Doctor Who_ Wooden Heart - Martin Day [45]
‘Come on!’ said Martha, pulling Petr to her side and then propelling both of them deeper into the fog. Pure, primal terror took over. Martha wouldn’t look back on her flight from the child with any degree of pride, but there was something so fundamentally lifeless about the figure that dread was the only natural response.
For the first time, Martha could hear her footsteps – or was it her heart beating? – as they put as much distance as they could between themselves and the phantasm. Petr was holding on to Martha tightly, as if he were a drowning man in a foaming sea of grey and Martha was the only thing that would keep him from going under.
Martha glanced back over her shoulder. The figure was fading away – first a smudged child’s drawing, then an optical illusion caused by the writhing, overlapping banks of fog.
‘This way!’
Saul’s voice was strong enough to cut through even their terror; Martha and Petr half-ran, half-stumbled in the direction of the sound, an aural beacon in the silent nothingness of the fog. Moments later they saw the first glimmer of light, then the huge, resolute form of Saul. It seemed at first that Saul was holding back the fog by the sheer power of his presence; then Martha saw where they were.
The village hall was surrounded by light – every lantern, every blazing torch from the village had been brought here and placed around the building. Every door, every window, every spare patch of ground front and back had a light hanging there; it was just enough to keep the fog at bay.
Behind Saul, in the huge arched doorway, stood the stooped figure of the Dazai, a lopsided grin on her lined face; behind her clustered a gaggle of villagers, looking out at the fog in terror.
‘I thought,’ said the old woman, taking a step towards Petr, ‘that, in your absence, someone ought to take charge…’
The Doctor turned to Jude. ‘Now, I don’t want to worry you or anything,’ he said, ‘but there’s no point hiding. I’ve been watching for this thing for some time and… Well, it seems quite capable of walking through doors and walls if the mood takes it.’
‘And that’s not worrying?’ said Jude.
‘The Doctor ruffled her hair like an overenthusiastic uncle, ‘Don’t worry. I’ll think of something.’
‘We’ll think of something,’ said Jude, emphatically. ‘Anyway, how do you know this thing is evil?’
The Doctor sighed. ‘When you’ve wandered the universe as long as I have,’ he said, ‘you can count the creatures that skulk about in the dark that are actually pleased to see you on the fingers of one hand. A Ralafean’s hand, come to that.’
Jude looked at him blankly.
‘The people of Ralafea.’ explained the Doctor patiently. ‘Notorious throughout the cosmos for having four thumbs and one finger per hand. Invented the mobile phone before the printing press. Anyway…’ he took one last look at the screen – the creature or person or whatever was only a few metres away now, but apparently one floor beneath them. ‘Thankfully, I want to go in the opposite direction. The main science hub.’ He walked away, and Jude was forced to jog to keep at his side. ‘I can’t avoid the creature, so I might as well just go about my business…’
‘What do you expect to find in this “hub”?’ asked Jude.
‘Lots and lots of answers,’ said the Doctor. ‘Big, juicy ones you can really get your teeth into.’ He nodded back at the computer station. ‘Just a dumb terminal, you see. Would only tell me so much.’
The Doctor’s eyes narrowed – there seemed to be a dark shadow, overlaid on the computer terminal. The Doctor blinked, and the shadow vanished – just a plain, boring computer keyboard and screen set into the wall.
‘Phew,’ said the Doctor, increasing his walking pace just a little. ‘Thought we were in trouble for a moment then.’
And, without really seeing it, he walked straight into the creature in front of him and was swallowed by darkness.
ELEVEN
Children are supposed