Doctor Who_ Last of the Gaderene - Mark Gatiss [67]
He looked suddenly very young and afraid.
‘We’ve no choice,’ said Jo firmly.
She tugged on his hand and together they raced forward, the ground beneath them becoming less and less firm.
Jo cried out as her ankles sank deep down into the cold, marshy water, spiky reeds poking into her legs through her trousers.
Bullets again tore into the ground, slapping at the marshland. Jo and Noah ducked and wove their way ahead, trying to keep low, stumbling every few feet and sinking deeper into the bog.
The cry of a curlew screeched through the still of the muggy night.
Jo was suddenly aware that their pursuers had halted. She dragged Noah to the ground and together they gazed back the way they had come. The Legion troopers were standing stock-still, like a crescent of black marble statues on some elegant driveway.
‘I don’t like the look of this,’ murmured Jo.
Noah’s breathing had grown ragged. His eyes flicked to the side.
In the marsh, about ten feet away, the water was beginning to bubble as though the temperature had risen to boiling point.
Steam hissed through the reeds and soaking grass. Slimy bubbles belched to the surface and burst, releasing clouds of noxious vapour.
Noah dragged Jo back.
Something slithered close by.
Jo’s hand flew involuntarily to her mouth. ‘Look!’ she gasped.
It was as if the whole marsh had suddenly come to life.
For about fifty square feet, the doughy ground was trembling and churning, with occasional flashes of some pale, fleshy-textured thing curling and snaking through it.
All at once, with a shattering, throaty roar, a gigantic creature rocketed from the marsh, teetering over Jo and Noah’s cowering forms like some hideous Chinese dragon. Its massive tail was segmented like that of a crayfish and its black, blazing eyes were crab-like, but the bulk of its obscene body resembled a monstrous worm, doused in translucent slime, shuddering and clicking as it reared into the air.
Bliss was standing with her back to the Master, one hand on the gently humming computer banks at the far end of her office. The room was, as usual, in darkness, but the Master seemed unperturbed.
Bliss glanced round and gestured. ‘You do not mind...
this?’
The Master smiled, tugging at his black gloves. ‘Not at all.
I find it most soothing.’
‘It is the natural way of things on my world.’
The Master nodded. ‘I understand.’
Bliss turned around. ‘Do you? Do you really?’
She advanced on the Master, her chalky face looming through the darkness like the moon through cloud. ‘My planet is dying!’
The Master’s face was absolutely impassive. ‘I understood it to be dead.’
Bliss turned sharply away, her breathing hoarse and furious. ‘The Gaderene have but one chance to claim this little world. That is why you agreed to help us.’
The Master removed his gloves and regarded his fingernails. ‘And have I let you down in any way?’
Bliss wiped flecks of spit from her wide mouth. ‘It isn’t that. The swine have been gathered but the embryos within them will not suit our purpose. The breakthrough must be soon!’
Nodding slowly, the Master got to his feet. ‘We have returned a few of the villagers. Suspicion will be alleviated.
Temporarily at least.’
Bliss shook her head. ‘I tell you it must be soon!’
The Master sighed. ‘Then bring me the Wing Commander.
I have one or two tricks up my sleeve which may help us.’
The monster’s bellowing roar thundered deafeningly over the marshes.
Noah fell on to his backside, sinking deep into the marsh, his arms outstretched in terror.
‘No!’ he wailed, shaking his head quickly from side to side. ‘No!’
Jo snaked an arm around his waist and pulled him free from the sucking marsh.
‘It’s all right,’ she soothed, glancing quickly upwards.
The creature was rearing over them, its eyes, like black pearls, glittering with malice. Slimy saliva gushed from its gaping maw, landing with a flat rippling sound on the disturbed waters.
Its eyes swivelled in Jo and Noah’s direction.
They stiffened, trying to keep their breathing silent. Jo felt Noah’s grip tighten around