Hey! Sorry for the late update. I was planning on updating last week, but I was in a rut. I hope this chapter makes up for it. :)

Disclaimer: I don't own anything...But you know that. Why am I still putting these in again?

He found salvation as a door quickly came upon them to the right. It was more than he could ask for. He immediately put his hands against the door as if to push, forcing his gene to activate a single frantic word screaming its' way through his mind: open.

The door swished open and a rush of air hit his face. His gun swung forward, illuminating the room as pulled Rodney forward to go into the room.

A gun was pointed at his face.

Chapter Five

0.25 Hours

The last thing John had expected was a gun in his face. He could understand silent movements in the darkness, creatures coming off of the walls, two mouths biting and tearing at them. A gun. Nope. Not what he expected at all.

He stared at the gun, eyes crossed as he stared down the barrel, losing precious seconds. His mind was momentarily unable to comprehend the situation.

A hand jutted out from beyond the gun and dragged him and Rodney inside the room. The door closed shut behind them.

John stumbled in slightly, quickly catching himself. Rodney was not quite so lucky and ended up going further past John and further into the room.

John squinted up to see who his savior was and started. Wide eyes accompanied by mussed hair and a pale face with dried blood caked on the side was what greeted him. "Major Lorne?"

"Colonel," he greeted eyes still wide. "What are you doing here?"

John blinked once. Then twice. Finally, he let out a nervous chuckle. "Rescue mission." He gave Lorne a lopsided grin. "Can't you tell?"

Lorne laughed lightly, desperation creeping in at the edges and clinging to his voice. "Well, I'm glad you're here and made it this far." He peered behind John. "Where are the other two?"

"We split up when we entered the complex." He noticed Lorne wince. "We've been staying in contact ever since," he assured.

Lorne didn't seem convinced as he started walking to the back of the room. The room itself was the largest he had seen but was just as bare as the others. However, it lacked something quite crucial: the substance that had been slathered all over the other rooms and halls. "They're smart," he commented. "Damn smart."

John noticed that the lack of complaining from Rodney had been due to the fact he was now talking to what looked like a scientist. He could make out the others in the darkened light and could see the rest of Lorne's team as well as a few scientists and military from what looked to be the expedition.

"Do you have any idea what they are?" he asked.

Lorne pinched the bridge of his nose letting loose a soft sigh. "Some of the scientists believe that they were already in the complex. In some sort of hibernation."

John nodded, remembering Ronons' words.

"We think that when Dr. Galeia fell through the hole and disturbed the area that it somehow woke the creatures up because, according to them, the attacks started almost immediately after."

John paused. "Was that stuff on the corridor there before?" he asked curiously.

"No." Lorne's hands ran through his hair making it stand up even more. "Apparently it was down in the lower levels but definitely not up here."

John let out a low groan. "So basically we are right above their home base."

"We haven't had any more problems with them once we found this room," Lorne continued, obviously having already coming to terms with the new horrifying knowledge. "But it won't last long I don't think." He eyed John again. "You don't happen to have a way out would you?"

"We have a Jumper not too far from the complex," he admitted. He quickly did a mental count of those he could see: Lorne's team, his, three scientists, and two military personnel. "We won't be able to fit everyone in it."

Lorne nodded. "But it's a start. The Jumper could even provide cover to those of us on the ground."

John eyed him. "You think we could make it?"

"Well, we have four more guns so that is a plus," Lorne replied. "As it was we only had five guns for nine of us. I think four more might just put us in the green."

John frowned. "That could work. We might have to wait a while though. They were pretty active and hostile not too long ago."

"They're always active." Lorne shuddered slightly. "Sometimes you just can't see them. But they're there. Thinking."

John suppressed a shudder himself, ice forming in the pit of his stomach. That they had to outwit rather than outrun or last made him all kinds of nervous. It completely changed the game.

"You guys were damn lucky to find a room that actually had a door," he commented.

Lorne gave him an odd look. "What are you talking about? They all had doors. This was just the closest room to us when we decided to hide rather than run."

He started. "But the doors." He trailed off. That wasn't good. That was so not good. "They can get through." He grimaced.

Lorne stiffened, hands involuntarily tightening around his gun. "That isn't something I want to hear you know," he said, attempting to sound nonchalant.

John closed his eyes momentarily, mind racing to try and find a solution. "Okay." He opened his eyes. "Okay. I'll radio Teyla and Ronon and Rodney and I will scout ahead and meet up with them near the exit. If it's clear, we'll radio you. You still have your radio right?"

Lorne shook his head. "No. Lost it a while ago. The others are broken as well," he added, noticing Johns' attention move to the others.

John picked up his radio and handed it over to Lorne. "You can use mine. I'll just have to steal Rodneys'."

"What about me?"

John started slightly, not having noticed his friend walk up next to him. "Oh. I'm giving Lorne my radio so I'm going to need one." He held out his hand.

Rodney let out a soft huff before detaching his radio from his ear and handing it over to John. "So what's the plan? I know you were discussing one," he accused. "You were all huddled conspiratorially over here."

John grinned while putting the radio in his ear. "We're going to radio Teyla and Ronon and do some scouting."

"Yay, scouting," Rodney grumbled.

"Teyla, Ronon, this is Sheppard. Come on."

Static was in answer, thick and all encompassing.

"Teyla? Ronon? Come in."

Rodney shot him a nervous look.

"If you can't talk right now, give me some sort of signal to know if you can still here me."

Nothing but static.

"That can't be good," Rodney said.

"No. It can't." John turned to Lorne who had a version of the 'I told you so' look on his face. "Change of plans. Rodney and I are going to scout the area and search for them."

"I can go with you," Lorne suggested, but was immediately shot down.

"No, you should stay here and make sure those things don't get in here. Rodney and I can take care of it."

Lorne frowned, obviously not liking the idea. "Stay in contact." He tapped his ear for emphasis.

"Can do." John nodded at Rodney, who immediately stepped in behind him as they walked towards the door.

Lorne walked behind him, ready to close the door behind them and once again secure the room. "Good luck."

"Who needs luck?" John said impishly. The door opened swiftly but revealed no terror waiting to attack. His gun was lifted and he looked down both sides of the corridor before stepping completely out.

The door closed shut behind them making the corridor seem that much smaller. "Okay, we are going to retrace our steps," he whispered back to Rodney. "Keep on the alert for anything on the walls." His skin crawled just saying the sentence.

"Who was it who spotted it last time?" Rodney snipped back.

"Yeah, yeah. Just keep an eye out back there. Last thing we need is them sneaking up behind us while we are eyeballing the ceiling."

"Oh, isn't that a pleasant thought."

"Yes, it is. Now shush."

There were a few muffled squawks of protest before the soft grumbling and whispered mutterings started. John grinned. Just as predicted.

They walked silently down the corridor. Blessedly, nothing had jumped out at them so far. John had made sure to eye every bump and ridge on the ceiling and wall critically to ascertain whether or not it was just the secretion or a creature lying in wait. And with every look and new ridge that he thought hadn't been there before, his paranoia increased to stifling levels.

Behind him, Mckay split his eyes between watching the walls and ceiling to looking at his life sign detector. It was dishearteningly silent, only the two of them showing up at all on the machine. He wasn't sure to take it as a good or bad sign. As it was, he would take whatever he could get.

It was John who noticed it first this time.

His hand quickly reached behind him and snagged Rodneys' jacket, pulling both of them into the nearest room. He positioned them against the wall near where the door should have been.

Rodney was thankfully silent, wide eyes staring at him then his device.

"It's at the fork," John mouthed. He turned back to the opening and couldn't help but feel disheartened that they had been so close to the fork. This was hardly a place to hide. They mine as well be openly inviting them, he thought.

After several minutes of silence, John couldn't help but wonder if it was just waiting for them to step out. They did, he realized, have to move out of the room some time. This was not the kind of Mexican Standoff he would want to be a part of.

However, his musings did not last long for the air suddenly got heavier, descending upon them like a blanket. A foul stench permeated through the room, coming from the hallway. It smelled like rotten meat.

A soft hissing sound that could have been the sound of a generator or machine slowly started to build. But they knew better. The hiss had an organic quality to it that could not be denied. It was the sound of something angry and hungry.

Rodney stiffened behind him, cradling his laptop against his chest in an almost suffocating grip. John grabbed onto Rodneys' sleeve, praying that they would not have to move quickly.

They saw its shadow first. Pressed up against the wall near the door, they had a front view of the creature walking by them. Its' arms were held near it, claws gleaming even in the poor light, tail whipping dangerously behind it.

It stopped just beyond the entrance to the room.

John wasn't breathing: he couldn't. His muscles coiled in anticipation, stiff and rigid, but refused to quiver under the force. He was a living statue. Inside, his mind was repeating three words over and over like a mantra: Don't turn around. Don't turn around. Don't turn around.

The creature titled its' head in what could presume to be a quizzical fashion, inhaling air through its' nose. It sniffed once. Then twice. The head started to turn.

Johns' mind was screaming.

Don't turn around!

It stopped and let out a horrific screech, tailing whipping side to side before it climbed the walls in front of them and flew further down the hallway with amazing speed.

Only several moments later another creature joined the first, whipping by and joining in on the inhuman screams.

"They're gone," Rodney whispered behind him, holding his life sign detector with shaking hands.

John finally allowed himself to breath, a shiver working up his spine. That was too close to his liking. Furthermore it disproved one of his few hopes: they were damn fast on the walls. He didn't know something so trivial could be so terrifying.

He waited several more minutes before allowing himself to peak out into the hallway. Looking both ways, he quickly determined that there were no creatures waiting for them. His grip on Rodney had not diminished as he pulled the man out behind him, gun raised.

Rodney had regained some of his composure, his hands no longer shaking. However, his eyes were wide and flitted about nervously, his pale face standing out in contrast with the dark hallway. "I don't see anymore," he whispered shakily.

"Let's keep it that way," John muttered, finally allowing himself to let go of his friend. As he had expected, the fork was only several yards away with, thankfully, still no sign of the creatures.

They quickly moved past the fork and continued down the pathway Teyla and Ronon had chosen. It looked exactly like the path they had gone down, with rooms branching out in a similar fashion.

"It looks symmetrical," Rodney stated, quickly giving a glance over his shoulder to see behind him. "The building must be symmetrical."

"That's great," John whispered sarcastically. "And how is that going to help us?"

Rodney opened his mouth, but closed it, opting to stay silent instead. No snide remark was worth their safety.

However, fate seemed to have other ideas. The dim lights that had been illuminating their path suddenly went out, drenching them in complete darkness.

Rodney couldn't help the little squawk that burst forth from his mouth. He quickly closed the gap between him and John, fumbling with his gun to try and illuminate as much of the hallway as possible with his little flashlight.

John tensed next to him, cursing silently. He grabbed Rodney and moved into the nearest room to them, his flashlight roaming the room quickly before concluding that it was safe.

His radio crackled to life. "Uh, Colonel?" Lorne's voice came in through the static. "Please tell me this is your doing."

"No," he replied, pushing them both to the corner of the room. "You still got plenty of flashlights?"

"Yeah." There was hesitance in his voice. "Colonel, we might have a problem."

John couldn't stop the growl that bubbled forth from his throat. "What now?"

"The door won't open."

"What?" he hissed back into the radio.

Rodney however had an understanding look on his face. "The doors' are powered by the building, Sheppard," he informed. "The building has gone into lock down."

"Lock down," he repeated numbly. "Are you fucking serious?"

Rodney just gave him a pointed look.

"Damn. Okay, so what do we do?" He pinched the bridge of his nose. "We got to put get the power running again right?"

Rodney nodded.

"And how the hell do we do that?"

"I don't know where the power room is, but I know how to find it," Rodney stated.

That was the best news John had heard all day. "Really? How?"

"When you were talking to Major Lorne, I was talking to," he hesitated, "Mary?" He shook his head, apparently giving up with trying to remember the name. "Anyway, she said that there's a room on this side that used to have all sorts of schematics."

"And you know where this is?"

"Well, if the building is symmetrical." Rodney gave a pointed look at John. "Then according to –erh- the scientist, it should be another five or so rooms down on the right."

"I could kiss you right now."

"Please don't."

John turned back to the radio. "Alright. Major, stay put. We'll be taking care of this. We'll keep you updated on the situation, but if you see the lights come on, obviously we succeeded."

"Alright," came Lorne's reply. "Stay safe. Lorne out."

John turned to Rodney. "Alright. Let's do this." He quickly scooted back to the opening and peered back out. He guided his flashlight over the walls and ceiling before turning to Rodney.

"Looks good," Rodney said, looking back up from his detector.

John nodded and slowly headed out into the hallway. Rodney came up beside him, squinting as he peered down the hallway as if it would allow him to suddenly see more than what the two pale beams of light allowed.

They slowly head down the hallway. Beside him, he could hear Rodney counting out loud and peering into some of the rooms they passed. They all appeared to look the same and John couldn't help but feel uneasy on whether or not they would find the correct room.

Even in the darkness, it gleamed at them in the distance. John recognized it immediately and darted forward, leaving Rodney to catch up behind him.

Numbness washed over him as he bent down to pick up the radio that had once adorned his other teammate's ear. Red stained the device, some of the liquid dripping as it slowly descended from the radio.

Rodney sucked in his breath behind them. "They're okay," he whispered more to himself than to John.

He clenched his fist around the radio, closing his eyes and breathing deeply. They would be okay. Teyla and Ronon knew how to take care of themselves. He pushed his anger, hurt, sadness, anger, hopelessness, anger aside, and reopened his eyes. They would find them. Right after they got the power on. They could hold on until then. He knew it.

He turned to Rodney whose eyes were gleaming even in the shadows. "Let's get these lights on." His voice sounded hard even to him.

Rodney nodded tightly, swallowing the lump that had developed in this throat; in his heart.

They reached the room quickly, but John hesitated. It indeed looked like all the previous rooms, but Rodney was supposedly sure. His friend quickly took a look at his surroundings before walking over to the left of the room. He poked the secreted material.

"It should be over here," he stated glumly. "Got a knife?"

John quickly pulled out one of his pocket knives, pushing down the emotions that came with it (Ronon, Teyla, God, Please be alive, please). He made one more quick glance behind him before stabbing the substance with his knife. It didn't go very far in the first time, to his dismay.

Rodney shot him a look.

"Why don't you watch my back," John grumbled, ignoring the smirk starting to appear on his friends face. He dug the knife back out before slamming it back in, using as much force as he could to jab in it. It disappeared into the substance.

Smiling in satisfaction, John went to work, slowly carving out chunks of the secretion. Sweat dripped from his face as he forcefully released the wall from the prison that was the secretion. Rodney had to step in several times to get particularly thick and big chunks off the wall, both of them pulling at the slab with all of their weight.

"There! There!" Rodney said excitedly. A chunk of the wall was now visible revealing what looked to be a table with several machines on it.

John blinked. Just how much was this substance hiding? He unconsciously peered at the other walls.

When John turned back to Rodney, he was already touching the devices as if stroking them would turn them on. He hesitated. "If we don't have power, how are we going to get these to work?"

"They should have enough life in them for me to be able to transfer the information to my laptop." As if demonstrating his point, the devices suddenly came to life, odd symbols prancing around the screens. John could make out some of them, recognizing some of the Ancient words. The others, however, looked foreign.

Rodney was already at work, having put his laptop up on the table, fingers flying over both the Ancient looking screen and his own keyboard.

John turned around, peering back at the room and the open doorway allowing his friend to do his job. He could still see no movements in either what little he could see of the hallway and of the room.

How did it all go so wrong?

The crushing weight of responsibility was physically noticeable in his slumped shoulders. Half his team was missing, the ones they were supposed to rescue were trapped, and those things were roaming the complex just waiting for them to slip up.

He pushed down the hysteria and hopelessness of the situation. They were all going to get out of here alive. He was going to make sure of it.

"Ahah!" Rodneys' voice drew him out of his dark thoughts and he turned around to see Rodney only working on his own laptop.

"You got it?"

A wince. "Well, I think so," he replied. "I've transferred all the data that looked important to my computer. Which was good, because they really didn't have much life in them."

John looked at the blank screens and swallowed. "But you did get it, right?"

Rodney made a non-committal noise.

"Right?"

Rodney sighed. "Yes, I'm pretty sure I did." He brought up on his screen what looked to be straight and squiggly lines. "See? This tells me that the power room is somewhere in that direction." He pointed the way they had been headed.

John raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"And apparently there are vents in this complex."

Both eyebrows rose. "Vents. Really?"

"Really."

"So you know where the power room is now, right?"

"No," Rodney replied, the picture on the screen suddenly disappearing as his fingers flew across the keyboard. "We need a more detailed diagram for that."

"And how long until you find it?" John turned back the door, a plan formulating.

"Shouldn't take me too long." Rodney paused, suddenly suspicious. "Why?"

John nodded to himself before turning back to Rodney. "I'm going to head out and look for that power room. You are going to stay here and guide me."

Rodneys' jaw went slack. "Are you mental? The whole problem with the last plan was splitting up. And now you want to do it again?"

John winced. "It'll be better this way."

"No."

"Rodney. It'll give you time to get the schematic going. Plus you won't have to worry about walking into a nest of those things while you're busy looking at your computer screen."

"No."

"This isn't up for discussion."

Rodney glared.

John crossed his arms over his chest.

"Fine," Rodney bit out before digging through his pack. "But we do this my way."

John raised an eyebrow. "Okay. And what does your way entail?"

"Tada."

John couldn't help but stare in slight shock at the small, high-tech camera Rodney was holding up. "You can't be serious."

"What?" Rodney turned back to the camera, opening it up and taking what looked to be a tiny USB out. "This way, I can keep track of what is going on. And you get a second set of eyes."

John looked at him incredulously as Rodney snagged duct tape out of his bag too. "And why in the world did you bring a camera? And duct tape?"

Rodney shrugged. "Never know when you'll need them. And who are you to complain?" he snipped back. "This is a good thing." He held out his hand, beckoning John to hand over the gun.

John let out a soft groan before handing it over, watching as Rodney taped the camera to the top of his gun. Once the camera was successfully secured to the gun, it was handed back.

"It should have at least five hours of life to it." Rodney reached over and clicked a button, the camera immediately coming to life. He then put the USB in his laptop.

John eyed the camera thoughtfully. "You sure this is going to work?"

"Hey, look. I'm on my computer," Rodney grinned, before frowning. "Sheppard, why are you pointing your gun towards me?"

John immediately moved the gun away, watching as the screen reflected the sudden change and responding accordingly. "Drats, my plan was foiled again."

Rodney rolled his eyes. "Har-har. Very funny."

"I thought so," John chirped. "So, we good now?"

Rodney hesitated. "Yeah. It looks like the camera is coming in good. It shouldn't take me too long to get the right schematic up."

John nodded. "Alright. I'll be back. Make sure to stay down and out of sight. I shouldn't be gone too long." He turned and walked back to the exit, his gun already up and ready albeit a bit heavier.

"Sheppard?"

John paused and turned to look at Rodney. His friend was giving him a look, eyes tight, mouth drawn, his eyes staring at him beseechingly.

"You too," John murmured softly.

Rodney watched as John stepped out of the room and into the hallway, his heart pounding loudly in his chest. Stopping himself from mulling on thoughts that were better left alone, he turned back to his computer. Making sure to keep the screen that was connected to the camera up he turned back to the schematics.

Time to get to work.

It didn't take too long to get what he wanted. Longer than usual as he was constantly looking at the camera screen, behind him, and then back to the list of files. But after much cursing and ranting, he managed to get exactly what he needed up. He quickly turned to the camera, finding what he was looking for.

"I-I think I got the schematic of the building. You see that hole several yards away?"

0 hours