A Mile a Minute
by Bekah See
Chapter 1
The curtain went down and lights came up as the thundering sound of tumultuous applause filled the theater. Major Samantha Carter, Dr. Daniel Jackson and Dr. Janet Frasier contributed enthusiastically to the noise while Colonel Jack O’Neill copied them with slightly less gusto. He was not a big fan of the arts and plays were no exception. Especially plays that involved a lot of men in tight pants singing at the top of their lungs. But he had not been about to pass up the chance for a government sectioned “date” with Sam, and so had accepted the invitation from the extremely grateful Kovans to attend a performance being put on in honor of SG-1’s most recent exploit—namely saving their butts from a plague that had threatened to wipe them out. Dr. Frasier had been invaluable during the entire mission, and so had also been invited. Teal’c had been called away to Chu’lak for a meeting with Bra’tac, so Janet had been Daniel’s date for the event. The four friends had had a lovely dinner at a local gourmet restaurant before the performance, and now Jack was wishing he’d snuck some of the biscuits into one of his coat pockets.
Sam glanced at her “date” and smiled to herself. She knew Jack would rather be anywhere else right now, but she also knew why he’d come, and she was grateful he had. She and Janet had been pulling some extraordinary second glances from the male population of the planet all evening, and while it was nice to be noticed, it was also nice to be taken—if only for an evening.
The applause died down and everyone stood, stretching a bit after the long period of inactivity. Inactivity that didn’t take into account Jack’s constant fidgeting or Daniel’s almost as constant leaning over the girls to tell him to be still.
“Ready to go?” Jack asked them.
Sam hid another grin. “Uh, sir, that was only the first act.”
Jack looked a bit crestfallen. “First act? How many are there?”
“Only three.” Daniel answered reassuringly.
Jack rolled his eyes and groaned. “Really. Three ya say. Well that makes me feel much better, Daniel, thank you.”
Daniel caught the sarcasm and hurried to reassure his friend. “The others are much shorter, so there won’t be any break in between, and they shouldn’t take much more time than this one did.”
Jack just looked at him for a moment, then turned toward the aisle. “I need a drink. C’mon, Danny, you’re buyin’ for dragging me into this.”
Sam and Janet smiled at each other and reclined in their seats, talking amicably about nothing. Ten minutes passed and Sam looked around, wondering where the guys had gotten to. Janet saw her looking and offered, “There was probably a long line at the drinks table. I only saw a couple of them as we came in and—“
*BOOM*
A huge explosion ripped through the front of the venue, blowing through the stage and sending shrapnel and debris flying everywhere.
Being somewhat accustomed to large explosions happening unexpectedly, Sam ducked behind the chair in front of her and dropped to the floor, pulling Janet down with her and covering the doctor with her body. Another explosion rent the air and more wood was flying around them. Sam felt a sharp pain in her upper left arm, but ignored it.
“We’ve got to get out of here!” she shouted to Janet, who nodded her understanding.
Both women, staying low, made their way to the aisle and joined the panicked mob of people racing for the exits. They stayed to the side to avoid being trampled, and emerged into the lobby where they started to hunt for Jack and Daniel.
“Can you see them?” Janet yelled over the uproar sounding around them.
Sam turned and opened her mouth to answer, but another explosion, this one much closer then the first two, sent a shockwave into her chest and she knew no more.
Sam hurt. Ah hell, she hurt bad. She fought to return to the comforting oblivion that kept the pain at bay, but it retreated rebelliously, and left her feeling cold and – well, hurting. Sam took a deep breath, trying to get a feel for the extent of her injuries and trying to remember what had happened this time to make her hurt. Okay, breathing was painful, but not shockingly so, so probably no broken ribs, although nasty bruising was probably a given. Burning agony was shooting through her right thigh and her left arm was dripping something that felt like copious amounts of blood.
In an instant Sam remembered what had happened and rapidly tried to sit up. There had been an explosion. A big one right on top of her. And Janet had been with her. And Daniel and Col. O’Neill! She had to find them! She thought about calling out, but thought better of it after a second.
Something was off. Something was missing. It took a second for her shell shocked brain to figure it out, but once it clicked, Sam knew something was desperately wrong. There were no sirens. No sign of rescue people. This planet was roughly on par with Earth in its technology, and as such, should have had rescue people out within minutes, and Sam was pretty sure more time than that had passed.
She took stock of her surroundings, noting how the wall had been blasted away, exposing the entire area to the cool night air. She squinted into the darkness, trying to see if anyone else was stirring, and as she did so, she began to note the cries and moans of pain coming from everywhere around her. Why had she not heard them before? Then she realized that the blast had probably blown out her hearing for a bit and it was just now coming back. But she still couldn’t detect any sign of rescue. This more than anything made her decide she needed to be away from here. If the authorities were being held back from helping, the ones who were doing the holding back were probably not people she wanted to meet.
Gritting her teeth, Sam tried to stand, and got about halfway there before falling back with a cry.
“Sam?” she heard from somewhere near her.
“Janet?” she gasped, eyes still swimming from her attempt to stand.
“Where are you?” Janet’s voice was strained, as if she was having trouble talking.
“It sounds like I’m to your left.” Sam called back softly. “Are you alright?”
A grunt. “I’ve been better. You do this often?”
“What, get blown up? Yeah, fairly regularly.” Sam was pleased to hear her friend was up to a little humor, but was worried about the wheeze she could hear coming from that direction. “Janet, can you stand?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t gotten around to trying yet. You?” Janet’s voice was getting harder to understand.
“Not easily. My right leg doesn’t want to hold my weight. Hang on and I’ll try to get to you.”
Silence greeted this, but, using her hands to scoot herself toward the place that Janet’s voice had come from, Sam tried to tell herself Frasier was just saving her breath. Glass, wood and metal bit into the major’s palms as she moved and she bit her lip to keep from crying out as her left triceps screamed in agony. Refusing to get up, determined to get to her friend, Sam pushed the pain away and kept moving. She reached Janet in a surprisingly short time, and was greeted by the sound of a groan and the feel of a lot of blood.
“Janet? You still with me?” she whispered, trying to feel where the blood was coming from.
“Chest hurts…” Janet mumbled, obviously struggling with the concept of breathing.
Sam started to reply when she heard voices in the background. She stopped, listening hard. Rough male voices floated over to her through the darkness, shouting and laughing. Laughing? Oh boy, this was not good.
“Janet, can you hear me?”
“Mmmmm…”
“We need to get out of here. Company’s coming and I don’t think it’s friendly.” Sam gritted her teeth and hauled herself to her feet, biting back a scream as her injured leg protested. But her adrenaline was pumping now, giving her temporary strength, and she knew it wouldn’t last long.
“Come on Doc, we need to go.”
“I can’t go. I have to help the wounded.” Janet said automatically, trying to sit up. She fell back with a soft cry, her hand on her injured ribs.
“Right now, neither of us are in any shape to help anyone, and I have a feeling those guys coming our way aren’t the cavalry. Not ours, anyway.
Sam bent down and took her friend under the arms, pulling her upright, where she stood swaying.
“Oh my lord, who’s spinning the floor?” Janet said, holding tight to her much taller friend, but she made no further comment about staying.
“Can you walk?” Sam asked, starting to turn them both away from the voices, which were coming steadily nearer. She was concerned by the amount of panting Frasier was doing, considering they were hardly moving.
“Walk, yes, breathe, no.” the doctor wheezed. “Let’s go.”
Holding tight to each other, the two women crunched their way out of the debris and into the darkness.