1
Ianto crouched on the roof, looking out over the darkening city below. He was suddenly struck with the imagery of Batman and fought the hysterical giggling as he tried to remain as silent as possible. Jack did this to feel like Batman?
The cold wind was whipping up and he knew he had to get down soon, the smell might carry this way and the worst thing to have to sleep though tonight would be decay. So many dead, so many not yet but should be. So few left alive and those that were… were definitely not friendly. OK… so the second worst thing. The worst would be for one of the packs to find him.
The packs… that is a discussion for another time, in daylight. Not here in the darkness where they prevail. There we go, Batman references again. Gotta stop that. Tired, so tired.
The stench of death was out there like an animal stalking him. Those left dead in their beds, some in the streets showed that mankind had given up.
Focus Ifan!
The boot marks in the dust were so familiar. So familiar that he almost placed his hand on one like it might bring him closer to the man who had stepped here almost a week ago. A week. He was getting closer. God, he missed them by a week.
He sighed as he adjusted the large backpack, then he canted his head to listen to the sounds below of the creatures moving about. He wanted to check the radio but not here. Their hearing was heightened at dusk. He felt too exposed out here and he rose to move inside, closing the skylight behind him and finally settling in the corner of the attic space of the three story house he had broken into. He had swept it carefully and found it clean. No one home, no one dead and no one about to return given the state of staleness.
He removed the backpack and gently removed the precious cargo inside, the radio in the bottom as well. He turned it on and tried a couple of frequencies but there was no chatter tonight.
Not tonight.
OK.
He turned it off to conserve the batteries, making a mental note to search the house tomorrow for signs of anything worth taking including more batteries. They were like hen's teeth these days.
Ianto settled to try to get some meditation time in.
..
.
BEFORE THE DUST
Ianto closed the door and took a deep breath, looking up at the ceiling for some sort of guidance as Jack's voice roared from behind said door that he wanted a coffee.
As Ianto walked through the main Hub Owen glanced over at him "Hey you still got this weekend off?"
"Yep."
"Why His Nibs is having a tanty bum?"
"I had this booked for a month, he knows full well it is important to my niece that I be there for her camping thing and her mother hates camping so that leaves me, super Uncle to the rescue." Ianto replied "I hated school camp as a kid and I really do not think I will enjoy this much more a an adult."
"Nah. Me neither" Owen grimaced "they sucked."
"Well how hard can it really get?" Ianto asked "after all, I am a real life grown up arsehole parent help. I can wander off, watch someone have sex with a random or maybe get drunk on some booze we snuck in, right?"
"Ok… did we go to the same camp?" Owen laughed, swinging in his chair some more.
"Well… one weekend of hell and it's all over. Mica thinks I am cool, hopefully no kid falls over a cliff or something while we are hiking and… I am good until Christmas" Ianto poked at him.
"And a few hand jobs or a blow job here and there will calm that overgrown toddler down too" Owen muttered, Ianto clipping him across the back of his head as he went to get the coffee.
.
.
NOW
Ianto woke with a snort of shock, the sleep cycle deeper than he should have been and he glanced over to check things were still OK. He rose and stretched, feeling the muscles complaining as he hobbled to the window to look out at the dawn.
He had overslept, lucky he had been secreted away up here well enough that he had not been detected. He moved to the bedding and peeked at the child who was wide awake looking up at him and he grinned "Hey there bubba."
The baby made a noise of delight and a hand reached up through the blankets for Ianto's face. He smiled softly as he lifted the baby up and then fumbled for the bottled water, the tin of milk powder soon open and being spooned into the water.
Ianto had slept with the water bottle inside his clothing, the best he could do towards heating it today while they were in a place where a fire would mean death and he was again relieved that this poor baby was forgiving with the lukewarm milk soon suckled with an eagerness that showed that the poor little bugger was hungry.
Ianto clucked as he encouraged the little one to empty the bottle and then as the baby lay there digesting, he changed her and gathered her up into the carefully repacked backpack. Once that was done he headed down the ladder from the attic into the house he had been in.
He rinsed out the bottle and then refilled the bottle, careful to do so quickly before the water cylinder would start refilling, the water already in there the safest water around. He slid the bottle inside his shirt to warm it for the next feed and then shucked on the backpack, checking that the little lolling head was OK and she was asleep.
Ianto then left the house, moving fast along the lane towards the park and the storm water drain he knew was there. The safest place to be at this time of day, near water.
They don't like water.
