Doctor Who_ Winner Takes All - Jacqueline Rayner [5]
‘Watch out!’ called Mickey. ‘They’re the bad guys! The Mantodeans.’
On the other side of the door there was a cluster of monsters, which were, as Mickey had said, like giant green praying mantises. They stood upright on stick‐thin legs and had terrifying pincer‐like jaws that they began to snap together as they approached the door – it looked as if they were heading straight for the screen, as if they’d come out into Mickey’s living room if they didn’t stop.
‘Do I have any weapons?’ asked the Doctor.
‘Arrow keys to aim, red button to fire,’ said Mickey.
On the screen, the monsters shrieked one by one, as each fell in a blaze of laser beams.
‘You don’t like guns,’ said Rose critically.
‘I hate guns,’ replied the Doctor. ‘Which isn’t to say that a bit of fantasy violence can’t be therapeutic. Now, here’s the next door… Will there be any more Mantodeans the other side, I wonder?’
‘Yeah, probably,’ said Mickey. ‘Only now they know you’re there, they won’t be so easy to get. First couple of times I did this, I got my head bitten off.’
‘Brilliant!’ said the Doctor.
Mickey leaned forward and looked across at him. ‘Come off it, you do this stuff for real! What’s so exciting about playing a game?’
The Doctor leaned back on his chair. ‘Yeah, well, the thing about games as opposed to real life is, one, you’re honing your reflexes, right, two, you’re practising strategic thinking, and three, you’ve usually got a cup of tea and a packet of HobNobs at hand.’
‘And four, real aliens aren’t trying to bite your head off, right?’
The Doctor grinned. ‘Yeah, I s’pose there’s a downside as well. So, about that cuppa then…’
‘You just had two cups at my mum’s,’ said Rose. ‘And three sandwiches and two cakes.’
‘Don’t tell me England’s got a tea‐restriction law these days,’ the Doctor said. ‘If it has, I’ll probably have to take down the government. Again.’
Mickey shrugged. ‘Whatever, the milk’s probably off, and there won’t be any biscuits.’
‘Not since I stopped doing your shopping for you,’ Rose put it.
He bridled. ‘I never asked you to do my shopping!’
She nodded. ‘You’re right. You never asked. You just gazed at me like a hungry puppy till I felt sorry for you.’
Mickey grinned and fluttered his eyelashes. ‘Woof woof.’
Not looking up from the screen, the Doctor said, ‘There’s some cash in my pocket. Go and get us some milk and biscuits, will you, Rose? Oh, and some Winalot for the Jack Russell over there.’
With an affected sigh, Rose helped herself to a handful of change from the pocket of his battered leather jacket, weeding out a couple of Roman sesterces and a £10 coin which claimed to show the head of William V. She slid off the chair arm, nearly tripping over the wires that connected the control pad to the games console. ‘Don’t miss me too much,’ she said.
The Doctor kept his eyes on the screen. ‘Missing you already,’ he said.
* * *
THREE
Rose could see down to the shop from the walkway by Mickey’s flat. There was hardly anyone around. Maybe they were all indoors playing computer games, like Mickey, hoping to win the prize. Or maybe they’d seen Darren Pye leaning against the wall and decided to steer clear.
She recognised him at once, even though she hadn’t seen him since he left school – well, since he stopped coming to school – and that was years ago. She’d attracted his attention a few times, because if you were an individual and stood up for things and refused to be a victim, then some people wanted to make you into a victim. But it’d never been bad, not like it had for some.
And she wasn’t going to let a thug like that stop her from going to the shop. She walked down the stairs, out into the courtyard. She virtually saw his ears prick up as her footsteps sounded, and he lazily swung his head round.
‘Oi! Oi, you!’
She ignored him, kept walking past.
‘I’m talking to you, slag.’
Ignored him.
‘Oi, slag, heard your boyfriend done you in.’
So he knew who she was. ‘Don’t believe everything you read in the Beano,’ she called back. She’d faced aliens and