Doctor Who_ The Forgotten Army - Brian Minchin [55]
The Doctor wired the pretzel to a set of tiny Vykoid controls and pulled back. The mammoth lifted its head, and Amy could see the skyline of New York ahead of her, the Chrysler Tower glinting in the morning sun.
'Whoa!' Amy could feel herself starting to slip backwards. The Doctor had pulled too far, and the mammoth reared up on its back feet.
Looking through the huge eyes again, Amy watched Sam running incredibly slowly to witness the sight of the mammoth at full stretch.
'Down, Doctor!' Amy snapped, and pushed the pretzel-wheel forward. With that, the mammoth crouched down and lowered its head. Amy felt a judder as the enormous tusks dug into the ground.
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The Doctor lowered the belly, and stuck his head out. 'Sam
- where have you been? We need you. Can't quite get a grip of the steering.'
'I noticed that.' Sam pointed at the trenches the rusks had gouged in the ground.
'Good, in that case you'll understand what you need to do. No one knows a mammoth like you.'
Sam took the Doctor's hand and scrambled up, squeezing through the neck to join Amy.
But the Doctor raised his hand. 'Uh, uh, sorry Sam, turns out those Vykoids borrowed a trick from the dinosaurs. Two steering centres, one in the front, the other in the...'
'So you got me up here to go in the back end?' Sam was deflated.
The Doctor clapped him on his shoulders. 'Good man!
Don't worry, you can still see out.'
'How?' Sam asked, and then suddenly realised. 'Oh...'
'What a team we'll be! So, Sam, if you see us going the wrong way, just shout.'
The Doctor crouched by the left eye and grabbed the pretzel-wheel. But Amy shoved him over. 'I'm steering, remember? You had your turn in the taxi.'
Amy felt happier at the wheel. After all, she'd meant their trip to New York to be the time when she stopped being bossed around, and here she was, about to drive a mammoth down Broadway. She gave the controls a gentle pull, and the mammoth
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rose to its feet. Then, with another subtle shunt from Amy, it started to walk forward, the machinery whirring as its steps landed heavily on the tarmac.
The mammoth walked slowly out of the Zoo, past the elephant enclosure and out of the main gates.
'I'm going to see if I can get this moving a bit faster.’ the Doctor decided. He took out a pen and started tapping at the tiny Vykoid controls. Lights started flashing all around them.
'What have you done?' Amy asked. That looked pretty random to me.'
The Doctor looked hurt. 'As if I'd be so— Whoa!'
While he was speaking, the mammoth had crouched low to the ground, pushed off with its left feet, and rolled over onto its back.
'You were saying, Doctor?' Amy yelled, her head squashed up against the floor.
The mammoth kept rolling over, but when it came back to horizontal it just kept on going.
'Can't you stop it?' Amy demanded.
The Doctor was bent double, his gangly legs waving in the air.
Amy leant forward and yanked the pretzel-wheel. It came off in her hands.
From behind, Sam came tumbling in and collided with the Doctor. As the mammoth turned over and over, their arms and legs flailing around the mammoth's head. The Doctor's arm hit a minuscule lever, and the mammoth stopped.
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'Finally!' Amy dusted herself down. 'I told you to let me steer...'
Sam pointed through the window. They had come to rest in the partially drained Central Park Pond.
Amy wasted no time. Winding the controls around the pretzel again, she got the mammoth to leap to its feet and stagger out of the park. Early risers walking their dogs in the park saw a soaking wet and mud-splattered mammoth appearing from the pond and fled.
Amy steered the beast to Fifth Avenue, and soon found it was easier to step over cars and rubble than to walk around.
Going through the Pulitzer Fountain, she paused by Bergdorf Goodman's and swung the mammoth's head to get a closer look.
'Oops! Didn't mean to do that.' She'd smashed the department store's window with the mammoth's tusks. She hurriedly put the mammoth back on course.