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Chapter 6

Teyla rushed through thick foliage that tore at her clothes and scratched her legs, yet she wouldn't stop. She ran even though her chest was tight and her muscles ached from exertion. Her teammates were in trouble and she seemed to be the only one currently able to help them. Therefore, her suffering meant little, and she ran on through the discomfort.

She and Ronon had chased the creatures who attacked until they lost sight of each other. When she last saw the Satedan, he was bolting after four of the creatures, guns blazing and fire in his eyes. Teyla herself had already killed two of their attackers, spending no time to look over their bodies, save to determine that they were dead. She spared them little sympathy as she hurried past their fallen forms to hunt down others. Having seen their murderous intent was enough to disperse any feelings she might have had for them otherwise.

When John collapsed she ran at their attackers, outraged and unaware that the chase would go on so long that she would lose track of the team. Teyla thanked the Ancestors that at least Rodney was still with John. Though she had no idea where Ronon was, she knew he was alive by his silent communication of clicking the com.

Her biggest concern was reaching Rodney and John as it seemed the scientist was panicking over the colonel's condition. Rodney often panicked, and usually over trivial matters, but in his voice, she heard more than just his standard overreaction. There had been worry in his tone, and fear. Though Rodney McKay could whine like a pro, it was now rare that he allowed his fear to show, unlike when they first met. He'd learned to control at least that part of his personality, and this allowed him to go on missions no ordinary scientist would dare. It had cost him dearly at times, but Teyla knew Rodney would have it no other way. Even she could see the man had evolved from an angst-ridden mouse to a quiet lion and a fundamental part of their team. If Rodney's fear overwhelmed him, there was a very good reason it did.

Teyla stumbled into the clearing where the Jumper had landed. She saw one of the creatures they had dispatched and walked slowly past it, acknowledging the strange and alien form. She'd seen nothing like them before. They were large entities, though their true size had been hidden by their hunched posture. Laid out in death, it was obvious that the creatures would stand around ten, maybe eleven feet tall. Their arms were longer than their legs. They had an almost artful and athletic build, crafted with thick slabs of muscle which twisted around rather than lay upon their bones. It gave the impression of immense speed and agility and Teyla had watched them move in ways she'd never seen before, twisting and morphing their forms into shapes which better aided their escape. From their large paws grew long lethal claws yet they appeared to favour a strange weapon over their own, natural ones. One such weapon lay by the side of the fallen creature, itself as utterly alien as the being that once held it.

Made from a reddish pitted metal, it had a bulbous canister affixed to the top, from which an array of cables and tubes fed into the main body of the weapon. The canister itself had vents and Teyla could see dark liquid moving within. The muzzle was splattered with black goop, and globules of green dripped from the end of the barrel. It made no sense, considering the blast that had shot from it had been bright and explosive, not a hosing of whatever fluid the canister contained. Teyla thought perhaps it was a chemical that somehow converted to energy as she was sure that was what hit John. But then, hadn't Rodney mentioned living creatures that he'd removed from Sheppard's chest? Black things? She leaned in to take a closer look at the canister if only to determine what had caused John's injuries.

In one quick and smooth movement, Teyla stepped back and raised her gun when she saw a small black barrel-shaped entity easing its way from the bizarre weapon. It plopped onto the ground with a squishy splatter. It had four small limbs and moved towards the fallen creature in a gait not unlike a baby sea turtle from Earth that Carson had once shown her. It looked ridiculously cute in a strange sort of way as it continued its flapping crawl towards the corpse. Once it touched upon the dead attacker, Teyla reeled back in horror as the little creature's head rippled and opened up to reveal an oversized, round mouth, with needle-like teeth. It bit into the fallen enemy and burrowed its way inside. Every now and again the dead creature shook and trembled as bright arcs of energy flowed through it. More of the black entities came from the weapon's barrel, made their way to the body, and chewed their way inside the cooled corpse.

Teyla ran.

She ran as fast as she could, away from the horror, searching for signs that might take her on the path to her comrades. She saw tracks in the dirt and grass, indicative of a body being hauled, and followed it deep into the vegetation. As she swallowed bile, Teyla concentrated on the path to take her mind from what she'd seen. If this was the same creature which hit John, then she understood why Rodney sounded so terrified. Just remembering what it did to a dead thing was enough to make Teyla speed up and rush towards her friends.

She came to a point where the tracks changed. For a while, there were two sets of footprints, which, after some time, became one. Only one person had forged ahead and there were no signs of the second. Teyla followed the single track for a few minutes, noting that it was walked in a haphazard way, weaving a meandering path through the long grass. She quickly backtracked to find the point where the second set of tracks came to an end, toe to toe with the first. It was as if one of the men had simply disappeared. Teyla looked around the area, searching for any sign of what happened. She caught sight of a crumpled body lying at the base of a big tree some yards away. Her heart hammered in her chest as she hurried forward, scared of what she might find.

Rodney McKay lay like a broken rag doll among the thick roots of the tree. He was breathing, even managed a quiet moan of pain when Teyla shook his shoulder.

"Oh, thank the Ancestors. Rodney? Rodney?!"

She shook him again when there was little response before his eyes snapped open, and he cringed back from her with surprise. Rodney looked past her, eyes darting around the area in search of something.

"Where is he?" he asked eventually, pushing himself upright.

"I do not know. I followed his tracks but came back to find yours. What happened?"

Rodney frowned and shook his head. "I've absolutely no idea. One minute I was trying to shake some sense into John, the next I was flying through the air." He rubbed at his arms and wrung out his hands then looked at them curiously. "It feels like I've had a shock!"

"We've all been shocked by this," Teyla replied.

"No, a shock, as in an electric shock." He raised his hands which trembled and shook. "I've had electric shocks before, but never one from a human being, and certainly not enough to send me flying."

Teyla thought of the black creature and how electrical energy arced through the dead corpse it bit into. "The things you removed from John, were they were small, and black, and had four little limbs?"

Rodney sneered with disgust. "Yes, and they were cold and slimy."

"And you removed them all from John?"

"I removed two, but..." Something crossed over his features; a combination of shocked remembrance and utter despair. "No, I didn't because I didn't know there was another on him. In him," he clarified. "There was a moment, and I thought he was going to take a... relieve himself and so I looked away. But John called on me and the way he did made me turn back. There was something under his skin, moving beneath a circular wound like the ones in his chest!"

"So, there were three things attached to him?" Teyla asked with alarm.

"I think so, yes. I've no idea how I missed it. When I removed them, John came around and all his shaking stopped. I thought he was back, that he was okay. But he wasn't. He isn't."

Rodney stared blankly ahead, lost in his own misery. Teyla allowed him a self-pitying moment and instead tried to contact Ronon. She tried several times yet the Satedan didn't even acknowledge her hails.

"Come on," she said and helped Rodney to his feet. "We need to find him. Something tells me this need to go east and get to water has less to do with Colonel Sheppard as it has to do with the thing inside him."

"And once he gets to the water?" Rodney asked fearfully.

"Let's not allow that happen," Teyla replied and pushed Rodney into a run.

To be continued... cookies! :D