Torchwood First Born (21 page)

He grabbed a large pair of scissors off the desk.

'It's something, isn't it, surely?'

Not a lot, as it turned out. I don't kn
OW
if you've ever tried to jimmy open a padlock from the wrong side of a door with a pair of kitchen scissors, but I can tell you for free that it's a non-starter.

After a few minutes we stood back, Tom sucking a small cut on his thumb.

'Well,' he sighed, 'that was a bit of a failure.'

'We could always try digging a tunnel,' I suggested.

Eloise didn't laugh. Odd woman. I mean... she'd killed someone. Not even for a reason that she believed in. But because she was scared. And it was like something was loose in her head, and if you shook her brain you'd hear something rattling. Not really the kind of woman you'd want unleashing a murderous alien life form on the planet. On balance.

Eloise stood up, pulling her hands out of her gilet pockets. She snatched the scissors from Tom's hand and marched over to an old sheet of join-the-dots clapboard fastened to one wall, stabbing into it again and again. Tom rolled his eyes. But Eloise was tearing away chunks of the board, revealing an old window.

She stood back, admiring her handiwork. 'There.'

She sounded pleased for the first time in hours. 'This was designed to keep people and sunlight out. Not as a prison. Now, I'm too old to go through, Gwen's liable to explode like a milk fountain, so here's the key to the padlock outside, Tom. Go crazy.'

'With my arm in a sling?' he protested.

Eloise nodded. 'Do your best.'

A few minutes later we stood on the darkened runway. What we really needed now was a plan.

Stupid Gwen. I'd had all that time to work one out, but I'd got nowhere. It was obvious that Sebastian needed to be stopped. Switch him off and the Scions would be without a leader. But how were we going to do that?

Eloise, though, seemed fired up with excitement, a gleam in her eyes that you could see in the dark.

'We're going to the hangar,' she announced.

We stood in front of the Juniper Tree. Its leaves tangled and rustled. At the base of the tree was a curled-up figure, mostly moss and leaf, but still wearing traces of a suit.

'Oh god,' wailed Tom. 'Sebastian.'

Eloise nodded, but dismissed it. Her brain had hardened like a politician's. She was drawing a line and moving on.

I went over to the body and knelt down as close as I could. The skin was green, but turning rapidly brown, crackling like old paper. There was still an expression of gentle calm on the face. I felt sad looking at it.

Eloise crossed over to a small bench beside the Tree. It was cluttered with equipment that may as well have been labelled 'Science'. Some of it looked like it had been there for over twenty years, but in amongst it all was a shiny new laptop. She stroked it fondly.

'Sebastian, the real one, was always afraid to use this,' she said, with a sad smile. She worried away at some wiring, grinning. 'It communicates with the Juniper Tree, with its creators. Sebastian always said he didn't really need to talk to them to know what their intentions were. I don't know how you'd describe the Juniper Tree best... a space probe, I guess. But this could chat with it directly. It's based on the technology we used to genetically re-engineer the Scions. But it can use the Tree to relay a message.

To phone home.'

'How long before they reply?' asked Tom. 'And what the hell would you say to them?'

Eloise flashed all of her wonderful American teeth. 'Ahhh, well, there's only ever been one thing to say,' she said, dusting off a microphone and plugging it in to the laptop. It hummed with a warmth of feedback that caused the Juniper Tree to stir loudly.

She tapped the microphone and the Tree rustled.

There was an air of expectation. Then Eloise spoke.

'We have your children.'

Convoy! We were on our way, stepping out of the pub. Some people had even got wheelie luggage, the buggers. No one in the history of the world has ever made a stealthy getaway with luggage on wheels. I was carrying a baby in a papoose along with a bag of nappies, and I was a ninja by comparison.

It felt weird leading the charge, but someone had to do it. And it would be me. Well, me and Nerys.

'Come on, yeah?' she said, holding the door open until all the hot air rushed out of the pub. 'Let's get a move on.' She looked magnificent. I'd forgotten how much I missed seeing a Welsh lass in war paint.

'Andalay! Andalay!' she cried, grabbing hold of someone's luggage.

There'd been talk of forming a committee. Of hiring a bus. Of trying to see if we could get through to anyone in authority. The shoddy realisation that PC Tony Brown had already left the village told us all we needed to know. There'd be no help on the way. We were on our own.

It helped that most people were either pissed or in shock. There'd been a small fight between a couple of people over whether or not it had really been that great an idea to pour most of a bottle of vodka down poor Davydd, but he'd stopped projectile vomiting so at least it wasn't so much of a problem getting someone to share a car with him.

I wondered, briefly, if Moses had it like this when they headed out into the Red Sea. 'I mean, yeah, OK, so Pharaoh may be chasing after us, but I was wondering if we shouldn't just do something about food. I know Paddy's got a few pizzas in the freezer out the back. We could warm them up no trouble...'

Give me strength.

What I really mean by that is Give Me Gwen.

Anwen slept cautiously, waking up occasionally to loudly complain at the absence of her mother. I knew just how she felt.

'Can't you shut her up?' snapped someone. 'It's like a siren.'

'This is what real babies are like,' I growled, more angrily than I'd meant. I stopped, feeling a bit guilty.

Not the time.

So, we started to weave our way out of the pub.

They waited until we were all on the green before they started advancing towards us.

Thing about a small Welsh village, not much street lighting - just the stars. And the glowing eyes of a dozen alien kids. They started to march across the village green, scything through the flowers. All together. Coming our way.

Someone screamed. Someone fell over.

'Everyone back to the pub!' I yelled. Somewhere inside my head, I found that funny. But it really, really wasn't.

'We have your children.'

Even standing in the hangar, the reaction was immense. The rustling of the Juniper Tree became an agitated murmuring. There was a nervous tang in the air. I had the horrible feeling that we had the Tree's full attention, and it was far from happy.

'Listen,' said Eloise, her voice defiant, 'and pass this message on. We have your children. They are under our control. We don't want to harm them. But they may be in danger.' She paused and addressed the tree. 'And tell them about us. Tell them about the humans as a species and about what we are using their children for.'

The leaves rustled and stirred like a storm was coming.

Eloise stood back. 'There,' she said, pleased. 'I wonder what will happen next.'

I felt appallingly worried. I wasn't a trained xenobiologist, but I knew damn well how I'd feel if someone rang me up to say they'd got Anwen and were experimenting on her. My reaction wouldn't be all that rational. I don't believe I'd think it through.

And thank god Rhys didn't have any nuclear warheads.

One of the things that happened next was that Sebastian came in. He'd changed out of the suit.

Or grown a different one. It was more like an army uniform. His face had changed as well. The neatly combed hair was now shaved to stubble, the placidly handsome face was sharper. And he looked angry.

Ever so angry.

If he looked like a military commander, he behaved more like the spoiled kid who finds someone playing with his toys. 'Why did you do that?' he demanded.

Eloise turned around. 'Sebastian,' she said softly,

'I... need to get us help.'

'Why?'

'Because... because I've made a mistake,' Eloise halted, standing up to him with all she could. 'Oh, I am so genuinely sorry. You're not... I'm afraid of you.'

Sebastian took this with a dangerous calm. 'You made me this way,
Mother.
I am supposed to be a military leader. I have my army. My orders are clear.'

'Really?' Eloise looked alarmed. 'I made you, but I didn't give you orders.'

'No,' sneered Sebastian, 'but Jasmine did. Your function ended as soon as you birthed me. Jasmine now deals directly with me. She has issued me with orders and I am fulfilling them.'

'What orders?'

Sebastian paused. For a second his face wore the smugness of a child going 'I've got a secret.' Then his lips thinned. 'The village is finished. I am ordered to rationalise it. To close it down. So I have decided that everyone is going to die.'

They started hammering on the door of the pub. We were trying to block it with a fruit machine, but then there were the windows to fasten and the back door to bolt and...

Look, it was a stupid zombie movie situation.

Then it went quiet. That was worse.

All of us, huddled together - the few dozen people of Rawbone, clustered in heaps, waiting. Some were crying quietly. Some were just ashen. Nerys had lit a fag. Josh was helping a semi-comatose Davydd, putting his head between his knees.

Anwen started to wail. People stared at me.

'What?' I said. It's not like they don't know we're in here.'

Then I understood why Anwen was crying. It swept across the room - a wave of thought, pressing down on us like a rush of water. The children didn't need to get in. They could just walk into our minds.

Other voices joined in with Anwen's, crying out in fear. Mrs Harries stood up, shaking, shouting that we had to try and think positive thoughts or something - but that was obviously doomed. The negative always wins out.

Paddy and Nerys were screaming at each other at the bar. Paddy was yelling: 'They can't get in, they can't get in!' He was waving a bottle around.

Nerys was bellowing back at him, telling him not to be so stupid.

Bottles broke and shattered.

Nerys was fighting Paddy for something.

I could see people clutching their heads and falling to the floor.

Nerys was still howling with rage.

I felt my brain pushing out at my eyes. The blood pounding at my head. I was passing out.

Paddy was holding Nerys's lighter.

They can't get us!' he roared, and sparked up the lighter.

As I sank to the floor flames danced everywhere. I held Anwen to me. Trying to keep my eyes open...

'The village will be destroyed,' announced Sebastian.

'You can't!' shouted Tom.

'I'm doing it already. It's so easy. The children have turned on their parents.' Sebastian grinned happily. The village was dying anyway. No one's noticed it for so many years. We won't even need a cover story. The post will stop coming, the bus routes will change. And that will be it. No one will come looking for the bodies. And by that time...' He stopped.

'What?' gasped Eloise.

'No,' grinned Sebastian proudly. 'It's a secret.'

No it bloody wasn't. By the time anyone got around to wondering what had happened to Rawbone, it would be far too late. Sebastian and his small army of soldiers were going to start killing and they weren't going to stop, whatever Jasmine ordered.

I think we'd all worked that bit out. Sebastian's firm bearing. His cold eyes. His childish smile. He didn't need to say it. He was having too much fun.

He addressed himself to Eloise. 'So, you've tried telling on me to Mummy?' He smirked. 'The Tree obeys me.'

'No,' said Eloise. Tour real parents. The creator of the Tree.'

For an instant, Sebastian faltered, then recovered.

Like he had some time left. They're so far away.

They are so very far away. Why should they care?

And even if they do, it'll take them ever so long to get here. No one's coming for you.'

'Sebastian,' I said. 'Do you... do you really enjoy this? Is this what you want?'

'Yes,' he nodded. 'It's glorious. My real parents would be so proud of me.'

He stepped past us, almost as though we didn't matter, and took the controls from Eloise's hand.

She handed them over without protest. That was it.

She was done.

He held the laptop and smiled carefully. 'I have come here to order more brothers and sisters,' he announced. 'We shall swarm across this land.'

Strange what you fear about aliens. That they're going to land on our world and destroy it. Sometimes that's true. But sometimes, we do terrible things to ourselves.

Sebastian reached forward and worked the computer.

Above us the tree surged into terrible life, the leaves twisting apart, revealing buds. Hundreds of swelling buds.

'Stop!'

Well, there we go then. I didn't die after all.

That'd be something to tell the baby later. Better get on with the job of living. I opened my eyes.

We'd got out of the pub. Turns out Paddy had done the right thing for the wrong reason. You know how they tell women to cry Tire' not 'Rape' when they're being attacked because people always turn and look? It's a basic instinct. We've a primitive fear of flame that overcomes everything. The fire spread quickly, but not half as quickly as we moved.

It was bloody chaos, true enough, but Megan Harries and Josh took charge. Megan grabbed as many people as she could, shoving them towards the back door. Josh pulled Paddy away from the flaming bar. Somehow, we kept it together, despite the panic crowding into our heads. We rushed towards the back door, pouring out - we were running, screaming and yelling, spilling out onto the wet gravel of the pub car park and sinking down.

Of course, in some ways, that was a mistake.

The Scions were waiting for us.

The whole crowd of children stood there, silent and threatening. Ready to kill at any moment. But not. Not yet.

'Stop!' repeated the voice. A girl's voice. No, a woman's voice. Strident, authoritative. In command.