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We hope you're enjoying Season 2 of

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Impact Winter.

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This is a work of

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fiction. Any resemblance

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to actual people, events, or settings is

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purely coincidental.

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We

1:00

don't quite know what to do. We

1:05

left the castle the day before last, on

1:08

our way to find Darcy. We

1:11

were headed to Stranraer in

1:13

Scotland, far from Devon,

1:16

but the shortest distance across to Antrim.

1:21

We were somewhere in Gloucestershire when

1:24

Lydia had to stop to use the loo. But

1:28

there wasn't a loo, so

1:30

we pulled over by the heath.

1:35

Are you finished yet? Yeah,

1:37

I'm coming! Lydia,

1:41

seriously, this isn't the safest place. I said I'm

1:44

coming! Christ. Did

1:53

you say that?

1:55

It was.

2:01

Lydia, run! Fuck.

2:04

Get back in the car. Get

2:07

in. There's

2:12

too many. Hold

2:17

on. Look

2:26

out, there's more. I see them. I'm

2:30

falling behind.

2:43

It was a close call. Much

2:45

too close. I

2:49

was still annoyed that she'd invited herself along

2:51

to begin with. I didn't want to be responsible

2:53

for her. She wasn't ready for this.

2:58

I told you we couldn't just stop by the woods. Alright,

3:01

well, I had things to take her off. They can smell blood, Lydia. And

3:04

I can't fucking control my period, Penelope.

3:11

It's fine. They're just blighters.

3:15

How many blighters have you and Hope killed anyway? I

3:18

don't know. She

3:21

was always so impressed that you took down an overlord.

3:25

That's like killing a god, she said.

3:27

It wasn't easy. She

3:30

thought you could do anything. Felt

3:32

so safe with you. It's

3:35

a long drive. You should

3:37

try and get some sleep. Funny you

3:39

could kill a god, but not the blighter that got her.

3:44

It was a rare sort of blighter. I

3:49

take blood on Wednesdays. The

3:52

volunteers will call you a hero. Talking

3:55

about how you helped to hold off that horde that

3:57

tapped the castle. And I

3:59

think that's what I wanted.

3:59

them seem to care that that hold was there for you. Yeah

4:03

well I cared. Me too.

4:08

I always wondered who else was going to turn up looking

4:10

for you. Humble John wasn't

4:12

there because

4:13

of me. No he

4:16

was there for her. What

4:21

are you doing? Why are we stopping? Something's

4:23

wrong. Breaks feel loose.

4:31

What is it? Lines broken.

4:33

Probably the ones we ran over. Well what

4:36

were you supposed to do? Just stay in the car. I'll

4:39

sort it

4:40

out.

4:46

Get it sorted? Well enough. What

4:49

are you doing? What

4:51

does it look like? Looks like you're drawing blood. Aren't

4:54

you clever? Here

4:57

lunch. I

4:59

didn't ask you to do that. You think

5:01

I want to wait until you're hungry enough to ask me to

5:03

do it? What?

5:09

Do you want me to throw it out? No fine

5:13

just give it. So

5:17

do we have breaks? I taped

5:19

up the line and topped it off with some hand soap. Hand

5:22

soap. Works in a pinch. It'll

5:24

last us genre? No but it'll get us to Pontifract.

5:27

Pontifract? Yorkshire. What's

5:30

in Yorkshire?

5:30

Gussie's

5:33

ex-husband. Kilgore

5:37

Nokes. He was a military intelligence contractor.

5:40

Now one of the castle's trading partners helps

5:42

us out with auto parts. I knew

5:44

he could patch us up. There was just

5:46

one issue. He

5:53

doesn't know about Darcy. Gussie doesn't really

5:55

like to advertise that our lead vampire killer

5:57

is an overlord now. What do we say if he

5:59

asks?

5:59

Where are we going? It's fine, just leave the talking to me. I'm

6:03

confused. Nobody

6:06

wanted to tell him Darcy was turned, but he trusts

6:09

our vampire security head. Jesus

6:14

Christ.

6:14

He

6:17

doesn't know about you either. We'll

6:20

be fine. Well, yeah, I know I

6:22

will. I'm not lying to some ex-military

6:24

intelligence bloke about being a vampire.

6:28

His runners have met me. They know the castle

6:30

has a new security head, they just don't know the rest.

6:34

We're fine. Hopefully we'll just be in and out.

6:45

It took almost all night to get there. The

6:48

roads were in a state.

6:56

Lydia slept through it, twitching

6:59

and muttering at some private nightmare. We

7:15

finally arrived at dawn. It was a walled

7:17

patch of farmland. I buzzed the gate, explained

7:20

the situation to the extent that I could, and

7:22

the voice in the speaker was skeptical.

7:24

Who did you

7:26

say you were? Hanelope

7:28

Chambers. I'm their security

7:31

head. Ask

7:36

Jeffrey. He's met me. Jeffrey's

7:44

no longer with us. Oh.

7:48

Well, I'm sorry to hear that. Hanelope

7:57

Chambers. Security.

8:00

The Head, Loughran

8:02

Castle. That's right. What

8:09

is your male's name back in Loughran?

8:13

She's your ex-wife, Mr. Nix. I

8:16

know who she is. I want you to say

8:18

her full name.

8:22

Marjorie Augusta Blackwood.

8:31

He came out to meet us in grey camouflage

8:33

trousers, flagging us over. Over

8:35

here. Yeah. We

8:43

parked in a barn with no animals, just a half dozen

8:46

military vehicles. Union flags and St George crosses hanging

8:48

from the rafters. Marjorie, yeah. She

8:50

hates that name.

8:51

It's

8:54

good as shibboleth as any. Right. Sorry

8:57

to hear about Jeffrey. Oh, he's fine. He

9:00

and his wife just wanted a change of scenery.

9:02

I think they got bored here. It's

9:05

a quiet spread. Can be, yeah.

9:08

Where did you say you were headed? Damn Frees

9:11

and Galloway. We were tipped off to

9:12

a possible store of medical supplies. Oh, whereabouts? Galloway

9:16

Community Hospital in Strandrull.

9:18

Yeah, maybe. You'll have to let

9:21

me know. I haven't been up there

9:23

in a while. Anyway, I'll see what I can do. Anyway,

9:27

I'll see what I can do to get you on your way. Break

9:29

climb, was

9:30

it? Yeah. Need any help with it? No, no.

9:33

I know my way around this old girl. You've

9:36

come a ways. Go have a rest

9:38

up at the house. I insist I'll do

9:40

a full diagnostic. Thanks

9:42

for this, Mr. Nokes. Hey,

9:45

we look after our Kith and Cain up here and

9:48

call me Kilgo. Please.

9:52

He was a friendly lad, but

9:55

something about him made me... I

9:57

don't know... nervous. Or

10:01

maybe it was Lydia making me nervous. You're

10:03

pretty good at that, aren't you? What?

10:07

Lying? More

10:10

and more, she felt like a time bomb. We

10:17

waited in the house while he worked in the barn. She

10:20

paced the rooms like a caged animal. I

10:23

read.

10:23

Thumbed

10:25

through a magazine from before the impact, glancing

10:28

through articles about movies that never came out and

10:30

people who were probably dead.

10:32

Hey,

10:44

Is it real?

10:47

There was a fanged skull on the mantle. Yeah,

10:51

an odd story behind that one. Oh, sorry.

10:54

We were just. No, no, it's

10:57

all right. It was fine. I

11:00

don't keep it out not to be noticed.

11:01

What's the odd story? Well,

11:05

after the comet hit, I drove down

11:07

to collect my mother from a complex in

11:09

Sheffield and I found it had been

11:11

evacuated. Whiskey?

11:13

I'm all right. Sure. I'll

11:16

take one. He squinted

11:18

at her like he was about to ask how old she was and

11:21

then shrugged and went on. So

11:25

a week after that, I'm back

11:28

here and this young

11:30

woman shows up on my doorstep.

11:33

Now, normally a 20 something

11:36

turning up in an apocalypse to claim that

11:38

she's my 72 year old mother would

11:40

get a door slammed in her face. Were

11:44

it not for that very face from

11:46

that photo there? This

11:48

is her. 29 years young

11:51

and that's me in a lap.

11:53

I didn't know they could come out younger.

11:59

I didn't. know they existed. These

12:02

were early days, even the bloody blighters

12:04

were just wild rumours. So

12:08

I let her in and asked

12:10

what happened, and she said she

12:12

couldn't remember.

12:13

How did you find out? What

12:16

she was? Well

12:18

that night, the

12:20

fangs came out. She

12:23

attacked me. Her

12:25

own son. I

12:28

keep a skull here to remind me of... What they

12:30

are underneath, she said. Careful

12:33

to lock eyes with me. Yeah,

12:36

exactly. You get

12:38

it. Anyway,

12:42

your repairs are done. That's brilliant.

12:44

Thank you. Sorry it took so long. You

12:47

won't be getting up to Stram Ra before tonight.

12:49

No, not the way the A1's gummed up. I

12:52

could spare some C4. Helps with

12:54

some of it. Yeah,

12:56

thank you. But I'm no demolitions expert.

12:59

Well you're free to stay here for the night. I've

13:02

got a guest house in the back. Just one bed

13:04

I'm afraid, but the sofa's cosy.

13:07

Oh I'm fine. I can just

13:09

sleep on the drive. Well

13:11

your driver can't.

13:13

Can't she? Oh,

13:17

oh. No. No,

13:21

of course not. But

13:23

she'll need to sleep too. I

13:26

didn't

13:26

want to stay any longer. But she called

13:28

attention to the incongruity. That's

13:31

very kind of you. Thank you. Right

13:34

then. It's settled. I'll

13:36

see what I can manage for dinner. Make

13:38

yourselves at home. I might actually

13:40

have some steaks thawed.

13:50

Oh, I hope that's not too rare for you.

13:52

I have to conserve my gas out here. It's

13:54

perfect. Penelope likes it

13:56

bloody. Yeah?

14:02

I shot her a cautioning look and tried to change

14:04

the subject. Gussie mentioned

14:07

you met in the service. In another life.

14:09

I was in logistics. Oh,

14:12

and sort of a... The hardware, yeah. I

14:14

think it's why she got sick of me. She's

14:16

always more interested in people.

14:22

You did some work for SIS

14:24

though, right? Overseas, mostly. Where

14:27

were you stationed? Oh, here

14:29

and there in Eastern Europe. Well, I'm sure Gussie's

14:31

glad to have another last from the Foreign Office

14:34

around. We get on. Yeah,

14:36

I mean it's hard to believe you spent so long in that holding

14:38

cell, right? Holding

14:42

cell? Shit. Is

14:44

that not supposed to... What

14:49

was this? Gussie

14:51

threw you in the clink. It

14:53

was before Lydia's time. Is

14:55

there a story there? Not really. They

14:58

were just a bit wary when I showed up. Didn't

15:01

quite buy the whole bystander thing. You

15:03

came in with a cover? It was a force of habit.

15:06

I didn't know who they were either. We

15:09

sorted it out though. Lucky

15:11

thing. After Jet went

15:14

down in that attack. Canannopy,

15:21

did your lot in security ever work out what all those

15:24

blighters wanted? Yeah, I'm

15:26

curious about that too. What

15:29

was that about? They just swarmed the

15:31

place.

15:32

Yeah, we never did sort

15:34

that out. It's weird.

15:41

My

15:41

stomach was churning after dinner.

15:44

I didn't know if it was the conversation or the

15:46

meal. Vampires and solid

15:48

foods don't get along. Are

15:52

you done in there? I'm fucking

15:54

knackered and I still need to brush my teeth.

16:01

All right. All yours. Finally.

16:05

Hang on. Your

16:07

tongue got a bit loose at dinner. Did

16:09

it? Oh, sorry about that. It

16:13

almost felt like you were doing it on purpose. That's

16:15

a weird thing to say. We

16:17

can't play games here. Someone

16:20

will get hurt. I'm not playing games,

16:22

I just forgot. How

16:28

are you? How

16:30

am I? Yeah. Do

16:33

you care? I'm

16:35

not indifferent to what I put you through. I

16:38

can assure you that my problem is that you have almost

16:40

nothing to do with that. I'm all

16:43

ears. You want to get into it? Nope.

16:46

Suit yourself. I'll

16:49

take the bed. You grab the sofa. What

16:52

the hell? You don't even sleep. Yeah,

16:54

well, probably best we keep up appearances after

16:56

the confusion at dinner.

17:00

I laid in bed, staring at the ceiling all night, worrying

17:02

that she'd given me away,

17:04

half expecting our host to burst in, crossbow loaded.

17:14

But morning came, and we left without

17:16

a fuss. I

17:30

was in a hurry to put the situation behind us and get across

17:32

the water to Ireland. The air was frigid

17:34

and wet, another snowstorm coming.

17:42

It's not entirely unlike Soho,

17:44

you know. Your whole

17:46

situation at the castle. Most

17:50

of the time it was fairly clinical. Like

17:53

giving blood to a doctor's office. Except

17:56

one cholesterol is around. She

18:05

liked to drink it right from you. You'd

18:08

come in there and there'd be

18:10

clear plastic on the bed. But you

18:13

had no idea why, of course.

18:17

Every time was

18:19

as scary as the first. But

18:23

she'd tell you to disrobe and you'd do it like

18:25

a wind-up toy. She

18:28

liked that vein on your thigh, see?

18:30

You really don't have to get into it. Why?

18:34

Does it make you hungry? She

18:38

was baiting me. I

18:40

didn't say anything. Do

18:42

you think that the council's treating

18:44

Hope any better? It's

18:47

weird that you didn't see it coming, though. That

18:50

blighter that got her, I don't get that. I told

18:52

you it was a rare one. Yeah, but you heard

18:54

of him, right? He had no reason to be there.

18:57

Except he did. We

19:00

had no idea

19:00

what Darcy was up to. Well, you

19:02

had some idea. We had theories. She

19:04

shouldn't have been out there. You tried telling

19:07

her that. Why didn't you? I

19:10

was tired of defending myself, so

19:12

I threw out the name she blurted out in her

19:14

interview. Who's

19:17

Emily? Emily.

19:19

In my periphery, she turned

19:21

to glare at me, radiating a quiet

19:24

rage. I

19:27

could tell I'd hit a tender spot. I

19:29

felt bad, but she stopped, at

19:31

least. Just folded her

19:33

arms and watched the grey terrain drift by. Later,

19:36

we arrived at the bridge. A broken

19:39

span of concrete over a narrow gorge. No

19:41

way across. I'll

19:44

have to double back again. Come

19:47

on, let's go.

19:51

How

20:00

could you let him take her? I'm

20:03

trying to understand. She thought the

20:05

world of you. I paused, looked

20:07

back. She was still standing at the

20:09

broken edge of the roadway, staring out across.

20:12

Let him.

20:14

I didn't let him do anything.

20:17

Come on. But she didn't

20:19

move. She just stayed

20:22

at the ledge. I rolled

20:24

my eyes and kept moving. I'm

20:27

leaving without you. No, you're not.

20:31

Don't leave me without you. Put the crossbow

20:33

down, Lydia, before you hurt yourself.

20:36

You think I'm joking. You

20:38

think I can't get to Antrim without you. You

20:41

are joking. You just don't know it yet. No, you're a badass, is

20:43

that it? You lost her. She

20:47

counted on you and you lost her. You think

20:49

I didn't put up a fight? Not hard enough. Not

20:51

hard... I fought harder than you've ever

20:53

fought for anything in your tiny little life. Don't

20:55

tell me about me, you don't feel like I'm going to get to the edge

20:58

of my little life. Don't tell me about me, you know fuck all

21:00

about me. That monster ripped my fucking heart out. And

21:02

you know its name. You

21:04

knew things like him were

21:06

out there, waiting. You

21:08

knew something was off the moment you found those

21:10

bodies and she should never have been

21:12

out there. She wanted to be there.

21:14

Because of you. You

21:17

made her feel safe. Protected

21:20

like nothing could touch her. Oh, OK,

21:23

I see now, I know what this is. You're not

21:25

angry with me for losing her. Don't...don't

21:28

go any closer. No,

21:30

it's more petty than that, isn't it? Shut

21:32

up! No, no, no, no, you want to do this? Let's

21:35

get into it.

21:36

You hate what I had with her. Stop

21:38

it! You hate that she was more at home out here

21:40

with me, a vampire, than she ever was with you. I

21:45

felt the arrow lodge in my skin. Her

21:49

regret was immediate. Holy shit.

21:52

Luckily her aim was terrible.

21:55

I reached up to pull the arrow from my neck. Oh,

22:01

I'm so sorry.

22:05

I could have just let it go. It

22:07

was over. She was stepping

22:09

forward to help me, but the attacks

22:11

had taken

22:11

their toll and something snapped.

22:15

Are you all right? So

22:18

I threw my palm hard against her chest, forgetting

22:20

my strength.

22:24

I only meant to embarrass her, to

22:27

knock her flat on her ass for once, but

22:29

she slipped on a patch of black ice, staggered

22:32

back towards the ledge. Shit.

22:35

Help! I grabbed the strap of the crossbow, but it

22:37

slipped in her arm. No!

22:41

I watched her body fall 12 meters.

22:48

Lydia! Lydia!

22:56

She didn't answer, didn't

22:58

move. Just lay there, still.

23:02

As big flakes of snow began

23:04

to fall.

23:05

Lydia! And

23:08

slowly it dawned on me. Oh,

23:10

God. She

23:12

was right. In

23:16

the end, I was the dangerous one.

23:21

Not her. Not Kilgore.

23:23

Me. I

23:26

was the bomb. Lydia?

23:31

Lydia! Hey, hang

23:32

on! Don't move! Don't move! I'm

23:35

coming down! All is around,

23:38

and the

23:40

sky is grey. I've

23:46

been for a while. All

23:50

the winter's day. All

23:53

the winter's day. But

23:55

I'd be safe from home. If

23:59

I'm alone. I was in LA

24:02

I was in LA In

24:05

the dark I'm full of dreams We're

24:08

such witnesses They

24:10

have all been dreams We're

24:14

such witnesses I'm full

24:16

of dreams We're such witnesses

24:20

They We're

24:30

such witnesses

24:32

We're such witnesses We're

24:34

such witnesses

25:00

We're such witnesses