Part 27 (2/2)

'What have you done to her?' the Doctor demanded.

'Fear not.'

'She has only lost consciousness.'

'For now.'

'When she awakes, we shall resume.'

'We can keep her alive for days, even years in this state.'

'Would you like to watch?'

'No.' The Doctor walked towards the Xhinn. 'You really are the most petty, vindictive creatures, aren't you?'

'You dare to question us?'

'To criticise us?'

'To mock us?'

'Why not?' the Doctor replied. He sat down in a pew, placing the satchel carefully beside him. 'I mean, if this is the best you can do torturing a member of a species you have already decided is primitive and no match for the mighty Xhinn.

Hardly the work of a great and important civilisation, is it?'

The Xhinn moved away from Sarah to surround the Doctor.

He continued to taunt the triumvirate.

'I mean, you can't even control your own kind let alone an entire planet of hostile aliens. Look at what happened with Callum, he nearly ruined your entire invasion schedule with his actions.'

'An error.'

'An oversight.'

'Quickly corrected.'

'Then there's Father Simmons I notice you haven't answered my question about what happened to him? He was one of the Xhinn, I presume?'

'He has been punished.'

'He went too far.'

'He is no longer.'

'Dear, dear went native, did he? Too long mixing with this primitive species you seem to despise so much?' The Doctor smiled. 'Got in with a good crowd, you might say.'

'You would do well not to mock us.'

'The Xhinn are a n.o.ble civilisation.'

'But we are not above vengeance.'

The Xhinn Triumvirate pointed at the Doctor, surrounding him with the same crippling energy shackles that bound Sarah in the air. He rose slowly up from the pew, his arms and legs straining against the invisible bondage.

'Feel the grip of the Xhinn.'

'Feel it tighten around your body.'

'Feel it crush the life from you.'

Tommy burst through the doors into the bread factory, his shotgun ready to fire. A policeman lurched towards him. Tommy fired twice, taking both legs off the approaching guard. No point wasting bullets blowing holes in them, Tommy thought. Better to disable them from causing any more trouble sort out the living from the dead later.

Billy appeared, flying through a side window. He quickly got up off the floor and began firing, his shots concentrated on the bread-making machinery just as Tommy had suggested. A few rounds carefully aimed brought the factory to a grinding halt.

That meant the workers were now free to help them.

'We're getting everybody out of here! But we need your help,' Tommy shouted as he reloaded. Two more policemen were advancing on him. 'Pick up your tools and use them on the guards!'

Charlie was last into the factory. He blew the head off the nearest policeman, then ran on to fire point blank into the chest of another. The ventilated zombie fell backwards into the bread mixing vat, disappearing into the viscous dough. Charlie was still reloading when the next policeman was upon him. The teenager was picked up off the ground and thrown across the factory. He slid into a wall and lay there, the breath knocked out of him.

Already another of the remorseless, relentless enemy was moving toward him.

The two nearest workers made weapons from their tools, attacking the oncoming policemen with their long-handled bread shovels. But both were swatted aside by the much stronger guards, propelled by the will of the Xhinn. Their necks snapped like dry kindling and the bodies were thrown aside. The policemen returned to their original quarry, Charlie. He was still lying on the ground, his shotgun just out of reach.

Tommy ran to the cage. He smashed at the padlock with his gun b.u.t.t, breaking it open. Tommy threw the padlock aside and pulled the cage apart. 'Come on! Now's your chance to escape come on!'

A few of the men and women inside got to their feet and began dragging the others out. But most inside the cage were already dead. The rescuers had arrived too late to save them.

Better to die in here than go through that mincing machine, Tommy thought. One of the captives was pointing over Tommy's shoulder. 'Look out...' he gasped.

Tommy ducked to one side as a policeman lurched at him.

Tommy clubbed it to the ground and tucked the end of his shotgun barrel into the zombie's mouth. 'Eat this,' the gangster sneered, pulling the trigger.

Billy was leading the remaining workers out of the factory when he heard his brother cry out for help. Two policemen were holding his brother down on the conveyor belt as it pushed him towards the rending machine.

Billy pushed the last of the escaping workers out the door and took aim with his shotgun. But he didn't dare shoot the policemen, for fear of hitting Charlie. His brother was only moments away from being torn limb from limb. Instead he fired at the machine, blowing a hole through its pneumatic hose pipes.

The grinding wheel slowed and stopped, with Charlie's legs only inches away from the spikes. Billy ran to help his brother fight off the a.s.sailants.

Beyond the rending machine a metal cage was appearing, sliding up out of the floor. It was an elevator laden with more zombie policemen. Now Tommy and the two brothers were outnumbered six to one.

'Billy! Charlie! We've got to get out of here!' Tommy shouted. The brothers ignored him, too busy fighting to stay alive in the far corner. Tommy ran towards the main exit only to find it blocked by another half dozen policemen. Now there was no escape they were trapped inside the factory.

<script>