Part 3
McKay tore down the blackened hallway his light flashing haphazardly across the floor and walls.
He listened to the short controlled burst of the P90s and felt his heart race as the bursts became more prolonged, erratic.
He heard Beckett's foot falls slow down.
McKay slowed too, splashing through puddles as he listened to sounds of constant firing. The first scream that ripped through the blackness stole his breath and sent his heart into his throat. "Oh God," he muttered.
The scream continued gaining in wild hysterics and desperation. The sound of a single hand gun being fired echoed through the darkness.
One scream died just as another adulterated one ripped through the area.
McKay still kept his grip on Carson's arm and was thankful that he had when he felt Beckett take a hesitant step back toward Sullivan and O'Connor.
The horrific sounds of unspeakable agony exploded through the black corridors, like a ball of flames, piecing ears drums and sending hearts racing.
"We've got to go back; we've got to help them," Carson was muttering, trying to pull his arm free and head back to the two young marines whose cries were abruptly cut short.
"Their gone; we've got to keep moving," McKay tugged on Beckett's sleeve. "Come on Carson, move," Rodney ordered, pulling sharply at his friend.
"Maybe we can help them."
"They're gone Carson, don't be stupid. Don't make their sacrifice for nothing," McKay yanked impatiently on Beckett's arm getting him moving again, "Move your ass."
"No, Rodney," Beckett pulled back, still staring down the corridor they just fled. They just couldn't leave those two behind, they might still be alive. They had to be alive. Life shouldn't be ripped away so violently and abruptly. People shouldn't die. Not like that. Not without their family near by to say goodbye. "We've got to go back," Beckett whispered absently trying to free himself from Rodney's grip.
McKay felt his resolve waver. They should go back. Sullivan or Sutherland or whatever his name was, was a crazed bacon fanatic, he'd trade just about any other type of food for a slice of fatty swine. McKay had seen him give up a cookie for piece of charred bacon. Insanity. He had a quick mind too, not as quick as his own of course, but Sutterland was teachable and could handle himself just fine in tight situations. O'Connor or O'Toole had a thing about water, McKay didn't understand it but grudgingly respected it. O'Tombe after all could snap Rodney's neck like a pretzel if he desired too.
McKay and Beckett flashed their lights down the corridor and watched in muted horror as the creature slowly stalked out of the shadows toward them with remnants of Sullivan's blood soaked vest still clinging to its claws.
"Oh shit," McKay muttered. He turned hauling Beckett with him and bolted down the hallway.
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Rodney rounded a corner, slapped open a door and yanked Beckett through behind him. The door slid closed just as the creature slammed into it.
The two men stood shoulder to shoulder against the door panting.
"What the Hell is that thing?" Beckett asked wide eyed.
"How should I know?" McKay bit back between ragged breathes, slightly exasperated.
The creature slammed into the door again, shoving the scientist and doctor forward into the room. "I thought maybe one of your lab mice might have gotten away."
"You're the only gene altered lab rat that's running free," Beckett snapped.
"Look, I'm just saying that your luck with gene manipulation has had more things go wrong than right," Rodney stated frankly. The thought of O'Cavanagh and Sutherland being gone tore at his conscience. Another two men killed trying to protect him.
"Aye, well at least I didn't blow up a whole solar system, now did I?" Beckett retorted without thinking but realizing his intent was to cut. He struck out trying to ease the fierce pain that boiled in the pit of his stomach. Sullivan and O'Connor were just kids, maybe deadly, but they were just kids with mothers at home who worried about them. They were gone, wasted here in some abandon city by some mindless monster. Probably similar to something that he may one day inadvertently create and set loose. He was no better than a modern Dr. Frankenstein. The two marines were gone, protecting the likes of himself. Rodney he could understand, the man kept the city running, kept catastrophe at bay, when he wasn't wielding it himself. Rodney needed protection, needed to survive. Beckett? He was a dime a dozen.
What would Sullivan and O'Connor's mothers think?
"No, but you nearly turned Sheppard into a bug and managed to wipe out half a planet's population!" Rodney slashed in heated defense to what he considered to be his own fall from grace. He had lost faith in the eyes of Weir, lost Sheppard's trust for a time, and lost the respect of his fellow scientists. His equations and ideas were second guessed. He was asked for his opinions and that was all they were anymore, opinions instead of gospel as to what should be done. His answers were questioned, his math double checked. He was the go to guy out of habit but if Rodney wasn't around someone else could fill his shoes.
Sullivan and O'Connor shouldn't have died protecting the likes of him. He'd like to believe he was worth saving but truth was, he was no longer Atlantis's most precious commodity.
His one spectacular failure hammered home all the lessons of his childhood. He couldn't risk failure, or he risked losing more than just a few months work, he risked losing his friends and all the confusing strings that came with friendship. Friends lasted only as long as his answers remained correct. One mistake and people started drifting away from you.
He turned his failure ten fold back onto the one person who was just as eaten by guilt at their own short comings and obsessions with science as Rodney. He returned the favor and tore a strip off the one person who understood his drive and almost blind obsession with his field of expertise.
McKay hauled the Hoff vaccine to the forefront, knowing full well it still kept Beckett from sleeping some nights. Carson considered it a tragic catastrophe. The Hoffan's had acted and manipulated his work without his knowledge, Beckett still berated himself and the Hoffan's. Though the Hoff citizens overwhelmingly voted to continue with the vaccine, Beckett continued to carry the guilt of developing a vaccine that would kill nearly half of those who received it, not discriminating between man, woman or child. He had made a drug that did grievous harm and in the process killed a friend. It didn't matter to Beckett that the Hoffan's had used him, abused his work and stolen it from him, just as the young wraith girl had done, all leading to deleterious effects. His work had created, often times, more harm than good. No scientist or medical doctor would want that or risk it. How do you wake up each morning and look in the mirror?
No one wanted it thrown back in their face, either. Just as Rodney did not wish to relive his own folly or have his own achille's heel revealed and exposed for cutting.
The two scientists stared at one another gauging the depth of intent behind the words. Jaws worked against teeth and masseter muscles bulged.
"It's not one of mine, Rodney." Beckett's flat voice had McKay shutting his eyes.
"Figured as much, though it did kind of look like the Colonel for a moment," Rodney chuckled.
Beckett tossed him a disgusted look and shook his head. "Not even close. The Major was more blue."
The sudden banging on the door had the two men focusing all their attention back to searching for a means to escape.
The door shimmied under the steady onslaught.
"It's not going to hold," Beckett stated. "We've got to find another way out of here."
"Ya think?" Rodney returned with a touch of sarcastic ire.
"Where do you think it came from?" Beckett asked surveying the room, his eyes tracking the path of his flashlight.
McKay rummaged through the room looking for an alternate escape or something to use for a defense.
"Down the hall," McKay answered distractedly as he lifted a piece of equipment out of his way. He stared at it quizzically before discarding it.
Carson merely nodded, his mind already moving forward, "What do you think it is?"
"Why are you asking me?" Rodney inquired with a touch of indignity as he ran his flashlight over the East wall.
"You're the one with all the blood answers all the time, 'Answer Man'," Beckett shot back from across the room shining his flash light over an empty desk and chair.
"Well I don't know what it is," Rodney snapped, "you're the damn doctor and geneticist, you should know!"
"Me!" Carson slapped the palm of his hand against his chest, "How the Hell do you expect me to know what it is? It's the first time I've seen anything like it!"
The two were pulled from their argument by the sudden bowing of the door.
"Mother of God," Beckett whispered.
"Isn't here right now to help us out," McKay pointed out brusquely as he bent down and peered under a bed.
"I don't think hiding under the bed is going to save your ass this time, Rodney," Carson pointed out with a touch of panicked sarcasm.
McKay pushed himself to his feet, "Thought it'd be the perfect hiding spot for you."
Beckett scowled his features and bobbed his head minutely left and right in physical display of sarcasm. He then began a frantic search of a way out, trying to ignore the sounds of the creature throwing itself against the ever bending door.
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Sheppard, Ronan and Teyla led the seven marines down the hall leading to the section of abandon city that McKay and Beckett had been assigned to survey.
"I knew we shouldn't have sent those two off with more men." The colonel nearly spit out, "they'd bring down a whole city around themselves without meaning too."
Ronan stopped next to the colonel and stared down the empty darkened corridor that marked the delineating line between the inhabited and uninhabited sections of the city. "Wasn't it you and the little guy that destroyed a section of solar system?"
"Oh, shut up," John snapped.
Sheppard pulled his life signs detector from his pocket and held it out as he leveled his P-90 at the darkened hallway before him.
He brought the life signs detector up waist high, aimed it at the empty corridor and peered down at the display. Three dots suddenly appeared. The meter gauged them to be roughly over 2000 meters away, almost a mile. "I've got them." He furrowed his brow at seeing only three dots, "Looks like they might have split up." Sheppard knew it didn't sound right. His men would have stuck close to McKay and Beckett. O'Connor and Sullivan were dedicated soldiers and seemed to get along with the two doctors. McKay was even civil to Sullivan and tolerated the marine better than most. O'Connor and Beckett would occasionally share stories about the ocean and living on the coast. The two marines would prevent, at all possible costs, the two civilians from getting separated or hurt.
He stared at the three blue glowing dots that shimmered on his readout. Something was wrong.
He started to take his first step forward when the doors separating the lighted section of city from the darkened corridor slid closed cutting him off from the uninhabited parts, separating him from McKay and Beckett.
Sheppard stared at the door and then down at the life sign scanner. The signal was lost.
"What the Hell!" he shouted. "Open the damn doors!"
Ronan raised his gun and fired at the door.
The door sparked and flashed as energy sizzled across it's surface but not a mark was left on it.
"Not like that!" Sheppard bit out.
Ronan shrugged, "Thought'd it be worth a try."
"Zelenka!"
"Here Major."
"Colonel," Sheppard corrected without thinking, "get the damn doors open."
There was deafening silence as one of the marines stepped forward and began playing with the control panel.
"The city has them locked down, I can't open them," Zelenka's voice held an uncomfortable note of panic.
"Override it, gawd Damn it," Sheppard ordered.
"I am trying," Zelenka answered.
"Perhaps there is another way into that section of the city?" Teyla asked, her question reaching both her team and the group in the control room.
"Working on it," Grodin's replacement muttered.
Sheppard didn't hold out much hope.