Bunker Soldiers by Martin Day

Author:Martin Day [Day, Martin]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Science-Fiction - Doctor Who
ISBN: 9780563538196
Publisher: BBC Books
Published: 2001-03-12T23:00:00+00:00

XII

Sors immanis et inanis, rota tu volubilis, status malus

Dodo banged heartily on the door. ‘Lesia? Lesia? Come on, you can’t stay in there all day!’

There was no response, and Dodo tugged on the handle of twisted metal. The door was unlocked and she pulled it open, the treated wooden planks grating across the rough stone floor. She turned to the guard behind her.

‘You stay here. We ladies need our privacy.’

The soldier snorted, but made no move to follow her in.

Dodo shut the door on him with a broad grin. ‘Come on, sleepyhead,’ she said as she approached the comatose body in the bed. She shook her friend’s sleeping form vigorously. ‘Time to get up! If I can make the effort, so can you.’

The mass beneath the sheets offered little resistance to Dodo’s prods and pushes; she made her way to the top of the bed, and pulled back the covers.

Lesia was still asleep, a blank, dreaming look on her face.

Her dark hair fanned out across the pillow like a ragged halo.

‘Stop mucking about!’ said Dodo. ‘Your father will not approve!’ she added in a haughty tone, before walking over to the window and opening the rough wooden shutters.

Sunlight, filtered through grey rain-clouds, painted the room with repressed watercolour light. ‘Doesn’t look very good out,’

Dodo observed. ‘Anyway, I expect you and lover boy would prefer to stay in. We’ll have to see what we can arrange, eh?’ She was back at the top of the bed again, prodding the sleeping body with growing irritation.

‘Lesia, will you get up!’

A dark look crossed Dodo’s face.

‘Stop it, Lesia. You’re frightening me.’

Still there was not the slightest movement from the sleeping woman. Even her chest seemed motionless beneath her pale bedclothes.

‘Lesia!’

Worried now, Dodo reached down to touch her friend’s face. She noticed that Lesia’s eyes were fluttering a little, as if she was dreaming – but her skin was deathly cold to the touch.

‘Oh my God…’

Dodo ran from the room.

Yevhen swept into the room, agitated. ‘Is it the disease?’ he queried.

Isaac, who had only just arrived, looked up from his cursory inspection of the sleeping girl. ‘I do not think so,’ he said.

‘Physicians have been called, and we shall of course rely on their expertise in the stars and the humours…’ He puffed his cheeks.

‘But I must admit this is a malaise the like of which I have never seen.’

‘She’s just as I found her,’ offered Dodo, wary of Yevhen’s wrath, but he seemed to ignore her words. Instead, he strode to the bed and gathered his daughter to him, first gently and with concern etching his features, then more strongly. He whispered into her ear, but the young woinan remained little more than a doll in his arms.

‘You might decide it best to leave her be,’ suggested Isaac.

‘Some conditions –’

‘I will decide how best to protect my own family!’ Yevhen spat, glaring at the older man. ‘I know where my priorities lie. I wish that were true of all the city leaders,’ he added, his words ripe with implied threat.

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