"'Just stay close to the fire'?" Ford repeated, incredulously. "Where the hell else are we going to go?"
It wasn't like they weren't tied up, after all.
"Relax, Ford," Sheppard said, trying to sound more confident than he felt.
"We're tied up."
"I know."
"How am I supposed to relax?"
"Getting upset isn't going to help us come up with any way of getting loose."
"And sitting here-"
"I am certain an opportunity will present itself eventually," Teyla said, cutting off the nervous argument. "We will just have to wait for it."
Ford sighed, and squirmed again, trying to loosen up the ropes on his wrists – to no avail – and then glared back the way Dex had vanished.
"He could have at least untied us…"
Yeah, Sheppard couldn't help but agree with that, since he'd have appreciated that as well. And his weapons back, too. That would have been nice.
"Are we sure this guy's wrong?" John asked, finally, looking at Teyla. "Maybe there is a Wraith around here?"
She shook her head.
"There are no Wraith. I would have known."
Good point. She could sense them, after all.
"Well that doesn't mean it's not something equally bad," Ford said, trying to get loose once more.
"What could be as bad as the Wraith?" Teyla asked.
OOOOOOOO
It had to be the most uncomfortable night any of them had spent in quite a while. Of course, they were all just a little spoiled by living in Atlantis where they actually had beds, and weren't outside under the stars and trees, but still…
After that initial cry – or scream or whatever it was, depending on who was mentioning it – they didn't hear another sound. Which was odd enough, since the forest before then had been alive with the normal little sounds that every forest makes. Small creatures going from here or there hunting for a nocturnal dinner, or settling in for the night with sleepy noises. Things like that. Now there wasn't anything. As if the whole forest was holding its breath trying not to be seen or heard by whatever was out there.
It was spooky, and hardly remarkable that none of the away team had any sleep that night. They were all relieved to see the sun coming up and the sky getting lighter – which translated into the sky getting lighter, too. Once they could see all around them without the need of the fire, they downed a quick breakfast and doused the fire. A little fuzzy-headed since they hadn't had all that much sleep the night before – except Melony who had Talon's help keeping her fresh – they were all glad to get moving. None of them liked to present themselves as a stationary target any longer than necessary, after all.
Melony looked at Rodney, who pulled his locator device out of his pocket and looked down at it.
"Well?"
"There's something interfering with it still."
"Hit it a couple of times," Duck suggested.
Rodney scowled.
"Yes. We'll beat up the technology and that will make it work."
The sarcasm made Duck scowl as well.
"It works with my TV."
"This isn't your TV."
"What about locating whatever it is that's interfering?" Mitchell asked, more to cut off the argument than because she thought there was any real hope of that. McKay looked at her.
"What?"
She shrugged.
"It's a fairly un-advanced planet, right? How many things can be interfering with our signal? Maybe if we find that, we'll find Sheppard and the others…"
"Or maybe we'll find a naturally occurring electromagnetic field," Rodney countered.
"You want to stand around here waiting for that whatever it was to come find us?"
He didn't even need to answer that, of course. Instead, he looked down at the device once more.
"I suppose I could reconfigure it to search for the disturbance…"
"Will it take long?" Boyett asked. He didn't want to stand around any longer than necessary, either.
"Only a minute," Rodney said, already pushing buttons and completely engrossed in what he was doing.
Not surprisingly, it didn't even take that long. The guy was a genius, after all. The device emitted a soft whirring noise for just a moment, and then Rodney gave it a whack on the side, which caused the whirring to stop.
"This way," McKay said, looking to their left, and stepping off that direction.
Duck scowled.
"I told him to hit it in the first place…"
Melony smiled as she passed him, gesturing for him and Boyett to take rear while she walked point with McKay.
"Let it pass, Sergeant…"
It never did any good to try and win an argument with McKay anyways. The sergeant should have already figured that out.
OOOOOO
"How much further?"
"It's not far."
"That's not what I asked."
"I don't know, Colonel. There's no way to judge the distance, really…"
"You just said it wasn't far," Duck said, crossly.
"That was to get you to shut up." McKay snapped. And then he looked at Melony, quickly. "Not you. Just them."
She suppressed the urge to sigh. They hadn't been walking all that long, but they were all a little irritable.
Send them to bed early tonight, Talon suggested, amused.
She ignored that.
"Rodney…"
"The signal isn't all that strong to begin with, Colonel," Rodney said, looking down at the device in his hand. "The longer I look at it, the more I think it isn't natural, and the- we're really close to it… I just don't know…"
He trailed off, realizing that Mitchell wasn't paying attention to him any longer. Her attention had been caught by something in a tree ahead of them. Something that didn't belong. As he followed her gaze, he frowned.
"What's that…?"
She didn't answer. Instead, walking closer to the tree in question and looking up into it.
"Oh, God…" Boyett said, taking a step back. "Is that what I think it is?"
"Looks like it…" Melony answered, feeling just a little nauseous.
Stuck in the crotch between two sturdy branches of the tree above them was what was left of a Wraith. Several pieces of it were gone, ripped away from the rest of it, and its middle section was completely ripped apart. Mitchell had a feeling that all that was holding it together were the remains of its clothing. It was definitely dead, and not a threat to them, but that didn't make them feel any better.
"Ugh…" Duck said, stepping closer. "What could do that to a Wraith?"