Nightmare… Or Is It?
My attempt at a spooky story for the stargateland Spooky Tropes challenge. I'm not a huge fan of horror so it's probably more crack, but I tried.
Nightmare… Or Is It?
Gen
PG-13
Rodney woke up suddenly, trying to figure out why he was awake if it was still dark out and what exactly had woke him up. In his pre-coffee state it took him a couple minutes to realize the normally blue-green lights of Atlantis were slightly pulsing with a dull red, about the speed of his own heart rate.
“What the hell?” Rodney spoke to himself as he got out of bed, only then becoming aware he was completely naked.
“Cadman? Are you in my head again?” Rodney never slept naked. In fact he normally slept in whatever he had been wearing the day before because he only came back to his room to catch a few hours of sleep before getting back to work on the next ground-breaking discovery.
Silence was his only answer.
Rodney quickly got dressed, starting to really freak out when he saw that the pulsing really was matching his raising heart beat, and left the his room to find who had done what to his precious city.
He ran into no one the whole way to the control room.
Likewise the control room was completely empty, from the looks of it completely abandoned. He could smell the faint, coppery smell of freshly spilled blood, but he didn’t see any. It was as if everyone had been spontaneously transported out. There was even a cup of coffee still steaming by one of the consoles.
Rodney ignored the bad feeling he was starting to get and started running diagnostics trying to understand what had happened. Everything seemed fine across the board, until he tried to access the security system.
LOCKED BY JOHN SHEPPARD
Rodney’s security clearance in the city was even higher than John’s but apparently Atlantis was siding with her golden boy and not allowed Rodney the work around he had designed into the system. Other than not being able to see what the cameras had picked up, everything seemed to be fine, so Rodney decided he needed some coffee and food before anything else. Maybe this was all a hypoglycemic hallucination? Rodney could hope anyway.
Again, the trip through Atlantis’ corridors was made all the more creepy because he didn’t run into anyone, and neither was there anyone in the mess hall. There was half-eaten food everywhere so presumably whatever had happened, happened during the height of the breakfast hour.
Thoroughly creeped out, Rodney grabbed some muffins and as many power bars as he could stuff in his pockets and headed to his lab. Once he got there he ran another system-wide diagnostic, hoping his own machines would find something that the consoles Atlantis can control were hiding from him. In the mean time, he ran a sweep of the city for life signs.
This diagnostic also came back clean, but the life signs sweep did manage to find several people in one of the large ball rooms on the lower levels. They had no idea the actual function of the room, but Elizabeth decided they looked like ballrooms, so the name stuck.
Rodney armed himself with a tack vest, LSD, and more of his private stash of power bars, and headed towards the few life signs he could see. There was a balcony that overlooked that particular room where he should be able to see them without them seeing him.
Getting into place and looking into the room, Rodney could only stare in fright. There were twelve people down there, over half of which were in what looked like invisible cages since they kept trying the walls and getting shocked. Teyla and Ronon were walking amongst the cages with evil grins on their faces. Radek was off to the side, working on something on his computer and responding to someone that Rodney couldn’t see. Lorne was… eating someone from the looks of it. He had his prey firmly held down and there was a small trail of blood running down the naked body.
Rodney started to crawl backwards, only to run into something cold. Very cold. He refused to look back, he didn’t want to know which more of his friends had been changed seemingly overnight.
“Nice of you to join us, Rodney.” John had the same drawl as before, but he sounded colder, meaner, like he didn’t care what happened.
“Sheppard! What happened?” Rodney tried not to show his fear, but the squeak gave him away. John just smiled and jumped on Rodney, pinning him to the floor.
“Our new lives start today, Rodney.” John said into his neck, right before he bit and started to drink. Rodney’s downward spiral of panic was the last thing he felt for a long time.
Nightmare… Or Is It?
Gen
PG-13
Rodney woke up suddenly, trying to figure out why he was awake if it was still dark out and what exactly had woke him up. In his pre-coffee state it took him a couple minutes to realize the normally blue-green lights of Atlantis were slightly pulsing with a dull red, about the speed of his own heart rate.
“What the hell?” Rodney spoke to himself as he got out of bed, only then becoming aware he was completely naked.
“Cadman? Are you in my head again?” Rodney never slept naked. In fact he normally slept in whatever he had been wearing the day before because he only came back to his room to catch a few hours of sleep before getting back to work on the next ground-breaking discovery.
Silence was his only answer.
Rodney quickly got dressed, starting to really freak out when he saw that the pulsing really was matching his raising heart beat, and left the his room to find who had done what to his precious city.
He ran into no one the whole way to the control room.
Likewise the control room was completely empty, from the looks of it completely abandoned. He could smell the faint, coppery smell of freshly spilled blood, but he didn’t see any. It was as if everyone had been spontaneously transported out. There was even a cup of coffee still steaming by one of the consoles.
Rodney ignored the bad feeling he was starting to get and started running diagnostics trying to understand what had happened. Everything seemed fine across the board, until he tried to access the security system.
LOCKED BY JOHN SHEPPARD
Rodney’s security clearance in the city was even higher than John’s but apparently Atlantis was siding with her golden boy and not allowed Rodney the work around he had designed into the system. Other than not being able to see what the cameras had picked up, everything seemed to be fine, so Rodney decided he needed some coffee and food before anything else. Maybe this was all a hypoglycemic hallucination? Rodney could hope anyway.
Again, the trip through Atlantis’ corridors was made all the more creepy because he didn’t run into anyone, and neither was there anyone in the mess hall. There was half-eaten food everywhere so presumably whatever had happened, happened during the height of the breakfast hour.
Thoroughly creeped out, Rodney grabbed some muffins and as many power bars as he could stuff in his pockets and headed to his lab. Once he got there he ran another system-wide diagnostic, hoping his own machines would find something that the consoles Atlantis can control were hiding from him. In the mean time, he ran a sweep of the city for life signs.
This diagnostic also came back clean, but the life signs sweep did manage to find several people in one of the large ball rooms on the lower levels. They had no idea the actual function of the room, but Elizabeth decided they looked like ballrooms, so the name stuck.
Rodney armed himself with a tack vest, LSD, and more of his private stash of power bars, and headed towards the few life signs he could see. There was a balcony that overlooked that particular room where he should be able to see them without them seeing him.
Getting into place and looking into the room, Rodney could only stare in fright. There were twelve people down there, over half of which were in what looked like invisible cages since they kept trying the walls and getting shocked. Teyla and Ronon were walking amongst the cages with evil grins on their faces. Radek was off to the side, working on something on his computer and responding to someone that Rodney couldn’t see. Lorne was… eating someone from the looks of it. He had his prey firmly held down and there was a small trail of blood running down the naked body.
Rodney started to crawl backwards, only to run into something cold. Very cold. He refused to look back, he didn’t want to know which more of his friends had been changed seemingly overnight.
“Nice of you to join us, Rodney.” John had the same drawl as before, but he sounded colder, meaner, like he didn’t care what happened.
“Sheppard! What happened?” Rodney tried not to show his fear, but the squeak gave him away. John just smiled and jumped on Rodney, pinning him to the floor.
“Our new lives start today, Rodney.” John said into his neck, right before he bit and started to drink. Rodney’s downward spiral of panic was the last thing he felt for a long time.