Daniel and Teal'c had not gone far, and as soon as they'd seen their friend engulfed in the beam, Teal'c had bolted back inside, Daniel hot on his heels. They were at Sam's side in moments.
"He's alive!" Sam breathed from her awkward position on the floor, her CO sprawled boneless on top of her, but nothing could hold back the elation she felt from that simple little thump-thump-thump under her fingertips. Her relief was echoed on Teal'c and Daniel's faces.
"You ok Sam?" Daniel asked, kneeling beside the two. Sam tore her eyes away from Jack's slack face, to meet Daniel's concerned gaze, only just then comprehending the complete silence of the room now that the noise and vibrations had stopped. Her own breathing sounded harsh in her ears in the sudden absence of sound.
"I'm ok, just bruised. The Colonel," she paused wetting her lip, "the Colonel pushed me out of the way." She looked up at the two men; her relief at finding Jack alive was now giving way to worry. "He's not waking up."
"Perhaps we should get O'Neill back to the SGC with due haste?" suggested Teal'c.
"Let me just check him over before we go too far," Sam requested, and the two men helped her shift the Colonel's position until he lay beside her. As soon as his weight was gone, she scrambled to her knees, a grateful look for Daniel's steadying hand. Focused on checking the unconscious man for hidden injury, Sam almost missed Teal'c priming his staff weapon.
"Major Carter, Daniel Jackson," the soft words got her attention instantly. Sam saw immediately what had caused the concern discernable in her teammate's voice
Motioning for Daniel to stay with Jack, Carter rose to her feet. With a hand on her weapon, she approached the doorway, staring in astonishment at the vines that were thickening rapidly across the doorway, seemingly on their own accord. "Amazing," she whispered the word softly under her breath, her wonder at what she was witnessing momentarily overriding her concern for what it might mean to their escape.
Teal'c inclined his head towards her in query and she elaborated. "It's just that I've never seen anything like this before, have you?" she asked him.
"I have not," he replied before turning back to watch the plants, which seemed to have stopped growing now that they had effectively blocked their easy exit.
With a glance back at Daniel to check that the Colonel's condition was unchanged, Sam exchanged another look with Teal'c. The large man bowed his head briefly at her, showing his trust in her to proceed as she saw fit.
"Well, ok then," she muttered to herself, "Here goes nothing." Sam studied the doorway. The creeping plant had grown over it, forming thick bars of foliage. Some light still managed to filter in from outside, but there weren't any gaps large enough for a body to slip though without encountering the thorns, and there were thorns in plenty. Numerous large, evil looking spikes the color of blood sprouted in every direction. They varied in size from the smallest being about the width of her pinky finger, to many as long and thick as her forearm. Cautiously, she reached out, and careful of the sharp thorns, grasped one of the strands. Encouraged when nothing happened immediately, she pressed harder, trying to pull the substantial vine down.
Suddenly, the leaves rustled, and Sam felt resistance strong enough to make her let go and step back. "Whoa!" she exclaimed. The rustling stopped as soon as she'd let go. She almost thought she'd imagined it, but then Teal'c met her glance. His face told her he'd seen it too.
Frowning, Sam stared at the plant for a few moments, contemplating her next move. "Oookay, let's try a different tactic," she decided finally, pulling out her knife. Gripping it, she picked a random branch in front of her. Again, being careful of the thorns, she set the edge of the blade against the plant. She hesitated, and Teal'c met her eyes, his agreement with her plan clear in his face. With grim determination, she tightened her grip on the knife, and pressed swiftly into the vine, trying to saw her way through the thick green rope of vegetation.
Nothing could have prepared her for the speed of the plant's retaliation, for retaliation was all it could be. As soon as her blade bisected the first vine, another whipped into the room wrapping around her knife hand's arm, and she cried out when a medium sized thorn bit deeply into her forearm. Before she could react to the awful puncture wound, the vine jerked back, ripping a long, deep gouge in her skin in its wake.
Sam screamed in pain, knowing she had dropped her knife and beyond caring. She heard shouts from her teammates, but the pain was all she could focus on. She was oblivious to the large vine that snaked around behind her, one of the larger spikes poised to impale her through the back.
Fortunately for her, Teal'c was faster. He grabbed her by the front of her vest, and spinning, sent her around him and slamming into the wall next to him, all the while firing his staff weapon one handed into the writhing green mass. Dimly, she heard a Zat firing, and realized that Daniel was also attacking the plant. Teal'c still had his hand twisted into her vest, holding her pressed up against the wall, likely the only thing keeping her upright. Still, she was able to crane her neck around enough to note that as quickly as the limbs were dropping from the staff or freezing and disappearing from the Zat, twice as many were growing to take their place, and multiple tendrils now were grasping angrily into the room at the attackers, only missing their mark by the sheer willpower of the men wielding the weapons. Through a haze of pain, Sam realized what was happening.
"Stop! Stop firing! It's only getting worse, you have to stop fighting it!" she shouted over the noise of weapons fire.
It was a mark of the two men's trust in her that they instantly, unhesitatingly, obeyed. As soon as the assault ceased, the vines that were inside the room stopped where they were, wavering slightly, as if waiting to see what they would do. After several long seconds, the tendrils withdrew with soft rustling, filling in the gaps in the doorway until a thick screen of plant material completely blocked out any light entering from the door. Teal'c let go of her vest, but continued to shield her with his body.
Sam sagged against the wall, without the Jaffa's support, her legs felt like jelly. "The harder we fought, the more it fought back," she gritted out through clenched teeth, hugging her injured arm against her abdomen with her good arm, doubling over slightly and squeezing her eyes shut. Wet, sticky warmth quickly saturated the sleeve of her other arm and she could feel more blood trickling down her hand to patter softly on the floor.
"You have been injured," Teal'c murmured, his attention focusing suddenly on the woman next to him in concern.
"It's my arm," Sam grated, still clutching her injury. Teal'c caught her shoulder with his large but surprisingly gentle hand. Handing his staff weapon to Daniel, he guided her to couch in the center of the room, pressing her to sit down on it. He retrieved one of the packs, pulling out the first aid kit. Daniel hovered anxiously, obviously torn between his concern for her and his concern for Jack, who still lay nearby.
"How…is…he…" Sam managed to gasp out, as much to distract herself from pain, as her own concern for their commander. He didn't appear to have moved, and Sam knew that if anything could have woken the hardened Air Force colonel, a firefight literally on top of him would have. The fact that he'd shown no indication of awareness while his team had battled seemed to indicate that his continued unconsciousness was not a result of shock, but perhaps something more concerning or sinister. "Nnghh," she groaned, as Teal'c extracted her arm from its protective cocoon. After a glance at her mangled and bloody sleeve, she turned her face away, not wanting to watch. Instead, her eyes sought out Daniel's.
Daniel winced in sympathy, and turned his attention to the unconscious Jack. "His vitals still seem stable," he reported after a minute, frowning down at the unconscious man, looking just as concerned as Sam felt. He looked back up at them, unable to hide his worry. "How's your arm?" Sam frowned, looking questioningly at Teal'c.
"The wound is deep. I believe it will require stitches when we return to the SGC," Teal'c told them. He had finished slitting her jacket sleeve to expose her arm to the elbow, and cleaned as much blood up as possible to visualize the wound. "I am going to try and slow the bleeding with pressure, prepare yourself." Sam braced herself and nodded assent, but still couldn't help the whimper that passed her lips as Teal'c applied more clean gauze, squeezing the edges of the wound together as gently as possible.
"You should, uh, move your fingers Sam," Daniel suggested after watching for a few moments with another empathetic grimace, partially to distract her, and partly to make sure she could. He hadn't gotten as good a look at the wound as Teal'c, but he kind of thought the warrior might have been underestimating the deep part, if that were possible. It was important to check that nothing major had been injured
Sam replied with a brief wiggle of her fingers. "Agh! Yeah, still moving," she confirmed, her face pale and contorted into a grimace of effort. Sweat dotted her upper lip and forehead
"Make a fist," Teal'c directed, as he applied new gauze to her wound and began to wrap her arm in a pressure dressing when he'd deemed the bleeding slowed sufficiently. Focusing her attention on her hand, Sam managed to make a weak fist, before the pain forced her to release it.
"That… good enough?" she asked, leaning weakly against Teal'c as he finished taping the dressing into place, and then fashioned her a sling with some leftover gauze.
Daniel left Jack and joined them. He smiled down at her, placing a hand on her shoulder and giving it a gentle squeeze. "Yeah Sam, that was perfect."
"Good… no nerve damage then," she replied, "You know, is it just me or is it getting darker in here?" she asked, wearily letting her head rest against the supporting bulk beside her that was Teal'c, her eyes drifting up towards the ceiling. "Uh, guys…" What she saw pulled her upright. Behind her, she felt Teal'c get to his feet while Daniel followed her gaze.
"Ok, that might be a problem," Daniel muttered, taking in the scene above.
"Guess we won't be climbing out of here anytime soon, huh?" queried Sam needlessly.
"We will not," confirmed Teal'c, as the three awake members of SG-1 craned their head upwards to witness the vines choking off the last of the available outside light.
AN: One chapter to go! Reviews help me post faster! I'm glad at least a few of you are enjoying the piece, but too many of you are disturbingly silent. Besides, you need to offer me some incentive after coming home from a long and grueling 12-hr shift to work on this story rather than going to bed where I belong. You must have some speculations on how this story will end, so stop keeping them to yourselves and let me know.