Chapter 12: Arrow ex Machina

Sheppard didn't have time to do anything but fall to the floor again as the stone slab came crashing down at them. He heard Rodney scream, and had a sudden flash of understanding. First the walls, now the ceiling. If they managed to survive this, Rodney would never be able to be in an enclosed space smaller than, say, a football stadium. As Sheppard thought of this, he realized that the simple fact that he had time to think of it meant that once again, somehow, he wasn't dead. He tried to roll over, and found he couldn't. He could feel the stone on top of him, but it wasn't falling down any more. "Rodney?" he asked. "Ronon? Teyla?"

He could hear ragged breathing from Rodney's direction, but got no response. From the region of his feet, though, he heard Teyla. "I am here."

"What happened?"

"I…do not think these are normal arrows," she said by way of completely unhelpful explanation.

"Teyla…"

"I held one up to try to prop the block as it fell," she hastily explained. "And it has worked. It is supporting the weight."

Sheppard turned his head, but still couldn't see any of his friends. "Ronon? Rodney?" he tried again. Still no response. "Teyla? Can you see them?"

"I see Rodney," She confirmed. "He is breathing. I believe he is in…shock?"

"He's claustrophobic," Sheppard explained. "This is pretty much his worst nightmare. I guess it's good he's gone catatonic, though, and not thrashing around and hurting himself." He hoped he was right about it being a good thing. He also hoped it wasn't permanent. "Ronon?"

"I cannot see him."

"I'm…I'm here," came a heavy voice. Sheppard managed to turn his head, and finally caught sight of Ronon. He was lying on his back, and next to him was another arrow, also propping the stone up. No, not next to him…oh Jesus.

Sheppard inched forward, trying to get to the runner. He was hampered by the arrows scattered around them. No, not arrows, he saw, looking closer. More like metal crossbow bolts, about a foot and a half long. And very, very sturdy, apparently. He managed to get next to Ronon, where the bolt through his arm had caught the stone block.

Ronon's breathing came in ragged gasps. He turned his head slightly to look at Sheppard. "I'm beginning to see…why McKay hates small spaces," he said, mouth twisting.

"How bad?" Sheppard asked.

Ronon looked at the arrow through his arm. "This one? It's not so bad. Muscle damage. But that's nothing compared to when we have to get it out, huh?" He looked up at the stone again. "But there're two more."

Sheppard reached an arm across him, feeling gently. He found one bolt imbedded in the runner's leg, the other in his side. "Dammit," he said softly.

Ronon coughed and winced. "Now what?" he asked.

Sheppard wished he had a good answer. He and Teyla could probably inch their way out of here, but there was no way they could do it dragging Rodney, and Ronon was stuck. They would have to cut through inches of muscle to get the arrow free, and it would most likely result in permanent damage. Their only hope was to get out and find a way to lift the block from the outside.

He heard a sudden thrashing and a grunt of pain from Teyla, who had been inching over to Rodney. The scientist had suddenly come back to life, and was pushing at the stone block, screaming incoherent things. Teyla was trying to calm him, but it wasn't working.

"Rodney! Rodney!" Sheppard called, but that didn't work, either. "Teyla, hit him!"

"What?" she panted.

"I said, hit him!" Sheppard yelled back. His order was acknowledged by the sound of a hand hitting flesh. It didn't help, though. Rodney's frenzy had actually started propelling him forward, though, which gave Sheppard another idea. "Teyla, can you grab his feet and kind of…steer him out of here?"

Rodney was thrashing around violently, hitting his head and arms against the stone. But with Teyla holding his feet, she managed to get him more or less pointed the way they needed to go. Sheppard turned to Ronon. "We'll get this thing off. I promise." Ronon nodded. Swallowing hard, Sheppard inched back towards Rodney. He hated the feeling that he was leaving Ronon behind. But there was no way to move him with the block there. No way. And they wouldn't go far. If he couldn't calm Rodney down and get him to fix this, he'd just crawl back under here and figure something else out.

He grabbed Rodney's other leg, and together they managed to get the scientist to propel himself out from under the block. He continued to thrash and scream incoherently, pushing himself up against a wall in the process. Sheppard went back to plan A: hitting him.

On the third slap, Rodney stiffened and stopped thrashing. He kept moaning, though, rolling his head from side to side, eyes staring unseeing at the ceiling. Sheppard tried hitting him again.

Rodney relaxed against him and closed his eyes, drawing shuddering breaths. His face was white as a sheet. Sheppard found his pulse: it was horribly fast. He didn't want to think about his blood pressure at the moment.

Sheppard sat up against the wall, pulling Rodney up with him. Rodney was almost completely limp, and Sheppard had to prop the man against his shoulder, supporting him with one arm. Teyla sat down on Rodney's other side, and held a canteen to his lips.

Rodney took a drink, opening his eyes a little bit to look at her. When she removed the canteen, he took a shuddering breath, and whispered, "Sorry."

Sheppard gave his shoulder a comforting squeeze. "No need for that. I actually think you've been handling yourself pretty well, considering."

Rodney rolled his head to regard Sheppard. "You must have hit your head. How is a panic attack 'handling myself well?'"

"Well, you're not panicked now, are you?" Sheppard pointed out.

"Not…as much," Rodney admitted, rubbing a hand over his eyes. Suddenly he sat upright, panicking again, but for a different reason. "Ronon!" He grabbed Sheppard's shoulders. "He was hit!"

"I know," Sheppard said, returning the shoulder grip and staring into wide and panicky blue eyes. "And he's trapped under there. You have to get him out."

Rodney turned back to the block. "He's under there? Oh god," he moaned.

"Don't worry, he's ok under there," Sheppard lied, tightening his grip. "But we have to get him out. YOU have to get him out!"

"Me? How?"

"Get the block to lift back up."

Rodney looked at him. "How the hell…?" He broke off and swallowed, visibly getting a grip on himself. "Right. Get the block to lift."

Sheppard patted him on the shoulder. "Good." He stood up and helped Rodney to his feet.

"I am going back under there," Teyla said. "Ronon should not be alone."

Sheppard opened his mouth to argue when Ronon beat him to it. "You'll do no such fool thing," he called, voice sounding faint.

"But…" Teyla looked lost, scared. It was disconcerting.

"Stay out there and help Doctor McKay," Ronon said, sounding slightly louder. "I'm good."

"He can't possibly be 'good,'" Rodney said as he gingerly poked around the wall. "He got hit at least three times."

"I know," Sheppard said from beside him. "But two of them aren't bad."

Rodney stopped poking the wall and looked at him. "And the third?"

"Get him out, and we'll see."

Rodney nodded grimly, then looked at the ceiling. "Did you see that blue light before?" he asked.

Sheppard nodded, then realized Rodney couldn't see him do it, as his eyes were still fixed on the ceiling. "Yeah."

"I think there are sensors in the ceiling," Rodney said. "This time our presence triggered the traps, not a stone."

"So?" Sheppard really didn't care how the traps had been triggered.

"So," Rodney said, "There could be a reset of some sort in the ceiling as well. It would make sense that they would have one."

"And since there are arrows in the walls…" Sheppard said, catching on.

"Exactly," Rodney said, with a hint of the McKay fire. "Not where the s…stone block was…" he trembled at that thought, but shook himself and went on, "obviously. But maybe on each side of it?"

He peered up, squinting against the lights. "Ah!"

"Find it?" Sheppard asked, daring to hope.

"I think so. Right there, next to where the block was. I can't reach it from here, though."

"I can lift you up again," Sheppard offered. "'Cause I really don't think it would be a good idea to stand on the stone block."

Rodney glanced at the block and shuddered visibly. "No, not good at all. But the ceiling's not fallen down at all here. That's over three meters up. I'd have to actually stand on your shoulders in order to reach."

"How's your balance?" Sheppard asked dubiously.

"How's your knee?" Rodney returned. Dammit, Sheppard had forgotten about that. He wouldn't be able to support that much weight.

"Perhaps I could do it?" Teyla suggested. "No offense, but I am lighter."

"Probably takes the ATA gene," Rodney said.

"But is it not worth a try?" she argued. "I believe I could balance. Colonel?"

Sheppard nodded wearily. He could probably support her. It was worth a try. He went to stand under where Rodney had indicated. "Help her up, Rodney."

Rodney made a foothold with his hands, and Teyla sprang up onto Sheppard's shoulders. She teetered precariously, but both he and Rodney reached up and grabbed her legs to steady her. She reached up towards the ceiling. "What do I do, Rodney?"

"What exactly do you see?"

"I see a button."

Rodney and Sheppard made eye contact. It couldn't possibly be that easy. It had to be a trap. "What choice do we have?" Rodney whispered just as Sheppard thought it. "Push it, Teyla," he said, then to Sheppard, "be ready to run like hell if this doesn't work."

There was a small click as Teyla pushed the button, and then something began to lower from the ceiling. It was some sort of hoist apparatus, apparently, because it hooked into grooves on top of the stone block, and began lifting it. Rodney let out a little cheer. Sheppard smiled. It was actually working!

He nearly overbalanced as Teyla leapt off him and landed on the floor, staggering as she hit her ankle wrong. As the block lifted she ducked under it. After a moment's hesitation, Sheppard followed her. They rushed to Ronon, who was staring blearily at the block lifting over his head. Between them they wrestled him up and got him out from under it, just in case the hoist didn't hold. They lowered him to the ground next to Rodney, who was staring at them, eyes unreadable.

Sheppard felt a momentary annoyance that McKay hadn't helped them get Ronon out, then realized how unfounded that was. It was a miracle Rodney could even look at the stone block. It would be unreasonable to expect him to be able to make himself go back under it. From the look on Rodney's face, though, he had gone through the same reasoning process, and come to a different conclusion. Man. Heightmeyer would get months of material out of this. Poor Rodney.

He turned his attention back to Ronon, who was lying weakly on the floor. He had lost a lot of blood. With relief, though, Sheppard saw that the side wound wasn't nearly as bad as it had looked. The arrow had almost missed entirely, and only seemed to be embedded in skin and abdominal muscles. "We must remove the arrows," Teyla was saying.

Sheppard nodded. "Rodney." No response. "McKay!"

"Present," Rodney muttered, apparently reappearing from light-years away.

"Get all the medical equipment we have together," Sheppard ordered. "I've a feeling we'll need it." Between him and Teyla, they got the arrows out and the wounds dressed. Ronon was a phenomenally stoic patient, although Sheppard had expected this. After all, when they had first met him he had insisted on surgery with no anesthetic, while he was sitting up and holding a weapon. The man was a machine. They had just enough bandages to wrap the wounds, although if the bleeding didn't stop they'd have no way to redress them. He fervently hoped the bleeding didn't persist, and that no one else got hurt. Well, any more than they already were.

Ronon lay propped against a wall, pale and sweating. He appeared to be in shock, but hopefully it wasn't bad. They still had to get out of here. "Can you walk?" Sheppard asked gently.

Ronon looked up at him, eyes slightly glazed. "I survived the Wraith for seven years," he mumbled. "This is nothing." And he did manage to stand, with a lot of assistance from Sheppard and Teyla. Sheppard tentatively let go, leaving only Teyla to support Ronon. When they didn't immediately topple, he considered it good enough.

He went over to where Rodney was putting the last of their supplies back in his pack. "Rodney?" he asked gently.

Rodney turned to face him. "I'm ok," he said, answering the unasked question. "I'll be more ok when we're out of this godforsaken dungeon, but I'll survive."

Sheppard clapped him on the shoulder. "Good. And I meant it about how I think you're doing good."

Rodney snorted. "Right. I don't see anyone else falling apart when they get stone blocks dropped on their heads!"

"You do know what the definition of a phobia is, don't you McKay?" Sheppard asked snidely. He was getting tired of Rodney beating himself up over this.

"Yes, yes, irrational fear, can't control it, yadda, yadda, yadda. I get it. Can we just get out of here?" Rodney snapped, clearly not wanting to talk about it.

Well, Sheppard couldn't blame him. He didn't really want to talk about it, either.