Doctor Who_ Daemons - Barry Letts [19]
'Black magic?' said Benton incredulously. 'That stuff died out years ago.'
'Do you know when the last witchcraft law was repealed in the country? 1957... It's as alive today as ever it was. Come on. It should be safe to leave by now.' But as she put her hand on the handle of the heavy door, it was flung open and Miss Hawthorne was precipitated to the bottom of the steps. There stood Garvin with a shotgun in his hands.
Slowly he came down into the Cavern. He opened his mouth to speak, but before he could utter a word, Benton was in action. With a straight leg kick which would have done credit to a member of the Royal Ballet, he had the gun flying out of the verger's hands, and leaped upon him. All Benton 's weight and skill were not enough to subdue the slight figure of the verger. Round and round the Cavern they stumbled as they struggled for mastery. Suddenly Miss Hawthorne screamed—'Look out!'
But it was too late. With a desperate heave, Garvin managed to push the Sergeant right onto the flagstone marked with the esoteric sign. At once, it seemed, he was assailed by a hundred invisible clubs. Vainly fighting the empty air he was forced to his knees, twisting and turning as he tried to evade the heavy blows. At last, all his strength sapped by the punishment he had taken, he collapsed to the ground, luckily falling clear of the diabolic stone.
Miss Hawthorne rushed to him and knelt by his side.
Garvin, who had retrieved his gun, laughed. 'Right, on your feet,' he ordered.
'Don't be stupid,' said Miss Hawthorne as though to a recalcitrant schoolboy. 'He's almost unconscious.'
Garvin flushed and moved closer. 'Somebody'll have to help then,' he said, putting the barrel of the gun up at her face. 'Come on, move.'
As Miss Hawthorne helped the stumbling Benton up the steps of the Cavern and across the vestry, she became conscious of a flutter of fear, a fear very different in quality from her natural apprehension at being threatened by a gun. Then she realised why, the ground was quivering beneath her feet.
'Wait! Can't you feel...'
'Quiet,' snapped Garvin, 'get him outside.'
She staggered out into the churchyard with the almost helpless Sergeant, followed by the verger. As they started to move down the path, the movement of the earth became too obvious to ignore. Garvin stopped the others and wildly looked around.
Out of the woods, its great hooves shaking the ground with each step, came a gigantic creature, some thirty feet tall, with the legs of an animal, the body of a man and the head of...
Miss Hawthorne struggled to see clearly, but the outlines of the face and head were strangely blurred, as if a red haze of heat were surrounding them. As the creature approached, the heat encompassed its whole being, and it be-came that it was starting to grow smaller. The temperature of the air rose rapidly, and an oppressively hot wind started to bend the branches of the trees. Miss Hawthorne suddenly found deep down inside herself a reserve of courage and strength, and with seemingly no effort she dragged the still dazed Sergeant into the shelter of the ornate tomb of an early Winstanley.
Garvin, white with a primeval terror, raised his gun, and blindly let off one, two barrels, straight into the face of the advancing creature.
And Miss Hawthorne, cowering behind the protective marble, watched with horrified fascination as it lazily lifted a gargantuan arm and pointed at the paralysed Garvin. A thread of unearthly light streaked from the pointing finger and the verger vanished forever, vaporised by a flash of fire hotter than the heart of the sun.
5 The Heat Barrier
Mike Yates's usual optimism was severely tested by his first sight of the Doctor, the blueness of his face against the crisp whiteness of the old pillowcase was so different from his usual healthy glow that it was almost impossible to believe that he was not dead.