguishable.
His surroundings were getting to him. He tried to stop imagining city after city on Earth being hit by the Wraith. People not understanding what was happening as they were removed from their homes and fed upon by creatures out of a science-fiction movie. And how many other cities were there on this world just like this one?
That thought stopped him in his tracks. His fingers stopped drumming and he almost dropped his water, "Major?"
Sheppard looked at him, "Yeah?"
"This city, you don't think there could be others, do you?"
Sheppard shrugged, "I don't know. On a world as advanced as this one was, probably. Why?"
"Well, isn't it possible that the weapon is somewhere else? If this was Earth, we probably wouldn't have hidden something like that in the middle of a city. And if it is in a city, why this one? If there's more…"
"We could be looking in the wrong place entirely!" Sheppard rolled his head backwards until it made contact with the hard surface of the wall, then looked at the guards. "Did you guys hear that?" he asked, "Your weapon probably isn't even here. We're wasting our time."
"We heard you," said one of the guards, a tall man in his early twenties, with dark skin and thick black hair tied back with a piece of cloth, "you are lying. The weapon is here."
"Not necessarily," Sheppard argued. "There could be any number of cities just like this one on your world. From the looks of the place, I'd say your people used to be quite technologically advanced. News travels fast in that kind of society. If someone invented a weapon that could destroy the Wraith, people could have heard about it on the other side of the world a few hours later. It's been hundreds of years, your people could have easily forgotten the part of the story that said the weapon was somewhere else."
Anger clouded the young man's face, "We have forgotten nothing," he said, "because there was no such thing to forget!"
"Maybe," said Sheppard, "This could have been the only city on the planet, but then again, there could have been hundreds of them. Thousands even."
The guard stood up. His companion joined him. "Back to work!" he said forcefully, and Sheppard sighed as he got to his feet. He wondered whether McKay and Teyla were having any more luck.
