Doctor Who_ The Taint - Michael Collier [6]
'Let go!' Fitz finally managed to gasp at the man. 'Let go, for God's sake!'Then he realised the man couldn't because Fitz was holding him, round the waist. He yelled as he realised and let the man go, but by then the begonia guy had grabbed hold of the struggling nutter, and was pulling him over to some grass, trying to calm him down, muttering soothing words that Fitz couldn't quite catch.
The blonde was looking at him, offering out a hand to help him up, still puffing and panting. In fact, he found himself watching her chest rising and falling under the green fabric for some time, dazed.
'I'm Fitz; he said.
'Sam.'
'I like your dress, Sam,' Fitz said distantly, at length.
'And what do you think of my tits?' said Sam, raising an eyebrow.
Fitz reddened. 'Sorry,' he added hastily. 'I'm just in shock.'
'Right. You'd better stay there, then,' the girl muttered, going over to check that the old woman was all right. 'I fouled up, Doctor,' she called over to Begonia Man. 'Stupid of me. I led him here, into all those people.'
'Is the old woman all right?' Sam's doctor asked as he peered into the eyes of the loony who was now lying flat on his back on the grass, whimpering.
'OK, I think.'
'And my begonia?'
'Yours, is it? Unlucky. Squashed flat.'
'Oh.' The Doctor looked over at Fitz, his face anxious. 'No chance of a refund, I take it?'
Fitz shook his head in disbelief. The world had gone mad. Attempting to sit up, he suddenly realised how much he hurt. 'No one ask me if I'm all right, will you?' he moaned.
'Oh, how could you not be?' said the Doctor, with an innocent smile.'
Anyone from Toulouse is all right with me.'
2.2
'Crikey Moses , what on dearest Earth has happened here?'
Sam looked up. She saw a tall man, practically pencil-thin, hurrying along towards them wringing his hands in a theatrical manner. He looked... well, snooty. At his side was a more rotund woman, dressed plainly in a mid-length navy-blue dress and a white crocheted cardigan. In one plump hand she was hefting a bag - a brown leather affair with a red cross on it - that was so large she doubted the man would be able even to lift it.
As he came closer she could make out more details. Hair just too sandy-coloured to be ginger, and receding. Glasses with thick plastic frames, and a mouth that showed off equal amounts of gum and buck teeth whenever he opened it. Not a handsome man, she thought, but then his missus wasn't exactly an oil painting. She had to be in her early forties, a few years older than the man. She had light-brown hair that was piled up on top of her head in a kind of bun, and eyes that were just too close together. Sam hated that in people: it always made her stare at them more than she should. Even now the woman's eyes were meeting her own with a look of disapproval. She smiled sweetly anyway - just as the man the Doctor was holding went really mental, shouting at the top of his voice.
'You're all dead! Meat and maggots in my death cave!'
***
Fitz stared in astonishment as a tirade of bad language followed the threat.
The man's lips were protruding as he snarled and dribbled.
'"The torrents of Satan shall reach to all... sides... of the world! "'
The man seemed frantic for breath, so crimson in the face that Fitz wondered if he were about to sprout horns.
'Mr Kreiner! What on Earth is the meaning of this?'
Fitz turned to see Mrs Simms staring in agitated horror at the tableau before her. He had to admit she had fair reason to. The kiosk was knocked over, and a man was swearing and struggling in the arms of some refugee from a fancy-dress shop who was ripping open his shirt collar, either to help him breathe or throttle him into silence more effectively. Meanwhile, a mouthy blonde was hovering over some over toppled pensioner and now Dr Roley himself had turned up with his ever-faithful Nurse Bulwell. Oh, and the only one of her employees