Doctor Who_ St. Anthony's Fire - Mark Gatiss [84]
‘Come on. Get inside. I’ll question you later.’
They moved towards the ship. Sheet lightning like an upturned crucible suddenly illuminated the black sky.
Martino shuddered involuntarily and looked back. The dark, dark mass of the jungle was swaying violently. He felt the mud beneath his feet begin to vibrate.
He flapped his arms at the two men. ‘Go on! Run! Get inside!’
The ground was rippling violently, spitting mud and vegetation into the air. From out of the tortured sky, a hail of meteorites began to thunder to the ground, smashing against the hulls of the two black ships.
Throwing up his arms in terror, Martino fell a short way from the ramp and felt mud slap into his eyes. With a staggering roar, the ground opened up all around him, a great, cavernous fissure running right across the battlefield.
‘Help me!’ he screeched, reaching out his hands.
The Chaptermen lunged for him but the ground rolled again and all three toppled dangerously close to the chasm. Steam gushed from the ground and a tumultuous cracking of moving earth filled the air.
Martino clung to the soil with both hands as his legs flopped into the fissure. He could feel the slippery mud sliding between his fingers.
All at once, he was aware of a different sensation as something began to trickle from the ground. He glanced behind him and squealed in panic as the yellow ooze ejected from the fissure.
This close he could make out the fine detail of its sparkling, mucous surface and all the strange and oddly familiar shapes twisting and writhing in its undulating form.
It began to gurgle around his heels.
‘Help me!’ he screamed, but the Chaptermen fell back in terror. Martino scrabbled for the cross around his neck and thrust it at the oncoming yellow tide.
‘Back! Back!’ he managed to gasp. ‘You are an abomination in the eyes of Saint Anthony!’
The yellow ooze gushed over his calves, sliding, swirling, twisting.
‘I cast you out, demon!’ shrieked Martino. ‘In the name of my patron I –’
The ooze drew back as though considering Martino’s words and then rained down upon him. He yelled and yelled until the air in his lungs was exhausted and his body was sucked into the foul creature’s innards.
In a moment, he was gone and the yellow ooze had vanished back into the earth.
Counting their blessings, the Chaptermen took to their heels and scrambled into the mothership.
* * *
Bernice pulled at the straps digging into her wrists. Sweat sprang out uncomfortably under her arms and her aching hands.
She found herself lying flat on a slab in a small, cold room. Next to her were two things; a bulky, sinister‐looking machine, its surface crammed with switches, and the even more sinister‐looking Parva De Hooch who was shuffling up and down over the floor.
‘Where…’ she began weakly.
‘Where are you?’ returned De Hooch. ‘You’re in the conditioning block.’
Bernice tried to move her head but it was clamped tightly to the slab. ‘Where… are the others?’
De Hooch’s face crinkled into a frown. ‘Others? Oh, those creatures. Well, they weren’t suitable for processing so I’ve ordered them to be destroyed.’
Bernice’s eyes widened. ‘Destroyed?’
‘Yes. It’s the kindest way. I mean, they’re not like you and I, are they?’ He shuddered. ‘All those scales.’
‘Look,’ said Bernice hoarsely. ‘I’m not at all clear about this.’
De Hooch walked up to the slab and laid a fat hand on Bernice’s burning forehead. ‘After the conditioning has done its work you will obey Saint Anthony without question and all things will become clear.’
Bernice pulled again at the straps. ‘But what about the Doctor…?’
De Hooch stood up straight. ‘The Doctor? You know him?’
‘Of course. We travelled here together,’ said Bernice. ‘Why?’
‘The Doctor has caused me much humiliation. He will pay dearly for it. And the woman too.’
‘What woman?’
De Hooch sneered. ‘Some trash we picked up on Massatoris. She has flouted the will of Saint Anthony. She has incurred the wrath of the Chapter. And she stuffed me in a cupboard.’
‘Look, never mind your personal vendettas,’ sighed Bernice. ‘There