McKay promptantly swore. According to his scans there were enough wraith ships around the planet to definitely say that it was a wraith planet, and there was a group of eight life signs, big enough to be wraith, coming towards them.
"What is it?" questioned Sheppard.
McKay moved the screen of his laptop so that Sheppard could see it. He then pointed to the blue blobs that were different types of wraith ships.
"See these? There are wraith ships. The smaller blue blobs are darts, the middle sized ones are cruisers and the really big ones are hives.," McKay explained. "And that's not all," McKay did something to his laptop and the picture changed, it was now showing life signs in the area. "Theses are the life signs in the area, colonel, and eight of them are big enough to be wraith."
"Damn! How far away are the wraith?" Sheppard wanted to know.
McKay lowered his voice, 'They're in the bushes ,just on the other side of the Stargate, about to appear any moment."
"Crap," Sheppard swore. "Okay, what we're gonna do is; stay as quiet as possible and don't shoot unless they see us, we really don't need to alert them to our presence here, particularly with all those ships about, and if they do find us, whatever you do, don't run in the same direction that Teyla and Ronon went in, the last thing we need is all four of us caught unnecessarily."
"I know that," snapped McKay. "And if we continue talking, they're gonna find us in a second, so for once in your life, do what I say, and shut up."
For once Sheppard did decide to shut up when McKay told him to. They both watched as the wraith walked out of the bushes and to the DHD for the gate. McKay shuffled slightly and Sheppard sent him an annoyed look. McKay didn't return the look, he was trying not to sneeze because a leaf was tickling him on the nose. A wraith dialled the first symbol, McKay gritted his teeth. The wraith then dialled the second, third, fourth, fifth and… McKay sneezed.
All the wraith turned to the bushes and raised their stunners.
Sheppard silently aimed his P90, glaring at McKay.
Well pardon me for sneezing, thought McKay crossly, raising his P90.
Three wraith came over to find out what the noise had been. They came closer, and closer, and they were just about to see them when Sheppard fired, knocking down one of the wraith. McKay followed his lead.
All the wraith turned and fired stun blasts at the both of them.
One wraith managed to get hold of McKay and throw him out of the bushes and into the DHD. Another wraith advanced on him and went down with ten bullets in its back. Unfortunately, Sheppard had also hit the DHD. McKay dived behind the broken DHD, his head spinning and narrowly avoided being stunned.
Sheppard signalled for McKay to head to the bushes to the right side of the gate rather than trying to get back to him, as he did this a wraith came up behind him and hurled him into a bush. Sheppard open fired at it. McKay scrambled backwards into the bushes and ran for it, seeing Sheppard do the same. More wraith had arrived at the Stargate.
They split in half, some after McKay, the other half after Sheppard. Three wraith stayed at the Stargate, one pressed a symbol, intending to redial the gate. Nothing happened, the symbol didn't even light up on the DHD. The wraith followed their friends after McKay.
McKay was puffing and panting, crashing through the undergrowth, paying no attention to where he was going, intent only on avoiding wraith stun blasts.
God his head hurt where he'd smashed into the DHD.
The DHD.
Oh crap! Sheppard had shot it with his P90 while saving him from a wraith. Oh sure, McKay was happy to be alive, but now they couldn't get back to Atlantis, they were stuck on a planet with wraith hunting them.
Fantastic.
McKay dived to the side to avoid a wraith stunner and accidentally tripped over a tree root. He fell down and tumbled down a steep hill. McKay hit the bottom with a thud.
At least the wraith won't find me, he thought to himself.
Then, bruised and battered, he blacked out.
Teyla and Ronon skidded to a halt infront of the Stargate. All the ground was scuffed up on both sides of the gate.
"Colonel Sheppard? Doctor McKay?" called Teyla, searching the bushes on the left side of the gate where Sheppard and McKay were supposed to be.
"Um, Teyla? Come here for a second," requested Ronon, he was looking at the Stargate DHD.
"Yes?" Teyla replied, walking over.
"I think McKay and Sheppard got into a bit of trouble," stated Ronon, pointing to the DHD.
It had blood on it and part of it was ripped apart from machine gun fire.
Teyla's eyes widened.
"Ronon," she muttered softly. "Please try to dial Atlantis."
Ronon pressed the symbols and…
Nothing happened.
Teyla stared miserably at the inactive Stargate. They were cut off from Atlantis. They couldn't go back and they couldn't get re-enforcements. And they couldn't fix it. McKay probably could, given enough time, but McKay wasn't there. He was on the run from the wraith, or caught. Teyla and Ronon also had the problem of… which way to go? Wraith tracks went in both directions, so did the trees singed by wraith stun blasts. So which way had McKay and Sheppard gone? Or had they split up?
"What do we do now?" Ronon wanted to know.
"We either got that way, or that way," Teyla replied, pointing.
Ronon considered.
"I could go one way, you could go the other way," he suggested.
Teyla shook her head. "We must not split up. We would stand more of a chance to get away from a group of wraith if there are two of us."
"Okay, then, do we just guess?" asked Ronon.
"I am afraid we have no other option," answered Teyla with a heavy sigh.
"You do the guessing," announced Ronon.
Teyla pondered for a moment.
"We will head left from the Stargate because they would have been hiding in the bushes there and would be more likely to run in to cover, instead of out in to the open," suggested Teyla.
"Works for me," agreed Ronon.