Doctor Who_ Last Man Running - Chris Boucher [48]
‘Please, do as I ask. Go back.’
Kley took a step forward. ‘Those spears against these guns? Not a problem.’
The warriors were silent, rocking backwards and forwards slightly on the balls of their feet, swinging the spear tips through small, tight arcs.
‘We don’t need a confrontation,’ the Doctor shouted, climbing slowly down from the rocks. ‘I can handle this.’
Kley stood her ground. ‘They may be able to tell us something about the runner.’
‘No,’ the Doctor shouted. ‘That’s not what they’re for.’ He was stepping down behind the warriors now and though he had left himself plenty of room to escape it was clear he was not going to need it. They were focused and poised and about to strike and there was nothing he could do about it.
‘They’re getting ready to attack,’ the Doctor shouted. ‘There may still be time.’ But he knew that it was already too late.
Leela stayed hidden and watched as the stupid investigators refused to listen to the Doctor again. They were too confident that their weapons would give them an unbeatable advantage in a fight. Leela doubted whether they had ever faced warriors. There was no unbeatable advantage when you faced fighters like those three unless you used it immediately.
When they were dead, then it was unbeatable.
Taking care not to give herself away she slipped closer to where the investigators were standing. As she expected, they were not ready when the attack came.
The three warriors sprang forward simultaneously. They moved with startling suddenness, perfectly balanced on their powerful legs. The spears were carried horizontally at waist height braced by the upper elbow joint, the lower elbow joint flexing to drive up or down with equal power. The forearm shield was carried higher, in front and to one side of the face.
Kley braced herself and fired at the lead warrior. The shot hit him squarely in the chest. It barely slowed him down. She fired again, hitting him in the chest again. She fired again and again. Almost too late she realised that the woven metal tunic was more than just primitive body armour. ‘Aim for bare flesh,’ she shouted and shot at his head. The forearm shield absorbed the energy of the shot in a frosty blur. She had used up the full handgun charge. The gun was dead.
The Doctor could see immediately that the warriors had divided their attack. Two of them were heading for Kley and the third, the white-crested one, was going for Rinandor. It wasn’t much consolation that he seemed right about the focus on Leela. It looked as though these three had been primed to recognise and attack females. ‘They’re targeting Kley and Rinandor!’ he yelled, running towards the fight.
The two warriors were almost on Kley when Belay dropped to his knee and, firing low across the line of charge, hit the second one in the leg so that he stumbled and fell. The leading one sprinted the last few steps and then, skidding low and ducking to the right, lunged upward at Kley’s unprotected side. Fermindor was firing at the white-crested warrior in an effort to stop his run at Rinandor. Too late, he realised that Kley’s gun was empty and tried to snatch her backwards out of reach of the spear thrust. Shouting with incoherent rage, Sozerdor flung himself in front of the spear, grabbing and scrabbling for the haft. The warrior drove home the blade. It struck deep into Sozerdor’s stomach. With a snarl Sozerdor put his arms round the warrior and pulled him close. The green head nodded and then lifted, raking crest spines through the flesh of Sozerdor’s face. In a delirium of pain and fury Sozerdor head-butted him. The warrior ripped the spear sideways and out and when it was clear slammed it up through the side of Sozerdor’s ribcage. He head-butted the warrior again and again. As he died he was shouting, ‘You stupid savage, I was so close – who sent you to take it away from me?’ at the expressionless face, but the warrior did not understand him, and no one else heard the roaring of the whispered words.
At the other end of the line, the white-crested warrior plunged towards Rinandor. Unarmed,