Title - Cold Comfort (5/6)
Ronon was on autopilot. He ran along the corridor with his blaster in front of him and his flashlight trained ahead. He found the children, who appeared unharmed, and sent them towards the exit towards Teyla and McKay.
Eventually, he rounded a corner and saw the beam of a second flashlight strafing across the floor.
“Sheppard!”
He followed the light to its source. Sheppard was sitting against a wall. His eyes were closed, but he was holding his gun across his knee and aiming it down the hall.
Ronon gave him a shake. “Sheppard!”
His eyelids fluttered open. “Hey buddy,” he said.
“Come on. Let’s get you out of here.”
“I’m waiting. There’s more.”
Ronon aimed his blaster in the same direction as Sheppard and strained to hear anything. When there were no signs of danger, he prodded Sheppard.
“The kids?”
“They’re okay. They’re with McKay and Teyla. Is there anyone else?”
“No,” Sheppard said.
“Come on.”
Sheppard pushed him away when he tried to get him up. “We have to make sure there’s none left. I didn’t get them all.”
“I don’t see anything.”
“They’ll be eating,” Sheppard said. “When they’re done they’ll come after us.”
“Then let’s make our move while they’re occupied, huh?”
Ronon reached for Sheppard’s hand and helped him up to his feet. Sheppard got half way up and then sagged down again, panting heavily.
“You hurt?”
Sheppard tugged at his vest. Ronon moved his shaking fingers and drew the zipper down. He pushed the vest open. His t-shirt was glistening with blood. He pulled it up. There was a deep gash just above Sheppard’s hip. The cut was straight and clean around the edges, but it was bleeding freely.
“It’s not too bad.”
Sheppard chuckled. “Yeah?”
“Can you walk?”
“I can hardly stand.”
“You can lean on me,” Ronon said. “Why didn’t you say something?”
Sheppard wrapped an arm around Ronon’s neck. When he was up, he braced himself against Ronon’s shoulder. “Didn’t want to freak out the kids.”
Ronon understood. And from how calm the children had been, he’d done a good job.
“Don’t suppose you’ve got anymore C4?”
“Used the last of it getting to you.”
“Figures,” Sheppard said. He gestured down the darkened hallway. “I’ve got one more left. But it’s down there.”
“I’ll get it.”
“We’re gonna have company soon.”
Ronon stood and aimed his weapon down the corridor. “I’ll get it.”
“Ronon!”
When he looked at Sheppard, he gave him a nod and reasserted his own aim.
Ronon crept down the corridor. He held his breath and listened. The further he walked, the louder the sounds got. It sounded like dripping water and twigs snapping. He saw the unexploded charge on the floor and walked past it and towards the noise.
The hall went off to the left. He looked around the corner and saw them. And he saw the body that they were tearing apart.
Blood and bones.
The urge to blast them all away was overwhelming, but there were too many and for the moment they were occupied. If Sheppard hadn’t been injured, he wouldn’t have thought twice about it.
He backed up slowly, avoiding the creatures that Sheppard had managed to take out, snatched up the C4 block and blasting cap and retreated.
0000
“Where’s the colonel?”
McKay sighed as he followed the kids down the stairwell. “He’s on his way.” They were moving slowly and he tried to push through, only to be accosted and asked more questions.
“Why do we have to leave?”
“Uh, because…” He looked to Teyla for support, but she was covering their six and obviously anxious about the lack of contact from the others. “Because,” he said finally. “I said so.”
At the bottom step, they noticed the door blown off its hinges. “What happened?”
McKay ignored the tiny person staring at him and pushed through to the corridor. He jabbed at the screen of his scanner to bring up the layout of the facility.
“What’s that?”
McKay hated the way children always had to ask so many questions. “Teyla?”
She fell into step beside him. “I am worried about the colonel. They have been gone a long time.”
“I’m sure they’re-oh, there you go,” he said, as Sheppard and Ronon walked up behind them. “See, they’re fine.”
“John?”
Sheppard waved her away. “We got a way out of here?”
McKay turned his flashlight onto Sheppard’s face. The colonel closed his eyes and he dropped the beam. Satisfied that Sheppard was okay, he said, “If we follow this corridor it leads to the main entrance. It should be clear all the way. Obviously, I’m not expecting the door out of here to magically open, but I’ll have to check that out when we get there. I take it you dealt with that other thing.”
“We’re alone. For now,” Ronon said.
“That instils the greatest of confidence. Thank you,” McKay said.
“Why don’t you and the kids start walking,” Sheppard suggested.
“But we want you to come?”
“Yeah, I want you to come.”
“We don’t like Rodney!”
“Wonderful. Well I don’t like you either.” To the others looks, McKay rolled his eyes. “What?”
0000
When McKay was out of earshot, Teyla turned to them both. “What is going on?”
There was no point in lying to Teyla. She already knew that something was wrong and if she was in on the subterfuge it might make it easier to get back to Atlantis.
“Sheppard’s injured.”
“John?”
“One of the creatures caught me in the side,” he said. He watched Teyla’s flashlight beam travel to where blood was dripping onto the floor.
“You did not want to scare the children,” she said, understanding.
He nodded. “Stupid I know, but-“
“I believe if the children were distressed, then they would be difficult to handle. Keeping them calm allows us to get them back to Atlantis none the wiser.”
“Thanks Teyla. For not kicking my ass.”
“You are however bleeding heavily.”
“We’re gonna deal with that now,” Ronon said.
“I will catch up Rodney. The creatures?”
“They haven’t followed us yet. But we’ll be quick.”
When Teyla’s flashlight had faded, Sheppard let out a groan and staggered over to the wall.
Ronon helped Sheppard down to the floor and unzipped his vest. “Bandage is already soaked through.”
He uncovered the wound and shone his light onto it. Sheppard sucked in a deep breath. “That’s going to smart in the morning.”
“It’s still bleeding.”
“You’re going to have to pack it.”
“That’s going to hurt.”
Sheppard opened his vest pocket. “I know.” Ronon took out a wodge of gauze and another field bandage. As he was unrolling the bandage, Sheppard remarked, “Just get it over quickly.”
“Okay,” he said. He positioned the gauze. “Ready?”
Before Sheppard had a chance to answer, he pushed the gauze into the wound. Sheppard held out for as long as he could and then screamed out and gripped his arm.
When he was done, Sheppard closed his eyes. He sucked in air and grimaced.
Ronon laughed. “McKay’s going crazy in my ear. Thinks that sound was the creatures.”
Sheppard met his eyes, but didn’t look amused. “Let’s just hope they didn’t hear it.”
“Good point.”
0000
They made slow progress. Sheppard was obviously in a lot of pain, but he was refusing painkillers. Ronon knew why. Sheppard liked to keep his head clear. But, with an injury like that not taking the painkillers wasn’t going to make a difference.
“You know, this has turned into a really sucky mission.”
Ronon steadied Sheppard when his knees buckled. “MX992?”
“That the one with the moon dance?”
Ronon flinched. “Yeah.”
Sheppard chuckled and went to activate his radio When he realised he wasn’t wearing his, he said, “Have they reached the door?”
Ronon switched his grip on Sheppard. “McKay? You reached the door?”
“Well?”
“They’ve just arrived.”
“And?”
Ronon tugged his earpiece out and positioned on Sheppard’s ear instead. “You talk to him.”
He listened as Sheppard snapped and bitched at McKay. Finally, he signed off and said, “He’s working on it. Apparently there’s some power he can work with. But you know Mc-”
Ronon held his hand up. Sheppard stopped talking.
“You hear that?”
Sheppard froze.
“Sounds close.”
He let go of Sheppard and he braced himself on the wall, while Ronon went into a crouch on the opposite side of the hall.
“How you wanna play this?”
0000
McKay consulted his scanner again. There wasn’t much power flowing through the door panel, but it was enough for him to work with. He was getting somewhere. He’d get there a lot quicker if he wasn’t surrounded.
“Can’t you wait over there?” he asked, pointing vaguely behind him. “It’s hard enough to work on this as it is without-“
The rapport of weapons sounded and McKay looked up at Teyla. She aimed her p-90 and gestured for him to continue. The children were clearly agitated.
“I’m working on it!”
Teyla said, “I’m going to help them.”
“You can’t leave me here!” McKay snapped.
“They need assistance.”
Before he had a chance to respond Teyla was disappearing into the dark.
“What’s going on?” one of the kids asked.
“Is something wrong?”
“Is it the colonel?”
“What’s happening?”
“Oh nothing,” McKay said, turning his attention back to the door control. “Everything’s fine. I just need to fix this and we can get out of here.”
He felt the kid’s come closer to him at the sound of inhuman shriek. He didn’t blame them.
0000
Sheppard was fighting a losing battle. He couldn’t stand up straight let alone hit the side of a barn his aim was so far off. He depressed the trigger and nothing happened. He fought to release the magazine and reloaded with shaky hands.
Ronon’s flashlight clattered to the floor and he saw the Satedan running forward as one of the creatures advanced. He couldn’t tell what was happening and whether Ronon was alright. He aimed his flashlight around, trying to seek him out and saw him snapping the neck of the creature. He looked up with a manic grin, ducked and fired.
Sheppard straightened his arm and pulled the trigger. He was dizzy and the shot went wide leaving him exposed as a creature managed to outsmart Ronon. He took a step back, but his balance was shot and he fell onto his back. Just when he thought he’d about had it, Teyla stood over him and the creature landed dead at his feet.
She didn’t have time to help him up. She was firing on approaching creatures.
Sheppard managed to get up and sit against the wall. His side felt wet again. There were too many of them. They were firing but more were coming.
“Fall back!” he shouted. He pulled himself up to stand. “Ronon! Teyla!”
Ronon ducked out of the way of a slashing hand and pulled Teyla back with him. She continued to fire into the corridor.
“There’s too many!”
“You want to run?”
“No,” Sheppard said, firing off another shot. “You still got that C4?”
0000
There was a satisfying hiss, followed by locks disengaging and the door whooshed open. McKay sat back on his heels.
“Okay kids. Let’s wait outside.” He shooed them on, but they didn’t move. “Outside. We need to leave.”
“What about the colonel?”
“What about the noises?”
McKay peered into the darkness. There were no signs of the others.
“We can’t go without them!” one of the kids shouted at him.
McKay stood up so that he could tower over them. Then, asserting his best “you’re in trouble” voice, he snapped, “Get outside now!”
He smiled in victory as they shuffled passed one by one.
“Close the door!”
“I just opened the door!”
Sheppard did his best “you’re in trouble” voice. “Well get ready to close it. We can’t let these things out. Do it now!”
“Now they’re things? Okay, this just gets more disturbing by the minute. Where are you?”
“We’re on our way now.”
McKay waited, looking between the dark hall and the panel. He hoped that the connection would hold and the door would close again.
He heard them before he saw them. Ronon was shouting something and Sheppard was making a pained noise. When they appeared, Sheppard was being dragged between them.
McKay stepped aside so that they could pass.
“Close it now!” Ronon shouted.
He’d only just initiated the door closure sequence when Ronon gripped the back of his vest and hauled him outside. Just as the door clicked home, he saw white eyes and bloodied teeth.
“What the-“
Sheppard pushed him away and pressed his remote detonator.
part 6 http://obsessed1o1.livejournal.com/103140.html#cutid1