Part 21 (2/2)

For that, they had to find the colonel first. Up ahead the s.h.i.+p curved around and from Hunter's diagram, she knew they were close. They rounded the hull and found the opening he'd spoken of: a narrow aperture covered by a mesh, about three-feet square, which led into a dark vent. It wouldn't be comfortable, especially not for Teal'c, but it would do the job. Sam pulled out her pocket knife and began to work the mesh free.

Hold on, sir. We're coming for you.

Hunter walked with the steady lope of a man used to crossing large distances by foot and Daniel allowed him to range ahead while he followed more slowly. Out in the daylight, away from the murk of the Amam s.h.i.+p, he could see him better and took the opportunity to study their new ally. Hunter was young, but his skin was weather-beaten and his body lean and wiry. Just like Aedan and his people, Hunter looked hungry, his youth already ravaged by the hard life he lived.

They walked downhill through the scraggy forest, its pine scent intensifying the lower they got and the denser the trees became. Daniel was no expert in forestry, but from the amount of dead wood rotting on the ground and the uniform height of the new growth, he could guess that this whole forest had burned at some point in the past - probably when the Amam s.h.i.+p had landed, back during the war Elspeth Burne had described. He wondered if there were bodies beneath the loamy soil, the bones that Aedan claimed they still found everywhere. The thought made him s.h.i.+ver in the cold morning air and he tugged his boonie lower, sticking his hands into his pockets.

Behind them, the Amam s.h.i.+p crouched against a mountainside that disappeared up into low cloud. The s.h.i.+p seemed to merge with the rock, its weirdly organic hull covered in lichen and clumps of scraggy gra.s.s. It almost looked like an abandoned crash site, except that there didn't seem to be any damage to the s.h.i.+p.

”Hunter,” Daniel called, keeping his voice as low as possible.

Hunter turned, stopping and waiting for Daniel to catch up. ”You doin' alright?”

”Yeah.” He gestured back toward the s.h.i.+p. ”Does that thing ever move?”

”Nope. Told you before, it don't fly.”

”Because it can't?”

Hunter shrugged. ”Just know it don't.” He jerked his head in the direction he was walking. ”Nearly at the Shacks now. C'mon.”

He headed off again and this time Daniel kept pace with him. The descent was steeper here, the ground sometimes rocky, and occasionally Daniel thought he saw patches of some kind of paving. Probably the Old Road that Hunter had mentioned. He'd also spotted what looked like metal girders, twisted and misshapen, and the rough signs of structural foundations. There had been buildings here once.

After a while, Hunter reached out and touched his arm, slowing him as the ground levelled off and then fell away steeply ahead of them. The forest grew spa.r.s.er again, and here and there Daniel noticed stumps where trees had been recently felled, ax marks biting deep into the blond wood. People foraged here, he guessed.

Hunter turned to the right, walking parallel to the trees that ran along the top of a steep escarpment. And through the trees, beneath the mist, Daniel began to see a camp emerge. The sight stopped him dead, stunning him with its sheer size. He'd been expecting something like Aedan's encampment but this was on a whole different scale.

He let out a breath. ”Whoa...”

The milky sun was behind them and the mountain cast a long shadow, reaching like a pointing finger across the valley below and the sprawling encampment that stretched out in all directions. It was vast and squalid, the worst kind of human misery, and even from where he stood amid the pine trees, Daniel could smell the rising stench of degradation.

Hunter spat on the ground as if trying to get rid of the foul smell. ”They say it was a city once, but there ain't nothing left now. Just people on top of people, hoping they ain't the ones to be s.n.a.t.c.hed.”

”How many people?” Daniel said, his heart sinking with a sudden, overwhelming sense of despair. Like the people waiting to die on the Amam s.h.i.+p, there was nothing he could do to help these people, and it left him feeling angry and powerless.

”Dix thinks a hundred thousand.”

Daniel shook his head. ”I had no idea there were that many people on this planet.”

”This ain't the only camp,” Hunter said, giving him a sideways look. ”Dix says they're all over the world. He can see, from up there.” He glanced up at the sky.

”From Hecate's s.h.i.+p?”

Hunter nodded. ”Dix says there's hundreds of thousands of people here. He says it's an army, enough to drive off the Amam.”

Hundreds of thousands of people in camps like this? It wasn't an army - it was a catastrophe. ”We can't let this carry on,” Daniel said out loud, although he was talking more to himself than to Hunter.

But Hunter answered anyway. ”We ain't gonna let it carry on,” he said. ”Hecate will help us, Dix will help us.”

”And we'll help you too,” Daniel added, determinedly ignoring his inner Jack O'Neill warning him against making rash promises. But this was an atrocity on a global scale and Daniel didn't give a d.a.m.n what anyone said - he was going to ensure Earth helped these people if it was the last thing he did.

”Dix takes anyone prepared to fight,” Hunter said, then nodded toward a narrow trail ahead. ”That there's the way down. Be careful, it's steep.”

It was steep, but there were enough trees around to hold onto and the descent was at least fast. Then they were crossing an empty patch of no-man's-land toward the edge of the enormous tent city.

There was no barrier to the camp, no wire fence keeping people in, which surprised Daniel. Contrary to his first impression, it wasn't a prison camp. It was more like a refugee camp, with all the misery and desperation that entailed. Towers rose up at regular intervals around the perimeter, roughly constructed of wood with a large platform at the top - watch towers, Daniel thought at first, but he couldn't see any Amam patrolling them. They seemed abandoned.

”Not watch towers,” Hunter corrected, when Daniel asked. ”Feeding stations.”

He felt his eyebrows climb. ”Feeding stations as in... ?” He made a clawing gesture with one hand.

Hunter shook his head. ”We're fodder to them, sure enough, but it don't do them no good if we starve to death before they eat.”

”Wait...” It took a moment to process the thought. ”The Amam feed the people in the camp?”

Hunter nodded. ”Twice a week they send s.n.a.t.c.hers to leave rations atop the towers.”

Daniel felt his stomach turn with a deep nausea; these people were being kept like animals, like cattle. ”Why do they stay?” he wondered aloud. ”Why do they live like this?”

Hunter slipped him a look that said he should know better than to ask. ”Because they ain't got no choice.”

And that was the truth of it, he supposed. No one lived like this if there was an alternative. Across the galaxy, humans clung to life with a tenacity that sometimes defied reason. If it was this or death, they'd choose this - no matter how hopeless their lives had become.

”Now stick close,” Hunter said as they approached the edge of the camp. ”There's some here who'd stick you as soon as look at you if they think you've got a bite to eat.”

Daniel let his hand come to rest on his weapon. ”Don't worry about me,” he said. ”I can take care of myself.”

Hunter looked dubious, but didn't argue and together they headed into the sprawling, stinking camp.

The ventilation chute was hot and cramped. Sam lay stretched out on her front, her arms folded beneath her. It was the same position she'd occupied for the past twenty minutes and for five of those she'd tried to ignore the pain that was creeping into her stiffening joints. Teal'c lay behind her, just as cramped, and she didn't want to guess what discomfort the large Jaffa might be suffering.

She watched the corridor, hidden from the patrolling Amam guard by only the thin mesh covering of the vent. She was anxious to make a move, but knew that rash action would mean an end to their plan before it had begun. Stealth was their biggest advantage. For now.

She checked her watch. By her count, a patrol was due to pa.s.s within the next ten seconds, and sure enough she heard heavy footsteps approach.

Wait, wait, wait...

Shadows pa.s.sed over the grill.

Turning as silently as she could in the cramped s.p.a.ce, she gestured to Teal'c, letting him know what was coming next.

Two grunts, heading clockwise, move out in 5... 4... 3... 2...

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