Doctor Who BBCN16 - Forever Autumn (17 page)

I’ll take you back to your home world in my

TARDIS. That way no one gets hurt. That’s it. Simple and straight-forward. Take it or leave it.’

The Hervoken looked at each other. The Doctor could almost sense the thoughts zipping between them. Then they did something odd.

They began to jerk and shiver. Their long-taloned hands performed erratic little dances in the air. They opened their mouths and ground their jagged teeth together, creating cascading bursts of green sparks, which dissolved like smoke on the air.

The Doctor folded his arms and frowned. ‘
I’m
not laughing,’ he said.

The Hervoken leader pointed at him. It uttered a series of arcane words, interspersed with grunts and hisses. It twizzled and stabbed at the air with its fingers.

The Doctor’s face grew grim. He recognised a refusal when he saw one. ‘In that case,’ he said, ‘I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to stop you.

So don’t come crying to me later, saying I didn’t give you a chance.’

He shoved his hands back into his pockets and turned sharply on his heel. He was halfway across the chamber floor when a thick black tendril lashed out from the wall and twined itself round his ankle. It was instantly joined by another, which curled itself like a boa con-strictor around his upper body, pinning his arms to his sides. Within seconds the Doctor had been rendered immobile, half a dozen of the black vines having wrapped themselves around him. He was lifted up and turned around to face the hovering Hervoken.

‘Oh, now I’m really peeved,’ he said. ‘Now you’re
definitely
off my Christmas card list.’

115

‘Rick!’ exclaimed Amanda Pirelli, surprised. ‘What are
you
doing home? I thought you were helping your dad set up the Carnival.’

‘Er. . . we were, Mom, but something came up.’

She frowned. ‘What sort of something?’

‘It’s complicated,’ he said. ‘I’ve brought someone home with me. Is that OK?’

Her frown deepened. ‘What do you mean, “someone”? What’s going on, Rick?’

‘Maybe it’d be better if she explained,’ Rick said.

‘She? What do you. . . oh.’

Martha had been hovering outside the kitchen door, but she took Rick’s fumbled introduction as a cue to make her entrance. As soon as she stepped into the room, she saw the expression on Rick’s mom’s face change from bewilderment to alarm, and knew instantly what she was thinking.

‘Hiya, Mrs Pirelli,’ she said. ‘My name’s Martha Jones. There’s nothing to worry about. Rick’s just been helping us out, that’s all.’

‘Us?’ said Amanda, looking from Martha to Rick and then back again.

117

‘What the hell is going on?’

‘Like I said, Mom, it’s complicated,’ said Rick miserably.

‘Are you in trouble?’ she asked.

‘You could say that, yeah.’

Her expression hardened. ‘Well, maybe you’d better tell me about it.’

‘You’d never believe us.’

‘Try me.’

Rick looked desperately at Martha. She said, ‘I think maybe you’d better sit down first, Mrs Pirelli.’

Amanda glared at her. ‘I will not sit down! This is my house! Now will someone please tell me what’s going on, or shall I call the police?’

Martha sighed and held up the Necris. ‘It started when Rick and his friends dug this up,’ she said.

‘Dug it up? What do you mean, dug it up? Dug it up from where?’

‘From under the tree, Mom,’ said Rick. ‘The black tree at the bottom of the garden? Only it’s not really a tree, it’s –’

‘Let’s not jump the gun,’ said Martha hastily. She nodded wearily at the dining table in the centre of the kitchen floor. ‘Do you mind if I sit down?’

Amanda pursed her lips, and Martha was sure she was about to say,

‘I’d rather you leave.’ But then she gave a brief nod, and Martha sank gratefully onto a wooden dining chair.

Haltingly, hesitantly, Martha and Rick told Amanda about the book, the tree, the mist, the Hervoken. It was not easy. Although Rick’s mother listened to the story mostly in silence, she did so with an increasingly incredulous expression. When they were done, she blurted,

‘Do you honestly expect me to believe all of this?’

‘But it’s
true
, Mom,’ said Rick. ‘I swear.’

‘Nonsense,’ snapped Amanda. ‘I don’t know
why
this. . . this woman has been filling your head with such garbage, but I don’t –’

And then a quiet voice from the doorway said, ‘It
is
true, Mom.

Every word.’

They all turned.

Chris was standing there, hollow-eyed and

haunted. He came into the room. ‘I’ve seen one of them,’ he said.

118

‘One of the aliens.’ He nodded at Martha. ‘I talked to your friend, the Doctor, about it.’

‘You’ve seen. . . ’ Amanda said faintly. She slumped back against the kitchen counter, as if the strength had gone out of her legs. ‘Where was this?’

‘Right out there,’ said Chris, pointing at the kitchen window. ‘Over by the tree.’

Rick looked at his brother with something like awe. ‘What did it look like?’ he asked.

‘Like something out of a nightmare,’ said Chris. Ten feet tall, thin, with a great big head and fingers as long as your arm.’ He shuddered.

‘I don’t ever want to see one again.’

‘Now do you believe us, Mrs Pirelli?’ asked Martha.

Rick’s mother looked uncertain; her hands were shaking. ‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘I mean. . . how can I? It’s crazy.’

‘What do you think’s causing this mist?’ said Rick.

‘And that earth tremor earlier?’ said Chris. ‘That was the tree. I know it was.’

Martha was nodding. ‘It was the Doctor. He did that. Gave it a drop of his blood. It couldn’t handle it.’

‘Alien blood,’ said Rick.

‘I need to sit down,’ said Amanda.

Chris fetched his mother a chair and she plumped into it gratefully.

‘So this book?’ she ventured.

‘It’s called the Necris,’ said Martha. ‘It’s vital to them. It’s my job to keep it safe.’

‘
Our
job,’ Rick corrected her.

‘Safe from what?’ Amanda asked.

The Hervoken. . . well, their agents. The Doctor said they’d send agents to retrieve it.’

‘And these agents would be. . . ?’

‘Anything,’ said Rick. The Hervoken can make things come alive.’

At that precise moment they heard a fluttering sound from the hallway outside the kitchen, and then something thumped against the 119

door. The first thump was followed by several others in quick succession. Whatever the objects were, they were small but compact and they had a bit of weight to them.

Martha’s initial thought was that the door was being pelted with tennis balls – or at least something of a similar size and shape. She looked at Rick. Having barely recovered from their pursuit by the clown, he was now wide-eyed and pale all over again.

Amanda rose slowly to her feet. ‘What is that?’ she asked fearfully.

‘Trouble,’ said Martha. ‘How strong is that door?’

‘Pretty strong,’ said Chris.

The rapid thumping abruptly ceased. There was a brief flurry of fluttering movement, like the sound of a bird trapped in a chimney.

Moments later this was followed by the tinkle of breaking glass, and then silence.

Martha and the Pirellis crouched – tense, motionless, listening – for maybe half a minute. ‘Have they gone?’ Rick whispered at last.

‘Maybe,’ Martha replied, thinking of the breaking glass, though she couldn’t honestly believe that whatever had been on the other side of the door would have given up so easily.

She was right. The words were barely out of her mouth when the kitchen window shattered. Amanda screamed and jumped up as broken glass fell into the sink and something black and fluttering entered the room. The black thing flew straight at Martha. She had a split second to register that it was a bat, sporting a gaping mouth of needle-sharp teeth, and then she was swinging the Necris. More by luck than judgement she hit the bat full on. There was a green flash, enough to send a numbing jolt, like an electric shock, down both of her arms, and the bat flopped lifelessly to the ground.

They all stared incredulously at it for a moment, and then in a high, chalky voice, Amanda said, ‘It’s made of rubber.’ She began to laugh hysterically, and then abruptly stopped.

‘Is it yours?’ Martha asked Rick, clenching and unclenching her hands to try and get the feeling back into them.

Rick nodded. ‘I decorated the TV room with them, ’cos that’s where me and the guys were planning on hanging out later. I had a big bag 120

of them. They were fifty for five dollars at the Easy Mart. . . ’

His voice tailed off as he realised what he was saying and a look of horror crossed his face.

Martha ran to the broken window and looked out. ‘Oh
my
. . . ’ she whispered.

Swirling ten metres up in the air, like flecks of ash against the green mist, were the rest of the bats. Having abandoned their attack on the stout kitchen door, they had evidently exited the house to search for a more vulnerable point of entry. To Martha they resembled a small but deadly tornado, spinning in a fluttering, silent circle. Even as she watched, however, they re-formed. They stopped their spinning and gathered together in a dense, black mass. Then they began to stream downwards like an unspooling ribbon, heading straight for the house.

‘
They’re coming!
’ she yelled, twisting away from the window. ‘
Run!
’

Martha stopped just long enough to grab a frying pan off the stove, which she handed to Chris. They all pelted towards the kitchen door.

Rick had his hand on the handle and was pulling the door open when the rest of the kitchen windows exploded inwards.

A second later, bats were swooping and diving towards them.

As Chris swatted them with the frying pan and Martha fended them off with the Necris, Rick yanked open the kitchen door and all but shoved his mother ahead of him through the gap.

Martha felt the needle-teeth of the bats scratching her hands, and threw up her arms to stop them plunging their fangs into her face.

Chris grabbed the collar of her leather jacket and yanked her backwards through the door. Martha had the presence of mind to grab the handle with her free hand and pull the door shut behind her. One bat, caught half in and half out of the closing door, was crushed into a mangled lump of rubber and fell to the floor, bloodless and inert.

Around a dozen bats had made it out of the kitchen with them.

Martha and Chris did their best to fight them off as they ran towards the stairs. Martha had no real idea where they were going. Outside was a no-no; they would be sitting targets in the open. Their best bet was to find a small space that couldn’t be breached and lock themselves in. Preferably somewhere without windows – a wardrobe or 121

cupboard, say.

They ran up the stairs and along the upper landing. Chris leaped and whacked a bat with the frying pan as it swooped towards Martha’s face. He reminded her of a tennis player, performing a winning smash.

Then he was grabbing her jacket once again, pulling her into the bathroom. When they were inside, Rick slammed the bolt into place.

The few bats still pursuing them thumped ineffectually against the door for the next fifteen seconds or so, then stopped.

Once again there was silence. With shaky hands Chris put the frying pan carefully on the floor and wiped sweat from his forehead.

Amanda pointed at Martha with a trembling finger. ‘You brought this on us,’ she said.

‘
Mom
,’ said Rick, appalled, but Amanda silenced him with a glare.

‘You’ve endangered my family,’ she said to Martha, her voice full of quiet rage. ‘Why did you have to come here?’

Martha looked shamefaced. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘You’re right, and I’m sorry.’

‘It’s not your fault,’ said Rick vehemently. ‘Mom, I asked Martha to come.’

Martha held up the hand that was not holding the Necris. She looked oddly as though she was swearing an oath on the Bible. ‘No, Rick, your mum’s right. I shouldn’t have put you in danger. I should have handled this on my own.’

‘Yeah, well, we’re here now,’ said Chris, ‘so instead of arguing let’s decide what we’re gonna do.’

‘I don’t think there’s much we
can
do except wait,’ said Martha.

‘Wait for what?’ Amanda wanted to know. Martha looked at her. In truth she was a bit stumped. What indeed? However, she said firmly,

‘The Doctor.’

‘Your friend?’ said Amanda, unconvinced and still somewhat hos-tile. ‘So he has all the answers, does he?’

‘Usually,’ said Martha. ‘Or if not, then he makes them up as he goes along. He’s pretty good at that.’

‘And what if he doesn’t come back?’ Amanda said.

‘He will,’ said Martha.

122

‘But what if he doesn’t?’

‘Then we’ll just have to manage, won’t we!’ Martha said, more sharply than she intended.

‘Shh,’ said Chris. His ear was pressed to the door. ‘I think I hear something.’

They all fell silent and listened. Faintly, but getting louder, they could hear an odd sound. It was a rhythmic series of dry, rattling clicks, like small pieces of wood or stone being rapped together.