Okay here is part 9. It has been tweaked, rewrote, deleted, cut/pasted etc. Tomorrow it will probably be pulled down and fixed again, but I feel bad about all those horrible cliff hangers. That was mean of me. I hate cliffhangers myself. So here is part 9. Oh and its kind of short.
Part 9
McKay pivoted on his foot and lunged for the gate dragging the Colonel with him. Rodney slogged through the soft grass and mud. He headed for the stone apron his quadriceps burned with each heavy cross-over step he took. He dug for purchase in the squishy ground, splashing mud and water up over his shoes. The balls of his feet sunk solidly into the soil with each step. He hauled the colonel behind him, his arm straining with the dead weight. His shoulder burned competing ruthlessly with his forearm and clenched hand.
Rain soaked McKay's face, mingling freely with his sweat, running into his eyes, forcing him to squint. The scientist stared straight ahead focusing solely on the gate and the shimmering event horizon.
Beckett kept pace beside McKay firing arbitrarily with one hand, finding it awkward and switching it to the other hand.
The creature shook its head and reared back on its hind feet pawing at the sky as rain cascaded down upon it. Blood and rain water streamed in crooked paths across its body.
A barrage of bullets skimmed across its hide, whistled by its head and unfortunately very few embedded solidly within its body.
Beckett paused in firing as he and McKay stumbled up the stone platform. They stood in front of the worm hole, eying the Howler.
It seemed the two parties took measure of one another, gauging their fight, their chance of survival.
The two men stared wide eyed at the monstrous creature that stared at them with a menacing one eyed glare. The lids over and under the missing eye twitched irregularly. Blood glopped like jelly from its mangled socket.
"Gross," Rodney muttered.
"Crap," Beckett hissed.
The Howler roared, trigging both men into action.
Simultaneously, McKay and Beckett quickly bent down and shoved the colonel through the gate.
Beckett looked up in time to see the Howler lunge for them. He raised the gun and began firing.
McKay screamed and sprang forward under Carson's outstretched arms.
Rodney wrapped his arms around Beckett's midsection and hurled them both through worm hole.
They skipped and slid into the gate room with Beckett on his back facing the event horizon. He kept his head and shoulders raised, firing the .9mm.
Medical personnel dove for cover.
"The Iris! Raise the iris" McKay screamed as he slid belly down, one shoulder embedded in Carson's midsection.
The Canadian at the control consol slapped the key and raised the iris. He leaned over the consol and stared below at the chaos in the gate room.
The iris flashed across the event horizon just as an orange/yellow explosion sounded from the other side with an ominous thud.
The iris sparked and flared with the repeated hits of bullets from Beckett's handgun.
Medical teams bodily shielded their patients.
The colonel lay near the entrance of the gate where he had exited, partially on his side with legs extended, crossed at the ankles and unmoving. Water and blood pooled under his head and turned shoulders.
"Whoa, whoa!" Major Lorne squatted down between the two doctors careful not to startle them. "I think you got whatever it was, doc. Nothing's gonna be walking away from that," Lorne stated with a mixture of apprehension, fear and sarcasm.
Beckett stopped firing the gun but kept it aimed in the general direction of the star gate.
Rodney cautiously lowered his jammed P-90. "Sarcasm will get you nowhere," McKay muttered, placing Teyla's weapon on the floor. It clattered noisily. A soldier suddenly appeared. He quickly reached down and retrieved the weapon and engaged the safety.
"I think I shoot better with my left hand," Beckett rasped as Lorne reached over the CMO's muddied soaked shoulder and pried the revolver from the doctor's white knuckled grip.
The major quietly secured the weapon and handed it off behind himself to one of his silent marines.
Medical personal slowly began to straighten up and continue to treat their patients. They tossed wary glances at the two doctors sitting in the middle of the floor soaked to the skin.
"Don't fool yourself Carson. You're equally horrible with both hands," McKay pointed out as he slowly pushed himself to his knees and then started to climb painfully to his feet.
He suddenly gasped and grabbed for his abdomen when it unexpectedly and violently cramped, keeping him on his knees. He felt the warmth of a thick liquid spread slowly over his chilled hands.
At first he had thought it rain water. The liquid was too dense, too warm to just be saturated clothing that was wringing wet.
He stared down at his midsection and hand to find both covered with thick dark congealing blood.
"Carson?" McKay questioned softly and looked up from his bloody hand and to the CMO. Rodney's face became ghostly pale as his eyes grew large with panic. He slowly began to melt to the side.
"Oh crap," Beckett whispered and scrambled to his knees and grabbed for the toppling scientist.
He eased McKay back to the floor, guiding his head and neck. "Hold on, Rodney."
The doctor turned to Lorne and hoarsely whispered, "We need more medical up here." His voice faded before he could finish his sentence, but the major clearly understood.
Beckett knocked Rodney's hands away from his abdomen as he undid the sopping coat and lifted the torn shirt. He found McKay's right flank torn and lacerated. Meat and adipose bulged from furrowing wounds. "What happened, Rodney?"
"I, I don't know," McKay muttered. "Must have happened in the clearing when it took out Ronon and then went for you."
"What happened after that?" Beckett asked as he carefully slit Rodney's shirt open and began searching for more wounds.
"You aren't touching me with the hands you've been coughing into all night are you?"
"No, Rodney, I'm using Major Lorne's hands." Beckett returned. "Now what happened after it knocked me and Teyla down?"
"Ronon knocked you two down," Rodney clarified. "When you started flopping around and got free of Teyla, it went for you. Sheppard went for it. It got pissed off and went for me. I got it with the P-90.---or I thought I did."
Rodney closed his eyes as nausea swamped him like a storm tide. His vision began to grey and voices faded in and out on him. He suddenly felt terribly cold and felt himself shiver, violently. It should have made his side hurt but it didn't, not really. He heard someone groan, and realized it was himself. Beckett was calling to him, telling him to hang on---everything was going to be alright.
Beckett's voice kept fading. Rodney could hear Carson coughing and hacking. He hoped Carson wasn't coughing all over him; that would just be disgusting. And he could hear other voices. Mostly Carson's telling him to fight, not to give up. Rodney wanted to tell him not to worry, he wasn't going anywhere.
A deep cold ached his bones. But then he suddenly felt the urge to throw up, which he promptly did.
After that everything faded to black and the noise funneled down into the nothingness.