Doctor Who_ The Bodysnatchers - Mark Morris [67]
To Jack's horrified astonishment, a swirling red vapour suddenly seemed to pour from the man's body, streaming from his mouth and nostrils and eyes
.The vapour surrounded the man's body, shimmering with a strange light that hurt Jack's eyes to look at it.
Eventually the vapour with its strange light dispersed, but what was revealed now was an even more terrible sight. In place of the man who had killed Albert, and whom Jack had killed in turn, was a creature that Jack could not have envisaged in his worst nightmares. It was the colour of a blood orange, covered in suckers and with a vast, domed head. It looked to Jack like an evil, diseased, man-sized parody of a baby.
Worse still, it was not yet dead. It was twitching and writhing, and from its throat came a shrill whistling sound. Jack started to back out of the alcove, not wishing to take his eyes from the creature for a moment, fearing that if he did it would leap up, pluck the knife from its chest, and come howling after him.
He did turn away, however, when, stepping out of the alcove, he heard a scrabbling sound behind him. To his utter horror he saw a huge silvery animal, larger than any man, sliding up out of the grate in the corner of the room. Jack was not a man to whom fear was a close companion, but it transfixed him now. He felt as rooted to the spot as a bird under the spell of a cat as the creature hauled itself up out of the hole in the floor and lumbered towards him.
Opening its vast jaws, the creature gave a shrieking bellow that Jack felt sure would burst his eardrums. Its head waved from side to side, its eyes rolled, and then with another terrifying bellow it lunged at Jack.
He braced himself for the impact of that massive body striking his own, and hoped his death would be mercifully swift. But to his amazement, the creature bypassed him, heading instead for the alcove.
For several seconds Jack simply stood there, unable to believe his good fortune. He could only think that the creature had ignored him because it had smelled the blood issuing from the wounds in poor Albert's body.
'Thank you,Albert,' he croaked, and at last found that he could move his limbs again. Behind him he heard the creature snarling like a dog as it began to tear and worry at his companion's cooling flesh. Leaving the monster to its grisly supper, Jack fled.
***
At the same instant that the Zygon wearing Litefoot's body breathed its last, Litefoot himself convulsed and woke up.
The first thing he became aware of was that he felt sick and light-headed.
Immediately, however, this was superseded by the horrifying realisation that he was blind. He raised his hands to his face and felt what seemed to be ropes trailing over his arms. Had he been tied up and blindfolded? He couldn't remember. Then he touched the thing that was covering his eyes, and encountered a cold, jelly-like mass, and as his hands jerked in shock from his face the memories came flooding back.
Revulsion seized him, accompanied by a rising sense of panic. At once he recalled the Doctor's voice; it resounded in his head, urging him to remain calm. Deep breaths, George, he ordered himself, and after a few moments his racing heart quietened, resuming its normal rhythm. Once again, tentatively, he touched the cowl that covered his head and the upper part of his face. He half expected it to react - to squirm or pulse or tighten its grip -
but it appeared to be inert.
He found the edge of the cowl with his fingers and experimentally tried to peel it away. To his surprise he managed to lift it from his skin with no discomfort whatever. As it came away, it made a slight sucking noise, like a rubber mask that his own sweat had caused to adhere to his face. Within seconds he had tugged the cowl from his head and pushed it distastefully away from him. It dangled beside him, like a dead jellyfish suspended on a fleshy rope.
The tentacular bonds that had earlier entwined his body and held him rigid while the