11

"And where are you now?"

"We are on the side of the road, no, in a layby with some shelter from the main road so anyone on it will go past and not see us for the trees, hopefully" Ianto answered down the radio as he sat with his feet up on the dashboard, the night silent around them as the vehicles all sat silent, most of the occupants asleep. "We only got forty minutes in before some turned up and we pulled in here before more wandered past. Since we actually made some good time in with only the two other pauses with those bloody roadblocks and the Biters didn't see us, we agreed to settle with our picnic chillers and books... it's dusk now so we will wait for dawn as we can't move int he dark, then we will take a look."

Toshiko and the baby were asleep in the back, both of them snuggled in the blankets and clothing back there as Ianto knew sleep would not come for him, not with the zombies they had passed earlier and their horrifying chase. To see them running after the convoy like that, so fast and intent… freaky. Like a pack of monsters.

Ianto had told Jack this, also telling him the fact their clothing was still in good shape meaning they were more recently turned. Jack agreed that he had also noted some of those his team had encountered were also fresh.

"Fresh. What a terrible term… like… I suppose we can't call them newbies." Ianto lamented as Jack laughed down the line.

"What about… bloomers?"

"Ergh, terrible. Reminds me of me sister's periods. She used to say she was blooming when we were teenagers. It took me a while to catch on that she was referring to herself as the feckin flower" Ianto scoffed, then sobered at the thought of Rhiannon.

"I never had a sister. Had a brother… he… died when we were still kids."

"Hard. I lost me mam in me teens, me Da not so long after. Then it was just me and Rhia until she married her dropkick husband. What a mess that was… he saw me as a threat to his authority or something. Drove a wedge in there and I never really forgave her for choosing him over me. Like a spurned lover I guess." Ianto snorted "What a tosser I was back then with my slicked hair, my fishnet singlets and pierced nipples trying to make him react."

"Oh… Ianto. Now I have an entirely new image of you." Jack sniggered "You have your weapon?"

"Yes, I do" Ianto agreed referring to the sidearm he had sadly taken off a police officer's hip at a failed roadblock, the ammo in the police cruiser taken along with the shotgun as well. They had armed themselves in the end and still been unable to protect anyone. The other officer's gun was now held firmly by Rhys. Ony other man Ianto trusted not to shoot his own foot. Andy shrugged and agreed, his own Security Officer weapon not even loaded.

Both of them soon signed off, Ianto settling back to watch the road.

"Fishnet singlet?" Toshiko said softly from the backseat and Ianto grinned as he swung around to fake glare at her.

"And I will have no backseat drivers ta muchly missus!" he shook his finger as she giggled.

"You know him more than you let on, I heard the flirting there" she wagged a finger back at him.

"Oh pish, it's just playing" he said as he settled back to watch the road through the trees once more, ending the conversation.

Toshio checked the sleeping baby and considered things.

The now five vehicle convoy had ten people in it. Ianto, Andy, Toshiko, Granny, Rhys and Gwen, Dorothy and Evan plus the couple they picked up running along the road the day before… Mason and Frieda. Getting them a van was a good idea.

Ianto and Toshiko… fuck… eleven people. The bub.

Andy, his Granny and Dotty in the other Land Rover now the flash thing blew up. Rhys, Gwen in the truck. Mason, Frieda and Evan in the van.

Ianto knew they would soon have to swap Andy's vehicle for something else, the radiator not holding do well with the long travel and they really needed something larger that could help haul more supplies and spare fuel. Seems that Ianto's vehicle was well kept, but others were lax with oil change and such. Typical … end of the world and you can't find a good car anywhere. Huh… maybe a car sales yard?

Ianto had many things to think about but found himself thinking of the Captain and that lovely arse that those tailored trousers hugged so well. God, that man… when Ianto accepted the shrugged of coat and would turn once it was hung on the coatrack to watch the man mince around the table to annoy Yvonne, he always took a mental milage of that arse.

He knew the same thing happened each time Ianto lent down to pick up the box of files needed for the meeting… well the floor was the best place to keep them ya know, by the coat rack so his arse was in the air as the Captain settled into his seat… it was just the way it was. Honest. If the Captain got a good look of Ianto's own delectably plump arse it was purely innocent. Honest.

Ianto grinned in the darkness.

.

.

They were rumbling along and Ianto's heart sank as they came to the little village that Rhys had pointed out, that was not even on the map. There were Christmas ornaments on the fur trees along the side of the road, clearly some decorated by kids.

Aw… fuck.

"maybe they are OK" Andy said over the radio "Maybe we are driving into a town with people still in it. It might be OK, far enough out?"

Ianto did not answer, glancing back at Toshiko whose face shared his sentient clearly.

Not fucking likely.

"Hayden needs things, maybe there is a baby section in the general store?" she tried for a positive. "And a better vehicle for them? You and I both know Andy is killing that gearbox."

Ianto nodded, OK. Positive. It is gonna be positively fucking dead.

And Ianto hated being right all the time.