Chapter 9

"At the end of the tunnel, there's a light." Jack was sure it was a quote from something, though he couldn't remember what. It certainly seemed to fit their situation as they neared the end of the shaft over an hour later.

"Daylight?" Daniel asked from somewhere behind him.

"Too dim," Jack said. "Probably moonlight."

"Okay, there should just be a screen over the hole," Daniel said, trying to look past Jack to see for himself. "They're more worried about keeping people in than keeping them out, so... it shouldn't be too hard to kick it off."

"You're sure there's no force shield?" Jack asked.

"You're closer. You tell me."

Jack made a face that Daniel couldn't see and tentatively touched the wire mesh screen. No crackle, no burned flesh... they were home free. "Watch out," he said. He made sure Daniel was a few feet behind him before he lay flat on his back on the floor of the shaft and started kicking at the screen. One... two... three... and the screen broke free.

Jack turned to Daniel with a grin that stretched from ear to ear. "We're out," he said, not even caring that he was stating the obvious.

Daniel grinned back, and followed close behind as Jack crawled out of the shaft and into the open. Never before had fresh, night air smelled so sweet. Jack took a moment to breathe it in and stretch his cramped muscles before he turned around to look at what he was leaving behind.

There was nothing but rock as far as his eyes could see.

"It's a mountain," he said in surprise.

"Yeah," Daniel said as he squatted down to put the grate back in place over the hole in the rock wall. "They locked you guys in pretty tight. They put you under as much rock as they could find."

Jack shook his head in amazement as he backed away a few paces and looked up. He didn't know how high the thing was, but he had a feeling that what he could see from there didn't even come close to the top.

"Daniel," he said as a sudden thought occurred to him. "I don't remember seeing a mountain from this planet's Stargate. Nor from the town, for that matter."

Daniel didn't look up from his work, which Jack took to mean that he was uncomfortable with answering the question.

"Daniel...?"

"Yeah," Daniel said nervously as he rose to his feet. "It's, uh... it's a fair walk to the gate from here."

"Fair walk? What the hell does that mean?"

"It means pretty damn far, Jack."

"Great. Now you tell me."

"We can probably make it by night fall if we get started right away," Daniel said, already walking towards what looked like a small forest straight ahead.

"I'm guessing you mean we'll get there by night fall if we walk really fast the entire way," Jack said as he tried to keep up with his rapid pace.

"The guards are going to find out any minute now that something's wrong down there," Daniel said. "We've got to get as far away from this place as possible before that happens."

Jack didn't need to be told twice. He didn't say another word, concentrating his energies on mindlessly following Daniel as he confidently strode through the woods with the air of a man who knows exactly where he's going. Minutes later they came to a meadow full of tall grass, which led them into another wood that seemed even thicker and darker than the first one, despite the fact that dawn had by that time broken.

"Don't suppose we could stop for a rest at some point," Jack said when he'd tripped over a tree root for the third time and almost fallen flat on his face. "Cause if we don't... pretty soon you're gonna have to carry me, and I wouldn't want you to catch my cooties in the process."

Daniel stopped and turned around, looking intensely guilty and sympathetic. "I'm sorry, Jack," he said. "You must be exhausted." He took out the two canteens from his robe and passed Jack the one that had been designated his. "I guess we can afford five minutes."

Jack gratefully accepted the water and plopped down on a nearby, moss-covered log. After quenching his thirst, he shot a curious look over at Daniel. "How come you're hanging onto this, anyway?" he asked. "Think I'm too whacked out to carry my own canteen?"

The guilty look returned to Daniel's face, and he did his best goldfish impersonation as he tried to think of how to reply. "I just... didn't want to take any chances with it," he said. "That's all we've got, so if you drink it all or spill it..."

"Right," Jack said, cutting Daniel off before he could say any more. "I get it." He felt like throwing something, but he supposed that would more or less prove Daniel's point - he had become too crazy to be entrusted with even the simplest of tasks.

"You can carry it if you want," Daniel said, but Jack could tell by the hesitation in his voice that he felt it would be a bad idea.

Jack shook his head and tossed the canteen back to Daniel. "I gotta take a leak," he said, rising to his feet and heading for a clump of bushes a few feet away.

"Drink it all or spill it," he muttered under his breath once he was far enough away that Daniel wouldn't overhear. "Either that, or the damn thing doesn't even exist." Somehow that thought was even less encouraging than the first.

Jack had barely had time to relieve himself when he heard a rustling in the bushes behind him. He glanced over his shoulder to see what it was, but nothing was there. He had just chalked it up to his imagination when he heard Daniel call urgently, "Jack!"

He quickly buttoned up again and dashed over to where he'd last seen him, but stopped dead in his tracks when he saw what was going on.

Daniel was being held at gunpoint by two men covered from head to toe in protective gear.

"Stop!" one of them shouted. "Come no closer, or we will kill you both!"

Jack held his hands up in surrender, though he had no intention of allowing them to take him back. He glanced at Daniel, who was also standing still with his hands raised, and they exchanged a communicative look. He could tell that Daniel was thinking exactly what he was thinking - they would rather go down fighting than be locked away forever in an even stronger prison than before, this time with no hope of escape.

At a slight nod from Jack, Daniel spun around and grabbed the gun away from one of the men, while Jack took a flying leap at the second man and knocked him to the ground. "Think you can catch us that easy?" he snarled as he drove his fist into the man's face.

Only the face didn't belong to a man wearing protective gear and carrying a gun. That man had disappeared, leaving in his place a man wearing a robe and holding a canteen.

"Oh God," Jack breathed when he saw Daniel's frightened, blood-smeared face looking up at him. He quickly scrambled to his feet and backed away half a dozen paces, but he knew it was too late - he had infected Daniel.

"I'm... I'm sorry..." he stammered, guilt and fear almost paralyzing him. What if they weren't able to find a cure after all? What if he had just effectively killed Daniel?

Daniel lay frozen on the ground for a long moment before rolling onto his side and pushing himself up into a sitting position. He carefully wiped the blood from his nose, straightened his robe, and brushed the forest debris out of his hair without saying a word. Jack was just starting to wonder whether he was in shock of some kind when Daniel rose to his feet and started walking again in the direction they had been heading before their break. "We should keep going," Daniel said in a low voice.

Jack wasn't sure whether to silently comply or to yell at Daniel for being so damn calm and accepting. "Daniel," he said as he jogged to catch up with him, "You do realize you've just been infected, right?"

"Yes, I do," Daniel said without breaking his stride.

"So you realize you're probably gonna start hallucinating pretty soon, right?" Jack continued. "And then become disoriented and probably pass out?"

"That's exactly why we have to keep going."

Jack sighed. Daniel had a point, and Jack knew it. He just wished they had at least a glimmer of hope that they were going to make it out of this alive. "If worse comes to worse," he said, taking Daniel's arm to stop him from walking for a moment, "I'll carry you myself."

Daniel forced a smile and patted Jack's shoulder. "I know you will," he said.

Jack felt his resolve strengthen as they started walking again. They were going to make it off this rock and back to the SGC if it was the last thing he ever did. Maybe rescuing himself hadn't been enough of an incentive to keep him moving at top speed, but rescuing Daniel certainly was. He'd been feeling exhausted and sore before, but now he was getting his second wind.

He had to get Daniel home.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxox

"Daniel," Jack said irritably after they'd been hiking through the woods for well over two hours, "if we're going to spend the entire trip back to the gate in this damn forest, could you please just tell me now?"

Daniel cocked his head from side to side before answering. "Not... the entire trip," he said.

"Great, that's helpful," Jack grumbled. "Thank you."

"You're welcome."

"Couldn't the Tok'ra have zipped in and picked us up once we were clear of the colony?" he asked. "Or the Asgard... even better."

"We tried, Jack, believe me," Daniel said. "We can make this, just... keep walking."

Jack sighed. "Don't really have much of a choice there," he said, trying to ignore the nagging pain in his side and the incessant ache in his knees and back.

"Do you want to... play some kind of word game?" Daniel suggested.

Jack glared at him.

"What?" Daniel said defensively. "It might take our minds off our situation for a little while."

"Somehow I doubt that, but thanks for trying."

Barely a minute passed in uncomfortable silence before Jack rolled his eyes and gave in. "What kind of word game?" he reluctantly asked.

Daniel seemed oddly triumphant at Jack's change of heart. "How about... word association?" he said.

"Sure," Jack said with a complete lack of enthusiasm. "Whatever you say."

"Okay... first word that comes to mind when I say... forest."

"Hell."

"Jack..."

"You said 'the first word that comes to mind.' That was it."

Daniel gave a longsuffering sigh. "Okay... hot."

Jack grinned. "Mary Steenbergen."

"What is it with you and Mary Steenbergen?" Daniel asked, shooting Jack an odd look.

Jack shrugged. "She's hot. I thought we'd already established that."

"Yeah, I guess we did," Daniel said wryly. "Though I'm not sure somebody's name should actually count as a word."

"Hey, you said..."

"Yeah, I know what I said," Daniel interrupted. He took a deep breath as he climbed over a fallen tree that was lying across their path. "Next word... actress."

Jack was tempted to name another one, but he figured that would just be sending the game into an endless loop that neither of them were going to enjoy. He took a second to think as he climbed over the log, and then said, "Movie."

"Movie... The Wizard of Oz."

Jack froze and stared at the back of Daniel's head as he kept walking.

Daniel only continued on for two or three more paces before he realized Jack was no longer at his side. He turned around and looked back at him with concern. "You okay?"

Truth be told, Jack was wondering that himself. "Why did you say that?" he asked, watching Daniel's every movement with suspicion.

"Say what?" Daniel asked, confused.

"The Wizard of Oz," Jack said impatiently. "Why did you name that specific movie?"

Daniel shook his head and furrowed his forehead in complete bewilderment. "I don't know," he said. "I guess I'm just so used to your frequent references that it sprang to mind first. Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Because that's what I was thinking," Jack said.

Daniel stared at Jack in dumb surprise for a moment, but then he laughed and threw out his arms in frustration. "Please don't tell me we're back to this," he said. "I am not a figment of your imagination, Jack."

"Oh no?" Jack said, feeling empowered now that everything seemed to be making sense. "Then why aren't you sick?"

Daniel blinked. "What?"

"You were exposed hours ago," Jack said. "You should have started showing symptoms by now."

Daniel looked down for a moment, and then his gaze darted nervously around at the surrounding trees as though he was fishing for a response. "I... I guess the inoculation worked," he finally said.

Jack scoffed and kicked a nearby tree root. "Inoculation?" he repeated cynically. "Funny that you never mentioned this before. What inoculation, pray tell?"

"Janet said there was only a twenty-five percent chance that it would be effective," Daniel said through gritted teeth. "I didn't want to rely on that to keep me safe."

Jack laughed, suddenly hoping Daniel was real just so he could inflict some kind of pain on him. "So even when I thought I'd effectively killed you, that still wasn't a good time to tell me there was a slim chance that I hadn't?" he said.

"Well, look at it this way, Jack... if I was really just a delusion, a... a manifestation of your subconscious mind, I would have told you then. Unless subconsciously you love torturing yourself with needless guilt, but if that's the case it's not me you should be angry with."

Jack tried to process what Daniel was saying, but his mind had suddenly become way too foggy to follow along. It was like a thick, soupy mist was settling over his thoughts, making them seem distant and muffled and difficult to grasp onto.

"Jack... are you okay?"

He tried to answer Daniel's concerned question, but his head had started to swim, making it necessary for him to ease himself down onto the ground before he took an ungraceful nosedive.

"Jack? Talk to me."

He saw Daniel's face floating in front of him, looking pale and worried... but then it disappeared. As hard as Jack tried to look around him, Daniel was nowhere to be seen.

All alone in the middle of the dark forest, Jack finally gave in to exhaustion and lost consciousness.

To be continued...