Tegan's Point Of View:
"Rodders I'm fine, I promise. See, look, all ten fingers, ten toes and my heads still on the right way." I sighed exasperatedly, looking up to see him frowning at me,
"I still think you should talk to the-"
"Rodney, I am not talking with someone about my mental capabilities. Besides you know I hate counsellors, I am fine for gods sake." I grumbled. John raised an eyebrow, as if to say he didn't believe me either and I shot him a glare so deadly a cobra would have quivered. Teyla cleared her throat to stop us from bickering as Rodney smirked,
"Yes well, I heard you were a wreck without me." he gloated. Snorting into my soup, I had to cough as I choked on the warm liquid I'd somehow managed to inhale. After a few gulps of water I managed to calm down and grinned back at him,
"Of course I was Rodney, who would fix my laptop if you weren't around?" I asked, making Ronon chuckle under his breath and Teyla smile. Since Rodney's operation, things had gone more or less back to normal. We hadn't been off-world in two weeks though after Woolsey insisted we take the time off to recover and get back to normal. Personally, killing a few wraith would have had me sorted out within the 24 hour mark but orders were orders.
John stood suddenly after being called via the radio and gave us a nod of farewell before leaving the room. Rodney stood too, looking awkward,
"I should...probably go and talk to Carson, he's leaving today." he said with a frown. Oh yes, Carson Beckett had been the doctor here before Keller had arrived. He'd died before the infamous Elizabeth Weir had but the hybrid wraith Michael had made a clone of him that we'd found last year, apparently he'd been frozen until they could find a cure for his celluar degeneration and now that we'd found it (and he'd spent some time working here to battle the effects of the Hoffan drug that Michael had forced him to create) he realised he wanted to go home instead. He left soon after John had and Teyla finished her lunch soon after, leaving me and Ronon alone to finish ours. Chewing thoughtfully on my bread after mopping up my last bit of tomato soup, I was startled into reality when Ronon's gruff voice asked me,
"You sure you're okay? You were worse off when he was...out of it." Looking up I sighed and nodded,
"I know none of you believe me but really, I am okay. I just...I've lost so many people in my life Ronon that I...I don't even want to contemplate losing Rodney, losing any of you." he shrugged a little,
"We've got nine lives, least I think that's what Sheppard said." I laughed a little and nodded, gulping down the rest of my water and wandering when John had taught Ronon the whole nine lives of a cat thing, and just what else he had taught him with it.
My radio crackled to life in my ear and I tapped it, answering with the formal,
"Lieutenant James, go ahead."
"James, hey, do me a favour and come down to the armoury will you? You me and Beckett are going somewhere." John said mysteriously. Frowning a little I agreed and stood up,closing the channel and shrugging at Ronon,
"Going on a mystery adventure with Sheppard apparently, see you later Ronon." Waving at him, I turned on my heel and left for the armoury as asked, sighing to myself along the way. There had been something off between me and John recently. I still called him Sheppard around the team like he still called me James but whenever we were alone it was first name basis. But for the past week he'd been distant with me, almost as if he was pushing me away, or maybe I was doing it to him because I'd done it plenty of times before and it was probably a subconcious survival instinct of mine. We used to train together almost everyday but not this week, this week I'd been on my own and we didn't seem to speak as often as we used to either, at least not since I'd been that crying mess that I had never wanted him to see. He had been the one person though that hadn't ran away, other than Rodney. He'd stayed, he'd comforted me, he'd talked through it with me and he hadn't pitied me like everyone else had. But now it seemed like he realised what a mess I actually was and didn't want to come near me, the thought broke me more than the events of my past had.
The armoury was full of chatter between Beckett and John when I got there, John giving me an awkward nod before letting me gear up in peace. Whenever I met his eyes now, there was conflict within them, as if he was constantly debating something in his head when I was around. Clipping my P-90 to my tac vest, I walked out with them and stood before the gate, "So where are we headed?" I asked, trying to create conversation.
"Major Teldy's team seem to think they've stumbled upon one of Michael's many labs, we're headed out to take a look." John said without looking at me. A twinge of pain ran through my chest and I frowned. Instead of replying, I turned my attention to Beckett, perhaps John was just having a bad day. Or a bad week.
"I don't think we've met yet, Lieutenant Tegan James, it's a pleasure. I've heard a lot about you from Rodney Doctor Beckett." my voice was polite, a smile on my face as I extended a hand and heard the gate dial up infront of us. Beckett shook my hand with a nod and a smile,
"Pleasure's all mine lass, Rodney talks very highly of you too." he replied. Looking up at the shimmering blue wormhole I smiled, it was good to be going off world again, even if not all of my team where here with me. My foot fell through the puddle and onto solid ground. All around me were trees, moss, hard packed dirt floors, fallen twigs and leaves, so it was safe to say we were in a forest.
The forest was dry and the day was overcast but the light still filtered through the leaves. The planet had quite a mild temeperature but I knew if I kept moving I wouldn't get chilly. We hiked for a while, over large tree roots and up mounds of dirt, keeping in touch with Teldy's team via John's radio. We spoke about this and that, Beckett asked me a few questions about Scotland and what it was like when I left England and I told him as much as I could remember. After two hours of trekking from the gate, we finally met up with Teldy's team. The boys looked completely preplexed but I just smirked, knowing I'd definitely get along with these girls just fine. Teldy's team was entirely composed of women, and the thought seemed to baffle John and Beckett.
"Colonel Sheppard sir." Teldy greeted him with a respectful salute and a nod my way. I returned her salute, after all she was my superior. "This is my team, Doctor Porter, Captain Vega, and Sergeant Mehra. The lab is this way." she said, very buisness like and formal. John and Beckett were just starring at the woman, I cleared my throat,
"What's the matter Sheppard? Never heard of girl power?" I said with a smirk, Vega was smirking with me as John snapped his gaze to me, the look clearly said shut up.
"Lead the way." he invited and stepped up beside Teldy as they turned and walked away.
Me and Vega were bringing up the rear, everyone else ahead of us. We were getting along just fine, and I knew this was a woman I could easily become friends with if I tried.
"So, seems like there's a bit of bad blood between you and Sheppard, if you don't mind me saying." that's what I liked about Vega, she was sharp, like a knife, always cutting straight to the point, she didn't sugar coat things. Brutal honesty was something I liked. Shrugging slightly I made up the same excuse that had been in my head for the past week,
"He's just having a bad day. Where's Michael's lab on the creepy factor?" I asked curiously. She grimaced at me,
"Honestly? About a seven." she admitted. We walked in companionable silence for a while until we finally got to the lab. It was in an underground cave network, dark and poorly lit looking a bit like a nightmare tunnel, you know the ones you get chased down by monsters in the dark but never seem to end. There were machines and computer terminals dotted around and stasis chambers in the wall; it fit the creepy lab description to at T. The place was lit in an eerie green colour and the terminals were covered in the usual things from wraith hive ships, like the gooey light pink webbing and black, hard, shell like construction material.
Beckett was straight at a terminal while every instinct in my body screamed wrong! Every one of my cells was screaming at me to turn around and walk away from here, this place was bad, bad things had happened here and bad things were still to come. An uneasy weight settled in the pit of my stomach and a frown marred my face.
"Sheppard?" I called his name and watched him turn around and walk over. The conflict was still in his eyes, like he was debating whether or not to actually talk to me. Keeping his face stoic he asked me what was wrong, so I explained, under the impression that he'd listen. "I really don't think this is a good idea, we shouldn't be here, it's giving me a bad vibe. Do we know what went on here?" Sheppard just sighed,
"Stop being paranoid. You can't tell me you've got bad vibes whenever we enter a creepy looking place." he replied. My eyebrows rose,
"Do you remember the last bad vibe I got?" I quizzed him, watching him with disbelief colouring my voice. He smelled like apples, as always, and it was a god send when you compared it to the stench of rotting flesh and damp that this cave seemed to reek of.
"That was just a coincidence. Get over it, we need to check this out so pair up with Vega or something and get moving."he said firmly. Narrowing my eyes slightly I watched him put his threatening leader face on. "That's an order Lieutenant." his voice was no nonsense and I had no choice but to obey. Nodding, I walked away and turned on the torch attached to my p-90. It didn't make sense, bad week or not John was always fair, he listened if anyone was concerned, especially when that person was a teammate.
My muscles tightened and my senses went on high alert as I carefully stepped into the long tunnel of stasis pods. Vega and Mehra were a little furthur down, looking inside one of the pods. Shuffling closer I peered inside one myself. It was foggy, but I could make out a silhouette inside. It looked human, but I didn't want to risk opening it up and finding out. Stepping back from the pod I let out a breath of air and wrinkled my nose, this place really needed an air freshner. Vega gave me a grim 'I told you so' look that I replied too with a nod.
"Sir, there was a village a few miles out, do you think it's worth checking out?" Vega asked. John looked thoughtful for a second before he nodded,
"Could be, come on, you me and Teldy will go. Mehra, James, stay here with Beckett and Porter." he ordered. Forcing the suprise off of my face I nodded and turned away. Normally he always kept his team close, if Ronon wasn't around, me and Teyla were his choice for accompaniment and he would never make us stay if we weren't comfortable and had the option to leave. Shaking it off, I leaned against the wall and settled in for a long wait. I wasn't a child, I wasn't going to get pissy over being left behind.
Irritation was seeping through me, irritation and boredom which was not a good combination because my boredom made me feel even more irritated. That irritation soon boiled over into frustration. As nice as Beckett was, he was driving me mad. The flirting between him and Doctor Porter was sickening. I was never one for caution. If I liked someone, I told them, I didn't do the whole flirting thing in the hopes they'd notice because I was too afraid to come out and say yeah I like you! Rolling my eyes slightly, I watched as Beckett radioed John.
"Colonel Sheppard, there's a lot more information for us to go through, we should stay the night, has the village got enough room for the rest of us?" he asked, his scottish accent comforting me with it's gentility. My ears perked up at that, hiking meant a distraction and I was so hoping he said yes. Beckett nodded a little and began to pack up stuff, I raised an eyebrow.
"We headed to the village doc?" I asked. He nodded,
"Aye, we're staying for the night so we can come back tomorrow." he informed me. Mehra and I waited by the door and we watched the doctors pack up the equipment before they joined us. The sun was just beginning to set, burning the sky a bright orange as we hiked towards the village with Mehra leading the way. The doctors were just ahead of us.
We were deathly silent, neither of us saying a word. The only sound was the twigs snapping beneath our feet and the air was awkwardly tense without conversation to lighten the mood. The sky became a deep, burnt orange colour and it was almost dark by the time we went into the village. It looked deserted, but it would have been colourful once I presumed, perhaps with a little market and children running about too. But now there was no one. Everything was grey, gloomy and depressing. That uneasy weight in my stomach was getting heavier the furthur in we went. Vega was waving us towards a house and we started towards her, hurrying into the house that was just as gloomy on the inside as it was on the outside. The deserted run down houses and the old abandoned well made a shiver run down my spine, it was like something from a horror movie. The thing about wells, was that they really creeped me out for no reason what so ever.
"We should head to the next village, get some supplies. Teldy, Vega, you're with me." John ordered, brushing past me as he walked out. Mehra, myself, Beckett and Porter were left alone again with a last apologetic look from Vega.
The house was clearly abandoned, the wood was rotting but still structurally sound at least. The cupboards and shelves were empty and there was just enough room for all of us if we squished up together. For a while, there was nothing but the annoying sound of flirting from Porter and Beckett. I was stood leaning against the doorframe, looking at the outside world and trying to imagine it as a village that was bustling, teeming with happy human life. But there was nothing but the inky black sky above me, speckled with stars that shone down and shimmered over the grey shadowy buildings. I was too tense to sleep. Footsteps alerted me to someone apporaching me from behind and I turned to see Mehra. She compeltely ignored me but stood beside me. I decided to change our cold relationship if I could.
"You finally got bored of their flirting too huh?" I asked, my voice too light to be serious. But Mehra just shot me a distasteful look that had my eyebrows raising on my head and didn't say a word in reply. In the distance, there were gunshots that echoed through the empty silence, shattering it. The noise hung in the air for a minute, my breath catching in my throat and my heart stuttering before speeding up in my chest. Raising my P-90 I looked out and scanned the horizon, watching some sort of fog spilling over the side of the well, fog that was impossible to see through. It was spilling over the floor like water and creeping out in every direction, filling the square.
"Colonel Sheppard, can you hear me?" Beckett asked, sounding worried. I listened attentively, straining my ears to hear any kind of noise. "Colonel Sheppard?" he tried again. My stomach lurched, was John okay? He better be, the image of John shot into swiss cheese flashed through my mind and I gagged a little on the bile rising in the back of my throat. "Nothing but static." he reported. Mehra set her face in a determined frown and began moving towards the open door.
"Where are you going?" I asked, forcing myself to stay focused and shake off the dreadful image. She looked back at me and carried on towards the door,
"I'm going to look for our people." she shot back. My eyebrows rose, I was her superior here, which meant that with no way of contacting the others I was in charge now. Shaking my head I put my arm across the doorway to stop her.
"No, we stay here. The fog out there is too thick to see through, we wait here and we'll look when the fog clears." I said firmly. She scoffed and pushed past me, the fog wasn't as dense on the step, but it soon swallowed her up,
"I don't have to take orders from you." she called over her shoulder haughtily. Narrowing my eyes I stepped out onto the porch but I was unable to go any furthur,
"I rank above you, that makes me your superior, you follow my orders! Mehra get back here! Come back now, that's an order!" I yelled into the fog, but Mehra didn't reply.
Slamming my palm against the door frame I turned to look at the doctors, they both looked visibly shocked and anxious. Inhaling deeply, I sighed, "You two stay here, I need to find Mehra, keep trying to contact the others. Take this, anyone that isn't me, Vega, Teldy, Mehra or Sheppard, shoot." I said, handing Beckett my side arm. He took it with a nod, his eyes soft,
"Be careful out there lass." he muttered. Nodding once I headed to the door and grimaced at the dense fog.
"Shut the door, keep it locked...don't open it for anyone unless you know for certain it's one of us." I instructed. He nodded and did as I asked, the door clicking shut as he locked it behind me. Turning, I took a deep breath and raised my P-90. Shock horror, my torch flickered but didn't turn on, of course it was dead. Swallowing back my fear I let a shaky breath escape my lips. Scanning my surroundings, I kept my footfalls silent as possible. Everything around me was white fog, thick white fog that swirled creepily and had the fear sending butterflies through my stomach. "Mehra! Mehra where are you!" I called out, my voice echoing through the empty night. There was no way she was getting lost on my watch. There was no reply. My heart was hammering in my chest and pounding painfully against my ribs; it took all my willpower to stop my hands from trembling. "Mehra!" I called out again, this time louder as I continued to walk blindly through the fog.
Something moved, a shadow of sorts that slid through the fog like a snake. My heart hammering, I cautiously walked forward and saw it wasn't Mehra at all. It wasn't anyone from my crew. The shadow wasn't big, but it was slightly hunched over, twisting it's head in an almost snake like manner to look around, it was half crouched like it was ready to attack. Even from here I could see it had long claws, at least three inches long and on each finger. Stepping away carefully I tried not to make any sound, but my foot snapped a twig, and the shadows head snapped my way. Turning on my heel I ran and pressed my back against the side of a building, sinking to the floor where I tried to stay silent as my heart jumped into my throat. Somewhere, there was a ticking noise. It was coming closer and closer, like a clock that had grown legs and was stalking me through the fog. Slowly, I turned my head to look around and saw it, crawling down the wall like Spiderman towards me. It was a monster. There was no other word to describe it. It looked like the skin from it's forehead had been sewn over it's eyes, making it blind. The skin was pale, almost grey in colour with dark veins sticking out, it's teeth were more like fangs and looked deadly. A small squeak of terror escaped me, my eyes were wide with panic as it looked directly at me. My breathe was shaky and I watched the fog spill from...were they gills? Yeah, gills, the fog was coming from gills on each side of it's neck. It slowly began to crawl back the other way and without thinking, I let out a sigh of relief. Suddenly, the creature turned back around and started coming towards me, faster than anything with two legs I'd ever seen had ever moved. I didn't have enough time to raise my P-90, so instead I screamed and threw my arms up over my head in a vain attempt to protect myself.
Gunfire. It echoed through my skull and made my heart pound even faster in terror as the creature fell to the floor infront of me. Shooting to my feet I saw Mehra standing there, looking at me with narrowed eyes,
"What are you doing out here, why didn't you stay with the doctors?"she asked. Narrowing my gaze, I grabbed her arm and frog marched her back to the porch.
"Because there was no way in hell I was letting you go out there alone with practically zero visibility and no working communications or lights!" I countered folding my arms over my chest, she frowned at me,
"Thank you." that brought me up short. I wasn't expecting her to thank me. Nodding slightly, I cleared my throat and knocked on the door,
"Beckett it's me, open up. No problem Mehra just...don't wander off on your own again." I said running a hand through my hair. She nodded a little as Beckett opened up the door. He looked worried, and a little groggy.
"I was jus' taking a nap, when I woke up she was gone, Alison's gone, she's not here!"he informed me. Groaning, I looked at Mehra but I sensed somebody was behind me. Whirling aorund with my P-90 raised, I saw John and Teldy emerge from the fog.
Relief coursed through my body as my eyes swept over him, showing me he was unscathed. With a sigh, I slowly lowered my p-90 and ushered everybody inside. Shutting the door I pressed my back against it, that's when I realised there was no Vega.
"Where's Vega?" I asked with Mehra. Teldy and John shared a look and slowly shook their heads. My head fell back against the wood and my eyes closed. I took a few deep breaths before opening my eyes again. Shock had numbed me, Vega was dead. It could have been me. Was it quick? Did she feel any pain? I realised I couldn't afford to think like that as John reported what they'd found, a native to the planet they'd met earlier called Mirellus had opened the stasis pods, the thing that had tried to kill me was an experiment Michael had created and now they were all running around on the loose. I didn't blame Mirellus, he had thought he could save his wife, however Vega was dead, Porter was missing and I had nearly died too because of his actions, so unfortunately I wasn't too happy with him being in the same house as us right now. Teldy and Mehra looked girm. "I think I know something about the creatures that could help." I offered finally.
John and Teldy looked at us,
"You went outside when we told you to stay here?" he asked. Mehra cleared her throat,
"I went outside first and disobeyed her orders. She told me to stay and I didn't, she was nice enough to come and look for me and not leave me alone out there. I take full responsibility sir." Mehra said, her voice steady and quiet. John looked suprised but nodded,
"Thank you for your honesty Sergeant, what do you have James?" all eyes turned to me and I shifted uncomfortably, my eyes roaming from one person to another. Beckett shot me a comforting look and I tried to keep the tremble from my voice as I spoke. There was no point in letting them no I was scared, I was military, I wasn't supposed to show fear.
"Er well...they're eyes, it...it looked like they'd been sewn shut, they're blind and they use sound to track they're prey. That fog...it...it comes from gills in their necks. I think they use it to obscure the environment so their prey can't see them...I think we've already found out but, we're there prey. They have wicked claws too, at least three inches long..." I tapered off, shuddering slightly at the memory of the claws coming to rip at my flesh.
John stood thoughtfully for a moment, debating what to do in his head.
"We'll go out and search for Porter. We're not going to make any sound. Mirellus, stay here with Beckett and stay silent, for gods sake I mean it this time when I say don't go outside. We'll use these glow sticks to communicate, wave them at each other through the fog. Mehra, Teldy, James, we'll search the village, be careful, stay quiet." he ordered as he opened the door. He wanted me to go back out there! Inside I was honestly freaking out. I didn't want to meet one of these things again, but nobody spared me a glance, not even John Sheppard who I thought had cared about me to some degree. So I shook it off, straightened up and snapped my glow stick (causing it to emit a blue glow) and raised my P-90. A hand came down on my shoulder and I turned to see Beckett. Clearly he had caught the distress on my face.
"Be careful out there lass, I believe in you." he murmered, giving my shoulder a squeeze before he went back to his tablet at the table.
Walking outside I kept my head held high and crept into the fog, I couldn't see a single glowstick. Securing mine to my tac vest I kept my guard up, not wanting anyone to sneak up on me. A shiver ran through my spine, I didn't want to be out here alone, I wanted to be by John where I knew it was safe. He was warm, this fog was cold. John was comforting, he could calm me down, soothe my nerves, he could make me feel safe even if I was an inch from death, but he had left me here on my own. Swallowing hard, I looked around, my hands trembling and my heart racing. Still no sign of Porter and I dared not call out her name. I'd moved quite far from the house, but even from here I could still hear the crash and the shout of panic from behind me. Resisiting the urge to call out I felt my heart accelerate again, so much for trying to steady my heart beat. My breath came in ragged, shaky gasps as I span around, a small groan escaping my lips. I'd never been so scared in my entire life. More than anything I wished I was back on Atlantis, safe at the mess hall table talking with the team again, joking, bickering with Rodney and laughing with them all. Then there was gunfire. My panic peaked and I stumbled backwards, turning around and sprinting flat out through the fog as fast as my feet could carry me.
There were still no glow sticks in sight. The blood was roaring in my ears and I was gasping for air as I ran a maze of footprints around the place. Until I found it, right there infront of me, a glowstick. It seemed rather low down and I felt my panic and fear bubble like acid, making me feel sick to the stomach as I took my glow stick and waved it. The glow stick didn't wave back. My feet carried me forward and I bent down to pick up the glowstick, there was nobody in sight and my head smacked off of something hard. It was brick. My hands felt up the rough stonework as I rose unsteadily to my feet and gasped, feeling the hole at the top. I was at the well. Staggering backwards, a ragged breath escaped my lips and my back hit something hard. A scream escaped my lips as I whirled around, tripping over my own feet and falling onto my back. Whatever I'd hit fell with me, kneeling beside me on the floor and clamping it's hand over my mouth. Thrasing on the floor I heard a familiar voice hiss my name.
"James! James! Tegan open your eyes! It's just me! Stop!" Cracking my eyes open, I saw a figure dressed in black leaning over me. His hand was warm, and he slowly moved it from my mouth and grasped my shoulder to pull me up into a sitting position. "You okay?" the voice asked, concerned.
"J-John?" I stammered. The figure in black nodded.
"Yeah, yeah it's me Tegan. Don't think I've ever seen you so scared." he was whispering but clearly trying to lighten the solemn mood. Standing, I brushed myself off and grabbed my P-90, shaking my head,
"Oh so now you care?" I muttered, thinking back to the last week where he'd done nothing but ignore me. John's head jerked back in suprise,
"Excuse me?" he asked sounding shocked. I shook my head,
"Don't think I haven't noticed it John, you've been dodging me and pushing me away, where have you been the past week? You barely speak to me anymore so why do you care now?" wow, I sounded like a really dramatic teenager. Nice one Tegan. Turning to walk away I felt John grab my arm,
"You really want to do this now?" he demanded, gesturing to the fog and the current predicament we were in.
"No, I don't. Honestly, I just thought you were a better friend than that John. I didn't realise you were just going to push me away whenever you felt like I was too much of a mess for you to deal with." God why was I acting like this? This was so stupid!
John huffed,
"That is not what this is about." he argued quietly. Rolling my eyes I tried to walk away again but he just wouldn't let me. His grip on my arm was tight, it hurt almost as much as my chest hurt. Everything hurt actually. It hurt that he didn't notice me anymore,it hurt that he wasn't there, it hurt that he was so determined to keep me away. I wanted him to be there, every day. I wanted him near me and I didn't want him to keep pushing me away when all I wanted to do was to get as close as possible to this...this amazing man. This brave, kind, very good looking man. I wanted John Sheppard to notice me. Oh crap. I wanted John Sheppard full stop. I wanted him to want to keep me close. But he was right, I didn't want to do this now, I didn't want to do this full stop because this kind of feeling was something I never wanted to have to deal with. I didn't want to do this now because if he was distracted, even for a moment, it could mean he died. A world without John in was a world I didn't want to think about, I didn't want him gone. Suddenly, I was worried for him. I didn't want to let him out of my sight, I mean, what if he got hurt and no one was there to help him? God I couldn't handle this! Hormones and crazy monsters were not a good mix!
"I'm sorry. John, please let me go...you're hurting me." I whispered. His hand dropped from my arm immediately.
Walking into the house I was met with Mehra, Teldy, Porter...but no Beckett. Running a hand through my hair frustratedly, I felt the frazzeled feeling of panic rush through me again. Nobody understood how much I wanted to go home. But some of the old John seemed to creep back again and he stood close to me, almost touching my arm with his.
"Where's Beckett and Mirellus?" he asked suspiciously. Mehra and Teldy shook their heads.
"No idea, they were gone when we got here, but look, we think the creatures must have took them...there's signs of a struggle." Teldy reported solemnly. Glaring half heartedly at the floor I leaned back against the table and ran my left hand over the grainy wood. A sudden thought struck me,
"How many stasis pods were there?" I asked, making Teldy frown. John looked thoughtfull,
"About twelve." he replied.
"And we killed three already right?" Mehra said, cottoning on. I nodded,
"There's at least nine of these creatures still out there then." I concluded, fake joy in my voice. John sighed a little and crossed his arms over his chest, not looking happy at all. Part of me wanted to reach out and squeeze his arm, reassure him we'd be okay, like Ronon had said earlier, we had nine lives right? But I wasn't so sure, this was the scariest mission yet. This was the scariest mission of my life, period.
John paced the small abandoned house, before sucking in a deep breath and turning to us,
"We need to come up with a plan, we need to do something...otherwise I don't think we're going to make it through the night." he said eventually. Mehra had a thoughtful frown on her face and slowly picked up the tablet.
"Colonel Sheppard sir? I think I have an idea." she said, looking up at us with a determined frown. So that is how I ended up in the window to the left of Mehra, my P-90 raised and aiming down at the well as I watched John's figure slowly approach the well through the fog. Doctor Alison Porter had set the tablet to emit a low frequency sound when Sheppard lowered it down the well, so the fog couldn't scramble the electronics. Me, Teldy, Mehra and Porter were in various buildings around the square, and we'd shoot to kill anything that came into the square. Beckett was still missing however, so our first priority after this was to go and look for him. Taking a few deep breaths, I kept my eyes riveted on John as he crept to the well, the squeak of the chain as he turned the handle was deafening to me and my heart beat painfully against my ribs in my chest.
"Come on John come on." I whispered. Mehra watched me, suprise on her face but she gave me a confident nod and a small smile. We weren't exactly the best of friends but we were getting somewhere at least, slowly. Biting my lip, I listened to the ear ringing sound of the chain squeaking as John slowly lowered the tablet down.
My eyes were glued to him, watching everything around him and waiting for danger. I swore to myself I'd kill anything that tried to hurt him, and considering that I had a P-90 in my hands that would be all to easy. John must have been gaining confidence, he turned the handle faster and the chain squeaked louder but he didn't stop, his hands fumbling in the fog and I assumed he was arming the C4. Out of nowhere, a creature flew out of the fog and John's shadowy form was tackled to the ground. Lifting my P-90 I prepared myself to fire, but Mehra grabbed my arm and shook her head, putting a finger to her lips. I bit my lip. I wanted to help John but firing would give away our position and the plan had to proceed if we were going to save everyone. Swallowing back my fear I allowed the adrenaline to kick in, and it began to race around my body. My blood was roaring in my ears, that rotting flesh smell was filling my nose again and I realised with a jolt of horror that that smell was the creatures. Another figure flew out of the fog and tackled the creature off of John, who immediately began to scramble around for the C4,
"It's Beckett!" he called, his way of telling us not to fire. The creature remained unmoving on the ground and I let out a sigh of relief. They could have died! John and Beckett's shadows met up infront of the well as that horrible ticking sound invaded my ears again. The creatures were coming. Sucking in a breath I pushed down my fears, and instead narrowed my gaze determinedly on the well as the creatures began to emerge from the fog. John and Beckett had dissappeared while I wasn't looking and now I couldn't tell if any of those shadows were them or the creatures.
I began to panic, what if I accientaly shot one of them? It was a risk I had to take because we needed to get out of here. But John...I'd look for him after, and no one would stop me until I found him. Determination welled up inside me as the C4 exploded, there was a call from Teldy to open fire and I did. I rained hell on those evil little shits down there. Watching them fall one by one brought me an odd sense of satisfaction and I briefly wondered if it was a little twisted to think that way. The gunfire was echoing as it richocheted off of the walls of the abnadoned buildings; terrible screeching noises came from the creatures as they fell. The fog began to clear as we took more of them down until nothing but a fine mist hung in the air. Finally, I could see again. The floor was littered with the creatures bodies, it was a carpet of corpses that turned my stomach slightly. Myself and Mehra looked up to see Teldy and Porter give us a nod. They were okay and we were to regroup with them in the middle of the square by the well. On our way there, we counted up the bodies,
"I've got five bodies." I reported.
"We have four." Porter replied.
"So that's nine here in total, plus the three we already killed." Mehra said, counting on her fingers.
"We've got all twelve of them." Teldy said, her voice saturated with relief. But there was a frown on my face, I had to find John now. I wasn't leaving this planet without him.
"Sheppard! Beckett!" I called, my voice echoing through the empty village.
Teldy and the others caught on and began to call them too. We split up and began to search the area, with me staying close to the square where I'd last seen them, my anxiety beginning to make me feel nauseous. Bile rose in the back of my throat but I swallowed it back. "Sheppard! Beckett! Where are you!"
"Here! James, down here!" John called back, his voice was distant and faint. Frowning, I moved closer to the well and peered over the edge. I shone the now working torch on my P-90 down through the gloom. "James! Get that light out my eyes!" John yelled. Sighing with relief I laughed weakly, bracing my hands on the egde of the well I felt the weight in my stomach lift. We were okay, we were all going to be fine. The main thing I focused on was that John was okay. Bouncing slightly on the balls of my feet I called out to the others,
"I found them! I found them they're okay! They're okay!" even I could hear the joy in my voice but I was feeling to happy to care about whether or not it sounded pathetic. Teldy, Mehra and Porter ran over, and Teldy glanced down to see John squinting up at her, his hand shielding his eyes from the bright torch light.
"Hold on colonel, we'll get you out of there!" Teldy called down.
"No! Can you get down here?" John replied immediately. Teldy frowned slightly but I looked through Porters back pack and nodded. There was climbing gear in here.
"Yeah we can." I responded.
"Good, then get down here. We'll use the tunnels to get back to Michael's lab, Beckett has some information he wants to download before we go home." John said in his no nonesense leader voice again.
Between us, me and Teldy worked together to secure the hooks and rope, slowly lowering down Porter and Mehra.
"Go on, I can lower you down." I offered. Teldy nodded and muttered a quick 'thanks' as I braced my feet to keep my balance and lowered her down until she tugged the rope once to let me know she'd hit the bottom. God I hated wells. I'd been putting it off but now I had no choice but to go down there. Attaching myself to the rope I slowly climbed into the well, placing my feet firmly against the wall I let out a slow breath and absailed to the bottom through the darkness, not daring to open my eyes until I reached the bottom. My feet hit the floor and I quickly detached myself and switched on my torch light. John shot me a small smile before he turned around and lead the way through the tunnels. The walk was silent, but definitely shorter compared to trekking through the forest. That uneasy weight settled in my stomach again though the closer we got to Michael's lab, but I dismissed it as stupid since we'd killed all of the creatures. Mehra and Porter were waiting outside and I was tempted to join them, but knowing John's track record of keeping safe, I decided to go in with them. Beckett headed straight to the computer terminal, and I stayed behind him as John and Teldy went to explore some more. "Good to see you again Beckett, how are you?" I asked, keeping my voice quiet so he could concentrate on his work. Beckett nodded with a small smile,
"Aye lass, I'm fine, better now we're all going home. How about you?" he returned the question with a scrutinising look that I knew would see straight through me if I lied.
So instead I just shrugged and played it down.
"I'm okay. Just really want to go home, have a relaxing shower I guess. This whole day's been pretty stressful." Beckett chuckled under his breathe and hummed in agreement as a chill swept over my body. Looking around, I saw fog beginning to creep out of the open doorway that John and Teldy had ambled through not minutes ago. Groaning quietly I felt fear seep into my bones, icy terror sluggishly dripping through my veins as I stumbled towards the door, imaging a whole number of scenarios with gruesome finds. Gunfire errupted just as I entered and I could see John and Teldy slowly backing up the corridor, an army of those creatures were heading towards us and I quickly stepped forward as John was reloading, Teldy was almost out too. I on the other hand had a full magazine and was ready to use it. "Laying down cover fire, get your arse's back!" I shouted, my voice echoing through the halls. John and Teldy ducked, not second guessing me and sprinted towards me as I fired non-stop down the hallway, taking a few of the creatures down with a hail of bullets. John and Teldy stood by me near the door and began to fire as I reloaded. Just as suddenly as it had begun, it ended. No more fog, no more creatures, no more bullets. Breathing hard thanks to the adrenaline pulsing through me I slowly lowered my weapon and looked at John, Teldy went to check on the others as our eyes locked.
Those brown eyes were searching mine, raking up and down my body before settling back on my face. The only sound we made was coming from our heavy breathing and my heart was beating loudly in my ears as I took in all of John. His muscles were slowly relaxing from the tense posture they had been in and he looked unharmed. Not caring who was watching, I pulled him into a tight hug. His body was warm against mine, his hot breath heating my hair as his strong arms wrapped back around me and squeezed me tightly. There was that apple scent again, bombarding my sense of smell and comforting me greatly. John's chest pushed against mine as he breathed and I sighed, content for now. John was alive, he was okay.
"You alright?" he asked, his voice barely more audiable than a breath of air. Looking up at him I nodded,
"Yes...I'm okay. You and your bloody missions. You have no idea how to stay out of trouble do you?" I demanded, frustration in my voice. He smirked,
"Maybe I just enjoy having you save me." he suggested, before sauntering out of the tunnel as if he was god's gift to the earth. A small smile graced my lips, too me, he was certainly a gift. Wait what? My eyes widened slightly. No no no, I promised myself this would never happen, I swore I'd never go down that road, I'd never get hurt that way again. I couldn't be in love with John Sheppard. I just couldn't be.
But I was.