7
"What?" Jack turned to face the man tugging at his sleeve.
"Something weird is happening… you're from Torchwood Village, right?"
Jack stared at him for a few moments and then nodded "Define… weird."
"Well, apparently the power is out, the place is in complete darkness and no one is answering any phones. They sent in a Heddlu officer to check it out and he never came back." The man hissed, turning his phone so Jack could see the screen. Jack silently took the phone and started to scroll down and saw article after article about the village not only in some sort of lockdown but the military presence that was now blocking anyone else from going in.
Jack was running for his vehicle, not even stopping to gather his things from his room.
He had to get home.
.
.
"What do you mean, no one out and no one in!" Jack was arguing as he was told that there was a No Contact order in pace for the time being. The briefing ws somewhat… unheard as Jack raged.
Then came the press conference and there… right there in the front. Ianto.
Jack could have wept with relief. He has missed it right? Got out early to the clinic for his scan? Was safely this side of the cordons?
"No, don't be daft. I woke up with a day missing like everyone else in there" Ianto snorted as he looked around the briefing room.
"But… no one out or in… how did…" Jack started to ask then Ianto laughed.
"They forgot the trails. Right? I simply biked out Cariad, over the goat track!" Into sighed and Jack felt giddy as he now knew there would also be a way in. Ianto caught it a beat too late and sighed "Awwww… rally? Come on, can't we just… right. Your bloody job."
"It's my village, they are my people. Ianto, I have to go back. You don't, in fact you should probably not, you missed your clinic day. Shit, that's why Owen sent me all those messages" Jack looked at his phone.
Ianto now remembered with some clarity that Owen was going to meet him at the clinic as he was already in the city. Shit, Owen had missed it?
"I have to call him, he's probably looking to get back in to Toshiko" Jack muttered as he walked away fiddling with his phone and Ianto slumped into a chair.
Not even second most important….seems an entire village AND an old family friend were more important than him today.
Ianto was so tired.
.
.
Owen met them at the car park and as they talked Ianto saw three others approaching that he recognized as Villagers. What the fuck?
Jack calmly explained that Ianto had used the goat track and it was not being monitored. Ianto cold had lamped him one. For Heddlu, he was fucking thick. Ianto hissed "Stop telling everyone, if it gets back to the soldiers they will stop us leaving"
"Don't be silly, everyone will be quiet" Jack relied, then waved at four more people approaching.
Ianto face palmed.
Too many. They could easily be seen by a Drone as the little areas you can hide under like large tree canopies and such, fitted four people at most. He was trying to explain this to Jack when Owen interrupted.
"It really doesn't matter mate. They took off already, without us"
.
.
Jack motioned them down and they crawled easily to the top of the hill, looking down to see the group ahead of them running with abandon.
The UNIT jeep that appeared out of nowhere, careening towards the group made the three men gasp and shoot back to the safety of the copse of trees nearby.
"Well…. That's not good" Jack sad softly.
"Not good? They fucking tasered them!" Owen spluttered "No explanation… no polite chance of conversation… they drove up and bloody fired those tasers!"
"Come on, there is another walkway along the creek" Ianto rose and headed off, the others following.
A they walked Owen kept talking his nerves clearly frayed "Why were they so frantic to stop them? I mean, some sort of weird event happened but really?"
"Everyone in the village had lost a day and… Owen… think about it. Mass Hysteria? Me too? Me? A break? Come on… I don't sleep an entire night, let alone all that time. No… I think we did something or something did something to us. An experiment gone wrong? Was a gad bomb set off or something?"
"Like a from of modern warfare?" Owen agreed "Maybe. Or maybe it was Compound B… what did they call it? Retcon?"
"What is that?" Jack asked.
"Well it's supposed to be a sci-fi thing but so are flying cars and laser guns which we know are real. Apparently it's a medication that makes you forget a period of time. Either take the pill or put it in someone's drink James Bond style." Owen explained.
"Reton stands for Retroactive Continuity. It has been referenced for some time, mainly in relation to role-playing games and comics. It refers to changing events from the past in order to make them fit the current storyline… like retrograde amnesia."
"something in the water?" Jack frowned "But why?"
"Aliens" Owen said with glee "Gotta be"
Ianto really didn't care, he just wanted to get home to his dog... I mean… cat.
He was exhausted already.