Doctor Who - Past Doctor Adventures - 15 - Last Man Running (4th Doctor) by Chris Boucher

Author:Chris Boucher
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Research, General, Predatory Animals, Science Fiction, Cloning, Doctor Who (Fictitious Character), Fiction, Media Tie-In
ISBN: 9780563405948
Publisher: BBC Books
Published: 1998-10-14T07:00:00+00:00

‘He has something to do with it, certainly.’

‘Yes, but what?’ Pertanor asked, inhaling deeply as though he was suddenly short of breath.

‘That’s what we’re waiting to find out,’ the Doctor said, stretching out and closing his eyes. He was a little tired himself now. It seemed to be getting hotter. He really should have checked the movement of this planet in relation to the positions of both the suns nearby. It could get hotter still, especially if there was some sort of focusing effect on this area. Perhaps a heat-retaining gas layer.

Kley sat down again with a heavy sigh. ‘Suppose he doesn’t make the next move. Suppose he doesn’t do anything at all.’

‘He’ll have to do something,’ the Doctor murmured drowsily. ‘I think we have something he wants.’

‘Any chance you might tell us what that is?’ Kley asked and then yawned.

But the Doctor was asleep.

Kley looked across the clearing at Leela who was standing close to the rocks. She was quite still, staring at the ground.

Kley remembered what the Doctor had said about the attacks in the open areas where the ships had vanished.

Fermindor snorted. ‘The strategy is developing. It’s gone from “do nothing” to “do nothing and sleep”.’ He took another small sip from his canteen. ‘Is it getting hotter?’ he asked no one in particular.

‘Leela?’ Kley called. Maybe this wasn’t where a ship had vanished but then again maybe it wasn’t so different. ‘Leela?’

she called again, but the girl ignored her and continued to stare at the ground. ‘Leela!’ she shouted more urgently. ‘Get off the open ground!’ This time the girl gestured at her to be quiet. Kley was too tired to get to her feet again. She looked up at the clear cloudless sky. There was no threat that she could see in that bright emptiness out beyond the unmoving tree fronds. She listened. Apart from her companions, nothing else stirred. Nothing seemed to be moving anywhere.

Not a rustle, not a murmur, not a click. Automatically she pulled her gun and checked it again, just to be sure. It was dead. It was useless. Like her.

She put the gun back in the holster. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a movement. A jolt of shock thrilled her sharply awake. She gasped for a hollow breath as she looked up, momentarily alert. Leela was running towards her. Kley tried to get to her feet, tried to understand what it was the girl was running from. Fermindor had turned to see what it was she was looking at. Now Pertanor and Belay were turning too. And then Leela vanished. One moment she was running straight at her, sprinting, face clenched, arms and legs rhythmically driving, and then she was gone. How? What had taken her? Where was she?

Then she saw it. Slashing black and ripping hugely through the flat ground towards them, falling in on itself, collapsing in a monstrous V-shaped slice, point rushing at them, pointing the way for the ever-widening all-swallowing crack which came carving through the surface to drop them into a churning, falling maelstrom.

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