Doctor Who_ Cave Monsters - Malcolm Hulke [15]
The Brigadier looked over Roberts's shoulder. Instead of writing, Roberts was drawing a picture of a bison. The Brigadier turned to speak to the Doctor, but the Doctor had already come up beside Roberts. In a friendly voice the Doctor said, 'That's a very nice drawing, old chap.' Roberts looked up, realising that people were watching his picture. He suddenly roared like an animal, and grabbed for Liz's throat. Both Liz and Roberts fell to the ground, Liz kicking and screaming, digging her finger-nails into the backs of Roberts's hands as he tried to strangle her. Before the Doctor or the Brigadier could move, Major Barker stepped in, pulled a big service revolver from the holster under his jacket, and brought it down on the back of Roberts's head like a man using a sledge-hammer. Roberts was stunned instantly. With the Brigadier's help, Liz got to her feet while the Doctor inspected the unconscious Roberts.
'You should not have hit him like that,' said the Doc-tor.
'Only way to stop the blighter,' said Major Barker, now returning his revolver to its concealed holster. 'Anyway, we've got one of them at last. By the time I've finished with him, we shall know everything that's going on.'
The Doctor straightened up. 'I'm afraid you're not going to learn anything from this man, Major Barker. You've killed him.'
5
The Fighting Monster
The Doctor moved cautiously along the cave. He wore a potholer's hard helmet, overalls that he had borrowed from a member of the staff at the research centre, and heavy shoes. He was equipped with some strong rope, a map of the explored parts of the caves, a very good torch, and a packet of sandwiches provided by the lady in the research centre canteen. He stopped at a point where the cave passages went off in two different directions.
He called, 'Hello?'
It occurred to him that he did not expect a monster to call
'Hello' back; but he wished to draw attention to himself. He stood there listening. The only sound was a distant drip-drip of water falling from the cave roof into a subterranean pool. Of the two passages now open to him, he decided to take the one on the left.
That's where the drip-drip was coming from, and, he reckoned, if some form of life existed in these caves it must have water.
After a hundred yards down this passage the Doctor stopped dead. From very close at hand he could hear the heavy breathing of a big animal. The Doctor played his torch along the walls of the cave ahead. Along one wall was a huge opening, perhaps leading to another gallery of the caves. The Doctor crept along to the opening.
All at once a huge reptile sprang from the opening, towering above the Doctor. As the Doctor stepped back the torch slipped from his fingers. It remained alight, but fell some six feet from where he was standing. The Doctor moved to get the torch, but the monster reared up over him, its huge lizard-like head swaying from side to side.
The Doctor knew this animal well from times when the TARDIS had taken him back in Time to prehistoric Earth. It was the tyrannosaurus rex, the largest flesh-eating animal that had ever existed in Earth's history.
... a huge reptile sprang from the opening, towering above the Doctor
Weighing at least seven tons, it stood taller on its thick hind legs than a double-decker bus. Its brain was good for a reptile animal, but pitifully small and stupid compared with the mammals.
The Doctor remained perfectly still. The monster's main interest was the torch, fortunately some distance away from the Doctor. Slowly the great lizard head came down, to inspect the light more closely. The Doctor hoped that if he did not move, the monster, in its stupid way, might not realise that living flesh was but a jaw-snap away. The tyrannosaurus's upper limbs were so short and small to be virtually useless: it could not even reach to put something in its own mouth.