Doctor Who_ Halflife - Mark Michalowski [66]
‘How far away is it?’
‘Hard to tell – it could be small and a few hundred yards away, of huge and half a mile away. Nothing to measure it against.’
He set off again, more cautiously this time, and Calamee followed, batting away an insect from her face. For a moment, she wondered if it was one of the Imperator’s flying spies.
The wall of smoke became more solid as they got closer, and Calamee soon started to get the impression that it was actually quite large.
‘It’s moving,’ said the Doctor quietly, bringing them to a halt. ‘Towards us.’
He glanced around and pointed into the darkness to the east where Calamee could just see the outline of a building, limned by the faint traces of light from the city. It looked like a barn or a big shed.
‘Come on, Calamee – I’ve got a horrible feeling about this.’
He grabbed her hand and began to walk quickly towards the barn.
‘What sort of feeling? I don’t understand.’
‘Neither do I – but trust me.’ He smiled at her. ‘I’m a doctor.’
Calamee could sense the Doctor’s panic: he began to speed up as they headed for the building. She was surprised to see that the wall of smoke had become noticeably larger, and wondered if it was a fire. But although the weather had been reasonably warm, it hadn’t been anything out of the ordinary. And the grass beneath her feet still felt soft. Too soft, for more than once she stumbled, swearing, as the Doctor broke into a jog.
‘Whatever it is,’ he said, sounding barely out of breath, ‘it’s getting closer.’
She heard the keen edge of worry in his voice. ‘If it wasn’t for the fact that the TARDIS is on the other side of it, I’d be very tempted to turn around and run, you know.’
The barn was still some distance away. If it was a fire sweeping towards them, how much shelter would it afford them? It looked half derelict in the near-darkness, missing timbers from the walls giving way on to a pitch-black interior. The dim starlight showed holes in the roof.
Calamee glanced to her right: whatever this thing was, it wasn’t smoke. It was too uniform, too flat, and there was no hint of fire at its base – just an 120
intensifying of the nacreous grey of the wall itself. Now that it was closer, she could see detail that hadn’t been visible before: countless tiny sparkles flickered and died, like spinning chips of diamond. Every now and then, a brighter flash would flare at random, as though, as the wall swept across the countryside, it was swallowing up and burning insects.
They were at the barn, its huge door hanging carelessly. The Doctor bundled her inside. It smelt of hay, and the floor rustled beneath her feet. High above her head, she could see the stars peering down at her through the gaps in the roof. How she wished she were up there with them, instead of down here.
She looked around for the Doctor, and saw movement that she assumed was him.
‘Come on!’ he said. ‘Up here!’
She crossed carefully to him, hoping there were no bits of rusty farm machinery, lying in wait for her legs. He found her hand in the darkness and pulled her towards him. There was a moment of sudden, awkward silence, before she heard his voice, close up in her ear.
‘Go on, then!’
‘What?’
He moved her hand and she found the rungs of a rickety wooden ladder, leading up to the hayloft above. Calamee glanced back towards the gaping mouth of the door, as the shimmering, pearly wall swept into the barn, lighting up everything around with an eerie light, like the marbling of sunlight reflected from the surface of a pool.
She felt the Doctor’s hands on her hips, pushing her up the ladder. She slipped on the first rung, and she scrabbled madly to regain her footing, realising that if she didn’t move faster, the Doctor would be caught by the thing.
Suddenly, she realised