Chapter Sixteen
Elizabeth felt weak and shaky. The picture of Teyla injured and dying alone on the floor of a Wraith cell imprinted on her mind. Suddenly she felt no worry about killing any Wraith using a gun, she felt only hatred towards them, pure, unadulterated hatred. Something she had never felt towards anyone in her life.
She shocked herself at the sudden urge to shoot them all.
She felt a light touch on her shoulder.
"Elizabeth…there are Wraith coming," he said, nodding to a small corridor on their left. "In there…"
They ducked inside the corridor and squatted down just inside the entrance. Elizabeth hoped that they were planning on walking forward and not taking a detour in their direction. She closed her eyes as she heard the footsteps coming closer, tightening her grip on her weapon. She was holding her breath for such a long time that she almost felt as though her lungs were going to explode.
She opened her eyes and watched as the two figures moved past, unaware of their presence. She felt John closed to her, knowing he was squatting as close as he could to comfort her, to let her know he was there for her. They both stood up slowly as the Wraith passed, watching the life-sense detector until the two extra dots had disappeared.
"You OK?" John asked again, frowning at her.
"No," she said, truthfully this time. "I'm not OK…but we have a job to do, and until it's done I have to remain strong."
He nodded. "As long as your sure you can do this…"
"I can," she said, trying to reassured herself more than anyone.
He nodded and took one more look at the life sense detector before returning to the hallway and continuing in the direction Teyla had instructed them to. Elizabeth followed him, even though they had the life-sense detector she had the nagging feeling that at any moment a Wraith was going to appear out of nowhere and suck the life out of both of them. She felt as though she was physically walking through her own nightmare, and when she thought about it she was.
John stopped in front of her and she almost walked right into him.
"What is it?" she asked.
He nodded forward. She looked ahead to see the entrance to a room, and through the door she could see a red-haired Wraith standing over a body, which, by the jacket sleeve, she identified as Ford.
"Is that him?" John asked, quietly.
She nodded slightly. The Wraith moved and she got a better view of him. She closed her eyes and looked away, his face was contorted on the side facing them, the skin crinkled and looked like it belonged to a hundred year old man. He had spikes jammed through his legs and he was obviously unconscious.
She took a deep breath and opened her eyes again, and without thinking walked past John into the room, aiming the gun she held in her hands directly at the Wraith's back. She stood there for a few moments, pausing in her knowledge of what she was about to do, before tightening her finger on the trigger and squeezing it.
The first shot fired, alerting the Wraith to her presence, and then as it turned around the next, and the next, and the next…until she heard a click. She froze, unaware of what to do next. Why wasn't the Wraith dying? It wasn't even slightly injured yet.
The sudden realisation that the Wraith was reaching towards her jerked her into action, she moved away, suddenly realising John was now firing at the Wraith. She saw a stunner lying on the table and reached for it. She remembered reading in John's first mission report, after they had gone to save Sumner, unsuccessfully, that they had killed the Wraith by stabbing it with a Wraith stunner.
So she did just that, closing her eyes as she did so, not wanting to see herself killing another creature, even if it was a Wraith. As she jerk the stunner upwards, making sure it hurt and did as much damage as possible, she opened her eyes, watching as the Wraith weakened, falling to the ground.
And she felt nothing but hatred towards the creature, not even the smallest bit of remorse was inside of her, she didn't care.
That scared her more than anything…
She was still staring at the Wraith, in shock about her own lack of emotions, when John's voice came through.
"Elizabeth, help me get him off the table…"
She looked up at him blankly, and then down at Ford. He didn't look very alive, but his chest was still barely rising up and down. She walked to the side of the table and undid the straps that held down his arms and legs, then stared at the spikes that were sticking out of his legs. She reached forward and pulled one out, the blood rushing out after it.
"Crap," she said, looking at John.
"Don't look at me, I don't even know who I am let alone how to help him," John said, sounding worried.
"Teyla…someone wrapped up Teyla's wounds with something that looked like a bandage," Elizabeth said. "Maybe pressure will help…"
She began looking around the room for something, anything, that resembled a bandage. She heard a ripping noise and turned back around. John was tearing her jacket into shreds. He handed her one and she quickly wrapped it around Ford's leg, as tight as she could, hoping it would help stop the blood flow.
She reached for his neck – feeling for a pulse, and for the first time looking properly at his face. She wasn't sure what had happened to it, but it looked almost as though the Wraith had fed only on one part of his skin. Was that even possible? She couldn't be sure.
His pulse was slow and weak.
"We have to get him out of here, now," she said, looking at John.
"I know," he said, lifting Ford up, a pain expression in his face as he did so, and, with Elizabeth's help, resting him across his shoulders.
The two of them made their way silently out of the room, Elizabeth glancing one last time at the creature she had just murdered. Again she felt no emotion except confusion as to why she had none. Was this how soldiers felt at war? Did they have such hatred for other human beings that they felt nothing when they killed them? Or was she just a cold-hearted killer who had no emotions?
She glanced at Ford and felt the hatred towards the Wraith rise up inside her again. How could they have done this to her friends? What had they needed to badly that they felt the need to torture them to near death and not even feed on them? Not that she would want them to be fed upon, she was sure that was worse than torture, but it made no sense to her. She knew they could play mind tricks, so why the physical torture?
She would never understand the creatures.
"I don't like being offworld," Carson muttered.
"This is my first time, it is very exciting," Kisunagi replied.
"Yes well, compared to working with Rodney in a lab all day, this must seem like a walk in the park," Carson replied.
She looked at him, her eyes wide. "Oh but I enjoy working for Dr McKay. He is a very smart man."
"So he likes to tell us," Carson smiled slightly, wondering where the scientist had gotten to.
The two of them were sitting in the puddle jumper. When they had reached the clearing again there had been two Wraith wandering around, but they had soon disappeared. The two of them had run quickly inside the jumper and Carson had made sure the cloaking device was activated this time.
"I admire him greatly," Kisunagi continued.
Carson looked at her in surprise. "You're being serious?"
"Of course," she said, smiling still.
"Each to his…or her…own, I suppose," Carson said.
"You do not like Dr McKay?" she asked.
"Oh I wouldn't say that…but I wouldn't want to work with him," Carson smiled.
"Wouldn't want to work with who?"
They both spun around in shock to see Rodney standing there, Teyla in his arms. He lay her down on the floor of the puddlejumper. Carson jumped up and made his way to the back of the jumper
"Carson…" he said, out of breath, and pointed to Teyla. "I think she needs medical attention."
"That's a bloody understatement," he said, kneeling down next to her, and after a few seconds he looked up. "We need to get her back to Atlantis, fast…where are the others?"
"Getting Lieutenant Ford…" Rodney replied, sitting down.
Carson looked at Rodney. "How did you get out?"
"There was an exit…there seems to be a lack of Wraith in the facility itself. Figured they were out here looking for us, not in there…"
"So when they realise that Major Sheppard and Dr Weir are inside its highly likely there will be more guards?" Carson said.
"Oh…" Rodney said.
"Damnit," John said quietly.
Elizabeth looked at the entrance they had located. There were three Wraith guards standing there.
"We ran out of those bullet things…" John said, shifting the weight of Ford across his shoulders.
"I knew I should have taken the stunner…" Elizabeth replied.
"It was stuck inside a Wraith…I don't blame you for leaving it behind," John said.
From outside came a sudden loud burst of gunfire, and a loud shout. The three Wraith guards disappeared from the doorway.
John grinned. "Rodney…I guess there is something to like about him after all."
Elizabeth smiled slightly. They two of them ran towards the entrance, not at a very fast pace, John with the added weight of Ford and Elizabeth's knee still hurting. But they knew this would be their only chance to get of the place.
"Do you know where to go?" John asked.
Elizabeth nodded slowly. "I remember seeing this place from the air as we came in, didn't recognise it as a building at the time though…"
She jogged off in the general direction of the jumper. It took them about five minutes to locate the jumper. As they ran into the clearing, so did four or five Wraith, stunners at the ready and firing.
"Where are we going?" John asked.
Just at that moment the puddle jumper uncloaked.
"In there," Elizabeth said, nodding to the back.
The two of them sprinted, trying their hardest to avoid the Wraith stunners. Elizabeth felt her knee giving way beneath her, but kept running towards the jumper. The last thing she remembered was the feeling of numbness, joined by a bright light…
"Elizabeth!" John shouted, seeing her fall to the ground, hit by a Wraith stunner.
He ran the last few meters to the puddlejumper and laid Ford down carefully just inside, before turning around and running back out. He barely remembered these people, but he had to save her, something told him that life wouldn't be the same without her once he started remembering things.
He reached her safely and lifted her up, running as fast as he could on his tired, exhausted legs and landed inside the jumper.
"GO!" he shouted.
The ship lifted up off the ground at the same time as the doors closed.
"Major you come and fly this thing and I'll attend to the patients!" the guy out the front shouted.
Major? He thought to himself, but he figured that was referring to him. It sounded vaguely familiar. He looked at Elizabeth for a second, and then, stepping over Ford and Teyla, made his way to the front of the spacecraft.
"How does it work?" he asked.
The other man frown at him. "Just think…it'll do what you want it to…"
"O…K…" John said, sitting down at the pilots seat and reaching out to the control panel.
Suddenly he understood. The spaceship did exactly as he told it to do.
"Where am I going?" he asked.
"The Stargate," Rodney replied, sitting down next to him.
"Where that?" John asked.
Rodney pointed straight ahead. "You see that large, grey circle thing?"
"Yeah…"
"That's it…" Rodney said.
John steered the ship towards the thing that Rodney had pointed at. He watched as Rodney started pressing buttons.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
"Dialling the gate…" Rodney replied.
John shrugged it off and concentrated on flying the ship directly towards the gate. "What do I do when I get there?"
"Just fly through…" Rodney replied.
Suddenly a blue puddle appeared in the middle of the circle. John looked at it in confusion, and then turned his confused expression back to Rodney who was now punching in numbers onto another device, attached to his wrist.
"OK now you can fly through…" Rodney said.
"Why couldn't I before?" John asked.
"Just fly, I'll explain it later!"
The jumper disappeared through the wormhole and moments later John found himself in a small room. He closed his eyes and concentrated hard and the ship stopped less than a foot from the nearest wall.
He knew exactly where the jumper was supposed to go. Up. Into the jumper bay…As he lifted the ship into the area where it was supposed to be he heard the vague calling of "Medical team to the jumper bay".
They were home.