Doctor Who_ Corpse Marker - Chris Boucher [70]
She slowed up as she approached a metal and wood bridge linking the high, stone building she was on with the next one, which was a lot lower. To make the crossing as close as possible to the horizontal, a sloping-down ramp had been carved out of the top storey of the higher building and a platform and ramp had been raised on the roof of the lower one. The bridge still tilted sharply from higher to lower and Leela had to wait while a trader’s wagon was heaved and manhandled across it. Before he cleared the bridge the trader, a short, evil-smelling man, eyed her up and down. ‘They’ll have stripped it bare by now, girlie,’ he said, leering and contemptuous.
Leela did not like the way he was looking at her and she rested a hand on the hilt of her knife . ‘Stripped what bare?’ she asked.
The front of the trader’s wagon was full of pieces of old machinery while at the back something which Leela could smell was long-dead had been hidden under a filthy cloth. ‘You should’ve been quicker off the mark,’ the trader said. ‘If you do find anything though, meat or metal, come and see me first, girlie. I’ll give you a good price.’ He cackled. ‘If you’re nice to me of course.’
Meat or metal? Leela thought about Padil’s words: What they can’t sell, they eat. What they can’t eat, they wear and said coldly, ‘I am no nightstalking degenerate.’
‘Day. Night. If it walks like a stalker and it stalks like a stalker, you’d best watch out for your bits and parts.’ The trader cackled again. ‘It hit one level down, girlie.’ He pulled his wagon fully out of the way and Leela, keeping as far from him as she could, started across the bridge. ‘Nice knife,’ he called after her, still cackling.
Leela jogged on down the track. That dirty fool might have taken her for a scavenger but it was not a mistake the real ones had made. Unless the scavengers preyed on their own. It was then, in that moment of sudden understanding, that she finally and fully appreciated where she was. Of course they preyed on their own. It was all they had. It was all anyone had in this ugly place. Why had she not seen that immediately? How could she have missed the madness of it? This was worse than the world she herself came from. That had its madness but this was much worse.
She crossed another small bridge which swayed slightly and she glanced down into the dark canyon below. She could see a shadowy spiral alleyway and she thought she saw flickering torches and heard faint echoing calls. She trotted on, dodging the occasional groups of customers attracted by entertaining traders.
Why did she think any of these people, Padil and her fanatical friends, any of the mad people trapped here, would help her find the Doctor even if they could? She was on her own. She must make her own way out of the Sewerpits. She must find her own way back. She stopped running.
Ahead of her she could see the dust and smoke more clearly now. Something had smashed into the side of the next building but one. The three buildings, the one she was on, the next one and the one with the hole near the top, were more or less the same height. That meant it should be possible to see from the linking bridge directly down into the hole. Since she had decided it was definitely time to leave this place it made no sense at all to be going further in. It was a waste of time. It was a waste of energy. It was the sort of casual curiosity which could get you in trouble. But she had come this far and she wanted to see. She started to run again. Faster this time.
The Doctor came to and found himself alone.