Torchwood: Exodus Code

felt Renso shaking him. Panic and bewilderment crashed Jack’s psyche. Renso wasn’t touching him.
    The ground was shaking.
    He was shaking.
    ‘Easy does it, my friend.’ With two good hands, Renso grabbed Jack’s arm. ‘It’s a long way down.’
    ‘When am I?’
    ‘What?’ asked Renso, not understanding Jack’s question.
    ‘Time?’ stuttered Jack. ‘When is this?’
    ‘Well after midnight of the day we went flying, if that’s what you mean. I’ve been searching for you for hours.’ Renso handed Jack a canteen. Jack gulped and gulped until water was dripping down his chin.
    ‘My chute caught in the trees so I was out for a while too. But, Jesus, how on earth did you get down here?’
    Renso peered inside the grotto. The walls were covered in rows of colourful glyphs and drawings. Renso waved his flashlight over one of them. It was a detailed drawing of a man riding across the stars on the back of what Renso thought looked like a mountain lion, a puma to be precise. Renso tilted the light up to a series of interlocking pointed circles carved across the grotto’s arch.
    ‘What is this place?’
    ‘Renso? Is that you?’ Jack grinned, as he finally grasped who was with him. ‘Renso, I’m so glad to see you. I thought you went down with your plane.’ Jack lifted his hand, caressing his friend’s rough beard.
    ‘I’m happy to see you too, Jack, and I did go down with my plane, only not all the way to the ground, thank God.’ Jack handed him back the canteen. ‘But we need to move, Jack. We’ve not got much time.’
    ‘Time for what?’ Jack stood up, instantly feeling dazed, confused and nauseated again. What the hell was he wearing? He held up the sleeves of an embroidered tunic, the wool itching his skin. His legs were covered in scratches, long sharp claw-like scratches, blood was dripping from a cut on his arm, and all the way from his ankles to his groin his skin was covered in thin red lines, like rope burns.
    Renso helped Jack to his feet, guiding him along a ledge towards the shortest section of the rock that he had climbed down.
    Jack looked up. They were about ten metres inside the mountain.
    Without warning, a thunderous rumbling shook the entire basin. Jack pitched forward. Renso grabbed him and pinned him against the wall until the tremor settled.
    ‘This volcano is about to blow again, Jack. I don’t know how you got down here or what you were doing with that… that animal over there, that’s none of my business,’ Renso pointed back to the grotto at what was curled beneath the blanket with Jack.
    ‘We’ve got to get out of here. Now!’
    Suddenly a geyser of black steam exploded up through the mountain, firing chunks of flaming rock out through the top, pelting Jack and Renso as they shuffled towards their way up. Renso half-carried, half-dragged Jack to where he’d left his rope. The air was thick with tar and sulphur.
    ‘Renso, we should dance and then we should have a drink and then… who knows.’ Jack chuckled, grabbing and shaking his friend’s hand.
    ‘My friend, I don’t know much about what happened during these last few hours, but one thing I do know. You, Jack Harkness, are stoned.’
    ‘I thought you died, Renso,’ exclaimed Jack. ‘I’m so glad you didn’t.’
    ‘No thanks to you,’ said Renso, wrapping his rope round Jack’s waist and tying it off in two thick knots. ‘You were a man possessed this morning. Eyes bleeding, weird sounds coming from your mouth and then you attacked me. You leapt over into the cockpit and you tried to snap my wrist, ended up tearing the hell out of my skin.’ Renso held up his wrist, showing Jack three raw patches where his skin had been scratched away. ‘Then you knocked me out.’ Renso tested that the rope around Jack’s waist was secure. ‘Next thing I know, you’re flying through the sky like a bloody big bird and my Hornet is about to meet the mountain.’
    Jack grabbed Renso’s shoulders, pulled him forward and tried to kiss him.
    Renso slapped him upside the head. ‘Jack, no time. I’m going up to the top and then I’ll pull you out.’
    ‘I can climb. I’m a seasoned climber. I once raced Hilary to a summit… now where was that? Wasn’t Everest, I know that.’
    ‘You’re in no condition to climb without my help. Stay here.’ Renso pushed Jack against the wall.
    ‘Just for a few more minutes. OK? I’ll get you out of here soon.’
    ‘Okee dokee, my fine fine friend,’ Jack