Doctor Who_ Daemons - Barry Letts [23]
He stood up and looked to the right and to the left. The ten-foot-wide strip of charred earth, like a newly made road, extended both ways cutting across fields, through hedges and through spinneys with no visible end. He turned to his other companion, a worried eighteen-year-old with spots and a brown overall. 'Can't leave you stranded here.' The young man looked uneasily at the still red hot skeleton of his burnt-out van.
'Lob's Crick would do the fine. I can ring the Guv'nor.'
'Jump in then.'
The powerful car turned carefully, and smoothly accelerated away from the danger area.
'Now then,' said the Brigadier, 'tell me exactly what happened.'
'Well, it were like this. Fine morning, it was, and me singing away like fun—I enjoy these early bread rounds—and the old bus going like a bird and then all of a sudden she started to swerve. I thought I'd got a flat tyre, but no, it were an earthquake, like.'
'We noticed something of the sort ourselves, didn't we, Manders?'
'That's right, sir.'
'Anyway, I was afraid I'd end up in the ditch, so I stopped and jumped out And that's when I heard this noise.'
Noise?'
'Like a humming... no, a buzzing... no... I can't describe it really, sir, but it were so loud it got me scared. I just took off. And a good thing I did, because the next moment the old bread van went up like a bomb. Blazing away she were, all in a minute. And that's when you came along, sir.'
The Brigadier surveyed the charred end of his swagger cane, thinking back. The van in flames, the terrified youngster flagging them down, the garbled warning and then, the discovery of the heat barrier itself. Standing a few yards from the burning vehicle, he had used his cane to point at the church tower showing over the trees. 'Is that Devil's End?' he'd asked—and the end of his cane had burst into flames like a Guy Fawkes firework. Good grief, if he'd been eighteen inches nearer, he'd have lost his hand! Next they'd tried throwing in a stick from the hedge; a stone; a steel spanner. All had exploded into flames or turned white with incandescence before being completely vaporised. And yet, inches away from the invisible wall, the temperature of the air was only a few degrees above normal.
'This looks like Lob's Crick, sir,' said Manders.
'If you could drop me at the store...' said the rounds-man. He grinned ruefully. 'I can just hear my Guv'nor when I tell him his van's gone up in a puff of smoke!'
Some six furlongs beyond the village (which was too small to boast a hotel or even a pub, as the rumblings of the Brigadier's stomach we beginning to testify) Manders brought the car to a stop. Right across the road in front of them and as far as could be seen on either side, extended the same regular strip of burnt earth. A half-brick, lobbed into the air, disintegrated into a thousand burning fragments.
'That settles it,' said the Brigadier. 'We'd better get some of our chaps down. Looks as if it might extend all round Devil's End. Back to the village, Manders. We must get the police in on this before there are any tragedies. And you never know, the village constable of Lob's Crick might even give us a cup of tea!'
Meanwhile the village constable of Devil's End stared up at the Doctor with dead eyes.
'Poor fellow,' said the Doctor, as he covered P.C. Groom's face with his own waterproof cape.
Jo turned and walked away a few yards. Although, since she joined UNIT, she had experienced the sight of death in many forms, she could never get used to it. 'How did he die?' she said faintly. 'I mean what... what killed him?'
'Well, it wasn't the Devil,' replied the Doctor, gravely. 'At least, not exactly.'
Jo looked fearfully at him.
'What do you mean by that?'
But the Doctor did not reply to her question. Moving towards the entrance to the barrow, he tossed over his shoulder, 'I'm going in. Would you prefer to stay outside?'
Jo hurried after him. 'I think I'd rather stick