The song was a numb weight at the back of his mind that he couldn't fight through. His heart ached at leaving Ianto behind, but he knew it was the right thing to do, somehow. Andrea guided him on, and it was easy to follow her down through the dunes to the cliffs, where a dark cave descended steeply into a network of tunnels.
She released his hand when they got into the caves and started scampering ahead, going on all fours for balance. The caves were dry but the walls were sticky to the touch, and Jack could feel things knocking against his feet. He drew his hand back and reached for his torch, finding it gone. "Andrea?" he called out. "Andrea, where are you?"
Her laugh echoed around him and re realised dully that he was in a lot of trouble. "Silly Jack," she called. "Tunnel goes through, but do you?"
Fear gripped him, and he stumbled sideways until he felt the wall. He was so disoriented that he couldn't have said which way was forwards and which back, so he stayed rooted where it was. "Andrea, this isn't funny."
She laughed again and he stumbled towards where he thought the sound came from. His feet knocked against more objects on the floor and he kept his gaze straight ahead, determined not to look down even though it was pitch dark. Something slithered behind him and he stumbled on faster, keeping one hand on the wall. He moved faster and faster, away from the slithering, clicking creature, gasping in the dry, cloying air. The sound grew closer, he stumbled, and then he ran into something solid and sticky that flexed when he pushed against it. He yelled out and dragged against the stickiness to get to his knife. It gave way when he ripped at it, but his movement was too limited.
"Caught in the web," Serki crowed. "Silly Jack."
He growled and pushed forwards faster, towards the voice. Andrea's innocent tones were gone, replaced with Serki's cold, calculating sneer. It made it easier to get angry, to push his way through, break through the clinging strands and lunge towards him. His bag got caught, and he paused just long enough to grab a handful of glow sticks from the front pocket and snap them. A hulking shape like a giant worm shied back from the glowing brightness and fled into the tunnels, and Jack saw Serki running away and gave chase.
The tunnels opened up into a sandy cave, where the coloured light from the glow sticks glinted off the silicone in the sand and was reflected and magnified. Three tunnels led off it into the darkness, forcing him to pause and consider his options. Too late he heard the slithering behind him, and he turned just in time to see the huge bulk bearing down on him before he felt teeth dig into his neck and blackness take him.
# # #
Tosh soon found herself back on the front lines of the battle, in the first ring of defence. The outer walls were concrete, stone and steel so thick that nothing could get through it and the only weak point in the defences was the door, a deadlocked entrance with steel a foot thick. Despite its thickness, they could hear the army outside, and the whine of something cutting through the doorway. She shifted her grip on her gun and held it tighter, swallowing hard against the fear.
Hosni was next to her, and he nudged her gently. "You have not seen fight like this?"
"Not like this," she admitted. "Have you?"
He smiled grimly and settled down. "No."
The volume of the assault increased, and then they saw light through the door. It was just a splinter to begin with, so small that they only noticed it because their attentions were fixed on the door, but once it formed the light kept growing. Soon it had burned a large hole in the door, and they had pulled goggles over their eyes to protect them from the brightness. "Be ready to fall back," Hosni called out. "Do not get trapped in the first level."
Tosh glanced at him and returned his grim smile. The hole was now large enough that they could see the enemies in the space between the bright light that was eating away at the door, and all around her the soldiers raised their weapons. A moment later the first round smacked into the wall behind them, and the clatter of machine guns and the whine of energy weapons built into a roaring crescendo that drowned out the screams of the injured.
The door finally crumpled, pushed in by the weight of Okrani, both alive and dead. The dead were dropped where they fell and trampled under the feet of the flow of their companions, and more fell even as they came. There were a few energy weapons amongst them doing terrible damage, but most were armed with hand-to-hand weapons, rude swords and long, heavy poles.
Beyond them, through the narrow doorway, she spotted the huge numbers pressing behind them. From the cries around her she knew that the others had seen them too.
# # #
Ianto found Jack's bag caught in the remains of a web that had stretched across the corridor. The ends of the web were cut roughly, and the knife that had done it lay not far from it, sand sticking to the traces of the web still clinging to it. He shouldered the bag, along with his own, and bent to pick up the knife. Jack's footprints were clear in his torchlight, scuffing through the sand. There was a slithering sound ahead, and Ianto pressed on to find it. It wasn't Jack, but it might have hurt him.
He burst out into a cave to find a huge, pale bulk in the centre of the space. It shrieked and rolled away from the light, fleeing into one of the tunnels when he brandished the torch and his stun-gun at it.
Jack was stretched out on the floor with a handful of glow sticks scattered in front of him. He was still warm to the touch, but Ianto couldn't find a pulse and there was no response to his touch.
"I'm sorry, Jack." He rubbed at his face and brushed his thumb against Jack's cheek. It was sticky from the web and grimy, and Ianto gathered him up awkwardly. "I'll stay."
Jack's body was cooling in his arms when he heard the sound of approaching feet. He raised his head tiredly and waited until he heard voices, the harsh tones of the Okrani, and he had to scramble to collect their things together and hide. "I'm sorry," he whispered, pressing his lips against Jack's briefly. "I won't go far."
There was a crevice in the wall of one of the tunnels, so he pushed the bags in there first and then squashed himself in after them. The Okrani approached down another tunnel and gathered around Jack's prone form, poking him with their feet and weapons. Ianto gritted his teeth and slipped the translator in, picking up halfway through their conversation. "The beast likes them fresh," one of the Okrani was saying. "It won't be far away. Must have disturbed it."
"Bring it," the largest ordered. "They will want to know how he came here."
Ianto gritted his teeth whilst he watched them bundle Jack up and carry him off, and waited until the light of their torches had faded away before he dragged himself out of his hiding place to follow them.
# # #
"Fall back!" Hosni screamed over the roar of battle. "Fall back!"
They started pulling back immediately, the retreat made easier by the fact that they'd been braced and prepared for it already. Most of the injured had already been pulled back and were being taken to the infirmaries, but the last were dragged back behind a last line of soldiers who sprayed the attacking hoards with gunfire.
Tosh made to join them, but felt a hand wrap around her arm. One of the young soldiers was shoved towards her, and she staggered under his weight. "Get him to the infirmary," Hosni told her. "And find the Doctor. This is no place for a woman."
She glared at him, but the soldier she was supporting was bleeding heavily and nearly unconscious. A movement behind Hosni caught her eye, and she whipped her gun up in time to bring the Okrani down with a single shot.
Hosni eyed her and the Okrani with admiration, then grabbed another soldier and shoved him towards her. "Help Tosh get everyone who needs to to the infirmary. We will hold the gate."
"Hosni..."
"Go." He shouldered his weapon and pointed down the corridor. "And seal the doors behind you."
She dragged her gaze away to the soldier she was supporting, and when she looked back Hosni was gone. "Let's go," she ordered. "You heard him."