Part 2 – The Cave-in

Finally the Tower had been evacuated and its inhabitants were meeting the last groups of refugees leaving the village. The villagers were having a hard time calming their animals. Sheppard caught up to Teyla who was carrying a little boy to his waiting father.

Teyla nodded as she passed to boy, "Go, quickly now, your wife and daughter await you at the Ring."

The father hugged his newly returned son, "Thank you."

Teyla turned back around and saw Sheppard. "The evacuation is going well. These are the families who care for the animals, they are the last to leave."

"Good. How much longer?" Sheppard nodded to his teammate and waved the nobles on.

"Not long, they are very organized. It would appear that years of trying to hide from the gaze of the Tower have prepared them for this type of emergency. And the others?" Teyla observed the nobility was loath to help the villagers.

"Well, it's like dealing with a bunch of little kids actually. They're complaining about everything but they're here." Sheppard saw Mara pick up a baby lamb, put it into the arms of one of her reluctant companions and point in the direction of the Gate. "What about Ronan?

Teyla smiled at the look on the face of the man who now held the lamb. "He is making sure everyone gets through. We dialed Rekalia, it is a planet I have visited recently and there is a large open field they can wait in until we return for them. And I have instructed him to warn Atlantis of our situation and to ask Dr. Beckett to join us soon in the event that Dr. McKay is injured."

Sheppard became very sober at the mention of his missing friend. "Have you heard anything from him since our last contact?"

Teyla looked down as they walked in the direction of the valley now that the others were all headed to the Gate. "No, I have not. I am concerned."

Sheppard looked concerned also as they headed into the tree line above the valley where Baldric had taken McKay. "Yeah, me too."

Underground the city groaned and whined under the pressure. The emergency lighting was very faint now. The ray from Rodney's flashlight was the main source of illumination in the room. The air was thick with dust and it was obvious that another collapse had occurred.

Baldric woke first, choking due to his painfully dry throat. He coughed several times and looked around. He saw the flashlight beam and tried to move. He hissed and leaned back again. His right arm was trapped under debris.

"Dr. McKay?" Nothing. "Dr. McKay, can you hear me? You must wake up!" He tried to lean up to see if there was any movement around the light but the pain in his arm quickly made him fall back. Finally he heard a groan. "Dr. McKay! Are you alright?"

Rodney groaned again and snarked without even opening his eyes, "I was unconscious after a cave-in, my head is pounding, I'm trapped underground, and an earthquake is about to destroy this valley any time now. So NO, I'm not ok."

Rodney winced as the sound of his own voice caused his head to hurt even more. He opened his eyes taking in the collapsed room around him. He saw the flashlight not far away and reached for it but something held him back. He tried again but was still unable to move.

Panic gripped him instantly as he realized he was trapped under something. "I… I … OWWW…. I can't move."

"Nor can I. My arm is pinned under something. Are you in pain?"

Rodney rolled his eyes, these people weren't terribly smart. "I would have though the OWWW would have given that away."

The ground began to shake again and dirt started raining down through the hole they had made with the drone. Rodney could no longer see any light from the opening. He and Baldric braced themselves against the shaking.

"Is it starting already?" Baldric yelled to Rodney.

"No, I don't think so." Rodney managed to pull his tablet out from underneath himself and looked at the seismic readings. "No, it's just a foreshock. The big one is still eighteen minutes away." He looked over to the hole again. "But we may have a problem if that shaft is filling up with dirt."

Rodney reached for his ear to key his radio, "Teyla? Teyla? Can you still hear me?"

Teyla and Sheppard had nearly made it to valley. They were making good time now that they were on their own.

Ronan's voice sounded in his ear, "Sheppard, the evacuation is complete. Everyone is through the Gate. I'm waiting for Dr. Beckett and we'll be heading to the valley to meet you."

Sheppard keyed his radio, "Good, Ronan. Get here as soon as possible. If Rodney has been trapped beneath the city we'll need as much help as possible."

They reached the top of ridge looking down into the valley. It was vast and deep. "Do we know where he is down there?" Sheppard asked as he shielded his eyes from the sun.

"One of the villagers instructed me to follow these stone markers down and we will find the opening they would have used to gain access." Teyla walked over to a marker which appeared to be a boulder with several smaller stones stacked on top. It was off to the side of the trail. As they looked ahead, they could see another one several meters down the grassy slope.

"Great, follow the yellow brick road." Sheppard smiled and started carefully down.

"Yellow brick? I do not understand." Teyla questioned as she followed him.

"Or grey, in this case, but same difference. Careful." He looked back and helped her around a rather large stump and saw the confusion in her eyes.

"It's another one of those movie references that we use a lot. The yellow brick road was from 'The Wizard of Oz'. Great movie, saw it in grade 4 and loved the flying monkeys."

Teyla raised an eyebrow, "Flying monkeys?"

"Oh yeah, they were nasty, but the idea was cool. You know I think you'd like it. The Wicked Witch was definitely a Wraith-type character. I'll get the Dadealus to bring the DVD back on its next trip."

Sheppard and Teyla were suddenly thrown against the slope as the ground shook again. Teyla slid down a bit but Sheppard managed to snag her as he grabbed a nearby stump.

When the shaking stopped they looked at each other. All traces of levity disappeared as they were reminded of the seriousness of the situation and how much danger Rodney was in below ground.

Teyla quickly righted herself and held out a hand to Sheppard. "We must hurry."

Sheppard just nodded and they started down the path again using much less caution then before. "Yeah."

"Teyla? Teyla? Can you still hear me?"

They both stopped suddenly and Sheppard hit his radio. "RODNEY!"

Rodney looked up from the tablet and smiled at hearing his friend's voice. "Sheppard! Oh good, you're out of the tower."

"What do you mean?"

"Like I told you before, the city is on emergency power and that's fading fast. The structural integrity field is weakening. The internal status indicators show that the Tower support frame just buckled."

Teyla and Sheppard both looked up but were too far below to see it now. "Rodney, are you hurt?"

Rodney tried to move into a more comfortable position but winced. He didn't feel any pain but the pressure of whatever was holding him down certainly wasn't comfortable. Rodney was about to speak again when the room groaned loudly again and more dirt started falling.

"Baldric is. He can't move his arm. We're both pinned down in the control room and the shaft I made with a drone seems to be buried because I can't see any daylight now."

Sheppard took in the information as he and Teyla continued down the slope. "Ask your friend there how far from the stone path that opening is that you used to get down there."

Rodney shook his head and winced at the sparks it caused in his vision. "No, it won't do you any good. Baldric and I have both been back there to check, there's no way in. The ground up there was already unstable when we entered. It's too risky to come that way."

Sheppard was getting increasingly uneasy now. Rodney hadn't complained once, so far, he was worried about the villager with him and still hadn't answered the question of whether he was hurt.

"Then how far from the stone path is the shaft you made?"

Rodney looked over at the flashlight and tried to reach for it again. He must have shifted slightly because he now managed to reach the edge of it. He pulled at the side of it until it turned enough for him to get a weak grip on it. He pulled it back to him and had to stop to breathe, surprised at how much that had taken out of him. He leaned back and then shone the light in the direction he had heard Baldrics voice coming from.

"Sheppard wants to know how far you think the shaft we made is from the stone path we took down here."

Baldric looked down for a moment and stopped trying to dig himself out. "I would think it is about as far to the east of original opening as it is from the path."

Rodney shuddered. It had taken them nearly ten minutes to get to the first opening and now they were further away. Which made sense, of course, they had walked for a while in the city corridors before getting here.

"It's about fifteen to twenty minutes due east of the end of the path. You'll see a stone, kinda like a well opening and then another few meters past that." McKay panned the light around the room taking in the damage. He was right, there was no further light coming in from the shaft, but it couldn't be completely blocked because he was still able to communicate.

The radio came to life again with Ronan's deep voice, "Sheppard, Major Lorne is preparing a rescue team aboard a jumper now. Dr. Beckett will join then with his equipment. I am heading out now. What is your location?"

Sheppard tapped his radio, "Not really sure, we haven't been paying attention to direction. Tell Beckett to use the life signs detector to find us."

"Dr. McKay, are you both safe for the moment?" Teyla asked.

When he panned the light back across the room Rodney noticed a flash off the floor just in front of him and looked more closely. The light was reflecting off liquid and McKay was momentarily confused what it might be. It took his concussed brain a few seconds to realize that he couldn't feel his legs and suddenly realized what the liquid was.

"Oh no," McKay whispered with a great deal of fear in his voice.

The slight whisper made Sheppard's, Teyla's and Ronan's blood all run cold. Sheppard hit his radio again, "Rodney? Rodney! What's wrong?"

Rodney was mesmerized at the sight of the dark liquid but he managed to whisper an answer, "It's blood."

All three of his friends took off at a dead run for their destinations.

End Part 2

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