Chapter 5:
A flash of light illuminated the blackness of the night. The sound of an explosion in the distance shortly followed. O'Neill had fallen asleep when the noise awoke him. He knew immediately what had happened. They were too late. The Volostrians had started bombing the Midgren base a day early. Damn crappy intel.
O'Neill moved toward Teal'c who was peering out of the back of the transport. "See anything?"
"I believe the Volostrians are attempting to destroy the Midgren facility."
Another flash of light and explosion followed. The transport stopped suddenly slamming SG-1 against the rear of the vehicle. They heard frantic shouts from the driver who started to turn the vehicle around.
"Um, guys…" Daniel pointed toward the changing scenery.
O'Neill also noticed the change in direction. "Okay, apparently this is where we're getting off. Let's move."
"Teal'c, do you have any idea how close we are…" The statement was cut short by another far off explosion.
"I do not, O'Neill. I believe it will take many hours walking, a day at most"
"Can you get us there?"
"I can."
O'Neill turned to Daniel looking him in the eyes. "Daniel, I want you to catch up with that transport and head back to Volostra and the gate. Let Hammond know the situation and request SG backup and a medical team."
Daniel did not move and stared intently at O'Neill. "Jack." He said in the way when he wanted to talk about something he knew O'Neill did not. O'Neill did not respond and continued the staring contest between the two men. "Jack." Daniel said again.
"What?"
"It wasn't supposed to be today."
"I know, Daniel." He spat, irritated at Daniel's observation of the obvious. "Look, why don't I call up Hvasy and tell him to stop shooting up the base for a while so we can find Carter."
"I'm just saying…"
"I know."
"Just go, Daniel. Stay in radio contact as long as you can and get back with help as soon as you can."
Daniel nodded his understanding and headed off to catch up with transport. "Alright, T, follow the yellow pulse cannon road." O'Neill announced. Teal'c took point and started in the direction, O'Neill hoped, lead toward the base.
The guards beat Carter after Reynarc left. She screamed again when they cut her down. She fell hard to the floor landing on her right shoulder. Agonizing pain burned throughout her body. They used their weapons, their fists, and their boots to dole out their own kind of cruel punishment. She tried to protect herself but her body refused to comply with her demands.
A loud explosion suddenly rocked the building momentarily distracting the guards from their task. She began to feel blackness envelope her. Another explosion hit the building alarms sounded, voices echoed in the corridor.
She heard the door open.
Another blast.
Blackness.
O'Neill spent a great amount of time watching Carter lose her battle against consciousness. Sometimes she was able to turn off the recorder before she passed out. Most times she would not. Her lucid moments were growing shorter. She was beginning to cough blood. He knew time was growing short.
In one of her more coherent periods she talked directly to SG-1. "Daniel, sorry about your camera. No sightseeing." She tried to laugh which only caused her to cough up more blood. "Teal'c, I will always cherish your friendship." Another cough, more blood. "Tell my dad that I love him."
She stopped talking and gasped for breath grimacing with the effort and pain it caused her. She looked at the camera again and continued. "Colonel I'm sorry. I wish…" The camera suddenly cut to black.
"How's that for timing?" Daniel said from the doorway to the briefing room.
O'Neill leaned back in his chair. He was mentally and emotionally drained. He had spent the last two hours watching Carter dying in front of him.
"I wonder what Sam was going to say?" Daniel pondered out loud.
He had some idea what she was going to say what he wanted her to say. "I don't know," O'Neill responded instead. "She probably wished she could have kicked my ass for all the times…" He really could not think of anything funny or sarcastic to say at the moment. "I don't know."
"What do you think happened to her? I mean she only got out bits and pieces on the tape. Most of it didn't really make any sense."
"Hell, Daniel. She went through hell."
Everything hurt. She knew she was not dead. Death could not hurt this much.
Truth, she should be dead.
It was quiet, too quiet. The bombing had stopped. The door to her torture chamber was open. She had to move, she was not going to die like this, bloody and broken in this damn hell hole. She took a mental evaluation of her battered body before trying to move, mangled left shoulder with stab wound, right leg stab wound, abdominal stab wound, probable cracked ribs, and head wound check, check, check, check, and check. Her right shoulder was also in bad shape but the bone had popped back in place when the guards cut her down. Check. All in all, not good.
She screamed when she tried to move. She could not stop the bile that rose from her stomach and vomited. When the convulsing and dry heaving subsided, she tried again. She placed her feet on the floor and attempted to push herself toward a wall. She screamed the whole way. When her head hit solid surface, she felt as if she had run a marathon. She was breathing hard, sweating, bleeding. A trail of blood marked her path.
She passed out again. When she awoke, she managed somehow to push herself into a sitting position and eventually standing. She was leaning heavily against the wall fighting to stay upright against the waves of dizziness working to bring her down. She took one baby step forward and then another and made her way inch by inch, agonizing step by agonizing step out the door. The corridor was eerily silent; there were no signs of life only evidence of death and destruction; fallen debris, concrete, dead bodies.
Carter turned right out of the door only because she could use her right arm, albeit very limitedly, and the wall for support and began to slowly make her way down the corridor. She tried to open each door she came to. There had to be a way out of here. Each one she opened only exposed more rooms for persecution or interrogation, more dead bodies, and her own growing feeling of hopelessness.
She was going to have to stop soon. The exertion of actually moving her body had taken its toll and Carter knew she was going to collapse. She came to a last door before the corridor made a right turn. It was a morose scene. The room was a storage area. Personal effects she assumed of the prisoners, clothes, shoes, coats, lined the walls and were scattered haphazardly about the floor. How many people were here? How many were tortured? How many lives lost?
Carter wanted to leave the room, wanted to leave the ghosts of this hell hole in peace but her body was screaming for her to stay. Reluctantly she had to stop here. She limped slowly into the room to hide herself incase there were any guards lurking around although she suspected she would be easy to find considering she was leaving a trail of blood as she walked.
Deciding to head for a secluded area surrounded by a group of stacked crates, Carter spied a familiar black mound on a nearby crate. Her tactical vest and field pack had been discarded amongst the other personal effects. A spark of hope surged through her body. She pushed through the growing pain and managed to make her way, she feared, to her last hope of survival. Leaning heavily against the crate she found her gear had been ransacked, no radio, no medical supplies, no weapons, no food, nothing of use except inexplicably, Daniel's camcorder. The spark of hope which had been moving her forward quickly diminished. Finally giving in to the pain and exhaustion, she slides clumsily to the floor pulling her gear with her. Too tired to fight any longer, Carter dragged her gear into her lap and cradled it protectively against her body and closed her eyes.
They traveled in uncomfortable silence. The yellow arc of the Volostrian pulse cannon continued to light the night sky. The far off sounds of explosions were the only noises. With O'Neill following Teal'c set a relentless pace. They had been walking almost running for hours. O'Neill's knees were aching more and more with each step he took, yet he did not ask Teal'c to stop. They could not stop. Carter's rescue, her very survival, was in their hands.
With the first morning light, the bombing stopped as did Teal'c. O'Neill looked at Teal'c questioningly.
"Teal'c?"
"The bombing has subsided, O'Neill." Teal'c stated matter-of-factly.
"I noticed. How far away do you think we are?"
"Several hours."
"Damn," he said while drinking some water from his canteen.
"Are you not well, O'Neill?"
"Oh, you know, the knees are not the same as they used to be," he said leaning forward and massaging one of his knees.
"You are worried about Major Carter."
"You're not?" O'Neill asked deflecting Teal'c's not so subtle accusation.
"Indeed. I have been most disturbed since Major Carter was taken."
"It's been six months, Teal'c." He stated flashing back to when he was a POW during the Gulf War.
"You do not think Major Carter is still alive." Another statement.
"Yes…no…I mean yes, I think she's alive. I want to believe she's alive," O'Neill stated while taking his cap off and rubbing his hand through his graying hair. "All I know, T, is when I was…" He paused reflecting again to Iraq. "They did some horrible things to me."
"You do not think Major Carter is strong enough to survive."
"God, no. She's one of the strongest people I've ever met. I'm just not sure…" he paused again. "I wanted to die so many times, just end it, end the torture, the suffering."
Teal'c bowed his head in understanding.
O'Neill changed the subject. "Let's get going. The Midgren base is not going to get any closer if we stand here chatting all day."
It was dark; she could not see where she was. She must be back in her cell. The guards had found her. She could feel her heart rate increase at the thought of what was to come when Reynarc sent for her again.
"Samantha…"she heard his voice in the darkness.
Slowly the darkness began to fade and she began to realize she was not in her cell, she was already bound and hanging. Reynarc was standing in front of her with his knife, smiling. He stepped forward and kissed her lightly on the cheek and plunged the knife into her stomach.
She screamed…
Carter awoke abruptly from the sound of her screams which she realized were real and not a dream. Disoriented, she looked around and slowly remembered where she was, the prison, hiding in a storage room. She tried to move and just as quickly abandoned her efforts, there was too much pain.
She looked down; she was covered in blood, too much blood. She was still holding her gear against her body as if it were her only connection left to Earth, the SGC, SG-1, her life.
Carter understood at that moment that she was not going to be able to make it out of the building. She was going to die in this hell hole. Dammit, this was not how it was supposed to end. Her last moments were going to be spent huddled in a storage room bleeding to death too weak to move hiding from an enemy she knew nothing about. Hiding from a man who was intent on torturing her to death for information she could not give him. Dammit.
She suddenly remembered Daniel's camcorder. As much as she did not want anyone to see her like this, bloodied, battered, weak, it was something, whether or not any one ever saw it, at least it was something.
Carter dug the camcorder out of her pack. She checked to make sure there was a tape and the batteries were working and painfully maneuvered to the nearest container. Placing the camcorder on the container she pressed the button to record. After a few more minor adjustments, she turned the light on and fell back against the wall and began to speak.
"My name in Samantha Carter, Major, U.S. Air Force, member of SG-1. I am dying."