• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

Keara burst from the thick wall of fog which covered the cave entrance, drawing to a halt and struggling to catch her breath. As she did so, she stared across at Varsh. Her expression said everything.

'Anything could make that water bubble,' said Varsh. 'A seismic tremor. It could be anything.'

'It could be Mistfall.'

'Mistfall's a myth.'

At this, Tylos appeared in the entrance, sweating and exhausted. He nodded outside with his head. 'Refnal and Gulner don't think so. I saw them heading back to the starliner. Hektir and Yenik should have been here by now, so they've probably gone with them.'

Varsh's jaw set angrily. 'Deserters,' he sneered. Keara paled. 'It's just us now.'

'And Adric,' Varsh reminded her.

'You can't blame them,' said Tylos. 'Not after what happened at the river. Then there's the mists. And have you noticed? It's getting colder. All those things we believed to be lies... they're coming true.'

'Don't let the Deciders fool you, too, Tylos,' Varsh warned. 'They've taken these things and twisted them to their own advantage.'

'You'd better be right,' said Tylos, more than a hint of menace in his voice as he moved closer to Varsh. 'Or else we're dead.'

Adric lay on the bed in Romana's quarters, ashen-faced, as the Doctor applied medication to his injured knee. Romana smiled down on him. 'Relax, Adric,' she cooed.

'Whatever it is it can't get you in here. You're safe.'

'But the others,' said Adric weakly. 'I have to warn them.'

The Doctor, in the middle of applying a bandage, raised an interested eyebrow. 'Warn them?'

'About Mistfall. My brother says it's a myth. The Outlers all think the Deciders are lying. But I've seen it.'

The Doctor, finished with Adric's wound, now leaned closer to the boy. 'Tell me about this "Mistfall",' he said.

'Decider Draith is too late.'

Garif nodded at Nefred's proclamation. Together, they turned towards the entrance. 'Seal the door,' Nefred ordered.

A citizen punched out a sequence of buttons on the panel next to the entrance. Login watched on, distraught, knowing he could do nothing. The heavy door started to descend into place.

At the last moment, two figures erupted from the fog, scrabbling underneath the door and pulling their feet in just before the panel shut out the rest of the planet.

Garif recognised them. 'Refnal and Gulner. Two of the Outlers. They were my pupils when I was a Chemistry Instructor.'

Nefred grimaced. 'What in the name of goodness has happened to them?'

Refnal and Gulner didn't lift themselves from the floor. They just lay there, whimpering.

Refnal was saying something. Nefred knelt beside him, trying to hear.

'They're... they're coming,' Refnal whispered fearfully. 'Coming... coming to get us.'

'We seem to be in the wrong place at the wrong time again,' the Doctor sighed, crouched on the floor of the control room as he began reassembling the console.

Romana was leaning against the wall. 'The starliner community sounds like a type D oligarchy,' she remarked. 'Typically, they would use propaganda like that to retain power.'

The Doctor smiled. 'Government by myth-management, eh?'

Romana winced at the atrocious pun. 'But that story about the marsh,' she said. 'He could have been hallucinating. Recreating a folk story inculcated since birth...'

'And then again it could all be true.'

Adric appeared in the doorway. Romana gave his knee a concerned look, but her attention was taken more by his look of bewilderment as he gazed around the control room.

'That blue box I saw...' he mused.

The Doctor climbed to his feet. 'The TARDIS, yes.'

'Is this it?'

'This is indeed, as you say, it,' said the Doctor, waving a proud hand. 'Go ahead and ask.'

'Why is it bigger inside than - ?'

'Don't ask.'

As the Doctor gleefully returned to adjusting some controls on the console for calibration tests, Romana gave Adric a smile that told him she was on his side. 'We have a lot of trouble explaining that one,' she said. 'You see...'

The Doctor suddenly whipped round, wide-eyed, and said, 'Describe the outside