Doctor Who_ Cat's Cradle_ Times Crucible - Marc Platt [42]
By instinct, she stooped lower and found it was easier to move. She was taking long strides like a hunter, or a stalking cat. But the guards were still pounding behind her. She had to get off the street.
The grey buildings were clustered closer together now. Almost tumbling over themselves, even stacked on each other in different styles, like crowds along a race track trying to get a better view.
There was a thin archway, tilted bizarrely as if caught in the crush of buildings. Ace squeezed through it and had to edge along a passage at an angle of forty-five degrees.
She heard the chirruping of the guards as they reached the entrance. One was forcing its effortful way in behind her, but there was twilight ahead. She burst out and thought she was in a forest.
Spindly trees were growing upwards. Or more like the ghosts of trees. There were hundreds of them. Soft, grey, translucent shapes that rose in threadlike trunks and branched out into curling, twisting branches.
The tree nearest her swayed and drifted. Its shape gently dissolved into a pale haze. Ace stepped closer. Each tree in the forest was a line of smoke like the column that spirals up from a snuffed candle. But they were frozen in time, so that their delicate twists and curlicues were caught like sculptures or natural growths.
Behind her, the guard squealed with frustration as it forced its way closer. The others followed it.
Something brushed Ace's leg. The silvered cat again, darting away in tiny steps between the smoke trees. She didn't hesitate to follow. On through the gentle shapes that billowed as she passed, smelling of bonfires and joss sticks. But the cat did not wait and Ace had to run to keep up.
The angry chittering was fading behind her. And when she turned to look back, the incredible shapes of the trees had drifted into a blanket of coagulated fog that shielded her from their twitching eyes.
The cat mewled impatiently as it waited amongst the phantom trees. Ace followed it down a rough, dusty slope, but the creature was soon lost. Behind her, the smoky fog was gathering in. Ahead, there was a clearing in the trees. A figure stood there, its features in shadow. Ace recognized the shape, but hardly dared believe it.
She moved closer and slipped, slithering down the bank into the glade. A ripple of air ran through all the trees that surrounded the area. The shapes dissolved into a grey wall that shut out the outside.
The figure was turned away from her, oblivious of her clumsy arrival. But that was typical. The checked trousers and brown jacket were dishevelled, and he somehow had his hat back.
"Professor?" she said from the ground. But she kept any relief or excitement in check. "I thought you were dead."
He didn't move. Only the fingers of one hand tapped out the seconds against his trouser leg. Ace clambered to her feet and moved warily closer. "Doctor?"
He turned towards her. Below his hat, his clean and undamaged hat, his face was a black reflective slab. A digital clock face with a green liquid crystal display that said 11:56.
"No!" shouted Ace.
A sudden, single gust of air, a shock in this place, caught at the fog and it lifted like a curtain. The phantom went with it.
Ace stood alone at the foot of the slope, confused in the milky light of the nebula overhead. Buildings reared in one direction. A flat bank spread in the other. She crouched down low for some kind of cover.
It had been another sign. She was certain now that he wasn't dead. Somehow, he was trying to reach her and guide her. He might be in trouble or trapped, but the thought reassured her. Nothing he ever did was by the book. But then the book had got eaten, hadn't it? And what about 11:56? Was that midday or midnight? She could guess. It meant that there wasn't much time left.
Shonnzi said the Doctor trusted her. Which was a laugh, because she couldn't always trust him.
And anyway,