Doctor Who_ Empire of Death - BBC Worldwide [103]
`You're wounded, you won't make it,' Nyssa replied, struggling to be heard over the gunfire. Another sound was growing louder by the second. 'That's the river coming for us.
Now come on! We can carry him if we work together!'
Morrison nodded at the sense of this and let Nyssa take the boy's legs. Together they began to clamber up the side of the valley, shots still raining down on them from the soldiers atop Corra Linn. Suddenly the Doctor was by their side. He grabbed James and began running back up the hill. `Nyssa! Help the private to safety!'
The quartet clawed their way upwards, the roar of the approaching river growing ever louder, overwhelming all words.
The air around them was becoming moist as spray was thrown ahead of the surging flood. Then, when Nyssa thought the noise could get no louder, the water was upon them all. She stopped to look back, turning in time to see the torrent burst over Corra Linn. It threw the soldiers into the air like a playful cat before dashing their bodies on to the rocks below. The deluge hit the riverbed and exploded, flying forwards and sideways and swallowing everything in its path.
The water tore at the banks, trees and boulders from the shattered dam joining the tumult. Corra Linn was alive again and reaching out, determined to engulf all around it. Nyssa ran on up the hill, the ground crumbling away beneath her feet, the river rampaging around her. She slipped and almost slid back down into the hungry water, but Morrison grabbed her arm and pulled her to safety. Still the deafening noise roared on, before finally beginning to abate. Nyssa realised she was soaked to the skin - but she was alive.
Vollmer was last back to camp, his side aching from a stitch. He had stopped running and walked the final section, watching the last remnants of the temporary dam floating by. The sergeant found Nyssa nursing a young boy while Morrison was tending to his wound. There was no sign of the other household guards or the Doctor. Nyssa explained all she could about what had happened.
`Who's the boy?' Vollmer asked.
`James Lees,' Nyssa replied. The real James Lees. He went through the rift seven years ago. Time moves differently on the other side, so he grew only a few days older.'
`The Queen - is she safe?'
Morrison nodded as he wrapped a bandage around his leg. 'She's with the Doctor. The others went downstream to search for any survivors. Doulton - the real Doulton - went through to try and bring his men back. But then the waters came..?
'We could use the diving suit to try to rescue them,' the sergeant suggested.
Nyssa shook her head. 'It was destroyed by the flash flood. The general and his men are trapped on the other side.’
Vollmer digested all of this before speaking again. 'I'll go and help with the search. It seems that's all there is left to do.'
Victoria waited until the Doctor had finished his explanations of all that had happened before speaking. 'A fascinating tale, but I don't know how much of it to believe! She sighed and shook her head. 'We don't know how much of it to believe' A smile crept across her face. 'Sometimes it can be most vexing remembering where being a monarch stops and the woman begins'
The Doctor nodded. He hesitated before venturing advice to the Queen. 'Your Majesty, what happened here - it can never be spoken of.'
Òf course not! They would think me madder than my grandpapa!' She looked down at her locket, regarding the tiny portrait inside. 'Do you believe in ghosts, Doctor?'
Ì like to believe almost anything is possible in heaven and earth, Your Majesty.'
Victoria nodded. 'Have faith and faith shall be given you?'
`Something like that'
`When I collapsed, I fell into a dream. My beloved Albert spoke to me and held me and said goodbye. He said I should find a new happiness' Victoria looked intently at the Doctor. 'Was that real? Was it his ghost or just another illusion, another phantom? I was so certain that Master Lees was speaking in the voice of my late husband but now... I know not what to believe any more.'