Chapter Twelve

Ten Thousand Years Later

Year Two of the Expedition, 1453 hours(Atlantis Base Time)

The Wraiths dark blood still steamed in the cold night air as Kurt bent down beside Yanson. Kurt watched the mans shallow breathing. He breathed in and out steadily, his moist breath was a ploom of steam in the chilled night air. The large man from southern Ohio layed in the cold snow as his body was disabled from the Wraith stunner. His eyes flicked open and Yanson looked up at his superior officer.

"You got hit by a stunner. It'll be a bit before you can move properly," said Kurt calmly.

Kurt looked around in the surrounding forest. It was quiet and dark, shadows danced from the moonlight. The forest gave off an erie feel as he continued to watch off into the forest. He looked back to the body of the dead Wraith. All that remained in the snow was its dark blood that had cooled down and stopped steaming. His knife layed on the ground a few feet away, it was covered in blood.

Kurt got to his feet and raised his P-90, he scanned from shadow to shadow looking for the Wraith. It was gone, its bloody tracks led off into the forest and disappeared into the darkness. Kurt continued to look around at the dark forest.

Kurt continued to scan while he reached over and turned on his radios transmitter. "Swenson?" He listened intently. Nothing came in reply except the loud static. "Swenson...respond." The radio continued to crackle as Kurt waited for an answer.

"Lees not gonna make it if you don't hurry...how long till you use the DHD?"

Kurt frowned and turned to look off into the forest behind him. "The pilot of the Dart destroyed it before we could use it. Keep a heads up, hes out there somewhere. We shot him a couple of times, I want both of you to report in every ten minutes until me and Yanson get back."

The radio crackled a few times, it seemed to be an eternity before she responded to her superior. "Copy that," her voice had a quiet sound to it. It was almost a whisper, Kurt knew why.

Without the Darts DHD they had no chance of saving Lee. He was already dead but he didn't know it yet. He would bleed out in a matter of minutes without immeadate treatment. Kurt felt a wave of sadness come over him as the realization of losing another team member finally hit him. Since he had arrived with Colonel Everett in Atlantis, Kurt had lost three men who were members of his team. He had lost one of his men in Atlantis during the seige, his team had pinned a Wraith down and it had blewn itself up, killing two of his men.

The last man was to a Genii ambush that they had stumbled across on a planet. They were trying to search for ZPMs when the Genii had attacked. The weapons they used were similar to the weapons that the expedition used, in the fact that they fired bullets. But other then that, the weapons were old and very poorly kept. They were similar to weapons that had been around during the 1950s on Earth. They were accurate to a degree and good at fair distances.

The Genii also possessed many weapons that were more destructive then that though. They had successfully created an Atomic bomb and were going to use them in a decade. But when they had learned that Sheppard had awoken the Wraith, they had become violent and tried to kill his team. After that, every single encounter with the Genii was always hostile. They had even taken the city of Atlantis at one point. But thanks to Colonel Sheppard the city had remained in the expedtions hands. The Genii seemed to want to kill all the expedition members they came across.

Kurt smiled at his like for fighting the Genii over the Wraith. The Genii were humans just like them, but the Wraith were much worse. They were more advanced and had far supperior numbers then them. And even worse they ate humans for food. Kurt shook as his head as he thought about all the petty problems that humans had. They should unite and stand against their enemy as one, but he was not a fool and knew that would never happen. Humans never stayed united for long, when they did manage to work together. People always found reasons for the mutual partnership to end.

Kurt looked over at Yanson, "Hey can you talk yet?"

Yanson opened his mouth and a gurlged sound came out. He closed his mouth and smiled embarressed at his lack of healing. Kurt walked over to Yanson and nodded. "Its alright, can you move anything else yet?"

He shook his head and looked off into the forest. Kurt followed his gaze and saw the shine from something. His hands moved before he could even develop the thought of what he was looking at. It occured to him it was the Wraith running when he pulled the trigger and the gun shook with every shot. The recoil shook the gun and shot casings out to the ground from the bottom of the gun. The trees near the Wraith splintered and trees limps were cut clean off by the bullets that sped to their target. The air filled with dust from the splintered trees. The Wraith disappeared into the darkness again and Kurt moved to chase it but stopped.

He couldn't leave Yanson like this, what if the Wraith doubled back and caught him without the ability to move? He couldn't let another of his men get killed like that. Kurt frowned and looked off at the darkness. Nothing moved in the darkness except the slight chilly breeze in the night air. It blew through the trees and knocked snow from their limbs. They fell and hundreds of snowflakes blew in the direction of the wind.

Kurt looked back at Yanson, "we need to move back to Swenson and Lee soon."