Scarce

Cheryl W.

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Chapter 3: Danger Close

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Skittering backwards with Evan's manhandling, John realized he couldn't fight Evan and the beast at the same time. Cursing, John spun around, stopped hindering Evan's escape and instead joined him in it. But as they ran, they felt the ground vibrate under their feet, knew the beast was following them. Hearing a crash coming from the west, they knew it wasn't anything good, heralded another beast joining the safari hunt.

In synch, the two soldiers veered off to the east, running neck and neck, knew the only way they were still ahead of the beast was the thick forest, that the beast had to plow his way through while they could slip among the trees. But that didn't mean the beast was giving up on his Scooby snack, nor was the beast crashing through the forest from the west. "Know the layout of the forest?" Sheppard called to Lorne as they kept up their run-for-their-lives pace.

"No," was Lorne's grim answer. He hadn't gotten a chance to know the planet that well, had only found the villages by the lifesigns detector. Knew pulling that device out now could be helpful but didn't think it ranked above outrunning the beasts intend on eating him and the Colonel. His lungs were heaving for breath, his leg muscles burning but he didn't slow down, any more than Sheppard did.

"Look for thickets, tight spaces, lots of downed trees, caves, anything small we can pass through and they can't," John suggested his breath coming out hard as he scanned their surroundings but it was like trying to sight see while you were going 100 miles an hour down the highway…with a tyrannous rex breathing down your tailpipe. Vaulting over a downed tree limb, then having to duck under a low hanging branch before skittering around a boulder made this all a pretty sucky escape route, only good part John thought was it should be slowing down their jungle cat predators.

"There!" John called out, pointing to the west where the vines and underbrush practically made a wall in the forest.

Not questioning Sheppard's command, though that meant running toward the beast making its loud way to them from that direction, Lorne practically asked, "We hiding or making a path through?"

"Both!" Sheppard answered, planned on getting deep into the thicket and then going silent, hoping he really didn't smell like chum in the water to the beasts. Knew if they started coming through the thicket, that the villagers had been right and the beasts could track him because of the dead men's scent on him. And if that proved true, he'd make a run for it, split off from Evan, give the other man the best fighting chance he could.

Having worked under the Colonel long enough, the Major didn't need clarification, understood the plan without further words. Then like a football player running through a papier-mâché banner, Evan plowed into the thicket, fought back the curses as the thickets scratched the hell out of him and the underbrush tripped up his feet but he didn't stop, could feel Sheppard making his own path to his right, probably trying to lessen the signs that they had entered the organic wall. He didn't know how far he had gotten when Sheppard lowly hissed from a few meters to his right, "Hold." And he froze, then felt what Sheppard had: the vibration under his feet meaning the beast, no beasts were close.

Neither man hardly dared to breathe and that wasn't an easy task considering their hell for leather run for their lives had their lungs still screaming for oxygen. John clutched onto the thicket around him as a roar then another vibrated seemingly through his chest. The beasts were close, had stopped, were prowling the area. 'Crap but I knew I shouldn't have stayed with Evan. They can track me and I've lead them right to the both of us.' And now his plan to draw them away from Evan seemed laughable. He could hardly move in this stuff let alone make a heroic run for it, be bait like he had planned when Lorne accused him of planning that in front of the villagers.

If he was closer, Evan would have reached out and clutched onto John's arm, ensured Sheppard didn't move because he knew what must be running through his CO's head, some stupid bait plan. Sacrifice himself to try and save him. But he wasn't going to have any part in that. Either they both survived or they….well, he decided to just stop with that determined thought. He fought down a startled jerk when another roar sounded just outside the thicket, felt some of the thicket snapping, envisioned the beast sticking its nose into the thicket, pawing at it. After this, zoos were off his list now that he had the sneaking suspicion freaking animals on earth were probably like these guys, just waiting their time to take out all humans. He wasn't going to buy into the whole, nice kitty, nice kitty, any longer.

Trying to get his gun faced toward the place that he sensed the big cat was trying to dig his way into them, John suddenly didn't think his "escape plan" was so awesome. He couldn't maneuver worth crap and if he had to defend himself, defend Evan, he couldn't even tug his gun from the thicket to get a good angle, not like his bullets were doing any damage but it was the thought that counted. Then he had another thought: C4. That he could reach in his pocket but then there was the whole, close proximity thing. He might blow he and Evan up along with the beasts. But crap, this was a 'danger close' situation and if he had to do a makeshift 'call fire down on their heads'…being blown up just might beat having the privilege of being cat chow.

Another roar sounded and then, to John's disbelief, the ground vibrated under his crouched position, signaling the beasts were off and running. But it was long minutes before he was certain they were alone before he spoke, though quietly. "Am I just being delusional here or did they leave?"

"If you're delusional, than so am I," Evan returned quiet tone for quiet tone. But he didn't hear John moving so he stayed still too. It wouldn't be great to be tricked by a stupid alien jungle cat into a sense of false security.

"It's brotherhood of the wolf," Sheppard announced like it was a eureka moment, his tone still at whisper decibel.

"That's no wolf," Lorne refuted same decibel as his leader. Sure, he wasn't a hunter but he knew the difference between a wolf and the things out there wanting to devour them.

"Wasn't a wolf in the movie either," Sheppard replied. "Was a trained lion armored up and giving wolves a bad reputation."

Evan caught himself from snorting. A movie, his CO was talking about a freaking movie. "I like movie references as much as the next guy but does this help us kill these things?"

Sheppard's voice had a funny note of disappointment, "Actually, I can't remember how they killed the thing." As if he thought if he knew how the make-believe beast got killed he could use that method to kill their present cat antagonists.

"Great, nice inspirational speech, sir," Evan grumbled but in truth, the conversation took some of the edge off of his nerves, like John intended it to.

"Hey, they killed it," John indignantly whispered back. "And I know like…two guys survived. Ok, one guy might have lost his arm."

"Still not helping. And there's not one beast but three..maybe four." Because he would like to think the beast coming at them from the west was one from the attack of Ulon and Rictus but he wasn't completely sold on that idea. Apparently neither was John.

"Yeah, so not fair odds," John grumbled.

"I don't think the beasts care about fair," Evan pointed out.

"Yeah, those two villager guys didn't even touch the corpse and they went straight for them." Silently John ranted, 'I'm the one that touched the dead guy, they should have come for me first.' Hated that he hadn't insisted they stay with the villagers, that they didn't adhere to the safety in numbers rule. That two men, three actually, were dead and the beasts responsible had them on the run, were probably out there just waiting for them to crawl out so they could have more fresh meat.

Hearing the guilt in John's tone, knowing his leader would have felt better if he himself had been attacked instead of the two strangers losing their lives, Evan kept his grateful relief that the beasts didn't go straightaway for Sheppard unspoken. Sure, he felt terrible that Ulon and Rictus were dead but he wouldn't want it to be John instead. But his CO wouldn't appreciate that line of thinking so instead he said aloud, "Wish I believed they were full and were going to take the rest of the day off for a long nap."

"Yeah, they didn't sound all that sleepy," John quirked back. Silence fell, both men straining to hear sounds that weren't there. "Don't know about you but I'm not keen to spend the next three days in here, hoping someone misses us…well misses you and sends a search party. One that includes Ronon because he can track like no one's business and maybe he even has experience killing armored jungle cats."

Out of all that, Evan latched onto one word that disturbed him. "Wait, why just missing me? Why not missing us?" Sheppard's silence was heavy this time and Lorne was in denial of what it meant until Sheppard went ahead and confirmed his suspicions.

"Ah, well, I didn't really tell anyone I was tagging along with you," a hint of chagrin in Sheppard's tone. Who knew it would matter he didn't tell anyone his plans. After all, it was his vacation day, he didn't owe anyone a sit rep or anything…except now it would be kind of great if someone knew where he was.

At John's statement, Lorne felt his heartrate kick up. "Tell me you're kidding?" because yes, someone would miss him after he missed tomorrow's return timeframe but if someone knew Sheppard was with him, they would be more vigilant on the whole missing his check-in thing. He had seen how mother hen Rodney, Teyla, even Ronon could be with their team leader. No way would it take two days for them to guess John was in trouble, swore they had spidey senses and knew instinctively when the man was in jeopardy. Course even if they did sense it this time…they didn't know where the man had skipped off to. "Oh damn it!" he cursed, didn't care if his CO heard it or not. Having the military leader of Atlantis's life in your hands wasn't something to take lightly, when that leader was vital to their continued survival not to mention so well revered and down right idolized. Then there was the fact that Sheppard had been adopted as a family member by his tight knit team. Suddenly the responsibility to keep the Colonel safe seemed to explode to larger than life proportions.

"Hey, doesn't matter if anyone knows I'm here or not, they know you are," John soothed, didn't quite get Lorne's freak out, I mean besides the lions from Jurassic Park wanting to eat them. "When is your radio check in? Should be soon right?"

Evan closed his eyes and hung his head, hated to be the barer of bad news. "I don't have a check in scheduled for today. The radio reception's crap in the woods and I told them it would take me a day to get to the village, maybe a day to show them how to operate some of the equipment then another day to get back."

John processed that information. So the three day guess of his, it was wishful thinking. Would maybe be four until Atlantis got serious about looking for the Major. Four days…even if they crawled from the thicket and didn't get eaten on the spot, it meant days of outrunning the beasts or trying to get the villagers to put away their pitch forks and let them hide in their basements or wherever they hid from the monsters. "I really didn't think this through, huh? Crap!" he growled, punching the closest branch. He had leaped before he looked, had been so…so desperate to get out of Atlantis that he didn't take a good look at the Major's mission parameters, just knew it was his way off the city for a day, hadn't thought it would be a three day mission and that was before they stumbled onto the brotherhood of the wolf monsters.

Evan really wanted to ask John why he had made the now obviously rash decision to join him, what made him need to leave Atlantis without anyone knowing. As if his CO sensed he was about to ask something personal like that, Evan all of sudden heard Sheppard moving, was about to question what they were doing when his CO spoke.

"To heck with hiding out in here. It's hot, it's picky, there's bugs…and we'll die of dehydration before anyone finds us. I say we get out of here and just keep moving. Come on, even the cave men outsmarted dinosaurs wanting to eat them year round, we can do this."

"Actually we don't know they did outsmart them. None of them lived to tell the tale except in hieroglyphics," Lorne unhelpfully pointed out.

"Stop channeling McKay," John growled as he managed to get to his feet and started to retrace his passage into the thicket. Heard Evan doing the same thing to his left. "I'll go out first. If you hear me scream…it's a safe bet the coast is not clear."

"Very reassuring, sir," Evan muttered, didn't appreciate that being the not clear signal as he stopped a few meters from his entrance point, could see unfiltered light ahead. Then he saw Sheppard moving, pausing to listen then making a run for it, doing a forward roll out of the thicket and then he was out of Evan's sight. Anxiety thrummed through Evan's nerves, his eyes searching for the sight of Sheppard even as he wanted to clamp his hands over his ears so as to not hear Sheppard's scream. But what came was a low, "Lorne move," and Sheppard's was there, crouched at the edge of the opening of the thicket, his back to Evan as he scanned their surroundings for the threat of things with big paws and merciless claws and teeth. Moving as quickly as he could, Evan emerged from the thicket, crouched down beside his CO, joining Sheppard's vigil.

Instead of speaking, John did hand signals, ordered Evan to begin heading east. Evan obeyed without question, trusted Sheppard like he had no other leader before. So if the Colonel said go east, the direct opposite of where the stargate was and the villages, he went east.

Touching the paw prints in the ground that were larger than his two hands put together and noting that they were heading west, John reassured himself he and Evan were heading the right way, away from the beasts. So he quietly took up the rear position, would guard their retreat in case the beasts came back. And yes, he knew the 'gate was the opposite way, that the somewhat "friendly" villages were the opposite way but at the moment he had to concentrate on survival, not escape, because his gut was saying the beasts weren't going to let them get away, had almost enjoyed the rush of the hunt for the prey. No, they would come for them again, John was sure of it. He just wished he had a plan for killing them when they did.

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Dinner in the mess hall was a somber affair, well it was for the one table usually boisterous with laughter. Instead three people occupied the chairs and pushed food about on their plates but consumed little and laughed not at all, barely spoke, really.

Having had it with the silence and them not saying what they were all thinking, Rodney flung his fork down onto his plate. "Ok, let's just say what we're all thinking. Something's wrong, with Sheppard maybe, with us…with just….this," and he gestured to the three of them.

Putting her own fork down with resignation not anger, Teyla nodded her head in agreement. "Yes, I sense it too."

Ronon was still determined to take another bite, chewed it with vigor then met his teammate's gaze. "What? It's his vacation day, doesn't that mean he gets to do whatever he wants to do, not work, not check in…with us or anyone else."

"Well, technically but…who even knew he was taking the day off?" Rodney cross examined, waiting to see if either of them broke under his interrogation.

"He did not mention it to me," Teyla answered and Rodney knew she was being honest.

Ronon, giving up, also tossed his silverware onto the tray. "Didn't say anything to me….but…" both his teammates looked expectantly to him, "when I asked him yesterday morning about sparring today, he said he couldn't."

"And he didn't say why he couldn't?" Rodney questioned, hoped for some real clues.

"Nope."

"And you didn't ask," Rodney seemed peeved by that so Ronon growled, "If he wanted me to know his plans, he would have told me."

Rodney snorted. "Right because he's mister open book, mister let's talk about something that's bothering me."

"Did you think something was bothering him?" Teyla now was the one cross-examining Rodney, wondering if he was holding out concerns for John from her.

"What? No! I'm just saying if something was bothering him…he's like Fort Knox." At his teammate's blank expression, he clarified, "A vault that's supposedly impenetrable."

That had the threesome falling silent again. "Did he take this date off before?" came from Ronon, his insight clearly surprising both his friends that he thought he had to explain further, "Maybe it's a date of memorial."

That had Rodney reaching for his keyboard, striking the keys and then scowling. "Well last year we were a little busy worrying about a Goa'uld bomb in Atlantis on this date." At Ronon and Teyla's incredulously looks he demanded, "What?!"

"You have that written down?" Ronon asked holding back a smirk.

"Yes, I keep a journal and see how helpful it is," he defended before, with a few more keystrokes, he sighed. "And two years ago on this date we were in a lockdown with a nanite virus."

"And the year before that?" Ronon asked and McKay looked a little shaken.

"I didn't know him back then. Of course I could…have the ability to…I might…." Rodney stammered, because he had never violated Sheppard's privacy before, hadn't dug into his records, even when he had really really really wanted to when Sheppard first popped up in McMurdo, all Ancient gene powerful and got assigned to the Stargate Atlantis team. Then it was against the rules and now…it seemed a betrayal of their friendship to view Sheppard's personal file.

Teyla reached out, gave Rodney's hand a squeeze, understood him. "If John did not tell us about this date, we must accept his wishes for privacy." Rodney nodded in relief that he wasn't going to be browbeaten into betraying John even if for good intentions but didn't agree much with Teyla's next conclusion. "And I suppose that means not learning where he is right now."

"I don't like it," Ronon gruffly protested and then he abruptly got up, dumped his tray and left his friends behind. He understood keeping things private, allowed Sheppard to block him out on so many topics out of respect, friendship. Even if it hurt sometimes, even if he thought Sheppard actually talking about things might help the man, lessen the burden Sheppard forced himself to carry. But he had never pushed things between them, had accepted the limitations Sheppard put on their bond, had just treasured the man's friendship that he did offer him. But now, turning a blind eye to Sheppard's absence, albeit a planned one, it stirred worry in Ronon's gut. No, fear. Like watching Sheppard get sucked into that invisible wall of the sanctuary and not come back out. Felt wrong, like him not following Sheppard into that void had.

And his instincts had kept him alive as a runner for seven years, had allowed him to keep his new found family alive for two years. He wasn't keen to ignore its warning, to lose more people he cared about. So he didn't care if John wanted the day to be alone, Ronon was going to track him down, make sure he was ok and then, if it was proven without a doubt that he wasn't in any danger, just maybe he'd let Sheppard out of his sight for the rest of the day.

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They were being followed. And it wasn't by covert agents. Not unless they had traded up their footwear for big paws. There wasn't much giving it away, a rustle of leaves, a crack of a branch from the side, a slight tremor under foot, the hairs on the back of John's neck standing on end.

Lorne sensed it too, had shot a look over his shoulder at Sheppard, they both confirmed their suspicious. But there was little they could do except keep moving forward, continue to be stalked because that beat being run down and gobbled up. It truly was a game of cat and mouse and they definitely were the mice. There were no thickets to hide in, no rivers to take a water taxi away, only the same old landscape of trees after trees. And without a map of the area or even a good guess about the seasons or growing cycles or needs of the trees and plant life, John had no idea what they were walking toward. But something told him they were being herded there and there was nothing good about that conclusion.

Then the forest ended without much warning. One step Lorne was in the middle of the thick forest and the next on a rocky outcropping, nearly toppled down the incline if John hadn't snagged his jacket and yanked him back to stumble into him. Skirting around Lorne, John looked down at the sharp incline, recognized the shale ledges like he had seen in Afghanistan. Nothing could grow there and the shale was knife sharp and jagged and had a bad habit of breaking off under foot. Far below was more forest. Looking to his left there was a small ledge of clearing edging the woods that lead to a small mountaintop. It would be their best bet to take high ground, maybe scout out a way back to the gate and around their furry stalkers.

With another hand gesture, John indicated for Lorne to go left. With a dutiful nod, Lorne began cutting through the forest in that direction. It took twenty minutes for them to maneuver through the woods and the snapping limbs were drawing closer but never quickening with their lateral advancing. The beasts were pacing them and John didn't like that one bit. When they made it to the small clearing and the mountaintop, John stood guard watching the woods while Lorne started to climb up the seventeen foot outcropping.

But when Lorne gave a startled cry half way to the top, John spun around to see Evan falling, was going to go to the Major who impacted with the ground with force when he realized why Evan had not fallen but had actually let go of the rockface: a beast much larger than the ones that had been pursuing them was at the top of the mountaintop. Then, using its powerful legs to vault off the rock, the beast lunged for the downed Major. Lorne raised his gun, sent bullets into the pouncing beast, but the beast didn't flinch in pain, didn't change its trajectory. And Lorne had nowhere to go, his shoulder pressed up against the rockface on his right and the incline was on his left.

With a tenacious growl of his own, John charged the beast, tackled it midair before it could land on Evan, hoped his momentum knocked it far enough off course that it didn't crash down on Evan. John, however, wasn't so sure he wouldn't land on Evan but that seemed an acceptation if awkward situation compared to the other man being eaten.

For Evan, it was surreal watching the beast pounce for him, its hide underside gradually blocking out the sun then there was another shadow darting in from the left and he knew that human growl. Caught sight of an Atlantis military uniform and combat boots then the sun was visible again and he barely turned his head in time to track Sheppard's movement.

Man and beast were locked together in mortal combat as the beast's back clipped the edge of the rockface, shattering it and then they bounced off, the beast and Sheppard together and tumbled down the shale descent. Flipping over, Evan scrambled to the edge on all fours, screamed "Sheppard!" as the tangle of fur, spikes, boots and spiky hair plummeted down the shale. But Evan had to tear his eyes away from the horrific sight when a roar sounded behind him, reminded him he wasn't as alone as he felt up there.

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TBC

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Thanks again for the awesome support for this story. The signed and unsigned reviews are so wonderful! It's really fun sharing it with you all!

Have a great day! (Especially a better day than Lorne and Sheppard are having!)

Cheryl W.