The Virus

Chapter 9

..

They arrived outside General Hammond's tent to an argument between Major Harding and Major Tanner. She heard the words earth and ridiculous but couldn't catch anymore as both of them went silent at the sight of Colonel O'Neill.

"Good morning." She offered, hoping it would ease some of the tension.

"Good morning Major Carter." Major Tanner answered with a grim smile. Major Harding ignored them both and walked away.

"Oh Colonel O'Neill, Major Carter. Just who I was looking for." General Hammond emerged from around the side of his tent and she stood to attention next to the Colonel. "Where is Daniel Jackson?" Sam looked towards the gate but couldn't make him out, he must have still been getting prepared.

"He will be along soon." Colonel O'Neill replied and sat down on one of the General's logs. Sam followed suit and sat next to him and the General took the log opposite.

"Well when he arrives I have a mission for the three of you." He looked as serious as ever and Sam felt the military side of her snap to attention. She sat primly with her hands in her lap as they waited. Colonel O'Neill had his usual relaxed posture and she envied him that. She wondered when or if she reached the status of Colonel… would she be as relaxed around the General as he was?

"Daniel Jackson!" The General was facing the other side of the camp so he saw the man first and waved him over. Daniel took the only remaining log and dropped his pack beside him.

"Good, now you are all here… I have chosen the three of you to head back to Earth." Sam sat up straighter. Back to earth? Already?

"Is that really a good idea?" Daniel frowned. "It's not that I don't want to go of course… but won't we risk being infected, or bringing the virus back with us?"

"You will all be wearing the highest level contagion suits and we will have you gate from here to an uninhabited planet that we have set up as a sort of isolation area… from there you will gate to Earth. When you gate back you will be tested by the team of medical staff on site and remain there for a night just to be safe."

"Okay," Daniel nodded. "That makes sense."

"What will our objectives be?" The Colonel asked.

"I want you to simply report back your findings. Obviously nothing can be brought through the gate until we can set up some sort of decontamination system like we had when we evacuated. I just need to know what is happening back…" he trailed off for a moment. "…home." He finished with a frown.

"What if we come across survivors?" Sam asked. She thought of Mark and wondered whether there would be a way to contact him once they were back on Earth. She would have to head back to camp to alert Cassie to her night away… she would pick up her cell phone which she had switched off to conserve the battery and left tucked under her pillow.

"I'm afraid we can't bring anyone back yet. We would need to test them before heading through the gate. Further down the track we hope to have Cheyenne Mountain decontaminated and back up and running."

"Yes Sir." She rose to her feet. "Permission to tell Cassie?" The General agreed. She looked at the rest of her team but they were both clearly lost in their own thoughts. She had plenty running through her own mind right now. She was shocked… they had started out the day planning on heading off-world but never in her wildest dreams did she think they would be heading back to Earth already!

..

She took a deep breath and looked first at Daniel and then Colonel O'Neill before stepping through the gate. She felt herself falling on the other side and before she could figure out why she landed with a hard thump on the ground. She heard the boys making their own thuds as they hit the ground beside her. She dragged herself to her feet and discovered they were standing in the dark. She fumbled around the head piece of her suit for the light but Daniel beat her to it.

Daniel's light showed that they were in fact in Cheyenne Mountain. The ramp was on its side and she fleetingly wondered how the hell that could happen but the when her eyes took in the rest of the room all she felt was a wave of shock run through her. She had never expected to see the gate room in such disarray. Shattered glass carpeted the floor and there was smoke curling up from debris near the blast doors which stood wide open. She finally found her own light and switched it on and took a single step forward and then stopped. If the gate room was like this… did she really want to see the rest of Earth? She hadn't had time to think much about what they would find since they had set off almost immediately after being briefed that morning.

"Are you okay Carter?" She heard Colonel O'Neill's voice come through the little speaker in her head piece.

"Yes Sir."

"Let's get this over with." She followed behind him towards the door and she heard Daniel fall in step behind her.

The way out of the mountain was long and painful. There was no power so they had to use the stairs and ladders between levels to reach the top. It took so long she almost quit half way up. The Colonel insisted next time she get the power up and running because there was no way in hell he was doing all this climbing again. She felt sorry for him – with his dodgy knees the climb would have been far harder on him.

The view from the top of the mountain was nothing less than horrific. At first she thought there were low storm clouds above them but after a moment she realized it was smoke. There were fires as far as the eye could see.

"Do we go any further Sir?" She asked, hoping he would say no. Daniel grabbed her gloved hand and she turned to smile gratefully at him. It was hard for her to believe a matter of weeks ago the view here was very, very different. She imagined both men were feeling similarly shocked and depressed at the sight before them.

"We need to at least check out the nearest city." Colonel O'Neill finally answered. "We will take my truck." He began heading down the hill towards the car park and she followed with wobbly legs. She was glad that part way up their climb he had allowed them to leave their firearms and continue on with just their zat guns. She was exhausted from just carrying the bare necessities in her pack and zat gun, she couldn't imagine having to climb all that way with a heavy firearm as well.

..

It was a hard drive into the city. There were cars parked haphazardly across the road and at first they contemplated shifting them but ended up just off-roading it a little to get around them, thankfully Colonel O'Neill's truck was suited for this.

Once they reached the first lot of shops Sam wished she had stayed back on Palla. Tears stung her eyes. They had seen bodies covered in blood in the cars on the way but that was nothing to the bodies lying on the sidewalk. It seemed almost surreal. She felt like maybe she was trapped in one of those horrific apocalyptic films that Teal'c used to make her watch on movie night.

"My god," she whispered aloud. Colonel O'Neill parked his car in the middle of the road when it was impossible to drive any further. Litter, debris, cars and bodies were all over the road. Some of the cars were burnt out and there was glass all over the road too.

"I'm going to take a little look." The Colonel swung open his door and she remained in the passenger seat frozen to the spot. It was then she remembered her cell phone and she pulled it out of her pack and switched it on. She shed her first tear at the sound her phone made starting up. It reminded her of what life had been like. Living on Palla for the past few weeks had been like a holiday and this was the cold, hard reality of coming home.

She heard the rear door open and watched as Daniel also exited the truck. She saw him head into a nearby shop and she dialled Mark's home number. It was no surprise when the call wouldn't connect and she pressed her lips together taking in a deep breath through her nostrils and switched the phone back off again. She wondered if she would ever find out for sure if her brother and his family had all died.

"Sam," she looked out the truck window and saw Colonel O'Neill on the other side the glass of his head piece pressed against her window a silly smile on his face. "Come on…" She looked away for a moment and gathered herself together before agreeing to get out.

"Where do you want me to look, Sir?" Once she got out of the car he stepped next to her and nudged her arm slightly.

"Follow me, Carter." She followed him with glazed eyes as she tried hard not to look at the bloated bodies they were dodging. She was glad the suit filtered the air so the smell wasn't as horrific as it would have been without it. They popped into the first few stores they came across and wandered around, so far there was no sign of survivors. She eyed the shelves which were mostly empty and it wasn't until they reached the supermarket that she had the sudden urge to take something. She looked over at her CO, he seemed to be finding the same thing. She watched as he picked a single packet of crackers off the ground. The packet was almost flat as it had been crushed beneath the feet of the panicked people.

"Do you think we could take anything? We could leave it near the gate and come back for it when we are allowed to bring things through?" She eyed the signs above the aisles. Coffee would be good.

"Hell yes." He gave her the thumbs up. "You take the right half, I'll take the left."

..

They both had shopping trollies full by the time they met at the front of the store. Daniel was leaning against the front of the Colonel's car so they wheeled their trollies down towards him. Pickings had been limited since the store had been looted but they had managed to gather together as much as they could. She had even managed to track down coffee.

"Hey guys," Daniel waved as they approached.

"Just did a little shopping, ya know?" Her CO joked as he pressed a button on his key ring to open his boot. "We'll leave it in the truck for when we are allowed to bring things through the gate."

"I got a few things myself." She peered in the back seat as she walked past and saw a couple of baskets filled with food.

"Brilliant." Colonel O'Neill told him. They were all putting on their 'happy' voices but really things couldn't get any grimmer. They were loading stolen food into their truck while people they had once lived with lay dead all around them.

The trip back to Cheyenne Mountain was a very quiet one. She seemed to have gotten over her tearful moment and she just felt cold and numb inside her bulky suit. They had done as asked and checked out Earth - as much as they could anyway. There was no way they were staying here over night and daylight was fading fast.

"Apparently they have set up temporary showers on the isolation site." Daniel told them suddenly.

"Oh, that will be heaven." She told him, feeling her spirits lift slightly.

..

The 'showers' were divided by curtains and she slipped behind her curtains which reached just above her shoulders and then fell to her ankles. If she wasn't so excited to have a shower she may have been embarrassed that there was only a curtain between her and the boys. She noticed her CO had taken the curtained shower next to her and she wondered briefly if he had done it on purpose.

She slipped off her clothes gratefully and slid them out from under the curtain with her foot so they rested beside her towel outside. She pressed the button as she had been directed and an appreciative sigh escaped her immediately as the water hit her back. They had rigged up a surprisingly good system for the showers and the water pressure wasn't half bad. She wondered how long she was allowed to stay in here because with the way she felt right now she didn't want to ever leave. She closed her eyes and tilted her head back so the water ran over her head and when she turned so the spray hit her front she suddenly remembered that she wasn't really alone. She snuck a quick look next door to her and saw the Colonel's head.

"I could stay here forever," she told him with grin. He turned to look her in the eyes and she nearly choked as she took in a deep breath. He looked sexier than she had possibly ever seen him. Water dripped from his hair and she could see the top of his shoulders glistening. He had the same look of bliss on his face she probably had moments earlier and before she could stop herself she began imagining what he might look like behind the curtain, naked. Something must have showed on her face because he smirked.

"I'm pretty sure I can hear your thoughts right now Major." He winked before turning so that the water hit his back. He tilted his head back and ran a hand through his hair. She watched entranced as his hand slid down over his shoulder and then disappeared out of view. He tilted his head towards her again and she bit her lip. His eyes were dark and she realized that they were about to criss-cross over that line again but she just couldn't help herself. Hell, they had been through enough lately and if they couldn't be together then they could at least have a little fun.

Sam tilted her own head so that she could run her fingers through her hair. She slipped her hand down over her face and dragged her fingers over her lips and along her shoulders and down between her breasts, not that he could see from her shoulders down… and then she glanced over to see his reaction. He had an intense look on his face now, his smirk had disappeared.

"Fuck," he whispered and glanced over at Daniel on his other side, she looked over too. Daniel was totally oblivious thankfully and she decided she should probably just grab the shampoo and soap she had brought in with her and get the shower over with or things were going to get way out of hand.

"Idiot," she whispered to herself as she kept her eyes away from her CO and continued her shower. She shouldn't have done that, he shouldn't have done that. They were playing with fire.

She managed to finish her shower, dry herself and dress without even one look at the man next to her. Once she had finished dressing she finally looked over and found his curtained shower empty. She heaved a sigh of relief and headed towards the large tents that had been set up for them to sleep in. It was beginning to get dark on this planet too and all she wanted to do was collapse onto the cot that she had been given and pass out.

TBC.