Doctor Who_ Full Circle - Andrew Smith [26]
It was about a foot in length.
Romana, feeling her throat dry, said, 'So that's what frightened the Marshmen off.'
Other riverfruits were beginning to open. One at floor level split with an audible crack. A peculiar green fluid oozed out from it, spilling across the cave floor. From the mushy, glutinous material within the fruit a spider emerged, fighting its way out.
'There's more of them - look!' Tylos screamed.
As he pointed, the others turned their gaze to a dark, shadowed recess of the cave. Five or six of the spiders were emerging into the light, drawn by the sounds of the humans' presence. They stopped, gathering themselves, on the edge of the darkness, shuffling in a way that implied intelligence and was infinitely terrifying.
Romana remained where she was, looking at the spiders with curiosity. Behind her, the Outlers were bundling back inside the TARDIS. Varsh caught hold of Adric's tunic and dragged him with them.
Inside the control room, Tylos went straight to the control console, his hands wavering as he tried to remember how Romana had worked it. He pulled a switch.
Romana was jolted from her study of the spiders by the sound of the TARDIS doors slamming closed behind her. 'Adric!' she cried.
In the control room, Adric, furious, clutched Tylos's arm and threw him with strength born of anger away from the controls, sending him crashing into the wall. 'Romana's out there, you idiot!' he protested. He surveyed the bewildering array of instruments before him. 'Which one is the door control?'
Tylos was nursing a bruised shoulder. 'You're so clever, an Elite... guess,' he sneered.
Adric didn't have the time to argue it out with Tylos. He reached forward and activated a switch. The console's central column began rising and falling. He had operated the dematerialisation switch.
Romana was hammering frantically on the TARDIS doors. She heard the engines starting up. As the TARDIS faded away before her eyes, she found her fists suddenly flailing through thin air. The TARDIS was gone.
She was alone with the spiders.
The small, black, malevolent creatures had moved around the cave wall, blocking off her route to the cave mouth, and now they came forward, moving inexorably towards her.
Romana did her best to subdue the terror that was welling up inside her. Looking around her, she searched for a weapon to use against the creatures. She grabbed the nearest object to hand - one of the riverfruits.
She was about to throw it towards the spiders when she heard a loud, snapping crack and the riverfruit split open in her hands, spilling green fluid.
The arachnoid within ejected itself from the slithering, repulsive mess, aware of the human presence.
Romana felt its eight legs gripping her face, felt its mossy-soft body pressed against her cheek, felt the bite, before her hand could swipe the repellent creature away.
Looking at the approaching spiders, she saw they had shifted out of focus. The cave was spinning around her, she could feel a peculiar hotness washing through her.
The ground came up to meet her, and then she was unconscious.
The spiders scuttled relentlessly towards her, clambering onto her body, until they covered her entirely, an undulating mass of black animosity.
7
'A Little Patience Goes a Long Way'
Adric, Varsh, Tylos and Keara stood around the control console of the TARDIS, staring in awe at the time column as it rose and fell, bright lights winking within it.
'What's happening?' Tylos whispered.
'I don't know,' Adric replied. After a moment's consideration, he ventured, 'We seem to be travelling.'
Keara grabbed Varsh's arm protectively and buried her head in his shoulder. 'Varsh... do something,' she pleaded. 'I'm frightened.'
'Adric?' Varsh called to his brother. 'You're the clever one. Where are we going?'
'How should I know?' Adric snapped, as afraid as any of them. 'Romana set the co-ordinates. We could be going anywhere.'
'Anywhere...' Keara repeated to herself.
K9's body remained where the Marshmen had