Doctor Who_ The Hollow Men - Keith Topping [110]
Clean.‟
„The thunderstorm?‟ queried Joanna.
„No,‟ said Steven. „It‟s deeper than that. Something‟s changed.‟ He laughed, an earthy, throaty chuckle. „I don‟t believe it. After all these years. It‟s all over.‟ His eyes roved over the chalk hills and fields, a green cloth with Hexen Bridge a jewel held delicately at its centre. Towards the horizon, a dim rainbow reached for the clouds.
He looked back at Joanna, and noticed, as if for the first time, that she was still in his arms. They parted, blushing.
Rebecca and Trevor looked like sleeping children as the Doctor and Ace laid them together at the side of the pit that had once been the village green.
„Will she be all right?‟ asked Ace, wiping the welcome rain from her face.
„She‟s free of the taint, if that‟s what you mean,‟ replied the Doctor, looking into the middle distance, at the smoke rising from some distant catastrophe.
„That isn’t what I meant.‟
The Doctor shrugged. „They‟ll all have to rebuild their lives.
It‟ll be hard, without Jack, but I have a feeling they‟ll survive.
Humans usually do.‟ He paused, picking up a piece of glass from the mirror. The clouds parted, and it glinted in the light of the afternoon sun. „Jack was attacked on many fronts, but he was ultimately defeated by humanity. I appealed to those feelings that Jack had spent hundreds of years repressing.
Those people trapped inside Jack decided that true death was preferable to the hollow existence they had. Deep down, I believe every human being, no matter how evil, would have made the same choice.‟
„Even me?‟ asked Ace.
„Especially you. With no energy, no substance, Jack - Jerak
-effectively ceased to exist.‟
„Jerak?‟
„That was Jack‟s real name. A creature manipulated by the Hakolians to become a war machine.‟
„Hakolians?‟
„I never did finish telling you about Little Hodcombe, did I?‟
The Doctor smiled. „Oh, well, there‟s plenty of time for that.
Perhaps I‟ll take you there. Jane still makes an excellent cup of tea.‟
„What about those hunters?‟ asked Ace. „Where did they come from?‟
„Psychic extensions of the villagers‟ attempts to buy out of the system before they died, couched in the only mythic expression that seemed appropriate. Rebecca and I were spewed out because we didn‟t belong...‟
„And the butterflies?‟
„Yes,‟ said the Doctor, weighing the glass in his hand, and looking at the sky through it. „They didn‟t belong there either.‟
„Is that part of the mirror?‟
„It is,‟ said the Doctor. „Jack used the mirror as a direct access point to himself. Destroying it rendered him incapable of escape. That was a good idea of yours to smash it.‟
„It wasn‟t mine,‟ said Ace.
„But you wanted to do it,‟ said the Doctor with a knowing smile. „If anything of Jack i‟ the Green did survive,‟ he said at last, „then he‟s trapped in here.‟
The Doctor dropped the piece of glass, and ground it to dust beneath his foot.
FIRST EPILOGUE
ENGLISH SETTLEMENT
Several hours had passed and night was just beginning to blanket the land, free of fear. In the vicarage doorway, the Doctor stood watching the flashing lights of fire engines, ambulances and police cars as they clustered around the remains of the green and the pub. There had been much official scratching of heads, at least until the soldiers turned up. They wore the unmistakable winged-globe emblem of the United Nations, and had been summoned by a phone call from someone who claimed he had once assisted them.
„Only sixty-three people unaccounted for,‟ Ace told him after having spoken to one of the army men. „And another thirty-three found dead. That still means most of the villagers survived. They found a lot of people hiding in their homes, delirious. Of course, they‟re not saying much.‟
„What can they say?‟ asked the Doctor sadly. „Who would believe them? Earthquakes aren‟t common in England, but then neither are aliens menaces destroying whole villages.‟
„Just a minute ago you said this sort of thing happened -‟
„Twice,‟ interrupted the Doctor.