Doctor Who: The Terrors of Autons by Terrance Dicks

Author:Terrance Dicks
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub, mobi
Tags: Science-Fiction:Doctor Who
ISBN: 9780426115007
Publisher: Target Books
Published: 1983-05-15T10:00:00+00:00

7 The Battle in the Forest

The Doctor reacted instantly. He lunged forward, grabbed the steering wheel from the other policeman and wrenched it savagely to the left. The car lurched of, the road and into the ditch. Before it had even stopped moving, the Doctor had opened the rear door, and yanked Jo out and on to her feet. They set off running hand-in-hand through the woods, away from the car.

The impact had jammed the front door of the car, giving them a few minutes’ start. The Auton policemen smashed their way out of the wreck, tearing the car door off its hinges, and set off in pursuit.

The Brigadier’s jeep shot round the corner, and skidded to a halt by the wrecked police car. The Brigadier watched in astonishment as the two policemen chased Jo and the Doctor. What the blazes was going on? The Brigadier saw one of the policemen stop running, and extend his arm stiffly. The hand dropped away from the wrist on a kind of hinged joint, revealing a tube, like the nozzle of a gun. A sizzling bolt of energy whizzed across the forest, striking a tree branch inches from the Doctor’s head. The branch was blasted into flaming ash. The Doctor and Jo ran on.

The Brigadier turned to his men. ‘Those policemen are Autons,’ he yelled. ‘Come on!’ He ran after the Autons, followed by Benton, Yates and the soldiers. Benton and the two soldiers were armed with heavy anti-tank rifles, while Yates and the Brigadier had pouches of grenades. Since his previous battle with the Autons the Brigadier had issued standing orders that grenades and light artillery were to be issued whenever there was any prospect of encountering them again. He knew from bitter experience that bullets were useless. You had to blow the creatures to bits to stop them.

Jo stumbled desperately on after the Doctor, but her steps slowed more and more, until the Doctor was virtually dragging her.

‘No good,’ she panted. ‘Can’t run, any more. Leave me...’

The Doctor made a final desperate sprint for the shelter of a fallen tree in a little clearing. He and Jo flattened themselves behind it, trying to burrow into the very ground.

At the edge of the clearing, the two Autons appeared. They paused, wrist guns extended, heads turning to and fro, questing like hunting dogs.

Jo and the Doctor flattened themselves harder against the ground, not daring to move, scarcely breathing. The Autons began to move forward.

The Doctor prepared for a last desperate sprint. Perhaps he could lead them away from Jo. Then he heard the solid ‘crump’ of an anti-tank rifle, and the crack of exploding grenades. The Brigadier and his men ran into the clearing, pouring a hail of fire at the two Autons.

One of the Autons was hit by shots from the anti-tank rifles and blasted to the ground. Yates and the Brigadier followed up with grenades, and it disintegrated in a shower of plastic fragments. The second Auton blasted down one of the UNIT riflemen, and dodged behind the trees, still firing.

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