Chapter Ten: Survival
John whirled around as the animal’s scream rent the air, some sort of hunting call meant to strike terror into the hearts of its prey. Dahlia Radim was directly in his line of fire, running toward him as fast as she could, while all he could see behind her was a dark shape tossing around and around on the ground. Crap, he thought, his heart and legs going into overdrive, dashing toward it, trying to get a clear shot around Dahlia. Not much chance of that. Whatever-it-was was rolling around on the ground, trying to savage someone — whoever — it had got. He didn’t have a shot. He didn’t have anything. Opening up right now would be as likely to hit…
Fire lit the night, the bright flash of Teyla’s tracers. Carson. It had Carson.
“Colonel!” Dahlia shouted, and he dodged around her.
He saw what she’d seen an instant later, a second beast on a converging path, springing toward the source of the gunfire. Teyla would never get around in time, even if she heard him shout over the sound of her own shots. John skidded to a halt, dropping to one knee for a steadier shot. Carefully.
A quick burst caught it six feet behind Teyla’s back, just at the beginning of its pounce. She didn’t even jerk around, still trying to get a decent shot at the one that had Carson, trusting him to guard her back. It fell backwards, twitching feebly on the ground.
He pivoted, trying to get a better angle, but all he could see was a tossing blob.
Teyla could see better. A single shot, two. The thing that had Carson scrambled up, a dark shadow against other dark shadows.
John saw the movement out of the corner of his eye. Too late. He swung back but Teyla was directly between him and the creature, coming at her from her right side while she was intent on the other.
“Teyla!”
It hit her full in the shoulder, its weight knocking her down. There was one fraction of a second, one tiny divided moment, as she fell with it on top of her that its head reared up, forelegs extended, a long reptilian head like an alligator, four clawed feet. He wouldn’t have taken the shot if he’d thought about it. It was too close to Teyla. But he didn’t think. He squeezed the trigger in that fraction of a second, not a burst but a single shot.
The thing went over backwards with a gurgling sound. Even as he ran up it ceased twitching, lying silent in the suddenly still night.
“Teyla?”
“I am fine,” she said, already beginning to pull herself up. “Carson…” Her breath caught and she sat back down heavily. “I am fine. See to Carson.”
John kept the gun in hand as he jogged over. One of the creatures was down, dead, the one he’d hit in the head. The others had vanished into the darkness. “Carson?”
The doctor rolled over, pushing himself up on his left arm. “Not fine. I need a dressing.”
Kneeling down beside him, the light on his P90 flashed over Carson. His body armor was ripped and torn, the fabric gaping open to the Kevlar lining below, huge claw marks across the chest. If he hadn’t been wearing the vest his chest would have been ripped open. As it was, there was a deep bleeding gash across his upper right arm, dripping down his sleeve onto the ground.
Carson leaned on his left arm. “That’s lovely,” he said as he saw it in the light. His voice sounded shaky.
“Here.” John fumbled one handed for the field dressing he kept in his left thigh pocket, pulled it out and tore it open. He didn’t dare put the gun down, not with two of those creatures wounded and still around, maybe stalking them again just out of sight.
“That looks bad,” Dahlia Radim said solemnly, coming up behind John.
“Yes, love,” Carson said with a spark of his old fire. “It’s not what I’d call peachy. The bicep’s torn, though it didn’t hit an artery. It’s going to need surgery to line the muscle up and need stitches in the muscle tissue. And I can’t very well perform surgery on my own right arm.”
“Help him with that dressing,” John said, standing up to cover them while Dahlia knelt to help Carson tie the dressing tight around his arm.
“Pressure now,” Carson said. “There. I’m a wee bit lightheaded so you’ll have to keep it on.”
“Teyla?” John called.
“Here.” Her voice sounded strained. She limped out of the darkness, her face tight in the light of his gun.
“What’s the matter?”
“I have hurt my leg.” She grimaced as she made the final two steps to him, not fully putting her left foot down. “That creature knocked me onto the stones. I fell hard on rocks on my left hip.”
“Is it broken?”
“If my hip were broken I would not be standing,” Teyla snapped, which was a measure of pain. It made Carson more determined to act normal than ever, but rendered Teyla sharper.
He put out his arm to steady her, flicking his light over the rocks around them. He didn’t see any of the animals, but they were probably still here. The question was if they were too injured or had decided that the humans bit back too hard, or if they were just circling for another chance.
“Carson?”
“I’m hanging in here,” Carson said. “Dahlia, pull it tighter. You’ve got to hurt me, love. Just go on and do it. Got to stop the bleeding.”
“We need a fire,” Teyla said. “Most reptiles can’t abide it.”
“Nothing to burn,” John said. Bare rock. Some gray cactus things. No brush, no wood, no trees. “Let’s hold on until the bleeding stops, then find a place in the rocks where we’ve got cover.”
She nodded stiffly, lifting the P90 and flashing the light around them. “Perhaps this will do then.”
“It’ll have to.” Two of them, one injured, to cover more seriously injured Carson and Dahlia Radim. Super. If Zelenka were here, he could have repaired the jumper and they could have flown to the crash site. They wouldn’t be in this predicament. But he’d done it again. Shep had done it again, running off half cocked to the rescue without the stuff he needed to make it work…
“How is it, Carson?” Teyla asked, her back to the doctor.
“I expect I’ll live,” Carson said, but there was a tremor in his voice. “The bleeding’s slowing up. I’m a bit lightheaded, but that’s blood loss. Dahlia, be a love and get a pressure bandage out of my kit. Also the antiseptic and the antibiotic gel. When it’s eased a bit more I’m going to take the dressing off and I’ll tell you what to do.”
“How’s your hip?” John asked Teyla in a low voice.
Her lips were pressed in a tight line. “I can stand. Do not distract Carson with it.”
He nodded. “Ok.”
There was a movement among the stones to Teyla’s right, and their tracers crossed as they both opened up on it at once. John had no idea if they hit anything or not, but they certainly scared whatever it was.
“How long is this night?” Teyla asked.
“About sixteen more hours,” John said grimly.
“That’s good, isn’t it?” Dahlia Radim asked behind him. “If those things are reptiles, won’t they slow down when it gets cold? Maybe even sleep? They’ve got to be daytime hunters if they’re cold blooded.”
“Just how cold does it get here at night?” John asked. In the exertion of the fight he hadn’t noticed the temperature had dropped. It was a nice, comfortable seventy five degrees or so now. But the night had just begun.
“I’ve never seen it go more than ten degrees below freezing,” Dahlia said. “And that just before dawn.”
“Super duper,” Carson said in a cheerful tone that sounded a little drunk. He wasn’t kidding about being lightheaded. Not good.
Teyla looked at John. “We must find somewhere to rest,” she said. “We cannot go on like this.”
“Yeah. Rest up for a while, get a meal into Carson and some sleep…” Twenty four hours he’d been up. Six more hours hike to the Ancient Warship. But it wouldn’t take six hours. With Carson having to be helped and Teyla barely able to walk it would take twice that. That’s the problem, Shep. You think it’s going to take so long to walk out, but once you’ve got a wounded man with you the whole equation changes.