Jack's Fangtastic Adventure – Part 3

One minute Jack was standing, albeit with a drunken kilter, then he was ass down on the ground, his wounded leg bent under him.

"Oh shit!" He writhed, his hands frantically pulling at the offending limb. "Oh shit, that hurts!"

Daniel knelt beside him. "Stay still." He carefully lifted his friend, allowing Sam to straighten the leg.

Jack slumped back against the younger man, his face even paler than before. "Don't think about cutting these trousers off, Major. They're my last pair," he muttered through barely open lips.

Sam ignored the quietly spoken words, touching a finger lightly to his leg. The light of the fire exposed the wetness where the bite was still obviously bleeding.

"We didn't get it properly bandaged before, Sam, and with all this activity…"

Sam took a second from her examination to look up at the worried man.

"I don't think that's it, Daniel. Look…" She held her figure up to the light. "…the Colonel's blood seems thinner than it should be, almost like it isn't coagulating. We need to get him back home as soon as possible."

"We're not moving before first light, Carter." The Colonel looked around at the scene beyond the firelight. "There's no telling how many more of those things there are out there. Daniel, you go pack up the gear. I want everything moved to as close to the fire as possible. Carter – you watch Daniel's back, and make sure you stay together."

"What about you, Colonel?"

"I'll be okay here until Teal'c gets back from checking the bodies. He shouldn't be too much longer."

Sam nodded, reluctantly accepting her orders.

xoxoxoxoxoxo

The first rays of pale light had just appeared in the cloudless sky when SG-1 set out. The rest of the night had been disturbed by the hyenas, as Daniel had taken to calling them, making frequent forays back into the camp. They seemed fixated on Colonel O'Neill, only Teal'c's staff weapon deterring them.

As the hours had past, the Colonel had become weaker, there being nothing they could do to prevent the steady loss of blood, until he was fighting to keep his eyes open. The bandage had finally been applied, even if it was over the top of his BDU's. At Sam's protest, Jack had pointed out that there was no point in trying to do anything more if the bleeding couldn't be stopped. Despite his frequent complaints of them taking advantage of a sick man to camp on top of the Hyenas from Hell, he eventually drifted off into a restless doze.

About an hour before dawn, Daniel had risen to throw some more wood on the fire, well aware of the eyes following his every movement from the darkness only meters away. With a quick glance at the sleeping Colonel, he sat a little closer to Sam, keeping his voice low.

"Is it just me, or does it seem that the hyenas are targeting Jack when they attack?"

"Indeed, it did seem that way." Teal'c had his back to the fire, and was standing, alert and ready for further attacks. "I have been thinking on the animals' actions. Perhaps they are attracted to the smell of blood."

"Wait." Sam raised a hand, forestalling Daniel's reply. "I think you're on to something there, Teal'c." She was silent for a moment, as if thinking. "What if we take that idea a few steps further? There could be something in the hyenas' saliva that prevents their prey's blood from clotting."

Both she and Daniel swung their gaze to the Colonel, the blood still wet and moist, spreading ever further down his leg.

"If that's the case, then it would make it easy for them to track their prey, even if it's only slightly wounded. They probably wait until it's weak enough to kill without risk. If they're anything like hyenas on Earth, they would be carrion eaters as well, so it wouldn't matter if they didn't find their prey until it was dead from loss of blood."

"Well, let's try not to give them the option, shall we, guys?" Jack's voice was dry and raspy.

"Here, Colonel." Sam grabbed a canteen, opened it, and held it out, only to see the hand that reached for it fall limply back to the ground. She exchanged a concerned look with Daniel as she bent and put a hand behind her CO's head, supporting it. She held the container to Jack's lips and waited as he eagerly swallowed down a few mouthfuls of water.

"Thanks." He gave a small nod as she laid him carefully down again. "So they're vampire hyenas. Shouldn't they have little capes or something?"

"They're not vampires in the strictest sense of the word, sir. They don't actually drink blood…at least I don't think they…" The Major's words trailed off at Daniel's rapid shake of his head. "Ah…sorry, Colonel."

"Don't apologise, Carter. It is pretty interesting. Who'd have thought it – killed by the Vampire Hounds of Death. That'll teach us to camp on top of them."

Even without his normal force behind the words, the sarcasm wasn't lost on his listeners.

"What would you have rather we had done, O'Neill? In the short time we had before nightfall we could not have gone far, and we would not have been able to establish a camp as we did. There was no better place, the terrain between us and the Chap'pai is completely flat, plus the animals would have easily caught up to us regardless of how far we travelled."

Teal'c remained facing out into the darkness, his words sinking into the uncomfortable silence.

"Yeah, okay, sorry."

Mutter.

"What was that, Jack?'

"He's right."

Mutter.

"Could you speak up, Jack, I'm finding it a bit hard to hear you."

"Oh for crying out loud, Daniel! Sick man here, remember."

"Yes, Daniel. Leave Colonel O'Neill alone." Sam grinned over at her companion. "Let him rest."

Her response elicited a smile from Jack. "Ten points to Major Carter for her excellent support of her CO." Despite his joking words, his eyelids were drooping shut again.

Sam put her finger to her lips, stopping Daniel before he could speak.

The Colonel was asleep.

That morning he didn't wake up.

xoxoxoxoxoxo