Doctor Who_ The Forgotten Army - Brian Minchin [39]
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were finding it that easy to process a big man like him, what chance did the rest of New York have? By the time the sun rose, New Yorkers would have been stolen from their beds and trussed up like Thanksgiving turkeys.
Another of the bodies seemed to move. Treading carefully, but still making a few people squirm as she stepped on them, Amy made her way towards it. With delight, she saw that it was the Doctor.
'Oh, here you are.’ she told him. 'You could have been kidnapped to a luxury bar, or maybe the sixth floor of Macy's.
But no. You chose a disgusting sewer. Again. Shall we take a minute to reflect? They caught you. Here I come, Amy Pond, saving the day!' She took the gag off the Doctor's mouth.
'Second thoughts, I could get used to this.' She put it back on.
'Only joking! I wouldn't leave you like this. Or would I?'
Amy loved the way his face went slightly flushed when he was on the back foot. She pulled the gag from his mouth again, and the Doctor looked so pleased she thought he was about to kiss her.
'Amy Pond! Never have I been so glad to see you!'
Amy leant in closer. 'What is that you have stamped on your face?'
The Doctor winced. 'Funnily enough I can't tell... Can you untie my leg?'
Amy was too busy looking at the writing on his 147
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forehead. 'Now that is good, that is priceless. I told you you were skinny. Even the pint-sized invaders agree!'
Written on the Doctor's forehead, in tiny red letters, was:
'Suitable for light manual labour only.'
Reaching through the gloop, Amy untied the Doctor's feet and retrieved the sonic screwdriver from a box, where it had been labelled 'Possible rock-cutting tool.'
As soon as he was free, the Doctor started on Amy: 'You took your time! I was the first one they brought down here, now look at everyone here.'
Amy raised an eyebrow, not willing to be knocked off course by the Doctor. 'Ahem, avoiding the obvious here... I.
Rescued. You. I think you better get used to it, Doctor, because you're going to see a whole lot more saving from me now I've got my alien-fighting moves.'
Shaking his legs back awake, the Doctor did a funny little dance to the side of the platform and pointed down. 'How come the Subway's turned off?' he asked.
'Yeah, I was getting to that. They've turned all of New York off. Those troll-faced ant-men have killed the power to the whole city.'
'Why would they do that?' the Doctor wondered. "They're tiny, they can move fifty times faster than everything else on Earth - and they're collecting humans in Subway stations.
Why, why, why? They're
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like an army of angry little hummingbirds, an army of vengeful, speedy, collector hummingbirds, an army of cruel, kidnapping, and murderous hummingbirds... No, your description was better.'
'I think a thank you is in order, don't you? It's all I want. I know you want to say it as well. I'll be gracious. Just try me.
OK, maybe I'll be more crowing and happy. But I'll certainly enjoy how it feels. So go on!'
But the Doctor was looking around the platform, like his mind was reaching out for something that it could understand but not quite explain.
'Look at the lift,' he whispered.
The indicator above the doors showed the lift was heading down towards them. The Doctor signalled back down at the dark track. 'Come on, we better go this way. They'll be down with another batch soon.'
'Will they be OK?' Amy asked, looking at the sleeping New Yorkers, dreaming away, unaware of their fate.
The Doctor raised his sonic screwdriver, and the lift sparked and spluttered. 'We'll be back. I won't leave them.
But we've got far more to find out, before we can stop the Vykoids.'
They leapt down to the track and headed