Track of the Apocalypse Ch8 Ficbit – Boiling is Good

“If it acts like a virus – I don’t think drinking river water outside the walls is a great idea,” Daniel nodded. “Even if they think dead Kabane aren’t contagious – they sink. How would you know if one was drowning right where you dropped a bucket?”

Ew. And, practical. “Boiled water time, check,” Jack agreed.

Daniel yawned. Grimaced a little, the way Jack knew meant either I miss my toothbrush or coffee is required. Probably both. “That must have been how Ikoma got Mumei back. They could fight the water. The Kabane – couldn’t.”

Aha. Yeah. There was what Jack knew he’d missed last night, in the wake of being cold and wind-battered and way too close to eaten. “Must have been?” Jack echoed, nerves prickling.

“Well, yeah,” Daniel shrugged. “I mean, we’ve all been mobbed before. When the Touched grabbed me-” He cut himself off; Jack could almost hear the gears grind to a halt as Daniel deliberately shut down that train of thought. As who wouldn’t, remembering how a spreading virus had slammed their brain back to pre-caveman levels. Jack didn’t have to look to know Sam was wincing right along with them. That had been sincerely not fun. And when one of the best parts of the week had been knowing that Janet and Teal’c would make sure the SGC went up in flames before the virus could breach the Mountain….

Yeah. Nobody liked the Land of Light, even if they had had a happy ending.

“We were fortunate.” Teal’c sat up with a dark majesty only slightly dented by the way he had to duck to fit under the top bunk. “Janet Fraiser has informed me it was a most straightforward virus. Once the histamines in your bodies were eliminated, your immune systems were able to purge the invader. Had it been a virus that lingered in the nerves or immune cells, she would have been, as she said, much reduced in deceptions she could wrench from her headgear.”

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