Beta'd by the fantastic phoenix27 and continued due to her encouragement :)
A chill seemed to surround her, leaving every nerve ending tingling. She couldn’t breathe, she couldn’t think
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| Tenth Doctor, Torchwood | |
Never Say Never by Kimori1024 [Reviews - 58]  Chapter or Story Author's Notes: | |
“So, what do the police know and why were we called in to look at the wolves?” Tori looked over at her mother as she shifted out of the car behind her. The sun was just coming out again after the rain and she needed to shield her eyes just a bit from the oncoming sunlight. “Why does it have to be so bloody bright?”
“Well, look on the bright side, it isn’t raining anymore...” the other woman commented with a wink. Just bit of work to get her mind off things, that’s all she needed. The blonde looked around as they began to make their way into the entrance of the zoo, their contact must be inside already. A quick flash of a small piece of paper to the ticket collector and they were in.
“But do they know anything?” Her daughter struggled to keep up beside her.
The woman flipped her mobile out of her pocket once again to check for any new messages from the Torchwood base. Absolutely nothing more from Tony; they would have to figure this one out on their own. “Not one bit...” she answered, the phone sliding back from where it came.
Through the bustling crowd ahead of them came a man in full official army gear. Not exactly meant to blend in with the masses, but it was fine for their means. A beret sat on the top of his head in a brilliant purple. The woman smiled to herself just a bit; she almost expected them to not be red now.
The man made to salute, but upon receiving the glare from both mother and daughter he resigned to hold his hand out to shake. “You must be the Torchwood operative?” Both women chose to ignore the outstretched limb and he dropped his hand back to his side.
“Can we see some ID please?” The blonde woman stated militarily. The man fumbled for a moment under her gaze but managed to pull a badge out of his pocket.
“Sergeant Michaels, Ma’am,” he stated, holding the ID out for the two to inspect. He looked even younger in person than in his picture, no more than early 30s at best. The blonde woman nodded in satisfaction and he placed the badge back into his pocket. He waited a moment in silence, but it soon became clear that he wasn’t going to get a name out of either of the girls. “Umm... right, so I assume you’ve been informed about the wolf problem?”
“Actually, no, not a bit really...” The blonde flipped her mobile out again as she spoke. “Nope, not a thing.”
“Basically just that they were wolves,” Tori chimed in beside her mother. “Which is, weeellll... not really enough to go on.” She grinned and cocked her head allowing the heals of her trainers to rock backwards; her gesture seemingly making Michaels even more nervous.
“Really?” The soldier seemed confused. “The brief was supposed to be sent out through the ear bud system...”
“Nah... Don’t trust those things,” the woman commented. “Almost forty years n’ I still don’t like ‘em. Handheld model for me, thanks.” She waved the small device at him.
“Right, sorry. Well, I’ll explain on the way,” Michaels turned and gestured them to follow as he spoke. “The wolves have been acting...oddly. Strange sounds, behaviors — unnatural; or at least, not natural to the species, or so I’ve been told. The zoo has even removed some of the animals from the exhibit for research but so far, they have found nothing. They don’t seem be harmful to themselves or the guests at the zoo, so no other precautions have yet been taken. In fact, they are tamer than they have ever been according to all of the animal trainers.”
“So you automatically assume it is alien?” The woman made to wring out her still slightly damp golden hair from the earlier rain as she walked.
“The wolves aren’t alien, but whatever is overtaking them most definitely is. It can’t be of earth origin, of that we are positive.” The soldier stopped suddenly and turned to the women. “It’s.... it’s the sound mostly....” His eyes were far away, as if remembering a song, but not quite recalling the tune. Something all too close to fear sparked in his eyes.
“Like, oh I dunno, howling?” The brunette waggled her eyebrows; somehow sarcasm suited her. Her attempt to lighten the mood didn’t seem to help however.
“No...” The man didn’t elaborate more and neither woman asked him to.
The blonde woman continued before her daughter could get another word in, that was always a bit of a tricky task. “So...umm, what were some of the other strange behaviors?”
“Well,” the man broke from his trance and continued also walking again, “They’ve developed an apparently strange, sort of, shape. I don’t know the technical term, but supposedly they’ve been positioned in the same pattern since this all began. They’ve had to call in army reinforcement to get any wolves at all from their positions for examination — the others, still remaining in the exhibit, haven’t moved an inch.”
They had just come up to the wolves now, and just as the soldier had stated, they all seemed to be in some sort of set pattern. No roaming or moving, they all just sat there.
“I’ve never seen that before....” the soldier looked through the glass.
The blonde turned to look at the animals, but she didn’t find anything incredibly odd; at the very least, all was as he said it would be. “What? The position? Did they change it?”
“They seem to have taken a liking to you two. Like I said, they’ve just been sitting there doing nothing, but now,” he waved his hand at the cage, gesturing toward the wolves’ eyes which now were entirely focused on them, “all eyes on you. Not that I’d blame them...” He added with a small chuckle.
“Why wouldn’t you blame them?” Tori looked up at Michaels. The other woman looked back at her daughter through the corner of her eye while she removed a small sonic device from her pocket. Tori had her tongue between her teeth with her eyes big, round and innocent. Oh, her daughter was good; far too good of an actor for her own good at times.
“Umm... uh... I don’t know... just...” the man stuttered as he tried explaining. Oh, her daughter was very, very good.
The woman turned back to the wolves, now scanning for any abnormalities. “Doesn’t seem to be any sort of psychic field.... If nothing is controlling them I don’t see how it can be alien. I don’t see anything all that strange with any of this to be completely truthful, Sergeant Michaels.” The device’s tiny blue light moved back and forth, every wolf’s eyes following the glow.
“But, mum, you must admit there’s something about their position.” The brunette spun around abandoning her playful stare at the soldier, changing her attitude in a split second.
“What do you mean?” Deep brown eyes met blue.
“Mum?” the officer looked from woman to woman, not quite seeing the practicality or possibility of the term.
“Hush!” the woman shook her hand at the soldier, turning her attentions once again to her daughter. “What do you mean, Tori?” Brown eyes a bit more urgently staring into blue.
“Some of the wolves have been taken out of the exhibit this week, yeah? Doesn’t their shape seem odd? It’s almost... incomplete...” Tori looked at her mother. “Like, we’re not getting the full message.”
The blonde turned quickly to the soldier, startling him out of his confusion. “When were all of the wolves last together?” The man backed off a bit in shock at her urgency. “Tell me!”
“Monday, I think...”
“Have you got the CCTV footage for that day? Before some were removed?” She griped the man’s camouflage jacket.
“They should have it in the security office....”
“And where’s that?!”
The soldier pointed to his right. The woman relented her grip and took off in a speed walk in the direction of his pointed finger leaving the soldier to stand there completely dumbfounded. Her daughter followed closely at her heals, turning only for a brief moment to yell ‘Ciao!’ at the very flustered Sergeant Michaels.
“So mum, what do you reckon it is then?” Tori asked as they reached the security office.
“Those weren’t random shapes before... they were spelling something out.”
“Spell? Like aliens speakin’ English?”
The blonde buzzed the tiny bell at the door repeatedly without answering her daughter until a portly little man in a guard’s uniform answered.
“Rose Tyler Smith, Torchwood.” The blonde flashed a badge to the man at the door. “Can we see the CCTV footage for the wolf exhibit for Monday?”
Before an answer was given she made her way around the man and headed for the TV monitors. One scan of her sonic device and Monday’s footage popped onto the screen. What came up made Rose stop in her tracks.
“Oh my god... Mum... Just, oh my god....” Tori stuttered behind her mother, but the other woman offered no comfort.
A chill seemed to surround her, leaving every nerve ending tingling. Rose couldn’t breathe, she couldn’t think; she was now sitting down though she couldn’t recall when she had done. Because this couldn’t happen — Never.
Distinctly on the screen, spelled out clear as day by every wolf in the pack, was one small, three letter word.
Bad.
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