Chapter Two: Awakening

Pit, Pat, Pit, Pat…

She came to awareness just as something cold and wet hit her cheek causing her to flinch. She cracked an eye open and shut it letting out a groan when a bright light was the first thing to see. Slowly she opened her eyes letting them adjust a bit at a time. When they were fully opened she waited for all of the washes of colour to come into focus. Looking around she saw she was in a forest at the bottom of a hill. She couldn't remember how she came to be in this situation, but she knew she had to get away. Her primary concern though was if she had any injuries.

She began with wiggling her fingers. The fingers in her right hand responded with no problems. She then tried the left and began to panic when nothing happened. Looking down she saw her entire arm laying in an unnatural way. She didn't need a doctor to tell her it was dislocated. She wiggled her toes and felt little pain. She guessed a result from the fall. Groaning in frustration she thought things couldn't get much worse. Apparently she was wrong as she attempted to push herself up into a sitting position. Pain in her right side made itself known and all she wanted to do was cry.

After a second of self pity she looked down at her dislocated shoulder. She had to immobilize it somehow before she even thought about walking. She looked around for anything to use and then looked at her waist especially her belt. She pulled her belt off and attached it back together making it as wide as possible. She then placed her arm in the loop and then her head. When she sat up straight, it held her arm securely and she was pretty impressed with her ingenuity. She felt like a regular Macgyver and chuckled at the thought.

Now it was time for her to get up and out of this place. She had no idea where she was. Everything was foreign to her. She looked up the hill and knew it was next to impossible to climb in her condition. She turned away from the hill to more even ground and began her journey to safety.

After what seemed like forever, she sat down on a large tree root for a break. She wiped water off her face from the rain which started a while ago and drenched her almost immediately. She shivered at her cold wet clothes clinging to her skin. Feeling a little rested, she stood up from the root and continued her trek through the forest.

Suddenly there was a rustling sound from behind. She stopped and turned around, but all she could see was trees and bushes. Hoping her luck finally turned and it was a person hiking in the forest she called "Hello?" The only sound that greeted her was the occasional bird chirping in the distance. "If anyone's out there, I'm lost and I could sure use some help."

Her answer was a sudden low hiss and a strange pale figure appeared from behind a tree. It was dressed in a dark blue trench coat and it had the whitest hair she's ever seen. There was a black tattoo over one of its bright yellow reptilian eyes. She stood there frozen in place as the thing bared its ugly sharp teeth and lifted up a large weapon that looked like a cross between a rifle and a bazooka with a blade of some sort sticking out of the other end.

It grinned like a hunter would at its prey, sending chills down her spine, and fired its weapon. Her eyes grew wide at the projectile flying towards her because it wasn't a bullet but a large glowing blue energy ball instead. She recovered from her shock in time to dodge the energy, missing most of it. The energy grazed her left leg, leaving it completely numb. Not even bothering to wonder why it was numb, she started running through the forest away from the creature.

It felt to her like she had been running for an eternity, but she couldn't look back. She just had to keep going. All she heard was the rustling of leaves and twigs snapping in her wake. She was beginning to tire and knew that she didn't have much energy to keep going at the pace she was currently doing. Her breath was coming out in rasps as her side protested to the abuse.

Just when she was about to stop the forest ended and there was a large open field which ran for miles. She saw black smoke not too far away and ran in that direction praying that it was someone friendly. Halfway to the smoke, the sky darkened even more and flashes of lighting and the clapping of thunder started. As much as thunderstorms terrified her, she kept on running. She was coming up to a steep hill and could tell that the smoke had to be on the other side. She climbed up it falling in the slippery mud, but never slowing her pace. When she made it to the top, she saw the origin of the smoke.

There was a village sitting at the bottom of the hill. It would have been very quaint if it weren't for the half charred remains of thatch houses. Quickly she entered the village looking for any signs of life. There was nothing except the storm overhead. When she entered what she assumed was the village square she stopped to see a great stone ring sitting upright on a stone platform with steps leading up from the ground. There was also a large round device with a large orb in the middle and strange symbols encircling it off to the right, away from the centre of the stone ring.

Staring at the ring in awe she suddenly remembered the purpose of why she entered the village. Bolting to one of the thatch houses that appeared to be more intact, she entered a charred room to look for a hiding place. Her vision darted around the room at the burnt and broken furniture strewn about and then it fell upon a half collapsed bed against the wall. She crawled under the bed tucking her body as close to the darkened corner as possible and waited.

Not a few seconds later she heard heavy footsteps clunking into the room. She watched through a small crack in the bed at the mud covered boots circling the room as the creature searched for her. The boots turned towards her hiding spot and she accidentally let out a tiny gasp. She covered her mouth with her hand and began to shake as the boots stopped at the bed. She heard a strange sound. It sounded like it was trying to smell her like an animal predator on the hunt. It stalked around the room some more until it stopped again in front of her hiding spot.

She managed to find a better view and watched as it turn away from her and reach its hand in a primitive closet, pulling out a child and a woman. The child screamed as the woman begged the creature to spare the child's life. The creature bared its ugly teeth at her and pushed her up against the wall. It lifted its hand and slammed her in the chest with it.

She watched in horror as the woman began to age at an accelerated rate, until she was nothing more than a dried out husk. The creature released its hold on the woman's body and it dropped to the floor beside the bed, its hollow eyes staring at her under the bed. She heard the child scream for the woman and she covered her ears to shut out the sound.

The creature dragged the child from the house and into the square. Suddenly there was a loud roar followed by a strange buzzing coming from the outside. Then there was a loud a deafening loud whoosh. The buzzing got louder and then there were a couple of splashing sounds and the buzzing disappeared. There another loud whoosh and all was silent.

She just lay against the wall under the bed curled up in a ball shaking uncontrollably staring at the shell which once was a living breathing woman. She closed her eyes and wished with all of her will that this was all a horrible dream. When she opened them the husk was still there and she was still under the bed. Crossing her good arm across her chest to keep warm, her body screamed for sleep, but she couldn't. All she did was stare back at the hollow eyes wishing to disappear.

She didn't know how many days she stayed there staring. She only knew something terrible was going to happen when she heard the now familiar loud whoosh erupt from outside. She waited for the horrible buzzing sound to begin, but nothing happened. The whoosh happened again and there was silence. No, there were voices this time and not like the inhuman roaring. They were normal calm voices and they were talking in English.

Not wanting to take any chances she crawled out from under the bed. She slowly stood up, already beginning to sweat from the exertion on her various injuries. She crept through the house as quietly as she could and stumbled into a table with a large ceramic bowl, sending the bowl crashing to the ground.

"What was that?" asked a man's voice sounding slightly panicked.

"Probably a squirrel." answered another man, his voice laced with sarcasm.

"What's a squirrel?" asked a man with a deeper voice.

"McKay will explain it to you." answered Mr. Sarcastic. "Teyla and I'll check it out while you two look for any survivors."

She heard footsteps coming towards her and started to panicked. Her eyes darted around the room for anything to defend herself with and found a broken chair leg. She placed it in her somewhat good hand satisfied that it could be used as a club and pressed herself against the wall beside the door raising the club, hoping she had enough strength to incapacitate him. She saw the muzzle of a gun enter and then the owner came in. He was a handsome man with dark messy hair and wearing a dark grey outfit with a black vest and a sidearm holstered on his leg.

Feeling slightly guilty at what she had to do to him, she squeezed her eyes shut as she swung the club hitting him on the side of the head. He grunted and fell to the floor still conscious, but she was sure he wouldn't be saying coherent sentences anytime soon.

Dropping the club she ran out of the house as fast as a she could in her condition, which wasn't very, and ran straight into a woman with sun kissed skin and coppery coloured hair pulled back in a ponytail. They collided and the woman fell to the ground hard on her back losing her gun.

She tried not to cry as her side screamed and kept on running hoping she didn't bump into the other two. Unfortunately she was wrong. Two men burst out from behind a house pointing guns at her. The taller of the two wore different clothing from the rest of the group and had dark brown dreadlocks and goatee. He held out his handgun which was similar to the other man's, but it had a longer barrel and it seemed almost alien in design.

The shorter man with short brown hair had his handgun pointed at her, but he seemed more nervous holding the weapon unlike his companions. His bright blue eyes watched her every move as she quickly looked about for an exit. She saw a small alleyway between two houses to her right and bolted. She heard a gun fire and a red energy similar looking to the pale creature's weapon connected with her left shoulder, throwing her to the ground. She clutched it and scrambled to her feet, her need for survival the only thing keeping her from collapsing.

She skidded to a halt halfway down the alleyway as she stared at a seven foot high fence blocking her escape route. She turned back to see the two men about fifty feet away approaching rapidly. She jumped up, trying to grab the top of the fence. Her body couldn't do her bidding no matter how hard she tried.

Just when her right hand got a hold on the top of the fence, a large hand grabbed the back of her shirt and pulled her down to the ground. She tried to stand up, but the same hand encircled her throat, standing her up and slamming her against the wall. Through her tear filled eyes she saw the tall man snarling at her. Her entire body shook in fear as she struggled weakly against the strong hand. "Please don't hurt me." she pleaded as her tears flowed freely down her face.

"Why shouldn't I?" he growled.

"Be…because…"

"You attacked us first." he interrupted.

"I…I'm sorry. I th…thought you were g…going…to hurt m…me" she sobbed.

His face softened as he watched her break down into sobs. "Well we're not." he said and eased his grip on her throat, slowly lowered her back to the ground.

She sunk to the ground crying uncontrollably as the adrenaline faded away leaving nothing but exhaustion and pain. The other man finally caught up with them, panting and wheezing. "Oh good…you…caught her." he said between breaths. He then clicked something on his vest. "Teyla? How's the colonel?"

"He is disoriented, but will be fine when we return to Atlantis and sees Dr. Beckett" answered a female's voice.

"Mmm… fine" grunted a man's voice.

She looked up as the man smiled and nodded. The taller one smiled as well and shook his head. The shorter man continued "We have the girl. We'll meet you at the gate." He then bent down to look at her. "Are you okay?" he asked while reaching out with his hand. She shrank back against the wall, still fearful of the strangers. The man pulled his hand back. "I'm not going to hurt you. I just want to see if you're injured." She shook her head not saying a word unsure if her voice still worked. The man sighed. "How about we take you back to our home? We have a doctor there who can check you out." She locked eyes with his blue ones and a sudden feeling of comfort and security washed over her. She nodded and he grinned. Using the wall as support, she stood up feeling light headed. Her legs buckled and ground unexpectedly came rushing towards her. She squeezed her eyes shut waiting to make contact, but two pairs of hands grabbed her.

"Thanks" she said. Her voice was barely above a whisper.

"You're welcome." said the taller man. The blue eyed man took her right arm and slung it over his shoulders, taking most of her weight. The other man walked behind then keeping an eye on her and if possible glancing around at the surroundings like a guard.

When they entered the square, the two men led her to the large stone ring where the other two were waiting. The man, the colonel she guessed, was sitting on the steps holding on to the side of his head where her club connected. A few feet away from him the woman, Teyla, was standing at the strange device pushing down some of the symbols, which lit up. The ring seemed to come to life as it lit up. Then there was the all too familiar whoosh and a large wave exploded from the middle. It collapsed back to the centre leaving rippling water in the centre.

A surge of energy emerged from her and she fought against the man when she saw the ring become active. "No! They'll come back!" she yelled.

The man struggled, trying to keep her from falling and hurting herself further. "Who?" he asked.

"The creatures!" she screamed.

"It's okay. They can't come through, you're safe." he said trying to calm her down as best he could.

"No!" she said. Suddenly everything around her became fuzzy. She looked at the man and the last thing she remembered were his caring bright blue eyes staring at her as she succumbed to darkness.

(TBC)