Anasazi 18
A/N. my apologies for the delay and lack of response to recent comments. I've been traveling and "occasional" internet turned out to be nonexistent internet. I read all today and thanks so much for the encouragement to work on this story!
The chapter below is historically accurate; what Jack and Sam discover really was found in cave 7, and yes, it does exist, with author license, of course.
Thanks again, Sam938
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Jack recognized the sounds, the smells, he could never forget in a thousand lifetimes coming from the cave's entrance. He'd been in too many similar places, seen too many things he didn't want to remember, but did, not to know what he was approaching.
He gestured to Carter to stay low and steady behind him, and then moved silently towards the devastation. He kept his hand on his weapon, staying to the left of the cave's entrance, out of sight of anyone inside.
They picked their way carefully through a rock fall, one careening down to the canyon floor two hundred feet below, that blocked their path. The huge boulders were taller than he, almost an impossible barrier. He finally found a route between them and the cliff side, barely wide enough for his shoulders.
He signaled to Carter to keep her back against the cliff as they headed to the cave's entrance, to watch for anyone approaching from behind. Something evil was here, and wrong.
He didn't want to be caught between factions, enemies with killing intent.
The entrance to the cave was a huge, gaping mouth, nearly 50 feet across, with the roof nearly as high. How deep he couldn't tell from his position. The depths of the cave were in darkness, although the green glow covered all.
He heard the moans, the crying, and steadied his mind, blanking out the horror that was sure to come. His jaw firmed, and he stilled, focusing on the mission, on the objective.
When they reached the side of the entrance, he crouched, weapon drawn, and turned quickly toward the interior, his eyes forward, staring into the depths of the cave.
It was a massacre. It was what he expected. He turned away from the horror and looked back at Carter. She stared at him, her eyes dark and wide, waiting for his orders.
He stayed silent, debating their next moves. The problem was that she was the wildcard, the unknown in the situation. He should have ordered her to stay behind, at the back-up site or at minimum on the cliff edge, given what had happened at Powell, but he didn't want to chance it. Carter would take her own path. He knew she'd follow him, watch his back, no matter what he ordered, even as he knew it made her a risk, a danger, to them both.
He had to keep her safe. Better to have her close.
He should scrub the mission, given they had no back up and Carter was a risk. He stopped the thought. They had to go on, to complete the objective. The possibility of aliens on earth, and what it could mean, was more important than either of them.
He grimaced, assessing the situation. For now, the glow didn't seem to care about her, or them, just the evil inside. If the entities knew she was there, this time, so far, they didn't care.
He looked away from her and chose the darkest path into the mouth of the cave.
They kept to the shadows, crouching behind a row of rocks. Jack recognized the sit-rep. The rocks had been positioned as a barrier into the cave by the defenders, a last ditch effort. For Carter and he, they provided cover from the light glowing from the back of the cave and whatever else was there as they moved slowly forward.
He finally stopped and shifted to the side of the last rock, scanning the interior for enemies, his weapon drawn.
He shook his head, and closed his eyes from the sight in front of him, and then calmly put his weapon down. The cowards that had created the nightmare were long gone, sure of victory.
He stood and stared at the bodies they'd left, a green shroud still covering them all.
It was ugly, as ugly as he'd seen. He turned the thought aside, body still, as he took count of the dead. There were at least a hundred, maybe more. The cave had been a last stand for the people. There were women, children, old men, priests, and warriors, their blood still running red; an evil and pathetic sight in the impossible glow.
His military training saw the sequence of events, even after its end. The warriors were at the front of the cave; women and children in the back; and some defenders in the middle, with sticks, perhaps the priests. He could make out what must have been dwellings of a sort, deeply carved round circles in the rock bottom, with wood posts, still burning, encircling. Now they were rubble.
Now all that was left was the dead that surrounded Carter and him.
He switched automatically to recovery mode when two of the bodies moved. He gestured Carter to one, and then and bent quickly to over the other to see if there was any life left.
He started binding the wound of a young woman, no more than Cassie's age, tearing turkey feathers from a cloak around her. She was with the warriors, at the front. And she was dying.
His hands were red with blood. He watched as the young woman died under his hands, and then looked over to the woman lying behind her, two children in her arms, one over her chest.
All quiet now.
Now, finally, there was silence. He and Carter were left with the dead, all seemingly locked into this damned cave to eternity.
It couldn't be real. It couldn't be. Not this time. Not now.
He looked to Carter in the middle of the cave as she bound the wounds of yet another victim.
He could see it was hopeless.
She kept trying.
He stood, ignoring the devastation around him, ignoring the blood that dripped from his hands, and got to the point.
"Who are you people that you would do something like this?"
Silence.
"Show yourself. And damn you to whatever hell you have."
It couldn't be real. It couldn't be. He ignored everything around him and grabbed his weapon again. His hand slipped, wet, from the woman's blood.
He took firmer hold.
"Ruess, where are you? What the hell is this?"
He stared at the massacre, and then looked towards Carter, gesturing for her to stop. She didn't respond, still staring at the body below her, working to save a life.
He moved towards her, and then stopped and turned, as Ruess walked out from the back of the cave into the green light.
Ruess was clean, immaculate, the sight jarring when juxtaposed against the ruin around him, his expression calm and thoughtful.
Jack stared at him in disgust, angry at what had gone down, and that he'd been given no leeway, no option except to watch the devastation and death as it settled around him.
"What would do this? And how could you agree to be part of it?"
Ruess looked at him, his expression briefly one of interest. "English. It's been a while since a seeker has spoken such. The last stayed only briefly, eager to return to this world."
"What the hell are you?"
Ruess ignored the question. He motioned toward the devastation. "They didn't do this. The thing you keep bringing with you did."
Ruess pointed towards Sam. She was suddenly frozen, her movements stopped in the midst of trying to save the body below her.
Jack positioned himself between Carter and Ruess, and raised his weapon.
He saw Ruess through a red haze of anger, his voice deadly calm. "Let her go. Now."
Ruess shrugged and started to turn away into the back of the cave.
Jack shot him in the shoulder. He stared, shocked, when Ruess actually started to bleed.
Ruess turned back to him and covered his wound with his shirt as a bandage. "I'm real; this is real. They've all died, yet again, because you had to bring it. They wanted to see what you'd do. You're welcome but the… thing… has to leave."
"Damn it, let her go now or the next time I won't aim for the shoulder."
"It is unharmed. The message will be conveyed and then they will release it. "
"Why are you doing this?"
Ruess shrugged. "You didn't seem to understand the first time, so they thought they'd let you see, literally, what it's done."
He moved his hand around the room, encompassing the massacre, his gaze calm as he accepted the deaths and then looked back at Jack carefully.
"This will happen to our people, my family, all of your generation, if it is allowed to stay. I've done what I can to convince them we're not violent. I was the first to make contact after the migrations. You're one of the few to try since I was allowed to join. You are not …being… helpful."
"I don't give damn about being helpful. Carter," he gestured to her, frozen in her actions, "is not an 'it'. Are you talking about the Gou'ald? She's not a Gou'ald. We fight the Gou'ald, can't stand the snakeheads. Who are 'they'?"
"They do not recognize that term. Neither do I."
Jack moved quickly toward Ruess, ready to take him down, but the man slipped easily, too easily, away from him. It wasn't possible. No one could move that fast. He pointed his weapon at Ruess' head instead. "Let her go. Now. The next time, I'll make sure to hit something critical. "
Ruess shrugged, ignoring the threat, seeming to listen to someone else. He looked at Carter, still frozen in her attempt to save the man below her. "Its actions are not what they expected."
"So what?"
Ruess stared at him. "You want to bring it with you. Perhaps you are correct. They'll consider it now, based on her actions. They will allow you to enter the center during the time of renewal at the height where you will both face the test."
"I don't want to bring anyone anywhere. We want to know what you want and why you're here on Earth."
Ruess didn't seem to hear him. He turned and walked into the wall.
Jack was left with a hundred of the dead.
The bodies lay still; finally mute.
He scrambled towards Carter, still frozen in place. He tried to move her, but he couldn't. He felt panic rise, and stopped it. He couldn't lose her now, not this way, not because of some damned order he'd given, when he should have pulled back, should have waited.
He stopped the thought. Carter was a warrior, to deny it was to deny a part of her. He couldn't keep her back, safe, from a mission. He'd done what had been necessary.
He held her in the silence, with the dead all around them, considering his options as the green glow faded and the bodies slowly disappeared.
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