6
Ianto comes around a corner and drives his boat up to the church. The water is swirling quietly, still a good three feet below the top of the wall.
The lighted "Welcome to Devil's Pit" sign out by the main road starts to flicker. There's a rushing sound and a two-foot-high wall of water hits the sign. The lights explode in geysers of sparks and the water rushes on.
The Sheriff and Andy are racing through a grove of half-submerged trees. There's a rushing sound above the sound of the engines. WHAM! and they're hit by the wall of water. Andy falls out of his boat and is lost in the swirling water.
Meryl and his men are motoring down an alleyway when...the wall of water rushes down the alley. The water hits Dean hard, knocking him off the jet-ski. He's swept away by the water.
The surge water shoots through a wire fence. And suddenly there's...Dean slammed up against the fence, pinned to it, water rushing over and around and by him. He yells as the wire cuts into him.
Ianto is at the church pouring gasoline into the pumps. He hears the rushing and looks up as the surge hits. Water shoots over the top.
In the Sheriff Station Jack hears the sound and opens his eyes - what the hell is that? The wall of water slams in hard outside, cascading over the sandbag wall.
Jack sits up and swings his feet over the side of the cot, looks donw with horror. There's two feet of water in the station.
The building is like a rock in a stream, with the water rushing up high against one wall, roiling and swirling around the sides.
Jack looks over, stunned, to see... THE DOOR as a fine stream spits in through the keyhole.
The windows are heaving as the water rises up against them.
Gets to his feet, woozy and goes to get out of the cell. He remembers - uh-oh: the cell door is locked.
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Meryl pulls Dean, coughing, choking, bleeding, into the ski-boat.
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In the station the water level inside is rising fast. It hits the wall sockets and there's a spit of sparks, then all the desk lamps go dark. Light still comes from overhead fluorescent panels.
Jack sees two keys on a key ring laying on the Sheriff's wooden desk. They're four feet away - too far to reach.
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Ianto suddenly has a horrible thought and stops. He shakes it off - doesn't want to think about it - and mutters to himself. "They'll get him out."
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Gwen is clinging to the statue as the water surges by below her.
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Andy gets back into his boat. The Sheriff realizes something.
"Andy... You locked him in."
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Jack looks through the cell bars at wooden chairs bobbing in the water. The Sheriff's desk lifts up, starts floating. Jack gets an idea. He takes his belt off.
Outside a telephone pole is half-submerged, being pulled along fast by the current.
Jack holds one end of the belt and tosses the rest of it at the desk bobbing in the rising water. He misses the keys.
Jack tries again. The belt lands on the desk top.
Jack very gently starts pulling. Too hard; the belt starts slipping off the desk. He gets it just right and the desk starts moving toward Jack. He reaches out with his hand, stretching.
His fingers touch the top of the desk, start pulling it toward him, and he just gets a firm grip on the desk when...the telephone pole smashes into a window, bending in the bars on the window, shattering the glass, letting a torrent of water into the room.
The desk is moved by the rush of water, but not before Jack grabs the keys and grips them tight. He tries the keys in the lock. They don't fit. He looks at them.
The tag is emblazoned with the Ford logo.
"Great! I can drive out of here!"Jack tosses the keys into the water and looks around at the water level rising very fast. A foot in ten seconds.
He climbs up the cell bars, the water rising with him. He's running out of room between himself and the ceiling. Three feet. Two feet. He's being pushed up by the water toward the fluorescent light fixture on the ceiling, caged in a wire cover.
He is terrified, about to die. The water rises up past his face.
Jack's hands pull his Maglite flashlight from his belt. He takes off the lens and the battery cap, then shakes the batteries out. Sticks the flashlight tube up through the wire grate over the light fixture.
He blows out the water - like clearing a snorkel - then breathes. Reprieve for a few moments and then... the water reaches the top of the flashlight tube and starts to trickle in when the light goes dark. In the darkness, there's the sound of tubes breaking and metal being wrenched.
Looks up, astonished, to see...the fixture being lifted up and away from above. Streetlight comes in, silhouetting...a figure standing on the roof. The figure leans down and starts tugging at the wire cage over the inside of the fixture. In the light, Jack sees that it's Ianto and he's pulling as hard as he can, but the wire cage isn't budging. He pulls out a Swiss Army knife, unfolds a small knife and starts taking out the screws holding the cage in place. He gets two screws out.
Jack pulls on the cage and it swings down. He climbs up it.
Jack surfaces in a hole in the roof. There's a vent duct lying on the roof - Ianto must've kicked that over to get to the light fixture. Ianto helps Jack up. Ianto sits and Jack lays down on the roof, catching his breath.
"Thank you."
"I owed you - for hitting you and all. But we're even now, okay?" Ianto shrugs.
"Even." Jack chokes then after a beat, looks around "What happened?"
"I don't know."
They get up.
"Maybe another levee broke upriver. They've been …" Ianto says but is cit off a just then...A propane tank explodes. The fireball rips across the dark sky, illuminating everything, showing...Fifty feet away - Meryl, Mr. Mehlor and Dean in the ski-boat and Eugene on the jet-ski - guns aimed at Jack and Ianto.
"Oh, God." Jack groans.
Darkness as the lightning passes, and in the darkness, the thunder rolls.
Meryl and his men switch on their lights and move forward. They pass cars floating down the street with other debris. The cars have been damaged by the flood - one is missing a door.
When they get closer to the Sheriff's station, what they see …or don't see … makes them stop.
Jack and Ianto have disappeared. Ianto's boat is still moored to the Sheriff's station roof, empty.
Meryl shouts "They're in the water! Eugene, cut your engine!"
Eugene shuts off the engine of the one remaining jet-ski. Meryl shuts down the boat engine. They float in silence, scanning the water with their flashlights. There's no sign of Jack and Ianto.
Underwater, Jack motions Ianto to follow him. He is freaked and hesitates. Jack grabs his hand and pulls him.
The ski-boat and jet-ski are right above them, flashlights playing over the water.
Meryl and his men reach the roof of the Sheriff's station. Meryl looks around. "Eugene, go that way. We'll go down here."
Eugene and Meryl head off in different directions.
Jack and Ianto rise into view in a car. They gasp for air and keep low.
"Tell them where the money is." Ianto hisses.
"I can't."
"Well, I can." Ianto is about to call out. Jack grabs his hard.
"If they know where the money is, they will kill us."
Before Ianto can say anything, a flashlight beam comes swinging toward them and they have to duck underwater. Watches as his flashlight beam washes over the car. Nothing there. He guns his engine and heads off down the street.
The car floats off around a corner. Jack and Ianto surface inside the car, catch their breath. Quiet for a few moments as they both look around to see that Meryl and his men are gone.
"So what do we do?" Ianto is calm at least.
"I guess just drive around until we run out of gas." Jack quips grabbing the steering wheel.
Ianto is pissed now "Look, I've spent the last eight months of my life restoring that church and I just left it to come save your arse, so spare me, okay?"
"When we get down here a little further we'll find a place for you to hide. I'm gonna get back to the truck and wait for the National Guard." Jack soothes as he checks his watch "They should be there pretty soon."
Ianto nods. Jack looks at him. He's shivering.
"Cold?"
"No, I'm fine. The heater just kicked in."
Jack looks at him, gives a little grin. Their eyes meet for a second, and then they look away.
God, and that accent?
