Snarls, screams and sheiks followed Greer into the darkness with the spread of a raging river, James and Scott watched as their friend vanished out of sight, they felt guilty but knew they couldn't go after him in the dark.
"What the hell are those things?" Lieutenant James yelped as soon as they were all up the ladder.
"Be quiet." Scott quickly shot back in a frantic half whisper. "They'll hear us."
Rush sat slumped on the floor with Cressida crying quietly into his chest but that didn't stop him from hypothesising on the creatures.
"We found evidence in the soil, a mass quantity of a chemical I can't identify, I'm not a chemist. It's such a thick layer that I'd say it fell with the bombs, Volker found that nothing here is edible either. These people were wiped out by a chemical attack... those affected must have turned into those things."
"Is the air safe to breathe?" James asked quickly.
"Yeah." Said an exhausted Volker who'd collapsed on the ground only a foot away from Rush and his daughter. "The cloud would have dispersed after so many years, it's all in the soil and the plant life now."
"So we're in our own little zombie apocalypse?" James continued.
"They don't seem too smart." Varro added. "They make up for that with homicidal rage it seemed."
Changing the subject Corporal Barnes began to speak only to have Volker interrupt.
"We have to go and get Greer-"
"No, we need to get the bloody hell off this planet."
Scott took a few steps towards the blonde doctor, Cress continued to cry into her father's arms.
Volker grumbled but said no more on the matter, just crossed his arms and sulked, he was scared, they all were but that didn't mean they could start yelling and freaking out. He mumbled something about a fire but Varro shut him down quickly.
"We can't risk building a fire, there's nothing to light up here and more importantly those creatures would see it. A fire would be like ringing a dinner bell."
Meanwhile Cress gripped Rush's oversized camo jacket tight and continued to sob, she'd never see something like the monsters before, not even the Nakai had frightened her so much. The bone-white skin that just hung off their bones, bits of blackened flesh caught in their teeth and soulless eyes; it was horrifying. Their snarls still rang through her little head and her over-active imagination had already presented her with images of one of bogeymen clambering up onto the roof with the savage intention of ripping her from her father's arms.
"Sush, you're alright." Rush tried to comfort his girl and Cress knew she needed to bequiet. "You didn't cry when you woke up in the infirmary, did you?"
"No." She sniffled.
"Because you're brave just like your Mother and stubborn like me." He was pleased when she laughed ever so slightly through the tears. "I'm not telling you to stop crying, I know that's hard but I need you to do it into my chest, okay? Be as quiet as possible."
Cressida did just that, pressed her face into his chest and mumbled something that sounded like an okay.
James and Scott looked around the reasonably small rooftop while Varro watched the ladder with Corporal Barnes. There was a tower in one corner that had almost completely been destroyed along with what had once been a stairwell, it was too dangerous to risk using meaning that the ladder was the only way back down. Other than themselves there was nothing else up there. The buildings that surrounded them had half fallen or were just piles of broken rock and metal, they couldn't hop to another roof and there were no other ladders.
Returning to the others they found Cress had managed to quiet her tears to little hiccups and everything in Vanessa James told her to comfort the little girl but she doubted Rush would appreciate it. Volker continued to look annoyed and scared but he would never admit to it.
"Looks like that ladder is the only way down." Said Scott.
going Rush." Volker mumbled under his breath but everyone heard him.
"No. He did the right thing, we're all alive up here and they can't see us." No one was more surprised than Rush to find James sticking up for him.
"It's probably a stupid question but do you think we could sneak past them?" Asked Varro. Night had completely descended leaving nothing but black and thick cloud cover. Rush sighed.
"You found them somewhere dark right?"
James nodded. " Yeah, it looked like huge storage room of some kind."
"And we found a caved in tunnel system near the gate, they came up out of there." Varro added.
"As soon as the sun went down enough for shadows to take over those things just came running like they'd been waiting."
"Volker makes a good point." That was probably the only time Rush would ever say that. "These things are clearly nocturnal, maybe before the chemical maybe after, I don't know." He paused for a moment in thought before speaking again. "Let's suppose for a moment that this was an all out chemical war, whoever bombed these people probably expected everyone to die quickly but clearly that didn't happen."
"Those things used to be people." Cress muttered while wiping away the last of her tears.
Rush nodded. "Twisted and broken to the point that they've got nothing but rage left."
"So it is a zombie apocalypse."
"No, Lieutenant James. They're not dead, years have passed since this war meaning that if they'd died their bodies would have decayed to nothingness."
"I don't care what they are." Scott cut in with a grumpy tone. "Or how they got like this." He sighed. "Rush, do you have any idea how we get past them?"
"Daytime." Cressida said before Rush got a chance to open his mouth.
"What?"
"She's right. Daytime, as I said those things seem nocturnal so during the day they'd be asleep somewhere nice and dark. We could make a run for it then."
Right, okay. We can't do anything about it tonight then and there's no way we're leaving without Greer. We just have to hunker down for the night. I'll take first watch with James, Varro and Barnes you can take over."
Scott wondered why Destiny hadn't dialled the gate and contacted them but he didn't want to cause more panic and worry by mentioning it to the others, none of them had asked about it and he was willing to keep quiet for a while longer.
XXXX
"Where the hell are they?!" Chloe stormed into the gate room fists clenched in worry. "They've been gone for hours."
Chloe's panicked tone drew the attention of everyone in the gate room, Brody may have jumped a little. In seconds TJ was by the worried mother's side in an attempt to comfort her while Camile just continued to stare at the gate off in her own little world.
"Brody, have you got any further with the gate?" Young asked in a deep voice full of stress.
"No." The engineer said quickly without looking up from the control terminal "It's not a problem at our end, there's something wrong with the other gate. I'm sorry but there's nothing I can do from here to establish a wormhole."
"Rush'll figure something out." TJ offered a reassuring smile but Chloe was still halfway between panic and concern.
Suddenly Camile spun around to face the other four people in the room. Somehow the engines seemed quieter than usual which only added to Chloe's discomfort, she'd come to find Destiny's background noise reassuring.
"Could we send the shuttle down?" Camile spoke like all problems were solved.
I'm Sighed Young. "Scott and Greer have the best experience with the shuttle, I don't want to risk anyone else."
"It wouldn't matter anyway, Sir." Brody muttered. "The planet's atmosphere is extraordinary thick to cope with this system's sun, the shuttle's shields wouldn't be able to handle it after leaving Destiny. To put it simply the shuttle would burn up."
"So there's no way to get them back?" Camile deflated.
TJ shot a glare at Camile in warning but she didn't seem to notice, the blonde could feel Chloe's tension growing, TJ knew exactly how she felt.
"I'm sure Rush will fix what ever it is, you know how he is."
There was silence for a moment, nothing but steady breaths and Brody tapping away to fill the dark room.
"Mister Brody I want you to look at getting the shields on the shuttle improved, if Rush and the other's don't return soon we'll have no choice but to send the shuttle."
"Who'll pilot it?" Asked Camile.
"I will. I won't risk anyone else and I'm the only other person who can fly it."
With an unconvinced yes sir Brody vanished off to find Volker and figure out some way to increase the shuttle's shield capacity, it certainly wasn't going to be an easy job – then again on Destiny nothing was easy – and it would take far longer than Young seemed to realise especially with Rush gone and Park still out of commission; Brody hated to admit it but he would have been grateful for Cressida's help.
Once the engineer had left the room Young ran a large hand through his dark locks dusted with grey and turned to Chloe, she feared for her child that much was obvious.
"Chloe, I know you're worried and want us to go now but-" She cut him off softly.
"I understand. That doesn't mean I like it though."
He rested a hand on her shoulder. "Scott and Cressida will be back soon, I promise."
And Rush she added in her head, her worry mainly circled around her daughter but Chloewould be lying if she said they weren't also for Doctor Rush. Chloe didn't want to think about that just now.
The bridge was where the dark-haired woman felt closest to Cress and Rush, they spent more time there than anywhere else on the ship, that was how she found herself walking in and down the steps towards Brody and a disgruntled looking Volker. Chloe could imagine Rush sat in the command chair with Cress atop his knee looking at equations and bits of Ancient as they translated it; that made her smile. Chloe wanted her daughter back... Rush back... and Matt of course her mind quickly added.
With a gargantuan sigh Brody began to speak jolting Chloe from her thoughts.
"It's going to take absolute ages to upgrade the shields. We could really use your help."
Chloe's help would save them a great deal of time, but she couldn't help but wonder if he was trying to take her mind of things, Adam Brody caring and concerned? There was just something in his over the top sigh and over dramatised that it seemed more for her benefit than his, either way she agreed to help him.