GateCrashers
Part 8 Of The Thundersdawn Series
By Chaoseternus

1: Running, Hiding.

Anise came to stop, leaning against an old oak for support as she greedily gasped, straining to bring precious oxygen into her lungs, her face lined with sweat, her clothes soaked and dirty. Gasping, she heard the approaching Jaffa behind her, and with a groan of despair, she ran, her breath raggedy, her sides aching.

An hour later, Anise came to stop, her eyes streaming with tears of pain as he bit her lip, trying hard to stop the pain in her shoeless feet and the ache in her sides make her cry out. She was a scientist, not a field agent for heavens sake. She bit back a hysterical laugh, she had been around the Tau'ri too long, she was starting to pick up some of their expressions.

Groaning, she lifted herself from the heavy oak, and walked into the stream that flowed swiftly through this forest, blood from her feet staining the water red. She paused, listening carefully for a moment as she heard Jaffa slowly following the trail of blood in the distance. Groaning, she moved, swiftly walking through the water towards her destination. The water, she thought through a haze of pain, should stop then tracking me.

With a hysterical sigh of relief, she saw her destination ahead, and sped up, her spinning around as she glanced everywhere, looking for watching Jaffa. Not seeing any, she ducked through the waterfall, the raging falling waters forcing her too her knees as she dove behind its protective, concealing embrace.

Sobbing, she walked to the back of the small cave hidden behind the waterfall and slipped behind a small protrusion of rock, slipping sideways to fit through the small, narrow crevice.

Five minutes later she was in her hidey hole, a large cave she had found accidentally one day, and now used as an escape whenever she needed a few undisturbed minutes to think. None of the other Tok'ra even where it was, though at least two suspected it existed. Smiling slightly, she grabbed a plastic bucket, clearly labelled US ISSUE, and dived back through the narrow passage to the outer cave and the waterfall, her body screaming its pain all the way.

Swiftly, she filled the bucket from the waterfall and carefully carried it back to the cave, she had food stored here but not water, and she would need some on hand, just in case. Grabbing another bucket, she repeated this task five times, before grabbing a last bucket and using its supply of water, carefully sluiced the bloody footprints from the outer cave, carefully moving backwards, ensuring no footprint survived, and back through the narrow passage to her refuge.

With a gasp, she dropped her bucket as the last of the water was used, just as she entered the main cavern. She was finished, they were unlikely to find her here, even if the Jaffa could fit through that passage, which most couldn't, they wouldn't bother if they saw no reason to believe she was down here. She dropped, collapsing, the pain finally overcoming her. Whimpering, she fell asleep, exhausted beyond all reason.