While Eaton was talking, Mckay thought that it couldn't get any worst but now that the room was eerily quiet he was almost ready to admit he was wrong. While the astronomer lay curled up a few feet away from them the atmosphere in the room became almost suffocating. Between the quiet and the smoke, Mckay thought he would go insane.

"Mckay, you're starting to hyperventilate again." Zelenka commented through his own wheezing breathes.

"I have the right to hyperventilate. It is part of panicking efficiently." Mckay was about to talk more but started into a fit of coughing, which caused him to grip his ribs and blink back tears.

"That is the reason why you shouldn't hyperventilate. It looks like you have bruised your ribs."

Mckay couldn't resist attempting a barb. "I didn't bruised by ribs. I had my ribs shattered by a fairly heavy female scientist falling on top of me."

"I don't think Bec would take that kindly to that comment. You might want to tell her that when she is awake." Zelenka shot back, but his worry for his companions showed in his voice. It had been close to an hour and a half since the other scientists had left. In that time Eaton had fallen asleep after talking non-stop to keep himself from panicking, Bec had bleed through Eaton's shirt and was working on soaking the bindings they had cut out of Zelenka's shirt, and he could tell that Mckay's ribs were really hurting him. The fact was there was nothing that they could do; they had to wait to be rescue.

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"Do you lad's do this often?" Dr. Beckett was surprised how fast the HOG Team members negotiated the tight space and corners.

"You'd be surprised, Doc." Jason Wage spoke up. "Back in Antarctica do you ever remember strange thumping noises coming from the ceiling?"

"Yes lad, I actually remember a few occasions when there was strange noises coming from the ceiling while I was in my lab." Beckett was mildly confused now.

"That was us." Tim commented from the back.

"What?"

"That was in the vents. I know it is a bit weird but there wasn't a whole lot places to train outside in Antarctica so we improvised. Hiking practice we ran through the corridors and stairs of the base, for camping we set up our tents in the cafeteria and cooked our food on a littler burner, and for caving practice we climbed through the duct systems." He didn't mention that they also spent more time outside then any other scientist in McMurdo on the base.

"You lads are not normal are ya." Beckett just shook his head and kept crawling.

"Nope." Albert Johnson spoke up from in front of him. "We joke that that is the reason we were assigned the nightshift. We were just too weird to fit in with the other scientists."

"So you further distinguish yourselves by wearing these 'HOG Team' dog tags?"

"Yep." It was Eric's turn to speak. "They were actually Bec's idea, so she could explain things better to you. But basically each person on the team has a different animal on their zippers. It is a way to identify who equipment belongs to as well as would allow us to quickly identify someone who may be critically injured."

"And you expect someone to be injured enough to make feature identification nearly impossible. Aren't you lads jumping the gun a bit?" Beckett's question was met by a little laughter, before Tim spoke up.

"Well you see Doc, we are not you average scientists. Eric and I have military training so we tend to do stupid military things, like play with really big guns. Wage love caving and Albert is a vulcanologist, which is just asking for trouble. Everyone else on the team is dive trained, rock climbs, hang glides, and knows how to set off mining charges. Eventually, no matter how safe we try to be eventually someone is going to get hurt. We have decided to be ready for that moment; there is nothing reckless about it."

"See your point lad."

"And I see our destination." Eric Cooper piped in.

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Mckay was starting to doze off when he started hearing voices. Oh, great now I am hallucinating, he thought through his pain fogged mind. He was happily proven wrong when Eric's head popped out of the open vent.

"Hello, Dr. Mckay. Good to see you awake." Eric shouted into the vent. "Belay."

"Ready on belay," echoed several voices.

"Belaying now." Eric quickly descended to the floor followed by Albert, Beckett and Wage leaving Tim Hendricks to attach a small pulley system to help them raise the backboards into the vent. Beckett immediately started tending to his patients while Wage unpacked first aid kit.

"Um," Beckett tried to remember the name. "Albert, I need you to talk to Mckay. He seems to be on the verge of a panic attack. Also gently wake up him," Beckett pointed at Eaton. "He doesn't appear to be injured and he can help out with Dr. Zelenka."

"You might want to let him sleep for a while. Eaton is an astronomer and is a bit claustrophobic. Doubt you will get him through the ducts if he is not at peak condition." Zelenka commented without bothering to open his eyes.

"Good to hear you're awake, lad. How are you feeling?"

"As well as you would expect. I hope you brought some Tylenol in that bag of yours."

"Do I ever forget it, son?" Beckett motioned Wage forward. "Give Zelenka and Mckay some Tylenol and put cervical collars on both just in case."

"What!?! We really don't need that." Mckay retorted.

"That is why I said 'just in case.'" Beckett turned his attention on his most critical patient. "Wage I need you to hand me the pressure bandages and the IV equipment, Stat." Beckett activated his radio. "Yoko, are you there lass. I need you to look up Bec's file and tell what blood type she is and if she has any allergies any medications."

Yoko promptly replied. "She is blood type O-neg, no know allergies to medications but is hyper-allergic to poison ivy, allergic to chocolate and chlorine, and mildly allergic to peppers."

"I could have told you that." Wage commented as he handed him the bandages and IV equipment. "There were two types of IV fluid, D-50 and Sweet Ringers. I wasn't sure which one you wanted so I brought both."

"The D-50 is for Rodney. I need a bag Sweet Ringer. She is too shocky." Beckett was starting to get flustered that told the room enough. "Does anyone have a knife handy?" Tim quickly pulled out his dive knife and handed it down the Beckett who quickly started slicing through Bec's pant leg.

"Is she going to be alright?" Mckay asked the question that everyone was thinking.

"I do not bloody know!" Everyone translated that to 'things are really bad, leave the frustrated doctor alone.' Dr. Beckett activated radio, again. "Yoko, listen to me lass. I need you to get a full medical team to the vent. They need to be ready to prep a patient of surgery. She is going into hypovolaemic shock with some possible hypovolemic factors and have extreme tissue damage to their right arm. I am not going to remove the wrappings because of the risk of a bleed out but it looks like all of the finger extenders tendons have been severed. The patient has also suffered a concussion, so anesthesia cannot be used. We will try to get her to you within twenty minutes."

Without bothering to shut of the radio he almost shouted Wage to help him to Bec to the backboard. It wasn't until Bec was lifted gently lifted to the ceiling by the two SEALS and the scratching sound of them sliding the backboard down the vent disappeared, that Beckett sat down between Mckay and Zelenka.

"She is in really bad shape, isn't she." Wage stated.

"What makes you say that, lad?" Beckett asked, dragging his thoughts together and starting to examine Zelenka's leg.

"I have never seen a doctor panic like that before."

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Author's Note-Hope you enjoy the chapter and happy Halloween.