53
Ianto was chewing aimlessly on a sandwich he didn't really want as he stalked the room they were currently in, the hover lifts in use as the huge Transport Hover Tank thing got slowly filled. He stood at a bank of screens watching things flitter past different cameras, canting his head as he surmised the distance between them and the group. So much free but they seemed OK for now if they could ….
"Cariad?"
"Yes Holdfast my love?" Jack replied as he wandered over with a bottle of water on offer.
"Do you see what I see?"
Jack frowned and Ianto tapped a screen, Jack leaning in and grunting then looking at his watch. "Weird."
"Hmmmm" Ianto checked Jack's watch, then the screen again as Jack swung and demanded everyone sound off on their clock times. Everyone said the same time. They had a good four hours left to forage and wander up to the top before Archie's system went into permanent lockdown.
Kev walked over as Jack swung back to the screen and asked "What's it?"
"The timer on this screen is different, the seconds are moving too fast. Look, if this is correct we don't have four hours at all. We are lucky to have two … looks like … shit." Ianto sighed "What do we believe? That it is just a faulty one?"
"Are there any others to check with?" Kev asked.
Jack walked over to a console and tapped in a code, then placed his wrist strap next to it "Archie, you there? Can you give us the countdown time now?"
The screens flickered at the AI used the last of its power to reply.
NINETY MINUTES TWENY THREE SECONDS
"Shit" Kev said calmly "Well … that tears it."
"Yeah" Ianto swung and clapped his hands "Come on kids, we are moving out."
"Why? Another Pennywise down here waiting to piss on our dreams?" Abner muttered. Randy started laughing softly as he sat watching the others, Abner not letting him join in now he was flagging. Definitely a concussion there.
"Well?" Sean asked.
"We are stepping it up as we do not trust the countdown clock." Ianto said "We are gonna err on the side of caution and get topside now."
Everyone started to pack things away, some still dragging a few things to the Transport Hover as Kitty muttered to Frank that she needed a turn on point. He snorted and told her no. She looked at him and was about to ask who made him god when she remembered some of the things she had seen and knew she didn't want to piss her pants either so she sighed theatrically and gave in.
They wandered towards the stairwell without much fanfare, everyone talking quietly as Ianto and Dean took point, Frank at the rear with Jack and as they stood with a look of confusion it was Ianto who sighed and tuned to them "What. You didn't think about all these stairs did you!"
"Shit. How do we get it up there?" Sean asked, Billy already moving his hover next to the large one and pushing an orange button that made it rise up so he could slide it on the back. Sean blinked, then looked at his own controls.
"Oh."
"Sean no!" Ianto barked as his brother pushed the button and Ianto swore savagely as he started to race up the stairs, Sean looking at everyone with confusion as Dean and Frank joined him, Jack leaping onto the slowly ascending Transport Hover to shove Sean aside and curse as well.
"It's on auto" Jack call out, "No bloody airbrakes!"
"What does that mean?" Abner asked.
"We don't stop until the top level where it will detect no more stairs" Billy sighed "See the sensors on each level as we pass it? It's reading them and Auto means all the way up without stopping, like an elevator looking for Ground Floor."
"And the problem is?" Sean asked with annoyance that turned to horror as something flew down past them from a couple of levels up then Ianto's faint roar of anger before a thudding of something tumbling down the stairs behind them.
"The problem is … Tad has not cleared the stairs. There could be anything we are about to pass that could leap in here and eat us" Billy said with syrupy sweetness. "We are on a dumb waiter!"
"Oh" Sean said in a small voce "Shit."
"Rule number one with alien tech" Jack snarled without looking away from the faint shadows above them that he knew was Ianto "Don't push the fucking buttons. Jesus, just ask Owen about that."
The noise above changed pitch and a scream had Jack leaping from the hover onto the nearest level to race upwards, his heart pounding in his chest as the bond thrummed with fear and pain.
Ianto.
Jack raced around the last stairwell to find Ianto locked in combat with a huge animal that was a cross between a grizzly bear and an armadillo, Frank nearby crouched over an unconscious Dean.
"The baby" Ianto panted "Jack! Help!"
Jack reacted without thinking, leaping at the thing as he screamed and it was only as it turned to face him that he saw the rows of teeth and knew he had misjudged. Ianto could only watch with horror as Jack lost a large chunk of his arm, screaming as he landed in a heap.
"Always up to me" Ianto sighed as he leapt.