NON REVERSABLE EFFECTS
CH9
"Nick!"
My eyes snapped open, and my head jerked with a jolt of surprise. "Shit!" I cursed as my head smashed into the something hard with a clang. I looked around to find myself in a metal cage, surrounded by other cages. The set up was like it is in a dog pound or something. Of course I was still naked, not having my clothes when I fell in that frigin' hole in the ground. Only my dog-tags dangled from around my neck.
"Nick!"
My name was called again and I peered out of my cage. Across from me, one cage to the right was—believe it or not—Daniel.
"Daniel? What the Hell!" I exclaimed.
He just shook his head at my language. "Are you all right?" he asked.
I nodded, despite the fact that I knew my ankle was twisted and that we were both captured by god knows who. "What about you?"
"Just fine." he said—and despite himself—slightly sarcastic. "Where's the rest of SG-3?" he asked in concern.
"I have no idea. They could still be on the Planet, completely unaware that I'm even missing, or they could be here somewhere too."
He nodded.
"Where's the rest of SG-1?" I asked. "Something bad hasn't happened, right?"
"You mean besides the fact that we were captured?" he asked. I put the sarcasm due to the situation.
"I am here, Nicholas." intoned Teal'c's voice; on my side of the wall, farther down near the end. "I am uninjured."
"What about Colonel Carter and Colonel Mitchell?" I asked when I didn't hear anyone else speak up.
"Sam wasn't here when we woke up." Daniel told me, his voice laced with worry. "And Mitchell was taken away sometime ago by two guys in a masks." Daniel had on a thoughtful expression for a moment. "They looked Human as far as I could tell, and they were huge—bigger than Teal'c."
I nodded, putting that little sliver of knowledge away for later—just in case there was a chance to escape. "It that all?" I asked. "There's been no leader or anyone in charge? No one's come in here and explained why we were captured or anything?" I asked.
Daniel shook his head, but Teal'c was the one to say the obvious answer. "They have not."
I peered through the bars at Daniel, finally noticing something. "You have clothes." I said like an idiot, the look Daniel sent me confirmed it.
"They took away most of it." he told me. "Our vests, weapons, packs, our boot laces, belts, everything metal—our dog tags. My glasses, pants zippers, all that is left is material."
At the mention of dog tags my hand went up to my neck, and instead of feeling dog tags like I had originally thought were there, I felt what unbelievingly felt like a collar. I ran my fingers over the wide surface. It felt to be two inches wide made of something like leather I think. I stuck my fingers in the space between the collar and neck, trying to see if I could yank in off or something, but instead of that happening it administrated a shock. My muscles seized and my nerves alit, I collapsed to the floor of the cage not able to move. It was like I was paralyzed.
From the corner of my eye I could see Daniel a wince and flash of guilt cross his face. "I should have told you about that." he admitted.
"Ya think!" I said with a clenched jaw.
It was about three minutes before I could move again, I was up and had my hands wrapped around the bars in front of me. With all the strength that I could muster—which was actually quite a bit—I yanked and pulled on the bars, either trying to rip them out or pry them open. Neither worked—I didn't really think they would, seeing as Teal'c would already be out if it had—and it pissed me off. Daniel looked at with concern I yelled and lashed out with my feet.
Mistake on my part, seeing as my ankle was screwed up, but in my sudden flare of anger it was forgotten. At least until my foot connected with the bar and a zing of pain shot through my ankle. This time I yelled out in pain, my eyes watering.
"Nick?" Daniel called out in a panic. "What's wrong?"
"I'm fine." I ground out, holding my ankle gently in my lap and sounding anything but. "I think I twisted it when I fell into that trap."
"Why didn't you say anything?" he demanded.
"Right!" I scoffed, looking out through the bars at him. "Because the instant that I said something, I would get medical treatment."
Daniel's nostrils flared slightly and he narrowed his eye, but said nothing.
"Look," I told him. "Once we get out of here and back to the SGC—with Colonel Carter and Mitchell, I'll get it looked at. And once this door opens, whoever is on the other side is dead."
"I agree." Teal'c spoke up and that was when Daniel finally nodded. He never did like any type of confrontation. But when our own were in danger, all bets were off.
Silence surrounded us until I heard a faint clang-click, like a heavy steel door being open. I knew I was right when there were two sets of foot steps approaching and the very faint sound of something being dragged. I braced myself, ready to go on the offensive the instant the opportunity presented itself. But I faltered when the owners of the footsteps came into view. Both of them were huge, just like Daniel had said, they actually looked like those huge henchmen-bodyguards that you see in the movies. They were what looked like medical scrubs that were covered in what looked to be old and fresh blood stains. Their faces were masked, so I couldn't make out any features to distinguish the two of them. Though the one thing that I could tell, was that they were Human, male and were like zombies.
But it hadn't been the sight of them that had made me falter, not in the least. It was the fact that they were dragging, Colonel Mitchell between them. And even then that wasn't the precise fact that caused me pause, but the fact that he was naked, had the collar around his neck, he was covered in blood and what looked like claw marks. He was barely even conscious as they the cage door next to Daniel's was buzz open and they just tossed him in before shutting the door again. Mitchell rolled with the force, hitting the back of the cage with a grunt.
The two henchmen—Bill and Bob is what I'm going to refer to them as—stood in front of Daniel's cage, who had backed up into farthest corner of the cage that he could. Bob was looking at him, about to buzz the cage door open when Bill grabbed his arm and shook his head. Bob seemed to make a grunting sound, nodded his head and pointed to Daniel. Bill shook his head will force, and empathically made a gesture at me. I looked at them with wide eyes as they seemed to agree that their next plan of action was to take me to wherever it was that they had taken Mitchell.
"Shit." I cursed as they turned and came to stand in front of my cage. I readied myself just as my door was buzzed open and they reached inside to grab me. I lashed out, punching Bill with a force. It was like punching rock and I was sure that I broke a knuckle. They grabbed my arms and pulled me out, before I could ignore the pain and wind up for another swing.
I struggled in their grip, adrenaline taking away the pain from my ankle and hand. They nearly had me to the door when I Changed—I didn't want to do this in the beginning because either the collar would choke me death or it would shock me again. So I didn't really Change—I tried to and the collar around my neck sent another wave through me. It didn't help my cause of escape because I was now temporally paralyzed. This made it easier for the enemy to drag me off to the place of their choice without any resistance.