Chapter 3 – Endless Night
Rodney was awoken by a sharp pain. He flinched and snapped his eyes widely open. He soon localised the source of the sting and watched as blood ran down his hand and dripped onto the white infirmary sheets.
"Oh, ow." Rodney mumbled with a grimace as the IV line that had just been torn out of his hand lay completely still on the bed next to him.
Suddenly, memories of liquid metal strangling him, blades and bolt cutters flashed across his mind. He reached up with his uninjured hand and closed his eyes when he felt something cold and unyielding around his throat. "Oh, great… not a bad dream. Why is it never just a bad dream?"
He looked around the infirmary as his hand shook a little through the pain. There was no-one else in there, nobody even sitting with him while he slept. He reasoned that he had probably scared them all away with his ranting. "Even John though?" He thought sadly.
He called out into the empty room, "Um, hello? Bleeding over here." His voice echoed strangely around the infirmary and Rodney frowned. "Jennifer?"
There was still no reply. Rodney sighed and ignoring the whiteness of the sheets he pressed the back of his hand against the covers to try and stem the blood flow and cease the smarting sensation of the scratch.
He gazed down at his other hand and saw that his finger was red where the heart monitor had been attached. "Oh, great patient care! I could be dead by now and no-one's even noticed yet!" His expression changed into one of confusion as his comments bounced from the walls and came back to him with a dull metallic clanging quality about them.
He looked up from his hands and glanced warily around the room and listened. He could not hear anything at all. None of the usual sounds of the city reached his ears, no bleeps from the equipment or the fans of the computers. All that Rodney could hear were sounds emanating from himself. His shaky breathing was loud in his ears along with the slight rustle of the covers as he moved his sore hand involuntarily against them.
His eyes soon settled on his watch where it was resting on the table next to him. He narrowed his eyes when he saw that it was 3.17am. He did not feel at all tired, even though he had only been asleep for a few hours.
He set his mouth in a grim line and decided that he would need to help himself if the Doctors and nurses who were supposed to be responsible for his well-being could not be bothered to monitor or check on him. He sighed in sorrow as he thought maybe he had upset them to the point where they did not care what happened to him. But not Jennifer! No no no, please, not her as well!
He pushed himself upright and shoved the covers away. He looked down at the white scrubs he was dressed in and started to feel a little queasy when he saw dark red splotches of blood on the material from his hand. He wiggled his toes and glanced around the floor around his bed and located some slippers tucked just underneath.
Rodney planted his feet on the ground and shivered at the coldness of the floor. He intended to kick the slippers out from under the bed, but when he hooked one of his feet against them, but they did not move. His foot connected with the side of them, but no matter how hard he shoved they remained where they were.
Rodney sighed in agitation and crouched down. He held his cut hand against his chest and used his other one to grasp one of the slippers. He frowned as there was no give in the material and clenched his teeth angrily when they still did not move. He muttered under his breath in fury, "Sheppard… what the hell is the point of gluing slippers to the floor? Absolutely hilarious! Oh yes, tormenting a sick man with your little tricks and not even hanging around to watch the fun!"
After a few more seconds of futile tugging, Rodney gave up and decided he would have to go barefoot. He straightened up and clutched his head as he swayed a little. "Oh, blood loss. Not good."
He shivered at the freezing floor under his feet as the coldness passed up into his ankles and legs. He wandered over to Jennifer's lab and his footfalls broke the crushing silence as they echoed dully back at him.
He opened his mouth in shock when he saw Jennifer sitting unmoving at her desk with a laptop in front of her. Rodney called out, "Jennifer?" as he ran over to her in panic.
He stood next to her and looked at her face. His mouth dropped open and his eyes widened in fright. Jennifer's face was a frozen mask as she gazed unseeing at the laptop and remained totally still. Rodney waved a hand quickly in front of her face, "Jennifer? Wh-what's going on?"
Rodney furrowed his brow when he looked at her eyes. They shone brightly, but there was no trace of life or recognition behind them and it shook Rodney in terror right to his core. He patted her hand gently as it lay motionless on the keyboard of the laptop. Her skin was warm, but her hand did not move as Rodney tried to squeeze it gently. He mumbled in a small voice, "What's wrong? Can you hear me?"
Her hand felt like stone and Rodney shook his head and grimaced as he moved his shaking hand up to her neck and felt for a pulse. It was like Jennifer had become a statue and Rodney could not press the artery in her neck to find the pulse. He turned to look at the laptop she was so transfixed by and saw medical information and blood data on the screen. He saw his name at the top of the readout and then his eyes tracked down to the bottom of the screen and he saw the clock.
"What the hell? No no no no no. This can't be happening."
Rodney dashed out of the lab and over to the table where his watch was still sitting. He curled his fingers around it, but it stayed glued to the top and his fingertips came together sharply when he failed to move it. He used the palm of his hand to hit it, in an attempt to break it away from the force keeping it stuck fast. He uttered a soft, "Oh," as his hand impacted the watch, but the only thing to give was his palm.
Rodney flipped his throbbing hand over and studied the red patch of bruising forming across his palm. He clenched his teeth together and leant over to look at the readout. It was still 3.17am. He ran back into the lab and gazed down in resignation at the clock on the laptop. It also read 3.17am.
He turned his back on Jennifer's still form and paced about in the lab, speaking quickly to himself. Trying to convince himself that he was talking to Jennifer's waxen visage, although she did not seem to hear him. "I've certainly been moving around for more than a minute. Are the things that don't move linked in some way? Can anything at all be moved? Why am I the only one aware of this? Jennifer…" he looked across at her, but shook his head sadly when she remained as though she was petrified.
Rodney's hurt hand moved upwards and he absently fingered the band around his neck while he thought. The bleeding had stopped, but there was a large shiny gash across his skin. He suddenly stopped pacing and his eyes widened in realisation. "Oh, it's not you or the objects is it? It's me. I'm the one who caused this."
He gripped the band tightly and pulled at it. He winced as the cut on his hand opened again. He fought with it for a few seconds until his neck was red and sore. "Oh, come on! Get off me. I don't want to be stuck on my own in this ridiculous place."
He soon stopped pulling and narrowed his eyes, "Unless…" He hoped the effect was only local and decided to go for a walk.
He nodded his head at Jennifer and said, "Sorry, I'm going to have to leave you now. I'll be back later, I promise."
Jennifer continued to gaze vacantly at the laptop while Rodney sighed in frustration and left the infirmary.
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Rodney's feet slapped loudly against the floor in the stillness as he walked. The noise reached his ears in a reverberating tone that sounded oddly musical.
He sighed deeply and looked up and down the corridor at all the closed doors. He tried a few, but nothing responded to him. He swiped his hand over the sensor but there was no effect. He tried to pry away the panel and even leant his shoulder on one of the doors to get it to move.
Rodney continued to stalk along aimlessly. He found a transporter, but it did not work for him. Rodney rubbed his bruised hand across his cheek in exasperation and muttered, "Ugh, stairs…"
He walked over to the nearest staircase and was glad that the doors were already open for him. His breath was loud as he climbed up to the Gate Room in the muffling and absolute silence. He was beginning to feel a little unnerved by the lack of noise. Usually, even when he was alone, he could always hear the power conduits humming and singing softly behind the walls. People walking past him or his lab and talking, but the oppressive lack of any other sound than his pants as he continued to push himself to move faster up the stairs was unsettling him.
When Rodney reached the Gate Room, he sighed loudly into the wide open space and waved his arms about in an exaggerated gesture. He kept them held out away from his body and called out, "Can anybody hear me?"
He quickly lowered his hands when his voice bounced back at him in an eerie and hollow distortion of how a human voice should sound. He felt a shiver running through him at the lack of response.
Rodney furrowed his brow and held his palm against the gash on the back of his other hand as he slowly walked across the room. He saw marines gazing into space like mannequins. They held their P90s ready, but no flicker of recognition passed across their features, even when Rodney went right up to one of them and lightly pushed him.
He suddenly felt a weight of loneliness and the terrible feeling of being trapped. The sensation intensified into fear when he caught a movement out of the corner of his eye.
He spun around and looked at the Stargate, where he thought he had seen a white flash. He held his sore hand more tightly and tried to get his rapid heart rate and breathing under control after the fright. He called out quietly, "Hello?"
Another flash and a slight breeze of air whipped past Rodney's side. He jumped and turned on the spot. "This isn't funny! What do you want?"
Rodney continued to look around the Gate Room warily as all out terror gripped his heart and squeezed painfully. His wide and unblinking eyes swept around the room; looking for any sign of what was causing the flashes he had briefly seen. He kept his arms protectively across the front of his torso and clasped his damaged hand more tightly.
A quiet voice made him squeak a little in panic and step backwards until he was pressing himself against a wall. He did not want anything to sneak up behind him and he did not feel safe from the flashes of light.
"Seven rings, seven… s… seven stars… eleven… the Wraith! Oh, oh, no!"
Rodney thought that the voice was coming from up in the Control Room. It was very soft, but he could make out every word in the stifling, silent void. He took a deep and steadying breath to try and calm his acute fear and muttered, "Get a grip, McKay."
The voice stopped and then suddenly started to speak more loudly, "Who's there? Is th-that you? How did you find me? Why do you always find me in this place? Can't you leave me alone?"
Rodney felt a liquid chill of terror slip down his spine at the speech and the hopeless fear he could hear in the voice. He steeled his nerves and walked away from the wall. He turned his head quickly and kept looking all around the Gate Room to make sure nothing blindsided him as he went up the stairs.
There were a couple of Gate Technicians playing an eternal game of cards with their feet resting on the control panels, but he ignored them.
He soon found the source of the voice and crouched down next to a man huddled against the back wall in the Control Room. He had his knees drawn up and was rocking slightly against them with his head down. He was dressed all in white and Rodney did not miss the significance of the bright band of gold metal around the man's neck.
Rodney narrowed his eyes and asked, "Were you the one dashing around the Gate Room a minute ago, scaring me half to death?"
The man lifted his head and gazed at Rodney. McKay nearly fell over backwards in fright at the haunted face peering at him. He shivered as the man continued to stare at him, making Rodney feel deeply uneasy, like the man was burrowing into his mind with his expressionless eyes.
"I'm Dr Rodney McKay. Who are you?"
The man regarded him continuously and Rodney felt his anger level building. He reached forwards and shook the man's shoulder firmly. "Who are you?"
The man quickly lunged at Rodney and grabbed the front of his scrubs in a surprisingly strong and firm grip. He stood up and lifted Rodney with him. He spun them both around and forced McKay against the wall he had just been leaning on himself.
Rodney cried out in fright at the hands clawed around the material over his chest as they pushed him up to the wall. He struggled as the man pinning him just looked on impassively. He muttered, "Seven… the seventh ring. Stars."
Rodney's breathing hitched in panicked gasps and he said angrily, "What the hell's that supposed to mean?"
The man merely mumbled, "Wraith," and then released his grip on Rodney. He let his hands drop down to his sides as he stared at McKay.
Rodney straightened out his ruffled shirt and rubbed his hands on his chest, checking for damage. He did not find any, but the man had put the wind up him.
Rodney frowned in confusion and asked, "What happened here? Why is everyone frozen?" He waved a hand up to indicate the metal band around the man's neck and then at the one he also had. "What are they? What do they do? Can they be removed?"
The man's eyes bored unblinkingly into Rodney's and McKay soon had to look away from the searching gaze.
Suddenly the man's face altered from its neutral expression into one of fear. He turned on the spot and looked across the Control Room towards the top of the stairs. He cried, "He's found me again! Oh, no! He's coming! He'll find us… get away from me."
Rodney followed the man's gaze, but could not see anything or anyone with them.
The man suddenly rounded on McKay and jabbed a finger into his chest, "It's you… You brought him here didn't you?"
Rodney grimaced and turned sideways to shuffle away from the man. His heart was pounding rapidly against his ribcage and he wondered whether he was going to have a heart attack. The man followed him as he walked backwards across the Control Room with his palms up in surrender. He began to feel a little light headed and his vision clouded over briefly as the room swayed around him. He shook his head to clear it
Rodney stammered, "I… I don't know what… you're talking… about. Wh-who is 'he?'"
The man suddenly stopped walking and blinked slowly at Rodney. He pointed a finger at Rodney's chest and mumbled, "Blood."
Rodney grimaced and looked down at himself and nodded, "From my hand earlier." As he tilted his head down, a drop of dark red liquid fell and landed on his chest. He frowned.
The man muttered again, "Blood."
Rodney looked up and his eyes widened as he watched a trail of red pour from the man's nose and splatter down his white clothes. Rodney felt something tickling his chin and reached up a shaking hand to brush it away. When he glanced down blearily at his fingers, they were shiny with blood.
He opened his mouth and uttered a soft, "Oh," before his eyes slid shut and he collapsed heavily onto the ground.
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TBC