TORCHWOOD

Night of Living Death

Captain Jack pulled the Torchwood SUV into a sudden U-turn in a screech of brakes and burning rubber against tarmac, parking it against the curb on the opposite side of the road before turning to face Ianto Jones in the passenger seat beside him.

"You can't park it there." Ianto protested. "We'll get a clamp, or a parking ticket, and I'm not paying another fine!"

Jack grinned, flashing his companion and colleague an almost perfect set of pearly white teeth. "You're forgetting Ianto." He winked. "We're Torchwood, we can park wherever we like."

"Try telling the traffic wardens around here. Anyone would think they'd never even heard of Torchwood."

Jack laughed.

Outside the city skies continued to subject the Cardiff residents to a heavy downpour of torrential rain. A steady stream of rainwater had been flooding into the Hub via the towering waterfall above for two days now, and there was a distinct chill in the air, a sense of horror and foreboding which sent a chill through Ianto's veins.

Bodies had started turning up all over the city a few days previous, drained of all life before being discarded in the city's streets by their assailant and left to die. The team's investigations had turned up no further leads however, until fresh rift spikes detected in the north of the city had brought an end to an unusually uneventful day.

"Typical." Ianto sighed, pulling his collar up to shield himself against the rain beginning to trickle down the back of his neck. "You give Gwen the evening off and suddenly it all kicks off."

"She deserved an evening with Rhys." Jack smiled, before turning away wistfully. "She's been pushing herself far too hard lately. Tosh and Owen's death has been hard on all of us. Besides I'll make it worth your while."

"You'd better." Ianto scoffed as the captain locked the SUV behind them.

As they walked, Jack out in front, the miserable and hunched figure of Ianto trailing along behind, he noted the looming silhouette of a tower of greasy flats, dwarfing a thin line of trees as they walked by.

"The human race," Jack laughed, slowing down to allow Ianto to catch up with him, "such a resilient species, and yet knocked out of place by the smallest drop of rain."

Ianto, by now already beginning to turn numb from the cold drizzle soaking his skin, remained oblivious to his captain's remark. His teeth beginning to chatter, he pulled his thick woollen overcoat even tighter around him to shield himself against the pelting rain, when something suddenly disturbed the foliage at the side of the road.

"What was that?"

"I don't know." Jack responded. "But the rift monitor just spiked." He observed, checking the hand held PDA which he pulled from his pocket.

A tiny alien figure standing barely a foot off the ground immediately appeared before them from out of the foliage. Jack and Ianto stopped in their tracks. Its skin was like leathery snake flesh, slick from the rain, and the stench irradiating from its body was equal only to that of a rotting carcass which had been left out in the sun. Even more alarming however was its seemingly fragile skeletal frame, it looked as though a single sudden gust of wind could shatter its tiny form, although its eyes glowed red and threatening against the night's sky.

"It's barely a child." Ianto gasped.

Suddenly the alien launched itself at Jack, performing a three hundred and sixty degree summersault in mid-air with all the surprise elegance and grace of an Olympic gymnast. Jack made to draw his Webly, but was too late as the alien's skull slammed into his head with a bone splintering crunch, its feet bouncing off his chest, winding him, before performing another mid-air show of acrobatics, and landing perfectly upon two feet.

The Captain hit the ground with a heavy thud; his gun instantly knocked from his hand and sent skidding across the floor.

"Sir!"

"I am no child." The alien purred. "My name is Larnce, from the Black Planet. I am an Anicmi, and we know all about you Captain Jack Harkness."

"You are the one whose been causing the rift spikes!" Jack growled, recovering himself slightly and sitting up with a heavy groan, his head still spinning. Rubbing his eyes and forehead Jack pulled his hand away to reveal blood staining his palm and felt the hot liquid trickling from a large open gash in his temple, and down his face.

"Me and my kind." Larnce replied. "We feed on the life energy of others… we gorge ourselves on it, drinking our victims dry until there's nothing more worth taking, either that or they're dead! But we are weak. You're rift energy keeps us alive!"

"I've just completed a comprehensive scan of the area for alien DNA and rift spikes." Ianto explained, consulting his hand held PDA. "There's nothing, he's alone."

The Anicmi growled. Jack smiled.

"There are no more of your kind here. Don't try screwing with us, we're well accustomed to dealing with your kind. You're totally alone."

"That makes no difference to me." The alien smiled, un-phased. "I don't need the rest of my kind to survive, only the energy… you're little planet is full to overflowing with ripe, juicy fruit just waiting to be picked, and I was so hungry!"

"You're the one that attacked those people!"

"They were just the starter, insignificant beings that happened to get in my way. I was gearing up for the main course."

"Why did you come here?" Jack demanded.

"For you, Captain Jack Harkness, I came for you, the all you can eat gourmet buffet for a creature like me. I smelt you through the rift, could taste your blood, so sweet… oh so sweet! It made my mouth water. I couldn't resist!"

"Oh yeah… well, you want me, you just come and get me and see how far you get!"

"Oh I intend to." The Anicmi snarled. "This is it Jack Harkness, welcome to your living death."

The tiny alien's jaws opened wider than the circumference of its own body to reveal a set of serrated, knife-like teeth. Although that was the least of Jack's worries as the creature came at him, and he observed the tongue, a mass of flesh and rippling muscle, hollow like a straw and poised ready to drink him dry.

He could feel the Anicmi's hot breath upon his face, the stench unbearable, like rotting flesh, making his eyes stream.

He tried to move, he knew he had to get away, but he was frozen to the spot. It wasn't fear, although for only one of a few times in his life Jack was terrified… but there was something else, something deeper, darker and harder to explain which kept him routed to the spot. Perhaps a strange morbid curiosity… there'd been so many times in Jack's life when he'd wished for death, preyed for it, but like most other of his kind he was also afraid to die… because he knew better than most what death would bring. What it was that waited for him on the other side.

There was nothing beyond life, only despair, and emptiness, and loneliness. Neither sight nor sound. No sense of touch, or smell, or taste. It was like being consumed by a black hole from which there was no escape.

Jack poised himself, heart pounding with adrenalin, ready to run at the final moment. It would be their best form of defence against the alien if they could catch it off guard. The Anicmi was almost upon him when suddenly gun shot reverberated through the air, sending the birds in the nearby trees into frenzied flight, and Jack was immediately splattered with sticky, inky blood, the colour and consistency of engine oil as the creature crumpled to the ground, dead. The bullets tore gaping open wounds in the tiny alien body, still oozing greasy blood as Jack looked up in time to see Ianto, already re-holstering his weapon.

"Thanks." He sighed, still panting slightly.

"Don't mention it sir!" Ianto smiled. "Anytime!"

"We'd better get this mess cleaned up." Jack explained, eyeing the growing pool of alien bio-matter at their feet with slight disgust, the blood still oozing from a gaping wound in the Anicmi's chest. He stood transfixed for a moment, before turning back to the young Welshman, and returning the smile. "And then I'm taking you out to dinner!" He winked.

"I'm afraid everywhere will be closing by now sir." Ianto remarked, looking at his watch, and Jack suddenly realised the lateness of the hour.

"Oh, right." He faltered. "My place then?"

Ianto shook his head. "My place is a little more homely." He suggested. "Besides, I've got a vintage bottle of mineral water I've been saving for a special occasion."

"Your place it is then." Jack smiled.