Daniel batted away the tickle at his ear, annoyed at the interruption as his thoughts passed from dreamless sleep to wakefulness. He felt a cool touch on his jaw and snapped his eyes open at the sensation. His vision blurred, unable to focus so closely, but the animal movement was unmistakable. He gave a yelp and batted the creature away reflexively, swiping away the moisture on his cheek with the back of his hand.
A small brown and black rabbit, with tufted fur and curved claws, scampered down his leg and turned to hiss just out of reach. Daniel shuffled his feet noisily to scare it away. "Go on! Get out of here!" The animal stared and curled its talons inward, then hissed again before backing away into the shadows behind the shelter.
His heart pounded from the abrupt awakening, and he wiped his cheek again with a shudder. The small creature seemed disturbingly intense. He checked once more where it fled, then rolled over to his side. Jack slept soundly on the ground next to him, apparently exhausted since his yell did not wake him, yet again. That seemed unusual, but he knew the colonel had gotten no more than a few hours of sleep over the last two days. Still, he watched him carefully just to confirm he was breathing. He wondered briefly at his missing shirt, but then noticed his own rewrapped arm, which felt much better than before. He twitched three of his fingers and felt a prickling numbness, but considerably less pain.
He pushed himself up to a seated position and stretched out the kinks in his neck that contributed to a sharp headache. Morphine-fueled sleep did not make the hard ground any more comfortable.
The sun still sat above the horizon forming long shadows across the sand. The fire had gone out and an onshore breeze cooled the air, so he pushed his arms into the sleeves of his borrowed jacket. His chilled skin tingled pleasantly with the warmth, and he felt only mildly guilty when he saw Jack huddled against the chill while he slept. Stoking the fire would be the first order of business. He piled on some dry reeds for tinder and blew gently on the ashy gray embers, but they stayed dark and would not ignite.
"Jack, hey, are you awake?" he whispered gently at first, then more loudly, but he kept his distance. He knew better than to startle him physically, especially while he remained armed in his sleep. "Jack!"
The man twitched awake and locked his gaze on the evening sky for a moment before his eyes slid around until he spotted Daniel hovering a few feet away. He seemed unharmed and only a little concerned. Remembering his weapon Jack reholstered it and groaned loudly as he placed the heels of his hands over his eyes and thoroughly rubbed away any remnants of sleep. He finally lowered them and met the scientist's inquisitive gaze, "Daniel?"
"Sorry to wake you, Jack, but it's getting dark and I thought we should prepare for the night. You know, build up the fire and maybe have something to eat."
"Yeah, okay. What time is it?" he muttered, looking at his watch. He tapped the face as the numbers rolled by dutifully. He had overslept the alarm by more than an hour. Irritated with himself, he pulled his feet under him and stood with another groan, feeling the sore muscles from his long swim. He stretched languidly as he looked around again, "Where's Teal'c? I thought he'd be here by now."
A sudden skittering sound grew to a rustling in the dry brush and reeds, and Jack whirled around. Daniel stood up, too, and sought out the source of the noise, looking toward the side of the shelter, but the sounds came from all around. A keening of a dozen pitched calls sounded from the nearest trees of the forest, and from the reeds along the riverbank.
Daniel backed up reflexively until he felt Jack's hand on his shoulder, guiding him to stand back to back. He peered into the darkened forest and saw more movement than his uncorrected eyesight should allow.
"Jack?" he called nervously over his shoulder. He could feel the military man sweeping his gaze back and forth to gauge the number of threats, his shoulder muscles coiled tightly against his back.
"Stay on your feet, Daniel," he warned tersely. "Whatever you do, don't let them get you on the ground. And protect your face!"
"With what?" he called out urgently, but he brought his forearms up defensively. Jack stumbled backwards against him as the first creature leapt nearly ten feet, but he batted it away in midair. The animal screeched as it landed, but it rolled nimbly and skittered into the underbrush.
Jack snatched his sidearm from its holster, but the movement seemed to trigger a response. A screech sounded, and was answered by one after another as dark creatures raced along the hard ground, creating a moving blanket of dozens of bodies. As they reached their targets they climbed the men's legs, pushing and clawing to reach higher.
Jack felt the first cut slice across his outer thigh and he let out a yell as he swept two creatures away. But two more moved into place, digging into the raw flesh and finding enough purchase to climb higher up his bare chest and shoulder. He lost track of Daniel at his back as he curled and undulated to try to dislodge the animals. He could not take aim with his gun, but he fired rounds into the writhing ground hoping the sound would frighten them off.
Daniel fought back furiously, smashing the creatures between his legs and beneath his feet. He was still wearing Jack's jacket, which he had zipped up against the growing chill, and they did not get past its tough outer fabric. He soon saw blood anyway, and turned to see Jack's face ghostly pale as he staggered under the onslaught. A dozen animals clung to him with their talons and teeth and he was losing the battle.
"Jack! Jack!" Daniel seized his wrist to keep him upright, but Jack stumbled heavily, while ineffectively pulling off one clinging creature after another. Without another thought, Daniel lunged forward with all his weight and pushed his shoulder into Jack's hip. He felt the sudden shift in weight as the man leaned forward and tried to keep his footing, but Daniel did not stop. He drove him back toward the river until they both went over the edge into the swift current.
Daniel gasped in shock when he broke up through the surface of the freezing water. They both tumbled through the flow as it swept them out into the sea, pushed well away from shore until the seawater exerted enough resistance. Daniel saw the last of the creatures release, finally more concerned with saving themselves as they swiftly paddled toward shore.
He still had his grip on Jack's wrist and he pulled him to his chest. He gasped for air, trying to clear his lungs of inhaled seawater. The waves shoved them relentlessly so he wrapped his splinted arm under Jack's shoulder and towed him to shallower water, pulling the unconscious man up on shore as far as he could one-handed, before collapsing on the wet sand himself. The water around them continued to move rhythmically with the waves, tinted red with blood before being washed away.
"Come on, come on, come on," Daniel muttered, urging a response as he checked for a pulse. It beat rapidly but his breaths were steady. Blood drained from half a dozen cuts across his chest and a deep leg wound darkened his pants. None of it had the force of arterial wounds, and the plunge in cold water seemed to have slowed the flow in the smaller cuts. Daniel stripped off his jacket and t-shirt, then ripped the shirt with his teeth. He packed the fabric into the leg wound, eliciting a yelp of pain from his friend as his leg jerked in reaction.
"Sorry, Jack! Sorry!" he cried out as he leaned in to apply even more pressure. The extra weight seemed to calm him as he started taking in slower deliberate breaths. His eyes slitted open and he raised one arm slowly to shield his vision from the late afternoon sunlight.
"Oh, crap. What the hell just happened?" he asked in a tone of dismay that said he already knew the answer. "Daniel, are you okay? Are they gone?"
"Yeah, Jack, I'm okay," Daniel almost laughed with relief as he tied off the rest of his shredded shirt to secure the makeshift bandage to Jack's leg, then he sobered quickly. "But you're not. You're bleeding badly and we should get you out of the water. Can you sit up?"
"Yeah," he confirmed as he rolled onto one elbow in the shallow surf. But he stopped there and swayed before he dropped his head down. "Oh, I don't feel too good, I'm…"
Daniel recognized the green tinge added to his already pale complexion and scrambled out of the way just as Jack vomited into the water. He closed his eyes but did not lose consciousness and after a few deep breaths color started to return to his face.
He smirked miserably at the scientist watching him carefully, his brow creased deeper with added concern. "Well, I feel a little better now. Help me up."
He stood and took Jack's arm over his shoulder as he pushed up out of the water. His injured leg could not hold any weight, but they managed to move up to dry land on the sandy riverbank. The sun still offered some warmth so Daniel eased him to the ground a safe distance from the shadowed camp. He could just make out the creatures still racing through the site, fewer than before. A small knot of them wrestled over something near the fire ring.
"I think they went after the cooked meat," Daniel realized out loud. "That's a little disturbing," he commented softly, both for the thought of the animals eating their own kind, but also that he and Jack may have been the planned meal. He tried to count the creatures, wondering how many more would be hiding nearby.
He looked at Jack who sat with his head down and eyes closed. He covered the worst of the wounds on his chest with both hands, but blood still oozed down his back, mixed with embedded sand and debris carried by the river.
"Jack, I've got to go back to get supplies to see if I can stop some of the bleeding. Stay here, okay?"
Jack turned to peer at the camp, easily seeing the movements of the animals that remained, but he did not argue. "Be careful, Daniel," he warned as his hand went to his empty holster. "Damn. Lost my weapon. Grab what you can and get out of there. Don't try to fight them."
"Right. Got it," Daniel nodded, then took a couple breaths to ready himself. The sun was at the horizon and soon he would lose the advantage of daylight. He crouched and darted quickly along the riverbank, then cut straight across to the shelter. His glasses on the ground glinted in the late sunlight and he pulled them on gratefully. His poor vision was made so much worse in low light. By the time he had snagged the canteens and tac vests, and turned for Sam's jacket, the first creature leapt from the roof of the lean-to and onto his shoulder. He quickly swung the gear in an arc until it impacted his upper back, dislodging the creature, as well as the zat'nik'tel which had been strapped to Teal'c's vest. Daniel dove for the discovered weapon as two more creatures latched onto his leg. He landed hard on the ground inside the shelter, but rolled to his back and fired at anything that moved. The air filled with screeches as he immobilized the first creatures, but the sound faded away after second strikes killed several animals. Within minutes the rest of the swarm had fled back into the forest.
Daniel lay with his arms over his head protectively, gasping as his adrenaline wore off until he heard nothing but silence. He lifted his head cautiously but saw only small bodies littering the disheveled campsite. He rolled over onto one and quickly scrambled the other direction, panting again.
"Daniel?" He heard a shout from the beach as Jack tried to get his attention.
"Yeah! Jack, I'm okay. I'll be right there!" He took another look at the aftermath and shuddered somberly. He would not have wilfully killed any indigenous life if he had a choice, on this world or any other. He scooped up the gear and ran back to where he left his injured friend.