Doctor Who_ Beyond the Sun - Matthew Jones [45]
‘Is he going to be all right?’
‘No, I don’t think so,’ he said. That straightforwardness again. ‘He’ll die in the next few days unless we can get him to a hospital. He’s lost a great deal of blood. Yvonne suspects that some of his injuries may be internal. He’s asked to see you.’
Bernice cradled her head in her hands and stared at the wooden table top. This wasn’t what she wanted to hear. Her plan had been to steal a ship or at least stow away on one and get back into space. There could be no question of that with Errol severely injured. They were going to be forced to stay here until he was well enough to travel. If he was that fortunate. If they all were.
‘Thanks, Scott. I’ll come and see him now if that’s OK. And then tomorrow perhaps you could tell me the best way to a hospital.’
‘The nearest hospital is in Anarray. That’s only about fifty kilometres away from here. But it will be difficult to get there. The Sunless don’t allow us to travel freely. Special documents are needed to travel between zones.’
‘Somehow I didn’t think it was going to be easy,’ Bernice said, getting up to leave.
9
SUNLESS RISING
‘Emile,’ a woman’s voice whispered. For a tiny blissful moment he thought it was his mother. ‘You have to wake up. Wake up now.’
He opened his eyes and saw that Bernice was kneeling over him. Reality intruded like the sunlight which flickered through the gaps in the shutters, streaking across the floor of the dorm.
He looked up at his tutor, feeling a familiar pang of loss. Emile noticed for the first time that her eyes were framed with lines. Somehow he’d imagined that she was too young for that. Maybe it was the way she behaved.
She stroked his hair and smiled, but Emile could tell that she was tense – her smile was a little too fixed on her face. Her expression looked brittle, as if it might suddenly crack. ‘We have to leave now.’
‘Trouble?’
She nodded and then turned to Tameka, who was still fast asleep next to him, drooling on the pillow like a toddler. He lifted himself up on to his elbow. The dormitory was full of sleeping figures. He could hear the sound of men and women snoring. Scott was sitting on the edge of the mattress opposite, shaking himself awake. He was wearing only a pair of brightly patterned boxer shorts. Emile could see that his scales ran all the way down his back, making a dark V shape against his pale skin. The tail of the scales disappeared beneath the elastic of his underwear.
Leon was standing over Scott, pulling on one of the wasp-stripe uniforms. The lizard man was naked and Emile could see that his scales covered his entire body. They were paler and looked softer on his bulging stomach. He didn’t appear to have any nipples or genitals at all. Just completely smooth like a snake. He was beautiful in a nonsexual way. Emile found his eyes wandering back to Scott. He wondered what Scott’s scales would feel like under his fingers. Leon caught him looking at Scott and cocked his head in puzzlement. Emile turned away blushing.
Tameka was awake now. She was half-heartedly rooting through her make-up bag, but Emile could tell that she was taking sneaky looks at Scott as he dressed. Scott looked across at them, nodded good morning and then smiled at Tameka. Emile felt a sinking feeling in his stomach he didn’t have a name for.
He dressed in the uniform Bernice had handed to him. It was the familiar grey one-piece, but with two white stripes across the chest rather than yellow. When he was done, he joined Bernice by Errol, who was lying on a stretcher which had been laid on top of one of the mattresses near the door. He was whispering something to Bernice. Errol’s bald head was covered in sweat, his black skin accentuated by the white sheets. The lines on his face looked deep and craggy. His lips were swollen. The sheets which covered him were littered with dry bloodstains. He didn’t look at all well. Emile was surprised by the speed of the man’s decline. He swallowed