3
Ianto had backed out of the room as everyone stood like stunned mullets with their mouths open, running for the rental car company's onsite office, hoping like hell they had not seen what was happening, and hoping his credit card was not maxed out yet.
He had managed to rent a car, gather his gear and take off with a full tank for the nearest gas station and by the time he had filled three hastily purchased gas cans, chaos had started to break out around him. He barely got to the counter to pay with his armful of food for the journey home when the first shots rang out on the forecourt outside.
Then came the screaming and the running. Oh the running. Ianto had hid until dusk when the faint gunshots in the distance had died away and he had then snuck back to his car still sitting there locked and ready to go. He had lamented the loss of the food as he got in and slammed the door shut, only to freeze as something hit the bonnet of the car.
Imagine if you will, a red pit-bull the size of a VW with an extra set of legs, the claws strong enough to sink into the metal of the car's hood. Ianto had stopped moving, breathing too for a moment or two as he stared at the huge thing and it's many shark like teeth as it ate the windscreen wiper on the passenger side of the vehicle.
Maybe it was just instinct, but the fact he didn't move seemed to be his salvation as someone ran along the road in the very edge of the stations lights. Her gasps loud as she cried and ran. Two of those things after her.
Ianto's one took off after her too, the screaming and shrill shrieking once they caught her something that would wake him in the night for many days. They keyed off motion. Sound? Clearly… anything moving was dead meat.
Ianto slid to the back seat and pulled the winter coat over himself, settling for the night and the hope that the sunrise might bring some order to the chaos. An awakening from this nightmare. He tried his cell phone and found nothing... no bars… impossible yet true. They had jammed communications?
The army would be rolling through soon enough, soldiers with their rifles firing at the fuckers, right? Just wait it out, salvation will come.
Salvation did not come, nor did any other people so when he woke and found the place deserted, he started the car and drove.
.
.
The checkpoint was deserted, the army vehicles left abandoned as was some of their gear. No signs of life. With his vehicle almost out of gas and the gas canisters still full, he pondered if it was a good idea to continue with this or move to one of the larger vehicles that might be more fuel efficient.
The barrier was clearly too heavy for him to move and an army issue vehicle might be more protection against those things at night. Ianto stood at the barrier looking from vehicle to vehicle as he considered. If he took one of those troop transporter trucks he would be in behind re-enforced steel, right?
Enclosed like a cocoon. Or tomb. Stop it. Positivity right?
He could still see the claws of that thing sinking into the hood of the car, it's claws like knives. Yeah, he might feel safer in one of those. If there were keys. They would not be stupid enough to leave keys right?
Ah. Bugger. Gotta look now.
Ianto gingerly approached the vehicles, expecting an armed soldier to pop up but nothing happened. Whatever had happened, it had been abandoned pretty quick smart. The place was deserted. Eww… Ianto kinda wished he hadn't walked around the back of one of the trucks to check, the severed leg telling him that there had been solders here, recently. It was still dripping…. Fuck.
Ianto slowly backed up to the cab of one of the trucks that was enclosed, opened the door an sliding into the cab, he felt the sun visor, the keys making a soft clinking sound.
Oh god.
His engine upon arrival here must have alerted someone, the car now so dangerously far from him. It was board daylight... but was he safe? The kill was fresh. So maybe they did not all hate the light? Great… rogue daytime ones. Good to know.
Fuck my life.
After half an hour he was sure that anything in the area would have descended by now, he was clearly safe. So he transferred what he had from the car to the truck, preferring the higher wheelbase and a heavy vehicle that could drive through a road barrier or three easily without him having to be exposed out there in the dark.
Once he was satisfied that he had everything he wanted he looked at the horizon and the quickly descending darkness. They were coming. He was out of time and if there had been a kill, others would come like bloody bees from a hive.
Sobering thought. If they can communicate with one another somehow. Ergh.
Ianto clambered in and turned the key, satisfied that the thing turned over easily. He then gave himself a moment to giggle at himself and recognize that was a bit stupid, not checking first. What if it was out of gas? After scolding himself and thanking god, he moved out and began to drive again.
This was going to take some time to get home, some precious time but he was determined.
He had to get back to her.
His Anna Belle.
.
.
It was now the third day, after a rough few nights sleeping in the transporter while things brushed against the hull outside and strange faint noises were heard. Cries like wild animals, people and something else. Eerie and ungodly noises. It was not a good sleep but it was enough not to drive off the road when a bloody horse ran across said road in front of him and he barely had time to yelp as he registered the man clinging to the back of the beast with wild eyes, looking back over his shoulder.
Clearly he did not even see the vehicle that almost ran him down, something coming fast.
Ianto had time to grip the wheel and grit his teeth as the thing slammed into the side of his vehicle and he tried fighting to keep it rolling forward and not into the ditch. He stopped and looked behind him as the thing on the road now contorted like it was hurt. Hopefully it was, limbs flying about as it screeched and tried to right itself.
The horse had thrown the man and run like the wind, the man in the open and now food for the spider.
"fuck that" Ianto muttered, slamming the gearbox viciously into reverse and then letting his foot push the pedal to the metal, zooming back and the loud crunch under the wheels was satisfying beyond words.
Now it lay on the road in front of him again, still twitching so some forward momentum was now called for, soon the laughter in the cab of the vehicle manic.
Once he was satisfied that it was only a waste of fuel, he stopped and watched the man stumble into the road to gape at him, the horse that had thrown him long gone. Ianto waved gaily to him and the man started to laugh as well, running for the passenger side and clambering in, slamming it shut to lean back and take deep soothing breaths.
"Bugger me, I was so sure I was Alien meat then" he said once he was calm.
"Any idea what their name is?" Ianto asked, pulling a clipboard from under the seat "look. The military were calling them Arthropods."
"This isn't yours? I thought you were the cavalry or something... well. Bugger. Arthropods? Seems like a boring name. I call them Bastards meself" came the reply "I'm Jack."
"I'm Ianto. Bugs the size of tanks... I don't know what else to call them." Ianto replied with a wide grin the relief that he was not alone, so raw.
For both of them.