The despair that gripped Halling was like none he had ever known, not even when he'd seen his wife taken by the Wraith. Losing her had been devastating, but they had lived under that danger all their lives. To abandon Jinto in a storm-
Cries and shouts of warning pulled him from his shock. Someone tugged at his sleeve, and he blinked away his momentary paralysis. His duty now lay with those still within his reach. "Make for the bridge!" he called unnecessarily. He would find another way of reaching Jinto, but to do so he had to stay alive.
Ahead of him, people had reached the section where the path narrowed through the trees and were beginning to cluster together. Halling was alarmed by a new sound, one familiar to them all. Now that the wind had lessened, he could hear the gushing of the swollen river. The roar grew louder with every step. Branches slapped his face, and several times he stopped to help children who had slipped and fallen. At the next bend, the sound of water became a roar, and people stopped moving. Someone was urging them to go back the way they had come.
Hailing made his way though the group."…don't have any choice!" he heard Kwesi declare.
"We barely made it across," replied one of the hunters who had spent the day on the far side of the river. "Uprooted trees have smashed into the embankment on both sides. Some of the places where the bridge is fastened are dangerously unstable. If anyone attempts to cross now, I believe it will break." The man shifted a brace of animals to his other shoulder.
The sense of desperation Halling had been fighting off now engulfed him, smothering his ability to think clearly. He was not a leader of his people. Not for the first time, he felt Teyla's absence deeply, and he suffered a momentary flash of resentment. The Wraith would come as they always had, and the arrival of people from Earth would not change that inevitable fact, no matter what Teyla hoped. She should have remained with her own people. She should be here to lead them.
"The risks of staying here are greater," Kwesi urged.
A particularly bright lightning strike seized everyone's attention. A deafening roar of thunder and another, more explosive crack followed. Hailing saw a long, narrow rent, as if a large knife had slashed a horizontal wound, high up along the face of the mountain directly behind the camp. The rain in his eyes and temporary darkness combined to disguise the motion, but the next flare of storm light revealed a far greater rift, as if the gash were opening. But this was no mere injury. Like a monster stalking them in the darkness, the slipping mountainside was captured in a series of still images momentarily frozen in position by successive flashes. Each terrifying glimpse revealed that the avalanche was headed towards the camp-and them.
On the next bolt, an involuntary cry tore from his throat. Mixed up among the cascade of earth and uprooted trees and boulders was a lifeless-looking puddle jumper. The awful realization turned Halling's stomach. Teyla had indeed come for them, but her ship had crashed on this most terrible of nights and was now being carried along by the torn mountain as if it were nothing more than a speck of dust.
Kwesi was the first to pull everyone from their morbid fascination, screaming through the rain that they must run for the bridge. Someone slammed into Halling's shoulder, bringing him swiftly back to the situation at hand. There was nothing he could do to help Teyla and anyone else who might be in the jumper.
Breaking into a run, Halling caught up with the others sprinting through the bushes. He now had his first glimpse of the river, swollen and churning at a great speed. Branches and darker objects, perhaps unfortunate animals, were being swept along. Among the noise, he heard Kwesi's voice, then spotted the engineer directing people onto the bridge. It appeared intact, despite the great tangle of trees that had rammed up against both banks. Many of the supporting ropes had broken, causing the bridge to sway, but it was nevertheless negotiable.
"You go across!" Hailing urged Kwesi. The engineer shook his head and helped a pregnant woman take her first steps. "Go! Help Ansi across and head for the caves. You have the radio-you must inform Dr. Weir of what has happened."
Two-thirds of the way across, another supporting rope snapped, and the bridge sagged until it dipped into the savage waters. Gripping Ansi close, Kwesi shouted for everyone to space out more evenly. On the far side, people were scrambling up a path that led to solid rock and the shallow caves. There, though exposed to wind and rain, Halling knew they would at least be safe from avalanches.
On the bridge, yet another rope snapped. Hailing could not be certain through the rain and flashes of lightning, but five or six people appeared to slip and fall into the tumultuous river. They were carried from view before anyone could react. Others clung to the ropes, their feet dangling in the water, while hands reached out to pull them to safety. Those on the far side, including Kwesi, pointed back the way they had come. Hailing could not hear their voices, but their faces twisted into awful screams.
Hailing looked over his shoulder. Again, it took moments for the lightning strikes to illuminate the area, but when they did so, a vise clutched his heart. It appeared as if the crumbling mountain had swallowed a section of the permanent camp. Part of his mind registered the fact that there was no longer any sign of the jumper.
Those negotiating the bridge-now little more than a few ropes and dangling planks-somehow managed to increase their speed, but then the last rope snapped, tossing many into the water. He rushed to the embankment, grabbing at hands and pulling people ashore, thankful to see that most had clung on and made it to the far side.
His thanks were short-lived, though. In another moment, he and all of those remaining on this side of the river would be overwhelmed by the disintegrating mountain. In those few brief seconds remaining to him, Halling decided that at least this would be a more merciful death than that which he would have suffered at the hands of the Wraith.
The rumbling grew so loud he could no longer hear the river. He stood quietly, waiting, and said a silent farewell to Jinto.
Elizabeth leaned on the railing of the gallery and watched the jumper emerge from the wormhole. Through the windshield she could see John's boyish grin, while Rodney was gesturing excitedly. "Welcome back, Jumper One," she called through her com. "Can I take it from your expressions that you've located Atlas's second machine?"
"Not exactly, but we may be able to go one better," replied the Colonel. "I'll let Rodney explain." The ship ascended from the control room floor to the jumper bay overhead, and Elizabeth left to go up and meet them, hoping that their news was better than hers.
The team had already disembarked by the time she reached the bay. Her hope took an immediate hit when she found them mostly empty-handed and sporting what seemed to be varying degrees of sunburn. Upon closer examination, she noticed that their uniforms were also rather the worse for wear and Ronon's coat appeared to have been attacked by some truly ferocious moths. "Gentlemen." She stared pointedly at the container in Carson's hands. "That doesn't look like what we were hoping for."
"This?" Carson lifted the vial. "Oh, no, on the contrary. Whatever this stuff is, it's quite dangerous." His gaze took in the others. "I want to see all of you in the infirmary as soon as you've gotten cleaned up and made your report to Dr. Weir. I'm sorry to be in such a rush," he added, moving past Elizabeth, "but I really need to get working on this."