Doctor Who_ The Infinity Doctors - Lance Parkin [121]
His chest burst, and he fell back, his legs and arms flapping irrelevantly. Larna tried to shout a warning, but it had already happened, he was being thrown back by the force.
The man behind her was panicking, firing again and again at her. Other blasts started blowing chunks from the walls and shelves.
Larna was unscathed as she strode towards the wounded man, the shots simply bounced from the medical unit. There was, however, the danger that a stray shot could hit the Doctor.
Larna reached the wounded man, knelt beside him. There was a nasty, sucking wound where the man’s chest should be. She slipped a Z-cap from her palm. He was still alive, looking at her with pleading, terrified eyes. She smiled down at him, pressed the Z-cap to his forehead. He froze, the wound had stopped moving. A stable condition, as a physician might have put it.
The old man with the stave had fled, the wounded man was frozen, the night Watchman was frozen. There was one remaining, the gunman. He’d hardly moved, he was still standing by the fire, not very far from the Doctor or the medical unit. He was still firing at her, but he seemed to understand the hopelessness of doing so: the shots were less frequent now. Thankfully, it hadn’t occurred to the gunman that he might take the Doctor hostage. His only tactic was to unclip his cloak, letting it drop to the ground, freeing up his arms a little more.
Larna strode towards him. He shot twice, both bolts going wide. When she was two feet away he swung the gun at her, trying to club her with it. He missed. There was a metal plate by his chair. Larna bent down and picked it up, allowing him time to miss her once again shooting from point blank range, this time blowing a great hole in the floor. She swung the plate at him, connecting with the side of his head. Dazed, he lost his footing.
He managed another shot. It hit the plate, knocking it out of Larna’s hand, hurting her. She yelped, clutching her wrist.
She went cold as she realised that he had dislodged the Z-cap dispenser, and it was on the floor somewhere, in amongst the debris.
The Suit fizzed.
No, this wasn’t happening…
She held out her arm, saw it beginning to resolve. He’d damaged the Suit, managed to catch it out. In moments she Would be facing an armed man, a trained soldier, wearing nothing but a body stocking.
A glint caught her eye. One of the Z-caps, picked out by the firelight, just out of reach.
She stood her ground as her Suit’s power faded, let the gunman assess her: see where she was, that she was just a woman.
The Suit had seconds of life left. He raised his gun. They were three feet apart, standing over the Doctor.
Larna reached out, grabbed his wrist with one hand and twisted it. He squealed, dropping the pistol. He balled his fist, but she rolled out of the way and he punched solid marble, almost certainly breaking his hand. Despite that, the man lurched for her, throwing all his weight behind a punch that was destined to miss. Larna side-stepped, recovered the Z-cap from where she had seen it and pressed the disc onto his forehead. He fell over, almost comically; frozen in position but still subject to gravity.
Larna took a deep breath and knelt down to examine the Doctor, feeling for his pulses. He was warm – warmer than she was. He was in a deep coma. She checked his breathing, his neck and his chest. He didn’t show any obvious signs of injury. She put her arm around his waist, grabbing his hip, placing his arm over her shoulder and hoisted him up.
He made a low moaning noise.
‘You’re safe,’ she told him. They were fully upright now.
The medical unit had moved around in from of them, its lid was open, it was tipping itself up on its end to allow him in.
Larna took a step forward, bringing the Doctor with her. He dropped into the casket. The lid was already sliding shut.
It was cold. She remembered that the last of the Needle People to fall had discarded his cloak. She found it, draped it over her shoulders. As she had suspected, it was very warm.
The material was a good insulator, and it felt