Doctor Who_ Last Man Running - Chris Boucher [39]
The Doctor woke from his trance with a start and found himself being dragged over the ground as he held on grimly to Pertanor. He wondered at this animal’s single-minded pursuit of its original prey, if that was what it was. Like the louse. Was it coincidence, evolutionary refinement, or strategic choice? He dug his heels in and tried to slow things down. ‘The end Leela,’ he yelled. ‘The nerves are in the end!’
Leela slashed the edge of the knife across the end of the fat, encircling worm and the amphibian reared up out of the water, twitching its head and scrabbling and splashing with its stubby front flippers. It stopped retracting its tongue for a moment, sending a muscular spasm along the whole length of it, but still it did not let go of Pertanor.
With silent ferocity Rinandor threw herself on to Pertanor’s legs, clawing at the folds of the tongue, trying to prise them loose with her hands. It was futile and she made it more difficult for Leela to work with the knife but her weight and determination gave the Doctor a chance to let go of Pertanor.
He rolled clear, scrambled to his feet, and sprinted away.
‘Come back, you coward!’ Rinandor screamed after him.
The Doctor reached the bank where the discarded vine rope lay. Close up the amphibian’s changes of colour were hardly discernible under the blue-green sheen of its skin. The animal was bloated, so bloated it seemed impossible that it could fit into the lake at all, and the thought struck the Doctor that it might actually be stuck in the surface bottleneck. He jumped up and down and waved at it and shouted. ‘Hey! Big mouth! Over here!’
One of the matt-black eyes swivelled to look at him. The darkness in it was so profound, the Doctor knew that it had to be the animal affecting his perception. It was not what he was seeing but the way he was seeing it. Seemingly out of nowhere a tongue flicked towards him. The Doctor flung himself to one side, falling hard and knocking the breath out of himself. So much for exclusivity. The tongue missed him. It flopped and curled on the bank and then began to retract.
The Doctor sat up and stared. The animal had two tongues –
at least two. He snatched up the rope and ran back to where Leela and Rinandor were struggling with the other one.
‘Tight as you can and as close to him as you can,’ the Doctor instructed, handing Leela one end of the rope. ‘A running loop would be best.’
Leela pushed the vine round the tongue and began to make the noose just beyond Pertanor’s legs. The tongue started to retract again.
‘No! Oh no! No!’ Rinandor yelled and scrambled for a purchase with her feet.
The Doctor took the other end of the rope and ran for the nearest trees. ‘And stay alert,’ he shouted over his shoulder.
‘It’s got more than one tongue!’
Leela tightened the knot as the Doctor slogged across the open ground dragging the rope behind him. To reinforce it, she hurriedly cut a thread of leather from her tunic and bound the trailing ends.
The Doctor reached the first tree with just enough rope left to throw a loop round the trunk and tie it off. He would have preferred to use a thicker specimen with a stronger stem but they were all further away and he knew the vine rope would not reach any of them. Already, with the amphibian’s tongue contracting, the rope was tightening up. He started back, shouting ‘Cut the end again!’ as he ran.
Leela pulled back the folds in the tongue. Rinandor grabbed them from her and pulled back hard so that the slightly narrower tip was fully exposed. Leela plunged the knife in and twisted it.
This time the animal let out a gurgling roar of pain and anger. It shook its head violently from side to side. Yanking on its trapped tongue, it heaved itself out of the deep water altogether. Its monstrous low-slung body was supported on ten legs, the front and rear pairs of which were flippers. It lifted hugely