A/N: Hello!

Cheers for the reviews to the last chapter.

No more to be said, really, except...

On with it, then...

Disclaimer: I do not own skins. Pretty much it. Any and all typos...deal with it!

(Naomi POV)

My knuckles ached. Scratch that, my hands ached, full stop. They hadn't let go of the steering wheel once I almost lost control of the Jeep rounding the corner onto the road that led us out of Bristol. The small city I had grown up in was being systematically destroyed, in the daylight, by those horrible giant creatures.

"What...I thought...they only...came at night?!" Emily stammered, a look of horror on her face.

"Apparently not!" I replied, taking a brief look in the rear-view mirror. The sky was filling with smoke, and my heart was pounding in my chest as I kept control of the Jeep as best as I could. "Fuck!" I muttered, scared out of my wits. "It's gone, isn't it?"

Emily turned her head to look out of the window. "Yeah." She said, that wobbly tone creeping back into her voice. I knew she was scared. So was I. "Don't you dare stop!" She pleaded.

I shook my head. "Not until we get back to the tunnel, I promise." I kept my eyes on the road, and suddenly, rubble began to rain down in front of us. There were large chunks of broken brick that were almost bouncing off the road in front of us, some of which were hitting the Jeep itself. "Emily! Pull your head in, yeah?" I said, and quick smart, she did. "Wind up the window." I added, as I rushed to wind up my own. Once they were both up, the hum of the engine was all we heard, along with the metallic clank of smaller chunks of rubble that were hitting the bonnet. I out my foot down on the accelerator harder, and the Jeep hit its top speed, both of my hands back on the wheel, gripping it tightly and careful not to make any sudden movements. Emily screamed as a large chunk of what was possibly once a building slammed into a tree ahead of us, causing the tree to topple over, the roots barely holding it as it crashed to the road in front of us. "HOLD ON!" I shouted, jerking the steering wheel from side to side in order to swerve around it, picking up more speed once our direction had been corrected.

A few minutes later, we had passed under a bridge, and the smoke and dust around us began to clear, and all I could do was keep my eyes on the road ahead. We were still flying along the road at top speed, and now we had made it out of the city limits, Emily turned back to look again. She rolled down the window, even though I protested for her not to, and took her phone out of her pocket, which she must have charged while we were at Gina's. "Be bloody careful!" I said. "I haven't come this far to lose you due to stupidity."

She nodded, and half hung out of the window, taking photos of the destruction behind us. I wasn't sure how many shots she had taken, or even if they would be any good, at this speed and inertia, but it was something she felt she had to do, and I was too busy concentrating on the road ahead to object. Soon enough, though, she pulled her head back into the cab of the truck and wound the window up. She put the phone back into her pocket, and remained catatonically silent for the rest of the journey.

Soon enough, we had made it to the railroad tracks, and I stopped the Jeep to turn onto them. All this destruction in the past thirty some hours, and I was waiting for a bloody train to pass...that was never going to come. It was Emily's hand on my shoulder that jolted me into movement, squeezing gently. I looked at her pleading eyes staring back at me, as if to say "you promised you would keep me safe."

So, I did. I turned onto those tracks and carefully drove the Jeep back into the tunnel, until the lights illuminated the four people we had left behind. Finally, the brakes squeaked as the truck came to a halt, and I shut the motor off, the lights still shining.

Effy stood up first, looking towards the vehicle, and even from the distance between us, I could see that she knew something terrible had happened. Katie jumped up next, moving towards the a Jeep, before Effy held her back.

"What the fuck, Effy?" She said, her raspy lisp muffled by the closed windows of the Jeep.

"Wait." I saw, more than heard Effy say.

I was there, but I wasn't. It was that sense you have of being zoned out when everyone is talking to you, and your mind is blank and you have that sound of white noise ringing in your ears. But me, I had one thought in my head that would not leave in a hurry.

"It's my fault." I muttered, as I barely registered the tear that slipped down my cheek.

"What?" Emily said, so softly I almost missed it.

"Thomas. It's my fault he's dead." I mumbled. "If we hadn't gone for supplies-"

I felt Emily's hand cover mine as it still sat on the steering wheel. "You weren't to know, Naomi. It's nobody's fault. It's just shitty luck."

"Shitty luck." I laughed, without humour. "Right. Thomas escaped hell in his own country, to be skewered by a fucking alien. Shitty luck. Of course." The tone of my voice was as light as it was blunt and bitter. "Jesus fucking Christ."

Emily pulled my hand off the steering wheel and held it, nnit so tightly that it hurt but enough to let me know it was safe. "Naomi, you did what you thought was right. You were thinking of all of us."

"They never attacked in the day before." I said. "Maybe it's hopeless, trying to stay alive. Maybe we should just-"

"Shut up! I won't hear you say we should lay down and die, Naomi." Emily said.

"But Thomas...and Freddie..."

"Freddie made his own choice, Naomi. It's not your fault he committed suicide." She continued. "It's sad, but that was all him. And Thomas... Well, when you've gotta go, you've gotta go."

"What?"

"He had to pee. Maybe he couldn't hold it that long." She shrugged. "He wasn't to know a twenty foot alien was going to rise up from behind the trees and turn him into a shish kebab."

I looked over at Emily, who was trying to hide a smirk. I guess I was looking at her in surprised shock at her comment, because she started to laugh, even though an embarrassed blush covered her cheeks. And, laughter being infectious, I began to laugh too, and then neither of us could really stop, until my door was opened, and Effy's blue eyes looked at us with curiosity.

"Share the joke?" She asked.

I shook my head, calming myself down. "It's not funny, you wouldn't understand."

She nodded. "What happened?"

I sighed, the heaviness returning to my composure. "Do you want the good news, the bad news, or the worse news?" I asked.

"Maybe you'd better tell us all." Gina said, appearing behind Effy.

I nodded. "Yeah. Probably." I said, unbuckling the seatbelt and getting out of the Jeep.

We had gathered a few minutes later, around a small fire that Cook had made by venturing out of the tunnel and finding some loose sticks and kindling. It was warm, at least, and the four of them now looked up at both myself and Emily with both dread and curiosity.

"Where's Thomas?" Katie asked.

Emily and I looked at each other. "Dead." I said.

"Did you kill him?" The other twin asked.

I rolled my eyes. "Of course not! I'm not a fucking murderer!" I said, in disgust.

"Jesus, Katie..." Emily said.

Katie shrugged. "Well, I dunno you from a bar of soap, really, so..."

I sighed. "We went back to mum's for the rest of the stuff...the generator and the bedding. You remember that supermarket we passed on the way here?"

"Aye, by the service station." Cook said. "But it was closed?"

"Yeah, it was. I was thinking ahead. The food we had wasn't enough to keep us gong for long. And we'd need other supplies. Water and such. So... I smashed the window with the axe, and we went shopping."

"Naomi!" Gina said, In shock.

"Mum, the world has gone to shit, and you're going to give me grief about getting supplies?"

"But, stealing is wrong!"

"Oh, fuck's sake! It's not like we held up the joint with bloody shotguns, yeah? There were no staff, the place hadn't even opened and the entire town was deserted. What did you want me to do, wait for the afternoon shift to show up?!" Emily placed her hand on my shoulder to calm me down, as I threaded my fingers through my hair. "We got as a much as we could. Food, and water. Enough to keep us for a while, anyways. After that... I noticed the fuel gauge on the Jeep was getting low, so we drove over the road to the service station. We took six jerry cans from the supermarket also, and filed them up with fuel and kerosene for the bloody generator." I explained.

"Then what?" Effy asked.

"We heard noises." Emily said.

"What, a giant brass band?" Katie scoffed.

"Worse. Explosions."

"Explosions?" Gina asked.

I nodded. "Thomas had gone to relieve himself under some trees...and I told Emily to get the jerry cans in the back of the Jeep. I told Thomas to hurry up as we both got back into the truck... And then..." I trailed off, feeling the blood drain from my face. I closed my eyes tightly.

It was Effy who spoke next. "They move in the daylight, don't they?" She said, in her cautious monotone.

Sadly, I nodded. "One of those creatures...rose up behind the trees. I yelled at Thomas to run as I started the engine, and as he was running...it got him." I said. "Skewered him right through the chest." The words fell from my lips in a hoarse whisper as the vivid memory of his arms and legs flailing in spasms as he died played in my mind.

"We barely made it out." Emily said, quietly. "Bristol is gone."

"Oh my god." Gina said. "You were right."

"I'm sorry." I said.

"It's not your fault, Blondie." Cook said.

"That's what I told her." Emily said. "She wasn't to know those things were going to be active."

"Emily's right." Katie said. "Don't blame yourself. You did the right thing."

"Letting Thomas be killed?"

"No..." Katie said. "Thinking ahead."

"Oh, well...thanks. You'll have to forgive me, though, none of the food we picked up was organic or healthy." I said, sarcastically.

"Bitch." Katie snapped.

"Fuck you!" I snapped back.

"ALRIGHT!" Gina said. "Let's not argue about what we can't change, girls."

I stood up. "Someone want to give me a hand to get this stuff out of the truck?" I said, walking back towards it.

A few hours later, we had everything out of the truck, and with a little direction from Gina, we had made a nice little makeshift camp for ourselves. Emily was still sticking to me like glue for some reason, but I didn't seem to mind so much, I guess going through terror like what we had been through unites people in some way. Once we had unloaded everything, and Effy was taking the last of the water containers to the small storage area Gina had set up, I sat on the folded out ledge of the Jeep and stretched my neck. I closed my eyes, exhaling slowly, enjoying a small moment of peace, until Emily cleared her throat beside me. I opened my eyes, and looked over at her. She had tied her hair up, and had a spot of dirt on her nose, which in reached up and rubbed off. She looked at me strangely.

"Dirt." I said.

"Oh." She replied, with a shy smile. "Gina is making tea if you want some."

"Mmm. Tea would be good, right now."

"Well, go get some, then!" She said, nudging me gently.

"What about you?" I asked, getting off the ledge.

"Don't worry about me. I've got something I want to do." She said. "But, you go...you look like you could do with something to ease you a little."

I nodded. "Ok. Don't stray too far though, yeah?"

She shook her head. "I won't."

I walked towards the fire, and Gina looked up at me with a smile. "Tea, love?"

"Yeah. Sounds good." I said, sitting down on an upturned crate that Cook had also found while looking for wood. Gina poured me a cup of tea and handed it to me, and I relished the warmth of it in my hands.

"How are you feeling?"

"A little better." I said, once it had sipped the warm tea. It had no milk, but it didn't seem to matter much. It was the warmth of it working its way down to my stomach that mattered the most. "At least we are safe...for now."

Gina nodded. "It's really gone, then?" She said. "Bristol."

"I'm afraid so, mum." I replied. "Emily and I were lucky to get back here alive. Luckier than Thomas, anyway."

"He was a lovely boy." Gina said. "So gently spoken. He told me last night...about his mother and his siblings. He was very worried about them."

"Yeah, that's what he told us. And that was before the world went to shite."

The two of us were silent for a few minutes, before my mum spoke again. "Naomi?"

"Yeah?"

"In case something happens... I want you to know...no matter what I've put you through... The lodgers... Worrying whether I'd be home from a protest... I've always loved you. I hope you know that."

I looked at the older blue eyes that mirrored mine and nodded. "Yeah, I know." I said. "I love you too, mum. Always have. Even when I was being a moody twat."

Effy sat down and came to join us. "Well, the good news is, you guys picked up enough food to last us longer than just a couple of days."

I nodded. "Thomas's life was worth it, then?"

"If you want to put it that way."

"And Cook says he saw a patch of trees while he was out collecting firewood...at the other end of the tunnel. I think we should block up one end of the tunnel, if we can. It'll cut down on the wind going through it, anyway. It might get pretty chilly around here at night."

"What time is it?" I asked.

"A little after two." Effy said. "We are a ways from anything major. And this tunnel is fairly hidden. I don't think we are in any real danger here, but..."

"It's a good idea, love." Gina said. "I might go and see if he needs a hand scouting around."

"Be careful. Don't stray too far. If you see or hear anything... Run. Don't stop until you get back here." I said.

"I will, dear." She said, getting up and walking away.

I finished my cup of tea and placed it onto the gravel beside me. " How are you doing, Eff?" I asked.

She shrugged. "Same as everyone else, I guess. World having gone to shit and all." She said. "I have a bad feeling."

"Yeah?"

She nodded. "Tony. And Anthea."

I sighed. "I'd like to be optimistic for you, Eff. I really would."

"They were in Barcelona, Naoms." She conceded.

"I know." I said. "I'm sorry."

"Can't be helped."

"There are a lot of old buildings there, though... Maybe they-"

"No." Effy stated. "You know how I get with feelings, Naomi. The hunches."

I looked at her, noting the look of realisation in her eyes. Truth was, I did know about the feelings she sometimes got, and that more often than not, she was right. "Oh."

"Yeah."

"Are you ok?" I asked.

"Not much I can do about it. I've got to deal with it like Emily and Katie have to."

I nodded. "Right."

"Speaking of... Heads up." Effy said, nodding in the direction of the Jeep. I looked towards it to see Emily walking towards the both of us. "I'll leave you to it." She whispered, discreetly making herself scarce.

"Eff!" I said, as Emily's footsteps got closer. I turned to see her standing in front of me. I smiled politely. "Hey."

She returned my smile with a shy one of her own. "Hey. I've got a surprise for you."

"Oh?"

She held her hand out to me. "Yeah. C'mon, I'll show you." I took her hand and she pulled me up onto my feet, and I let her lead me to the back of the Jeep. She opened the back hatches, to reveal two pillows and a duvet spread out over the floor. "It's not much, nor exactly five star...but... You were good with me last night, so... I wanted to give you a safe haven to sleep, too." She said. "I know it's not the same as your own bed, but..."

Wow, I thought to myself. "I love it." I said, climbing in and crawling towards the pillows. I laid down and saw that it wasn't as uncomfortable as I thought it would be. "Thank you, Emily."

The blush that covered her cheeks almost matched her hair, and it was adorable, lit by the cab light of the Jeep itself. She climbed in behind me and shut the hatches, blocking out the heat while the pig stayed lit. She settled herself on her back next to me and tilted her head towards me. "I thought you would like it." She said, quietly. "I thought...that..."

My brow furrowed. "What?"

She sighed. "I thought we could use a space to ourselves. We've been through quite a bit, and..." She turned to me and shuffled closer. "Right now I seem to feel safest when you have your arms around me, so..."

"Oh." I said. Her arm slid around my waist, and I pulled her body closer to mine. It was strangely natural, how we just seemed to fold into each other. She felt so good against me, so warm, tender and alive... The both of us had seen so much death in such a short space of time that in this quiet moment, we clung to each other almost desperately. I felt her lips against my neck, softly kissing me. Again, so tender that in some way, it almost hurt.

"I should be thanking you..." She said, the quiet rasp of her husky voice against my neck.

"What for?" I asked.

"Saving my life. Keeping me together. Keeping me safe like you promised." She said, as she looked into my eyes.

"I did what was right, Emily. I couldn't leave you to die." I said, kissing her forehead. "Any of you, really."

She shuffled closer. "Christ. I feel like I can't get close enough to you." She muttered. "I feel like I need you. Sorry...if I'm a bit clingy."

I shook my head, threading my fingers through her fringe. "Don't be. I...feel like I need you, too. It's comforting, you know? It's like the world just became unforgiving, and even though I have my best friend, and my mum with me..." I sighed. "You being here too makes it all worth it."

"Really?"

I nodded. "Yeah." I whispered. "I'm glad you're here. I mean... I'm exhausted, and I don't know what tomorrow is going to bring to us, and I'm literally shit scared of that, but-"

Emily's lips met mine and she kissed me softly, probably to stop me from rambling, I couldn't tell. All I felt was the emotion running through it as her lips moved against mine, as her arms pulled me impossibly closer. It was without hesitation that I returned the kiss, the movement becoming deeper as a small fluttering began low in my stomach. Eventually, when the two of us lacked air, our lips parted, and Emily rested her head on my shoulder as she caught her breath. "Can I ask you something?" She said.

"Sure."

"Back in Chiswick...you told Katie you fancied me. Was that true...or where you just trying to keep things light?" Emily asked, her eyes searching mine.

I watched those eyes close as I lightly traced my fingertips down the side of her face, before leaning in to kiss her lips softly. "I was telling the truth." I said, softly, as her eyes opened again. "Bit hard to seduce you while the world is going to shit, though." I said, with a slight smirk. "I do fancy you. You're cute. And if the world was different, and we'd met in a club, I might've taken you home with me... Who knows? But now... I'm not going to say I don't, and it wouldn't be nice, because I do, and it would. I think I have as much a need as you do...to be near you."

"Yeah... I know what you mean. You have really beautiful eyes, by the way."

I smiled. "Oh, I think that's the nicest thing that's been said to me in the past few hours."

"Hmm." Emily murmured. "Your friend...Effy. She thinks something is going on with us, doesn't she?"

I sighed. "Effy sees things sometimes. It's like a gift she has. She's good with it, too. She knew I liked you... Back at Waterloo. I knew it too, but... There was so much going on, I was more concerned with getting us out of there safely."

"I know."

"Whatever happens happens, Emily. We feel safe around each other, that's a start. And it is rather nice having you in my arms." I said.

"Yeah, it's nice being in your arms. Comforting."

I paused, briefly. "Forgive me for asking... Wouldn't you rather spend time with Katie? I mean..."

"Seeing as she's the only family I have left?"

"Well, yeah..."

"Katie needs some time to herself when she is moody. She hasn't said anything, but I can tell she is, she's my twin... I don't really have to ask."

"Oh, you mean like how they say twins can sense each other?"

Emily nodded. "Yeah, it's not just hearsay. It's true."

"Right."

"Besides... I think she's jealous of you. That's why she snaps at you." She smirked.

"Jealous...of me?"

"Yeah... She gets jealous of those who she feels threatened by...she always has when it comes to me. She thinks you are going to take me from her."

"That's ridiculous!" I said. "We've only just met."

"Yeah, we both know that. But...she feels threatened easily. I think it's worse now, because... I'm all she has left." Emily explained. "She doesn't seem to understand that I'll always be her sister, and I'll always love her as long as I'm alive."

Silence fell between us as I held Emily close to me. It was nice to just share some peaceful downtime with her, even if we were uncertain about the future. It was like the literal calm in the storm... The tranquil island setting in the midst of the flood.

"It's peaceful." Emily whispered.

"Yeah." I replied, gently stroking my fingertips along her arm. "It is."

Emily's hand reached for mine, and our palms met. Her hand rotated and then her fingers slipped between the spaces in mine, and closed over the back of my hand. Her eyes met mine, and she was saying more with them than she could with words. I squeezed her hand tightly as she leaned closer and kissed me slowly, our joined hands falling between us as the tingly feeling inside me grew more. Her tongue slid across my lips, and I parted them to allow her entry, the soft warm muscle massaging mine. I lost myself to the interaction between us, and if I hadn't been lying down, I might have felt as though I was falling as the kiss deepened further.

I felt the soft vibration of her whimper into the shared kiss, and my head leaned against hers as our lips parted again, and my immediate unconscious action was to bite my bottom lip. "I really...really like kissing you." I whispered, softly.

"I like kissing you, too..." Emily replied, her nose rubbing against mine.

I sighed, deeply. "Can we just freeze this moment? Stay here forever and forget the troubles of the outside world?" I said, quietly.

Emily smiled, as she closed her eyes. "Mmm...that would be perfect."

"Yeah...that was why I suggested it." I said, returning her smile.

Her smile faded, though, as she noticed movement outside the Jeep. "I don't think we are going to get that luxury, somehow..."

I sat up as a knock came on the Jeep window...

A/N: I wonder who is ruining the tranquility?

Tune in next update to find out!

Until then...

~GN~ xo