Doctor Who_ Match of the Day - Chris Boucher [74]
He waited for the food and water to take their full effect so that his mind was as clear as possible, before he finally decided to risk the lecea.
It was not until she woke up that Leela realised she had been asleep. The last thing she remembered was being carried between two men who had been talking about what they would do with her if their plans went wrong. She remembered concentrating on listening for information. She remembered concentrating. Then there was nothing. She did not remember concentrating on nothing. She did not remember falling into the darkness.
Now here she was, still in the darkness but she was awake.
She knew she was awake because... she knew she was awake. She knew she was no longer asleep. She could see nothing, hear nothing, feel nothing and yet she knew she was not dreaming. She knew she could see nothing, hear nothing and feel nothing and she knew that must mean that she was awake.
She reached out into the darkness. Her hand brushed against something soft and she grabbed for it but it evaded her grasp and was gone. She felt giddy for a moment and was almost sick. What was the creature she had just touched?
Was it something so poisonous that touching its skin could make her ill? She felt giddy and sick again, and she put a hand to her face and wiped away the slick film of sweat that had broken out on her forehead. That was when she realised the mask and breathing filters had gone. Exploring further she found that the coverall had been removed. Something touched her shoulder. Instinctively she felt for her knife. It was not there. Her combat pouch was missing too.
Something touched the top of her head and as she tried to jerk away from it a spinning wave of dizziness swept over her and filled her throat with vomit. She choked it back, swallowing hard and gritting her teeth. She would not be sick. She was starting to be sorry that she had woken up.
Think, she thought. I must think.
Questions you must ask yourself when you are captured, she heard her warrior trainer say: Am I wounded? Where am I being held? How can I escape? As far as she could remember he never said anything about asking yourself what sort of poisonous horror was hiding in the dark and how you ended up being thrown to it. No mention of being thrown to anything. Apart from the horda. Panic flickered at the back of her mind. Had she been taken back and thrown to the horda? Panic flickered harder, fluttered harder at the back of her mind. Had she never left? Panic shook and shocked her.
Was this the pit of the horda? Was that where she had always been, had all the rest been just a dream? A nightmare. Was this the nightmare that was death? Panic took her breath away and plunged her towards a darker darkness.
Think. She must think. That was what the Doctor told her.
You must think, because without thought there was only fear and chaos. Thought, she heard him say, might not stop you being afraid but at least you understood the reasons for your fear. Think. Question. First question. Why was it so dark?
Why could she see nothing? Was she blind? She put her hands up close to her eyes. Nothing. She closed her eyes and opened them. No change in the blackness. She rubbed her eyes. There were the briefest of small flashing specks of red and yellow against the blackness. It meant nothing, she knew. It told her nothing. So either she was blind or she was being held in total darkness. She felt a little better. She was beginning to get control of herself. Second question. Why could she hear nothing? She listened. She could hear herself breathing and when she swallowed the faint sound of it crackled in her ears. So she was not deaf. She felt better. It was shaming to have panicked. Warriors did not panic.
Thinkers did not panic.
Third question. Why could she feel nothing? She extended her arms and swept them carefully around her. There was nothing within reach. The thing that had touched her, that she had touched, did not seem to be hunting