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Rodney could feel the heat from the sun being radiated back from the black surface of the old lava field before he even stepped foot on it. It just went to make him even thirstier than he was before, and for a split second he considered going back into the shade of the trees to find another way to the water. But the wide open vista where killer tribbles couldn’t hide definitely held an appeal that had him stepping out onto the dark ground. The toes of the hardened flows were bulbous and irregular to walk on, but it was as he moved toward the center of the field that he really started having problems.
The lava had formed tubes as it flowed from the volcanic vents, and in places, the ceilings of those tubes were little more than brittle shells that cracked under Rodney’s weight. McKay’s foot broke through the fragile surface of one tube twice, sending sharp glassy shards of the rock plummeting several feet below in the naturally formed caverns. Realizing how lucky he was that he hadn’t joined the rubble at the bottom of the tube, Rodney started walking along the more structurally sound points where tubes merged together or the lava had roped tight enough that no caves were even formed. The plan worked well, although it was a much more convoluted path across the field than simply walking a straight line, which had McKay wondering if this was such a good idea after all. And when the ground crackled beneath his boots and fissures spiderwebbed out in all directions yet again, Rodney decided maybe he should work his way back toward the jungle.
That was until he heard a sound.
"Hello?"
The voice was muffled and it took Rodney a second to realize it was actually coming from below the ground surface.
"Is anyone there?" the voice called again.
"Teyla?" Rodney’s question was directed more toward himself than the voice.
Then the voice asked even louder, "Can you hear me?"
That was definitely his teammate, Rodney concluded, using his foot to smash down hard and bust a small hole into the opening below.
"Hello!" the voice cried desperately, this time echoing in the hollow space below him.
Rodney dropped to all fours on the edge of the tube and peered into the darkness. "Teyla, is that you?"
"Rodney." She practically sighed his name in relief. "Thank the Ancestors."
"What are you doing down there?" he asked in confusion.
"I fell through some ways back and became trapped," she explained. "I have been attempting to find a way out by moving further down the tunnel, but have had no luck."
"Fell through? Are you okay?"
"My injuries are minor," Teyla assured. "But the cavern is too deep to climb out on my own."
"Move back," Rodney ordered. "I’ll see if I can make a larger opening."
McKay stood and smashed his foot down on the rock several times, but only managed to increase the size of the opening a few inches.
"The canopy is too thick here," he told Teyla. "Maybe a little further down…"
She cut him off and instructed, "Follow the tunnel uphill and you will find where I fell in. That opening is much larger."
"Okay," Rodney agreed and moved cautiously up along the tube, careful not to step on a weak spot and end up in the cavern with Teyla.
If he hadn’t known exactly where to look, McKay doubted he ever would have seen the opening given how it melded seamlessly with the sea of rolling black surrounding him. Reaching the hole, he stepped toward the edge, only to jump back when a large chunk of the roof collapsed to the floor below. He laid flat on the rock and was able to look down and see that Teyla had been there when the rock fell, but he could see she had fallen a good fifteen feet to the bottom. No wonder she couldn’t climb out.
"Teyla?" he called when she wasn’t there.
"I am on my way." Teyla’s voice echoed through the tunnel. The breathless quality led Rodney to believe she must be hurt worse than she had said.
It took her a few minutes, but Teyla finally returned to the opening, squinting against the sunlight streaming down on her. She was covered with several cuts from the glassy rock she had fallen through and there was dried blood on the side of her face from where she must have hit her head. Putting out a hand, she braced herself against the wall of the tube and took the weight off her left leg.
"Rodney, it is so good to see you."
"I can’t believe I found you," Rodney told her in awe that he had. Although the tube she had fallen through was one of the large ones in the field, so maybe they had both been drawn toward it for that reason.
"Nor can I," Teyla confessed. "I had feared…" She took a breath and shook her head. "It is of no matter now."
Rodney did his best to comfort her. "Hey, we would have come to look for you if you hadn’t made it back to the circle."
Giving him a weak smile, Teyla agreed. "Of course you would have."
"I mean, it might have taken a while to find you. Not nearly as long as it did when Michael had you; you would have starved to death down there if it had taken us that long." Rodney snorted at the thought before considering, "You know, starvation has to be one of the worst ways I can think of to die. Although dehydration would have got you before that happened. And I’ve heard drowning can be pretty horrific, too, if it doesn’t happen just right..."
"Rodney," she interrupted firmly before directing much more calmly. "You must find something I can use as a rope."
"Right." Rodney looked around and saw nothing but black rock framed by jungle in the distance. "I guess I’ll have to go back into the trees and see if I can find a vine or something." His stink vine would be thick enough but would probably be sliced up pretty easily by the edges of the hole. But surely there was something else he could find.
"That is an excellent idea," Teyla concurred
"Okay, I’ll be back as soon as I can," he promised. "You wait right here."
"I had not planned on going anywhere else."
Rodney thought he might have detected a hint of condescension in her tone, but it didn’t stop him from gathering up a few stones, marking the edge of the opening so he would be able to see it again when he returned, and heading back toward the nearest edge of jungle. He took the time to set several more cairns along the most stable route across the lava field then set to work trying to find a vine strong enough to support Teyla somewhere in the thick growth of the trees. Unfortunately, nothing seemed like it would work.
"Stupid jungle," Rodney grumbled when yet another vine broke when he tested it with his own weight. "Full of killer bunnies and substandard vines."
He was so intent on locating something he could use, and cursing out anything that he couldn’t, that at first he thought he was imagining the voice calling his name. But when he heard it yet again, he answered back in relief.
"Ronon? Oh, thank God."
If anyone could get Teyla out of that hole, it would be him.
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