Doctor Who - The 8th Doctor - 71 - The Deadstone Memorial by Trevor Baxendale

Author:Trevor Baxendale
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Science Fiction, Comics & Graphic Novels, General, Suspense, Fiction
ISBN: 9780563486220
Publisher: Random House UK
Published: 2004-10-03T07:00:00+00:00

‘Quite, quite,’ said the Doctor. ‘Never mind, Lewis can come with me.’

‘No,’ said Lewis immediately. ‘I can’t!’

‘Why not? You won’t get any dirtier than you are now.’ The Doctor nodded at his muddy boots and jeans. ‘Come on! I’ll lead the way.’ And with that he stepped gingerly towards the edge of the hole, being careful not to slip in the mud, and lowered himself down. He stopped when his head and shoulders were all that remained poking out and said, ‘Coming, Lewis?’

‘I’m not going down there!’

‘That’s all right,’ the Doctor replied. ‘I’ll go on my own.’ And he disappeared from view.

‘Wait!’ cried Lewis, and the Doctor’s head popped back up. Lewis took a deep breath and said, ‘I – I’ll come. At least I’ve got this. . . ’ He hefted the 181

sawn-off shotgun.

‘That’s the spirit,’ said the Doctor. ‘But you can leave the gun. We won’t need it.’

‘How d’you know?’

‘It’s very simple: I don’t use guns.’

‘You may not, but I do.’ Lewis gripped the shotgun firmly and clambered down towards the hole.

The Doctor huffed. ‘Well, all right, if it makes you feel better.’ He looked back up. ‘Trix – you keep Dixie.’

‘Consider Dixie kept,’ she said gratefully as Lewis followed the Doctor into the hole. ‘But don’t be long.’

The Doctor and Lewis slipped down into a wide, damp chamber directly beneath the Deadstone memorial. The Doctor fished out his pen torch and shone the beam around the crypt: the circle of light flickered over crumbling, brick-lined walls and mud. Tangled knots of tree roots and decayed vegetation protruded from between the bricks and hung groping from the roof. The floor was littered with soil and insects, and in among the filth the torchlight picked out the occasional gleam of bone.

Lewis stood behind the Doctor, shivering with fright. The Doctor shone the beam up into his own face and smiled. ‘Charming place,’ he said. ‘Could do with a spot of redecorating, though. I wonder if anyone’s home?’

‘Don’t joke,’ whispered Lewis sharply.

‘Hello!’ called the Doctor, and his voice bounced dully around the cold walls. ‘Yoo-hoo! Anyone home?’

There was no reply. The Doctor moved forward, heading away from the entrance hole, the thin torch beam cutting through the shadows like a scalpel.

‘This place is bigger than it looks,’ he commented. ‘Come on – let’s explore!’

Trix stamped her feet and flapped her arms to keep warm. The sky was full of cold, wet-looking cloud, and it had started to spot with rain. The mud had already coated her boots with a slimy grey skin. The Doctor and Lewis had disappeared from sight, and she was beginning to regret volunteering to stay behind. And considering it was Saturday lunchtime, there weren’t many people about. But then she had to admit this wasn’t the most attractive spot in the woods.

‘Hurry up, Doctor,’ she murmured. She wondered how Fitz and Hazel McKeown were doing: had they found Jade yet? Perhaps she and the Doctor should have gone back to check first, rather than stopping to investigate a mysterious crypt likely to contain an unknown horror.

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