Doctor Who: The Seeds of Doom (7 page)

Chase ran across the room and hammered on the door in impotent fury. ‘Guards! Guards!’

Stunned by the force of the Doctor’s throw. Scorby stirred and groaned feebly. Chase continued to pound the door.

Suddenly, a blood-curdling scream rent the air. ‘Aaarrgh!... my arm... my arm...’

Chase spun round. In the midst of the confusion the pod had burst, and now a long green tendril was digging into the flesh of Keeler’s right arm. A look of horrified fascination came over Chase as Keeler began to stagger around the room in agony. An instant later, the door was thrown open and a mob of guards rushed in.

‘Quick! Get after the Doctor and that girl,’ ordered Chase. ‘They must not escape!’

The guards charged off. Chase went back to Keeler. Already a terrifying change was taking place. Keeler’s face and arms were turning a strange, mottled green.

‘Do something...’ he pleaded, overcome with shock and fear.

Chase watched in icy detachment. ‘Amazing... absolutely unique!’

‘What’s happening?’ Scorby came round muzzily, then let out a cry of disbelief as he focused on Keeler.

‘Slept well, did you?’ snarled Chase. ‘Now get out and find that Doctor.’ Scorby picked himself off the floor and hurried out. ‘And be careful, he’s got your gun!’ Chase yelled after him. He turned to Keeler. ‘We’ve got to get over to the cottage, where we can look after you properly.’

There was something in the way Chase said this which made Keeler’s blood run cold, but before he had time to protest he was being manhandled out of the room by his master and the ever present Hargreaves.

After escaping, the Doctor led Sarah down the rear stairs and out of the house. He had noticed earlier a small shed set against a stone wall, used for storing garden equipment. He hurriedly guided Sarah towards it and thrust her in.

‘Keep out of sight. I’ll be back as soon as I can.’

‘Where are you going?’

‘To destroy the pod... before it’s too late.’

Sarah looked horrified. ‘You can’t tackle them single-handed.’

The Doctor flourished Scorby’s pistol. ‘I’ve got a gun.’

‘You’d never use it.’

The Doctor grinned. ‘True. But they don’t know that.’ He gave her a reassuring squeeze and crept off. Sarah climbed into her hidey hole, and settled down to wait.

Hidden by the thick foliage, the Doctor watched the rear of the building as a group of heavy-booted guards emerged and fanned out into the grounds. Then, when all was clear, he flitted across to the basement door and re-entered the house. Using the same route as before he quickly reached the entrance to the Special Projects room. The door was ajar and no sound came from within. Puzzled, the Doctor tiptoed in, gun at the ready.

The room was empty. With a pang of dismay the Doctor saw the pod had already burst open. He crossed the debris-strewn floor and, laying his gun aside, picked up a fragment of the pod to examine it.

‘Rather stupid of you to return, Doctor,’ said an unpleasant voice from the doorway.

The Doctor spun round to see Scorby covering him with a machine gun. ‘I see I am too late. The pod has burst. I hope there was no one in the way.’

‘Unfortunately there was. Our friend Keeler. Very clumsy of him.’

‘Then we could all be doomed,’ said the Doctor quietly.

‘Don’t exaggerate, Doctor,’ snarled Scorby. ‘Where’s the girl?’

‘Gone to get help,’ lied the Doctor. Then, with vehemence, ‘You’re working for a madman, Scorby, you know that?’

‘He pays well,’ came the reply. ‘And don’t lie about Miss Smith. She’ll never get out of this place... alive.’ He pocketed the pistol on the bench and motioned the Doctor out of the room.

The two of them marched quickly along a series of corridors and stairways towards the other end of the house.

‘Not another guided tour, I hope,’ quipped the Doctor.

‘You’ll soon see this is no time for joking,’ replied Scorby, stopping at a grey, metal door. He opened it and pushed the Doctor in. ‘Mr Chase has prepared a highly novel method for your execution.’

The Doctor descended a flight of stone steps and found himself in a large basement room filled with dustbins and refuse. At the far end stood a huge piece of machinery, covering one entire wall. It consisted of two enormous metal rollers with steel blades, like a giant lawn mower. The rollers were fed by a wide aluminium conveyor belt with vertical polished sides, about six feet deep. The Doctor guessed there must be a chute behind the rollers which led out through the wall and into the gardens.

The front of the conveyor belt was lowered at the moment, like a drawbridge, and a guard was busy emptying waste into it. The guard stopped work as they entered and, at Scorby’s command, proceeded to bind the Doctor’s arms and legs with a length of thick rope.

The Doctor eyed Scorby’s machine gun and realised there was little point in resisting. He inspected his surroundings nonchalantly and sniffed the air. ‘Isn’t it about time you emptied the dustbins?’

‘We will,’ said Scorby. ‘Soon,’ and he gave a peculiar smile.

Sarah looked anxiously at her watch. The Doctor had been gone almost an hour. That could only mean one thing.

She peered out. Dusk had already fallen and it was probably dark enough to afford some cover. Sarah made her decision. She had to act now, either to escape and get help, or rescue the Doctor herself.
If
she could find him. She emerged warily from hiding and moved off.

Unknown to Sarah, but not far away, Chase and Hargreaves had dragged the infected Keeler to a cottage in the grounds. He now lay upstairs on a bed staring vacantly at the ceiling, while the butler pinioned his arms and legs with strong rope.

The activity seemed to shake him out of his stupor and he suddenly began to struggle. ‘What are you doing?’

‘It’s for your own good,’ said Chase.

‘You can’t keep me here. I need proper medical attention.’ He tried to move an arm but fell back exhausted. His skin was rapidly changing into a vegetable texture and his limbs were beginning to lose their human shape.

‘Remarkable,’ said Chase excitedly. ‘We must observe the process carefully.’

Keeler looked pleadingly at Hargreaves. ‘Don’t listen to him. This isn’t an experiment—it’s murder!’

‘You’re privileged, Keeler,’ continued Chase enraptured. ‘You’re becoming a plant... a marvellous new species of plant!’

He rose and beckoned Hargreaves to the door. ‘Don’t worry,’ he whispered, ‘everything will be all right, just so long as we keep him here.’ He led the butler out of the bedroom and down the stairs.

Sarah hurried through the undergrowth. It was now dark and difficult to see. She suspected she was lost and a feeling of panic began to grip her.

Suddenly she came to a path. Voices sounded ahead and a flicker of light illuminated the grass. Straining her eyes she made out a small, thatched cottage. As she watched, the low wooden door opened and Chase and the butler stepped out. They walked briskly along the path towards her. Sarah darted back into the shadows. The two men brushed past without noticing her and disappeared into the gloom.

For a second she was tempted to follow, but intuition told her to investigate the cottage. It was just possible the Doctor had been taken there as prisoner. She crept forward and gently opened the door.

Inside, the cottage was dark, apart from a glimmer of candlelight overhead. Sarah groped her way to the foot of the stairs. All at once she heard a sound, a pitiful inhuman moan, which chilled her spine. Shaking, she mounted the steps. At the top stood a closed wooden door. She raised the latch and entered.

The sight in the room transfixed her with horror. A monstrous, hybrid creature lay on the bed, half human, half vegetable.

‘You should be glad,’ it croaked. ‘This might have been you.’

Sarah could not speak as the hideous picture swam before her eyes.

‘This must be how Winlett changed,’ continued the voice. ‘You saw him at the Base, didn’t you?’

Sarah nodded.

‘What was he like? You’ve got to tell me.’

Sarah forced herself to look at the grotesque shape on the bed. It was true. The process was happening all over again. And she was powerless to stop it.

‘Why are they keeping you here?’ she managed to whisper finally.

‘Chase... Chase owns me, body and soul.’

‘I must get to the Doctor,’ said Sarah urgently.

A cunning expression appeared on the creature’s face. ‘Let me loose,’ it breathed. ‘We’ll go together.’ It strained at the ropes.

Sarah hesitated. She could no longer be sure. ‘You aren’t well enough,’ she said, trying to conceal her fear.

‘You’re as bad as Chase and the others!’ The voice became hard and rasping.

‘That’s not true.’

‘... You want me to die!’ The figure struggled to rise.

Alarmed, Sarah backed towards the door. As she did so she heard a noise from below. Someone was entering the cottage! She looked round frantically for somewhere to hide as heavy footsteps ascended the stairs.

The footsteps halted outside the door. Just in time Sarah spied a large wardrobe standing in a corner. She snatched it open and dived in.

Through a narrow chink in the wardrobe she watched as the black-jacketed figure of Hargreaves entered the room. He carried a silver tray which he placed beside the bed. The creature had slumped back as if semi-conscious, and lay quietly groaning. On the tray were chunks of raw meat. The butler made sure the food was within reach of the creature’s ‘arm’, then after checking the ropes were still secure, he left the room.

As soon as she heard the front door close, Sarah emerged from the wardrobe. She gave a final, horrified glance at the bed, and slipped quietly away.

Once out of the cottage Sarah tried to get her bearings. It was very dark, although a little pale moonlight filtered down through the trees, casting spooky shadows. Sarah shivered. It was only a matter of time now before the creature in the cottage became a second, deadly Krynoid. The Doctor had to be warned, always supposing he was still alive. Sarah quickly banished that awful thought from her mind and set off through the trees. If the Doctor was captive he must be in the house, and the house could not be far away because Hargreaves had returned so soon with the food.

She followed a narrow winding footpath which crossed a stream by a small footbridge. Sure enough there was the main house, about two hundred yards beyond. One or two lights shone out on to the surrounding gardens and she could see uniformed guards patrolling the ground floor.

Soundlessly, Sarah tiptoed across the thick grass and gained the cover of the outside wall. Then she worked her way methodically round the house until she came to some steps leading down to a basement door. Without knowing it, she had stumbled on the same entrance as the Doctor. She slid into the dark stone corridor and made her way stealthily towards the interior of the house.

The Doctor glanced uneasily at the crushing machine for the umpteenth time. He was now in no doubt about his imminent execution or the manner in which it would take place. Every ten minutes he had been privileged to witness the giant rollers of the machine devour several tons of garbage in no uncertain fashion. It was clear that the addition of one extra, live body would not cause the slightest hiccup in the functioning of this engineering masterpiece.

These morbid reflections were brought to an abrupt halt as the ever watchful guard sprang to attention. A moment later Harrison Chase entered.

He smiled grimly at the Doctor. ‘You’ve seen my little toy?’

‘Most efficient,’ demurred the Doctor.

‘The problem is keeping it stocked up.’ Chase gestured towards the empty bins.

‘Yes. At the moment it’s working on an empty stomach,’ joked the Doctor wryly. As if to emphasise this point the machine shuddered to a stop.

Chase crossed to the wall and reset the timer. ‘The next time,’ he purred, ‘we must give it something to chew on.’ He looked meaningfully at the Doctor. ‘You may have noticed how lush the grounds are. This is the secret.’ He patted the side of the crusher affectionately. ‘We use everything in the grinder... every scrap of food and gardening waste... lots of other things too... provided they are organic.’

The Doctor at that moment felt decidedly organic. ‘What’s happening to Keeler?’ he asked, changing the subject.

‘None of us can help Keeler now,’ came the smooth reply, ‘but properly nurtured he can be of inestimable value to science.’

With a shock the Doctor realised Keeler had become another of Chase’s experiments. Was there no end to this man’s devilry? He fixed Chase with an iron stare. ‘Don’t you understand what you are breeding?’

‘A plant, Doctor, a human plant. And nothing is going to stop me.’ Chase motioned to the guard who prodded the Doctor on to the aluminium conveyor belt and closed off the access door. Hands and feet tied, he was now crouched in the belly of the crusher, the vertical metal sides giving him no hope of escape and effectively screening out his vision. In front, a few feet away, hung the lethal steel blades, motionless for the time being.

He heard Chase turn a switch on the wall. ‘Your death, Doctor, will be agonising, but mercifully quick.’ ‘How considerate.’

‘After shredding,’ intoned Chase’s voice, ‘your remains will pass automatically through my Compost Acceleration Chamber, and within ten minutes you will be pumped into the garden to become part of nature’s grand design.’

‘But the Krynoid isn’t part of that design, Chase,’ retorted the Doctor. ‘Once its growth starts, you’ll never manage to contain it. Nobody will be safe!’

Chase let out a loud cackle. ‘You underestimate me, Doctor. Now say your prayers. You have only a few minutes left.’ The hideous laugh rang out again. Then the door was slammed shut and everything went quiet, except for the faint ticking of the automatic time switch.