Doctor Who_ The Taint - Michael Collier [82]
'I wonder how long the program takes to kill them off.'
Sam felt suddenly sick. "The sooner the better, I say.'
The sound of the car slowing and hitting gravel told her they were pulling up to Roley's. 'As soon as we get in, I'll attempt to communicate.'
'With what?'
'With the Beast, of course.'
Sam grabbed his arm again.'Doctor, you can't.You can't reason with these things, they're evil!'
'That's your programming talking.'
Sam shot him a filthy look, then realised what else it made her see and closed her eyes.
The Doctor couldn't miss the misery on her face. 'Oh, Sam...'
'I'm all right. I'll get used to it.' She indulged herself a small, bitter laugh.
'Unless I go out of my mind first, eh?'
***
Maria skidded to a halt on the polished floorboards of the hallway.
Charles was thrashing about on the floor insanely, clawing and slapping at his head. His eyes were wide with terror. For a second she thought he was looking straight at her, begging her for help. Then she realised, knew without doubt, that there was no intelligence moving that body. His mind had gone.
Gone to Dreamland.
She should hold him. She should check his pulse, temperature, give him something, something to make him stop. She knew all this but she froze, as both nurse and woman tried to come to terms. She remembered watching Austen in the Restraint Room, the way he'd made her feel. Looked again at Roley, dancing on his back. Waited for tears. They'd be along soon. Soon.
The slut. Watson. The boy and the Kraut bitch. She took them in, dully.
They'd all collapsed. They couldn't be... No. They were already starting to stir. It wasn't over, then. The bodies began to jump and twitch.
It wasn't over at all.
***
'The door's jammed,' said the Doctor.
Sam looked up at the sky. In the dark, away from people, it felt safer to open her eyes. There was quite a breeze blowing, now, and it was a relief after the closeness of the day. A half-hearted drizzle allowed itself to be carried along in the wind; Sam got the impression that even the rain would rather have been elsewhere.
'So we can't get in?'
'No.'
'Pity. Back to the TARDIS, then, eh?'
The Doctor took her hand. 'Let's try round the back.'
***
Fitz moved carefully along the corridor. He had to find out what had happened, where his mum was; if everyone except him had done a bunk, he needed to know about it. He'd get a proper doctor, not some crackpot with a sack of King Edwards on his shoulder.
He pushed open the door leading to the drawing room. No one about, but the state of the place explained the crash they'd heard. Someone had wanted to get out in a hurry - they'd taken half the windows with them.
There was only a battered old teddy bear lying on the floor.
As if caught in a dream, Fitz found himself crossing over to see more. Then he heard something moving outside.
***
'She's dead, poor thing.'
The Doctor was kneeling by Cynthia's body, gently closing her eyelids with his fingers.
'Why would anyone want to kill her?' asked Sam, feeling the wind and rain more keenly now.
'We'd better find out.'
Sam couldn't stop staring at the girl's corpse. Even in death, the Beast were still feeding, draining whatever energies she had left in her. It was obscene. She felt a loathing, a shudder of that primal fear Azoth had shared with her. And here was its real target.
She snapped, fell on the body, brushing her hands over it, trying to clear the bodies of the Beast away. 'Get off,' she muttered. 'Leave her alone...
Get off .'
She felt the Doctor pulling her away, whispering her name in her ear again and again, as if reminding her who she was. One of the pale, sweaty creatures suddenly detached itself from Cynthia and slowly floated like a balloon over to the Doctor, its nozzle-like mouth extended like a wasp sting. She cried in outrage and tried to bat the thing away, but her hands sailed through its body, never connecting. It joined its fellows jostling over the Doctor's body (he was gripping her shoulders now, holding