Doctor Who_ The Nightmare of Black Island - Mike Tucker [7]
‘Rose, I want you to take my hand and start backing away slowly. Don’t run until I say “Run.”’
The two of them started backing away from the shadowed monster. With a shattering roar, it broke cover, crashing through the wet leaves towards them.
‘Freeze!’ the Doctor hissed.
17
The creature was huge and grey, its face a mass of shiny black eyes and jutting fangs, the body slick with vile-smelling slime. Eight thick, fleshy tentacles sprang from the glistening body, writhing through the mulch of the woodland floor, dragging the creature forward. Dozens of huge suckers pulsed wetly on each tentacle.
The Doctor peered at it in puzzled fascination.
The creature
seemed. . . wrong, somehow, thrown together, not the product of any normal evolutionary process. He took a step forward, intending to get a closer look, but Rose hauled him back frantically.
‘What are you doing?’
‘Wanted to see if I could get a better look at it, have a bit of a chat, find out what it’s doing here.’ He gave her a stern look. ‘It’s not at all like you described it. Nothing like! Wrong number of arms for starters. We’ll have to give you a few lessons in alien identification when we get back to the TARDIS.’
‘If we get back to the TARDIS, you mean. In case you hadn’t noticed, that thing is looking at us as if we’re lunch. Besides, it’s not the wrong number of arms because that’s not the thing I saw.’
There was a shattering roar from behind them. The two of them spun to see another creature emerging from the shadows.
‘That’s the one I saw,’ said Rose.
‘Oh. Right-o. Sorry.’ The Doctor gave her a weak smile. ‘I think it might be time to run now.’
Rose rolled her eyes. ‘You think?’
‘Run!’
The Doctor and Rose plunged off the path, pushing through the tangle of tree roots and brambles. Branches whipped at their faces, catching on their clothes. Behind them they could hear the frustrated roars of the creatures and the sound of trees crashing to the floor as the two monsters tried to tear their way through in pursuit.
‘They’re too big to follow us in here!’ shouted the Doctor. ‘Keep to where the wood is dense!’
The two of them struggled forward, ducking under fallen trees, scrambling up muddy banks. Finally they stumbled into a small clearing and the Doctor waved at Rose to stop. 18
‘Slow down. I think we’ve lost them.’
Rose slumped against a tree, breathing hard. She tilted her head back, letting raindrops from the leaves splash on to her face.
‘I’ll tell you one thing. Being with you keeps a girl fit.’
The Doctor beamed breathlessly at her. ‘Fun to be with and good for you. Gotta be just what the doctor ordered.’
‘What were those things?’
‘Dunno. Nothing I’ve ever seen before.’
‘Something you don’t know. . . I knew there had to be something.’
‘It happens occasionally. Tell you what I do know, though. . . ’
‘Yeah?’
‘We’re nearly out of the woods.’
He nodded through the trees. Ahead of them, about 200 metres away, yellow light glowed warmly.
‘Street lamps?’
The Doctor nodded.
‘Civilisation, of a sort.’
Rose smiled, then froze. The rain splashing on to her face had suddenly got warm. And thick.
She wiped a hand across her face and saw strands of sticky slime trailing from her fingers. She looked up in disgust. And screamed. A huge centipede loomed over her, hanging from an overhead branch.
It must have been over two metres long, its thick body bristling with hairs and thick slime dripping from razor-sharp mandibles. It lunged at her, hissing viciously.
Rose stumbled backwards, her foot slipping on the wet earth. She crashed to the ground, the air punched out of her. The centipede gave a hiss of triumph and surged forward.
Suddenly there was a sharp piercing whine and the creature dropped from the tree, writhing on the ground in agony, mandibles snapping uselessly at the air. The Doctor stood on the other side of the clearing, sonic screwdriver