Night had fallen and Atlantis was under lockdown sitting in a tumultuous sea.
"Any word from Colonel Sheppard's team?" Carter asked as she walked in from her office to the control room.
Zelenka walked from one control console to another and in mid-stride muttered something in Czech and then looked up at Sam and said, "No word, and we have no way to override the city's safety protocols of the shield to send out a shuttle. Nor would we want to at this time…" he paused to look out the window at the sea bucking and pummeling the city's shield.
"You said the city registered a magnitude 7 earthquake on the mainland. I didn't even know we had that sensor capability," asked Sam.
"No, neither did I. Nevertheless, the city recognized it somehow and because of the strength it knew to set the shields. It has located the epicenter of the quake here." He said as he pointed to a map of the northern section of the mainland.
"How far was our team from there?"
"According to my calculations, they must have been 10 miles from it."
"Oh my…"
"I know…we can only hope that the city will shutdown the shield soon…I fear for their safety too."
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Although the shuttle was about a half a mile away, it certainly seemed to Teyla that she was not making very good time. The darkness impaired her speed, not to mention that the already rough path back was strewn with felled trees and open chasms at almost every step. Still, she felt a big relief when she spied the top of the shuttle from behind a hill.
Teyla clicked the remote to open the door and ran in. Pressing the radio com she took a breath and tried to hail Atlantis, "Atlantis, this is Teyla, please come in…"
She was met with static. "Atlantis, do you read?" She paused again and still nothing. "Atlantis if you can hear me…this is Teyla…we were caught in an earthquake…Dr. McKay is badly hurt. Both he and Colonel Sheppard are in a crevasse. Ronon is working on a way to lift them out. Atlantis…if you read this please come in."
Teyla lifted off the radio comm…and nothing. She felt useless and didn't feel like it would be worth waiting to see if by chance the radio would start working, so she headed to the back of the jumper and gathered supplies from the medical kit. She quickly stuffed them in her pack and as she did so she felt the ground lurch. She clung to the supply netting as the jumper decided to suddenly moved up and fall on its side.
Luckily, Teyla's grip saved her from being tossed around too violently…yet she knew that there would be some livid bruises from slamming into the wall. She shook it off and got reoriented. This was certainly not good, but there was nothing she could do to resituate the jumper on her own.
Aftershock…the word popped into her head and she quickly gathered herself, closed up the jumper as she ran back to her teammates. As there would be no foreseeable help from Atlantis any time soon…she ran with determination to be that sole help to her friends. Her only hope was that that last tremor didn't do more harm.
With that thought she exploded with a burst of energy.
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Back down the trail from the shuttle Ronon had started a fire, not so much for the warmth but to be able to see as he finished the backboard and below him sat Sheppard who was trying to check Rodney for any other injuries by the light of a homemade torch Ronon had kindly lowered down to him.
With the shock abated, Sheppard pulled his jacket off of Rodney and began to reassess the state of his friend. He had placed a bandage back over his right brow where the first had been torn off. Sheppard then scanned down his torso. He released the vest closures, unzipped his jacket and lifted up his shirt; noticed some bruising on Rodney's right side but upon prodding the area he was relieved to find no signs of broken ribs. Sheppard did however notice, upon re-zipping the jacket and moving on to the arms, that Rodney's right sleeve was wet. He noticed his fingers were covered in dried blood and imagined it came from grabbing his leg…yet he wanted to be sure his arm was ok as he did see the rock slam in to him. He gently pushed up his sleeve and was greeted with deep bruising and a few scratches but was nothing a quick wrap couldn't tend to for now.
Sheppard zipped up Rodney's jacket to keep him warm as the cool night air was settling in. He then moved down to the rest of his body. Then Sheppard noticed Rodney starting to stir.
"Hey, buddy. You with me?" Sheppard stopped tending to peer up into Rodney's face as his eyes fluttered open and he moaned softly.
"Oh god it hurts..." Rodney screwed up his face then took a long shaky inhale and on his exhale he tried to focus on John.
"I know Rodney…we are working on getting out of here, but first I need to finish checking you over." Sheppard went back to checking over Rodney's lower half and as he did he bumped into Rodney's right hip, which drew a pained cry from Rodney.
"I'm sorry Rodney, what hurts? What did I do?" Sheppard held up his hand and looked into Rodney's face waiting for a reply.
"My hip…god it's just my entire leg doesn't feel right." Rodney took his right hand and gripped his thigh. "My hip feels like it's out of place…and did you see my leg…it's broken."
Sheppard nodded, "yeah, well your whole leg is pretty messed up. I was just about to check the bandages and splint…remember I set your leg."
"Uh..oh..right."
"Let me check your hip." And with that Sheppard prodded away. Through it all Rodney cringed and fought not to cry out. "I think you've jammed it pretty good and probably the joint's inflamed from the impact of that rock. Seriously, what is it with you and rocks today any way, huh?" John said trying to alleviate the situation.
"Ha…mmm…I guess I just like to get stoned." Rodney tried to smile but it quickly faded from a grin to just bearing the pain. John chuckled at his wit despite the world of hurt. Rodney then looked back up at John and pleaded, "Listen, don't you have anything that can take the edge off here. This is killing me."
"All I have is Tylenol…I'm sorry I don't have anything stronger," Sheppard said as he dug it out of the pack.
"Prop me up," Rodney directed.
Sheppard slowly pulled him from under his arms so he could lean against the rocks wall.
Breathing hard from the move, Rodney took the Tylenol and greedily sucked down water from John's canteen. John, however, didn't miss the hands shaking and saw the water dribbling down Rodney's chin as a result.
"You haven't eaten anything since we left the jumper have you?" Sheppard asked concerned.
"No," said Rodney as he wiped his chin off with his sleeve.
"Here eat this," Sheppard handed him a power bar, the last he had on him.
Rodney shakily grabbed it and took a few bites.
"Better?" Sheppard asked Rodney.
"Better." Replied Rodney.
"Ronon," Sheppard stretched looking upwards. "How's that backboard coming?"
Ronon leaned over. "Ready when you are."
"Let's get out of here. Ready Rodney?"
"What, really, you all are going to haul me up on a backboard?" Rodney was concerned.
"Rodney, it's about a 12 to 15 feet trip, won't take no time at all.
"Easy for you to say your not the one taking this lovely journey strapped to who knows what."
Sheppard smiled and leaned back, "Ronon, lower it down."
"Oh, you can't be serious. That is nothing more than two tooth picks and dental floss."
"It's a little more substantial than that Rodney. Look, you'll be fine."
Rodney was so not prepared for what would entail being hauled up on that thing let alone just moving to get strapped to it.
John maneuvered the board as close to Rodney as he could then stepped over it and asked, "Ready?"
"I guess I have no other choice."
Sheppard knew this wasn't going to be easy going for his friend so he tried to be as gentle as possible.
First he picked up Rodney by his underarms, which put pressure on his leg and Rodney cried out. He lowered Rodney onto the board then moved down and ever so gently lifted Rodney's busted leg onto the board. In response Rodney's head threw back and with no energy left to produce any kind of sound…all you could hear were squeaks and fast-paced throated puffs.
"Oh p-please can't this be over already," Rodney looked to John with watery eyes with one tear tracking down the side of his face.
"Soon, I promise." Sheppard said as he secured Rodney. "Ronon, let's take this slow, ok."
Ronon inched it up while John tried to direct it's path to be straight and level. Once the board got to John's eye level Rodney looked at him with wide eyes.
"See you at the top." Rodney tried to show some strength through it all.
"I'll be right behind you." John told him.
Ronon kept inching it slowly up, but right when he had Rodney about two feet away from the edge an aftershock decided to hit and Ronon lost his footing and the board slammed into the cliff side sending waves of pain through Rodney. Ronon dug his heels in and rode out the tremor. He heard John telling Rodney to hang on and in the same breath telling Ronon to just quickly get him up. Ronon didn't question he just did. He was leveraging each pull with the aid of a tree and when he saw Rodney to the top he secured the rope around it and went to haul Rodney from dangling off the edge. That's when he noticed why John was urging to pick up the speed. Rodney's strap around his shoulders had broken and he was clinging on for dear life.
Ronon pulled him to safety and noticed Rodney had clamped down on Ronon's arm and didn't want to let go as Ronon moved him to the fire.
"Come McKay, snap out of it. You're ok. I gotcha."
Rodney came out of it and release Ronon's arm, looked up at him, his eyes then rolled back into his head and he passed out.
Ronon went back and threw a vine over for John to climb up. He only took minutes to get out. Once back on somewhat solid ground, he went to check on Rodney.
"How is he?" he asked Ronon.
"He passed out."
"Well at least that's over, I thought that tremor was going to send him back down. Nice work."
Ronon began to fix the broken strap on the board knowing that they would have to use this board in order to get Rodney out one way or another.
"I wonder if Teyla got through to Atlantis?" John asked aloud.
"I still can't get through on my radio," said Ronon.
"I wonder what is causing all the disturbance," John was at a loss.
John made sure Rodney's injuries were doing ok; while Ronon added more wood to the fire and then they both settled down next to their injured friend. Both anxiously awaiting Teyla and hoping some good news would accompany her arrival.
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TBC