Chapter 20

Infiltration

Jack groaned in pain. Then he heard the hard body on top of him whimper and his eyes flew open in alarm. Outside he could still hear shouting and gunfire and the harsh screams of that creature. Jack's head cleared a bit more and he found himself crunched up against a passenger door with a pile of bodies lying against of him. The pile was wiggling and shifting as the various children and one adult took stock of themselves. The car had rolled onto its side, Jack remembered, which explained why he was jammed up against a door despite the fact that the car had continued its roll and left half its occupants on the ceiling.

The other half had been wearing their seatbelts. Which explained why Jack wasn't completely squashed, even if it felt like it, since only Daniel and Sam were resting their full weight on top of him. Teal'c and Mark were only leaning in his direction. In the front seat, Mrs. Hammond had even managed to keep her hold on Theresa, despite the rolling, and the kid was now giggling to herself like this was a ride. Daniel whimpered again and then Sam was squirming in a desperate attempt to get off of him, terrified that she had hurt him worse than he already was.

Suddenly, the doors on the other side of the car were thrown open and military personal were looking in at them.

"Is everyone all right in here?" a man asked, his tone concerned despite his professional stance.

"Ow," Mark answered, finding it decidedly uncomfortable to hang upside down by a belt. He also had a strong notion that he had dropped something important, something he wasn't ever supposed to let fall, and it wasn't a pleasant feeling.

"I am not injured," Teal'c answered the man, prompting Mark to answer properly with, "I think I'm all right!" In the front the Hammonds were already being helped out of the car with a small amount of difficulty. Theresa didn't to go; she had finally stopped giggling when she saw the giant monster outside.

While the soldier helped Teal'c out of his seat and right side up, Jack's door was being opened. Luckily, the people opening it seemed to have enough sense to do it carefully and to ease Jack down when he was found to be leaning against it. Jack, too, had been wearing his seatbelt. He even had put it around Daniel in his lap, but it turned out that the belt didn't work very well over two people because somehow they had slid out of it. They got Sam out first, who despite an obvious bump on her head was very insistent that it was Daniel they needed to help.

"I'm all right," Jack also insisted.

"There isn't time for the stretchers," he heard one of them say, and then an entire tree came crashing towards them, torn up from the beast and thrown. To Jack he only said, "We need to get you all inside to safety." One of the men was already carrying Sam away at a run while the others helped Mark out. All together it couldn't have been more than two minutes since the crash that the military had them all hurrying away from the epic battle and into the very building they had spent days trying to plan how to infiltrate. Jack wished they could have managed it without Daniel getting hurt again.

Of course they weren't taken down to the Stargate. They were taken to an infirmary to be checked over, but at least they were inside. Even better, Daniel turned out to only be slightly bruised as Sam had missed falling on his legs and had, in fact, managed to shield him somewhat in the roll. Mark felt horrible when he realized he had let go of her during the crash, even though everyone from the nurses on duty to the Hammonds to Sam herself assured him there was no way he could have held on. Then of course came the questions.

No one suspected them of their intentions, of course. They were a group of mostly children, the youngest no older than four and the second youngest in need of a wheelchair to get around, and so obviously a family on an outing that no one questioned that. And even if they had, who would think that they could orchestrate a giant monster appearing from no where and attacking them? But it was a military facility and they really wanted to know who they had just rescued. Thankfully even with Teal'c no one seemed to recognize Sam and Mark or Jack as the kidnapped children.

The Hammonds had to admit to their real identity. It was safe enough for the moment considering he was supposed to be on vacation. Mark and Sam promptly forgot their aliases and as they had already referred to each other as 'Mark' and 'Sam' during the confusion of the rescue, all that was left was to make up a fake last name. That was, of course, when their minds went blank.

"I'm Jack Simpson," Jack said to cover for them, "And this is my brother Danny. They're Mark and Sam...Flanders. And the big guy Murray Chulak."

"He's here to help watch the kids," Hammond said before they got too many weird stares for their odd group, "An old family friend."

"Indeed," Teal'c said when he still received dubious stares.

"What was that thing?" Mark demanded, unintentionally managing to distract the soldiers.

"It was a monster!" Theresa insisted from the safety of her mother's arms. More paper work was filled out and then they were left more or less to themselves. When more wounded were being brought in, they were moved to another room so that the children wouldn't be subjected to such a gruesome sight.

"We have to get there soon," Sam whispered, once they were alone, "Before more things get through, or it all unravels completely and we're stuck here." There was no need to elaborate what she meant by 'there'.

"We can distract them while you four go," Mrs. Hammond said. She pulled Theresa into her lap and away from Daniel who was lying on the bed beside her. Daniel was awake, though just barely. He had been given some more pain medicine and was now humming softly to himself and apparently oblivious to the rest of the world.

"We can take one of the shafts down to the right level," Jack said, "But it's a long way down. Maybe we can rig some kind of harness to carry Daniel."

"I can do that!" Sam said, then she frowned. She had just realized that she had lost her alien detector gun. And she hadn't gotten to tazer anyone with it.

"I'll do that, in the bathroom," Jack insisted, "You all keep watch and make sure no one notices what we're doing." Normally, he'd be more cautious in their talk, wary of surveillance. But between the very large distraction outside, and the fact that no one expected anything of them, he figured that even if their conversation or actions were recorded by the time anyone actually viewed them they would be long gone or already caught anyway.

"I hope the bad monster doesn't eat anyone," Theresa murmured, and then, "Is Danny all right?"

"He's fine, sweetheart," her mother assured her, "He's just sleepy."

An hour later, the excitement caused by the other dimensional threat had toned down enough that someone remembered their small band of refugees. They were brought sandwiches and iced tea. They were told that the threat was under control for now but that they would be staying there for a while longer. Then they were left alone again. They ate the sandwiches and then Jack brought out the harness. They were ready to make their way down to the Stargate.

"If anyone asks where we are, say we're playing hide and seek or something," Jack said as he helped attach the harness to Teal'c. To Mark he said, "This is a very important job I need for you to do. If anyone comes in, I want you and Theresa to talk like you're playing a game with us." Given this very important task, Mark seemed less inclined to complain that he wanted to go with his sister. He gave Jack a salute. Mrs. Hammond, looking suddenly teary eyed, wished them all good luck and gave them all a hug, even a very startled Teal'c. Theresa gave Daniel one final pat and then Jack pulled open the access panel. It was meant to be an emergency exit and now it was going to be their ticket home. Jack started down first and then Sam and last came Teal'c and Daniel.

"See you in the future," Jack whispered up towards them and then the panel was closed, leaving them in darkness except for a faint green glow every few meters. They began their descent.