The sun tried to burn through the haze of dust that still remained in the air as it surrounded the area of the Ancient outpost that was now a large pile of rubble; the only tell-tale signs of the fact that a large structure had once stood there proudly.

John had quickly abandoned his vest and P90 in order to sift through the stone more efficiently but had left them nearby in case something else happened. It had all happened so fast; at the first sign of trouble he had called Cadman and Teyla to come to the outpost and help with any extraction efforts. He had hoped that none would be needed and was slightly relieved when the science team and McKay came stumbling out of the outpost followed by the Doctor and Martha. A few seconds passed but no one else came out. Worry growing inside of him, John had asked where everyone else was but all Martha could tell him was that they had been behind her and now they weren’t.

Just as he had started towards the building to drag the Major and everyone else out if it came to it, the entire thing fell down on itself and while he tried to keep his balance from the tremors that followed John hoped that the Major and everyone else had managed to get out before the thing fell. But as the dust settled he was left looking at the place where the outpost had once stood but was now just a big pile of rocks. Instantly moving towards the pile, he yelled for Cadman to run back to the gate in order to inform Atlantis of their new situation and to request more teams to help with the rescue effort and then starting to direct everyone as to how they should start digging through the collapsed structure.

The Daedalus was on Earth, but had it been in Pegasus Sheppard would have asked for them to lend a hand in getting everyone out and saving a whole lot of time in the process.

But that had been almost two hours ago and even with the addition of two extra teams it was slow going. They had to be careful of loose rocks as well as the larger slabs shifting and every so often they called out the names of those buried while listening for a response. They hadn’t gotten one yet but there was still hope that at least one of them was still alive.

“John?”

The voice broke John out of his thoughts and he realized that it was Elizabeth. Straightening up he gazed over the landscape as he replied, “Sheppard here.”

“Have you found them yet?”

“No, we’re still looking and I could use two more teams over here.”

“Sorry John, but I can’t spare any more since most are off-world right now. I need you and everyone else to come back; we need to figure out what happened there.”

“They could still be under here and why do you need all of us? Rodney was the one who triggered the collapse.” John argued while shooting a glance towards Rodney who was helping Teyla clear a rather large piece of stone.

Rodney let go of the piece of rubble and heard John’s comment about how he caused the building to fall down. “We don’t know if I did.” He shot back.

John ignored Rodney’s protest and continued, “McKay can go back and figure out while we continue looking.”

Elizabeth was silent for a few seconds, thinking. True Major Lorne and the rest could still be alive but that hope was dimming with each passing minute that they weren’t found.

But they didn’t leave their people behind.

“Fine, send Rodney back so he can figure out what happen.” Sheppard finally heard Elizabeth reply.

“Thanks.” John replied, moving towards a new pile of rubble.

“John.”

There was something in her voice that made him pause, “Elizabeth?”

“You need to consider the fact that if you haven’t found them-”

“We don’t leave our people behind.” John interrupted, not wanting her to finish the sentence even though he knew what the rest of it was.

“I know, it’s just that you might need to consider it.”

“I’m not writing them off until we find them.” John stated, indicating with his tone that he wasn’t about to give up on another member of his team just because there wasn’t any proof to the contrary.

Max was slowly becoming aware of the throbbing in her head as well as in her arm and wondered how badly she was hurt. Slowly opening her eyes she braced for the glaring lights of the infirmary but found that it was pitch black. Opening them fully, she stared at the inky darkness and reached out with a hand to get a feeling for her surroundings.

Her hand hit something solid and Max carefully felt along it finding that it was large and rough. Realizing that it was some of the stone from the outpost, she figured out that after she had fallen some of the pieces must have covered her and it was damn luck that she hadn’t been crushed underneath them. But now she needed to get out and there was little room for her to move around. “Anyone there?” she called out.

“Piper?” Evan called out, looking around the area for where the voice was coming from.

“Ev-Major?”

“Yeah, where are you?”

“Under some debris, where are you?”

“Out here, I’ll dig you out.” Evan replied as he walked towards where he thought her voice was coming from. Arriving at the area he started to remove the bits of stone with Max helping when she could. Finally, after a few minutes of digging, Evan reached her and helped her out.

Max climbed out and just as she moved to grab Evan’s hand spots suddenly appeared in front of her eyes and a wave of dizziness washed over her as she bit down on her lip to keep out from yelling, the pain coming out of nowhere, and her knees started to buckle.

“You ok?” Evan asked as he moved to catch Piper before she hit the ground and injured herself further. Setting her gently down, he picked up his flashlight and pointed it towards her, making sure that the beam was directed away from Piper’s eyes. Since she had taken the same hard fall as he had Lorne knew that she’d have the same killer headache he first had upon waking up, although his was now just a dull ache, but at the same time knew the question wasn’t necessary since he could tell by the look on her face that Piper had hurt herself.

“Not really.” Max managed to grit out as the pain subsided enough for her to figure out that her left arm was where it hurt the most. As she stared at it, Max tried to move the appendage but even the thought of it made her feel lightheaded.

As Piper swayed where she sat, Evan automatically placed a hand on her to steady her and when he did the action sent a shiver down his spine. Finding that odd, he wondered what that was for a second until he realized that he needed to focus on what was happening in the present.

Setting his flashlight down so that the end was on the floor, Lorne maneuvered himself to take a look at her arm. It didn’t look broken, but he didn’t have a degree in medicine so it was only a guess based on his experience in the field. “Hurt much?” he asked as he took off his tac vest followed by his BDU jacket.

“Yeah…only when I move it. Or look at it, or, ya know, breathe.” Max said wearily, a ghost of a smile appearing to try and lighten the moment.

“I don’t think it’s broken-”

“Trust me; it’s broken.”

“too bad, but we should keep it still as much as possible.” Evan finished as if he hadn’t been interrupted. After folding his jacket to make a temporary sling, he put it on her and made sure that it would hold.

Max’s eyes had somewhat adjusted to the darkness by now and the fact that Evan had the torchlight on the floor allowed the light to flood the area she could somewhat see that stones of every size and shape littered the ground and there was a faint haze of dust still in the air. “How long was I out?”

“’bout an hour.” Evan replied as he stood, picked the flashlight up and shining it at the ceiling. They had fallen a good distance, at least thirty feet if he had to guess, and he could just spot the area they had fallen through; a good size hole with a few of the larger slabs of rock poking through. Occasionally a light shower of pebbles and dust came raining down on them. “There goes any hope of trying to dig out.” He thought while inwardly sighing.

Lorne had been the first one to come back to the land of the living and had checked to make sure that everyone else had made it, finding Brice and Captain Harkness under some of the larger pieces of stone, and from the angle the rocks lay over them it hadn’t been hard for him to guess that they were both gone. But he still checked to make sure and hadn’t felt a pulse on either. Now he just had to figure out a way of telling Piper that they were the only ones left.

But before he could think of anything to say, the sound of rocks clattering together reached his ears and then they both heard, “I could use a little help over here.”

“Jack,” Max asked as Evan helped her up. “that you?”

“No, it’s the Easter Bunny.” Jack replied, wiggling around in the little room the space afforded him. “As much as I love small spaces care to get me out?” It had been years since he had been buried alive and while he had mostly gotten over his fear of enclosed spaces there was still a lingering fear of them.

Brushing the grit from their hands both Max and Evan moved towards where Jack was and after working to move the boulders they finally managed to free him and as the Captain was standing, brushing dust from his coat, Evan asked what had been on his mind, “How’d you survive? When I checked you weren’t breathing.”

Max raised an eyebrow at Evan’s revelation and wondered if that was true because Jack had been buried under a good amount of rubble. But he seemed fine, not a scratch on him which only made her wonder what exactly had happened after they hit the ground.

Jack just smiled and replied, “Well obviously I was since I’m standing here; can’t get rid of me that easy.” Jack left out the fact that he had died, crushed by the rocks. Fortunately it had been quick but at the same time it had felt like every other single time he’d died; falling into the darkness until it swallowed him and feeling nothing until he was jerked back into the land of the living. Despite losing count of how many times he’d kicked the bucket so far he still hoped that this time would be the last time he died and not come back to life.

The excuse that Jack made was flimsy enough to hold up if they didn’t think about it too much and to keep them from doing that Jack looked around where they were while asking, “So where are we?”

Max checked to see if her vest still had a torch and that it wasn’t broken. Taking it out to see if there was any damage she saw that the lens had cracked and popped out and that the frame had taken a good beating. Sighing she tossed the now useless torch down to the ground and looked around with Jack with the help of Evan’s.

“Looks like some kind of passageway.” She commented moving closer to the wreckage of their fall to see if anything could be salvaged, but as she shifted through the debris with her foot all she found were bits and pieces of the equipment that they had when the structure caved in.

“Good, that means there’s a way out.”

“True, but it’s already blocked.” Evan said, pushing aside fragments of what had once been a laptop computer. He had gone off in search of a way out and had wandered down the corridor until coming to a dead end. By the look of the seal it had been placed there deliberately, but if to keep something out or something in Evan couldn’t tell; but since he had read enough former mission reports, and since this was the Ancients they were dealing with Lorne thought it was safe to assume that they wanted to keep something out.

He just hoped that what ever was down here had decided to die a long time ago.

“Well that just leaves no option but to go the other way.” Jack replied as he gave his coat one final adjustment and moving down the opposite end of the hallway.

“What about Brice?” Max asked Evan as they trailed after Jack. “Should we wait for him or did he go ahead?”

“He didn’t make it.” Evan replied, avoiding Max’s gaze. He’d lost team members before; it was part of the job and had only been reinforced since joining SGC, but it still hurt when it happened. Not waiting for a reply Lorne quickened his pace and strode past Jack, not saying anything.

Max’s eyes went wide when she found out that Brice was dead. Not knowing what to think she followed the other two silently. She shifted the make-shift sling and winced as pain flashed across her arm.

Jack paused and saw Max flinch in pain. Waiting until she had caught up with him he asked in a low tone, “You ok?”

“Fine as one can be with a broken arm.” Max replied, wondering how long it was going to take them to get out and away from this place.

Jack noted the sarcasm and chose not to say anything; he couldn’t fault her for being just a tad tetchy at the moment. Checking his pockets Jack found what he was looking for and handed it to Max while saying, “Take these; it’ll take away the pain but won’t knock you out.”

Max could just make out the small pills and wondered how that was possible. But right now her body was in so much pain that she didn’t care and dry-swallowed it.

As they walked she got the odd feeling that they were going deeper underground; it felt that it was cooler than before and the floor was gently sloping downwards. “Doesn’t it feel like we’re going deeper instead of the opposite?” she asked as they paused for a few minutes.

Evan was silent for a few seconds before realizing that Piper was right and it did feel like they were going down instead of up. “I wouldn’t worry about it,” he said as they started walking again. “I’m sure that it loops up.”

“If you say so.” Max replied, not fully convinced. “Oh well, we’ll just have to wait and see.”