2
"Pardon?" Ianto looked up to see the man staring at him, and even in the darkness it was obvious he wasn't happy about Ianto ogling him.
"My name is Jack."
Feeling a little like a pervert, Ianto got up and sheepishly brushed away some of the straw clinging to his legs. He was half inclined to say sorry, but decided that would only make things more awkward.
"The last thing I remember is being in the park," he offered instead.
Jack nodded, as if Ianto's answer was as he expected. He shifted to the right, toward the corner of the room, checking the integrity of the wall as he moved.
"What time?"
Ianto followed, keeping him in sight. "I don't know. It wasn't too late, around ten I guess."
"You didn't see anyone, talk to anyone?" At the corner Jack started down the side wall. It was darker along there so Ianto hung back, keeping closer to the light.
"Only at the pub. I was supposed to meet some friends from work, but when they realized it was full of gay men, they left early."
Jack stopped and looked over his shoulder. In the shadows it was hard to see his expression. "Why didn't you leave?"
"Because it was full of gay men." Ianto lifted his chin as he said that.
He'd never hidden who he was, and he had no intention of starting. Not even when confronted by a guy with an attitude and the physical capability of flattening him.
Pride may be a bitch, but he'd earned it, and he wasn't giving it up easily. However, when Jack started back toward him, Ianto almost wished he'd kept his mouth shut.
"Were you propositioned? Did anyone buy you a drink or offer to go home with you?"
What was this, an interrogation or something? "Does it matter? That's not going to help us find a way out of here."
"We're not going to find a way out of here."
"What do you mean?"
"We won't find our way out because none of the other men did."
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Tosh looked up at the sound of the door scraping across the sandy floor.
For a split second she thought it might be Owen. She shifted her weight on the barstool and threw a quick smile at the two men who entered.
The smile faded fast. They were the ugliest dudes she'd ever seen and they moved…wrong. Leather criss-crossed their torsos over pasty gray skin.
Leather? Who wears leather in Cardiff? The hair at the back of her neck prickled, and she had an overwhelming urge to run.
They stood there and stared at her. She stared back.
"Hey Owen, we've got company" she called out.
Her voice startled them. Without taking their eyes off her, weird clicks and croaks came out of their bulbous lips.
What the hell?
Owen came out of the back room clutching a latex glove.
He froze as the two men came around the bar into full view.
No way.
The two had decidedly round torsos and were dressed identically.
Under the leather straps, a matching leather skirt fell just above the knee. Or where the knee should be. Instead, they had some sort of ball joint. Reality did a strange shift to the left when she noticed that below the joint were fleshy stumps, slightly padded on the bottom.
No feet. Her head spun. Handicapped?
She tried to figure the odds of two people having the same mutation when Suzie reached behind the bar, pulled out a gun, and fired.
One shot each, to the centre of their chest.
"Suzie!" She flew off her seat. "Oh my God, what did you do?"
"Get in the back, Tosh, now. Move!" Suzie shouted.
Tosh bolted the short distance around the bar.
The two guys lay on the floor but weren't dead. They oozed blue goo and stank like nothing she'd ever smelled before, a combination of skunk and sweetness.
Ewww.
They struggled to get up, screeching and clicking.
She backed away and Suzie shoved her through the door to the storeroom where Owen had bolted moments earlier. She stepped next to her and slapped the side of the doorframe. A faint click and the opening was gone, replaced by what looked to be solid metal.
"Holy shit, what just happened?" Tosh touched the cool metal surface.
She turned around, not sure where to go or what to do. The shelves were lined with bottles of liquor and bags of pretzels and peanuts. A small fan in the corner stirred the humid air.
"What happened to the door? Did you see the legs on those guys? They have no feet, Suzie. And those knees? And you shot them." She struggled to make sense of it all.
Suzie faced the far wall, hands flat on the wood panelling. Owen worked his hands up, then back down again along the surface.
Tosh frowned. "Owen?"
He continued his strange behaviour.
"What"—Tosh took a few steps forward—"are you doing?"
"Sorry Tosh, no time to explain. Those two are gonna be pissed. We need to get to the SUV. I don't think they can get in here, but I'm not hanging around to find out."
"Pissed? Guys, they're gonna be dead." She rubbed her face.
"We should try to call Jack again. Except, wait. You shot them for no reason. Oh, this is so not good. Those have to be some kind of prosthetic legs. Why'd you shoot them Suzie?" She kept replaying the scene over and over in her head.
Images flashed back and forth from the way the guys were shaped to the fact Suzie shot them. Oh my God. They bleed blue goo.
Nothing made sense.
"They're fine, Tosh, trust me. This is a normal gun. Won't do much but slow
'em down and piss 'em off."
"A normal gun? As opposed to what? An abnormal gun? Do you know those guys?" Tosh grabbed fists full of hair and pulled. The pain helped to clear her head.
"Not personally. But I know their kind. Not very bright but wicked strong."
"Their kind? Wait, are you saying they're ETs? In broad daylight?"
Suzie moved faster and cussed like a sailor as she slapped the wall harder. An opening appeared so fast she almost fell into the void.
"Gotcha," she said, and turned back to her.
"Oh, this just keeps getting better and better. Why don't I have my camera?"
She inched closer to the opening, craning her neck to get a better view.
Dim gray walls about twenty feet across with a fourteen-foot ceiling.
She took another step and peered around the corner. Light from the storeroom showed a large, slightly oval tunnel leading off to the right. Suzie stepped in and Tosh caught her sigh of relief as a row of lights came on overhead.
"Come on Tosh, follow Suzie" Owen promoted and she moved hesitantly after their second in command.
All they had while Jack was still MIA.
More rows switched on farther along the tunnel, one after another, until they curved up and out of sight.
"What is this? Their ship?"
Suzie motioned for her to follow.
She looked over her shoulder at the metal door. "So...long creepy tunnel or two creepy whatever they are back in the bar. Any other options?"
"Not unless you know how to fly this thing," Suzie replied. She nodded toward the tunnel while fiddling with her phone.
She was about to ask what Suzie was trying to do was when a muffled bang from the door made her jump.
"You sure this thing isn't going to close on me? Slice me in half?" Tosh whimpered as she slid through the large metal doors.
"No, but it might leave you behind if you don't get moving." Owen snarled up ahead.
Tosh scowled at her. "Excuse me, what happened to nice Owen?"
She held her breath and stepped into the tunnel.
"He's busy keeping us alive." Suzie slapped the side of the opening a few times before finding the right spot. She winced a little when the door flashed closed.
They moved further on and Tosh wondered again about the polite young man Jack had been watching at the bar.
They hadn't seen him either.
