Doctor Who_ The Dying Days - Lance Parkin [72]
She could hear it cycling up into audible frequencies.
The second blast smashing into the front of the building, shattering not just the glass but the stone and metal supports. They were aiming low, firing diagonal y down right at the base of the building, she guessed, the place a lumberjack would aim his axe if the UNIT Building was a tree.
'Don't look back,' the Doctor screamed at her, pul ing her through the office. She barely heard him, and was dizzy now. Had her inner ear been damaged by the blast?
The office had already been evacuated, so quickly that top secret information was still displayed on computer monitors. Outside, the entire facade of the building was sliding and crashing to the ground onto the bodies of those poor men on the pavement outside. It bought them a little time: the Martians would wait for the dust to settle before
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The third blast removed the armoured doorway along with the wal on which it was mounted. The desk, the plant pots and everything in the four storeys above the reception exploded or crashed down onto something that had exploded. The sonic cannon was cutting through the building like a loaf - hacking off slice after slice. It was as savage as it was methodical. Clouds of dust raced past her, as though they too were trying to escape.
As they passed through the door on the back wall, the next blast caught the office, obliterated everything within it.
There was a terrible wrenching sound as tonnes upon tonnes of cracked and brittle masonry plummeted through the ceiling. Benny's back was pelted by tiny pieces of rubble.
The next blast would catch up with them. That was Benny's first thought. The second was that the room they were in now was a landing, with a broad stairway and a lift shaft. The Doctor was brandishing the sonic screwdriver. The thick lift doors slid open.
'Down!' he ordered.
'What do you mean dow-'
He shoved her through the doorway.
There wasn't a lift car. Benny was falling through the dark. She pulled her feet together and kept her hands at her sides, trying not to tense up. What sort of lifestyle was it where you instinctively knew what to do if you find yourself in freefall without a parachute?
She hit the top of the lift car a little awkwardly. The Doctor joined her a second or so later. They'd only fallen twenty feet or so. It was enough to escape the next blast, which roared overhead in a hurricane of rubble. The force of the blast kept the debris in the air, rather than letting it drop down the shaft after them. It also caught the lift cable, making the car they were on rock as if it was on a rough sea.
The Doctor had adjusted the sonic screwdriver to make it into a cutting tool and was burning through the roof of the lift.
Above them there was a series of explosive bursts, like grenades.
'The gas main ...' she whispered.
There was a rushing noise, a flash of light. She could picture the wall of flame rolling across the landing towards them.
'Excel ent,' the Doctor exclaimed, glancing up. 'Quickly,' and together they dropped into the lift car. Almost as they hit the floor, the doors slid open with a chime. The Doctor ushered her out.
It was the UNIT underground car park. They'd come in this way, and Bessie would be down here somewhere. The power was down, and the room was lit by dul pools of emergency lighting. For the first time, Benny looked back, and her face was caught by the rush of hot air coming down the lift shaft.
A burst from the sonic screwdriver and the doors slid shut as the first flames rolled down past them.
The Doctor and Benny stood in silence, catching their breath as the fire raged safely behind the thick metal doors.
The metal warped, the paint blistered, the doors rattled on their runners, but they held. The Doctor passed her his handkerchief, and she wiped the blood from her ears.
'What a stroke of luck,' said the Doctor. 'That fire means that the Ice Warriors won't be making any little visits down here in person.'
Twenty feet above them,