Author's Note: Relatively on time:) Haha. I don't want to be redundant, butgore-ish scenes abound in these next few chapters. Consider yourself warned.

Next Update: Sometime on or before Tuesday, August 22nd.

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The Last To Fall

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Elizabeth felt the sunlight warming her face as she awoke, and she mentally sighed, refusing to open her eyes to another day of pain and suffering and memories better left repressed. Perhaps she could speak to the Opalian leader and see if there was something they could do to pass the time. She knew many, like herself, would do better when they were doing something instead of wallowing in their grief for the better part of the day. At the very least, it couldn't hurt.

If she worked hard enough, then maybe the fatigue would eventually overwhelm her guilt and allow her even an hour of peace.

Her mind was already up and running. There was no point in attempting to fall back asleep. When she set her hands on her pillow to help push her to a sitting position, she realized that it wasn't a pillow her head was resting upon. With a jolt, Elizabeth sat up, her eyes flashing open. She realized quickly that her pillow for the night had been Rodney's stomach. Slowly, little odds and ends that didn't match up filtered into her mind. She hadn't remembered seeing Rodney during the night. And why were they lying on the floor? Elizabeth's eyes slid just past Rodney, and she saw John lying beyond them.

Her heart leapt into her throat. There was a small puddle of blood by his abdomen, the side of which sported a small wound. She was no military expert, but she knew what a gunshot wound looked like. Still, he was breathing steadily.

Something was wrong. Terribly, terribly wrong. Elizabeth realized that they were in the center of the village, their bodies lying around a crude Opalian monument. With a quick glance back toward John, she confirmed that Teyla was with them, too.

But something else caught her eye. Slowly, she raised her head and looked outward. Coldness enveloped every inch of her body, freezing her. Her heart stopped and her stomach dropped unpleasantly. Bile rose to her throat as tears filled her eyes. Slowly, as if in a trance, she stood, looking around the camp.

Rodney, awoken by her earlier movement, stirred, slowly sitting up. A post-sleep haze covered his eyes when he opened them.

"Rodney…?" Elizabeth whispered softly, her voice breaking.

And then she fell, her body collapsing onto the muddy ground. It was in the fleeting moment before she fainted when she realized that it wasn't mud that covered the ground.

It was blood.

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Rodney yawned as he sat up; blinking his eyes a few times to get used to the blinding light. He swore he had heard Elizabeth call his name. When his eyes finally adjusted to the sunlight, he saw Elizabeth lying on the ground a few feet ahead of him, eyes closed. Worry shot through him, overwhelming his initial confusion of where he was, and he stood to go over to her, but his anxiousness was quickly overcome by a much stronger emotion when he saw what had been laid beyond her.

Corpses.

The world swam around him.

The bodies ran in a wide circle around the monument, sprawled on the floor, slumped against the canvases of tents… Faces frozen in fear gazed up at the cloudless sky, their dried blood dark against their pale faces. Some were wearing Opalian attire, but most were clothed in the uniforms of the Atlantis expedition.

Rodney felt his body trembling beneath him. His eyes, wide with terror and disbelief, darted back and forth, taking in the gruesome scene. Denial and shock were slowly leaving him with nothing but the horrific facts to deal with.

Julie… Marcus… He mentally named the battered bodies one by one, his breathing shallow. His eyes settled just ahead of him, and with a jolt he remembered why he had awakened. With a speed he never knew he was capable of, he rushed to Elizabeth's side. His fingers shook as he placed them on her neck, praying that she was alive. A surge of relief flooded through him when he felt a steady pulse beneath his fingertips, but it only lasted in the instant when Rodney forgot about the tens of people lying dead around them.

Panic gripped him, and he forced himself to stand, eyes searching for anyone else left alive. He spotted Teyla and John lying near the monument where he had been, chests moving in an obvious sign of life.

Radek.

The name of his best friend reverberated through his mind, and Rodney felt fear shoot through him at the prospect of life without him. Rodney began a desperate search, running through the camp, clambering over corpses, hoping and praying that when he found Radek, it wouldn't be his corpse, but a body, full of life.

Rodney was on the outskirts of the camp when he peered into an open tent and saw another body lying face-down inside. Whoever it was, they were dead. Fear still steady within him, he walked into the room and gently turned the corpse over. They'd been burnt beyond recognition, clothes hanging in tatters from the black, singed skin. Rodney swallowed the bile building in his throat and stood, looking around the room for something that would tell him whose corpse this was. He moved to the makeshift desk, and froze. A pair of glasses were lying on top of a folded jacket. Slowly, Rodney picked up the glasses and unfolded the jacket, looking for the label, hoping that it would disprove what he'd already concluded in his mind; his worst nightmare.

Dr. Radek Zelenka.

Rodney ran his thumb over the letters for a long moment before looking back at the burnt corpse. He took a few shaky steps, then collapsed to his knees and wept beside the lifeless body of his best friend.

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