23
Everyone was upset and talking excitedly about what had happened, Ianto was just bloody shattered. He still had to spend a single hour of sleep on this boat and he already hated it. It was tainted with the corn and he felt unsafe, his baby was unsafe. How can she be when there are those not immune still on board, simply not yet exposed to know either way.
Jack found him in their room, cuddling on the bed with a little girl who seemed annoyed at the immovability of his arms, her little hands slapping at him as she tried to reach for a toy on the bedside table. Jack crouched by the bed and handed her the toy. She smiled sweetly at him and then gave the sign for thank you, before she settled against Ianto to play with the toy. Ianto did not move. Jack thought he was asleep.
Jack rose and went to pull the blanket over him when he spoke "I hate this place."
Jack froze, surprised as he watched those eyes slowly open to stare up at him. "OK. What do you want to do Tiger?"
"I want to go for that other cruise liner, I want to get off this boat and I want us to have people with us that we know are immune, as selfish as that sounds" Ianto muttered, releasing the child who snuggled into him more instead of racing off like Jack had thought she would.
"OK. We need to sort out fuel, location and then there is a slight possibility it is already occupied. We can't be total pirates and overthrow those who might still be on board." Jack crooned, reaching out to stroke Ianto's hair from his face.
"Agreed. Until then, I want to go to the island over to the east with the lighthouse, the one that signals the start of the bay" Ianto rolled to his back and smiled softly to show he was not trying to be awkward, even though he knew he was, if there is good land there and the lighthouse is unmanned, it might be a good spot to dump the first of the livestock to roam about. Those who are not happy with the water can get some land legs again."
"Agreed" Jack found himself toeing off his boots to settle on the bed with them, the little girl pleased to be meat in the sandwich as she stopped fiddling with her toy and sighed, her hand hooking one of Jack's braces.
The kiss between the two men was sweet, gentle and full of promise to do good.
Finally, Ianto slept.
Jack watched over them.
.
.
"Well we know we are immune, me and Toshiko both were on the front lines with Gwen at the base. I guess that's how we didn't know she wasn't." Owen said as he sat with Ianto and Jack going over strategies for the other boat.
"Can we tell with a blood test or something?" Andy asked as he joined them.
"Nah, tried that. I think it's some sort of chemical change in the brain, no way to tell who will or won't be affected until it's too late" Owen shrugged "It does not bode well for the next generation. I think the whole scorched earth approach is the best. Anywhere we want to populate we have to totally start form the dirt up."
"I just want a nice lockable berth" Ianto nodded as he smiled at his little girl who was toddling past with a flower in her hand from somewhere. Artificial of course. They were being extra careful until they were sure the corn was the only factor. The thought that maybe other plants have mutated to become silent killer is a sobering one, right?
"Well, we find where it is moored and send a drone to scout it out for signs of life. If we see none we board and check it over, see if it is even salvageable." Jack said as they all rose to get on with it.
Ianto left Toshiko and Owen to the searching part, knowing he would be right about the route it would be on. Not hard work to find it, the real thing that worried him is if it was occupied by others who were competent to calm rights… or worse still… full of Uglies.
It was like a bad dream he could not shake, the thought of them getting on board, poking about only to find themselves being chased around by a hoard of Uglies like some sort of horror movie. He knew it was silly, even a boat full of people would only have a small percentage of Uglies, and maybe poor bloody immunes who had no idea what was going on.
Of course, the other horrible thought is that the dust clouds had not reached the boat and everyone thought they would just wait out the weird thing happening on shore, all of them playing shuffle board and discos in the evening, a worse horror movie by his standards.
Ianto prayed for an abandoned boat, even as he knew deep down someone would still be on board.
Murphy's Law.
