3
"Hello there, welcome to Delgrave. Is there anything we can do for you immediately?" a woman asked as she accepted his ID.
"Yes, can you make sure whatever transport I am put on, it is not the w same one as that woman gobbing off over there?" Ianto asked, pointing at Gwen.
"Yeah, me too" the sarcastic Cockney bastard arrived and grinned, the woman with him a delicate Japanese woman who seemed just as tired as he was.
"Well, once we can get you all disembarked, we will billet to different areas and I can assure you, we keep each plane together but… we can make sure you get a break from her until then."
"Christ" Ianto muttered as he stomped off determined to find a Zen place again.
By the time they were being loaded onto school buses he knew this was only the beginning of a nightmare, the gobby mare pushing her way on board to look directly at him and declare 'this is a Welsh bus' before plonking herself down.
Ianto felt sorry for her poor fella.
.
.
Ianto didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
It was a church.
Right in the middle of the town, a large pretty old-fashioned church where pictures of weddings must have been spectacular. In fact, it was still decked out for a wedding that had happened earlier that day, the tule, flowers and candles making it so romantic.
Lisa would have loved it.
Ianto swallowed back a giggle of insanity, choosing instead to walk the place, discover every room and every hidey-hole. I mean… fuck this right? Mr Introvert was not having a good time and if he was going to be stuck in here with fifty or sixty odd people… very odd some of them… he needed an escape.
Each plane had bene ferried to a different area, some at the school gymnasium and some at the local hotels… lucky bastards. Clearly they had drawn a middle straw. Not luxury, not even private but at least it was a short walk from the town and they had plenty of room.
He found a room up the top of some stairs, an old storage room that had a large circular window overlooking the back of the church, the graves and the huge back car park. He stood there for a long time just trying to breathe and tell himself it was all a dream. He had really OD'd on sleeping pills and whiskey or something back at the resort and this was the final moments of his life before hell took him in and gave him a pitying release from his shame.
"Are you OK?"
Ianto turned t find the handsome pilot there, his uniform a little creased and the old Great Coat over top a surprise. I mean… he's American. But that is a WWII relic. As if knowing Ianto's confusion he smiled "My father was English, my mother Scottish actually. I moved to America for high school and onwards as my father was a diplomat. Came back home when my marriage failed about… five years ago."
"This was my first time out of Wales" Ianto admitted.
"Oh? So… be honest. What do you think of it so far? I do hope you fly with us again."
Ianto turned to face him and the giggling started, both men taking a moment to let the madness out. Seems he was as panicked and frazzled as everyone else. Then he sobered as he said to Ianto "I don't now anything more since the radios went down."
Oh shit, this is new.
"So, what DO you know?" Ianto asked.
"About half an hour before we were ordered to land at the nearest airport, an airliner went down with about a hundred and thirty on board. We were tod it was an electrical problem as they had lost instruments. Then a few minutes later another went down." Jack sat on a chair and rubbed his face. God, poor man was exhausted "we were on the outer limits of the… whatever it is. Inside, another plane fell and I knew this was not going to end well. I began searching for a place to put down and had already started to turn us when the mayday began… three at once. All inside the area we had been heading for."
"But we weren't anymore" Ianto nodded.
"Yeah, I broke protocols and just… flew. By the time we landed here there had been another couple go down and then the communications just went… dead. We tried the back up and… nothing. It's like the world has just… fallen off."
"So, the weather event... it is electrical in nature?" Ianto looked up at the sky "Would explain the colour."
"Colour?"
Jack walked over to stand next to Ianto and both men looked up, the clouds a weird dark purple and the sky itself was a mix of pinks and oranges, like it was on fire. As they watched something started to come tards the window and Ianto grabbed Jack, pulling him back as a bird slammed into glass, the glass cracking as the large duck slid down it, then fell away.
"Fuck" Jack said softly.
"Can you say that in a church?"
Jack looked at Ianto with fake horror and the giggling started again, both of them now stepping up to the cracked window to look down at the duck, only to then look out at the other birds falling from the sky like they had all been stunned.
"Jack… I don't like this" Ianto whispered, "Not at bloody all."
"No. Me neither."
"Ianto."
"Huh?"
"My name… I'm Ianto."
Both men stood watching the world outside go a little crazy as the wind whipped up and leaves seemed to dance around at shoulder height of a grown man, birds flapping on the ground that were stunned but alive, those from a greater height clearly dead on impact.
Neither of them liked it a goddamned bit.
Like someone had turned a nob and electrocuted the sky.