"Cross roads?" She had a chance now. Both looked identical from what she could see, but the small window of light only showed a couple of meters in to each corridor. The walls were a dark grey, and she could hear a soft humming, and thankfully no sound of the wraith. Elizabeth glanced up. She could just make out the bars of a metal grill. Nothing else. Crap. The footsteps were back. She had to decide which corridor to run down. Her life depended on this decision.
"Left or right?"
Or maybe there was another way…
"John, what's happened?" Carson asked, out of breath on entering the room.
"She started moving, and her eyes… they, err opened and she started crying"
Carson put a hand on John's shaking shoulders. From what Carson could make out, though John disguised it well, he was almost crying too. "Go on son"
"Well, she bit her lip, really tightly. And slowly she started shaking, until her teeth cut through and… then she just stopped, relaxed like this" he finished, gazing at the now sleeping Elizabeth, red streaks covering her pale neck.
"Well, I'll see if I can run some tests. She looks calm at the moment, hopefully she won't react like she did last time" he smiled weakly, running his hands over the bandage. John nodded, though not looking away from Elizabeth for a single moment. He was still cross with himself for falling asleep before.
She hauled herself up, her feet pressed against the wall, her hands clinging onto the metal bars. Elizabeth had managed to grab on to the metal grid, walk her legs up the wall, and now was pressed against the ceiling, her legs tense to keep her straight. The footsteps were approaching fast. This better work. She could hear the wraith's clothing material rubbing together now; it was close. Biting her lip, she closed her eyes; her hands were starting to ache, and her legs were feeling weak. She could hear it breathing now. The footsteps stopped. It was below her. She slowly turned her neck and looked down. It was there, glancing from side to side, deciding which corridor to take. Elizabeth willed it to leave. Soon her arms would give way and she'd fall back to the ground. And at this rate, landing directly on top of the wraith. It chose the left corridor, sprinting off in to the darkness.
Seconds later she fell to the ground, her chin smashing on her knee sending her teeth in to her lips. She muffled a scream, clutching her mouth in her hands. Taking a couple of seconds to regain her strength, she started to run down the opposite corridor.
"What have you found Carson?"
"Not much I'm afraid" he replied, resting Elizabeth's head gently on her pillow again.
"Stop" John said, something had caught the light as Carson had moved her "What's that?" he asked, pointing to something on Elizabeth's neck. Carson's eyes widened. Rolling her body on to her side Carson brushed away her hair so that he could take a closer look.
"Hand me those tweezers John" he asked, pointing to a near by tray of equipment.
John handed them over, leaning forward to see what Carson had found.
"Colonel Sheppard, if you don't mind, you're blocking the light"
"Oh" John lent back.
Ok, she'd lost the wraith. Keep running, there had to be something else here apart from corridors. The passage was curved; Elizabeth realised she must have doubled back on herself by now. Worrying slightly whether she'd ever find a way off of this, well, where ever the hell she was, she started to panic.
"Keep calm Liz" she told herself.
"You've been running down corridors for over an hour now. There is a wraith somewhere close, blood is pouring from your mouth and you haven't got a clue where you are. Keep calm?"
"Stop. It's bad, but it could be worse."
"Oh? Do go on"
"You could have fallen on top of a wraith..."
"Oh, well, that's really cheered me up…"
"What the hell are you- am I- doing? I'm talking to myself!" She screamed in her head.. She could see Rodney doing this, but not her. What would John do? John… she felt weaker just at the thought of his name. Mentally slapping herself for sounding like Rodney AGAIN, she carried on blindly down the corridor, pushing thoughts of John away. Noise? She stopped instantly, listening. Footsteps, coming towards her Oh god. The corridor must have curved right round. It must loop back to the right hand passage at the cross roads. She turned and began to run back the way she came. Any mental strength she had possessed before crumbled. Physically she was exhausted, her throat was rasping, and her mouth stung every time the air passed the cuts on her lips. Tears streaming down her faces she stumbled on until her legs refused to run any further. Crumpling to the floor, she looked up as the wraith slowed, stopping beside her. It smiled, its watery eyes gazing down upon her, feasting upon her very appearance. Burying her head in her knees she waited, but nothing came. She felt dizzy, as if spinning, butwould not look up again.
