Author's Note: All information used about the upcoming desert animal is fact-checked.
I want to add a disclaimer that these animals are not, actually, all that aggressive... but for the sake of this story it had to attack.
Now y'all are curious. Enjoy ;)
The sound of rasping sand right by Peggy's head made her eyes pop open. She caught sight of dark, open sky and a three-quarters-full moon before she turned her head towards the noise.
There, not half a foot from her face, was a snake.
Peggy sat up with a strangled gasp. She wasn't one to be terrified of much, but a snake that close to her, all the way out in a Californian desert, had not been the best way to wake up.
The snake shifted a little, swirling in on itself in overlapping coils. Peggy reached out and began to shake Daniel's shoulder. "Daniel- Daniel, wake up! Daniel!"
"Wha-?" Daniel pushed his hair out of his face blearily and stared up at her. "Peg? Issit my turn to watch?"
Peggy had no idea, but it wasn't important. "Snake," she hissed, nodding stiffly towards the creature on the ground.
Daniel swore. "That's a Mojave Rattler," he muttered, inching backwards.
"A what?" Peggy asked, her voice strained.
"Mojave Rattlesnake," Daniel repeated. "The most deadly pit viper in California."
Peggy felt the unusual sensation of panic seize up in her chest. The snake in front of them shifted again and then slowly lifted its beige head, turning slowly from Daniel to Peggy.
"What do we do?" Peggy whispered.
Daniel looked around cluelessly. "I don't know," he admitted. "All I remember from that seminar was the identification part."
Peggy shut her eyes for a second, trying to remain calm. She had a sudden, unbearable longing for New York City, where something like this would never happen. Even in New York State they'd probably be stranded in the woods instead of the desert.
"Okay, let's just move slowly away," Daniel told her in a low voice, starting to reach for the stick that had been serving as his crutch.
The moment his hand landed on the wood he let out a sharp gasp and drew it back. Peggy's gaze shot towards the movement and she saw the tail-end of the rattler slowly unwinding from Daniel's crutch. The snake had its eyes on him now and slowly lifted its tail.
A rattling filled the silence.
"Go, Peggy, go!" Daniel yelled, trying to struggle to his feet crutchless.
But it was too late. The snake dove forward, fangs bared, headed straight for Daniel. Peggy lunged a half second later and grabbed it around the neck. It had been her full intention to toss it away so they could get up and run, but the snake was faster than she was. In milliseconds, it had twisted its head and sunk its fangs into her hand.
"No!" Daniel yelled.
Peggy ripped the snake out of her hand and threw it as hard as she could. She found that her entire arm was trembling and turned to Daniel with wide eyes.
"No, no, no," he muttered, looking around frantically before reaching into his boot and pulling out a utility knife. "I'm sorry Peggy; this is going to hurt."
"Just do it," Peggy breathed, looking away from her hand.
She felt Daniel's blade cut into her skin, making a wavering X shape over the two small, evenly spaced dots on her hand. Then Daniel lowered his head and began to suck at the wound, spitting blood to the side every few moments to avoid getting infected with the snake venom himself.
When he finally let her hand fall, Peggy turned her face back to him and they looked at each other for a long moment.
"You have to go, Peg," Daniel said quietly. "You need to get help. I-" He broke off and pushed his hand back through his hair, his voice breaking just a little bit. "I'll slow you down."
"I'm not leaving you!" Peggy protested, staring at him incredulously. "What if the snake comes back? You have no means of defending yourself, no way to contact me, no-"
She broke off with a faint cry as a sudden burning sensation lit up on her hand. Peggy reached over and grabbed at her wrist, trying to breathe through the sensation.
"Peggy," Daniel repeated, reaching over and stroking some hair out of her face. "I'm not even sure if you're going to be able to get help in time on your own. You definitely won't be able to if you have to wait for me." He swallowed, letting his hand fall to her shoulder and squeezing gently. "I'll be alright. But every second you waste could mean that- that you aren't."
Peggy looked around her with no particularly aim, chomping down on her lip. She knew that Daniel was right, but it didn't make it all that much easier.
"I'll come back," she promised, leaning forward and pressing her lips against his for a moment much shorter than she'd like. "I'll find help, and then I'll send them back to you. If you stay where you are, we will be able to find you. They must be looking for us, right?"
"Right," Daniel agreed, squeezing her shoulder again and then giving her a little push. "Go, Peggy. Please."
She staggered to her feet and started stumbling for the road they'd left yesterday. She could feel her skin burning and looked down to see small, angry blisters popping up on her hand.
It was a good thing the moon was nearly full. The desert was lit almost to the brightness of daylight, and Peggy had good visibility as she moved as fast as possible down the road. Daniel had been right- it was faster without him and his crutch, but Peggy still felt a sinking in her gut that told her that everything might not work out just right this time.
The noise of the rattler must have woken her up closer to sunrise than she'd thought, because it hadn't felt like very long before the sun was rising. The colors that had seemed so pretty the night before now blurred before Peggy's eyes. Sweat dripped down her face as the sun rose higher, the sand beneath her feet merging into a continuous haze.
Finally, Peggy felt her knees give out. She collapsed to the ground, stomach turning with nausea, and tried to take deep breaths. The heat rising from the ground made the world quaver. Peggy looked down at her hand and was shaken to find that it was black-and-blue. She had stopped feeling it a long time ago.
When Peggy somehow found it in her to lift her head again, she saw a hazy form walking slowly toward her along the road. "Daniel?" she rasped, bewildered. Why had he come after her? And how had he managed to keep up?
The figure kept walking, and Peggy saw that it was, indeed, Daniel. But the minute she'd identified him, he morphed into Jack Thompson. He was holding Daniel's stick but he wasn't using it, and Peggy felt fear settle into her stomach. "Jack!" she cried, pushing herself to her knees even as her arms trembled. "Jack, I've been bit by a rattler and- and Daniel's still out there; you need to send men to-"
She stopped, because Jack shouldn't even be here. He was in New York, heading the agency.
"Jack?" she repeated again, more hesitantly.
He vanished before her eyes and Peggy let out a cry, falling backward. She stared around her wildly, trying to figure out what had happened, but nothing but empty desert stared back.
A mirage. It had all just been a mirage, brought on by the heat and dehydration and the poison moving into her bloodstream.
At the thought of the rattlesnake bite, Peggy managed to get herself back to her feet. She staggered on, barely able to keep a straight line.
When the sound of a car made her turn around, Peggy forced herself not to get her hopes up. She squinted into the sun to see a sleek black SSR vehicle rolling down the road, rubbed at her eyes, and looked again. The car was still there, but she wasn't trusting her vision much at this point.
It was only when the car stopped right next to her and a harried looking agent (she thought his name was Arming but she couldn't be sure) hopped out that she thought this might just be real.
"Agent Carter, am I glad to see you!" Agent Arming cried, shaking his head and giving her a once over. "Is Chief Sousa with you?"
"Chief-?" Peggy blinked at him blearily. Her head was spinning and she couldn't seem to get her thoughts in order. Chief Sousa was... Daniel, and Daniel...
"He's in the desert," Peggy mumbled. "He's- a snake-"
"He's a snake?" Agent Arming repeated, bewildered. He looked at her more closely. "Ma'am, are you alright?"
"Mojave," Peggy wheezed. She stumbled forward, feeling a surge of relief when her hand came in contact with the solidity of the automobile. "Mojave Rattler."
Agent Arming's gaze fell to her hand, and his eyes widened. "Get in the car," he ordered. "We're going to get you help."
Or... Peggy assumed that that's what he said. Her hearing had turned to white noise and she felt the metal of the car slip through her fingertips as she collapsed onto the sand and blacked out.
Author's Note: Write-To-You, ending chapters with characters passing out since 2016 :P