Sorry it took so long to post this chapter. Had 3 major essays to write. Enjoy! (only one chapter left)

Chapter 3

The native kept yelling something at Jack and practically screamed in frustration when Jack just gave him a blank look. Had Jack been able to understand him, he would know that SG-1 had trespassed on sacred ground. The elders of their village council wanted to know where they came from and why. Jack's captor was only too happy to volunteer for the job on a day when everyone would be at the festival. Truthfully, he enjoyed inflicting pain on others; when this opportunity presented itself to him he jumped at the chance to take Jack.

Jack let out a hiss of pain as yet another blow was inflicted on him by the same man. He didn't know how much more of this he could take. Then, suddenly, the man turned around towards the door. There seemed to be a lot of noise coming from outside in the hallway. As his tormentor reached the door, he was flung back quickly by a zat blast. A second later Daniel and Sam came running in.

"Jack!" Sam yelled.

"Are you alright?" Daniel asked.

"Oh yeah, just peachy," Jack said trying to sit up and failing.

"Right, sorry" Daniel apologized, "stupid question."

"Where's Teal'c?" Jack gasped. It was getting harder and harder to breathe.

"He's outside guarding the door," Sam said as Daniel yelled for Teal'c to come in.

Just as Teal'c was making his way into the room, Jack lost his battle to stay conscious. He collapsed, finally allowing the pain to take over. Sam, Daniel, and Teal'c noticed this, but they knew that they had to get him back thorough the gate. In one fluid motion Teal'c swept Jack over his shoulder and made his way out of the room with Sam taking point and Daniel bringing up the rear.

When they reached the hallway, they looked to the right and saw that it was a dead end. They had to go back the way came. Unfortunately all the tracks made by their shoes had vanished and they had to find their way out. As they were running down the corridor, Jack's breathing was becoming more haggard; he was practically wheezing. So all of them quickened their speed and kept their eyes open for any natives. The place was a labyrinth, hallways split in every different direction and ended suddenly just as you turned into them. The passageways were narrow and it would have been easy for anyone of them to turn down a different corridor if they didn't follow each other closely. Then just as they rounded another corner they ran straight into a very tall, thin native who happened to be walking in their direction. His eyes widened when he saw them and he took off in the opposite direction, shouting something to his fellow natives.

"Well," Daniel said, "this isn't good."

"Well we can't turn back now," Sam hurriedly said, "it's a dead end back there. Let's just keep going down this passage and only turn when we have to. Hopefully we'll find an exit."

Teal'c nodded his head in agreement and they continued to make their way at an even faster pace then before down the narrow hallway. Finally they reached the end of yet another corridor and had to decide which way to turn. They had no way of knowing which way the man they had run into previously had turned and they only had this one chance.

"Which way do we go?" asked Daniel

"Your guess is as good as mine," Sam said.

"Well we came from the left before, so I say we go right this time." Daniel suggested.

So they turned right and kept running, hoping they didn't run into anyone. After a few minutes of running they saw a light up ahead and hoped that it was the exit. As they got closer to it they saw shadows passing and stopped dead in their tracks. The shadows were getting closer. When they regained their composure, the shadows were practically on top of them. But when they looked around they didn't see anyone. Then Teal'c looked down and found the culprit. He gestured for Sam and Daniel to look and when they saw it they both let out a sigh of relief. Their pursuer was nothing more than an animal that looked something like a small fox.

Crisis averted, they took off running and finally made it out of the labyrinth. They took off running, hopefully running away from their pursuers.

Finally after a few miles, they stopped for a few minutes to rest.

"Okay," Daniel gasped, "from what I could make out, the building we were in was the main complex. When we ran out, we went to the west of a statue that towers over the building. That's the direction of the stargate. We just need to keep going this way."

"Seriously?" was all Sam said as she and Teal'c stared at Daniel.

"Well, we seemed to be the only chosen topic of conversation of our guards." Daniel said exasperated.

"Alright, let's keep going then. We need to get Colonel O'Neill back as soon as possible," Sam said looking at Jack as his breathing worsened. Teal'c and Daniel nodded and they took off, with any luck, in the accurate direction towards the gate.

(Days later in the Infirmary)

The events after this were a haze to Jack. He fell in and out of consciousness. He remembered Teal'c helping to carry him out of the room and then through the gate. How they actually reached the gate, he couldn't recall. The next thing he knew he was waking up in the infirmary surrounded by machines. Jack finally opened his eyes, looked around, and noticed Sam asleep in the chair next to his bed. He tried to sit up, but gasped in pain and fell back down. One of his many machines seemed to go into overdrive when he tried to sit up and it woke Sam. As soon as it began, it was quite again.

"Sir," Sam said quietly, "you're awake. How are you feeling?"

"Like I was just hit by a bus," Jack replied.

"Right…um I'll go and let Janet know you're awake." Sam said as she began to get up.

"Carter, wait," Jack called, "what happened back there?"

"Well after you passed out Teal'c helped to carry you back to the gate."

"Yeah," Jack interrupted, "about the gate. How did you find out where it was?"

"After the guards took you I asked Daniel if he'd figured out how to talk to them yet. He said that he'd figured out enough to understand them on a very basic level. So when they started talking about us, Daniel caught the information on the general direction of the gate. After that we just followed the plan," Sam explained.

"Your plan Carter?" Jack asked mockingly with a grin.

"Yes sir, my plan," Sam said with a small smile. "Anyways, after Daniel had figured out the direction of the gate, we went over the plan and Daniel and Teal'c both agreed to it. So they faked a fight and when the guards came to break it up, I came up from behind them and we were able to knock them out. We took their weapons and followed their tracks to your room."

"Wait, how did you follow our tracks?" Jack asked.

"Easy, the floors were dirt and there was only one path that had tracks going both ways. It was a pretty simple deduction that they'd taken you that way. And that led us to a series of rooms, one of which you were in," Sam explained.

"Well," Jack asked again, "how did you get to me undetected?"

"That was the weird part. There were virtually no guards stationed anywhere, except for our cell and the room they had you in. And when we made it outside, there wasn't anyone there either. It was as if everyone had just vanished. But Daniel speculated there was a village farther away. We just all agreed." Sam explained.

"So that's why it was so easy," Jack said, "enough guards to overpower us and make us think everyone was there, but small enough that you guys were able to escape…sneaky." Jack said playfully.

"Yeah," Sam said, "After we reached the gate, we were only worried about you. When we got back to the SGC, Janet was there waiting. When they cut off your shirt to get a look at the extent of your injuries…" Sam paused and took a breath, "well, they were just … they were just worse than we expected." Sam shuddered out.

Sam went quiet for a minute as she recalled the sight of Jack's chest when they cut off his shirt. It was covered in burns, bruises, and cuts. And it was easy to see, just from looking, that he had quite a few broken ribs. He had crashed once on the way to the infirmary, and Janet would not give up on him. It was hard for Sam to see, to take it all in after exiting the gate not five minutes before.

She was brought back by the feeling of Jack's hand on hers, running soothing circles on her hand.

"Hey," Jack said quietly, "I'm here."

"Yeah, you are," Sam whispered back. "I'm uh… I'm going to let Janet know you're awake." Sam got up quickly and was gone in seconds.

Jack sighed as he pulled his hand back. He hurt everywhere and even that simple gesture caused a surge of pain to shoot up his arm. But he didn't want to worry Sam any more than she already seemed to be. Just the few sentences he had said to Sam had taken a lot of energy out of him and Jack found his eyes getting heavy again. He closed them and once again found himself fading into nothingness.