Doctor Who_ Full Circle - Andrew Smith [10]
Adric struck out at the hand and clambered to his feet. 'Leave me alone,' he said.
'Adric, you little fool...' Draith tried to grab him and Adric lurched to one side as the man's hand caught his shoulder. The Decider was caught off balance, and with a shout fell over, his head striking a rock, his flailing legs landing with a splash in the water. Draith lay there, eyes closed, unmoving.
Adric became worried. He moved closer to the old man, concern on his face. 'Decider?' he called quietly. 'Are you all right?'
Adric was reaching out to shake him when the body moved. Just perceptibly. Adric instinctively took a step back, suspecting a feint from the Decider.
But then he moved again, and it was clear that he was not the one responsible. Draith was moving slowly into the water. Adric gaped at the marsh. There was something in there, something under the water, which had taken hold of Draith and was dragging him in.
Adric clutched at Draith's tunic shoulders, fighting to win him back from the water.
Draith stirred, moaning, slowly regaining consciousness.
'Wake up!' Adric cried. 'Wake up!' He knew he was losing to the superior strength of whatever lay concealed beneath the surface of the marsh.
Now that Draith was almost completely under, Adric found that in his attempts to keep a hold he, too, was being dragged into the water. His feet were submerged and beginning to sink into the mud when he felt something - it felt like a hand - close around his right ankle. In his shock, he released Draith and pulled at his trapped foot, freeing himself with a jerk and staggering back to collapse on the bank.
From where he lay he saw Draith thrashing around on the surface of the water, arms flailing wildly. Fighting to keep his head above water for just long enough, he looked towards Adric and shouted a message.
'Tell Dexeter... tell him we've come full circle, Adric! Tell him!'
Draith went down for the last time. Adric saw one hand break the surface for a moment, rising through the thin carpet of grey vapour which covered the water to clutch pathetically at the air, then it disappeared beneath the water for the last time.
The scene was ominously still. Adric rose to his feet, white with fear - then turned and ran into the mists, whimpering with claustrophobic terror as he crashed through the undergrowth.
He kept recalling the feel of that thing (that hand?) around his foot.
3
'Master - Alert'
The boarding area of the starliner was awash with people thronging into the ship from the gradually more threatening planet terrain. After identifying themselves to a tally man at his desk near the door, they hurried off into the benign warmth of the ship while he scribbled their names in the thick ledger supplied for the purpose.
Amid all the relieved, frightened, and numbed faces, Nefred and Garif, overseeing the boarding operation, perceived Halrin Login, Keara's father. Login was a respected man, a wise man destined perhaps one day to be a Decider.
Login waited by the door, peering anxiously out onto the planet's surface. The mists made visibility poor, however, so he turned back, moving towards Nefred and Garif. 'Sirs,' he began, 'excuse me, but...?'
Nefred smiled sympathetically. 'Your daughter?'
'To leave her out there, with no protection,' said Login, his consternation obvious. 'Is there nothing we can do?'
'She and the other Outlers chose to leave us, Login.'
'But Keara is so young.'
'And you, Login,' said Nefred sincerely, 'are a greatly valued citizen. But we cannot change the law for you.'
'Nor for Decider Draith,' Garif put in. 'He too has only one hour in which to return.'
Login frowned at the mention of the First Decider's name. 'Is he out there?'
'Yes. Because of your daughter and her friends.'
The two Outlers, Hektir and Yenik, charged blindly through the foliage, urging one another on.
Bursting from a particularly thick clump of bushes, they found themselves next to an expanse of