Doctor Who_ History 101 - Mags L. Halliday [57]
In the smog, the city looked almost white, the black shapes dulled and blurred. Occasionally, they would pass people in the ruins, turning over rubble or throwing it aside. The crackle of still-burning buildings was muted, at one remove in the deadening atmosphere. Already the outlines of the buildings were familiar: windows blankly staring into nothing, or half a room hanging off the side of a house. Uneven mounds of fallen masonry and timber, and the odd harsh crash as another part collapsed. It was a landscape he had known before and he walked in a daze through the streets, focusing on moving the spare forward.
When the tyre bumped into something, Fitz assumed it was a piece of debris and pushed harder. Then he realised it was a body. He felt an urgent desire to be sick but all he had eaten in the long night was a little stale bread and the watery wine. He had nothing to be sick with. Sasha had been walking ahead, meandering down the street, glancing about. He came back when he realised Fitz had stalled.
‘I think the main square is this way. We’ll find someone there who knows of a garage that is still working.’
Fitz was leaning on the tyre with both hands, arms locked and shaking.
‘There’re bodies,’ he managed. The Russian nodded.
‘Durango was similar, two weeks ago. There a bomb hit a church during mass. Not good.’
‘Not good? Sasha! Your side did this! Your stupid soldiers set fire to the town!’
‘What are you talking about? It was bombed by the Nazis.’
They stared at each other, frowning. Fitz could remember the evening clearly: all night handing out miserly rations and water to lost faces, glugging on wine to keep moving. He could remember their testimony, those that would speak. The town was firebombed by the retreating reds. The town was hit accidentally, mistargetted. The Nazi planes had targeted the town and strafed the fleeing townspeople. Fitz’s frown deepened. He had been stood on that hillside throughout the attack. He had watched though he had hated his impotence to stop events. And now he had no idea what those events were.
Looking up, he realised Sasha was looking at him in the same way, as if uncertain what to say. Fitz decided to block it, worry about it when he came to telling the Doctor what he had seen. He shrugged at Sasha, then they lifted the wheel over the remains and started pushing it towards the blackened heart of the town.
* * *
Anji scowled at the Doctor. Typical of him to pop up with some smart remark and disrupt her argument. Jueves was looking at her with concern, his glasses exaggerating his widened eyes. Oh yes, that would be because of fainting in his arms. Anji blushed slightly. Fainting! It was embarrassing.
‘Oh. Er, hello.’
Eleana was still glaring at her. ‘You are a dangerous fool, Anji,’ she spat out as she started grabbing her coat, ‘you think knowledge is innocent, that it harms no one to write this down. You can’t see what can be done with it.’
The Catalonian had got her coat on now and was slinging her rifle over her shoulder. She gave Anji a final dirty glance and then pushed past the men in the doorway with a muttered curse.
Anji groaned and sat back on to the bed. The Doctor moved into the room properly and leaned against the dresser, stuffing his hands into his trouser pockets. He studied his scuffed shoes for a moment, then glanced at her, one eyebrow raised. Did we miss something?’
‘Yeah, Eleana’s paranoia trip. How was Blair?’
‘Missing.’
‘Oh.’
Anji glanced at Jueves, still leaning against the doorjamb as