Doomsday: Post Apocalypse
a Torchwood story
by RoadrunnerGER
Dislaimer: Oh, really! They're the BBC's.
Summary: Ianto comes to Cardiff for a week to help with the archives, but is it as simple as that? Jack/OC, Jack?Ianto
Suspense/hurt/comfort – T – Ianto Jones & Jack Harkness
A/N: This chapter turned out to be stubborn, but I think it works now. Merry Christmas!
Chapter 18
Ianto saw Jack and Owen stop and how they stared at whatever was hidden from his sight by the containers. All he could make out was the shine of the fire and a knot tightened in his stomach. There had been a fire on the storey where he had been trapped in the conversion unit. He only realized it when it died and never knew what the source had been, but this fire now still reminded him vividly and anxiety put him on edge.
"Ianto?" Toshiko's voice startled him out of his thoughts. "Are you all right?"
"Yeah," he lied and got out of the SUV to get in to the back seat instead. "Show me what I'll need."
In this situation Ianto could not pay much attention to the customised interior of this beast of a car, with its computers and tracking devices, but he still acknowledged how impressive it was, "This is brilliant. Did you build it?"
"No," Toshiko shook her head. "Here, this is giving you an overview of the area and here you can patch into the CCTV system…" Trailing off she pulled up a camera view. The sight made both of them gasp.
xXx
"Jack? What the bloody hell is that?" Owen barked, using anger to force the fear out of his voice.
"I've got no idea," Jack admitted.
A few yards ahead was one of the whirlwinds, twisting above a heap on the ground that was hardly recognizable as a body. What made it so terrifying was the fact that it was clearly visible due to the flames raging inside it. Obviously the fire was consuming or rather feeding off the body.
With a clearly audible rush the flames were blazing up and the fire twister was moving in their direction.
"Whoa!" Jack shouted and pushed Owen aside, offering himself as the better target.
The medic pulled out his gun and aimed at the fire devil, wondering at the same time what he was doing. Jack glanced at him incredulously before he focused on the fiery whirlwind again.
"Am I mistaken or is it slowing down?" Owen asked, sounding slightly high-pitched.
"Can't tell."
Jack really was not sure. He could not do more than watch. He racked his mind, trying to remember any occasion where they had been confronted with something like this, but it was fruitless. The being or creature or however you wanted to call it was unknown to him and he still did not know how they could possibly destroy or even contain it.
"Where's the other?" Owen wanted to know. "Can you see it anywhere?"
"No…" Jack replied, slowly backing off. "Isn't this one exciting enough for you?"
"Well…" As Jack gestured him to step further aside Owen retreated away from him. "What the hell are you doing?"
Jack shrugged.
"No, seriously, Jack. Do you plan to achieve anything?"
"That it comes after me and not you?" Jack suggested. "Can you see something organic? I'd love to try something."
"Um…" In search for anything that fit Jack's request Owen turned away.
Jack on the other hand kept watching the fire devil. It swayed to the left, then to the right, slowly moving toward him. If he was not mistaken the flames were not as high as before. The rotation seemed to have slowed as well.
"I don't have anything organic!" Owen spat. "If you've told me earlier I could've taken one of the bodies with me!"
"Not funny, Owen."
"Not meant to be…" As he spoke his gaze fell on a scrap of wood from a broken crate. He rushed over, picked it up and threw it toward the whirlwind that was barely visible by now. The flames roared and flared up, quickly burning the board crisp. The rotation accelerated and a moment later the twister moved toward Jack again.
"It really feeds off it," Owen murmured. "Bugger! What are we doing with it?"
"Not let it get anywhere close to other people," Jack replied.
"Oh, great. And if it converts back to a simple whirlwind? It could go anywhere."
"I know!" Jack shouted, just as he felt his greatcoat sweeping up in a breeze. "Get out!" he managed to yell before the twister wrapped around him.
xXx
In the SUV Ianto and Toshiko listened to the others over their earpieces. Combined with the CCTV feed they got a pretty good picture of what was going on. On the second monitor Toshiko followed the motions of the winds using her tracking program for weather anomalies.
"The second one must've turned back to its wind form," she murmured, seeing the second red dot vanish. "I can't follow it…"
"I know!" Jack just shouted.
Ianto flinched in his seat as he saw how the coat was swept up, realizing in the same second that the winds attacked Jack again which was even more terrifying now that they knew that those things could burn.
"Oh, my God!" Toshiko gasped. "Jack!"
"Climb up onto something!" Ianto called out. "Did you hear me?"
Instead he had to watch how Owen darted toward Jack. What was the sense in that action? The medic jumped against the captain and threw him to the ground, out of the twister's hold. They both gasped for breath.
"That won't work for long," Ianto grunted. "Get up and move!" He did not remember when he had looked up tornadoes, but falling back on the extensive knowledge his mind collected whenever he read he recalled that there was a big difference between the mesocyclones that developed out of a supercell thunderstorm and their relatives, the whirlwinds.
"What good does it make to climb things?" Owen snorted. "They're winds!"
"Whirlwinds, to be exact," Ianto told him brusquely. "They appear to be kin to dust devils… aren't you moving yet? In dust devils the forward momentum usually is produced by the spinning effect of the rising warm air, along with surface friction. It's able to sustain itself by moving over nearby sources of hot surface air. The point is, they need flat surfaces."
"He sounds like an encyclopaedia again," Owen snickered.
Grunting with annoyance, Ianto watched the other men climb up the ladder on a container. The alien dust devil that now was clearly visible because of particles being caught up in the vortex, slowly followed them and stopped at the bottom of the metal container.
"So far so good," Jack said. "And now?"
"Now we need to starve it," Ianto told him matter of factly.
"And how are we going to do that?" Owen snarled.
"First you need to feed them in order to keep them where they are," Ianto explained. "Then, can you see a refrigerated truck or container from up there?"
"Not yet," Jack replied. "What's your plan?"
"Do you see something you could feed them with?"
"Some crates."
"Try and see if they take them," Ianto told him. "Tosh, can you find out if there's food in one of those containers?"
"Sure," she nodded and hacked into the dock's storage and loading system.
"Will you tell us what you're up to?" Jack prodded. Ianto watched on the screen how he jumped onto another container from where he climbed down to get to the crates. There also were giant wooden spools that cable came on.
"All right. Let's try it," the captain said, took one of those spools, and rolled it toward the two whirlwinds that twisted in front of the container where Owen still stood on top.
Neither of them seemed to be interested which left the team thinking again.
"The warmth," Ianto called out. "It was relatively warm for April during the day. That's why they could move through the city!"
"Right!" Owen agreed. "Jack, do you have a lighter?"
Being caught on the wrong foot the captain patted the pockets of his coat and waistcoat. The team heard him snort his relief when he pulled out a couple of matches.
"Hope this works," he murmured as he lit a match close to a small patch of grass growing between the pavement stones. As it kindled he stomped onto a wooden palette to break off a board that he held into the small flames. When it started to burn he shoved it over toward the whirlwinds.
Sensing the heat, they turned to the burning wood. As soon as they came into touch with it, they lit up, flames blazing up inside the vortexes.
"Yes!" Jack called out.
"Okay… so that worked out," Ianto mused aloud. "Let's hope they're similar enough to dust devils." A bit louder he added, "Keep feeding them! We're looking for a way to direct them!"
"All right," Owen replied and went over to where Jack had jumped to the other container but turned in another direction next.
"Whoa!" Jack shouted.
The dust devils had turned to the wooden spool. Fuelled with heat by the board they had consumed, they lit the spool themselves and were feeding off its wood now.
"You better hurry!" Jack commanded.
"Ianto, I found a refrigerated container," Owen cut in. "What now?"
"Open it. We need to lead the dust devils there."
"Ianto, will you finally tell us what your plan is?" Jack kept prodding.
"Well, our aliens are gaseous and show similarities to whirlwinds. In order to burn they need heat and oxygen. When the air cooled in the evening they needed to find food so to speak. In lack of other organic material they turned to the human body."
"Killing him like they tried to kill me," Jack threw in.
"Other than mesocyclones that form out of the clouds of a thunderstorm dust devils need a flat terrain and a swirling updraft under sunny conditions…"
"Then why are those things still moving?" Owen demanded to know.
"I can only assume that they're still moving because they're some sort of alien life form that can preserve or create the conditions they need up to a certain degree," Ianto told him flatly.
"They're flaring up quite a bit!" Jack cut in. "Whatever you're up to… get it done quickly!"
"Feed them less," Ianto replied.
"Whoaaa!"
Jack's cry made Ianto look at the screen again where he saw one of the twisters which flame filled funnel now was about four yards high leave the burning spool to move toward Jack.
At the same time they heard Owen laugh.
"You know what's in the huge fridge?" he chuckled. "Naked sheep."
"Huh?"
"Meat. Lots of meat."
"Great," Ianto said. "Put some on the floor."
"Okay."
"Ianto?!" Jack shouted. "They're chasing me!"
"Don't ruin the coat, sir," Ianto told him matter of factly.
"Thanks for your compassion!" the captain yelled with clear anxiety. "Anything new on the plan?"
"Working on it, sir!"
"Ianto, over there," Toshiko threw in, pointing at her screen . "That container's loaded with oranges."
"Oranges?" he queried. "Perfect! Orange peels are just full of highly flammable oils! The dust devils will love them!"
"Okay, let's go get them."
"Hurry up!" Jack shouted.
Toshiko was hardly out of the SUV when she started to run down the alley between the containers. For a fleeting second, Ianto wondered how she got so far ahead so suddenly. It took him an effort to catch up to her. At the right container, they struggled with opening the heavy doors. Once they got inside, they found bins of oranges.
"Quite a lot of ammunition," Ianto smirked. "Let's lay a track."
"I hope it works," she replied. "But we'll need a handcart or something. Those bins are way too big for us to move them. Ianto?"
"Searching!"
No cart or barrow was in striking distance.
"Bugger!"
"Your jacket!" Ianto suggested and pulled off his own jacket to gather oranges in it.
With their makeshift bags, they left the container in search for the fire devils.
"Jack? Where are you?" Toshiko shouted.
"Here!" Jack replied. "Wherever here is!"
"Well, where is it?" Ianto queried, looking around in search of the shine of fire.
"Where are you?"
"Right in front of you!" Ianto called out breathlessly from running as well as with awe. Seeing Jack skid around a corner and starting to run toward him, the two fire devils right on his track and the coat billowing around him, was a magnificent sight.
"Just noticed!"
"Okay, Tosh!" Ianto shouted. "Let's lead them to the fridge!"
Dropping the oranges at regular intervals, Toshiko and Ianto laid a track down the alley. When they reached another corner, the fire devils had just reached the first fruits and the flames flared up anew. The agents could hear the fizzling when the fire devils fed off the fresh and moist oranges.
Jack sidestepped to get away from the fire devils and thankfully they lost their interest in him.
"Quick, Tosh!" Ianto urged.
"I've got to get more ammunition!"
"Good that you have me then," Owen cut in who dragged a sack behind him. Ripping one of the corners open, the medic started for the refrigerated container again. The oranges rolled out when the sack brushed over the rough asphalt.
"We'll get more, just in case!" Ianto told the others and ran back to the container, Toshiko right behind him.
Jack ran to Owen instead, grabbing for the sack.
"Let me do that!" he commanded. "Let go, Owen! Help Tosh and Ianto!" Yanking the sack away from Owen, Jack pushed the medic aside. "Now!"
Owen backed off and went after his team mates.
"Oh, dear," Jack gasped. The fire devils were catching up quickly. Their flame filled funnels reached up high again and the rotation was causing a swirling noise that sent chills down Jack's spine.
"Hurry up!" the captain shouted, but he knew that the others could not be back quick enough. Looking over his shoulder, he saw that the giant fridge was only about forty yards away. "Shit."
The sack was empty.
Dropping the useless thing, Jack braced himself.
"C'mon! I'm tasty!" he screamed at the fire devils. "Come and get me!"
By now the burning twisters were loaded with energy, consuming the fruits with increasing speed, and following Jack easily. At first, the captain retreated carefully to make sure that the fire devils stayed on his trail, but when they had burnt the last of the oranges they sped up, forcing Jack to run.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!"
Darting through the door, Jack slipped on the ground that was wet with melting ice. Falling, he skidded past a heap of frozen meat that Owen had piled up on the floor. Just when he bumped into the wall on the other end of the container, the fire devils merged to one. Jack's heart beat into his throat as he was facing another agonizing death. This time he could not talk himself out of it. This time they would recover his body, blackened and crisp, and take it back to the Hub where Owen would want to do an autopsy. He shivered and that was not due to the cold. Horrified he stared at the fiery twister that breezed through the door.
xXx
"Jack!" Toshiko screamed with horror.
Helplessly the team had to watch how Jack ran into the refrigerated container and the fire devil followed him.
"Oh, my God," Owen gasped, dropping the oranges he carried in his jacket now as well.
Ianto did not want to watch but could not tear his eyes off the scene. He knew what would happen if the fiery twister fed off Jack and he did not want to imagine what it would take to revive from a death like that.
Right then, the fire devils merged and breezed through the door…
…and dissolved when it hit the icy cold surface.
Ianto gasped for breath.
Is it gone? Did we make it?
"Ianto?" he heard Jack call out over the earpiece. "I think it worked!"
Owen was confused. "Huh? That's it? It evaporated?"
"Yeah," Ianto confirmed. Actually he was very grateful that his theory led to the desired outcome. "The funnel collapsed when it sucked in the cold air."
"Simple physics, Owen," Toshiko smirked.
"Yeah, well, I'm a doctor, not a physicist," Owen grunted. "I favour autopsies."
"I'm not really sorry that you won't get a thing to cut open," Toshiko said. "Those whirlwinds were scary."
Together they went over to the refrigerated container to check on their captain. As they looked in they found Jack standing over the heap of meat, looking around the huge fridge.
"Do you think they're really gone?" Jack wanted to know. "Maybe they fell apart but will form anew."
"It didn't look like that," Toshiko mused aloud.
"Could you still keep the tracking program running?" Jack asked. "Just to be on the safe side."
"Sure," she assured him. "Well, guess it's time to clean up then."
"Yeah," Owen grunted. "Don't you just love it?"
"Quite a big mess they made," Ianto stated. "Are you all right, sir?"
"Yeah, thanks," Jack replied easily. "They couldn't get far enough in to reach me."
"Great," Ianto smirked. "It would've been a shame having to mend the coat again."
Readily the captain returned the smirk.
"We're lucky that the fire devils didn't attract so much attention," Jack said. "Owen, we need to identify the victim and fake an accident."
"All right."
"Ianto? Tosh needs to plant false reports and files with the computer. Could you help me with the actual cleanup? Sweeping up the ashes and so on."
With a sigh Ianto nodded. This would be a long night.
tbc…