62

Jackson stood outside the cabin looking at the Zs.

Taddy was right, the clever ones were trying the door and one of them was actually trying to lever the window open with a hunk of metal from somewhere. He turned his head to find Nelly beside him in clicker mode, her mother still forming nearby.

He did not have to look behind himself to know the Twins were approaching, the Zs scattering with snarls and weird yapping noises told him that. His Not Twin was far off in the distance waiting to lure the Zs away with Stephen and Kitty on motorbikes.

They took off on the bikes making loud bellows that soon had the snarl on their back bumpers, those at the cabin not so easy to shake. They ignored the others and were more interested in getting into the cabin.

"What are you doing?" Nelly asked one and it swung to stare at her, making a noise of alarm. She looked into its eyes and saw intelligence in there. She was afraid, let the bond feel it as she stepped back and it swung for her, his hand going through her like smoke.

Then it looked at its hand with wonderment and tired again, and then to her shock… it laughed.

The others turned to see what he was laughing at and they surrounded her, giving the others a chance to knock politely on the door "Excuse me… are you OK in there?"

The door opened a crack and a woman peered out as her husband told her to shut the fucking door. She looked at the twins who stood hand in hand like little orphans, staring back at her. Autumn spoke again "We are not here to hurt you. Jessica and Stan are with us now, they told us you might be here. We just want to help."

"Oh my god… you were at the village" she said as she opened the door to let them in and they took in the dark interior and the smell of fear.

"We have to get you out of here. Nelly has them entertained, her mother Marley can help move them to the side of the house. When they move… you need to jump on the bikes hauling arse past here in a few minutes, we will cause more distraction for you." Auburn said, his dislike for speaking making his Welsh accent more distinctive.

"They are not attacking you" Emma said with interest.

"And they won't. They are afraid of us" the young lady explained with a shrug "there are some monsters worse than others. And we are top of the food chain."

"And where do we sit on your food chain?" the old man asked gruffly, and then he heard such melodic childish laughter from the twins.

"We don't eat humans" they both said in unison "We eat the same food as you. We are you just… more."

"OK" the woman said as she pushed things into a backpack and looked over at her husband who had only an old bible in his hands.

Autumn canted her head as she regarded it and he opened it to show her a gun hidden in the pages as he explained "It was the only way to hide it from the Boss. It was my father's."

"You will not need it but we will not take it from you" she assured him "come on… I hear them coming."

They exploded from the cottage and onto the back of the bikes, taking off with the woman looking back with horror as the two pretty young things waved and turned to watch the Zs coming.

"Oh my god, we left them… Simon, we left those kids behind" she called out with raw fear.

"Don't worry… they will stop them so we can get a good range in front" Kitty yelled over her shoulder "We are fine."

Hope then chose this time to swing the Torchwood down over the snarl, making them scatter as she dumped water on them from one of the fire bags. She was enjoying herself as they lost their footing and then she rose to swing away, surprised to find one hanging onto the bag.

With a shrug she let the huge ship drop to the ground, squashing the thing like a bug, then with maniacal laughter she rose again and watched it fall gracefully into the snarl.

"HOPE! GROSS!" Nelly called out with her hands on her hips as a Z tried to slide around her and she snarled at it, making it shrink back.

As the bikes rose over the ridge away form the snarl and out of sight of the Shitheads, Emma looked back once more and felt relief as the snarl seemed confused, milling in the spot they had been in.

"Where are they" she called out "The redheads… where are they."

"Beside us" came the reply and she looked at the two huge red dogs lopping along with tongues out, then a large black one splitting them as he ran though as well. The white one the largest of all and clearly the fastest as he powered along and Emma watched with wonder as some sort of… black mist seemed to roll around it like a bad smell in a cartoon.

But she didn't feel afraid.

Her only fear was for her sons.

Her only reason for going with these… creatures… was the fact the Zs seemed afraid of them. And maybe the Boss would be too.

Maybe these things can save her sons.