A/N: Has anyone else been suffering the annoyance of not getting review and chapter updates on their e-mail? Or is it just me?
Ch. 19
The Hunt
" John? John."
John awoke with his eyelids snapping open and a quiet gasp. In the blue-gray wintry darkness he saw a head-shaped blob hovering over him. He jerked in alarm, intending to shove himself away, when two hands gripped his shoulders lightly.
" John, it's all right. You need to wake up."
John blinked. The head shape might have been a mystery but the voice was clearly Maj's. He blinked several times, and as his eyes adjusted to the darkness, a few details of Maj's face came into focus.
" Wha...? Maj?" John arched his back a little off the bed in a stretch. " Ris hissing again?"
Maj moved away over to the small stove. She tossed in wood that clunked against the back of the thing. A small thread of bright light from the tiny laser illuminated her hand, and fire sparked and flared to life.
" Ris is fine," Maj said, pocketing the laser. " Seems there's been a breakthrough in the planning. Tarl wants everyone to meet at the ruins. Someone's come to fetch you, so up with you and get dressed."
After relighting the fire, Maj went to flip on the switch to the electric bulb, spreading wan light through the room. John pushed himself upright and rolled his stiff shoulders, then swung his legs out from under the warm covers. The cold hit his feet, seeping up the loose legs of his pants, and also down the wide collar of the white shirt Maj had given him to sleep in, making him shiver. Maj left him to change out of the shirt and loose trousers into his black shirt, second wide-collar shirt, and clean but still blood-stained BDUs that had definitely seen better days. He was yanking on his boots and tying the laces when Maj returned carrying what had officially become his coat.
John stood, and took the two bladed sticks off the work table to slip into his belt. " You hear anything on what they're planning?"
Maj shook her head. " Just that there is a plan, and it's to happen as soon as everyone is gathered."
As John adjusted the blades so they wouldn't slip out, he studied Maj's face. She was attempting to go for expressionless, but her tension, and the stony look of disapproval, wasn't doing the attempt any favors. Finally, putting action to her state of mind, she moved over to John's bed and pulled his 9-mil out from under the pillow.
" Take this with you. Keep it hidden."
John took it and tucked it into his waistband at the small of his back. " Is there something you're not telling me?"
" Believe me, if I knew something you would be the first to know. I just don't like it. It's too soon. They said Gidel's already gone ahead, but I don't know why. He would have come to get you first."
John slipped into his coat. " Did you call him up?"
" He won't be there. He's usually out tending to his animals around this time and won't be in until it's light out." Maj placed her hands on John's arms, the dropped her pretense of self control. " John, listen. I've got an uneasy feeling about this and I'm sorry to say I'm usually not wrong about these things. Whatever's been planned, whatever's done, I want you to be careful. If it turns out to be something foolish that is going to get people killed, I want you and Gidel to find a way to leave. Slip off if you have to, or make excuses, but do not let them pull you into something that could spell your death. Gidel is the only family I have left, and I've worked too hard to save you just to loose you in the end."
Nausea squirmed and threatened in John's gut. Maj looked scared – not worried or concerned, but absolutely frightened. There comes a point in established familiarity in which one realizes that there are certain emotions rarely seen on a person, but the rarity is never realized until seen. An angry Teyla was a scary Teyla. Ronon staring into the eyes of defeat and letting his resolve slip a fraction into momentary fear is sad. A brave, staring down danger McKay is something to be proud of.
Right here and right now, a terrified Maj kept sending a constant stream of arctic shock waves down John's spine. Looks couldn't kill, but boy did they make for some nasty omens.
John responded by placing a hand on Maj's shoulder. He actually felt unsettled enough to want to whine about why he had to go. It was a short lived childish moment, but left the residual attempt at trying to dig up some excuse that would allow him to stay behind. It wasn't him - and he wasn't thinking that to maintain his own dignity. He felt fear like any reasonable, instinctual human. Mostly he just rode it out, used it to build up adrenaline and caution, then shoved it back when the moment of truth came and nothing mattered but the fight ahead. He didn't ponder or question this sudden desire to give into fear, because it wasn't the first time he'd rather avoid the moment of truth. The only difference between now and the lesser times of before was that this wasn't his fight. He went ahead with it because he owed Maj and Gidel, and people like Arvlan and his kids. Good people who'd treated him kindly and humanely. The rest, in all honesty, he didn't give a damn for. Let Jorsek and his boys risk their own ass doing what the town had asked them to do. John was not going to risk his neck so Jorsek could take all the credit.
John especially wasn't going to fight Jorsek.
But neither could he let Gidel go in without backup.
" We'll be all right," John said. One way or another, they would be. John would make sure of it, or at least make sure Gidel got back safe.
Maj gave John a weak smile that didn't reach her eyes. She wanted to believe it, but wouldn't to the point of clinging to it naively. Not that there would be anything she could do about it in the long run. She was just realistic that way.
And she had plenty of reasons to cling to worry rather than hope.
Neither of them said anything more, and headed out of the room down the stairs to where John's 'escort' awaited. On a positive note, John didn't recognize the blond man as anyone from Jorsek's contingent. They headed out into the solid cold morning twilight with air that froze John's trachea on the way to his lungs. Maj stood in the threshold with her arms folded tightly across her chest. Ris trotted out, chirping, looking between Maj who kept calling him back and John watching the house retreat from over his shoulder.
John finally turned his attention to the way ahead, but could still hear Ris chirping. They headed up the road where they were joined by two other men, then veered down another street. They cut through someone's backyard to enter the woods. As soon as the darkness deepened, the three men pulled out flashlights and clicked them on. There was no conversation, and crunching footfalls and heavy breathing made the silence all the more uncomfortable. There came distant sounds, such as the high keening of some animal that was startling in its abruptness, making John flinch. He covered up the reaction with a shiver.
The sky had taken on a lighter hue but the darkness in the forest barely shifted by the time they reached the ruins. The three men led the way around the place to the front entrance where beams of light flickered across the rubble blocking the massive doorway. Human silhouettes near perfectly flushed with the shadows would have been easy to miss if it wasn't for the flashlights. John tried to pick out Gidel's large form from the gathered. He eventually counted twelve men – give or take - but no one with Gidel's bulk. That same bulk had yet to detach from the throng to join John.
Dread shot through John's spine and into his nerves like ice. When the four approached to join the twelve, all muttering conversation ended. The closer proximity afforded John a better view of each individual face. Most looked confused, several were nervous, and only a handful appeared indifferent.
Jorsek and the younger Leyn were among the indifferent. And none of the faces belonged to Gidel. Another surge of cold ripped through John, and his heart rate started to pick up. But now was an indescribably bad time to show trepidation. John scowled in Jorsek's general direction. Jorsek only cast him a few expressionless glances as he conversed with several of his men.
John was all ready to demand answers as to what was going on, but the blond man who had fetched him beat him to the punch.
" What's this about? Where's that city-man?"
Those men not of Jorsek's inner circle nodded in agreement to the question. Jorsek continued to converse, then clasped the younger Leyn on the shoulder. Leyn, the bearded man, and a stringy-haired red-head crouched to retrieve something from a satchel on the ground, then headed over to the blockage and scaled it enough to reach the top.
Jorsek scuffed the toe of his boot into the dirt, wiped his nose, and purposefully hesitated before speaking. " The official is taking too long."
" Yeah, but he just got here," someone said.
Jorsek placed his hands on his hips and shifted his weight to one leg. " Exactly. He just got here after how long ago we made the request? Look," and Jorsek held up a hand, " I know the council has asked that we cooperate with this man, and that's all fine and well, I'm just not getting his reluctance to go after this people-thief quick as a wink. I've talked to the man, threw him some ideas to catch this kidnapper that would have this nightmare over within a day. But he wouldn't hear me out, said I was being too hasty. Now, I don't know about the rest of you, but I can't wrap my head around this need to wait. If we go in now, we can have this over and done with before midday. And isn't that what we want? Results?"
One man, a rather squat looking fellow, rubbed the back of his neck nervously. " Yeah, but this city-man's supposed to be an expert. Not that I'm calling you a... uh... not expert, Jorsek. It's just... I've heard some of the things he's had to say about catching this kidnapper, and it sounds reasonable to me. If we go in, the kidnapper'll just slip through one of those holes the tall man found."
Jorsek's eyes darted to John momentarily, and John caught the spark of disdain in that lightening quick glare.
" That's why," Jorsek said, " several of you are going to take positions up on top. Wait the fellow out and chase him down if he tries to run..."
While simultaneously trying not to shoot eachother on accident. John twisted his mouth uncertainly. This sounded like a half-assed plan if ever there was one. Just about every man here was edgy enough to shoot a leaf if it so much as fell from a branch. Even broad daylight wasn't going to guarantee a clear visual of the kidnapper if he decided to go topside. Chances were also good that Jorsek's boys were going to end up wasting their bullets on eachother in the darkness of the ruins – darkness this kidnapper probably knew better than himself. This was the kidnapper's domain, his playground, and if he was a wraith...
Forget half-assed, this was down right suicidal.
Suicidal yet the only chance Jorsek had to save face. John had been right about him. He was nothing but a cowardly, selfish bastard. So selfish he was getting stupid in his desperation to maintain that self.
The shock of this made John momentarily forget his promise to try and remain out of Jorsek's bad graces. Too late anyways.
John stepped forward. " This is a really bad plan, Jorsek." He winced internally when Jorsek landed his gaze full on him. But Sheppard plowed on ahead, pointing a cold-stiffened finger at the rubble. " Going in there isn't going to solve anything except get yourself lost and possibly killed. You've seen how big this place is and I've seen it from the top. It's a freakin' maze, Jorsek. And it's his maze, the kidnapper's; the possible killer's. He knows it, you don't. So you might has well put a gun to your head and pull the trigger now because he's probably going to get you before you even have a chance to see his face."
The men exchanged uneasy looks. Jorsek never took his eyes from John. John saw the smoldering flicker of Jorsek's rising anger. The auburn haired man turned to face John, lowering his arms to hang loosely at his sides. He approached John, slowly and stiffly. John tensed and moved his hand back behind him, closer to his gun hidden under his coat.
" Do you know of our plight, off-worlder?" Jorsek sneered. " Have you lost a loved one to this monster? Been on the hunt as we searched for the missing with nothing to show for it? Have you been here for the tears shed by wives, husbands, and children for those lost? Have you!"
Have you even given a damn about those same people you're talking about?
John went for another word choice that wouldn't end with him getting decked in the face. " No, I haven't. But I've been through crap like this before. I've searched for missing people, consoled their loved ones when they couldn't be found, put my neck out on the line because of someone else's stupid decision, and got my ass thrown in the brig after trying to right someone else's wrong. I know all about the stupidity of hasty decisions and that people tend to die more when you rush rather than take the time to assess, and realize that you're just going to make things worse...!
" We're going to end this!" Jorsek snarled back. " Right here, right now, once and for all!"
" At what cost?"
" Whatever it takes! This is going to end, and we're the ones going to end it!" Enough said. Jorsek turned before John could roar out a retort, and signaled to the men on the rubble. They nodded, crouched, fiddled with something stuffed within the rocks, then scurried like rats from the pile.
John expected Jorsek to shout for everyone to take cover. He cringed in expectation of an explosion which would definitely send the kidnapper/killer on the move toward the exit. Instead, his bones tried to leap from his flesh at the fire-cracking pops of what he'd inappropriately assumed to be some type of dynamite.
His massive bad. There was no thunderous boom to wake the whole valley and then some. There followed a hiss after the popping, then the grating shift of rock over rock. Lesser rubble ran like a dusty waterfall between the cracks, then the larger rocks twitched and finally rolled either down the pile or into the structure.
" What the hell...?" John mumbled.
" Acid sticks," said the blond man with a little awe. " Less of a danger than explosives. It melts enough rock to shift the whole pile when placed just right. Quick too. And hard to make. Men have lost fingers producing the stuff. Makes the sticks hard to come by."
Sheppard didn't really want to know how Jorsek came by them. He had a couple of theories, with each less pleasant than the last.
When the hissing stopped and the avalanche stopped, the men returned to the top and shoved in more of the sticks. They fiddled, ran, the sticks popped, the chemicals hissed, and the avalanche resumed. A hole at the top eventually materialized, and when the avalanche ceased, the men plus four more went in and dug the hole even bigger using shovels and picks. By the time they finished, deep amber sunlight was scattered over the bony topmost branches of the tree. John kept glancing over his shoulder, hoping someone new would arrive, someone who had a hell of a lot more authority to put a stop to this.
Either Tarl was a late sleeper or no one had a clue as to what was going on. Jorsek may have been acting the idiot, but he probably wasn't dim-witted enough not to leave some sort of back story as to why most of the men weren't in town. That still left Maj once she realized Gidel hadn't been invited to the party. She would make Tarl aware. They were probably on their way here, right now.
Which was probably a bad idea. The hole was open. They would be going in soon, and John had no desire for more people to get lost in there, Maj and Gidel especially. They needed to be warned, the whole village needed to be warned. Except the moment John turned his back, Jorsek would do something. Shoot him, tackle him, probably tackle then shoot him, and that would make the whole warning thing rather pointless.
As of that moment, John had no idea what the hell he was going to do.
With the hole open to Jorsek's satisfaction, he turned, stalked up to John, and grabbed him by the arm to start pulling him to the pile. He shoved John forward, and though none of Jorsek's cronies had lifted their weapons, they appeared to be fondling them in a rather threatening manner.
" Since you seem such the expert in these matters," Jorsek said, and jerked his chin toward the hole, " you can go first."
John glared at him. " I was always taught ladies first, so why don't you lead the charge, Jorsek?"
Low ohs and eews rippled through the gathered. Jorsek gave John a wicked looking smile, then shoved him, hard, causing John to stumble into the rubble.
" That wasn't a request, Sheppard."
The rock and the hard place had become too damn literal. John glared at Jorsek for a moment longer, then began to scale the pile up to the top. He paused about center to look over his shoulder at Jorsek.
" No light?"
The blond that had fetched Sheppard dug into the pocket of his coat. " Here." He tossed a smaller version of the Iothian electric torch up to him, and John caught it in one hand.
" Thanks," he said, and continued on up.
John crouched before the hole and flipped on the light. The Beam illuminated spiraling clouds of dust and a dirty but smooth stone floor like slate-colored marble. John ducked his head and lifted the light to send the beam as far as it could cut through the darkness. The chamber beyond was large, probably around the size of Atlantis' gateroom, with cracked, octagon pillars and what looked to be a very large entrance into either another room or a very large corridor. The beam outlined the threshold, but was too small to go beyond it.
" Anyone home?" Jorsek asked. John glowered at Jorsek's attempt at humor.
" No one yet," he said. His voice sounded hollow echoing through the chamber.
" Then get in there," Jorsek said. One of his boys raised his weapon a little, just for show. John gave them a narrow-eyed look before picking his way over the rubble and half-sliding, half climbing down into the chamber. Shale and dust skittered under his feet and clattered piercingly like snapping fingers through the chamber. More rocks and dirt spilled behind him from whoever was following after.
Small stones and a thick accumulation of dust crunched under John's feet. My kingdom for a whip and a hat. Snake pits and giant boulders, here I come. John preferred the once high-tech Ancient temples that could be hot-wired and reprogrammed into obedience to these trip-wired and switch activated rat mazes. John had only met Dr. Daniel Jackson on enough occasions to know that this was his kind of thing. If McKay were here, he would have been sneezing and holding back the silence with his long-winded speeches concerning allergies and structural integrity.
Man John missed that. The crunch beneath his feet and the snap, crackle, pop of skittering debris and hesitant footfalls didn't break the silence, it made the silence laugh in his face, and push its presence tight around him. It was a dominant silence that for some reason made one reluctant to try and get rid of it. Logical enough since they were hunting a fugitive down. This silence, however, wasn't on their side, and John was pretty sure their quarry was tucked safely away, listening to the ridiculously loud breathing of his pursuers, and mentally taunting them to come and find him.
John had loved hide and seek once upon a time. Bad guys really did ruin everything, starting with childhood favorites.
John flinched when a body brushed past him with close enough contact to knock into his shoulder. Jorsek, followed by five of his inner-circle, approached the gaping maw of the doorway across from the front entrance. Their lights glided across the stone trestles of the door, carved up in pictorials and what John could have sworn was Ancient writing.
Ancient temple or temple dedicated to the Ancients? Had to be the latter. This place was more suited to sacrificing to heathen gods than performing funky experiments or providing the comforts of home to a wandering Ancient.
All hail Ancient Ceaser. Would you like a bath? It'll take a couple of hours to heat up the water and pour it in the tub.
Someone shoved John from behind, and a glance over the shoulder showed that someone to be the bearded man.
" Move," he growled, low, quiet, and marginally threatening. He seemed too preoccupied with being nervous to put much effort into being an SOB.
John did move forward, intentionally cooperative now, but ready to take the first chance he got to slip off into the darkness back the way they came. Everyone gathered before the massive doorway. The multitude of flashlight revealed a short hallway that split off left and right.
And there was a stench – a nice, thick, invisible cloud of decay that burned John's nostrils and made him gag on his own breath. The faces of the men around him twisted and scrunched with disgust.
John turned his head to look at Jorsek. " You may want to follow your nose on this one."
Jorsek's answer was to step over, grab John's arm, and shove him through the door. John just grinned, feeling drunk on adrenaline and singing nerves. He led the way with his tiny flashlight to the other end of the mini-corridor, stopped, and looked between his two directional choices. He took his own advance, and followed his nose, taking the left hand hallway where the stench puffed into his face the strongest on the back of air drafts. The hallway was long, and narrow, forcing the men to go single file. The hall opened up into another gateroom sized chamber with pillars and fallen wooden beams. Light spilled in slanted shafts from cracks and small holes in the ceiling too far up for anyone or anything to reach.
The floor of this chamber was littered with more than just wood and rocks. There were bones, animals bones by their snouted animal skulls.
" That explains the smell," John muttered. He kicked at a dried, mummified dog-like corpse that scraped across the floor. One of Jorsek's contingent crouched and picked up a mini-iaret husk. The parched skin crumbled to ashy flakes in his hands and flitted away.
All the present corpses were husks rather than picked-clean bone piles, and it was making John's heart rate pick up again.
Except wraith are partial only to the feel of human flesh against their feeding hand. Right? Perhaps humans were a delicacy – the steak – where as everything else was just gruel.
A smaller, rodent like husk disintegrated under John's foot. No. Only the life force of humans can sustain them. He didn't recall where he'd heard that, if it was a wraith that had told him or a human. Didn't matter, he no longer believed it. If Teyla didn't even know about the wraith's hidden talent of restoring what they took, then there was probably a cargo ship load of crap the wraith had no intentions of letting the rest of the galaxy in on. Such as their palates being able to handle life-forces that weren't human. Animals probably ranked as the MREs and power bars on the wraith dietary menu. Eaten out of necessity, not out of desire.
Another of Jorsek's men kicked at something round that clattered across the floor several feet before landing upright within a jagged shaft of light.
The man jolted back with a yelp.
The dust-stained round thing was a human skull.
John looked over at Jorsek, and smirked caustically.
" Think we're on the right track."
The men explored the room more tentatively. They kicked aside animal corpses, and eventually uncovered four more human corpses, picking through the clothes with the tips of their boots or end of the flashlights. One man's gagging made the rest jump.
" I think this was Anjeya Gyref. Didn't she always wear them violet skirts?"
" You'd think there'd be more bodies than this," said someone else, " with all the folks that've vanished."
John kept his penetrating gaze on Jorsek. " This is a big place. Plenty of room to hide a crap-load of corpses."
Jorsek didn't grace him with a glare or a response. He remained quiet for a moment, probably pensive though John couldn't tell in the pathetic light. Then Jorsek gestured limply toward the other end of the room. " Let's find out."
John wiped his mouth with the back of his hand to hide his full-blown grin. This place was starting to get to Jorsek. John could see it in the stiff way he moved, and his constant hesitancy. They moved to the other end of the chamber where three doors awaited; two to get lost in and one leading to possible death.
Wouldn't that make a fun game show. John knew he shouldn't even be smiling right now, and being unable to drop it was starting to freak him out. The deeper they went, the giddier he got. Adrenaline was surging through him like napalm through a gas line. Adrenaline born of self-preserving fear, and fight instincts gearing up for future events. John felt coiled as a cornered snake, and the further they went, the more he coiled. He was actually starting to long for something to strike at, or run from, or strike at then run.
John focused more on Jorsek and his revealing actions. Jorsek looked from door to door, brow furrowed and stance rigid. His tongue flicked nervously over his lips, and his nostrils flared trying to detect the strongest scent of decay.
" Let's split up," he said. " Into groups. Each take a door. And make sure to mark your path."
" Just for the record," John dared to say, " that's a really bad idea."
" No one asked you!" Jorsek snarled. He then pointed stiffly at Leyn the younger, the bearded man, and two more men of Jorsek's inner circle. " You, You, you and you go with Mr. Sheppard into the left door."
John's heart double-timed it and he swallowed thickly. This was bad to a level that no words could describe.
Empty city plus Jorsek's Lackeys plus probable killer equals DEAD without question. My gosh it sucks to be me.
The younger Leyn shoved John in the shoulder, propelling him reluctantly forward into the darkness of the left hand door. Dust, debris, and bones crunched, snapped, and popped under his feet. Jorsek's men followed, and their lights made John's shadow spasm on the dirty floor. John's spine was stiff enough to snap waiting for a bullet or a knife to come ripping into it, shattering the bone and severing the spinal cord. Or maybe it would ricochet and pulverize his heart. John's hand strayed a little closer to the nine mile pressing reassuringly against the small of his back.
The hallway wasn't narrow, or remotely small in any way, and still it pressed in. John actually longed for some sort of ancient trip wire or trigger that would set off some cataclysmic trap and create a good enough distraction that he could use. They walked, and walked, and walked with no traps and no bullet piercing John's back. So far so good. He took the small glimmers of hope where he could.
Then they came to a fork in the road – sort of. One going right, one continuing on straight ahead.
" Deyn, Jash," the younger Leyn said. " You take the right. We'll go on ahead."
The two men gave curt nods and took the right corridor while John and his escort went straight.
It was a grisly walk down eternity, passing more junctures going left or going right, and neither way taken. Sweat not soaked into John's two shirts tickled down the canal of his spine. He longed to itch, but knew better than to move. Then they entered a lesser chamber, about the size of the Atlantis infirmary. Something small, cold and round pressed into the back of John's neck, and he automatically raised his hands.
Once again, he couldn't fight the bitter smile curling his lips.
" 'Bout time this party got started," he said. His response was rewarded with the pressure of the rifle being taken off his neck, then followed by the butt end ramming into John's upper back. The force knocked him to his hands and knees. A secondary blow to the middle of his back drove him to his chest and the air from his lungs. He sucked in a breath of dust, choked, and coughed painfully.
" Quiet," Leyn growled. The barrel of the gun returned, nudging the back of John's skull. " You've no right to speak. You've only the right to scream before I get finished with you."
John moved his tongue to work up enough saliva that he swallowed to ease his parched throat. " Look Leyn," he croaked. " Your brother being a bastard aside, I'm sorry you lost him. But I didn't do anything to him..."
Leyn's foot slammed down onto Sheppard's back and pressed until the backbone felt close enough to scrape the sternum. John gritted his teeth and groaned.
" I don't want to hear it, off-worlder! Idek, get over here and pick him up so that I can... Idek?"
John scraped his cheek on the dusty floor turning his head in the direction where the bearded man was supposed to be.
More like had been. The chamber appeared to be missing one occupant and one flashlight.
" Idek where did you go?" Leyn called.
John didn't take the time to ponder this creepy moment. He lurched, bucking, knocking away Leyn's foot when the pressure was let up a fraction. When the foot was gone, John rolled onto his back and kicked out with one foot that struck something both soft and solid, and Leyn grunted, dropping both the flashlight and the rifle with a resounding clatter. John rolled to his feet, turned, and plowed past the staggering Leyn back the way they had come. Having lost his flashlight when Leyn had knocked him to the floor, John kept one hand on the wall. The other he slid around his back, under his coat, and pulled out his 9-mil.
The silence made for a nice ally this time around. He could hear Leyn's shouts closing the distance. The next John glanced over his shoulder, he saw the star-like wink of the flashlight.
Then John's hand met open air. He ducked into the corridor, moving deeper into the darkness then pressing himself as flat as possible against the wall. His heart lurched with each of Leyn's footfalls that became louder along with the shouting.
" You stupid off-worlder!" Leyn shrieked. " I'm going to gut you! You hear me! Skin you alive and tear out your innards with my bare hands...!"
Leyn ran right past John's hiding place, and the sound of his voice shifted in the Doppler effect to begin drifting away down the hall. John waited with held breath until the ranting garbled into distant, incoherent echoes. He waited another moment until those echoes were barely discernible, then slipped back out of the lesser corridor into the main one to continue on. The wall and memory were his guide, the silence his klaxon when it was broken.
And it was broken when he heard a scrape like a foot shifting position. John stopped and raised his gun. He was all ready to shout who was out there when a flashlight flared on, blinding him momentarily. In that moment of weakness, something buzzed through the air, and John barely had time to lift his arm and block the blow of the rifle butt aimed at his head. The contact got him in the upper arm and slammed him against the wall. It wasn't a stunning blow, and John managed to twist his arm and grab part of the rifle. He yanked, but the owner yanked back, ending up the stronger and ripping the rifle from John's grasp. John brought up his 9-mil with his other hand, and his attacker flipped the rifle around to the business end aiming at John's head.
" You should have just shot me, Leyn," John said, panting.
John couldn't see the man's face with the flashlight shining in his eyes, but could see enough of him to know where to aim to make any shot count.
" Where's the fun in that?" Leyn panted back. " I want satisfaction in your death and I can't have that if it's quick."
John snorted. " Gee, Leyn, I'm flattered. Didn't know you cared so much to risk your own ass just to kill lil' old me. Thinking to double back and meet me half way aside, this isn't exactly a smart move, Leyn. I'd be more concerned about the fact that your oh so loyal friend took off without making a sound than how best to kill me so that I scream dying. There's something in this place, Leyn, and I'm really starting to lean toward it not being human. So I think the smart thing to do would be to hold off killing me long enough to ensure that you don't come following after."
John heard the click of Leyn's rifle being cocked. " And give you the chance to escape?"
" Or use me as bait to draw this thing off while you make a run for it. And, yeah," John shrugged, " ditto for me. Who knows? Maybe you'll catch the last of my pain filled screams while you're hightailing it to safety. As for this moment in time, neither one of us is going to lower our weapon, so it's not exactly as though you have much choice in the matter. So either step aside and let's finish this later, or just shoot me where I stand."
Leyn's rifle raised a little higher, and John's heart pounded fit to explode. He tensed, and gradually increased the pressure on the trigger of his gun.
" Just for the record," John said. " I never hurt your brother. At least I can die with a clear conscience. How about you?"
Suddenly, the flashlight fell spinning on the ground, and the rifle followed, discharging on impact a centimeter from John's foot. John flinched and pressed himself deeper into the wall. The spinning light strobed off the walls and off something that John couldn't make heads or tails of. He crouched, snatched up the light, and stabbed the darkness with the beam. He saw Leyn's feet squirming and kicking. The rest of him was hidden beneath a blue-gray, violet, red, and black mound of flesh and muscle the size of a horse.
The details of the thing was sketchy, but John knew sure as hell that that thing was no wraith.
Leyn made no sound as he struggled. Then there was a crunch, a muffled scream, and Leyn's body went convulsively rigid. John saw the pale flash of Leyn's hand with fingers curled in agony, then fingers curling into claws when the flesh wrinkled, shrank, and dried up. Leyn's entire body went still and limp as a doll.
The thing lifted its head, like a dog's head, hairless, with a long snout and no ears, so more like a dog's skull. Two long, black, dagger sharp mandibles that made John's neck twinge with bad memories slid back into the creature's mouth, flecking blood that landed on John's face. The light flashed burning off the iridescent eyes that studied John with undeniable intelligence.
John's heart slammed to snatch his breath away.
" Oh son of a bitch," he breathed.
The creature lifted its heavy frame off of Leyn. It picked up the husk of the man with a long-fingered and long-clawed hand, and smashed it against the wall, effectively disintegrating it to dust, cloth, and bone fragments, all while leering – actually leering – at John. It took a step forward with fingers and needle claws spread flat on the floor.
John lurched back while at the same time firing two rounds right into the creature's eyes. The creature whipped its head back with a combination growl and high-pitched shriek. When it looked back at John, the wounds were already starting to heal as black blood dripped from the sockets.
The creature went from leering to annoyed. The ropey muscles of its legs bunched as it crouched back for the pounce. John's instincts screamed at him to run. Except he was well aware of the futility of turning his back on a creature that could probably leap twenty feet across any surface. John only had one other option that was probably just as bad as turning his back on the thing.
The creature tensed, and John tensed, slipping is 9-mil into his pocket to shift the flashlight to his other hand. Then the creature leaped, and John bolted forward, whipping out one of the bladed sticks and swiping at one of the creature's paws with a spin of his body as he passed. He heard the creature howl and land with an ungraceful thud, but wasn't foolish enough to look back and check out his handiwork. He ran with everything he had into the darkness, arms swinging, legs pumping, and flashlight strobing back and forth. He ran until the light revealed another turn up ahead, a right-hand turn, and he took it, never slowing, never glancing back, and actually increasing his speed when he heard the thing's hiss sounding right at his back.
SGA
A/N: This chapter and the next couple to follow are the reason I wrote this story.
I would also like to propose a little writing challenge if anyone is interested or in need of some ideas. Take it up if you will, or don't. Basically it's a challenge I posed for myself, and though I've had several ideas, I haven't been able to pick one that I liked. Basically, the challenge is to take what would be an otherwise funny scenario, and turn it into something not so funny. Angsty or sad or intense even. It can start out funny but not end that way, or start out with people initially laughing then gasping in horror, or something like that. An example would be (and this is the idea I've been toying with but feel free to use it for yourself) Sheppard (or whoever you want) ending up in boxers (I know it's been done before) or naked in front of everyone, or potentially in front of everyone. Perhaps someone is kidnapped by an unusual group of people or something like that. Anything goes. How you could you end it where people are crying or in shock rather than laughing?
I've been toying a lot with this concept and would really like to see what else others come up with. I say you can pick any character, but I am hoping for Sheppard stuff because I could really go for some good Shep-whump right now. But you McKay fans or any other character fans aren't exempt. Whumping for all! Oh, and it can be a one-shot or something longer. Spread the challenge if you would also like to see what others come up with.
