Doctor Who: BBC Past Doctor Adventures [054] - Ten Little Aliens by Stephen Cole

Author:Stephen Cole
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Science-Fiction - Doctor Who
ISBN: 9780563538530
Publisher: BBC Books
Published: 2002-05-30T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

The Road of Dreams

I

Polly heard the sobs ahead of the stumbling footsteps.

Creben and Roba both stood up, drew their guns, barely sheltered behind the flimsy barricade they had erected.

She gasped as Frog was marched into view by Joiks. One hand was twisted behind her, tight in the big man’s grip, and the other clutched at her gaping suit.

Joiks shouted over the alarmed babble that started up at their entrance. ‘She’s changing!’

Everyone fell quiet. Polly turned to the Doctor. He was watching closely, his beady eyes narrowed. Ben rose to his feet, glanced uncertainly at Polly.

‘Changing?’ Creben questioned.

‘Her skin. Big patch of it ain’t even human.’ Joiks looked wildly into Creben’s eyes, into Roba’s. ‘Looks like Schirr skin.’

‘Schirr?’ Roba’s eyes widened.

Frog shook her head mutely, fiercely. Then she hung it.

Joiks tried to force Frog through a gap in the barricade ahead of them. Her thigh caught against a sheet of metal from the back of a console. The clanging it made as it fell woke Haunt from her feverish sleep. She stared round, bewildered. Tovel rested a hand on her shoulder to try to calm her.

‘What’s your game, Joiks?’ Ben shouted. ‘You’re hurting her!’

‘Am I?’ Joiks sneered. ‘She’s changing. How long before she tries to hurt us?’

Get off me,’ Frog shrieked as she struggled, teeth gritted, eyes screwed up. She looked like she wanted to hurt Joiks right enough, and Polly couldn’t blame her.

‘Show us what you mean, Joiks,’ said Creben.

Joiks twisted harder on Frog’s arm. She threw her head back and hissed like a cat. He slipped his other arm under her shoulder and brought his hand back round behind her neck, until he held her quite helpless. Frog’s suit was flapping open to the waist. Beneath it she wore a cropped grey top, and below the hem Polly glimpsed something sticky and sore-looking.

‘What are you all playing at?’ Ben shouted. ‘Frog’s your mate!’ The men ignored him. ‘She’s not well! You can’t treat her like that!’

‘Hold her still, Joiks,’ Creben snapped.

Frog kicked at him as he came closer, so Roba seized hold of her ankles. If his bandaged arm was hurting him he gave no sign. He just stared at Frog, who went on struggling as Creben advanced.

‘I must insist you let me examine this woman in a proper manner,’ the Doctor thundered, tapping Creben repeatedly on the shoulder.

‘Show him,’ said Tovel. ‘Maybe he can help her.’

Roba looked angry. ‘Whose side you on, man?’

Tovel shrugged. ‘Frog’s, maybe.’ Now he looked at her.

‘Frog, sweetheart, give it up, OK?’

Polly realised guiltily that Tovel was the only one of them who’d actually talked to Frog like she was still a person, and not some wild dog that needed putting down. ‘We want to help you.’

‘Help her?’ Joiks echoed. His face was pearled with sweat as he clung grimly on to her. ‘Look at her! Look!’

Creben stepped aside, and now Polly caught a vivid glimpse of Frog’s bare midriff. There was an enormous sticky patch of raw, shiny flesh, a deep pink like new skin growing back round a wound.

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