11

They had both vehicles fully fueled up with extra fuel tanks on top. They headed out and checked again for Bugs, now unnerved to know some were clearly still moving around in the rain to have got inside in the first place. Some could argue it took shelter because it started to rain but who knows.

They drove with determination and it was another hour before they found themselves stopping outside a large fortressed fence. Ianto looked up at it with interest. They looked like shipping containers that had been cut up, the large sides now horizontally placed like walls. Clever.

Mickey got out and walked to the doors, banging on them while yelling and after some talk through a slot where he was recognized, the gates were swinging open to let them in.

Ianto watched the town come into view and felt a strange twist in his gut. It looked so foreign.. so foreign it might be another country, not his home town he left a few months ago. Christ… it was so strange.

He recognized the town hall and got out with the others, walking in to greet those there as he hung back and took a moment to let it sink in that he had made it. He was home. Then he slid out and went searching for his sister, knowing where she would be this time of day.

Rhiannon was in the canteen making sandwiches. She was cutting the home baked loaves as she laughed along with the others working there and he had time to watch her move. She had lost weight, a lot of weight and resembled their mother for the first time. He let her have her time with her friends while the warmth of the room enveloped him and he let go of the fear he had been holding back all this time. She looked happy, was laughing. She was fine. That means the kids are too.

"Rhia."

She turned to face him and he saw confusion at first, knowing his appearance was foreign. He had always been clean cut, from the moment he could shave he was clean cut. She had never seen him with whiskers and he let her go through options before grinning at her. Jack said his eyes never changed. When he smiled, he was the most handsome creature in the room. Silly nonsense but she took a deep breath and reached back to support herself against the bench as she asked his name softly.

"Ianto?"

"Hello Sissy."

She burst into tears, throwing herself at him and she clung to him as she cried, leaning back to let her hands feel his face and laugh at the 'wild man' in her kitchen. The others had caught on to whom it was and crowed around asking questions about outside the walls and basically wanting to touch him like he was a good luck charm. Despite his dislike for it, he allowed a few hugs as well.

Then they found a table, and she sat holding his hand so tightly, like he might fly into the air and disappear like smoke. She was not fine. She was not OK. She was hanging in by a thread and desperate.

"Johnny fell in the first week" she said softly "we didn't think any of those things were around here, they all seemed to be in major cities so he and some others went out to check the outposts and take supplies in case it got bad."

"Shit"

"Of the ten that went, two made it back and… they didn't even bring back his body. They ate it. The things… those… things… ate him" she sobbed.

"I call them buggers, or bugs. They aren't though. The one I killed at close range inside was humanoid. That insect appearance is like an outer skin. We dissected it and it has organs like us but… it didn't have reproductive ones. We think some are like… soldiers or drone. Like a Hive has a queen and she makes all the bees just to tend her. Only a few are for mating, the rest don't. These ones out here savaging are drones. Workers. Somewhere there has to be a nest. We just hope it's not in the ships as they will be harder to get to but if we can find the nests here on the ground, if we kill her… they have no way to reproduce. Right?" Ianto explained what they had been mulling over and talking over CB with others about before leaving the fire house with extra radios "There is a contingent within the military still intact and they are currently doing just that. Seeking nests. The hope is… in a few months when winter is really here and theses things go dormant due to the cold and wet… they can sneak in and blow them up."

"Need a way to track them though" Jack said as he settled next to him, then had a conversation he knew well "Or how can we test the theory."

"Paint guns" Rhiannon said calmly "You can mark some with paint and see if they are the same ones coming around or not, different colours for different areas. If the paint turns up in another city or town, we know they are nomadic. If the colors stick to their own regions we know there might be a nest or cell."

"Holy shit" Jack leaned back with shock "Ianto …. She's just as smart as you."

Ianto grinned as he nodded "She's my sister. Grew up with me in her ear like an annoying flea. Some of it rubbed off to be sure."

"The kids" she suddenly surged to her feet "My god. The kids, they are in class bit will be coming in in here like a tidal wave soon for something got at. Oh Ianto… Anna will go nuts."

Ianto hoped she would be happy too, or would she still be angry he left?