THE HIVE
Chapter Thirty Eight Jack inched along the cave wall trying to shut out the Queen's telepathic summons to come to her. "Oh, I'll come to you alright, bitch, and you won't like it when I get there," Jack muttered to himself as he kept going. So far he hadn't seen any wasps, although he heard the buzzing in the distance. He figured the Queen was gathering her forces around her for protection. He reached another opening in the cave and saw five wasps flying around tending to a few honeycombs. He looked down at the canister in his hand. "Gotta time this right," he muttered to himself. "I can't get trapped in the smoke and mutate back, not until I'm outta here." He winced at another sudden flare up of pain. "Although I'm sorely tempted to go ahead and do it," he grunted through the pain. He pressed himself back against the wall when two wasps suddenly zoomed past him on their way out of the cave. "Shit, hope they're not going to attack the car," Jack muttered. He looked through the opening and made a quick count, confirming that the five wasps were still in the room. He stood up and readied his wings. Then he pulled the pen on the canister and snatching up the rucksack, flew as fast as he could past the gas that was rapidly filling the room. On the way out of the room, he quickly took out another canister and threw it near the opening, stopping the wasps who were trying to follow him out. Meanwhile, Gwen and the others were sitting in the SUV waiting for word from Jack when suddenly Ianto grabbed her shirt sleeve. He pointed to the woods seconds before they heard the buzzing. Gwen cursed and she and Ianto grabbed the canisters and passed them to the Doctor and Rose. "What do we do? Do we stay in the car?" Rose asked them. "I think we should get out. Those things can trap us in here and bash the car till it rolls onto its side or puncture the roof of the SUV. It'd be a death trap in here," Gwen said. Everyone quickly got out. Ianto pulled a plug on one of his canisters and threw it towards the wasps while the others got behind the car with canisters in hand. The Doctor threw his canister towards the back of the car and Gwen threw hers to the front. Rose threw hers behind so they were surrounded by smoke. The only problem was the wind made the smoke drift in on them, making it hard to see but they could hear the frustrated buzzing of the wasps while they tried to get through the dense smoke. Gwen breathed a sigh of relief when Ianto rounded the front of the car and knelt down beside her. "We need to do something else, that's not gonna hold them forever," Ianto said, waving some of the smoke away from his face. "We need to incapacitate them somehow so we can surround them with the smoke," the Doctor said. "They're not going to enter the gas on their own." "We don't have that many canisters," Gwen said, "we gave the majority of them to Jack. What we need is something to knock them out with like a large tree limb or a heavy rock." "Or a giant flyswatter," Rose said as the angry buzzing got louder. "They're sore, you can tell that much, I doubt they're going to let us live if they start stinging us." Gwen suddenly had a thought and reached into her jacket pocket for her mobile. "What are you doing?" Ianto asked. "Calling Andy so he'll try to get hold of the head of the army and tell them to bring their helicopters to this location," she said, speed dialing Andy's number. "I really hate working here sometimes," Owen said as he knelt behind the table with Tosh and Julian. They were across from the front door again while the wasps tried to batter it down. Owen shook his head at the loud bangs coming from the wasps hitting the door. "You'd think they'd learn hitting the door doesn't work," Owen said. "I don't think they have any control over that," Tosh said. "I think they do whatever the Queen wants them to, regardless of if they live or die. We could try opening the door and tossing one of the canisters out." "Be my guest, love, I'm not letting one of those bloody wasps in the door," Owen said. They jerked their heads around when they saw Julian grab one of the canisters and head for the door. "Wait!" Tosh said, standing up. "Julian, you don't have to do that." "We can't sit here and wait till they break down the door," he said. "I'll do it. I'm not afraid of those beasts." Owen and Tosh stood and watched while Julian went to the door. Julian waited till the bangs let out for a few seconds and then to Owen and Tosh's horror, he opened the door, ran outside and slammed it. "Bloody hell, I didn't think he was going out with the canister," Owen said as he and Tosh ran to the door. Owen locked the door and both of them stood by the door listening to the angry buzzing outside. Then the buzzing stopped and Owen looked at Gwen before opening the door again. Gas immediately came in though the open door and Owen and Gwen coughed as they waved it out of their faces. "Julian? Are you alright?" Tosh said, stepping out into the thick smoke as she tried to find her friend. "Are you there?" She gasped when a hand grabbed her from behind and she saw her friend's face through the smoke. "Yeah, I managed to scare them off," Julian said, between coughs as he and Tosh went back inside. "I don't think I got any, I'm afraid, just scared them away from here." "Maybe that'll be enough," Owen said as he closed the door and locked it. "Hopefully, the helicopters are still patrolling Cardiff and spot them before they can fly back to the hive." "The Queen must have found out about Jack and sent them here," Tosh said as they went into the other room to escape the residual gas. "Hope he's alright." "He'll be fine, Tosh," Owen said. "He's immortal and we have the antidote so no matter what happens, he'll make it out of there alright." "But what if he doesn't make it out of there?" Tosh pointed out. "What if he gets captured." "Blimey, Tosh, you love looking at the glass half empty, don't ya?" Owen said, rolling his eyes as they entered the main room of the Hub.
Back Home Doctor Who Main Page Next