Silenced Screams

Chapter Sixteen


Janet was the first one to discover Sam was missing. She had gone by her lab expecting to find her buried in some project or another. She had noticed her flee the observation booth during Adam's session. She'd wanted to talk to her then, but Adam had to be her first priority. What ever memory he'd become trapped in had started to take its toll on his already severely abused body. His blood pressure and heart rate had become dangerously high, causing seizures. It had taken over an hour for her and her staff to bring his vitals back to within normal range and stabilize him.

But Sam hadn't been in her lab or the commissary or her quarters. She didn't want to be the cause of an unnecessary panic so she'd sought the Colonel out. He had been there for her, helping her through some of her worst moments since the beginning and he'd probably gone after her when she'd left. She felt sure he would know Sam's whereabouts. But no one had seem the Colonel either. They'd searched every place on the base and finally found him in the last place anyone expected.

His office.

But he hadn't seen Sam, or anyone else for that matter.

Now that Janet was face to face with him she could tell that something Adam had said had unleashed some of his long buried demons and they'd been exacting their toll on him. Janet could see the struggle Jack had been in all evening. But they were no match for his concern for Sam. His fear and
worry for Sam was about the only thing capable of beating back those demons. They had already searched all of her usual haunts with no luck. They all recognized she was more than capable of taking care of herself. She had already proven she was more level-headed than any of them at the moment. He knew he'd taken all of his frustrations out on her earlier. But surely she wouldn't have been dumb enough to leave the base alone.

"Damn! Hell! I'm gonna kill her. I swear I'm gonna burst her down to Airman if she's left this base." Jack shouted even before they could finish filling him in. "So help me god I'm gonna kill her!" Jack threatened as he grabbed the telephone receiver. After a very short conversation he slammed it back
on it's base, his vocabulary and volume growing. Through the screaming, cursing and raging, Janet could make a good guess what he'd learned but she had to hear it for sure.

"Colonel?" She couldn't bring herself to finish the question.


Just the sound of her voice was enough to drain his rage.

"She left the mountain. No one knows where she went. They said she left on her bike almost an hour ago. She could be anywhere by now. He could have her right now. She knew better than to be out there alone."

Acknowledging his greatest fear took all the fight out of him and he collapsed back into his chair. You could feel the fear radiating around the room as everyone tried to come to grips with the danger Sam had put herself in.

Teal'c was the first to break the silence. Even after living and working with the Tauri for the last seven years sometimes the simplest things still confused him.

"Could someone not simply call her cellular phone to ascertain her whereabouts?"

There had to be a reason the others hadn't already tried that option. To his mind that should have been their first step once they discovered her missing. He wasn't sure which part of his reasoning was at fault and the stunned expression on everyone's face wasn't giving away a clue what it
could be.

After staring at each other for several seconds Daniel was the first to reach for Jack's phone.

Janet was the only one willing to acknowledge everyone's blunder.

"Because no one thought of it Teal'c. We were so busy worrying we weren't thinking straight."

"Hey, speak for yourself. I would..." Jack began defending his obvious oversight.

"No answer." Daniel cut in as his hopes faded. "It's still on, but she's not answering for some reason. It's not automatically rolling over to her voice mail so it's gotta still be on."

"Sam would answer her phone it she was able." Janet stated to no one in particular. "You need to find her Sir. Even if she isn't in danger from her stalker she's in danger from this weather if she's still out."


Janet felt she had to point out just how dangerous the situation was for Sam. "Sir, even if her attacker hadn't gotten to her yet, she'd have to be injured and in need of medical attention, otherwise she'd have answered her phone."

They were racing against the clock. They had to find her before it was too late.

But Jack didn't need to be reminded; he knew what was at stake. He'd dropped the ball, again. He'd allowed his emotions to get the better of him. Again. She'd only been trying to help and he'd turned all of his anger and frustration on her.

If anything happened to her it would all be his fault.

But just maybe, they'd caught a break. He knew if she wanted to clear her head, there was only one place she'd go. She didn't know he was even aware of her most heavily guarded secret. Didn't know how many times he'd trailed her up there and stood back and watched her free herself of all her worries and pains. She'd come up here every day for months after Daniel's ascension. Every day she was on earth that is. She'd found the same sense of calm riding this long forgotten path that he found spending time at his cabin. And that thought worried him more than anything. Because anyone who'd
stalked her as long as this monster, would also recognize the importance of the trail. They wouldn't need to follow her to know she would end up there. No, they could come ahead and lay a trap for her. She would ride right into it and never realize it until it was too late.

Daniel had been trying her number every few minutes since they'd left the mountain, with no luck. But luckily they had been able to track her GPS chip. But something deep down told him that it couldn't be that easy. Her position hadn't changed in the last forty-five minutes which could mean only
one of two things. Her attacker had left it behind and Carter could be anywhere by now...or...that she had her phone, and wasn't able to move or answer. And lying in one position for that long meant if she wasn't dead she would be soon.

As much of a relief as he felt, at least knowing her possible location, he couldn't help the fear it also brought. In this kind of weather she should never have gone out. She would never have gone out if he hadn't taken his frustrations out on her earlier.

It hadn't taken them long to reach the beginning of her usual trail. It had started to snow heavily on the way. That was going to make tracking her almost impossible. Any tracks she might have left were fast being covered in the fresh snow. The sun had gone down and with it the temperature.

Speeding down the road he just barely missed colliding with the giant boulder blocking his path.

Swiveling and throwing his truck into a fish tail spin he found it hard to keep his truck in the road and not end of at the bottom of the ravine that stretched out at least a mile below him. He truck had come to rest facing in the direction they had come. Taking a few minutes to catch his breath and calm his nerves Jack finally chanced a glance at both Daniel and Teal'c to see how they'd fared during the whole 'near-death experience'.

The first question on everyone's mind. 'How could Sam have survived?'

If she'd been on her bike, riding full throttle when she rounded that last curve she would have been forced off the road and down that steep embankment without the protection of a vehicle cab to insulate her on the way down. With the steady increase in the snow falling, any tracks her bike might have left as it plowed off the road and down to the bottom of this bluff had been covered in fresh snow.

With no path to follow and night completely blanketing the steep mountain side the odds of reaching her at the bottom of this cliff were slim. Calling out to her over and over and louder and louder their hope slowly died as they received no reply. Their search continued all night as they painstakingly worked their way to the bottom, hoping for a miracle.

When the mangled remains of her bike were discovered at the bottom of the ravine their hopes died.

They combed every square inch of the area, leaving no stone unturned, and still not a trace of Sam. It was as if she'd simply vanished into thin air. The area around her bike was track-free thanks to the continuing heavy snow fall. There was no clue whether she'd walked away unharmed or whether her
abductor had been waiting here for his chance to get his hands on her again.

This had been Jack's greatest fear, and now it was coming true. Sam was out there, somewhere, at the mercy of this psycho and there was nothing he could do.

The sun was starting to break over the horizon, spreading it's brilliant rays over the thick blanket of new snow covering the area. The sight might have been breath-taking if any one had bothered to take notice. In their eyes the sunrise meant only one thing...Carter had been missing for over six hours. As much as Jack hated to think of Carter at the mercy of this psycho, at least she'd be warm.

The sun brought no new evident or clues to her whereabouts. The morning breeze seemed even worst than the night before. Jack knew it was time to call off the search. They had searched all the surrounding area at the bottom of the bluff and found no trace of her. They could only hope that if
she had been abducted he would hold true to his previous pattern and dump her again in the alley behind her house.

There was nothing more they could do here. They would need to return to the mountain and regroup. Find other ways of locating her. Spirits low and frozen from a night of searching they returned to deliver the bad news.

Still discussing options for locating Sam, Daniel and Jack were both caught off guard as Teal'c came to an abrupt halt in the commissary door causing Daniel to collide full force with his back. Rubbing his nose and throwing Jack an evil look for laughing at his misfortune Daniel pushed passed Teal'c and on into the commissary only to stop dead in his tracks also. What had been funny moments ago when it happened to Daniel, suddenly lost it humor when he was on the receiving end of it.

Before he could even begin berating Daniel for blocking his path Teal'cs' strong hand landed on his shoulder, turning him to face the those seated in the commissary. There sitting at SG-1 usual table was Samantha Carter enjoying a streaming cup of coffee.

No one knew what to do, or what to say.

To Be Continued...


~~Please take a moment to tell me what you think. Reviews are very much appreciated.
~~Zhaan