1
Tosh bemoaned the lack of a drone, Owen agreeing as he thought of his own mini one back at the Hub on his desk, and Ianto swung to stare out the kitchen window.
"Jack?"
Jack was there beside him to see what Ianto had softly wanted to alert him to and sighed, seeing it as well.
"Incoming folks, looks like a lone walker" Jack said and they all spilled out to watch the man walk slowly towards them, dragging his sneakers in the dust of the driveway.
"Following the road, found the turn off?" Ianto surmised, "Something retained, enough to know it's easier to walk on the road than grass?"
"Or was in a car that broke down or stopped when he changed" Jack replied, not wanting to say transformed.
"Hope he was alone" Toshiko said softly, "If he was with someone else, if they didn't turn as well…oh no, there is blood on him. Did he kill someone?"
"Seems a logical argument" Ianto moved to the left, picking up the shovel left from the morning's activity and Jack watched Ianto measure and then swing with the shovel at an angle, catching the thing in the back of the head. It fell and started to convulse, Ianto stepping closer to bring the shovel down again as Owen finally woke form his stupor and picked up a large rock at the edge of the driveway.
"Look out, I got this" he panted and Ianto stepped back to watch Owen lift it over his head, bringing it down with a roar on the head of the thing. He looked like a toddler splashing a mud puddle with a rock.
"Wow" Ianto said drolly, "Well done there Splatter Man."
Giggling started as Owen looked at the bland face, then they were all laughing as the tension eased and Jack looked back in the way the man had come. "Should we go see if he left someone alive? Take the SUV?"
"We could almost have a spotlight like Batman, just turn it on at night to attract them instead" Owen snarked, Ianto watching Jack frown for a moment, then snort.
"We don't have to" Suzie sighed, "Vehicle coming this way fast. Lights."
They all looked through the trees and Ianto was the first to turn and run for the house as the Torchwood Cardiff team went into formation. Ianto watched from inside the house as the car pulled up and three people got out, the woman storming over to look down at the body, "Who did this?"
"Me" Owen said with pride, "They call me Splatter Man."
"You think this is finny?" she pointed at the body.
"I think everything I fucking funny, love" Owen smiled serenely, "End of the world and Zombies are stalking about, why not see the funny side. At least we don't have to worry about the bloody election now."
Her finger had been pointing at the corpse and she swung to look back over her shoulder "Hear that? He called it a Zombie too."
"Well… they sure as hell ain't human now" the young Heddlu Officer replied as he looked around with interest.
The third person in the vehicle looked out of place, his clothing and body structure not that one would expect of Heddlu and Jack knew he wasn't, the way his eyes kept flicking to the woman he was clearly with her as he got out and moved a few steps closer to her.
"Captain Jack Harkness, Torchwood" Jack offered his hand as he also noted the Torchwood SUV still sitting in plain sight by the barn she had already clocked, "How did you get out of Cardiff? They shut it down within an hour of London."
"We were already chasing that Divvy" the young man pointed at the corpse, "He had a few friends and were all running from us, we heard the call to return to base but someone wanted to catch these ones more, then the radio went to static, then just plain went. Rhys there was on the side of the road, eating a fucking pie would ya believe. She recognised the truck."
"This anomaly was airborne, took time to spread" Owen confirmed, watching the woman as she crouched to look at the remained of the man's head. "We think that by now it's probably 80% coverage of the entire country"
"Why not us though?" the young man seemed intelligent and Owen glanced at Jack for a nod then he answered.
"The only commonality of those of us unaffected is a lack of Appendix" Owen offered, "Any of you still got theirs?"
"Out when I was eight" the young man said as he turned to look at the more solid man who was now in the grass looking at the sheep in the paddock, "Rhys?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah. Ten, nine or ten."
Andy then looked at the woman who had a pen from her pocket poking at the body, "Gwen?"
"What?"
"Appendix, got your appendix?"
"No, I was twelve when I got it out, kept rumbling or whatever" she rose and looked at Jack.
"Gwen Cooper. My boyfriend Rhys there and Andy is my partner" she said as she offered her hand.
Jack accepted it and smiled, then wondered where Ianto was.
The house was silent behind them.