Part 6
John woke with a start to wind muted crackling. He rubs his hand over his face and sits up with a groan. The stone floor had left him stiff and his joints felt as if they were filled with sand. What’s going on? he thinks irritably.
Standing, he hobbles a few steps before his legs loosen. Crossing the main chamber, he passes the smaller room and peeks inside. Todd was slumped against the wall, snoring, though to John, it sounded far more like a diesel engine’s rumbling. Jennifer had curled up in a corner with her pack tucked under her head and her flashlight near her face, still lit but very dim. Helena and the hybrid weren’t there.
His brows knit together as he double checks, thinking that his mind must be playing a trick on him. The hybrid had been unconscious and feverish, there was no way she’d be up and about this quick, even with her Wraith blood.
Ducking down, he enters the room and lightly shakes Todd’s shoulder. The Wraith cracks an eye at him and mumbles a sleep slurred: “What?”
“Helena and the hybrid are gone.” he whispers, not wanting to wake Jennifer.
Todd groans as he rises to a hunched stand, reluctant to waste energy, and follows John out of the room where he can straighten. John winces as the Wraith’s back creaks. “Gotta love the rock bed, huh?” he asks with a light grin.
“They cannot have gone far.” Todd says, dismissing John’s sarcasm laden question.
The light filtering in through the ceiling’s openings highlighted the floor in splotches. No evidence of foot prints or fluids could be seen by either of them. From the center, John could see Rodney stretched out on the floor with and arm over his eyes. Two empty energy bar wrappers lay crumpled beside him.
“Checking outside first would be our best bet.” John says. If they had gone out, the heat would prevent them from traveling very far. He didn’t want to think some creature had slipped in and taken them deeper into the cave, or under the sand. Logic told him the hybrid would definitely have been snatched by a predator in her current state, but Helena? The female was strong and would have put up a fight. Shit. The noise that had woken him may have been her. What the hell am I doing? I’m not risking my life for a loony Wraith and a half dead hybrid.
Todd nodded, and turned towards the entrance. He glances back to see John standing still, “Would you rather take the cavern alone while I check out here?” he asks.
“No.” John says, approaching the Wraith without looking at the two black passages behind him, “I was just wondering why I’m considering looking for them.”
“It is in your nature.” Todd states in a matter of fact tone. And you woke me far too early, so you are going to see this through, Sheppard, he thinks bitterly.
“Yeah?”
The Wraith ignored him as he walks the steep incline towards the mouth of the cavern, so superbly hidden by the skeletal branches above them. John was close behind him, noting the way the branches snared Todd’s disheveled hair and how the Wraith didn’t so much as flinch as he pulled out of them and into the open.
The air outside was just a dry and skin boiling hot as it was the day before. John squints against the harsh light and looks around. “I sure as hell hope they didn’t get far.” He mutters, taking a few steps ahead of Todd.
Bright sunlight and the reflective red sand made it difficult for the both of them. John couldn’t help but feel some smugness at the Wraith’s obvious discomfort, while his sunglasses managed to shield some of the glare. He shields his eyes further with his hand above the nose bridge of the glasses.
Sand stretched before the two, curling upwards towards the dune ahead. The jagged knife rocks jutted in clusters, two to the right of them, five to the left. I’ll take the right first; less to search, he thinks to himself as he begins to walk towards the first of the two groups.
The sand between the two was still slightly damp. The sun was slowly evaporating what water had been there. No sign of Helena or the hybrid. The wind would have destroyed any foot prints, if there were any to begin with.
John glances over his shoulder to see Todd walking towards the adjacent cluster of stones, taking the cue from John’s action without a word. With a shrug, he begins to make his way to the second set of rocks.
The sun made his skin feel tight under the suit that grated against his torso and inner thighs. Todd frowns to himself in discomfort as he checks the perimeter of the second cluster of stones. Closer to the trees, this cluster still retained most of their nightly water supply.
Squatting down, he rakes his left hand through the damp sand, bringing up tracks of water within the claw marks. It pools into the palm of his hand, and he brings it up and over his face. It was a brief relief from the heat beating against his back.
With a grunt Todd stands to check the next closest spot. As he rounds the rough side of the first stone, he sees the small naked, huddled form of the hybrid. She was curled in the center of the stones covered in a light film of red dust, saved from the morning sun.
Todd grasps her shoulder and pushes her over. Her lips were badly chapped, but other wise; she showed no signs of injury. The hybrid’s lashes flutter and her eyes open. “Who are you?” she croaks.
“How did you get out here?”
She lifts herself onto her elbows, where they wobbled unsteadily for a moment. “I don’t remember…just pieces; little bits of pictures that make no sense.” Her brows furrow and she looks up at the Wraith. “There was a pure blood, that much I know.” she says, “but she…she…what did she do?” The hybrid finally draws herself up into a sitting position, with her legs tucked under. The movement swung her red hair forward, where she could see it had been roughly sheered to her shoulders. It is only hair, she tells herself, He cannot see me cry over such a thing.
With a sigh, Todd stands and waits for the hybrid to do the same. When she does, and stumbles, he takes her by the arm and leads her towards the cave entrance. John was already waiting under the shade of the trees.
“Good to see you’re up and about,” he says to the unsteady hybrid. “Did you find any sign of Helena?”
“No.” Todd replies. You lazy human.
“Helena?” The hybrid looks at John for the answer.
“The other Wraith, gotta call her something.” he replies, ducking into the cave entrance.
Jennifer and Rodney were awake and waiting in the main chamber when the three entered. They were arguing, over what, John couldn’t hear and Todd wondered why they were bickering over such a petty incident.
It was Jennifer who saw them first, and she turns away from Rodney abruptly, rushing over to the hybrid. “Is she alright?” she asks, looking over the naked woman for any evident injuries. Save for a few scratches on her knees and elbows, she seemed fine. Jennifer walks around Todd to see her back; the wound had healed, leaving an ugly, puffy dotting of scars.
“She doesn’t appear to be ill.” Todd says, releasing her arm only to grip her shoulders when she sways. “Weak, but not ill.” he finishes.
“What about Helena?” She asks, returning to stand in front of the hybrid.
“No sign of her.” John says as he passes her. The rock closest to the left wall made an excellent seat, a cold uncomfortable seat, but it let his legs take a much needed break. “Can’t find any foot prints and our friend here can’t remember anything.”
“It’s Myrna.” the hybrid says quietly.
Jennifer smiles at her as John continues, “Well Myrna somehow managed to get up, heal up, and Helena vanishes. So who wants to solve this puzzle?”
“Maybe Helena finally snapped, or Myrna went cannibal.” Rodney offers, pointedly looking past Jennifer to John.
“Rodney!” Jennifer hisses.
Taking Myrna by the hand, Jennifer leads her away from Todd and into the small chamber they had slept in, “You need some clothes. I have a spare pair of underwear you could use. They’re clean,” she smiles awkwardly and begins picking through the contents of her bag. “That robe you had on is alright. Helena shook the sand out.” And despite what she thought of Rodney’s accusation, she stole a glance at Myrna’s feeding hand, looking for any sign of blood. To her relief, there was none.
Myrna watches her, head tilted slightly, “Why can’t I remember anything? I know why I came here, where I’m from, but then…nothing.” She sits next to Jennifer.
“It could be due to extreme stress, or you may have suffered a blow to the head. Where are you from? If you don’t mind me asking.”
“The other continent in a village close to the old Wraith facility,” she replies, shifting so she can cross her legs.
“Is that…how, why you’re a hybrid?”
“My mother raised me to believe my father died when I was very little. I found out from my grandmother that he was visiting that facility. I’m not sure why. It hasn’t been used in so long.” She shrugs and takes the underwear Jennifer offers. Scooting forward, she wiggles them on and continues: “He met my mother while she and the other women were gathering. She didn’t run fast enough…and by the first harvest, I was born.”
“I didn’t think Wraith could breed with humans.”
“The gods have a funny way of making things work.” Myrna says with a half smile.
Jennifer returns the smile and watches her pick up the robe. Myrna shakes it out and wraps it around her self, then forces her arms through the tangled sleeves. “I was allowed to be around with the other children until I turned seventeen,” Myrna picks up the iPod Jennifer had set on the ground while looking for the underwear. She turns the small device over in her hand and the cold metal lays flat against her feeding slit. “The chief exiled me a month after my birthday.” she unplugs then re-plugs the headphones as she speaks, enjoying the opportunity to talk to someone who wasn’t afraid of her. “I overheard that there was an active Wraith facility across the sea, so I decided to come here.”
“What if they didn’t accept you? I mean…they aren’t exactly the friendliest race out there.” Jennifer asks. She had not noticed Todd ducking into the chamber and seating himself in the spot he had slept.
“I didn’t consider it at the time. It took me ten years to find the facility,” she laughs drily, “And I find nothing but corpses.”
“When did you reach the facility?’ Todd asks as Jennifer jumps with a start and gasps: “Oh Jesus! When did you sneak in?”
“Two days ago.” Myrna replies after Jennifer settles.
“What did you find?”
“Nothing but the dead.”
Todd’s eyes narrow: “The isolation chamber, was it locked?”
“The what?”
“The room at the center of the facility.”
Myrna looks at the ceiling and bites her lower lip. “The round room?”
“Yes.”
“The door was open. I checked in it and no one was there.”
Sitting forward, Jennifer’s eyes go wide as she absorbs this. “That’s where we found Helena. She said she’d been locked in there when the facility was attacked.”
With a shrug: “She lied to you then.” Myrna pushes the center button on the iPod and tilts her head as the headphones begin making muted sounds. She turns them over between her thumb and forefinger before placing them closer to her ears.
Don't talk back
Just drive the car
Shut your mouth
I know what you are
Don't say nothing
Keep your hands on the wheel
Don't turn around
This is for real
Digging in the dirt
Stay with me, I need support
I'm digging in the dirt
To find the places I got hurt
Open up the places I got hurt
She smiles to herself, enjoying whoever was singing this and unable to read the text scrolling across the screen that read: Peter Gabriel- Digging in the Dirt.
“Could sh...Helena have killed all of those Wraith alone?” Jennifer dares to ask Todd, scooting closer to him; while Myrna was oblivious to Jennifer moving away while she hummed an off key version of Whole Thing.
The Wraith tilts his head down, chin tucked like those massive lion statues in Rome, and looks at the woman who sat so close to him. “Mentally, she could overpower a single male, if what Myrna says is truth.” he says, “I’ve not seen anything like that in many years.”
I wonder how many is many to him. she thinks to herself, looking at his profile. So many angles: harshly prominent cheek bones, sharp brows, a long broad nose and nearly non existent lips. “What was the cause of it when you saw it before?”
“A human beast that the Atlantians eradicated before the War’s end.” he replies in a tone similar to the droning of a lecture. And I dearly hope it has not reemerged.
“What were they?”
“Humans.”
She frowns at him long enough for him to finally regard her and elaborate. “Humans infected by a virus of the Atlantians making. They could be fed upon, but a bite from one would kill a Wraith within a few hours’ time.”
Jennifer bites her lower lip and sighs. “I only caught a peep of one. It was locked in one of the rooms.”
“I didn’t see the knuckle walkers.” Myrna says suddenly. She had figured out the volume settings and turned the music down when Todd had mentioned the Atlantians. “I checked every room for survivors.”
Sucking in a sharp breath, Todd lets loose a harsh sigh. He would need to return to the facility, and did not particularly enjoy the idea of the inevitable sights he’d bear witness to. If she is not lying, they’d still be inside. Or Myrna could have reached the facility far sooner than she claimed. The risks rolled through his mind as Jennifer watched him and Myrna focused on the device she’d become enamored with. The breeding data needs to be recovered, he decides at last, risk or no, it was vital to the Alliance.
His thoughts were disrupted when he feels a warm palm lay over the top of his hand. Jennifer smiles at him awkwardly and squeezes his hand lightly, conflicted with her simple gesture. She stands slowly, careful not to hit her head against the low ceiling, and leaves the cavity to join John and Rodney in the main chamber.
Standing, he hobbles a few steps before his legs loosen. Crossing the main chamber, he passes the smaller room and peeks inside. Todd was slumped against the wall, snoring, though to John, it sounded far more like a diesel engine’s rumbling. Jennifer had curled up in a corner with her pack tucked under her head and her flashlight near her face, still lit but very dim. Helena and the hybrid weren’t there.
His brows knit together as he double checks, thinking that his mind must be playing a trick on him. The hybrid had been unconscious and feverish, there was no way she’d be up and about this quick, even with her Wraith blood.
Ducking down, he enters the room and lightly shakes Todd’s shoulder. The Wraith cracks an eye at him and mumbles a sleep slurred: “What?”
“Helena and the hybrid are gone.” he whispers, not wanting to wake Jennifer.
Todd groans as he rises to a hunched stand, reluctant to waste energy, and follows John out of the room where he can straighten. John winces as the Wraith’s back creaks. “Gotta love the rock bed, huh?” he asks with a light grin.
“They cannot have gone far.” Todd says, dismissing John’s sarcasm laden question.
The light filtering in through the ceiling’s openings highlighted the floor in splotches. No evidence of foot prints or fluids could be seen by either of them. From the center, John could see Rodney stretched out on the floor with and arm over his eyes. Two empty energy bar wrappers lay crumpled beside him.
“Checking outside first would be our best bet.” John says. If they had gone out, the heat would prevent them from traveling very far. He didn’t want to think some creature had slipped in and taken them deeper into the cave, or under the sand. Logic told him the hybrid would definitely have been snatched by a predator in her current state, but Helena? The female was strong and would have put up a fight. Shit. The noise that had woken him may have been her. What the hell am I doing? I’m not risking my life for a loony Wraith and a half dead hybrid.
Todd nodded, and turned towards the entrance. He glances back to see John standing still, “Would you rather take the cavern alone while I check out here?” he asks.
“No.” John says, approaching the Wraith without looking at the two black passages behind him, “I was just wondering why I’m considering looking for them.”
“It is in your nature.” Todd states in a matter of fact tone. And you woke me far too early, so you are going to see this through, Sheppard, he thinks bitterly.
“Yeah?”
The Wraith ignored him as he walks the steep incline towards the mouth of the cavern, so superbly hidden by the skeletal branches above them. John was close behind him, noting the way the branches snared Todd’s disheveled hair and how the Wraith didn’t so much as flinch as he pulled out of them and into the open.
The air outside was just a dry and skin boiling hot as it was the day before. John squints against the harsh light and looks around. “I sure as hell hope they didn’t get far.” He mutters, taking a few steps ahead of Todd.
Bright sunlight and the reflective red sand made it difficult for the both of them. John couldn’t help but feel some smugness at the Wraith’s obvious discomfort, while his sunglasses managed to shield some of the glare. He shields his eyes further with his hand above the nose bridge of the glasses.
Sand stretched before the two, curling upwards towards the dune ahead. The jagged knife rocks jutted in clusters, two to the right of them, five to the left. I’ll take the right first; less to search, he thinks to himself as he begins to walk towards the first of the two groups.
The sand between the two was still slightly damp. The sun was slowly evaporating what water had been there. No sign of Helena or the hybrid. The wind would have destroyed any foot prints, if there were any to begin with.
John glances over his shoulder to see Todd walking towards the adjacent cluster of stones, taking the cue from John’s action without a word. With a shrug, he begins to make his way to the second set of rocks.
The sun made his skin feel tight under the suit that grated against his torso and inner thighs. Todd frowns to himself in discomfort as he checks the perimeter of the second cluster of stones. Closer to the trees, this cluster still retained most of their nightly water supply.
Squatting down, he rakes his left hand through the damp sand, bringing up tracks of water within the claw marks. It pools into the palm of his hand, and he brings it up and over his face. It was a brief relief from the heat beating against his back.
With a grunt Todd stands to check the next closest spot. As he rounds the rough side of the first stone, he sees the small naked, huddled form of the hybrid. She was curled in the center of the stones covered in a light film of red dust, saved from the morning sun.
Todd grasps her shoulder and pushes her over. Her lips were badly chapped, but other wise; she showed no signs of injury. The hybrid’s lashes flutter and her eyes open. “Who are you?” she croaks.
“How did you get out here?”
She lifts herself onto her elbows, where they wobbled unsteadily for a moment. “I don’t remember…just pieces; little bits of pictures that make no sense.” Her brows furrow and she looks up at the Wraith. “There was a pure blood, that much I know.” she says, “but she…she…what did she do?” The hybrid finally draws herself up into a sitting position, with her legs tucked under. The movement swung her red hair forward, where she could see it had been roughly sheered to her shoulders. It is only hair, she tells herself, He cannot see me cry over such a thing.
With a sigh, Todd stands and waits for the hybrid to do the same. When she does, and stumbles, he takes her by the arm and leads her towards the cave entrance. John was already waiting under the shade of the trees.
“Good to see you’re up and about,” he says to the unsteady hybrid. “Did you find any sign of Helena?”
“No.” Todd replies. You lazy human.
“Helena?” The hybrid looks at John for the answer.
“The other Wraith, gotta call her something.” he replies, ducking into the cave entrance.
Jennifer and Rodney were awake and waiting in the main chamber when the three entered. They were arguing, over what, John couldn’t hear and Todd wondered why they were bickering over such a petty incident.
It was Jennifer who saw them first, and she turns away from Rodney abruptly, rushing over to the hybrid. “Is she alright?” she asks, looking over the naked woman for any evident injuries. Save for a few scratches on her knees and elbows, she seemed fine. Jennifer walks around Todd to see her back; the wound had healed, leaving an ugly, puffy dotting of scars.
“She doesn’t appear to be ill.” Todd says, releasing her arm only to grip her shoulders when she sways. “Weak, but not ill.” he finishes.
“What about Helena?” She asks, returning to stand in front of the hybrid.
“No sign of her.” John says as he passes her. The rock closest to the left wall made an excellent seat, a cold uncomfortable seat, but it let his legs take a much needed break. “Can’t find any foot prints and our friend here can’t remember anything.”
“It’s Myrna.” the hybrid says quietly.
Jennifer smiles at her as John continues, “Well Myrna somehow managed to get up, heal up, and Helena vanishes. So who wants to solve this puzzle?”
“Maybe Helena finally snapped, or Myrna went cannibal.” Rodney offers, pointedly looking past Jennifer to John.
“Rodney!” Jennifer hisses.
Taking Myrna by the hand, Jennifer leads her away from Todd and into the small chamber they had slept in, “You need some clothes. I have a spare pair of underwear you could use. They’re clean,” she smiles awkwardly and begins picking through the contents of her bag. “That robe you had on is alright. Helena shook the sand out.” And despite what she thought of Rodney’s accusation, she stole a glance at Myrna’s feeding hand, looking for any sign of blood. To her relief, there was none.
Myrna watches her, head tilted slightly, “Why can’t I remember anything? I know why I came here, where I’m from, but then…nothing.” She sits next to Jennifer.
“It could be due to extreme stress, or you may have suffered a blow to the head. Where are you from? If you don’t mind me asking.”
“The other continent in a village close to the old Wraith facility,” she replies, shifting so she can cross her legs.
“Is that…how, why you’re a hybrid?”
“My mother raised me to believe my father died when I was very little. I found out from my grandmother that he was visiting that facility. I’m not sure why. It hasn’t been used in so long.” She shrugs and takes the underwear Jennifer offers. Scooting forward, she wiggles them on and continues: “He met my mother while she and the other women were gathering. She didn’t run fast enough…and by the first harvest, I was born.”
“I didn’t think Wraith could breed with humans.”
“The gods have a funny way of making things work.” Myrna says with a half smile.
Jennifer returns the smile and watches her pick up the robe. Myrna shakes it out and wraps it around her self, then forces her arms through the tangled sleeves. “I was allowed to be around with the other children until I turned seventeen,” Myrna picks up the iPod Jennifer had set on the ground while looking for the underwear. She turns the small device over in her hand and the cold metal lays flat against her feeding slit. “The chief exiled me a month after my birthday.” she unplugs then re-plugs the headphones as she speaks, enjoying the opportunity to talk to someone who wasn’t afraid of her. “I overheard that there was an active Wraith facility across the sea, so I decided to come here.”
“What if they didn’t accept you? I mean…they aren’t exactly the friendliest race out there.” Jennifer asks. She had not noticed Todd ducking into the chamber and seating himself in the spot he had slept.
“I didn’t consider it at the time. It took me ten years to find the facility,” she laughs drily, “And I find nothing but corpses.”
“When did you reach the facility?’ Todd asks as Jennifer jumps with a start and gasps: “Oh Jesus! When did you sneak in?”
“Two days ago.” Myrna replies after Jennifer settles.
“What did you find?”
“Nothing but the dead.”
Todd’s eyes narrow: “The isolation chamber, was it locked?”
“The what?”
“The room at the center of the facility.”
Myrna looks at the ceiling and bites her lower lip. “The round room?”
“Yes.”
“The door was open. I checked in it and no one was there.”
Sitting forward, Jennifer’s eyes go wide as she absorbs this. “That’s where we found Helena. She said she’d been locked in there when the facility was attacked.”
With a shrug: “She lied to you then.” Myrna pushes the center button on the iPod and tilts her head as the headphones begin making muted sounds. She turns them over between her thumb and forefinger before placing them closer to her ears.
Don't talk back
Just drive the car
Shut your mouth
I know what you are
Don't say nothing
Keep your hands on the wheel
Don't turn around
This is for real
Digging in the dirt
Stay with me, I need support
I'm digging in the dirt
To find the places I got hurt
Open up the places I got hurt
She smiles to herself, enjoying whoever was singing this and unable to read the text scrolling across the screen that read: Peter Gabriel- Digging in the Dirt.
“Could sh...Helena have killed all of those Wraith alone?” Jennifer dares to ask Todd, scooting closer to him; while Myrna was oblivious to Jennifer moving away while she hummed an off key version of Whole Thing.
The Wraith tilts his head down, chin tucked like those massive lion statues in Rome, and looks at the woman who sat so close to him. “Mentally, she could overpower a single male, if what Myrna says is truth.” he says, “I’ve not seen anything like that in many years.”
I wonder how many is many to him. she thinks to herself, looking at his profile. So many angles: harshly prominent cheek bones, sharp brows, a long broad nose and nearly non existent lips. “What was the cause of it when you saw it before?”
“A human beast that the Atlantians eradicated before the War’s end.” he replies in a tone similar to the droning of a lecture. And I dearly hope it has not reemerged.
“What were they?”
“Humans.”
She frowns at him long enough for him to finally regard her and elaborate. “Humans infected by a virus of the Atlantians making. They could be fed upon, but a bite from one would kill a Wraith within a few hours’ time.”
Jennifer bites her lower lip and sighs. “I only caught a peep of one. It was locked in one of the rooms.”
“I didn’t see the knuckle walkers.” Myrna says suddenly. She had figured out the volume settings and turned the music down when Todd had mentioned the Atlantians. “I checked every room for survivors.”
Sucking in a sharp breath, Todd lets loose a harsh sigh. He would need to return to the facility, and did not particularly enjoy the idea of the inevitable sights he’d bear witness to. If she is not lying, they’d still be inside. Or Myrna could have reached the facility far sooner than she claimed. The risks rolled through his mind as Jennifer watched him and Myrna focused on the device she’d become enamored with. The breeding data needs to be recovered, he decides at last, risk or no, it was vital to the Alliance.
His thoughts were disrupted when he feels a warm palm lay over the top of his hand. Jennifer smiles at him awkwardly and squeezes his hand lightly, conflicted with her simple gesture. She stands slowly, careful not to hit her head against the low ceiling, and leaves the cavity to join John and Rodney in the main chamber.