Doctor Who_ The Nightmare of Black Island - Mike Tucker [65]
‘No!’
Peyne threw herself backwards as the claw slashed down, swiping Hadron into the air. She could hear the screams of the technician as the huge jaws closed around his torso, the wet crunch as the creature devoured him.
Balor gave another deafening roar and raised himself to his full height. Wooden beams strained and splintered, and plaster shattered like glass as the monster burst up through the roof of the rectory. Cold air swept in, fanning the flames that leapt from the devastated equipment and now raged across the ancient bookcases. Masonry tumbled into the room as a chimneys tack was torn apart by the struggling monster.
Peyne scrambled to her feet and ran for her life. Rose struggled up the wet rocks to the base of the lighthouse with Ali lolling in her arms. She had to keep shaking the little girl to keep her awake.
‘Come on, Ali. Come on! We’re nearly there. Two more minutes and this will all be over. Two more minutes.’
‘I’m so tired, Rose.’ Ali rubbed at her eyes.
‘I know, honey, I know, but I need you. Try to keep going just a bit longer, please. For me.’
Ali nodded weakly.
154
Rose turned to see where Bronwyn had got to. The old woman was picking her way painfully up the slope. The ride across to the island had been terrifying. The monsters had started to emerge again, in ones and twos at first, but then things had started to flash through the water around the little boat and Rose hadn’t been sure if they would ever get here in one piece.
When Ali had started to flag, at first Rose thought it was just due to the rigours of the day, but now it seemed certain that she was falling victim to the Cynrog machines once more.
‘Bronwyn, I’ve got to get Ali to the lamp room. Are you OK?’
‘Got to rest. Got to sit.’ Her words came between rasping breaths.
‘So tired.’
‘Not you too!’
Rose groaned. She couldn’t keep both of them awake for ever, but at least the cold rain was helping. She looked up at the lighthouse. The glow from the lamp room above them was lighting up the storm clouds. She pushed open the metal door, ushering Bronwyn inside.
‘OK. You stay here. I’ll be as quick as I can.’
‘You go on, dear.’ Bronwyn waved a weary hand at Rose. ‘I’m getting too old for all this running about.’ She lowered herself on to the bottom step of the winding staircase. ‘I’ll just sit here for a while.’
With a last worried look at the slumped old lady at her feet, Rose hefted Ali in her arms and started up the stairs, her legs protesting at every step.
She reached the lamp room breathless, her heart threatening to burst out of her chest. Lowering Ali to the floor, she fumbled in her pocket for the sonic screwdriver, then pressed it into the little girl’s hand.
‘You remember what you have to do?’
‘I think so.’
Ali looked fearfully into the glowing room, the green light pulsating and throbbing. Rose hugged her hard.
‘You can do this. I know you can.’
Ali took a deep breath, gave Rose a wavering smile and stepped into the lamp room.
155
∗ ∗ ∗
Peyne tore the sensors from the Doctor’s brow, hurling them across the ward.
‘What have you done, Time Lord?’ she snarled.
The Doctor’s eyes flickered open. ‘Morning already?’
Peyne hauled him upright, digging her claws into the flesh of his arms. ‘I said what have you done?’
She flinched as a mass of bricks and timber crashed into the hallway outside the door. A guttural bellow rang out from somewhere upstairs.
‘Oh dear.’ The Doctor gave a huge grin. ‘It does sound as though you’ve got a few problems, doesn’t it? Our Lord Balor got out of the wrong side of the bed, did he?’
Peyne dragged the Doctor from his own bed, pressing her disrupter to his temples.
‘For the last time, Doctor, tell me what you have done!’ she roared.
‘Nothing!’ The Doctor slapped the gun away angrily. ‘I’ve done nothing, Peyne. This is your doing. Fifty years to get this right and you still messed it up!’
‘What do you mean?’
Peyne’s eyes narrowed, her flattened nose wrinkling in anger. Around her