Doctor Who_ The Forgotten Army - Brian Minchin [11]
Amy curled her fingers into the mammoth's hair and clung on as the beast thundered around the Grand Hall of the Museum.
'It's a bit like horse-riding,' the Doctor yelled.
'I've only been once, I broke my arm.’ she replied.
'Well let's hope you learned.’ the Doctor shouted back.
'Never went bullfighting, though.’ Amy yelled.
'Bullfighting?'
She pointed ahead, almost losing her balance. 'Looks like that's what he's doing!'
43
DOCTOR WHO
In front of them, a man had stepped out into the hall. He was wearing what had once been a strikingly white blazer, which was now stained and torn. Amy recognised him from the footage of the mammoth breaking loose.
The Doctor had obviously recognised the man too, because he yelled in Amy's ear, 'Look, he's OK.'
Amy twisted round to see the man standing proud in the middle of the hall.
'Oh no,' the Doctor continued. 'I think he's trying to knock it out... with a wooden chair.'
The man was waving and shouting to attract the mammoth's attention, and was hopelessly trying to hide a chair behind his back.
'Oi, hairy!' the man yelled. Within seconds, the mammoth had changed direction and was heading straight for him.
'Get out of the way!' Amy cried, not quite able to believe the man was even attempting this. She saw him take the chair from behind his back and raise it above his head, all set to smash it on the runaway creature.
Acting quickly, the Doctor aimed his sonic screwdriver and directed a quick burst at the chair, which fell apart in the man's hands.
'Why did you do that?' Amy asked.
'No point getting it any angrier.’ the Doctor replied.
44
THE FORGOTTEN ARMY
Weaponless and surprised, the man turned to run, but the mammoth now had a new target: the door to the rest of the Museum. It headed at full pelt for the locked door.
'Duck!' the Doctor yelled.
In an explosion of splinters and broken wood panels, the mammoth broke free of the Grand Hall and charged down a marble corridor. It roared as it raced through the hall of the Age
of
Man,
sending
the
skeleton
of
a
three-million-year-old woman clattering to the floor with a thrust of its tusks. Then it slowed to gaze at the vast diorama of Neanderthal man and a picture of a relatively small brown mammoth.
The Doctor was looking around with interest. 'This is the best way to see museums. It gets it over with so much quicker!'
He had ended up sitting behind Amy on the beast's back and was now hanging onto her waist as the white mammoth skittered round the marble floors, his legs flailing out to one side.
Amy shouted back, 'What you doing?'
The Doctor didn't answer - he was too busy trying to stop himself slipping off. Amy reached back and grabbed him by his braces, yanking him back up on top of the mammoth.
'Hah, I never thought I'd be thankful you're wearing those braces,' she said. "Thought you'd be OK sitting on this with those bandy legs of yours.'
45
DOCTOR WHO
The Doctor looked rattled. 'What do you mean?'
Amy grinned at him. 'Haven't you ever looked in a full-length mirror? You could ride a horse between those!'
As the mammoth thundered along another corridor, the Doctor leaned forward as far as he could, and aimed his sonic screwdriver at the mammoth's ears.
'It's not working,' he yelled back to Amy. Hanging on with one hand, he fiddled with the device and tried again.
'What's not working?'
'There's a thing you can do to some animals, makes them relax, like stroking a dog, or turning a rabbit on its back.'
'And that was your plan, was it?'
If anything, the mammoth seemed to have become more erratic, not less.
"Thing is,' the Doctor explained, 'it should work on a mammoth. Something's not right.'
'What do you mean?' she asked.
The mammoth abruptly changed direction, and the Doctor began to slip again. Amy had to yank him back on. She looked back up to see that they were now heading full-pelt for a massive whale skeleton.
The Doctor had seen it too. 'Got to be able to steer this thing. I told Commander Strebbins we'd bring it out under control...'
46
THE FORGOTTEN