They traveled down the semi-dark hallway for some time; none of them knew how long it really was since their watches had broken in the fall, when suddenly Evan’s light showed a doorway.

“Any idea what’s inside?” Jack asked, as they stood in front of it. He put a hand on his Webley, which fortunatly hadn't been damaged by the fall or rocks crushing him, just in case it decided to open of its own accord and something not so friendly decided to jump out at them.

“Nope.” Evan replied as he brushed the layers of dust and cobwebs off of the side, trying to see if there was some kind of markings that could tell them what the room was for. As he did the door slid open with a faint hiss and all three of them could smell the rank, stale air that wafted out from the room.

Taking a step back Evan and Jack raised their guns incase something inside decided to come out at that moment, but the room was still. “Should we go in?” Jack asked, breaking the silence that followed.

“I dunno...” Max trailed off, knowing that since the ground above them used to be an Ancient outpost it would be safe to assume that this had been apart of it as well and when it came to the Ancients it was better to assume the worst; who knew what they had stored in there.

“Can’t be too bad.” Evan said, taking a step forwards into the room. Knowing he should follow the ‘if you don’t know what it is then don’t touch it’ rule, however he couldn’t help but wonder what was inside.

Jack gave a quick wink to Max, to reassure her that it would be alright, before following the Major into the room. Max watched the two men go inside and reluctantly followed them; she just knew that if she didn’t then they were bound to get them into some kind of trouble.

As Lorne set foot into the room the lights flickered for a few seconds and then came on. He could tell that the Ancients had once used it; there were control panels facing away from the door as well as to the side of it. In the center of the room there was a smaller chamber, its walls made of a transparent material with a raised floor also divided into segments. Everything was covered in layer after layer of dust and cobwebs, with some of the equipment looking like they were inoperable due to millennia of unuse.

“Hey that’s a neat trick, how’d you do that?” Jack asked as he saw the lights come on in response to Lorne’s presence.

“Probably sensed the Gene.” Lorne replied walking over to one panel.

Jack turned to see Max walk in and said, “Do you have the Gene as well?”

Max just shook her head, “No; Doctor Beckett’s shot didn’t work for me.” Walking further into the room, she saw that the room had been some kind of lab but what for she still had no idea and hoped that they could figure out without dying.

“I thought Doc only gave the shots to personnel on Atlantis.” Evan commented as he stopped at one particular panel and saw that through the layers of dust and grime there was writing.

“I wa-he gave it to me when he was still at the SGC.”

“Oh, did he give it to the rest of your team?”

“No, we came after the original Expedition left.” Jack said while giving Max a look. She just looked back at him telling him without words to shut-up about the subject.

Evan finished brushing off the panel and as he did it suddenly started to power up. “Whoa.” He said, taking a step back and raising his P90; not that it would really do anything, as the others looked his way.

“What did you do?” Max asked as she moved towards the now glowing panel.

“I was just trying to see what was written on here.”

“You can read Ancient?” Max looked at him quizzically. She hadn’t known that in all the years they had been married, but then again she hadn’t asked so for all she knew he actually did.

“No, but I was hoping that you could.”

“Can you?” Jack asked, looking back and forth between the two of them.

Max shook her head, “No; I tried but never got the hang of Latin. Too many verbs for me to remember.”

Lorne shrugged, “We should remember where this is so when we get back to Atlantis we can let the linguists have a crack at it.”

“In the middle of the long dark tunnel, got it.” Max replied dryly while Jack tried to hide a smirk.

Lorne just gave a half-smile to show that he was somewhat amused at the comment and while moving away from the panel he gave the room one last glance before deciding that there wasn’t anything more they could learn from what they already had. “There’s nothing here that we can use so we should get going.”

“I can agree with that.” Max said as she moved towards the door; the faster they got back to Atlantis the better for everyone involved. The others weren’t far behind her and soon all three of them had exited out of the room.

A few seconds later a mist started to appear from the top of the platform; to the side of the chamber and at first it was light, if anyone had been in the room they wouldn’t have been able to see it but as time passed it increased in thickness until it was plainly visible. Then the smooth top began to break up as another chamber began to rise up from the bottom.

The sun was beating down on Martha’s back and as she straightened up, wiped the sweat from her forehead while wondering how long they’d been at this; seemed like forever but in reality she knew that it could’ve only been a number of hours. She refused to believe that they were dead, but they still hadn’t found Jack or anyone else and part of her thought that since they hadn’t been unburied then it was a lost cause but a larger part and the doctor in her told her that they were still alive.

Wiping the layer of sweat from her forehead, she looked over towards the Doctor and asked, “Couldn’t you just use your screwdriver to break the rocks up?”

The Doctor paused as well and shook his head, “I tried that before, when I was here the first time. The stone’s too dense for the screwdriver to break up. Even if I could how are we going to explain it to everyone else?”

Martha’s shoulders slumped when she heard him say that and wondered if they were actually going to find them. Granted they might find Jack, but that was only because he'd come back to life and be digging his way out, but as for the others…Martha wondered how they were going to explain Max’s disappearance. But until Colonel Sheppard gave up, the rest of them had to keep hope alive as well even if it was growing fainter each hour that passed with no one surfacing.

John felt the sweat trickle down his back and soak into shirt which had been transformed to a grungy black as dust stuck to it. Four hours had passed since the building collapsed and they still weren’t any closer to finding Lorne or the rest. Inwardly cursing he knew that if they didn’t have a steady supply of oxygen they might be starting to suffer from carbon monoxide poisoning...if they were still alive.

At that thought, John mentally shoved it away; of course they had a steady supply and they were going to be found. As he stood up to relieve his aching back, John’s headset clicked and then he heard, “Colonel, the Wraith just came through the Gate and are heading your way!”

“Colonel Sheppard, you read me?”

“He’s not going to hear you.”

Lorne just cast a glance towards Piper and chose to ignore her comment. True John hadn’t responded to his calls the last five times he’d tried but that didn’t mean he ever would. Most likely the layers of rock were affecting the signal and it was only a matter of time until Evan found a clear pocket and could let them know that they were still alive and breathing.

They had no idea how long the passageway ran and Evan hoped that they’d find some kind of exit. Just after the thought entered his mind the beam of his torch caught the edge of another doorway, this one very similar to the first one they had encountered and, just like the first one, the door slid open.

Not even bothering to ask if they should check it out, Evan stepped inside and heard the others follow him. The inside of the lab was almost the same as the first but there were a few things different; in the center of the lab there was a chamber with its door wide open and there were fresh tracks leading away from the chamber.

Max saw the tracks as well and got the feeling that there was something that wasn’t right about all of this, besides the fact that there were fresh tracks in a room otherwise covered in dust, but what it was she couldn’t put her finger on it. Eyes scanning the room she caught sight of what looked like to be a large map to the side. Walking over to it she thought, “It would be nice if there was a giant ‘You are here’ sticker to show us how much farther we have to go.”

“You ok?”

Max turned to her left to see Jack standing at her side. “What do you mean?” she said, turning back to face the display.

“Ever since you heard about Brice you’ve been quiet.”

“Maybe I have more important things to think about.”

“Such as…”

“Like how we’re gonna get out of here.”

Jack didn’t respond, he just glanced at her and then walked away from her towards Lorne. There would be plenty of time after they got out to find out was really bothering her.

“There’s nothing here, we should get moving.” Evan stated, stepping back from the panel he had been looking at and heading towards the door. Max and Jack silently followed him and once they had all exited back into the hallway resumed their trek down the dark passageway.

After a few minutes of resuming their journey Jack felt a cool breeze waft across his face as did Max and Evan. They all paused and looked at each other to confirm that they had in fact felt it; that it hadn’t been one of them and then they felt it again, still faint, so they knew that they weren’t losing their minds.

Max allowed a small smile to appear on her face, they were finally going to get out of here. “Where’s the breeze coming from?” she asked looking around for the source of the wind while glad that they were finally getting out.

“Somewhere up ahead.” Evan said, nodding his head in the direction he thought the wind was coming from. They started walking again and this time their pace picked up, the breeze seeming to revitalize their spirit by letting them know that they were getting closer to reaching the end of their trek.

As they moved Max couldn’t help but get the feeling that they were being followed. She knew that it sounded silly, they were the only ones down here, but it was still there the same. Pausing, she let Jack pass her while casting a glance back down the way they had come. Only the darkness greeted her she Max shook her head to get rid of the thoughts and continued after the boys.

Evan shined his torch down the path to see how much farther they had to go and saw that the trail ended abruptly. “You’re kidding me.” He said while looking at the pile of rocks that blocked their way, hating to think that they had come all this way to be stopped.

Looking up with the help of the light he saw that the pile was really the bottom of a wall that extended up. Clicking off the torch he put it away while saying, “We should be able to climb up without too much trouble.”

Suddenly Max heard the faint whine of gears moving and turned around to see lights in the distance. Eyes going wide, she reached out for Jack and gave the sleeve of his jacket a tug. “Uh, Jack?”

“What?” Jack asked turning towards Max. Then he saw the lights and felt dread rise in his chest. “Damn it.”

Evan was a few feet up when he paused to see if the others were following him and saw that they were still at the bottom. “Hey,” he called down to them. “you guys coming?”

Then he head a single word that sent chills down his spine, “Exterminate!”