Doctor Who: Virgin Missing Adventures [005] - State of Change by Christopher Bulis

Author:Christopher Bulis
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Science-Fiction - Doctor Who
ISBN: 9780426204312
Publisher: Doctor Who Books
Published: 1995-01-13T23:00:00+00:00

XVII

‘However, the day after we had encountered the hydra creature, the nature of the land began to change. Agricola noticed it first, as we were passing the ruins of another river settlement.

‘For all his affected dilettante manners, he had a keen mind. How I wish that were still so. Anyway, he had been deeply troubled by what we had found in the first settlement we had explored, but he had taken close note of the strange details: the peculiar disorder in the buildings that were still standing; the human remains giving no clue as to how they had died; and the terrible scrawlings on the walls, distorted visions dragged up from the pit of madness, which would haunt our dreams for many days, paired with urgent messages written in languages we could not read, yet clearly telling of some terrible event. But nothing we had seen was consistent with the aftermath of famine, pestilence or war. And now, his quick eyes recognized a new abnormality about the remains of this latest settlement. We made a landing and, alert now to the dangers from beasts such as we had already encountered, entered the dead village to investigate. I observed that it was not as overgrown as the previous settlement had been; perhaps this was significant, I do not know.

‘What we found was quite inexplicable.

‘Imagine a simple building of mudbrick, rough cut poles and reed thatch – but with each substance in fact shaped out of coloured wax, say, then left to warm in the sun. Gradually, the different pieces fuse together where they touch, becoming effectively one single body, sagging and distorted under its weight as the softened wax has flowed. Now let the wax harden. That is what we found in the village: twisted buildings whose separate materials had become a single mass. Inside some huts, crude domestic utensils still lay where they had fallen, appearing individual objects, but in fact fused solid with whatever they rested on. Amongst the remains were also scraps of fabric, that had once been bedding or clothing – though they appeared pliant, they were as hard as stone! There also we found the skeleton of what had been a dog; it had two heads. There were strange teeth marks on its bones.

‘And yet, around the village, all seemed peaceful enough, though we had noticed a diminution in the sightings of the small wildlife we had become used to. Still, there were some birds to be seen, if of unusual appearance, so those who had spied them close up reported. Yet there was danger, though we realized it too late.

‘While gathering fuel for our boats, the foraging party also discovered some wild fruits and berries of kinds they had learned were edible while camped on the coast. They ate them, and brought some back for their fellows. Before nightfall, two score of men were sick, having fevers and vomiting violently. By dawn, all but a handful were dead.

‘Now we faced a serious and most unexpected

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