26
They made their way downstairs and Christopher peered through the window, near the front door.
"I'll tell the others it's clear," said Ianto.
Christopher never responded and continued to look outside, almost as if he was hypnotised in some way.
Jack started to get a drink of water.
Ianto went into the kitchen and knocked the basement door. "You can come out."
The bolt slid open almost immediately, as if someone was standing behind it, waiting, and the first to come out was Stripy Steve.
"Thank goodness for that," he huffed. "My bladder's bursting."
"Well, hurry up," shouted James after Stripy Steve, who was now halfway up the stairs, heading for the bathroom. "I'm bursting as well."
Angela and Joan were next to come out and Ianto shut the door after them, then they headed for the living room.
"Did you check the whole house?" Rhiannon queried.
Ianto nodded. "Like I said before, we would have heard if any of those things had got in. I was gonna put the telly on, see what's happening."
Joan smiled. "Good idea."
"I'll get the tea on, lovey," said Angela, "then once we've had refreshments we should get back into the basement."
There was a sudden crash and both Angela and Joan gasped.
Two figures, dressed in green, crashed through the window of the front room and immediately went for the nearest people that were in there, James and Angela.
Both of them screamed as they were taken to the ground and mauled by the two possessed men dressed in black attire.
Ianto knew who they were immediately, and how they had become what they were. They must have been the bloody Unit following the SUV.
James was holding his arm out in defence, but it was being torn to shreds by one of the infested-looking men. Angela was bitten on the shoulder and was receiving more bites to the rest of her body.
The spiders hadn't arrived yet but the sound of water flowing made Ianto's hair stand up.
The screams shot fear through everyone else.
Some ran, others, like Ianto, were paralysed with fear.
The two things that had crashed through the window were on all fours, and stopped biting and chewing and devilishly glared at Christopher and Ianto with bloodshot eyes.
Christopher stood open-mouthed once his eyes took in the sight of James and Angela, especially Angela, lying on the floor, covered in blood, twitching.
The male owner of the establishment produced tears for his wife, and raised the gun at the first turned being. The blast threw the thing backwards, tearing a hole into its stomach, and it never got back to its feet.
The other monster ran for Ianto and jumped at him.
Both men fell to the floor and Ianto held the thing away from him with his one hand against its throat.
He could hear Jack yelling as Gwen screamed and he saw Toshiko lashing out with her boot before Jack managed to pull her back.
It was strong, it was very strong, and once Ianto could see blood spewing from its mouth and landing on his black shirt, he took his gun and rammed it into the eye socket and pulled the trigger.
Another blast could be heard, which made Ianto jump. Christopher had just shot James. Ianto was sure that it was because he had turned from the wounds he had sustained. This was confirmed when his wife, Angela, quickly got to her feet.
Her eyes were bloodshot and she snarled in a way that made both Ianto, and especially Christopher, realise that she wasn't the Angela Horton of old, and now had a savage infestation coursing through her body and had turned her into this vicious Hitcher.
She quickly lunged at Christopher and whilst he stood in shock, too slow to act, she tore his throat out, the blood splashing all over his shoes. He didn't have time to scream.
He just dropped the gun and fell to the floor with a deathly thump.
Ianto had finally managed to push his own defunct attacker off of him, and staggered to his feet. The thing that used to be Angela quickly twisted its neck in Ianto's direction, bits of her husband's bloody throat still being chewed, and ran at Ianto.
Jack tried to grab her, but she was too quick. They wrestled on the floor and her strength frightened him. He didn't know whether she was stronger than him, or she simply had more aggression, giving her that edge.
Suddenly she collapsed on top of him, motionless. Jack looked up and saw Tosh standing above him with a brass ornament in her right hand; blood was dripping off of it.
Ianto managed to get Angela off of him and noticed she was still twitching.
She wasn't quite dead yet. Ianto was exhausted and went over to Christopher.
He put his hand in Christopher's pockets and took out the extra shells. He then took the shotgun and reloaded it.
Christopher's body then suddenly twitched, and his red eyes opened.
"He's turned!" Rhiannon screamed.
She was right. He had turned, but what Ianto had noticed was that although Christopher had turned into one of these freaks, he was already dying. The blood continued to pump out of his throat and a half-snarl was released. The infested Christopher saw the two individuals, standing, staring at him. He tried to push himself up, but the lack of blood had weakened him, and then his body dropped back to the floor. He never got up again.
Joan muttered, "Well, that confirms that they can die just like us."
Ianto shook his head. "That's because they are human, just infested. I'm sick of repeating myself."
"Well don't then. Miserable twat." Owen muttered.
It was surreal beyond all recognition; there was five bodies in the living room, Angela had now stopped twitching, and the blood that covered the laminated floorboards of the living room seemed too much.
"Why didn't you used the Webley?" Ianto asked softly as Jack checked him over and Jack replied that he had limited ammo. Ianto felt that niggle in the back of his head that Jack was still holding something back. He was not as afraid or confused as the rest of them. Ianto decided that in time, Jack would tell him.
Ianto went to the front door, opened it, and then silently walked outside. He took a seat on the step, and rested the shotgun on his lap.
Gwen stammered, "Wh-what the fuck are you doing? We need to get back in the basement."
Ianto looked out into the fog.
It had cleared a little, and he could just about see the road. After the violent melee that had just taken place, Ianto welcomed the quiet.
Gwen then tapped him on the shoulder, rather hard, trying to get his attention and snap him out of his temporary paralysis. She was convinced he was in shock.
"Come on, Ianto. It's dangerous out here."
"The window's fucked."
"We should board it up."
"What with? And what's the point anyway? You saw those things crash through the living room window as if it was made of paper. You saw what they could do on the TV."
They remained outside and they both heard it, but Gwen was the first to speak up.
"You hear that?"
Ianto nodded, stood to his weary feet, and got the shotgun ready.
The light buzzing was slowly becoming louder. It was obvious that it was from a vehicle, but who could it be?
Ianto then turned his attention to the left. There was another sound he could hear, but what was it? It sounded like the slapping of feet on tarmac, like somebody running, but it was hard to tell with the growing sound of the engine advancing from the right, and the thick fog wasn't helping matters either.
Apart from a section of the road in front of the guesthouse, nothing else could be seen. Ianto seemed unruffled, unless it was the shock paralysing his feelings.
Gwen, however, could now hear both sets of sounds and seemed spooked.
"Let's go inside," she tried to beckon Ianto. "We better see how Stripy Steve is. He went to the toilet."
"He's probably hiding in there after hearing the noises," said Ianto.
"I know."
"Get him and go into the basement." Ianto spoke coldly; his demeanour worried Gwen. Was he having a nervous breakdown?
Why wasn't he frightened?
Was he still in shock?
The evening before he had broken down, now he had just escaped an attack and was now the bearer of a shotgun, waiting. For what? She didn't know.
"I don't like the sound of those footsteps," she confessed. "Let's get into the basement."
The groan of the vehicle to the right suggested it wasn't far away at all and from the left, the first Hitcher appeared through the fog. It twisted its neck to scan where it was and it appeared that the fog had confused and disorientated it like it would anyone else. It was only twenty yards away from them.
"Oh Christ!" Gwen moaned.
Ianto lifted up the shotgun and held it at waist height.
It clocked Ianto and Gwen, snarled viciously like something from the cat family, and then ran at Ianto with vicious speed. He squeezed the trigger and the cartridge took some of the left side of its waist away. Blood hit the floor, and the creature squealed and fell, but it soon clambered to its feet.
"Again!"Gwen yelled.
Ianto shivered with fright now and allowed it to get closer before shooting it in the stomach. It flew back a few yards and Ianto felt his shoulder twinge in pain from the gun's kickback.
The jeep crashed into the bank on the right, and there was an eerie peacefulness that followed. Ianto then looked at the thing he had shot. It looked like the driver who was injured in the stationary car from the night before.
"We better check on whoever's in the car," Gwen suggested with a quiver in her voice.
Ianto and Gwen walked off the premises, aware and paranoid that the fog could be hiding other nasty surprises.