This story was adapted quite heavily from something else that I wrote a while back, so if you know me in RL, you've probably already read it. :3 Sorry.

It was half past eight on a Tuesday morning when the world ended, and nobody expected it in any way, least of all Ianto Jones.

"It's a bit ironic," he said to himself as he stumbled down the smoking remains of what had previously been the street running along the outside of the Hub. "All these movies about the apocalypse, and the world actually does end with a whimper, rather than a bang."

It had come a bit suddenly, in the typical way. The sky began to burn, rocks began to fall from the heavens, and before anyone knew it, Earth was a smoking wasteland, only populated by the few survivors left.

Ianto limped over to a park bench that hadn't been destroyed in the initial chaos, and tugged his phone out of his pocket. It was cracked, slightly, across the screen, and the battery was only at 21%. But it would do for now.

He dialled a number, and the person on the other end picked up instantly. "Jack?"

"Yeah. You alright?"

"Just about. Where are you? I'm in the middle of that park- although it's not really much of a park anymore-"

"I know. I'm just across. I can see you…"

He looked up, and sure enough, a distinctive figure in the distance was waving at him. He waved back, and Jack sprinted in his direction, arriving just as Ianto hung up.

"How's the end of the world going for you?" Ianto asked with a twisted smile, moving his leg to a more comfortable position. "Personally, I feel crap, but…"

"Your leg," Jack said, bending down to twist Ianto's trousers up. He examined them, and sucked in a breath through his teeth. "Ow."

"It's not so bad," Ianto said, attempting to wave it away. "It looks worse than it is."

Jack stared at him. "You're literally bleeding to death. It looks like it's infected. What happened to you?"

"I was caught in the blast," said Ianto. "One of the first ones. I've got burns on my back, but they don't hurt that much-"

"Let me see."

"There's no point," he snapped, tugging his jacket tightly around himself, and shoving the phone into his pocket. "Let's just get under cover. It'll be safer, and then you can look at my back, since you're so eager."

He looped an arm carefully around Jack's neck, and they struggled to their feet, before hobbling off into the distance together.

"You awake?"

"Mm."

"Come on, Gwen, sweetie, wake up."

"Mm… hurts."

"Yeah, I know. C'mon, we've got to keep moving."

From the top of the tower, Toshiko could watch the city burn. It was surprisingly beautiful, albeit a bit depressing. Curls of smoke and ash, wafting into the air, forming a fortune of death.

"I'm waking up, to ash and dust," she sang under her breath, then shook her head, turning away. Despite the fact that most of the building was wrecked, the bell tower that formed most of the main building was still standing- and was the perfect vantage point to see what was going on. Not that there was a lot. It was unlikely that anyone was still left alive, and even if they were, they'd be in no condition to move. It was only a fluke that she was still there.

Her fingers clicked over the keyboard of her tiny, old-fashioned phone- all that she could salvage from the ruins of her house- checking her messages again. Most of the phone networks were down, and as such she only had one bar of connection. She composed a short message in seconds, sending it off to everyone in her address book, and put her phone down, leaning against the wall.

Are you there?

There had been no reply yet. It wasn't looking good.

Toshiko was seriously considering just curling up and dying when her phone buzzed, rattling against the floor. She snatched it up instantly, hitting the 'read' button.

Ianto & I are fine. coming to meet u- where r u?

She pressed at the 'compose' button. Bell tower. Hurry. She paused. You seen G & O?

The reply was almost instantaneous, but depressingly short. Not yet.

Toshiko stared at the screen for a moment, before dropping it, standing to keep watch at the window again.

"She's at the school," said Jack, showing Ianto the screen. Ianto squinted, annoyed at how blurry his vision seems to be getting, and managed a smile.

"We'd better get going, then," he replied. "The sky's getting dark. I think there's another round of meteors coming."

"Gwen?" said a voice in the darkness.

"Mmph- yeah?"

"You were passing out again."

"Sorry. My legs hurt."

"Here, let me see."

A rustle of fabric, and a sharp intake of breath.

"Well?"

"I think they're burned."

A pause. And then, with slightly forced cheer: "Well, we can both have awesome battle scars together, then."

"We can't say that they were injured in an explosion." The first voice again, slightly teasing, but with the same forced cheer.

"Of course not. We'll have to say… I don't know. Shark attack?"

"Why not? I valiantly fought off the sharks as they attacked both of us."

"With lightsabers."

"Lightsabers," said one of the voices. "Sounds good."

Owen woke up in the middle of a wasteland.

"Lovely," he said with an impressive amount of sarcasm, and felt at the side of his face, which was slightly sticky. It came away red, and he blinked at it, and then looked up. It was the skeletal remains of what had once been quite a large building. It took her a moment to recognise it.

From the ground, she could vaguely see a figure at the top, which it also took him a moment to recognize, because Toshiko almost never looked this dishevelled.

Owen stood up, and ran towards the staircase, half-exposed by the wind and elements.

For a while, there was silence in the darkness, only broken by the sound of rushing wind and footsteps.

"Rhys?" said a voice.

"Yeah?"

"I think-" A cough. "I think I'm blind."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

"Well…" Another silence; scuffling feet. "I think I might be too."

The meteors began to fall moments before Owen reached the broken doorway, and he was one of the first to die.

Jack and Ianto were next, and they were nowhere near the bell tower at the time. It would take Jack quite a while to come back from this particular death.

Toshiko sat up, pressed against the wall, frantically dialing numbers on her phone. Nobody picked up, and after the twentieth time she got the message, 'your connection has been lost. Please check the number and try again' she gave up, looking out at the sky which was burnt red with the flames of a thousand meteors streaking downwards.

"Fuck this," she said, mildly. "Fuck existence. Fuck reality. Fuck everything."

She stood, and walked slowly over to the window, which was broken along the middle. One push sent the shards tumbling down towards the ground and blood running down her arms. She climbed up, standing in the window frame, and shrapnel peppered her face. It would probably leave scars, if left untreated.

"Fuck this," she repeated, and let herself fall. Her hair billowed out around her, and wind and fire roared in her ears.

Then, impact.

Then, red.

The End