Doctor Who_ Earthworld - Jacqueline Rayner [2]
Anji considered it was to her great credit that she didn’t say, ‘I told you so’
when the caveman appeared.
After you’ve seen aliens kill your boyfriend and been in a spaceship that’s bigger on the inside than the outside, bumping into something that you’ve at least seen in books/movies/ancient American cartoons isn’t as scary as all that.
It looked somewhat cartoonlike, too.
Exaggerated jaw and forehead,
hunched back and muscles and a lot of hair, and – unbelievably – dressed in what appeared to be leopard-skin rags. It was glaring at them, but making no move to approach. Apart from the leopard skin – and its willingness to keep at a distance – it reminded Anji irresistibly of an ex-boyfriend: Tom, the one who was, um, one, two, three before Dave.
Don’t think about Dave.
8
EarthWorld
The Doctor had leapt up off the ground and darted back to Anji and Fitz.
‘Don’t make any sudden moves,’ he said, ridiculously. ‘It’s probably far more scared of us.’
‘I’m not scared at all,’ Anji informed him. ‘It’s not threatening us.’
The Doctor frowned, and told her that it was perfectly reasonable, even sensible, to be scared of things until you knew exactly what was going on. Boy, was he so obviously a proponent of ‘do what I say, not what I do’.
The caveman began to move cautiously towards them, grunting inquisitively.
Anji stood her ground, turning to Fitz and the Doctor to see what they were making of this. None of it seemed real to her.
Fitz raised an eyebrow and smiled smugly. ‘Just leave this to me. One look at this –’ he took a lighter from his jacket pocket – ‘and he’ll be worshipping us as gods.’ Then the stupid prat flicked up the flame and started walking towards the caveman – was that PC? Caveperson? Evolutionally challenged, perhaps? – going ‘ug ug ug ug ug ug ug’ for goodness’ sake. Anji raised her eyes heavenwards.
And then kept them there. Hang on a minute! No, it was her imagination.
It had to be her imagination. But. . . there was the giant fluffy frog in the sky.
In exactly the same place. Surely it was imagination, coincidence, whatever?
Because whatever weirdo world this was, and however light the breeze, surely the clouds had to move. . . ?
Her attention was ripped back to earth as the caveman suddenly screamed
– it sounded like a shrieking chimpanzee. But it didn’t sound like fear, more like. . . oh, help! It started charging towards them. The idiot (meaning Fitz) had obviously enraged the creature.
‘ Aaargh! ’ yelled Fitz, and dropped the lighter.
‘Run!’ cried the Doctor.
They ran. To Anji’s horrified realisation they were running away from the TARDIS. She breathlessly commented on this, once again admiring her own restraint.
Fitz tapped his nose as he ran. ‘If we’d gone ( gasp) back to the TARDIS
( gasp), the Doctor’d never know ( gasp) where we were ( big gasp). And that’s not ( gasp) how it works.’
‘But we know where we are! This is obviously prehistoric Earth!’ Anji was having enough problems trying to keep up with the Doctor and Fitz, who were both much taller than she was and weren’t wearing heels.
The Doctor slowed down momentarily to take her hand, and motioned for Fitz to do the same on her other side. Between them, they dragged Anji on, The Fluffy Frog in the Sky
9
making her feel like a piece of meat. The Doctor spoke for the first time. Anji had the feeling that he’d been too busy taking everything in himself up till now to comment on it to them. ‘Not necessarily,’ he said (Anji had almost forgotten what they were talking about – and was sickened to note, as she panted away, that the Doctor was not even the slightest bit winded by their speed), ‘it could be parallel evolution on another planet.’
‘Or a parallel ( gasp) Earth,’ added Fitz, who still seemed to be on his ‘I know more about space-time travel than you do’ kick. ‘That can happen. If it were night-time, the Doctor could tell exactly where we are just by looking at the stars.’
The Doctor shot Fitz an amazed glance.
‘It’s not night-time,