By Sharon Shaw
“D’you think those walls will hold?” Tina didn’t move from her position, but her left hand tweaked the net curtain aside just enough to see whether there was movement in the garden. There wasn’t, of course. There hadn’t been all day.
“They’ll hold.” Jack squinted at the tines of the rake and scrubbed hard again at an invisible spot of rust. She was meticulous about keeping the few potential advantages they had in immaculate condition. Tina had been on the wrong end of her wrath once when Jack found a break in the perimeter wall they’d spent so long setting up. Tina had been in charge of patching any damage. Now, Rob was.
Jack looked up at Tina. “They’ll hold,” she said again, firmly. “He’s done a good job, Tee.”
Better than I did, Tina thought. The morning They’d discovered the breach had been hellish. When the first one got through, it had almost gone unnoticed. All three of them had been focused on a group down in the far corner, clawing on another section of the wall. Jack was in her usual position by the door, rake in hand, just waiting for one of them to give her a reason to run out and take them down one by one. Tina often wondered why she just didn’t. She wasn’t afraid; Tina was fairly certain of that.
No, it was likely Rob’s lecture on unnecessary risks that kept her in the relative safety of the house, day after day, watching. Night after night, now, too. Tina had nearly lost it when They starting coming after dark. They never had before. And now the weather had turned against them as well. The thick fog that had descended around lunch time made their task so much harder. At least before they could see Them.
“It’s going to be bad tonight,” Rob announced, coming into the room with a large bundle under his arm. He dumped it on the floor and the contents spilled out. “How we’re supposed to protect ourselves with nothing but these knackered old pea shooters, I’ve got no bloody idea!” He kicked the bag and Tina winced. They were all they had, and if they got damaged there was nothing between them and Them except Jack’s rake.
“Where’s Peter?” Tina asked, letting the curtain drop back into place.
“In the drive,” Rob said absently, sorting through the shooters in the bag. He was putting four of the smaller ones aside, Tina noticed. Just in case everything else ran out. “He keeps saying he’s got some stuff in the trunk of the car we might be able to make some use of.”
“What sort of stuff?”
“How the hell should I know?” Rob snapped. “If it was any good, surely he’d have given it to us by now? He’s completely crazy. You know that.”
She nodded. Her hand went to her pocket and toyed with the piece of paper she’d found earlier. She hadn’t mentioned it to Jack quite deliberately, she knew she’d get no understanding or sympathy from her. But Rob might get it. He had family somewhere; he would see why she was clinging to hope so fervently.
“Rob…this was in the garden.” She hesitated slightly when he looked up, then pulled the paper out and passed it to him. Jack shouldered the rake and glanced sharply at her. “I think…I mean, They might be genuine…They might really just want to communicate…”
“They don’t.” Jack’s tone was icy. “Tina, for God’s sake…”
Rob stared at the scrawl on the paper. “I think she’s right, Tee,” he said. He handed the paper back to her. “They don’t have any human thought left. I know you hoped you could get your sister back, but all they want to do is eat…”
“I know what they want to eat!” Tina snapped. She spun back to face the window, peering again through the gap in the curtain. The sky was darkening, and the fog seemed thicker than ever. “They’e coming,” she muttered, and from the garden, the moaning began, accompanied by the sudden and steady popping of peas.
“Wouldn’t take long,” whispered Jack. Tina glared at her.
“What did you say?” she demanded.
Jack threw her the rake. “I said it’s your turn. Get your ass out there and go gather resources.”
