Doctor Who_ Sleepy - Kate Orman [48]
Presumably they’d be stuck here until the invaders had finished testing the adults.
Invaders. Benny wondered if they saw themselves that way.
She had tried lining the psi-positive kids up, getting them to practise using their powers, lifting up fruit and vegetables and moving them around, or guessing what word she was thinking. It hadn’t lasted long. There were too many of them for one person to handle. And, ye gods, they had the attention span of a tumbleweed!
Now they were getting tired, sitting on the cold floor of the dome in a loose horseshoe. She had the distinct feeling they were far more interested in Mr Francis than her. The puppets must be old favourites; Jemima’s dress was ragged and stained, Muriel and Vivien showed distinct signs of chewing, and Mr Francis’s friend Donkey Hotay had an eye hanging down, making him look rather macabre.
They were all she had to put between these kids and outright panic.
‘One day,’ she said loudly, waving the mangy grey sock on her hand, ‘Mr Francis went for a walk. Then he met someone. Who do you think it was?’
Assorted shouts. ‘Donkey Hotay!’
‘Anansi!’
‘Cool Cat!’
‘Nope,’ said Benny, rummaging about in the box. ‘It was...’
She pulled out a plastic model Dalek. Good grief! There was probably a fluffy Hoothi in there somewhere. But she had the little buggers’ attention at last. ‘Er... It was Ms Dalek.
Hello, Ms Dalek, said Mr Francis...’ When — if — she had kids, it was going to take more than hand puppets to explain what Mummy did for a living.
When Forrester came into the Other Room, Chris tried to hide under his pillow. She took it away from him, sternly. ‘I’m a nurse,’ she said, with emphasis. He looked at her, too tired to say anything stupid.
She flashed him a grin. ‘G’day, squire,’ she said, under her breath. He didn’t smile.
Roz adjusted the gurney so that he was sitting up and put a tray of food into his lap. ‘How do you feel?’ she said.
‘I can still hear it,’ he said.
Roz nodded. ‘Now,’ she said gruffly, ‘I want a bit of respect while we’re in the infirmary, so just watch what you say.’
Chris squinted at her, got the message. She decided to take his pulse in a nursely fashion, realized she was reaching for his carotid, picked up his wrist instead. He didn’t look at her, but concentrated on breaking up a ration cube with a plastic spoon.
‘Who are all the soldiers?’ he said.
‘They’re from the Dione-Kisumu Company. The people who made the vaccine,’ she said. ‘They’ll want to do a test on you for the virus. They’ve been testing everyone.’
He reached out, put a hand on her splinted arm.
‘Little accident with a psychokinetic,’ she murmured.
‘Perhaps these people will do something about all the Gifted.’
‘Like what, for instance?’
‘I’m not sure. They’re also administering standard tests for telepathy and PK. Whatever they decide to do, I’m sure everyone will go along with it.’
‘Mm-hmm.’ He lay back down on the gurney, hands folded on his stomach.
His ‘nurse’ grimaced at him. ‘There’s nothing wrong with you. Get out here and give us a hand.’
Benny jerked awake and almost yelled. How could she have gone to sleep? How could she?
They were okay, they were still okay. The kids surrounded her, bedded down on lengths of plastic sheeting.
At least the dome was warm. She was still holding a five-year-old girl in her lap, and a little boy had gone to sleep snuggled up to her where she leant on a tall trough.
There were flashlights and low voices at the entrance of the dome. Cursing her exhaustion, Benny carefully extricated herself from the children and went stumbling through the darkness to see what was going on.
All evening, she had been trying not to think about what might happen. She had had muddy, half-awake nightmares in which the troopers came back and just shot all of them where they lay, ignoring her screams, leaving her alive in the shattered remains of the hydroponics equipment. Mixed in with suggestions that Ms Dalek should exterminate Mr Francis instead