35
Ianto walked out with wet hair, fresh from the shower. Jack was still in there, singing to himself as he re-cleaned himself after some …ah….decontamination.
"Hey" Ianto smiled as he saw the child hiding under a desk "Whatcha doing there mister? You know … that is no way to have fun. Not even a chair to swing in."
The boy clambered out, his little face lighting up as he ran to Ianto and as Ianto knelt to catch the little one alarms started sounding.
"Ianto?" Ifan said softly, looking at the security feed, everyone turning to see armed men swarming into the main foyer, weapons drawn. The shop didn't hesitate as it responded, display cases flipping to hide the merchandise, revealing weapons instead as those topside snatched their choice and began to run into the fray. London was under attack.
"Why aren't they shooting?" Tosh whispered with wide eyes, "Why are thy all fighting like that? They are going mad!"
Ianto had no answer as he glanced over at Jack then sighed, turning to hand the child to a surprised Gwen "Jack. With me. Eggsy, Gramps … hold the door."
Jack nodded and rose to follow Ianto as Toshiko made a noise and Ianto barked over his shoulder "Toshiko, shut off the fucking alarm. It's making it worse. Get into the security to close and lock what you can and see if you can find their coms feed while you are at it They are connected to someone, trace it."
Ianto walked with confidence towards the upper level and each time he got out to the elevator to check a floor he seemed to be moving slower and slower until they reached the ground floor and instead of opening the doors he hit the stop button, standing there pensively chewing the side of his cheek as he glared at his reflection in the doors.
"Ianto?"
"OK. Random thought. They let us take him. It was too easy, I said so at the time right? Too fucking easy. Yes?"
"Yes. But we checked him for any tracking devices, anything that …. Shit. It was not to get him in here … it was to get you out there? To see who to target in the open?" Jack looked at Ianto with horror "They injected you … with a tracker instead."
"Yeah. We were so focused on the boy … FUCK!" Ianto moved from foot to foot. "No. Could be wrong. Could be speculation. Too easy. Too fucking easy. Easy is never good."
"Right. So … how do we know for sure? If it's not been detected by the security grid that should have picked it up?" Jack asked.
"Because… it's not there anymore? Maybe not injected into me but a patch in my clothes or something, we were so focused on the injection site we never checked for anything anywhere else" Ianto suggested "We rushed here so fast … my jacket. Fuck. Where is it? Still in the boot of the car? In the car park? In this facility?"
"Fuck" Jack sighed "They tracked us here … yeah. Makes sense."
"OK. Right. Scenarios. We…we… shit." Ianto sighed and tapped his ear "Toshiko, are you listneing to us?"
"Yes Ianto, you're on screen too. We see what you see. We recommend proceeding with caution. You can speculate all day but it will not keep whatever is happening paused in the meantime."
"Agreed blossom" Ianto blew air though his teeth as he considered then nodded and Jack opened the doors.
Ifan leaned forward in the wheelchair to watch the screen as the image panned left and then right, Jack brushing past with a confident stance, Webley raised as he slid around the corner into the main foyer. Then lowered the weapon looking back at Ianto with confusion.
"Look. All dead. I don't' get it Tiger. Why send in only six? That's not their MO. Why only six, kill everyone .. sacrifice themselves… for what?" Jack asked with wonder as they picked their way over the bodies to look around the store.
The images on the screen were horrific, some had not died easily and more than one seemed to be in pain in their final moments. As the image panned left Owen made a small noise then called out "Ianto look to your right again?"
The image panned right Owen shouted "There. There. His hand is moving. Look, he's not dead."
Jack appeared on the screen, kneeling and reaching out to touch the soldier that was down but Ianto's hand shot out to grab his wrist.
"Cariad. I want you to stand…slowly. We are going to slowly and quietly walk backward towards the elevator, OK?" Ianto whispered softly, like he was asking a child to go to bed "Come on now. Move with me. Quietly … slowly…"
The hand twitched again, Owen now closer to the screen as he tried to work out why they were leaving the injured man, not helping him and his mind caught up to Ianto moments before the man on the floor sat up.
"RUN!" he screamed "Run for fucksake, it's coming"
The thing rose and snarled, a deep rumbling hiss as it erupted from the still stance, flying across the room and Jack yelled with horror as he reached the doors and lunged back for Ianto who never turned as he maintained eye contact with the thing, even as Jack seized his shirt and yanked him into the elevator, the thing now so close they could see the bullet hole in its chest.
Jack hammered his hand on the CLOSE DOOR button as Ianto seemed to be trying to close the doors manually.
It was almost there as it's tongue fell to the floor, the champing to its teeth citing through it finally.
Gods.
It was a Zombie.
The virus was here.
