Doctor Who_ The Taint - Michael Collier [83]
'All right, I'm fine now, OK?' She stood still, breathing deeply. 'Sorry,' she managed.
'Don't be.'
She shut her eyes again, and broken glass crunched under her shoes as the Doctor led her forward into the house.
***
Maria knew she should move, knew she should run now, get help. That would be the correct thing to do in the situation. But she looked at Charles, his idiot body, and could only mourn. She realised somewhere that it was as much for herself as for him.
Suddenly, from lying sprawled on the floor, Watson and Lucy somehow raised themselves into a standing position. It wasn't possible - it was crazy, as if someone had run a film backwards of them falling over. Kreiner and Waller were acting like marionettes with someone tugging on their strings.
They'd get her, she knew. They'd show no mercy. They could do anything to her.
When the realisation in her clouded brain finally made her turn to run, she found she could not. She wondered if that was why Watson had started to smile.
***
Fitz saw four legs. Two of them were wearing grey trousers and battered brown shoes, the other two were pale and slim. Nice calves, quite muscular. Thin ankles.
He clambered out from under the writing desk. Sam jumped at the noise he made, while the Doctor looked at him quizzically.
'God, am I ever pleased to see you two,' said Fitz. 'Sam, you escaped!' She still had her eyes closed. 'Sam?'
'Yeah, Fitz. With a single bound I was free.'
He was obviously looking at her, but she doubted even a letch like him would get much of a thrill from the state of her. 'Is that where they shot you? Hey, what happened to your neck?' She didn't answer, and so he asked the Doctor. 'Is she sleepwalking or something?'
'Later,' said the Doctor. 'Fitz, what's been happening here?'
***
Russell and the old woman had risen to join Watson and Lucy. Maria still found herself rooted to the spot.
'What do you think of our handiwork, then, Nurse Bulwell?' asked Watson, gesturing at Roley.
'You're sick,' she snapped. 'Twisted. God will have no mercy on your souls.'
'Why, Nurse Bulwell!' Watson chided. 'Whatever makes you think we'd wish Him to?'
'You'll wish Him to,' she promised.
'Non, merci,' said Lucy, sticking her tongue out. 'Do you get it, Davydd? No mercy!'
'It's our mercy you should be worried about, Maria Bulwell,' said Watson, ignoring Lucy.
'You don't frighten me,' said Maria.
'We'll have to try harder,' said Lucy.
***
'I don't like the sound of this,' said the Doctor. 'And Maria went after Roley?'
Fitz nodded. 'A few minutes ago.'
The Doctor looked at Fitz, his voice a little harsher. 'Let's not waste any more time in here then, hmm?'
'One thing, Doctor.' Fitz stopped him. 'You haven't got a ciggy, have you?
I'm gasping.'
Fitz found himself talking to no one, and, with a last look at the shattered windows, followed the Doctor and Sam out of the room.
***
'Ah!' Watson cried. 'It seems we have more company. The return of the Doctor and his wandering friend.'
Fitz stayed very much in the background, letting the Doctor and Sam push ahead. The Doctor checked that Maria was OK, then knelt by Roley, who seemed to be having convulsions on the floor. Fitz placed the scream he'd heard in context and shuddered. He noticed that while Watson was watching the Doctor, and Lucy was eyeing Sam by Maria's side, his mum and Russell were both looking straight at him. He mouthed 'Mum!' at her, but she simply stared, her face impassive and grey, like wrinkled stone.
The Doctor was all but ignoring the four of them in their little line in front of the door as he loosened Roley's collar.
'You killed Cynthia,' he said. 'Why?'
Russell shrugged. 'Why not?'
The Doctor glared at him. 'She did nothing to you.'
Russell smiled. 'So she deserved it.'
'And Roley?'The Doctor looked down again at the man in his arms.
'Can't he tell you what's wrong?' asked Watson. 'Oh, my. The