6
Rhiannon sees what's there: not only a huge stockpile of rotten meat, but a dozen dead pets. They are neatly divided into various categories, and labelled: Pork, Ground Beef, Cats, Dogs. The walls and doorway have been heavily insulated, so the smell doesn't sink into the home. She looks on the floor and sees poor, dead Roscoe the beagle, his tongue dangling out.
Rhiannon starts to CRY.
She moves quickly back inside.
Rhiannon runs to the front picture window and looks out onto the street. She can't see any of the cops.
She turns from the window and picks up a cordless phone. She looks at the card Jack gave her and dials the number. The phone RINGS, and:
"You've reached Chief Harkness-Jones at the Torchwood Police Department. Please leave a message and your call will be returned as soon as possible."
There's a BEEP.
Rhiannon tries to speak through her sobs, pacing "Jack, it's Rhiannon!"
As Rhiannon passes the large picture window, she doesn't see Johnny staring in at her, his face now that of some diseased cephalopod.
"It's … I think you better come over right away - I think Johnny's sick, he …"
Rhiannon turns to see the monstrous Johnny through the window. She just stops. They stare at each other for a moment.
And then Johnny lets out a furious wail.
Rhiannon turns and dashes toward the back of the house. Johnny disappears from the window.
As Rhiannon runs through here, she looks behind her at the front door to make sure Johnny isn't following.
She runs past a wall of family photos.
Rhiannon sees the door on the rear of the house, leading to the backyard.
She arrives at it and flings it open … Johnny is there.
He lunges onto her.
Rhiannon screams and drops the cordless phone, just as it starts ringing. Johnny crawls on top of her body. Rhiannon reaches for the ringing phone, but he pins her hands above her head. He looks into her eyes. He's crying. His voice and breath are sick and raspy. "Why'd you betray me, sugarplum?!"
"Johnny, no!"
"I loved you. I loved…"
"Johnny, you're sick!
Johnny is about to cry. "I wanted you by my side, but you - I can't trust you now!"
Rhiannon is crying, confused. Johnny rips his shirt open. Rhiannon looks down to see the tubule protruding from the now enormous yellow spore on Johnny's chest. The tubule feels over Rhiannon's blouse, and then slips beneath it. It starts to poke into her skin.
"Noooo!" Rhiannon grabs the leg of a coffee table beside her. She slams the table into Johnny's head. This hurts and surprises him sufficiently to let Rhiannon get out from under him.
Rhiannon grabs the cordless phone, which is no longer ringing, and scurries behind the couch. She dials.
Johnny thrusts the couch aside.
Rhiannon crawls away again, when Johnny attacks her from behind. He wraps his arm around her neck, pulling her back. He looks down at her with his sick, angry eyes, as his arm … now apparently jointless … curls around her
like a snake.
Rhiannon gasps for air. Her face turns purple. She hears a slamming on the door.
"Rhiannon?! Rhiannon, are you in there?!" Ianto is yelling, clearly, she gave up on Jack and called him.
Rhiannon tries to speak but she cannot. Suddenly, the front door opens. "Rhiannon?!"
Rhiannon, with barely an ounce of life left in her, sees Jack, Archie, Andy and Gwen burst into the living room with her brother.
They are surprised, to say the least, to see this diseased humanoid strangling Rhiannon from behind. They stand there gaping.
"Fuck!" Andy says.
The cops, freaked out, pull their guns. Johnny makes a screeching sound at them. They shoot at Johnny, nicking him.
Johnny jumps away from Rhiannon, back into the shadows, screaming in anger and pain.
Rhiannon falls to the floor. Ianto falls to her side.
Johnny slips out the back door and away.
The cops stare, slack-jawed and frozen with shock; what the hell was THAT?!
Rhiannon rubs her neck, coughing.
Jack runs out into the backyard. Archie runs up behind him. They look around at the trees surrounding the area.
Johnny is nowhere to be seen.
.
.
SNIFFLING.
"Jesus, these past few days have been a trying time for us." The Pastor drones as he stands by an altar where family members have placed little items that remind them of Mary - photographs, mementos, "Come home, Mommy" cards, etc. "We ask you now for the safe return of our beloved Mary."
Everyone in this modest little church has their heads bowed as the Pastor leads the prayer service.
"Our sister. Our daughter. Our mother. Our wife."
Mary's husband, in the front pew, loses it, crying. His little children, beside him, fiddle in their seats.
"And we ask that you keep your light alive in her heart, wherever she
may be. We ask all this in your name, Lord. Amen"
Jack Harkness-Jones is here, in full uniform, hat in hands.
Amen.
Amen.
Jack looks around the church. He spots Rhiannon, in the very back of church, head down, distraught, guilty. Ianto is with hr.
He also sees a group of old cows nearby, pointing at Rhiannon, and whispering about her.
Rhiannon's high heels CLACK on the pavement as she moves quickly to her car. Ianto stands on the top step, watching over her as Jack brushes past him.
"Rhiannon."
Rhiannon turns to see Jack coming after her. She stops.
"I talked to the CDC. They didn't have nothing' on file consistent with Johnny's... symptoms." Jack says as he comes closer.
Rhiannon nods.
"How about Mary?"
JACK
"New? No. We're hoping we find Johnny; he'll lead us to her."
Rhiannon nods. The wind is strong. Her hair is flying over her face. Tears come to her eyes.
"You alright?" Ianto calls out as he catches up to them.
Rhiannon nods. "Yeah."
She moves away from them.
Jack and Ianto watch her go.
.
.
Jack enters. A few COPS and support staff are bustling, making phone calls, etc. They all look tired, as if they haven't slept. Jack, the mayor, sees Jack.
"Jack!"
Jack spots Owen, moving quickly toward him.
JACK
"Shit."
"Jack, we need to talk!"
'Morning', Owen" Jack crosses the station. Jack follows.
"Jack, this Mary's Randy Flagg's niece. We need to find Johnny yesterday! The town council has lit a Roman candle and stuck it up my arse!"
"Hell, Owen, your leisure activities are not my business." Jack keeps walking as he speaks.
Don't fuck with me, Jack. Your post here as Chief is in dire straits you don't work this shit out."
They come to a desk with Archie and Andy working away.
"Don't worry, we'll find him." Jack replied, then turns to Andy "Anything new?"
Andy shakes his head.
"How are you going to find him?" Owen demands.
"Dude's a half-squid. Ain't many places he can hide. Sea World, maybe." Andy shrugs.
Owen sees a secretary making copies nearby. He speaks in hushed tones "That young lady heard you say 'squid.' She's gonna go out and create a Goddamn hysteria!"
"Sherry, you gonna create a hysteria?"
"Not today, Jack."
"Still, quit that talk! You yourself said it was dark in there! You don't know what you saw!" Jack scolded.
"We saw his arm was all bendy."
"Bastard obviously got lyme disease!" Owen sniffed "I am a doctor ya know, sounds like it to me."
"What?" Jack blinked with confusion.
"Touch some deer faeces out in the forest. Eat a sandwich without washing your hands. Then you got lyme disease." Owen explains.
"And that makes you look like a squid?" Jack blinks as he speaks slowly.
"I'll tell you what, no one with lyme disease gonna win any damn handsome contests!" Owen scoffs.
Jack, Archie, and Andy can't help but snigger.
"Well, screw you all for laughing" Owen huffs, folding his arms.
"Jack!"
Jack looks over at Eugene, on his headset at the dispatch unit.
"Another ranch attack! Up at the Castle Ranch, called in by the vet" Eugene says.
Jack nods for Andy and Gwen to get up from their desks. They do and start to move out with Jack and Archie.
"Ranch a … What ranch attacks?" Owen follows them like a child asking to come with.