Jo Graham - Death Game

Teyla played the light over the water and the chamber around them. It was not big enough for them to stand up, perhaps four feet in height above the water and little more than ten feet in length, a crevasse carved out of natural rock. Perhaps it was a fissure that had widened when the Wraith put in their drains, blasted out or fractured further by the rushing water. There was no way out except the water where it flowed through, filling the smaller entrance tunnel and leaving perhaps five or six inches of space at the top of the exit drain.

John swore again. “This is so not good.”

“The water is freezing,” Teyla said.

He looked at the inrushing water. “We can’t climb back up that,” he said. “The current’s too fast and there isn’t anything to hold onto. It’s plastic, not stone. It’s totally smooth.”

“I know,” she said. “I had expected stone, like the stream bed.”

“It’s just a set,” John said. “Anything that isn’t going to show they didn’t bother to make look natural.”

Teyla glanced around the small cave. “And of course there are no vents here.”

John nodded. “Which means we’ve got air for what? Maybe fifteen or twenty minutes in a space this big?”

“Possibly,” Teyla said, shining the light around again. There were some tiny cracks, but none large enough to even get a hand through, much less to provide a means of escape. She flashed the light over the water. “We are going to have to go down.”

John nodded slowly. He was cold from the water, though in the enclosed space their bodies’ warmth took off the chill. “The drains have to go out somewhere. As fast as the water’s moving, there’s a pump. So it has to go into a pool to recycle. With plastic drains instead of rocks, there’s less chance we’re going to break bones on the way down.”

Teyla took a deep breath. It was clear she did not care for the freezing water any more than he did. “I see no other way,” she said, glancing the light around again, as if hoping some other way out had magically appeared. “I will turn it off and button it back in my pocket,” she said, “So that we do not lose it.”

“Right.” John looked at the water, a last look before the light switched off and left them again in utter blackness. He heard the sound of wet cloth as she put the flashlight away.

In the dark, Teyla took his hand. “Ready?” she asked.

“Ready,” John said. “Three deep breaths and then we go.”

“All right.”

One. Two. Three.

They plunged into the frigid water and were swept away.

“Get back!” Ronon whispered.

Though he was already pressed tightly to the stone wall, Radek attempted to make himself even smaller. He could see very little ahead of them through the bulk that was Ronon, but Radek could hear the others.

There were voices coming down the corridor that their corridor branched off from, three or four men’s voices raised in argument.

“I said we should have gone that way.”

“Shut up, twerp. Unless you’d like to take me on, ok?”

There were heavy footsteps. Radek could see Ronon’s shoulders tensed, his stun pistol at the ready. If the strangers turned into their corridor they would get a surprise.

“How about that way?”

The footsteps paused and they considered.

“No, this way!”

It seemed that they decided to stick with the main corridor. They went past, the sounds of their passage loud in the dim light.

When the last noises had faded away, Ronon moved, holstering his pistol again with a grin. “Not so bright. Any enemy would hear them a mile away.”

Radek let out a deep breath. “They would be the first contestants, it seems. We are beginning to reach the part of the maze where the games are being played.”

“Or they’re beginning to reach us,” Ronon said. “These are the guys in front. They’re probably the most dangerous because they probably screwed over plenty of other people to get here, and they’ll turn on each other before the end.” He straightened. “Ok. Let’s get back in the main corridor and keep following the cables.”

Radek looked up. “They are bundled now,” he said. “See how they are tied and painted over? We must be getting close.” He set off down the corridor, in a hurry to reach the control room.

Ronon grabbed his shoulder. “Stop!” he said. “Watch where you’re going!”

Just ahead of Radek the floor disappeared. Instead of smooth corridor floor there was a drop of seven or eight feet to a second floor lined with spikes of bright steel cut in sharp snowflake points. And on them…

Radek looked away, swallowing hard.

“One of those guys was careless,” Ronon said. “We can’t be.”

Radek very deliberately looked over at the floor on the opposite side, not glancing down at all. “How can we get across?” Ronon could probably jump, fit as he was, but Radek harbored no illusions about his ability to jump across the pit without the same unfortunate consequences as the contestant below.

Ronon grinned wolfishly. “You know that movie Sheppard had us watching last weekend on DVD? The really good one?”

“I do not,” Radek said. He tended to avoid movie night unless something he particularly liked was playing, as two hours of watching cars blow up bored him senseless.

“Where the guy says, ‘Never toss a dwarf’ and the other guy just picks him up and flings him?”

“Oh, that movie,” Radek said with a sinking heart. “You are not seriously considering…”

“No problem,” Ronon said, picking him up under the arms. “Easy peasy, as Beckett says.”

“Put me down! Put me down right now!” Radek shouted. “Do not…”

And then he was flying through the air, then smacking face down on the floor on the other side, his arms flung out to protect his glasses. The wind knocked out of him, Radek lay on the floor trying to catch a breath. Behind him he heard a scuffle, and Ronon knelt down beside him.

“Sorry. Maybe I threw you a little too hard.”

Radek rolled over, hoping that no bones were broken. “That was not funny.”

“It got you across, didn’t it?” Ronon offered a hand to help him up.

Radek gingerly uncurled. His legs seemed to work. He glared at Ronon over the top of his glasses. “Do not ever do that again.”

“You could jump,” Ronon said.

“I cannot.”

“Then don’t complain,” Ronon said. “You’re across, aren’t you?”

He hauled Radek to his feet. “Come on. We’re following cables, right?”

“Yes.”

Unfortunately, the body in the pit was not the last one they found. A little further along they found a man who had been hit over the head with something large and heavy. Perhaps, in the infirmary in Atlantis, he might have been saved, but here his breath had already stopped.

“This game is not so much fun,” Radek said grimly.

“Neither is being a Runner,” Ronon said. “Unless it’s fun for the Wraith.” He ranged ahead, checking the floor and walls for more traps. Radek sincerely hoped he found them without tripping them. But perhaps the men who had already passed this way had tripped any booby traps that had been set.

There were cameras, of course, and now it was impossible to avoid them entirely in the main corridor. Hopefully, the Wraith would conclude they were just regular contestants in the confusion of criss-crossing corridors. Still, they moved swiftly and tried to stay out of the light.

“Stop,” Radek directed. “I need to have a look at this.” Along the ceiling the mass of cables ran into a small box and then exited on the other side. They ran a few feet further along, then disappeared in a small hole in the side wall at ceiling level.