Hello! Thankyou for reading my story!
Warning: Mild coarse language. (well, duh: Owen)
Disclaimer: I don't own Torchwood. Or any of the characters. Or the Weevils. (Ew. Who'd want to own a Weevil? *shudders*)
Blackout
Chapter 1-Something's Coming
Owen Harper put down the scalpel he was previously holding and pulled off the rubber gloves he hated so much. Jack, who was standing at the top of the flight of stairs leading down into the medical area raised his eyebrows at him.
"Well?"
Owen sighed.
"Death by Weevil, as my original assessment stated. What are we doing with the body?" He looked at Jack, who shrugged.
"Ianto, I suppose." He turned and went to find him.
Owen was left with the prospect of filling out several forms and entering the information on the database. Surely there is another way I could be spending my Friday night, he thought. Instead of having a good time, I'm autopsying a loser who got in the way of an oversize rat. He set about marking the position of the wounds and listing a description of each on one of the forms waiting on his clipboard.
"Jack? There was a small Rift spike about a minute ago...nothing unusual in size though." he heard Tosh call from her computer.
"Well, then, why the hell are you telling me, Toshiko? I'm not interested in the minute workings of the Rift, you know." Jack said.
"Yeah, I know...it's just...um, it's not unusual in size, but it's strange in that my Rift Predictor has no spikes until Sunday morning." Tosh called back.
"Well, could your software need tweaking?" Jack, judging by the direction his voice was coming from, was now standing next to Tosh.
"Uh, no. I did that a few days ago. And upgraded the scanners...which is why I'm picking up this. I suppose it could just be that the program is taking a while to work properly. It's only a small spike, so it can't be anything big. One person, maybe. Oh!" Tosh's voice changed to the slightly excited tone of someone getting an idea. "Maybe, it was someone with some kind of travelling device that relies on the Rift. Anyway, it could probably wait. Don't worry."
"Well, then, you could have just thought that entire process out in your head and I wasn't needed for any of it. Take note in future." Owen could practically hear Jack roll his eyes. Just when he thought that he could get on with his autopsy report in relative quiet, Jack yelled out to Ianto.
"Hey! Ianto! How are those coffees going?"
"They won't be a minute, sir." Ianto's voice drifted back.
"Alright, I'm timing!" Jack smiled. He could always rely on Ianto to be on time. Especially if you were the one holding the stopwatch. "56 seconds, 54, 53-"
"Will you shut up? I'm actually trying to work here, instead of lazing around being irritating!" Owen snarled at Jack. He'd collected his paperwork to do at his desk, because he figured that it would be easier than writing on a clipboard standing up. He threw them on his desk, and they hit the side instead, drifting to the floor in a messy heap. Owen swore, and snatched them up, plonking himself into his chair. Ianto entered the scene with a tray of coffees.
"Aah, Ianto, my saviour!" Jack said, taking one as it was offered to him, and winking at Ianto. Tosh smiled gratefully as she took hers and Owen scowled but took one anyway.
"Where's Gwen?" Ianto said, fingers curling around the handle of one of the two remaining cups.
"Oh, she went home. Something about 'she'd missed too many dinners with Rhys', and 'she'll be back really early tomorrow to make up for it'." Jack explained. Ianto nodded, looking at the extra cup. "Oh, sorry. I forgot to tell you." Jack looked at the coffee, then at his cup, then back at the coffee. "Hang on." He gulped the rest of his cup, then put it on the tray. He took Gwen's would-be coffee. Ianto raised his eyebrows.
"Hey, we can't let good coffee go to waste, can we?" Jack smiled as he started to drink. Ianto shrugged and sipped his coffee.
They were discussing the dead man lying in the cryo storage when suddenly the lights went out.
"What the hell?" Owen said. They could hear a thunk as he put his cup down. He'd spilt coffee on his shirt before, and he didn't want to repeat that fiasco.
"Ianto, what's happening?" Jack said. Trust Jack to be the first one to turn to Ianto in a crisis.
"I'm not sure, sir. There wasn't any flickering of the lights, so it can't be the lightbulbs, so it must be the power. A blackout."
"Well, why hasn't the backup generator come on-line?" Tosh said. There was a faint 'clink' as she, too, put her cup down.
They could hear Tosh tapping on her keyboard, pressing a button, then clicking her mouse. "Computers are all down."
"I have no idea. And the computers are down, so we can't scan...I'm going to check the generator." Ianto said. They could hear him opening a drawer. "Tosh, where's your torch?"
Tosh scrabbled around on her desk.
"Aah, thankyou. Handy. Hmm...ah! Found the switch." There was a 'click' as he turned it on.
The light filled the Hub, casting long, creepy shadows. Ianto shined it on the others. Tosh squirmed away from the beam.
"Ouch, Ianto, you shined it in my eye!"
"Oh, sorry, Tosh." Ianto said. He pointed the light upwards. It shined for a few more seconds, then it slowly faded out.
"Tosh, are there new batteries in this?" Ianto said.
"Uh, yeah, there should be. I replaced them last week...and I've not used it since..." she said in a slightly confused tone. She rummaged around in one of her desk drawers and handed Ianto more batteries. There was a click as he put them in place, but the light still remained dark.
"Ianto, why isn't the power on yet? The backup generator isn't hooked into the main power grid, right?" Jack said.
"Yeah...maybe it's faulty. But it shouldn't be, because I check it frequently..." His voice trailed off into the darkness.
"What are you thinking?" Jack said. He alone could read Ianto's voice, especially in the dark.
"Maybe...maybe that it's not just a normal blackout. Like, it's not just any power shortage, or surge. Maybe there's something, well, suss, about it. I mean, come on. The torches aren't working. With new batteries." His voice remained level.
"Great. Stuck in a suspicious darkness, at work, with...you guys...no torches...on a Friday. Fuck! Today has just gone to shit!" Owen said grumpily.
"Well, well, Mr Grumpy Face, at least some of us are prepared for this kind of situation...Ianto, come here and help me." Jack said. There was a scraping noise as he got up and the chair slid back.
"What assistance do you require, sir?" Ianto replied, also standing up, albeit much more quietly.
"I have candles in my office, in one of my drawers. There are some matches too. They should work. Come on." he said, then paused. "Actually, Tosh, Owen, you'd better come too. We don't know what caused the darkness, and I'm not leaving the medic and the techie, two of the people that could help us the most, alone in the dark. Hurry up!" They could hear his footsteps fall on the stairs. Owen stood up. He could feel Tosh slide unsteadily to her feet in the darkness next to him.
"Tosh?" he said.
"Yeah?"
"Here, take my hand. I don't want to be having to treat people in the darkness. You go first." He motioned forwards, although in the pitch black it was pointless. Tosh walked uncertainly forwards, stepping slowly and cautiously. When they reached the stairs she let go of his hand and gripped the railing. Halfway up, she missed a step and fell backwards onto Owen.
"Hey, watch it! Be more careful! That was my stomach!" Owen grumbled as he helped her carefully to her feet.
"Sorry, I...missed the step. I didn't mean to land on you." Tosh said sheepishly, and Owen could practically feel her face going fire engine red in the blackness.
"Hey, kiddies! Hurry up, I've found the candles!" Jack called. There was a striking noise and then the steady sputter of a flame. "Now, Ianto, get me that glass bottle...yeah, that one. Here, put the candle in it. Mind the coral! It's...endangered. And special. And dripping candle wax on it is not making it grow any faster! Oh, that's better. I can see again."
"Well, now that you've seen the light, could you bring it over here? Tosh has already tripped up once, and she might not be so kind as to land on my stomach next time." Owen called out. There was an orange glow as Ianto appeared at the top of the stairs with the candle, now burning steadily in its makeshift holder.
"A beer bottle?" Owen said sceptically.
"Hey! We're running on low supplies here!" Jack said, appearing next to Ianto. "Like to see you come up with something better, Mr Grumpy Face." Owen scowled. Tosh stopped in front of him on the stairs, and he ran into her.
"Ouch, Owen!"
"Well, maybe next time you should warn people behind you that you're stopping suddenly!"
"How do you suggest I do that? Attach a brake light?"
Ianto reached out and helped Tosh climb the last few stairs. He turned around, leaving Owen to find his way in the blackness.
"Thanks, Ianto. Some butler you are."
When they were all assembled in Jack's office-Jack lounging in his chair, Tosh sitting on the side of the desk, Ianto leaning against his precious filing cabinets and Owen sitting on the floor next to the door, playing with a piece of string-they began to discuss what could have caused the blackout, swapping theories and ideas.
"Hey, guys, maybe it's just a freak loss of power." Owen said, his voice tinted with a slight tinge of hope.
"Yeah, a freak loss of power that mysteriously drains torch batteries. Riiiight. For sure." said Jack.
"Hang on. I just had an idea. When you said 'drained', I thought, what if something is draining power?" Ianto said thoughtfully.
"Yeah, I mean, that would account for the torch batteries being drained..." Owen said.
"Wait, guys. Now I've got an idea. Everyone, take out your mobiles." Tosh instructed them.
They all did. The room brightened considerably with the added glow from the small screens.
"Okay. Watch the battery symbol." Tosh said, still in the same schoolteacher-y voice.
As they watched, the battery symbols on their phones started to drop.
Jack's phone was the first to die. Then Owen's, Tosh's and finally Ianto's.
"Okay, that was strange." Jack said, staring at the now dark screen. He pressed the 'power' button several times, but to no avail. The screen remained frustratingly dark. "There's not even a bit of battery left. And I charged it yesterday..."
"My point exactly. Something is draining the power." Ianto said, his face oddly illuminated in the flickering candlelight.
"Wait, all of the doors are electrically powered, right?" said Owen. "And there is no way that we can open that door without electrical help. And all the other doors deadlock in a blackout. We're stuck in here."
"Gee, thanks for that cheerful thought, Owen." Jack said sarcastically.
Tosh whimpered.
"Hey, what's up?" asked Ianto.
"I...I don't like the dark. I'm actually quite scared of the dark. Apparently I'm nyctophobic, or something." said Tosh. They could see her embarrassment, even in the dim light of the candle. Jack put his hand on her shoulder comfortingly.
"Don't worry. We'll be fine. After all, we're together, and hey, I'm here!"
"A great comfort, I'm sure." Owen said, rolling his eyes.
The conversation ebbed as they pondered their situation.
In the distance, something thudded.
"What's that?" Tosh asked. "Don't the cells lock down when there's no power?"
"Yeah...shh...see if goes again." Jack whispered.
There was another thud. And another. They were getting louder.
"Whatever it is, it's coming...here. Jack! Blow out the candle!" Owen whispered urgently. Jack opened his mouth to protest, but Ianto put his hand over it, leaned over and blew the candle out.
There was another thud. Louder now. It was accompanied by a strange shuffling noise.
Something was out there, in the darkness. And it was getting closer and closer.
Author's Ramblings:
Ooh, suspenseful! (sorry it was so long. The next couple of chapters are going to be shorter. Maybe :D) As a general rule, I don't write scary stories (they are not my forte), so...it probably won't be really scary. Heh.
Maybe Russel. T. Davies can help me. I mean, come on! Countrycide was the freaking scariest TW ep that I've seen! *shudders*. That may be due to the fact that my parents decided that going on a farmstay in the middle of nowhere for 2 weeks of holiday was an excellent plan. And I saw a dude the other day that looked exactly (like, I'm talking duplicated identical-twins lookalike here) the same as the cannibal police guy. :s
So I may have to resort to using the extensive knowledge of creepy TV that I have picked up. Not just TW. DW (Blink freaked me out so much! It was all okay, like 'it's just a TV show' but then there was that creepy 'Don't blink. Don't even blink...' Doctor voiceover bit with the pictures of the famous statues and I was so scared...and also Silence in the Library and Forest of the Dead. Hey, did R.T.D write those? I think so...man, that guy is t-wisted!), and Silent Witness, Bones, NCIS...all of those shows have creepy eps. Maybe I'll turn out to be better at this 'creepy' genre than I expected. Heheh.
Thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou for reading!
Uh, if you're gonna review (you utterly should, I love reviews) then thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou!
