It seemed a suitably cold day the next morning. The trio had all stayed around Rex's, Gwen on the sofa, with Alice and Rex in the bed. Rex hardly kept any blankets, let alone enough to keep everybody warm during the night, despite this, everyone seemed to sleep soundly, and they woke up refreshed to meet the same cold morning.
They ate breakfast together in silence, and drove all the way to the UNIT base in silence too. The area around the location was shrouded in woodland, and Rex took the opportunity to abandon the car they'd been travelling in, in a nearby ditch, obscuring it from any passing soldiers – at a glance anyway…
In something new to both Gwen and Rex, the group walked through the woods, catching mere glimpses of the base, until they stumbled across the entrance. Several guards stood patrolling with heavy machine guns strapped across their chests, pacing back and forth outside huge, imposing metal gates. Besides the gate was a check point office, becoming the office for another guard.
"Right, here we go then… Hope you're not having second thoughts," Rex whispered jokingly, not quite believing that he was just going to walk straight into a top secret Government organisation. He could never get out again. He could be stuck here, in Wales, for all of time under UNIT's lock and key.
"I've not given up yet," Alice jumped out from the trio's hiding spot, and strolled out towards the guards, hands in pockets. "Hello there!" She waved one-handedly towards the guards, who immediately readied their guns. "Me and my friends want to have a chat with the big boys." The soldiers laughed, and Gwen and Rex stumbled out of the woods to join Alice.
"They're just laughing at us, Alice!" Gwen and Rex whispered through gritted teeth.
Alice cleared her throat, "We are Gwen Cooper, Rex Matheson, and Alice Carter. Check your files and let us in."
The group were handcuffed and dragged through what seemed like mile after mile of corridors and top secret rooms. Rex and Gwen managed to walk in time with their captors, giving a harsh stare at every UNIT officer that passed. Wherever their current loyalties lied with Jack, Gwen and Rex weren't going to let Torchwood look like it was going down without a fight. Alice on the other hand allowed her body to go completely limp. Her feet and legs dragged alone the floor, getting caught under the soldiers' heavy boots. Her whole body acting as a dead weight under their hands, Alice even allowed her neck to simply loll from side to side. Nobody had a clue what she was doing, least of all Rex and Gwen.
Eventually the group were delivered to an almost separate unit of the building. The swish of an ID card opened a pair of solid metal doors. It changed the dark grey corridors into pristine white ones. UNIT officers became fewer and fewer, instead replaced by what looked like orderlies, dressed in white overalls, with matching doctors and nurses in white coats. The medical and science labs! Eventually the corridors turned into one open-plan, very large room, similar to the Rattigan Academy – the school for geniuses – Rex thought to himself. As a representative of the CIA, Rex had been invited to look through the facility a few years back, before its founder, Luke Rattigan – who made Rex angry just thinking about him – disappeared mysteriously after that whole… incident.
Desks and worktops were set out neatly around the perimeter of the room, with test tubes, chemicals, microscopes, and all kind of scientific equipment scattered across them. The scientists gathered around them seemed unfazed by the arrival of the group of prisoners, now kicked and scattered to the ground in the centre of the room.
"General Larrich will be here to see you." One of the guards securing the prisoners, remarked. "You shall act respectfully for a man of his authority. Is that understood?" He was clearly a very loyal soldier, probably up for promotion in a year or two, in fact the man had probably spent the majority of his life climbing his way through the ranks, believing totally and unwaveringly in the army, and in UNIT.
"And how are Torchwood doing this day?" The room seemed to fall into a stunned silence as the man, presumably General Larrich, entered from the far end, slowly strolling down the metal flight of stairs, followed by a line of UNIT soldiers. "Ladies and Gentlemen, if I could have all of your attention please." The man addressed the whole room, stood proudly halfway down the staircase, standing with his hands behind his back. His uniform was immaculate, and the man seemed highly decorated, earnt from years of service in UNIT. Years that had not taken him kindly, his stretched, sagging face seemed to be holding on only by the amount of Brylcreem scraping back his thinning blonde/grey hair. His whole face seemed to bulge out, and his cheeks were red with all those late nights guzzling down vintage wine. The man was probably only in his 40s or 50s, but his wrinkled features made him look more like 70. "The prisoners in front of you are Torchwood. Torchwood plus." There almost seemed to be an audible gasp. "The woman. The little girl." One of the guards holding onto Alice dragged her forward, she took a quick glance back to Gwen and Rex, the latter could see the worried look in her eyes, hidden from anyone else.
General Larrich continued his journey down the stairs, now walking towards Alice in the middle of the room. The dramatic tension he was leaving in the room was provoking wild thoughts to run through the viewers' heads, they'd become truly captivated by the man. On finally reaching the woman, he held out a hand, close to reaching under Alice's chin, but the repulsive man paused, continuing his speech instead. "The doctors would cry if I spoilt you. Everybody, the person who has just chosen to walk up to our doors is Alice Carter. Assuming you've all been keeping up with the files, I suggest you take this opportunity in regards to Jan."
"Don't call him that." Alice whispered through gritted teeth.
Larrich guffawed. "What did you say, little lady?!"
Alice stood. Or tried to. She scrambled onto one knee, before two guards grabbed onto both of her shoulders, pushing her down again, but Alice continued to answer back. "His name is not Jan. His name is Steven."
"Oh, you don't know, do you? We agreed to not go near you, Hal's family network spreads deep into UNIT, and he very much wanted a lady companion, and with him being such a great fan of Torchwood… you were the perfect match. You have been made safe all these years by your captor." He strained the last two syllables.
Alice spat in his face.
"You're a feral animal! You'd be kicked to the curb if it wasn't for those around you – your family."
"Take the Torchwood agents to the prisons, do whatever the doctors wish with Alice." Larrich went to turn away, but thought again, "I'm an old-fashioned man, so I'll grant you this, any last words?" The man smiled a sick smile.
The trio remained in a silent pact, and Larrich took one more dig towards Alice. "You're such a daddy's little girl… you all are." He beckoned for the guards to pick them up, ready to drag them off, never to be seen again. Maybe they should have gone in with a better plan, thought Rex.
But then… Rex felt the grip of the guard who had taken his 'cuffs start to loosen, and… reposition… no, it couldn't be... The guard fell to the ground, with the other that Rex had assigned to him falling too. The guards behind Larrich drew their guns.