Alright here's the first chapter of my new story. I hope you like it. This is set during series 2 after Something Borrowed, but before From Out of the Rain.
Gwen had come back from her honeymoon a few days ago and had returned to work the next day. The hub looked just as it was when she had last seen it and the team looked like they hadn't been caught up in too much trouble.
The only married member of the Torchwood team had been back three days when Toshiko's rift monitor started beeping. Toshiko was at her computer in seconds pulling up the location. Gwen lifted her head from her paper work, Owen walked up from the autopsy bay and Jack and Ianto walked out of the Captains office.
"What is it Tosh?" Jack asked as everyone gathered round her desk.
"A whole bunch of rift activity at Mid Wales Hospital."
"Yeah and for those of us who have no clue where that is?" Owen asked looking between Ianto and Tosh. Ianto spoke first.
"It's in Talgarth, Powys. It's just past the Brecon Beacons National Park," He said looking at Owen before looking more widely round the group, but settling his gaze on Tosh and her computer, "It was a psychiatric hospital. But if I remember rightly it was shut down at the beginning of the twenty first century, eight years ago and has been deserted ever since."
Tosh nodded, "It did due to many things including changes to the mental health care in England and Wales. The owners gave the place up and handed it to the city council. The hospital has obviously decayed somewhat over the years as many of the slate tiles have fallen off, water ingress and then nature have also helped to ruin it. I'm not even sure if it still has a clock face any more."
"So how long will it take us to get there?" Jack asked once Tosh had finished.
"Just over an hour and a half probably if we took the A four hundred and seventy and knowing you're driving most likely a like less than that." Ianto replied.
"Okay I want everyone with at least one gun on them, mobile phone, comms unit and Tosh we'll need your portable rift energy monitor device. I'll see you all in the SUV in five minutes." Everyone moved around to follow Jack's orders. He then turned to Ianto.
"My driving isn't that bad." Jack told Ianto before walking off to grab his coat and the keys to the SUV, so that they could get going.
The drive - as Ianto had said – took the group just under an hour and a half, due mainly to Jack's dangerous driving through the Brecon Beacons, that had almost all of them thrown out of their seats at least once during the journey.
Jack parked the car on the edge of the road, so that other cars (if anyone else can out this far) could pass them without taking the wing mirror off of the vehicle – which would leave Jack with a very unhappy Ianto. The group stepped out of the car, taking with them what Jack had told them to bring before walking up to the front of the old, derelict building.
The building looked mainly grey, with some boarded up windows, but some that were just open holes or old frames. The brick work looked strong from the outside, however that didn't say that the inside would have fared just as well considering the weather changes. The clock still had its face and the two hands turned stiffly whenever the time changed.
On the top of the small clock spire was a weather thing that moved whenever the wind blowed to point in that direction. Above the door was two windows – one of which was open and the other was shut with what looked to be curtains in front of it. Either side of the windows were two white poles that looked like there may have been flags flying off of them at some point.
Above all of this was a change in the brick work. Instead of the usual pattern this area was flat with 1900 written on it (signifying the year that the building had most likely been made or redone) and above that was a small slit in the brick work that seemed to serve as a small lookout sort of window.
The building had two floors and then the roof with the clock tower extending up a little further. It also had two small steps that lead up to the door of the building.
The door was as it had been before hand – not boarded up – which should have been a sign of trouble that they could spot. And there was something else that helped them spot it, even though it looked like a deliberate thing, meaning that someone definitely wanted to meet them here.
Pinned onto the door was a sheet of paper that from a distance only had scribbles written on it, but close up you could see the words clearly.
Jack and Ianto had walked up first, followed closely by Owen with Gwen and Tosh making their way up the stairs behind him. Ianto pulled the note from the door and handed it to Jack, who took it – read over it once – before turning to face his whole team and read it aloud to them. It read:
Come inside Torchwood.
At this point, Ianto was sure that they had been set up and wanted to turn around and head back to the safety of the SUV, only to have Jack shout the order to go inside the building reach his ears. Jack pushed the door which opened easily, opposing Owen's way.
The dead man, speaking of whom: had already pulled his gun out, in hopes of being able to shoot at the door in order to unlock it. Jack walked in first with his arm close to Ianto, almost pushing the younger inside to walk beside him.
Owen put his gun away and followed inside with the girls following him. As soon as he had stepped inside, Ianto voiced his thoughts to Jack.
"Isn't this a bad idea?" Jack turned to look at him with a slightly questioning look, "I mean it seems to me like we're just walking into a ready laid trap, like mice do to cheese."
"The building has a lot of rift activity and it's been on the list of most rift active buildings for a while now, so we might as well check it out while we're here and not let one silly not on a piece of paper stop us." By the end of Jack's speech, Ianto still didn't look any more sure about what they were doing than he had been when he had spoken a minute ago.
Jack must have sensed this as he spoke again, "Hey don't worry you're with me."
Inside was almost worse than the outside. The stairs had numerous amounts of wooden chip boards blocked up in a wall at the top of them to which Ianto assumed had been put there in the hopes that the water wouldn't run down the stairs.
That idea seemed to not have worked as small layers of water covered the stairs and the floor below it. Even the low level of water would give Owen something to complain about. The Welshman really had no idea how a dead man could do so much complaining – not that he would ever voice this – as he had been brought up to never speak ill of the dead.
The water would make the old stair cases slippery and dangerous for all of them – even a man who couldn't die as well as the one who was already dead. As Jack went to move Ianto noticed another sheet of white that seemed this time, to be stuck to the brown coloured bannister of the stairs.
As carefully as he could Ianto made his way over to it trying his best not to slip, Owen decided to follow him, which Ianto became grateful for when he did nearly fall backwards.
He pulled the note carefully from the cellotape, leaving the part that was stuck on the bannisters where it was to try and avoid destroying the old work even more than it already had been. He didn't even bother to read it just called out to Jack.
"Jack, there's another note." The Captain turned and made his way over to them, as did Gwen and Tosh, who helped each other to cross the slippery floor without falling. Jack took the note from Ianto and once again read it to his team.
Come upstairs Captain – alone. Send that team of yours down to the cellar.
Jack had a look on his face that was telling Ianto he was going to do exactly what he was being told to by the note.
"Oh Jack you can't." Ianto sighed as the Captain turned to give orders out to them all.
"All of you, have your guns ready at all time, keep your mobiles and comms units on and contact me on the first sign on trouble. Remember that we need to watch our backs and if you see any more notes let me know and look for anything with rift energy. " With that the Captain was rushing up the stairs.
"He'll break his neck running around here like that." Gwen said as the Captain dashed over the wooden chip boards.
"Let him, it's not like he won't come back," Owen replied before starting to walk towards his left, "Come on let's find this cellar."
The group walked off and looked around, watching each other's back, especially Ianto who was extremely paranoid that they were being followed. It was Owen who eventually found the cellar, kicking the door open.
The lighting down there was terrible and shattered glass was all over the floor, however the water hadn't actually come down into the cellar yet. Toshiko took out a torch and looked around until she found a light switch. Only one of the lights actually worked, but it was still bright enough to allow them to see around the small underground room.
"What exactly are we looking for anyway?" Asked Gwen as she walked around the room, trying to mind her feet and avoid stepping on the broken glass that littered the floor. Owen was busy looking through all of the selves of chemicals and different liquids trying to determine what they were.
Toshiko was busy scanning for rift energy and Ianto had made his way over to the bookcase and was now looking through the different selves to see if there was anything at all that may tell them what was going on. They were all busy doing something when Tosh's scanner started beeping.
"Rift energy over by where Ianto is." Ianto looked around at her slightly confused before looking back at the book case.
"Where about are you picking it up?"
"It's strange the signals coming from behind the book case." She said as she moved closer. Gwen followed and Owen quickly followed behind her to look at what Tosh may be picking up.
"How can there be rift energy behind the book case, the only thing behind that is a wall like the other four." Gwen replied.
"Maybe the book case it's self will move you know push it aside or something?" Owen asked before trying to move the wooden item – which refused to budge, "Okay forget my theory then." Ianto had been skimming his eyes over the collection of books until he found one with a numbered code written on the spine of it. A code that Ianto recognised from the archives back at Torchwood One.
A code that they had used to open doors to locked off parts of the Torchwood Tower that only it's personal who knew the code were allowed to access. Ianto wasn't going to say how he knew that code though as he hadn't mentioned his life at Torchwood One since the Lisa incident had happened – something which had now – been put behind most of them.
Ianto ran a finger down the book, before going back up to the top and pulling it out. The book didn't exactly pull out, but made a strange clunking sound before the book case moved back and then turned like a door to reveal a room that had been hidden behind it.
"So the book case was the wall." Gwen thought out loud. Tosh scanned the area that the book case's movement had left and found the same pattern of rift activity that she had a moment ago.
"It's definitely behind the book case, so that means it must be in here." She told the others as Owen carefully stepped into the small room. It looked a lot like a study, with a few more book cases scattered around as well as a chair and table in the far corner.
"Owen, what are you doing?" Ianto asked, seeing the dead doctor moving into the room.
"I'm checking for the rift energy signal Ianto that is why we're here after all, remember?" Owen asked, although it was meant as more of a rhetorical question. Toshiko moved into the room to do some more in depth scanning and Gwen followed her in heading over to another one of the book selves.
"I wonder if these move as well?" She questioned, "What colour book opened it before Ianto?"
"Red," Ianto replied simply, not sure that what they were doing was an overly good idea, "Jack said to contact him if we found anything and I think that this counts as anything."
"Fine contact him then Ianto." Owen replied snappily as he continued looking around.
Tosh was moving her hand across the wall that was to Ianto's right, looking at some sort of line in the brick work, "Ianto can you come and hold my scanner for me?" She asked and Ianto walked into the small room and took the scanner off of her, "Thanks." She replied before turning her attention back to the wall.
"I'm contacting Jack." Ianto replied as he raised a hand to his comms unit.
"Have fun." Owen replied sarcastically and Gwen looked over her shoulder before turning her attention back to the back case, trying to get the book case to move by pulling out every red book and then placing it on the floor. So far every book was able to be pulled out and she was getting nowhere.
"Jack, we've found-" Ianto stopped speaking and then spoke again a moment later, "Jack? Jack can you hear me?" He was now worried that his Captain wasn't answering him. Jack always answered him, always - even if they weren't out somewhere on an important or dangerous mission – even if they were just in the hub.
Tosh had turned to him by now and was looking at him worriedly, even Gwen had stopped what she was doing to see what the problem was.
"What's up Ianto?" Tosh asked as she looked at Ianto, Gwen walked over to them while Owen kept looking around. Ianto handed Tosh's scanner to Gwen and turned around.
"I'm going to find Jack since he's not answering."
"Okay we'll stay-" Tosh didn't finish her sentence as the book case moved back over and shut of the passage that they had used as an entrance, almost hitting Ianto. The sound of moving stone had caused Owen to look up and run over to join Ianto. The doctor sighed, putting extra emphasis on it and dragging it out deliberately.
"Way to go Ianto."
"What did I do?" Ianto asked, not finding Owen's comment very fair. Just as Owen was about to reply, Gwen cut across him to speak first.
"I'm picking up rift activity over here by Tosh and I." Ianto and Owen walked over to them and Owen's eyes focussed on Toshiko who was still moving her hand over the wall.
"Tosh what are you doing?" He asked.
"I tracked the rift activity to here before my signal disappeared. It's come back now, but there seems to be some sort of crack in his wall."
"So most walls have cracks in them?" Gwen questioned, "Especially older ones."
Ianto spoke next after having looked at the crack that Tosh was talking about, "Yeah, but that cracks a completely straight line and it doesn't go all of the way up the wall it bends." Ianto was right there was a ninety degree right angle where the straight cracked ended.
"I think it might be another one of those moving door things." Tosh replied before taking her scanner back from Gwen.
"Move aside let me see." Owen replied as he pushed his way to be where Tosh had been stood and tried to move the wall.
Jack had made his way up the stairs before looking down the corridor. He walked through a wide, pinned back door that was red and in to a wide sort of upstairs hall thing or though he guess that it was more of a medical bay or had been before it was shut down.
On the floor he found and old book of paper that had a red cross on the front of it and below in italics and an old looking font were the words: Army Prayer Book.
It also had a blue stamp on it that read: Talgarth, Military Hospital, Talgarth – seventeenth May Nineteen forty three.
Jack raised his head and continued on down through the next open door – this time a slightly smaller one – and made his way past a few doors that must have lead into other rooms. He continued onto the room at the far end were he found a boarded up window, however this room was the only one that still had a bed in it, despite the fact that it looked in actually no fit sense to be called a bed.
The Captain's head flung road as he heard a set of collective screaming before everything went silent, even the dripping of the water stopped.
Owen had been leaning against the stone for what seemed ages now trying to push it and had no such luck in moving it, so eventually he gave up and stopped wasting his energy.
"What do you think's behind there?" Gwen asked curiously as she moved to stand next to Owen at the end of the group's line of four. Ianto moved forwards first noticing a small strange mark on the wall, a little way away from the crack.
"What's this Tosh?" He asked as the computer and technology genius moved forward to have a look at it.
"I'm not sure, I think I've seen it somewhere before though."
Owen moved to have a look as well before nodding his head in agreement with Tosh, "Yeah I think I've seen it before." He paused for a second before Ianto remembered where he had seen it before.
"I've seen it in the archives back at the hub."
"I think I've seen it on a piece of technology that I gave you to put in the archives." Tosh added and then it turned to Owen.
"I don't know where I have seen it before." They all went silent for a minute before Gwen added a comment.
"I've never seen it before." Owen sighed and lent against the wall.
"Why can Torchwood never be simple?" He lent back before something behind him moved and he leapt forwards again, noticing that the symbol had now disappeared into the wall and the dead man swore under his breath as he realised that he must have leant against it.
Tosh grabbed a hold of him and Gwen stepped back and so did Ianto as the crack in the wall began to glow, before forming a door which moved back to reveal a startling bright light.
Ianto wasn't sure who screamed first or whether he lost consciousness, but all he did know was that the bright light blinded him before darkness settled over his vision. And that's when he thought that he had lost his consciousness, but it was also when he screamed.
Okay I hope you like my new story I hope to update on Thursday or Friday.