Doctor Who_ War Games - Malcolm Hulke [21]
‘What shall I do?’ asked Lady Jennifer, who had seen Carstairs fall in her rear mirror.
‘Accelerate,’ said the Doctor. ‘It’s the only thing we can do.’
Ashen-faced, Lady Jennifer put her foot down on the accelerator. The ambulance careened forward, swaying wildly on the unmade road.
Jamie was now looking behind. ‘They’ve got him and they’re coming after us!’
A bullet whizzed by the cab. They heard the shot a moment afterwards.
‘Can this outpace a horse?’ asked the Doctor.
‘On a proper road it will,’ said Lady Jennifer, working the steering wheel to save them crashing into the trees.
‘Not on a track like this.’ She saw another bend in the road.
‘This might help us...’
She swung round the bend. Temporarily, the pursuing horsemen were lost from view in her rear mirror.
Just after the bend an even, narrow road branched off to the right. Making rapid gear changes, braking hard, she swung the ambulance right into the smaller road.
It was full of gaping pot holes.
‘You’ve tricked them!’ Jamie yelled. ‘They’ve kept going.’ He looked with delight at the Confederate horsemen galloping along the road they had just left.
‘You’ve fooled them—’
The ambulance lurched to a stop with a thunderous crack. The rear end sagged dangerously to one side.
Lady Jennifer quietly turned off the motor.
‘I’d say that’s the back axle gone, wouldn’t you, Doctor?’
The Doctor stepped down, looked under the ambulance, then straightened up. ‘We’ll have to press on by foot.’
‘What about Lieutenant Carstairs?’ asked Zoe.
‘He did what was expected of an officer and a gentleman,’ said Lady Jennifer, allowing herself no outward signs of emotion. ‘Shall we continue the journey?’
Without waiting for their reply she turned and walked ahead.
‘Has she no human feelings?’ said Jamie, obviously astounded by Lady Jennifer’s behaviour.
‘She’s an English aristocrat,’ the Doctor explained quietly. ‘When it come to being brave, you can’t beat them.
I suggest we follow.’
The Doctor returned to the back of the ambulance to collect his maps. Then he trudged after Lady Jennifer, and Jamie and Zoe trailed behind.
The great house, built all of wood in the American style, was completely gutted by fire, its once proud veranda pillars were now charred stubbs. But the near-by barn was intact, deserted, and very inviting to the four weary travellers. Jamie-looked inside at the bales of straw.
‘This’ll do for the night, Doctor. I’m whacked!’
Jamie went forward and sprawled onto a bed of hay. The others followed inside and looked around.
‘Are we still headed in the direction you wanted?’ Lady Jennifer sat down on a bale of straw. She looked totally exhausted but was too well-bred to lie full out like Jamie.
‘Yes,’ the Doctor assured her. ‘I’ve kept my eye on the map. We’re on an almost straight line towards that blank centre in the middle. Lady Jennifer?’
But Her Ladyship had keeled over and was fast asleep.
The Doctor and Zoe sat down.
‘What’s this war about?’ Zoe asked.
‘It started in 1861 and went on for three terrible years,’
said the Doctor. ‘The Southern states had Negro slaves. In the Northern states, owning slaves was outlawed. The North wanted the South to free its slaves, so the Southern states tried to leave the Union...’
He looked at Zoe. She too had fallen asleep. Coming from the distant future, she hadn’t even heard of the United States.
The Doctor settled back to rest after the long walk. He was about to doze when he noticed three or four horse saddles hanging from pegs along one wall. The burnt out house had suggested the entire place was deserted. But would such costly objects as saddles still be there if no one ever used the barn now?
It was as this thought crossed his mind that he heard the noise, a wheezing sound like trumpeting elephants. In seconds it increased in volume. Jamie sprang up.
‘What’s that?’ He looked puzzled. ‘It’s... it’s the sound of the TARDIS, Doctor!’
The Doctor shook Zoe and Lady Jennifer. ‘Quickly, we must hide,’ he shouted above the sound. ‘Behind these bales.