Doctor Who_ Dinosaur Invasion - Malcolm Hulke [7]
‘We’ve been rather a long way away,’ explained the Doctor.
‘Come off it! There’s nowhere in the world doesn’t know about what’s happening here,’ said the sergeant, clearly bored by the Doctor’s presence. ‘All right, lads, take ’em away for their mug shots.’
The soldier pushed the Doctor and Sarah to one corner of the church hall where an Army photographer was waiting. They were told to stand facing the camera while a soldier held across their chests their prisoner numbers. Then they were both photographed in profile.
Sarah asked the soldiers, ‘Do you get pleasure out of treating us as common criminals?’
‘We’re treating you for what you are,’ said the soldier photographer. ‘If you hadn’t broken martial law you wouldn’t be here.’ He took the final photograph. ‘All right, I’ve finished with them.’
The soldiers pushed the couple towards the corner where Lodge was already sitting on the floor. One of the soldiers ordered them to sit on the floor.
‘I’d rather stand, thank you,’ replied the Doctor. The soldier levelled his gun at the Doctor. ‘I said sit down! ‘
The Doctor sat.
‘What do we do now?’ asked Sarah.
‘Wait till an officer turns up.’ The Doctor inched over to where the young man Lodge was sitting, hunched up, chin between his knees. ‘How do you do!’
Lodge gave the Doctor a surly look. ‘You’ve got nothing to be cheerful about, mate.’
The Doctor smiled. ‘Surely, this is only a misunderstanding.’
‘That’s one way to look at it,’ said Lodge. ‘There’s no judge, no jury. It’s martial law.’
Sarah shuffled over to Lodge. ‘But can you tell us why?’
‘The monsters, of course. But you know about that already.’
Sarah and the Doctor exchanged glances. The Doctor spoke to Lodge very patiently. ‘Let’s pretend that my young companion and I have been for a trip into Outer Space, that we’ve only just returned, and we know nothing about these monsters. Now you tell us what happened.’
Lodge grinned. ‘Outer Space? You must be joking.’
‘It’s only a game,’ said Sarah. ‘You see, I’m a journalist. I want you to tell me what happened, from your point of view.’
This approach made more sense to Lodge. He thought for a few seconds, then spoke. ‘It was about two weeks ago that they saw the first one—’
‘Who?’ said the Doctor, interrupting. ‘Where?’
‘Some kids, I think, on Hampstead Heath. They went home and told their mum they’d seen a dinosaur. Naturally she didn’t believe them. They found some friends of theirs, other kids, to go and have a look at it. Their bodies were found a few hours later.’
Sarah closed her eyes in horror. ‘How terrible.’
‘Do go on,’ said the Doctor quietly.
‘Later that day some sort of big bird was seen flying over Hyde Park. A lot of people saw it. But it wasn’t a bird—not really. It was a... a... I can’t remember the name for it.’
‘Pterodactyl?’ said the Doctor.
‘That’s right! I’ve seen one of them—horrible-looking things. They’ve got no feathers, sort of naked. Anyway, that night a ruddy great big thing turned up in the car park by the Festival Hall. It tramped about, swinging its tail, and wrecked two hundred cars. The next day they were turning up everywhere, killing, crushing motor cars, even walking straight through people’s houses. There was hundreds of people killed.’
Sarah asked, ‘But where had they come from?’
‘Hold it a moment,’ the Doctor told her. ‘We’ll talk about that later.’ He turned to Lodge. ‘What happened then?’
‘It was panic, wasn’t it? Everyone with a car packed everything they could get into it and drove out into the country. The Government declared martial law in London, and said everyone had to leave. They got trains and buses for them, and sent them all over the place.’
‘But where to?’ asked Sarah.
Lodge shrugged. ‘They put ’em in peoples’ houses in the country, I think. And they set up big camps for them. There’s about ten million people gone, you know.’
‘What about yourself?’ asked the