Doctor Who_ War Games - Malcolm Hulke [13]
From their hidden dug-out half-way up a peaceful hill, Willi Müller from Berlin and George Brown from London stared down at the ambulance and the shell explosions either side of the road. They had been in hiding three months, both having deserted their armies. They met by chance while wandering aimlessly in the woods, each expecting the other to kill him. But instead, the enemies had become friends and they intended to hide in their little dug-out until the war was over.
‘Who would shell an ambulance?’ said Willi. ‘Not my side,’ said George.
‘Germans do not fire on ambulances,’ said Willi. ‘We are too far from the German lines. It must be your side.’
George was silent. What Willi said made sense.
‘Anyway,’ he said after a while, ‘the ambulance is getting away, and good luck to them.’
They watched in silence for a couple of minutes as the ambulance slowly drove along the valley. Then something happened that was beyond their understanding. George rubbed his eyes.
‘What happened to it?’
‘It’s disappeared,’ said Willi, incredulously. ‘Before my eyes it vanished. I am looking, it is there, and then it is not there.’
‘’Struth,’ said George. ‘I wonder if we’re both going barmy?’
‘Barmy? What means barmy?’
‘Out of our minds. Fancy seeing something vanish into thin air...’
The ambulance had stopped. So had the shell explosions.
In the back, the Doctor was poring over maps that Lieutenant Carstairs had taken from Smythe’s headquarters before they made their escape.
‘We don’t seem to be moving,’ said Jamie.
‘What?’ The Doctor had been too engrossed in the maps to notice. ‘I wonder what’s wrong?’
He got down onto the road and walked forward to the driving cabin. ‘I say, are you two all right?’ They had stopped in a woodland area. A thin mist drifted between the trees.
‘I think this mist has affected Lady Jennifer,’ Carstairs explained. He sat beside her in the passenger seat. ‘Are you feeling a bit off?’
She held her hands to her head. ‘I can’t drive on.
Something’s... stopping me.’
‘Let me.’ The Doctor scrambled up into the cab. ‘May I take your place at the wheel?’
Without a word Jennifer moved over. The Doctor sat down, started the engine and drove forward.
‘I feel rather odd, too,’ Carstairs admitted. ‘Doesn’t this gas affect you?’
‘It isn’t gas,’ said the Doctor. ‘Anyway, it’s clearing now.
Look! ‘
They were almost out of the wood. Beyond was a peaceful country scene, and beyond that the sea and cliffs.
‘We’ve reached the coast,’ said Carstairs. ‘I didn’t realise we had come so far.’
‘I think we’ve gone further than you imagine.’ The Doctor continued driving a little way, then braked and turned off the engine. ‘I want to get out and investigate.’
He got down from the cab and called to his friends.
‘Zoe—Jamie! I’m going to take a little walk. Want to come?’
Zoe and Jamie climbed down from the rear of the ambulance. ‘Where are we?’ asked Jamie.
‘I don’t know, Jamie. But it looks different. It even smells different.’
Zoe looked around. ‘There are no signs of that awful war.’ The Doctor had already walked some distance from the ambulance and Zoe had to run to keep up. ‘Where are you going?’
‘No idea. I just feel there is something odd here and I want to know what it is.’ The Doctor kept walking. ‘You know, I think we have passed through some kind of force field.’ He paused and breathed in the sweet country air.
‘This is a very nice little valley.’ He winked at Jamie. ‘I wonder if we have somehow arrived in Scotland?’
‘Don.’t pull my leg,’ said Jamie. ‘If we were in France ten minutes ago, we can’t now be in...’
He stopped, eyes on the hillside.
‘Doctor,’ he said, ‘look!’
Racing down the hill towards them were two Roman chariots, knives sticking out from their wheels. Behind came a group of legionaries, shouting Roman war cries and raising their lances.
‘Quick,’ the Doctor shouted. ‘Back to the ambulance!’
The three of them raced from the approaching Romans towards Carstairs and Jennifer, who were also staring in disbelief.
‘Everyone get in,’ the Doctor ordered. A thrown lance whipped