13
An hour earlier …
Jack walked confidently down the street calling out and sweeping with his gun but the place seemed silent. He knew it wasn't, Ianto knew it wasn't but they couldn't work out why it was so silent with not a single Z.
"Hello" a woman said calmly "I'm Casey, who are you?"
Ianto was sliding along the shadows under a shop awning that had partially collapsed so Jack smiled warmly "I'm Jack. Nice place ya got here. Quiet. I like quiet."
"Me too" Casey smiled back.
"So … just you?" Jack tried and the fact she didn't' flinch as she nodded told him she had done this song and dance many times before … and was not to be trusted. Not one fucking bit. He let his eyes scan the area and picked up telltale signs of cleaning. Scuff marks, drag lines where bodies were clearly being taken told him something he didn't want at all. They were organised. They were many.
Jack made sure he didn't look in Ianto's' direction as he told him this, Ianto's growl of response full of anger and Jack knew Ianto had detected something he didn't want to share. What could that possibly be?
Finally Jack got it and balked, looking around for the Zs that were slowly closing in but stopping as if a barrier kept them there.
"Don't tell me … electric fences?" Jack said as he took it all in "You take them down when you have company but you've worked out that they have some form of latent memory and stop before they reach them. Well done."
Casey smiled as she nodded, obviously surprised that Jack got it so fast and she did not notice the huge black shadow moving past them into the township as Ianto decided to see what she was the gate keeper of.
Now, he wished he hadn't.
There was like …a moat. But instead of water there were Zs. All shapes and sizes, all ages if ya know what I mean. Like … some were really ripe, others fresh. The fresh ones didn't seem to happy either, their knowledge of electric fences keeping them in one area and clearly they could not scavenge so to Ianto's horror it was clear that they had started to turn on the fresh Zs, every now and then taking one down. Also … there was signs of remains that appeared still human like this was a sacrificial chamber or … a garbage disposal?
Shit.
Jack was about to say something to Casey that was both clever and witty when the gunshot rang out and her head jerked as if thumped in the head, falling to the ground as Jack ran for cover. Seems Casey and her merry band were not the only ones in town and the others wanted to speak up too.
Jack glanced back at the railway station, knowing the school was likely getting ransacked and he knew he had to keep the two factions in this area so they didn't realise he, like them, were more than they were letting on.
Ianto knew this too, his horror giving way to anger as he saw that some of the turns were children, some fresh ones being devoured as they were weaker. This also means there were children in the inner sanctum right?
A nest within a nest?
Freaky.
He knew Jack was radioing back as he told them there was another group of survivalists within the town and they were to stay out, he also knew his children had heard his anger and were coming. He sent them orders to clear the path to Tommy, get their people back there, protect and regroup.
For some reason Hope was ignoring him and he knew she was curious but she knew better. He had raised her better, trained her better and he sent a reprimand that had Jack wincing with the fury of it, shaking his head as he moved towards his mate.
A nest … a big arsed nest and he wished Marley were here, could go in and check it out bit here we are. No Marley and a Wolfing that really needs to get off some nervous steam. If this was the first stop .. what the hell was the rest of the world like?