The Apocalypse Starts at 6PM (audio story)

 was the fourth audio story in Among Us 3.

Publisher's summary
Janet's Late Teatime is the TV equivalent of a cup of soup and a lapful of kittens. So when Torchwood announce the world will end on tomorrow night's show – well, what's Janet going to do?

Plot
Janet's Late Teatime is interrupted by a message from Torchwood informing the public that the apocalypse starts at 6pm tomorrow and Janet receives a telephone call afterwards telling her the same thing. The organisation releases statements about how the government is using the Internet to kill people, Orr and Tyler convince people to tear down mobile masts by claiming that they are activating chips placed inside people by vaccines and Yvonne claims to have been detained for knowing about how WiFi can control people. Although Janet disavows these claims, the public come to believe that she founded Torchwood and several members of her team turn off their WiFi.

Friend, inhabiting the body of Tommy Jenkins, ensures that Janet does not bring up Torchwood whilst it is on the show by threatening her with footage of her standing over her injured aunt for three minutes before calling an ambulance and by setting up an offshore account in her name. Before the show, Yvonne kidnaps her and states that Torchwood will be appearing on the show to expose Friend's killing of Hakan Amine, the Phlobos scandal, Voloshnik, Friend's bioweapon and the truth of Tommy. Janet informs the police afterwards, but they do not believe her and Orr gets her out by posing as her lawyer.

A misunderstanding leads to Janet being accused of speaking at a Torchwood rally and she gets a taxi driven by Mr Colchester, who encourages him to let Torchwood on her show and lets Tyler inside to ask Janet to do Torchwood this one favour. A gunshot is fired on the street and Ng, Janet's new personal assistant, gets her to Porchester Studios, where armed security forces are waiting to capture the leader of Torchwood. Convinced by the day's events that Torchwood has a lot of explaining to do, she announces that they will be welcome on her show despite realising that she is jeopardising her career and is told by Friend that humanity will indeed be ending.

Yvonne appears on the show and Friend reveals it will be sending out a pulse through the Internet to activate its bioweapons and wipe out most of humanity, with those remaining being under its direct control to mine for cryptocurrency to be sold to other worlds. However, Torchwood have convinced people to burn down phone masts and tear up Internet cables and Rhys has used Deadcoin to purchase media servers, meaning that everybody streaming Janet's Late Teatime is doing so through three strained computers. Mr Colchester and Tyler blow up the transatlantic pipeline for the Internet, preventing Friend's pulse being sent and making it leave Tommy's body.

Gwen releases a magenta scrubber to erase all information on Torchwood from the Internet and Friend downloads itself into a backup host. It tells Joseph Alonso Jenkins that the fight is just beginning.

Cast

 * Janet - Janet Ellis
 * Yvonne Hartman - Tracy-Ann Oberman
 * Orr - Samantha Béart
 * Mr Colchester - Paul Clayton
 * Tyler - Jonny Green
 * Ng - Alexandria Riley
 * Friend - Mia Hope
 * Chris - Jhon Lumsden
 * Rhys - Kai Owen
 * The Ensemble - Helena Breck, Al Coppola, Eva Eklof, Matthew Foster, Victoria Gee, Adam Howden, Jade Matthew, Sally Walker-Taylor

Worldbuilding

 * Margaret has been making a margarine statue of Gemma Collins.
 * Janet mentions Bono and Sting.
 * Ng becomes Janet's personal assistant.
 * George and Bethany work for Janet.
 * Gyles Brandreth is booked for the show.
 * Bethany reads Janet a message written in Comic Sans.
 * Janet once had Hugh Grant on the show with hydrangeas.
 * Janet keeps an emergency bottle of prosecco.
 * George Ezra and the Muppets once sang Janet "Happy Birthday".
 * Janet is asked questions by GBTV.
 * Janet's Late Teatime is filmed at Porchester Studios.
 * Dawn French once knocked over a wedding cake on Janet's show.
 * Janet mentions Jason Bourne.
 * Janet has Little Mix on the show.
 * Gwen told Rhys that he would not manage to say a line of technobabble.
 * Gwen releases a magenta scrubber to erase the episode of Janet's Late Teatime and information on Torchwood from the Internet.
 * Yvonne tells Janet about the Doctor, believing they would have filled the streets with hope rather than anger as she did.

Continuity

 * Torchwood’s involvement in the Cardiff tsunami is mentioned, with accounts disagreeing over whether they caused or tried to stop it. (AUDIO: Eye of the Storm)
 * Tommy appeared to recover from brain death after an experimental treatment. (AUDIO: Moderation)
 * Chris is dead but his personality is still being used online. (AUDIO: Doomscroll)
 * Yvonne mentions the experiments at the council estate in Wales. (AUDIO: Aliens Next Door)