Doctor Who_ Winner Takes All - Jacqueline Rayner [25]
‘Yeah, I’m fine, babe. I can always play a game to pass the time,’ he said, and then added, ‘I’m joking,’ at her scandalised face. ‘Of course I’m joking. Because one, it’s obviously a joke. And two, someone’s nicked the telly.’
Rose looked. He was right. ‘Oh, what?!’ she said. ‘Oh, brilliant. He’ll only go and say “I told you so” now.’
‘Don’t tell me, the Doctor,’ said Mickey. ‘I bet it’s that bloomin’ Darren Pye that’s nicked it. Anyway, that’s not important now.’
Rose laughed. ‘You, saying telly’s not important?’
But Mickey suddenly looked as serious as she’d ever seen him. ‘You just get out there and collect them up, all those consoles. You’ve gotta stop it, Rose. Stop them from killing people.’ And then Mickey was trying to push himself up off the chair. ‘I’ve gotta come with you, gotta help. Can’t sit around when there are people still playing that game.’ He started running on, babbling almost, panicking, about the people going on the holidays and the people sat at home, killing them… All very well for the Doctor to say it wasn’t his fault, but Mickey still had the guilt, she could see that.
She tried to calm him down, explain why he couldn’t help. ‘You can hardly stand up, let alone get up and down all the stairs round here!’ But looking at his agonised face, she had an idea. ‘Tell you what, how about this? If we can get you to the computer, you can go online. Tell people not to play the game – that there’s a fault or a bug, or it explodes if played for too long or something.’
‘Yeah, all right,’ he said. ‘If the computer’s still here.’
But Rose checked and it was, and so she helped him up, and he hobbled, leaning on her shoulder, into the bedroom.
They both heard it, the noise from outside. ‘Front door’s probably still open from where they kicked it in,’ said Rose. ‘Probably the wind blowing it.’
‘Probably whoever nicked the telly come back for more,’ said Mickey.
‘Or only just left,’ said Rose. ‘Could have been out there the whole time…’
She went to look. Couldn’t see anyone, but they’d have had plenty of time to get away. If there’d been anyone there at all.
She came back in, shut the door firmly behind her. Went back to Mickey, realised he was shaking. Shock.
She picked up the quilt from off the bed, wrapped it round him, went and made him hot, sweet tea, like they said you should. Looked in the cupboards in case there was brandy, even though she knew there’d just be beer. He was still shivering when she got back, but he was beginning to look embarrassed about it, so she knew he was getting a bit better.
They sat in silence for a while, neither knowing what to say. Then the silence was broken by the sound of a siren, somewhere on the estate outside, and it made her think of hospitals, of doctors. The other sort of doctor. But Mickey said he didn’t need a doctor, and she couldn’t force him. He kept saying she had to go, had to leave him and fetch those games, and she knew she must. ‘You phone me if you need me,’ she said, and then realised she didn’t have her phone any more. So she said, ‘I’ll come back later. Let you know what’s happening. Let you know when the Doctor’s back.’
And she didn’t allow herself to think if the Doctor gets back. Because she knew he’d be all right. He just had to be.
* * *
The Doctor was hiding behind the pile of old office equipment in the corner of the room. He’d dived into cover the moment he’d activated the teleporter, the moment the Quevvil had entered the room, and then he’d spent a sticky few seconds wondering if it’d spotted him or not. The Quevvil had fired an energy weapon, but he was pretty sure Rose and Mickey had vanished by then. Trouble was, they were dealing with split seconds here, and they were always tricky to judge. But he thought the two of them would be OK. Just hoped they’d do what he asked, collect up those games; reduce the number of players and you’d reduce the number of people being used, the number of people dying. He hoped.
He didn’t have a particular plan, he just knew he had to find the location of the Quevvils