TITLE: More Than Just Survivors
AUTHOR: Talepiece

RATING: 12cert/PG13
PAIRING (none yet but femslash potential)

DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of them.

CROSSOVER: Survivors/Torchwood/Demons
CONTINUITY: Written after Survivors S1 and Torchwood S2. Naj and Al are missing, Sarah is lost. Though started long before Children Of Earth, I inadvertently pre-empted a certain character's demise (please don't send me death threats).

SUMMARY: If England is full of half-lives, surely post-virus it would still be full of them? Being immortal might help too. Jack to the rescue...
NOTE: I really fancy Zoe Tapper so how could I not write a story with two women who look remarkably like her?

WARNING: I started this a long time ago and honestly don't know if I'll ever finish it. When I re-read the first few parts recently, I thought I'd post them here anyway; if you hate unfinished stories, read no further.


PART TWO : Sounds Like A Deal

'Oh, Jack, we have to stop this. It's gone too far. You're obsessed, man!'

Jack turned on his heels and glared down at her. God but he'd had enough of her bitching. It had been weeks since she'd shut up for more than five minutes. And now they were so close, so bloody close. He'd tracked signals and communications, errant signals and ghost comms mostly but, finally, he'd found it. They'd found it. Bitching or not, Gwen Cooper was a damn fine investigator. Mind you, the helicopters had been a subtle clue.

She wasn't bad in a fist fight either. And there'd been more than a few of them. It was ugly as hell out there and Jack couldn't entirely disagree with Gwen's assessment; get back to Cardiff, back to the Hub, and hitch a lift off Earth as fast as they could. Of course, that plaque planet warning might make "as fast as they could" a bit slower but, all in all, it wasn't a bad idea.

'This is it, Gwen. This is the place. Look at it,' Jack waved his binoculars towards the building that sat low in the landscape a few miles away.

'And then what, Jack? What do we do, the two of us? Storm the place? Blow it up?'

'Stop bloody shouting?'

It was a man's voice, deep and warning, coming from behind them. Jack and Gwen shared a glance before they stated to turn. As they did, the sound of the pump-action of a shotgun rang loud in the clearing. They hesitated in their turn, rethinking their original plan as they came face to muzzle with the weapon. It was mostly aimed at Jack, which annoyed Gwen more than she could say. Though she was going to have a really good try.

'Hey! Hey, you, I'm dangerous too, you know? Bloody 'ell, do I look like some weak-willed bloody woman? I've done my share of the dirty wo-'

Gwen stopped suddenly, encouraged by the muzzle moving to aim directly at her head.

'Does she ever shut up, mate?'

'Not at the moment. I'm Jack Harkness, by the way. You?'

'Tom.'

'Tom..?'

'Yeah.'

'OK,' Jack drew out the word.

'And I'm chopped bloody liver. Oh no, wait a minute, I'm Gwen Cooper. Now get that bloody gun back on me before I charge you and knock your bloody balls in to your throat.'

'Is she having a breakdown?'

Jack shrugged, 'Had, I think. Had a breakdown. About a month ago.'

'Yeah, her and me both.'

Jack studied the man. Tall, well built - not bad looking in that rough-trade kind of way. Definite potential. The shotgun would have to go, though; they had a tendency to get in the way. Funny, thought Jack, I know this man is trouble but I'm not sure if he's trouble for us. They really needed an ally right now, especially if they were going to get within a mile of that lab.

Gwen watched Jack eyeing up Tom. Damn him, he was checking the bloke out. A great shotgun waving in his face - literally, not in some weird innuendo way - and Jack's considering his potential. Gwen forced down a moment of disgust on Ianto's part. Ianto, of course, wouldn't have felt that at all; it was just Jack, he'd have said, just the way Jack was wired. Just the way Ianto had liked him. But this really wasn't the time. This was so not the time. Focus, she screamed in her head and Jack seemed to hear it because he straightened up again, his gaze clearing, his eyes holding Tom's.

'We're trying to get in there,' Jack indicated the lab complex, 'Don't suppose you know how?'

Tom hesitated, studying them both carefully. The shotgun wavered, the muzzle drooping slightly. 'Why?'

'You know what that place is?' Tom shrugged and Gwen decided to go for broke, 'That place is where all this horror started. That place is ground zero. No, worse than ground zero; it's Frankenstein's bloody Lab.'

'It's where they made the virus,' Jack said.

'Yeah, mate, I got that part.' Tom studied them for moments more. This could be some elaborate trap but he very much doubted it; these two had been arguing for months, if not longer. And he believed them, believed Gwen's anger and outrage, believed the cold steel in the bloke's eyes. It would explain a few things too, explain the SWAT team and the helicopters. Some sort of government facility. Maybe some big corporation that pushed its research too far. Made sense. And now they were covering their arses. And Abby was, as far as Tom could work out, the only one of them who had got sick and survived. No natural immunity, just a strong constitution, as his mother would have said. 'You serious?'

'You know we are,' Jack said.

The shotgun was up again and Jack had a moment of doubt, wondering if he'd misread the man's shifting expression. 'You two are pros, ain't you? Not coppers,' he turned to Jack, 'well, not you. You,' to Gwen, 'I'm not so sure about. Anyway. You've got something about you and I might need that.' The muzzle indicated a half-hidden path leading away from the clearing, 'Come on. Nice and easy, let's go for a walk.'


Ruby slumped down in the front seat of the car. The upside of all this was that she'd finally learned to drive. Cool. Of course, Mina's limo had had to go; way too much of a gas-guzzler. They were in a clapped-out old fiesta now. Oh the glamour.

Mina slept in the back seat, curled up like a cub in a den. The windows were carefully blacked out, protecting her from the sun's rays. Ruby shifted in her seat and stared down at the woman who had alternately saved and scared her for the past few months. Somehow their arrangement had worked. Mina had protected Ruby, kept her safe from the thugs who seemed to have survived in a far greater ratio than the decent human beings. Protected her from the half-lives who were having a field day out there, making the most of their newfound freedoms. And protected Ruby from Mina herself; leaving when the strain of fighting her own nature was too much, when the bloodlust grew too strong.

In return, Ruby had almost drained herself dry. She glanced down at her arm, partially exposed at the end of her cardigan. Her skin was laced with scars, her arm red and swollen. The other one was just as bad. They'd tried putting in a tap but Ruby had hated it so much that it had to come out. She just sliced her skin and watched the blood escaping her. Mina had watched too, at first. Then she'd stopped. Ruby had thought that she was having trouble holding back her desire for the liquid. Now she wondered; had Mina grown to care for her enough to be upset at the sight of the bleeding? Could a vampire grow to care about someone more than she had as a human?

Ruby shook the thoughts away - did it really matter? Ruby was weak and exhausted. She needed a few days off to let her body recover. Just her luck that they'd run out of idiot thugs for Mina to feed on when she needed it most.

They'd been trailing around the country, staying away from urban areas as much as they could but going anywhere that might have a blood bank. Hospitals at first, then labs; more chance of them having sufficient backup power to keep the blood cool and therefore clean. Bad blood did very bad things to Mina. They'd learned that the hard way. Ruby shivered at the memory.

But the supplies were running out. And so was Ruby. They'd heard stories, tales of some huge facility that was still open, still active. They'd followed the rumours and now they seemed to be close. The more Ruby heard, the less she liked the idea of going anywhere near the place but she couldn't deny that they needed to find it. A fresh supply of blood. Maybe even somewhere warm and clean to stay for a few days. A bath. Ruby would give what was left of her blood for a warm bath.

Mina stirred but dosed on. Ruby smiled, reaching back to pull the thin cover up to Mina's shoulder. She was one of a handful of survivors of a plaque that had all but wiped out the human race. She was traveling with a vampire. A vampire who she was carefully feeding almost every day. She was cold, weak and terrified. And trying to catch forty winks in an old Fiesta. This was not how Ruby had expected her life to turn out.

They were getting further away from their own car, further away from their kit. Gwen wasn't happy about that but Jack didn't seem to be bothered at all. He was just ambling along beside Tom. Jack was probably right, Gwen thought; she'd had a breakdown about a month ago. It had all been a bit much. She sniggered at the understatement and flashed an innocent look at the men when they stared back at her.

'She alright?'

Jack shrugged, 'Maybe. Yes. Well,' he shrugged again, 'she will be. We just need some sort of closure.'

'And that would be?'

'That lab, I want it gone. I want everyone in there dead.'

Tom slowed, staring at Jack in surprise. 'You're not kidding, are you? You want to, what, nuke the place?'

'Nuke would be good,' Jack said, still strolling along, 'Or otherwise blow up. I'm not fussy.'

'That's true,' Gwen said as she walked past Tom.

He jogged to catch up with them, pointing them in the right direction with the muzzle of his shotgun. These too were barking. A big Yank in an old RAF uniform and a Welsh woman who kept laughing to herself. He should have shot the both of them when he had the chance. But now he was intrigued - now he believed them. The big Yank meant it about that Lab.

'You can't blow it up, nukes or not. I won't let you.'

Jack stopped on the spot, turning to cast a deadly gaze at Tom. He squared his shoulders and stared right back.

'Why not?' Gwen said, ignoring the posturing, 'Just why are you here?'

'They took my friend. Abby. A SWAT team, black kit, big guns, the lot. They drove up in a van and took her. I wasn't there,' he hesitated, angry with himself, 'and the others couldn't stop them.'

'Others?'

'Yeah, there's a few of us. I should kill you both now; you know too much.'

'Then why don't you?' Gwen said.

Tom looked at her, 'Because you might be a nutter and he might be a queer but I reckon you know what you're doing. You help me get Abby out of there and I'll help you blow the place sky high.'

'Sounds like a deal,' Jack said and off he went again.