Doctor Who: The Zygon Invasion by Peter Harness

Author:Peter Harness [Harness, Peter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781785947919
Amazon: 1785947915
Publisher: Penguin Group UK
Published: 2024-01-09T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 8

The Diner Across the Road

After the long swathe of desert, after many hours, came a town. Slowly at first, dwellings. Houses. And large cubes of glass and concrete. Stores. And more of these vehicles moving along the highway. They were called cars. Automobiles.

Amongst the documents in her handbag had been a bus ticket. The destination marked upon it was TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES. The same name was emblazoned on a large sign at the point in the highway where the desert dwindled to an end and became replaced by dwellings and stores. Truth or Consequences. This, presumably, was her landfall.

The bus slowed to a stop. The doors beeped open, and others got to their feet. Bonnie watched them. Stood. Followed. As she stepped through the door, something hit her. Heat. The temperature outside of the bus was extremely high. The temperature within the bus had been significantly lower and she had calibrated her body accordingly. She staggered a little as her systems corrected themselves.

Moisture broke out of her skin and she worried for a moment that she was about to assume her native form. She tried to steady herself against the side of the bus, but the metal was scalding hot and caused an alarming sensation on her flesh. Pain.

‘Are you okay?’ said a voice. It was in a deeper register than her own voice. ‘Sorry – are you okay? Can I help?’

Bonnie turned in the direction of the voice. There was a man opposite her. She recognised him. Her body felt a tang of electricity. She looked at him. She knew him … Her brain knew him.

He looked at her.

‘It feels that we are associated with one another,’ said Bonnie. ‘I have your image in my mind.’

‘Your image is also in my mind,’ he said. ‘It is a residual memory. I expect it to clear shortly.’

Bonnie evaluated him. He was a young man. Approximately the same age as herself. He had ridden on the bus with her. His hair was dark and so were his eyes. His skin was darker than her own.

‘The designation on my documents is Clyde Orson,’ said the man.

‘My designation is Bonnie O’Dowd,’ she said.

She looked at him. A voice in her head whispered Danny. And she experienced a rush of something which she thought might be called grief.

‘Danny,’ she said.

‘Clara,’ he said.

‘Bonnie,’ she said.

‘Clyde,’ he replied.

They looked at one another. He smiled at her. She looked at him for a few moments and attempted a smile herself. It was a little crooked at first and felt a little more like a sneer.

They were two newly born Zygons, freshly off the bus in an unknown land.

Without knowing why she did so, she put out her hand. He took it, and they walked off down the street together.

The sun was relentless. Her body was not designed to cope with direct heat or sustained sunlight. The environment was inhospitable. Her companion, Clyde, seemed to be suffering too. They needed to find shelter and sustenance of some sort.

‘Diner,’ he said, indicating a building across the street from them.

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