A/N. Sorry it's been a while since i last updated, but i've had a lot on recently, life can be a pain sometimes lol. Hopefully updates will be slightly more frequent again now. :) Thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter and i hope you enjoy the new one.
Chapter 18.
Jack, Ianto and Jamie stood in the middle of the dogs surrounding them, none of them moving a muscle. The animals stayed just as still, almost as if they were waiting for a command.
'Any ideas on getting out of this would be appreciated,' said Jamie, 'I don't think I can stand here much longer.'
'We need to force the shifter into it's true form.' said Jack, 'That will break the link with the other dogs and give us something to shoot.'
'Problem is, we need it to attack before we can do that.' Ianto pointed out.
Jack looked around at the eight dogs that surrounded them. There was no fool proof way of telling which one was the shifter. 'I'm going to make them attack me.'
'What!'
'I'll make a run for it, then when they go for me, you can shoot the one that changes.'
'That's your solution for everything,' said Ianto. 'Throw yourself in harms way.'
'Better me than either of you two.'
Ianto rolled his eyes. It was typical of Jack to offer to sacrifice himself to save the others, but he never thought about the effect that had on the others. Ianto hated to see Jack die, even though he knew he came back, he had a deep fear that one day he wouldn't.
As they were working out what to do the dogs surrounding them had started to close in, almost as if they knew they were planning something. Jamie was the one to notice this as the others were talking. 'Er guys, did you ever consider that the shifter might be able to understand us?'
Jack and Ianto looked at the pack closing in, realisation dawning on them that they were going to all have to make a move. 'Ok' Jack whispered, his voice just audible in case the shifter could indeed understand them. 'On a count of three, tranquilise the nearest dog to you, then run in the direction the SUV as it's away from the building. Hopefully the shifter will show itself.' Jack looked round as the others nodded. 'Ready, 1...2...3!'
At the same time Ianto and Jamie fired their tranquiliser guns at the dogs in front of them, both of which instantly fell down where they were. They all started to run in the direction of the SUV with the animals following them. One of these animals though was faster than the others and lunged forward towards the three men. It propelled itself forward with such power it was obvious it was the shifter. First it aimed its leap at Jack, but he saw it and quickly managed to move out of its way. This did not stop it though, and it leapt again, this time at Ianto who was not quite as quick as Jack. The shifter, still in its animal form knocked him off his feet and he hit the ground with a thud. Jack ran over towards it and fired his gun, hitting it twice, but since it was not in its true form it was useless. He tried to get closer, but found himself surrounded by the other dogs. The shifter leapt at Ianto again who tried to roll out of its way, but did not get far enough and the shifter dug it's claws into his leg to stop him, causing Ianto to cry out with the pain. Jamie ran back and raised his gun and hit the shifter as hard as he could, as he knew firing at it would have no effect. This stunned the shifter enough that it let go of Ianto, but then turned its attention to Jamie. This time though before any of them could register what was happening it changed, becoming a blur as it moved at Jamie. Jack fired his gun in the air and the five dogs, now not under the control of the shifter ran away from him. Jack hurried over to where Ianto and Jamie were. Ianto was pulling himself up to his feet, he had dropped his tranquiliser gun and was pulling his other gun out of the waistband of his trousers.
Jamie took a moment to register what was happening before he saw a blur of shadow coming towards him. It flung itself at him and he fell back. He tried to raise his gun, but it was useless. The thing was starting to tear at him, he could feel something slash across his right shoulder. Then he heard the sound of gunfire, and all of a sudden there was a bright flash of light, and whatever had been on top of him was gone, all that was left was a fine dust. He lay there for a moment trying to get his breath back. He then heard Jacks voice above him. 'You ok?'
'I think so.' Jamie answered as he carefully got up, holding his shoulder as he did so. 'I'm just glad I'm left handed. You ok?'
'Fine, I think you were right about it understanding us.' Jack said. Jamie then noticed that Ianto was leaning on Jack for support.
'Ianto, you ok?.' Jamie asked, ignoring his own wound for a minute and going into doctor mode.
'It's just where it got me in the leg. It will be fine.' Ianto said, but he winced as he started to walk towards the SUV.
'Let me patch it up for now, I can do it properly back at the Hub.'
'What about your shoulder?' Ianto pointed to Jamies right side where blood was starting to seep through his shirt.
'I can patch that up best I can for now too.'
They all walked over to the SUV and Jamie got to work patching himself and Ianto up as best he could for now. Jack tried to contact Gwen over the comms, but she didn't answer. Jack had a bad feeling, there were many reasons Gwen might not have answered, she could have lost her comms, she might be in a situation that meant she had to keep quiet and couldn't answer or… He wouldn't allow himself to finish that thought.
'Right, we need to head over to town now and find Gwen and Molly. That is if you're both ok, I can go on my own.'
'No.' said Ianto, 'We're coming with you.'
All three men got into the SUV, Ianto and Jamie only just getting their seatbelts on in time before Jack hit the accelerator and started speeding towards town, where he hoped Gwen and Molly were both ok.
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Gwen and Molly reached the town centre fairly quickly, and found that the police had already cordoned off the area around the cinema. They got out of the car and Gwen went up to the officer in charge of the cordon. As soon as she said Torchwood, the officer rolled his eyes, but let them through. Gwen could see that there was quite an audience around the cordon, probably people that had been evacuated from the cinema. She groaned slightly though when she noticed that the press were there too. As Gwen walked towards the cinema, she could see her old partner Andy. She went straight up to him. 'What's going?'
'Gwen, what are you doing here. I doubt this is something for you to be concerned with, just some wild dogs running loose.' He said.
'You'd be surprised. Where are they?'
'In the cinema. Still not sure how they got in there, but they caused a right panic. We think there maybe some kids still stuck in there though.'
'And nobodies gone in to get them?' Gwen said incredulously.
'No, we're waiting for back up from the dog handlers, and some tranquiliser guns.'
'You have to let us in, we can stop them.'
Andy looked at her quizzically, but thought better of asking any more because he knew he'd never get a straight answer. He led Gwen and Molly over to the officer in charge. Gwen explained that they needed to go in, and after a few tense minutes of heated debate, she got her way.
Gwen and Molly were let into the cinema through it's main doors at the front. They walked slowly through the front area where the ticket desk and confection stands were. There was a lot of popcorn spilt over the floor from where people must have started running away from whatever was in there.
'So what's the plan?' asked Molly, when they were inside and away from anyone that could hear.
'A plan would suggest we were prepared', said Gwen. She then sighed. 'Ok, we need to find out if there are still people in the building and get them out as soon as possible. Hopefully before they see anything other than wild dogs, because there's a lot of people about and retconning all that lot is out of the question.'
'Well, if there are still people in here, they must be either in one of the screens already or somewhere near the back, that's why they never ran out with the others.'
'Lets go.'
Gwen and Molly walked silently up the short staircase that led them the corridor with all the screens leading off from it. After walking a few paces, Gwen held her hand up to Molly to stop her, and then put a finger to her lips. They both listened quietly as the muffled sound of crying reached them, mixed in with low growls. Gwen and Molly hurried around the corner and stopped dead at the sight that greeted them. Huddled outside one of the screen doors was a group of seven young looking girls, and penning them into the corner were six rather large dogs. Gwen and Molly both realised that this was going to be a lot harder than they anticipated.
