DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the characters from 'Stargate: Atlantis'. They're not my propety.
Silently, but with their guard on a higher level, they continued further. It was insane to think that; simply insane.
Moving among these bones, through so much death at the very beginning had been unsettling. They walked for ten minutes until a wall became visible in front of them.
"Was a war that ended with occupation mentioned in the scrolls?" John asked.
"No. It was mostly about their daily lives. The peaceful times." Elizabeth started walking along the wall. "You think that was the reason for their fate?" she asked referring to the human bodies.
"From the looks of the chamber, they weren't exactly the live and let live kind, so maybe it angered another tribe."
Elizabeth nodded. "Wouldn't be surprising." Her eyes wandered briefly to the direction where the mysterious creature had disappeared. The sounds she heard back then were those of a large cat. It hadn't been assuring knowing that they were not alone here. When her eyes returned to the wall, they noticed similar images to those on the floor. Hearing a crack beneath her, Elizabeth quickly looked down and noticed her foot what was once a large paw. The size of the skeletal remains worried her where her foot was extremely small standing in the middle of it. Elizabeth couldn't help but swallow a lump of nervousness which suddenly got stuck in her throat. She took comfort in the thought that the creature hadn't attacked them when it clearly had a good chance of doing so.
Raising the torch higher, the flickering light revealed steps behind the tall walls. "I'm going to take a wild guess and say that this used to be an arena once," John's sandy voice broke through the darkness. When she didn't respond, he turned around to her. "Doc?"
His call pulled her out of her thoughts. "Oh, uh, yeah…"
He looked at her more carefully. "Worried about the cat?" John asked.
She looked back at him. "You think it was a cat?"
He shrugged. "No… Actually, I'm not sure."
Elizabeth pulled a strand of hair behind her ear. She had to admit being surprised by his calmness. "Okay." She turned back to the wall. "Well, it does raise the alert level a bit higher," Elizabeth replied.
"Look at it this way, if it is something big and dangerous, at least it's giving you one more reason to find a way out of here more quickly," he sounded surprisingly cheerful with that sentence.
"Yes, it does," she replied.
Moving along the wall and in the small space that hadn't been covered in bones, their steps were quicker this time. Close to the ground – black, iron bars caught their attention. A gate not bigger than ten feet was seen as Elizabeth leaned forward for a better look. The flashlight of her helmet pierced through the darkness on the other side where it showed a dark tunnel ahead. "It looks like a tunnel," she said.
"Can you open the gate?" he asked.
Failing to push the gate, Elizabeth pulled toward her instead and opened it. "That's a 'yes'."
"Good. On we go," he suggested.
"And the fact that we have no idea where it leads to?"
"Is something we don't have much time to think about."
Elizabeth looked up at him. "It's strange that there's no other exit or entrance here," she said.
"Maybe it was used as a tunnel through which those things came here. And if we're lucky, you'll have a few waiting for you at the other end." He smiled.
"Do you get some sadistic enjoyment out of this?"
"Of what?"
"Trying to make me feel uncomfortable with scenarios like that.
"No," he replied innocently and stepped inside the tunnel.
Perching her lips, Elizabeth fixed the flashlight forward and entered the small tunnel after him.
She could see scratch marks on the walls, deep and looking almost fresh. May of them similar to the ones she noticed at the other side of the wall when they opened the door leading to this so-called arena. Elizabeth shivered at the thought of these huge beasts being here. If they could damage these rocks easily like this, she hated to think what they could do to a human being. The fear that these ancient animals had inflicted in her all of a sudden with mere thoughts disturbed her greatly.
"So, from what I heard about the Southern Wing, it used to be one of the finest parts of the city," John said.
"That's how it was described in some of the scrolls as well," she replied. "Apparently, much about the city's history was stored there in writing… And, one even mentioned that not many people were allowed to go there. Too many secrets that were not supposed to be revealed – their explanation."
"I can see why. What about their armies?"
"That's something we have almost no record of. At least, none that were recovered from the Little Bell."
"Nothing on their military?"
"As I said, wars were something not desired or believed in here."
"Well, whether it was or wasn't, the military is a valuable asset to every city, especially one such as this one."
"Unfortunately it sometimes brings even more chaos than order."
"I tend to believe the opposite. Humans aren't exactly a peaceful species."
"Maybe not all, but you have exceptions. Wars are useless. Nothing is gained, only people die."
Another door with bars caused them to stop. A gentle push opened it, revealing a smaller room with more bronze walls. Next to the walls were tall cylinder-shaped cages of bronze. The bars were made of diamonds with no locks or keys. The floor and ceiling of the cages had engravings of jaws and some writing that appeared difficult to translate quickly. The size of the cages appeared big enough to hold the animals.
At the other side of the room was a door and next to it were ten small diamonds placed in the wall. "Only ten cages," Elizabeth said quietly. She walked over to the diamonds.
"They weren't just interested in art and literature," John said. The bars of the first cage suddenly dropped down. Looking at it, he then moved the torch in front of him where he saw Elizabeth with her hand on the first diamond.
"Huh, explains how they opened the cages," she said and smiled.
John said nothing but walked over to her. The door had no panel or anything similar to open it. The precious stones on the wall were only used for the cages. A crack above the doorframe caught their eye. Unfortunately the doorframe appeared too high for them. John looked around and noticed a thick pole, looking more like a candlestick holder. On top of it was a small tray with a hole in the middle. "Hold this," he said and gave the torch to Elizabeth.
"What are you thinking?" she asked him.
"I'll give you a boost so you can see what's on the other side," he replied.
"Alright…"
Bringing his hands together, he created a small net for Elizabeth's foot. Stepping on his hands, Elizabeth was soon elevated high enough to see through the crack. Holding onto the smooth stones of the doorframe, she brought her face closer.
"See anything?" he asked.
The crack was the size of a fist and the hole appeared at least a meter long. "Barely," she responded. "I'm guessing it's another tunnel."
"Nothing else?"
"Nope."
"Great." Lowering her to the ground again, John exhaled.
"How could they not have a way of opening the door from this side? What if one of them got stuck with these creatures in here?"
"I'm sure there is one," he said and took the torch.
A distant growl was heard behind them, causing them to spin around quickly, with John almost knocking down the candlestick. The door behind them fell down immediately afterwards, surprising them both.
"How-?" Elizabeth asked.
The tilted candlestick next to him provided the answer. "Come on!" John grabbed her hand and pulled her forward, not wanting to remain in this room. When they walked through it, the door rose up again quickly.
"Well, that has never happened before," Elizabeth said, looking at the door.
The surprisingly resilient light of the torch that kept burning, forced away the darkness of the next corridor. It appeared to be a wide one with a stone fence in the middle, separating it in two. On each wall was a yellow tapestry. John approached it and saw an image of large cat-like creature ready to pounce on a man who had nothing to defend himself with except for a small shield. He didn't observe the image for too long before continuing forward. The sooner they left this city, the better. Elizabeth, in the meantime, used her chance to take a couple of images of the tapestries.
Another door was passed that led them to yet another more open space. The temperature was lower here, something that their skin reacted to immediately. Gray sand replaced the smooth stones here as they moved forward. They could hear nothing else but their own breathing, the sound of the flame and the way their feet moved on the soft surface. The torch didn't grab much of this new room and it revealed only sand around them. But Elizabeth noticed something else. "Hey, over there," she said and pointed slightly to the left. The light caught a small stone pillar. Walking over to it, they saw its square shape and height no bigger than their waists. The pillar was decorated with images of fangs and flowers; on the top were three metal spikes. This felt curious to John who brought the torch closer to them. When the flame accidentally touched one of the spikes, it caused it to light up. The other two soon followed and a moment later the room around them began receiving the arrival of more light, beginning from the floor and gradually moving up.
"Lucky guess again?" Elizabeth asked.
John only shrugged at this.
A large hall was revealed to them. The tall bronze walls had steep stairs attached to them; so steep that they wondered if it was humanly possible to climb them. At the top of each staircase was a dark entrance. The walls between the stairs were also decorated with gigantic life-like images of felines – some with an aggressive pose, almost ready to pounce on the visitor in this room; the others were in a tamer mood: sitting down, asleep or simply watching those that entered, carefully. Of all the parts from these giant animals, it had been their eyes and claws that appeared truly alive.
"They really had a thing for detail, didn't they?" John said, observing the creatures.
Their observation of the hall was interrupted when the pillar next to them made a sharp sound, drawing the visitors' attention to it. They saw it being raised higher. The middle where the pillar parted revealed small silver blocks on each side of the pillar. "These look like buttons," John said, looking at them carefully. Each button had been placed in such a way as to be on the opposite side of each staircase. John touched the one that was closer to the first staircase on the left. He then tried to push it but was unable to.
"Doesn't move?" Elizabeth asked.
"No."
Elizabeth looked down at the button on the right side and tried to push it but was met with the same result of… nothing. She then looked over at the other one where John's hand had remained and then touched it with the intention of removing the man's hand when…
Creeeeeeak.
The left staircase moved forward, the steps becoming wider and more reasonable to walk on.
John and Elizabeth remained there, watching this. "Okay… next time, you touch it first," he said.
Elizabeth glanced at him. "Should we climb?" she asked.
"Well-"
A soft purr somewhere in the distance cut off his sentence. Spinning around, their eyes noticed a pair of large, feline eyes staring at them. "Oh, shit…" he whispered.
The intense color of green in the large eyes almost devoured them. The bronze-colored fur of its body began to shed off, replacing itself with a grayer, darker color as the feline emerged slowly from the still drawing of the wall.
Landing gently on the sand, as only a cat would know how, the creature began to slowly approach the visitors, its eyes never leaving them. John and Elizabeth contemplated running away, but that thought was quickly banished when the door behind them suddenly closed.
Having no other choice, and with the firm of grasp of their fear on them, the two stood there, with John holding the torch in front of them. The creature raised itself higher, letting out a quiet growl as if inspecting these strangers. It then jerked its head back with the intention of making a move when something suddenly distracted it. Looking behind it, the creature then hissed and quickly moved into the wall again, disappearing behind its still image.
With deep breaths, both humans stood there, wondering what had just happened. "What the hell was that?" he asked.
"I…I'm still not sure," Elizabeth replied. Such things were only real in books and movies… not in reality. "But something stopped it."
"Yeah…. Although…somehow, I don't think it wanted to hurt us," John said.
Elizabeth looked up at the flat, bronze ceiling. An image of the city was presented, guarded by ten feline creatures like the ones in this room. Under it were words. "Our protectors…" Elizabeth read it. She quickly took out her camera and recorded as much of this hall as possible.
This was another question brought on by this city; the answers were too few to satisfy the huge number of questions.
The staircase suddenly returned to the wall again, the pillar dropped down, disappearing beneath the sand…. And in turn, a door on the other side of the hall slowly opened.
"This place is officially becoming creepy," John said to this.
The two carefully stepped through the opened door. As they disappeared from the hall, two dark and more real animal eyes watched them in the shadows of the entrance beyond the steep stairs, quietly.
Their feet stepped on more bones… both human and animal. The dark hallway which greeted them had tiny, faint rays of light, no doubt coming from outside.
A large, disturbing sound was then heard behind them. Looking over their shoulders, they saw a huge boulder fall on the skeletons and then began rolling their way. "Oh this has to be a joke!" John said, before he and Elizabeth sprung forward, running as fast as their legs could carry them.
"You do know that there could be a dead end here, don't you!" Elizabeth shouted.
"Well we can't really go back, now can we!" John replied. The flame gave out and he had to abandon the torch. With only their flashlights and the small rays of light, they had a poor view of what was ahead of them. But he managed to notice a small opening on the left wall. Grabbing her arms, John shoved Elizabeth in the opening, and then jumped in it himself. The heavy sound of the rolling bolder zoomed past their ears, as both waited with closed eyes. As the sound was getting weaker, Elizabeth opened her eyes to find John facing her. With a heavy breath, surrounded by black walls, he asked if she was okay.
"Yeah. You?"
John nodded. A crash was heard. The boulder had stopped.
"Told you there was a dead end there."
John scowled. He then poked his head out of the opening to make sure it felt safe to step out. "Okay, come on," he said and stepped out of the opening. Pulling her by the hand, John helped Elizabeth to stand in the hallway with him.
"Back we go?" Elizabeth asked.
"Yeah."
Deciding to return to the hallway with the rays of light, Elizabeth and John hoped it would lead them somewhere closer to daylight … while there remained some. Both stood at the largest hole that was the size of a thumb and began staring at it.
"You don't suppose we could dig through it, do you?" John asked.
"Any other time I would've said you're out of your mind for wanting to damage an archeological site…" Elizabeth collapsed her hands. "But since we're virtually stuck here…."
John smiled. He took off his backpack, and then took out a small axe. That axe soon came into contact with the wall close to the crack. Fortunately for them it had been made of material that wasn't too hard to break down.
They squinted at the rays of light that became wider and, although the sun had not been as strong as before, the darkness of before forced their eyes to take a moment and adjust. When he finally managed to make a hole big enough to get through, John climbed up to reach it. Having only the lower half of his body visible to her for the second time, Elizabeth waited. "What do you see?"
"Trees!" he replied.
"What else?"
"A possible way out."
"Oh, good! How?"
"Well, are you willing to go all ape again?"
"Uh, I don't think I like the sound of that too much."
John shimmied back to see her. "You said you didn't have a fear of heights, right?"
"That's right."
"Okay then." Managing to smuggle his entire body through the hole, he then disappeared from Elizabeth's view. There was silence.
"Mr. Sheppard?" she called.
"Can you climb up?" his voice was heard over the hole.
"I think so." Elizabeth took this as an invitation and walked up to the wall. Following the same path, she managed to reach the hole. Taking a good grasp of the side, she slowly pushed herself head-first through the opening. Being able to tolerate the change of light better this time, she saw the dense forest nearby. Lowering her view she met John's. Elizabeth saw him standing on a pair of thick tree branches right next to the wall from where he waved. "Hey."
He then wrapped his hands around her upper body, helping her out of the hole. Finally landing on her feet and in natural daylight, Elizabeth took a chance to breathe in. "Fresh air. Finally." She could see tall, thick trees everywhere around them, masking the walls of the city easily.
Following John's idea, they soon managed to reach the shorter, fifth tree. Elizabeth was indeed thankful that heights of any kind had not been scary to her, as the height of the first two trees was mind-spinning.
Elizabeth had been the first to reach the ground. When John came down, he saw her frozen in her spot with a look of panic on her face.
"What is it?" he asked with concern. Before he had the chance to turn around, a blow to his head rendered him unconscious.
