Doctor Who_ Wolfsbane - Jac Rayner [48]
She opened her mouth, meaning to say something to show that she understood, but no words formed; her mouth hung open, slack, as a shiver juddered to every corner of her body.
The Doctor said, „What‟s happening?‟, never taking his eyes off the road.
„Something is disturbing it,‟ she managed to say. „It wants to sleep again, but it cannot.‟
They drove on in silence for a minute or two. The Doctor‟s face was fixed, determined. Then it happened again: worse this time, even the ground itself shivered. Her teeth chattered painfully together and her stomach rose to her chest, as if the car had just negotiated a hump-back bridge.
„Blood!‟ she gasped. „It is tasting blood again, and it feels that I am near...‟
From a short distance away there came a scream, loud and abrupt.
„Sarah!‟ cried the Doctor, leaping from the car almost before he had brought it to a halt. They ran together; found themselves in the churchyard. There was no one there.
„Sarah!‟ the Doctor shouted at the top of his voice. „Sarah!
Sarah!‟ He ran to and fro, shouting fruitlessly.
The ground beneath them jolted again. „Underneath!‟ the Doctor cried. „The ground‟s swallowed her up! Sarah! Sarah!‟
He flung himself on to his hands and knees and beginning to shovel away dirt like a tartan-topped mole. „Don‟t just stand there!‟ he yelled over his shoulder to Emmeline. „Help me dig her out!‟
„But you don‟t know where she is,‟ said Emmeline. „She will be dead before you reach her.‟
„I‟ll find her,‟ said the Doctor, and she believed that he meant it with every scrap of his being, but she knew also that he wouldn‟t succeed. And so she knew what she had to do.
„You know how to force the change,‟ she said.
The Doctor didn‟t look up from his burrowing. „What?‟
„You said you knew what the scientists did not know, you knew how to finish their research. I cannot sense humans, but as a wolf I will be able to smell her, I will be able to dig her out. She will be dead before you reach her: you must force my change.‟
„You won‟t be able to change back,‟ the Doctor told her.
„Yes, I will.‟
„It‟s not a good idea.‟
„I will still have my own mind. And it is the only thing that will save your friend.‟
The Doctor stared at her for a second. Then he ran away.
Emmeline stared after him in amazement. She could not believe that the Doctor had just abandoned his friend to die.
But he hadn‟t, and he hadn‟t gone far or else must have run like the wind, because only a minute had passed before he was back, clutching something in one hand. As he reached her, she could see it was a test tube, and inside the test tube there was a small greyish lump.
„Moon rock,‟ the Doctor said.
Emmeline took a step back. „What do you mean?‟
„This is part of the moon.‟
„It cannot be. The moon is in the sky. One cannot pluck a piece of moon like one might pick an apple from a tree.‟
The Doctor didn‟t smile. „Please accept that one can. Sarah is dying.‟ Not taking his eyes off her, he uncorked the test tube and tipped the contents on to his palm. Using the rounded glass base, he crushed the moon rock to powder, then swapped the tube for a flask from inside a coat pocket, and poured the dust into it. He shook the flask, and handed it to Emmeline. „Drink it. The moon will be inside your body then, be part of you, you will have no choice but to change.‟
She didn‟t believe him. For a moment she thought that this was a plan, a trick, a way of getting her to take poison to kill her. But his eyes told her she had to drink it anyway.
She took the flask, and drank the moon-drink. And then, to her great surprise, she changed.
Been close to death so many times. Always expected a way out. Couldn‟t quite believe there might not be one this time.
Doctor always came through for her. Doctor wasn‟t here, this time. Used to places that were bigger on the inside