Note: Thanks for the reviews. :) Sorry it took so long to get this chapter up. I thought I'd already posted it. D'oh. Anyways, hope you enjoy.

EIGHT

As Daniel came to, instinctively rubbing at the sore spot on the back of his head where he'd remembered being hit, his eyes momentarily clenched shut after just being opened. He grunted, slowly sat up, fighting the rushing nausea from the movement.

"Spacemonkey, nice of you to join me."

The voice was low and raspy, but it still held the sarcastic cynisism that Daniel associated with his friend. "Jack!" He hadn't meant to sound so cheerful, and it came out as more of a croak than anything, but he was just damn glad to have found him. Daniel's optimism was soon dashed when he managed to sit up and focus enough to realize where they were.

It was a cell. The place was dark, smelly, drafty, and damp. It was pretty much as typical and cliché as any prison cell could get, and with that in mind, Daniel had to wonder if they were captured by the same group of manimals that had entrapped them before. That must have been the upscale version. He thought wryly, suppressing a sneeze.

Bleary blue eyes darted around slowly before settling on Jack's shadowed form, tucked into the darkest corner of the roughly eight-by-ten cell. Daniel blinked steadily, trying to stand but finding it much too dizzying of a task at the moment. Instead, the archaeologist shifted to his knees and managed a slow, shuffling crawl. "You okay?"

"Oh yeah Danny-boy, just peachy!" The voice was strained, weak-sounding through all the usual sarcasm. "Jacob, Sam, an' Teal'c still okay?"

"As far as I know. They went back down towards the safe rooms with Rendar and the others." Despite the bravado as Jack tried to deflect attention from himself, Daniel would not be easily thwarted. He edged a bit closer and noticed how pale his friend was, even in the dim light. He also noticed Jack nursing a swollen, and obviously hurting left arm, probably broken. "What happened?" Daniel gestured toward the limb.

Jack grinned half-heartedly for a brief moment. "Got knocked down from behind, lost my sidearm. Big rhino-lookin' guy slammed a pipe down on my arm when I went to reach for it." He grimaced, a soft sigh escaping.

Daniel gave a nod in sympathy. "Ah. Saw that guy, he was huge."

"Try gigantinormous," Jack amended weakly with a lopsided grin.

Smiling briefly, Daniel positioned himself perpendicular to the grimy wall that Jack leaned against. His head continued to pound unmercifully and he grimaced.

"Got knocked out good, huh Danny-boy?" Jack briefly smirked, a flash of white in the darkness.

"Ugh," Daniel grunted, squinting one eye and rubbing gingerly at the back of his head. "You could say that." The archeaologist knew that his friend was trying to distract him from his own obvious injuries, and for now Daniel allowed it.

The sudden crackle of static coming from Daniel's vest pocket got Jack's immediate attention. "You still got your radio," he commented, like it was necessary.

Patting at his chest, Daniel's eyes were wide with a mixture of surprise and relief. Jerking the device from his vest pocket, he cupped the radio in both hands, holding it close to his face. "Sam, Teal'c, Jacob, it's Daniel. Do you read?" He was whispering, hoping against all hope that if there were guards outside their cells nearby that they wouldn't hear.

"Daniel!" Sam's voice came back through the radio followed by a burp of static. "Where are you?! We looked around when things got a little quiet but didn't see hide nor hair of you or the Colonel," She sounded worried as she mentioned O'Neill, her voice cracking faintly.

"Well, uh, I found Jack." Daniel hesitated, grimacing to himself somewhat sheepishly. "But only because I got captured and we wound up as cell mates."

"Are you both alright?" Once again, Sam sounded anxious, concerned.

Briefly, Daniel's eyes flickered over to Jack before settling to stare at the toes of his boots. "We're a little banged up, but pretty much okay," he answered her quickly. Jack had been silent since the radio conversation began, increasing Daniel's concern for his friend. He was surprised O'Neill hadn't tried to snatch the radio from him to begin formulating an escape plan with Major Carter.

"Daniel, do you have any idea where you've been taken?" This time it was Jacob's voice that came over the soft crackle of static.

The archaeologist sighed audibly as he hit the button. "Uh, no. I was apparently unconscious when I got here," Daniel turned to Jack with questioning eyes, only receiving a one-shouldered shrug and an expression that clearly stated, Don't look at me. "Jack doesn't know either," he spoke into the radio after realizing that Jacob couldn't see Jack's gesture.

"How did you manage to hang on to the radio?" It was Sam's voice again.

Daniel had to think about that, an eyebrow raising curiously in slight confusion. "I don't know." He felt around his vest, noticing his knife, most everything from his pockets, and anything else that could be conceived as a weapon was gone. "I suppose they didn't thoroughly search us...or something." Shrugging, he looked at Jack, who appeared a bit skeptical as he'd been left without his entire vest. Daniel couldn't help but notice how O'Neill continued cradling his left arm.

"Daniel, we're going to head out and find where they've taken you once things slow down a little on our side. Rendar says the technicians won't raise the shield defenses in the safe room until their scout tells them the fighting's done."

When Sam paused and shouted something off not directed at him, Daniel could hear arguing muffled in the background and guessed that Teal'c and Jacob weren't too happy that they couldn't leave and join the underdweller warrior's plight. It also meant they couldn't immediately charge in to help him and Jack either.

"We're not sure if all of the manimals have left yet. Just hang in there," Sam said calmly as she came back on the radio.

"Got it," the archaeologist gave a short nod.

Speaking up for the first time since the communication began, Jack grunted to gain Daniel's attention, jerking his chin in gesture. "Maintain radio silence for now. We'll contact if we need to."

Repeating this into the radio, seeing as Jack didn't ask for it to tell the rest of the team himself, Daniel then clicked it off and tucked the device safely into his vest pocket once more. The wheels in his mind were turning quickly, and it seemed like a long while before he finally voiced his running thoughts. "I think they were searching for something."

The reaction Daniel got from Jack was a raised eyebrow. The archaeologist continued. "The manimals. When they broke into the underground bunker. They seemed to be searching for something...or someones." He took in a slow breath. "It wasn't just a pointless slaying Jack. Did you see the weapons they carried? Nothing advanced like when we'd been captured before. Nothing immediately deadly. Broken piping, staffs, knives, and short blades. I wonder if they were capturing more humans to turn into..." Daniel gulped, hoping he wasn't right, "Them."

Jack gave him a short shake of his head, which forced him to suppress a grimace. "Don't even think it," he muttered lowly. Then he sighed loudly and glared at Daniel. "Why do ya always gotta be so negative?" he quipped, bringing back a little humor into their grim situation.

Daniel snorted, waving a hand at Jack. "Well, Mr. Optimism, what do you think's going on then, hmm?"

Before he could muster up a retort, the front bars of the cell were yanked open, sliding back loudly before a stocky, boar-like manimal stepped into the dank little room. Jack stifled the urge to cringe at the sight of this beast, steadying his breaths and convincing himself that it wasn't the same manimal involved in his previous poor treatment during their last visit to P8Y-974.

Hamlet, as Jack decided to call him, scanned his two prisoners carefully, then snorted loudly and stomped from the cell. The sliding bars slammed shut with the clang of metal, and both Jack and Daniel shared a confused look.

"Umm...what the heck was that all about?" Daniel wondered aloud, relaxing a bit now that the beast had gone.

The tension eased off Jack slowly and he gave a one-shouldered shrug. "Ah..." He paused dramatically before sending Daniel a lopsided grin. "I got nothin'."

-

Sam sat with her knees up, perched on a rickety wooden chair in the back of a tiny safe room down in the bowels of the underground bunker. She rocked back and forth slowly, staring down at the floor as her mind drifted, thoughts focusing on her two missing friends. Daniel had said that Jack was okay, well, he'd said they were both a little banged up, so she assumed that meant Jack was pretty much okay. What worried her though, was the fact that he hadn't said a word over the radio. It wasn't like him at all.

"Hey," Jacob nudged his daughter's shoulder lightly, then handed her a cup of relatively clean-looking water. "Here,"

Raising her head to smile tightly at him, Sam took the grubby little cup and sipped at it. Her eyes flickered over to Teal'c, standing guard by the open door and looking out for anyone who wasn't on their side. Gaze still drifting slowly about the room, Sam found Rendar and Ibsha, the small woman whose husband had been turned into one of the manimals. They were both leaning against the wall, looking tired and worried.

Sam cringed as she recalled Ibsha's story of when her husband was taken. Her greatest fear at the moment was that the very same thing was happening to Daniel and Colonel O'Neill now. Although they'd made brief radio contact, Sam wasn't sure how long Daniel would be able to hang onto the radio before one of their captors found out about it. The thought certainly didn't put her at ease.

-

Daniel stared at his silent friend for a long while. Jack didn't look well, but he couldn't quite figure out why. His face was much too pale, his eyes sunken and tired, and he looked ready to fall flat on his face; he was sitting down, leaning against the grungy wall and apparently determined to keep awake. Jack was carefully cradling his injured arm, and Daniel then had to wonder if his friend was suffering from a case of shock. If that was it, then the Colonel could be in a lot of danger if left untreated.

"Jack," the archaeologist called out, trying to get O'Neill's attention.

Head jerking up slightly, followed by a wince and quiet hiss of pain, Jack squinted with a weak, sideways glare at Daniel. "What?"

"You're being awful quiet," Daniel said with a hint of concern in his voice.

"So what?" Jack continued to glare. "I'm tired," he muttered defensively.

"Arm bothering you?" Daniel ignored his friend's obvious irritation at the direction this conversation was going. He gestured toward the limb.

Jack heaved a sigh, his eyes closing briefly. "Only if you consider throbbing pain a bother."

Daniel felt a twisting in his gut. If Jack's arm was badly broken, the jagged pieces of bone could cause bleeding inside the arm and start an infection, that if left untreated could infect his blood and eventually kill him. If they were lucky and got rescued in time before that, got Jack back to the SGC, they might have to amputate the limb. Mentally cursing his morbid thoughts, Daniel steadied his gaze on Jack. "It's broken, isn't it?" He let the question hang in the air, almost not really expecting his friend to answer.

Sighing once more, Jack's eyes lazily flicked down to his arm that was now both swollen and black and blue. "Yeah," he muttered truthfully, knowing it was by the fire that shot through the limb whenever he moved it. That and the constant throbbing.

"We'd better set that," Daniel said with grim determination, moving closer to Jack.

Frowning, Jack just glared at him a moment before rolling his eyes and grimacing a bit. "Danny-boy, if you're half as bad at splinting broken bones as Carter..." he trailed off, not needing to finish the thought. His mind reeled back to the time when he and Sam were thrown out of the gate on Antarctica, and she was forced to splint his broken leg. It certainly wasn't a pleasant experience that he cared to think about.

Daniel smiled a little, then began looking around for something fairly straight and sturdy to strap Jack's arm to. From the looks of it, the arm was broken somewhere between his wrist and elbow, and luckily not further up. It would have been much harder to splint that way.

Taking out the hard, protective insert from his vest, Daniel decided to use the flat piece to strap Jack's arm to, once he'd set the bone. Now all he needed was something to wrap it with. Removing his jacket and standing up, the archaeologist pulled off his t-shirt, then shrugged back into the jacket and zipped it up to keep himself warm. He began tearing the shirt into strips before kneeling beside Jack.

Knowing what he had to do, Daniel's eyes dropped to Jack's arm before flicking back up to his face. "Ready?" He asked tentatively.

"Ah, no." Jack grimaced with a humorless laugh, taking in a steady breath before preparing himself and clenching his teeth. Goddammit, this was really gonna suck.

-

Sam, Jacob, and Teal'c had started making their way out of the compound, going along some secret passages, led by Leynus, the young man they'd met with Rendar the day before. He led them through narrow tunnels, up ladders, and along small crawl spaces to make their way safely to the surface. Sam was just thankful to breathe in fresh air again. She sighed heavily, blinking against the light from the now-fully risen sun. Shielding the light with her hand, Sam glanced sideways over at her father.

Jacob recognized the brief look that crossed his daughter's face. It was the same fearful look on her face when she'd thought he was dying on Netu. The look was then replaced with fierce determination, just like she'd been determined to get him out of there, successfully completing the rescue mission and getting her father back in relatively one piece. Jacob smiled at Sam, then gave Teal'c a nod. The fierce warrior was already set to go into action. "Let's go find them,"

"You..you're going to look for your friends, yes?" the slightly hesitant voice of Leynus spoke up when the three began to set off into the jungle.

Teal'c was the one to turn back, his face a mask of stone, letting no emotion show through the hard surface. "We are."

"But you don't know where they are." Leynus stated it slowly, waiting for confirmation.

"We do not," Again, Teal'c responded.

Sam spoke up, her eyebrows rising in question. "Do you know where the others could have taken them?" Her bright blue eyes were pleading, and she just hoped his man would be sympathetic and help them out. It was obvious to Sam that he had knowledge that could be of use to them in finding Daniel and the Colonel.

Leynus seemed to stray out of focus in thought, his pale green eyes fixed on the ground. "I know where some of the hidden camps of the others are. I was once taken prisoner and managed to escape." He admitted softly, not looking at the three off-worlders.

"Will you help us?" Jacob asked lowly in a calm, and hopefully kind voice. He wanted this man to help them because he wanted to, not because he feared them for any reason.

With a decidedly shaky sigh, Leynus nodded, raising his chin. "I will help."

A grateful smile spread across Sam's face, and she gently squeezed Leynus' shoulder. "Thank you."

-

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