Chapter 5 (Television Memories)
Roxy was face down in the dirt, the hand still clasping around her throat. But it didn’t feel like it was trying to strangle her. It felt like it was trying to grasp. To find it’s way out.
The Doctor was there in an instant. He looked like Batman with his coat billowing out as he leapt onto the grave and twisted the hand away from Roxy.
She fell onto her back and the Doctor grabbed her around the shoulders, dragging her back and away from the grave.
She finally sat up and watched as the earth was slowly pushed up and out of the way as the hand and arm slowly reached out, following by a torso and head. Roxy had expected to see a rotted corpse, but instead saw a perfectly normal, middle-aged man, slightly dirty, but definitely not rotted away. He looked confused and scared as he looked around, half out of the grave in an almost comical fashion.
“Hello,” said the Doctor, crouching down to his level and extending his arm. “I’m the Doctor. Allow me to help you up.”
The man looked at him with fear. He opened his mouth and a croak came out.
The Doctor nodded, waving his device over the man. “This is fascinating.”
By now Holly and Lilly had heard the commotion and had run over. Holly stood, her hand on her mouth as she watched the man flail and try to escape the confines of the grave.
“What the hell?” she said, helping Roxy to her feet.
“This is amazing,” said Lilly. “We’ve never come this close to seeing one break out before.” She almost looked too excited.
“Are you alright?” said Holly, noticing the fear on Roxy’s face.
“Apart from being grabbed by a zombie, yeah I’m fine,” said Roxy. But she was still visibly shaken.
“There not zombies. Any readings?” said Lilly, diving across to the Doctor and kneeling next to him.
“Yes,” said the Doctor, looking at the device in his hands. His eyes quivered with excitement. “It’s actually regenerating as we speak.”
“Regenerating?” said Lilly, eyes wide.
“No, no, no. Not like that,” said the Doctor. “Regenerating as in just simply re-growing parts of it’s body. Becoming whole again. Un-rotting away. It’s fascinating.”
“You two,” said Holly.
The two turned around and looked at Holly and Roxy.
“Are you going to help the poor guy or sit discussing him?”
“Oh, of course,” said the Doctor, grabbing one arm whilst Lilly grabbed the other. On a count of three they hefted him out of the mud and he collapsed down next to them, trying to scramble away.
“Wait, wait, wait,” said the Doctor, getting onto his stomach and looking the man right in the eyes. “Can you speak? Can you tell me anything about yourself?”
“What…?” croaked the man.
“Yes?” said the Doctor, his hand motioning for him to continue.
“What…is happening….?”
“You’re dead,” smiled Lilly.
The man howled. “No…not my world. It’s not…my…world….” And then he stopped dead, his face down in the dirt.
“No,” said the Doctor, checking for a pulse but finding nothing.
“That’s the first time. The first time,” said Lilly, looking at Holly and Roxy with glee in her eyes.
“For what?” said Roxy.
“That one spoke.”
Holly held a finger up and walked over to the graveside. “Can I just point something out to you? You know this poor man has just died, yes?”
“He’s been dead seven years,” said the Doctor, pointing to the date on the gravestone.
“You need to re-bury him,” said Roxy, now sat with her legs crossed, “before any of us get into trouble. Then we can discuss the morality of all of this.”
“Not only that,” said Lilly, “but we have an energy spike in sector seven. I never checked this last night because it hadn’t given me any readings until now.” She held up the complicated device the Doctor had shown them earlier. “There’s energy spikes right now.”
“Get digging folks!” said the Doctor, clapping his hands together and jumping to his feet.
It was when Richard had started to convulse violently that Cheryl had called for an ambulance. She didn’t know what was up with her husband. It was like he was the same person, but completely different at the same time and it scared her.
When the ambulance arrived Richard had passed out and was lying on the kitchen floor. The paramedics tried to wake him, but he was out cold so they loaded him into the ambulance, watched by curious onlookers that lived down the street.
Cheryl was too upset to notice them as she clambered into the back of the ambulance to join her husband.
She took one more look at their house as the doors closed and she wished right now that she could get back to her normal, ordinary, boring life.
It seemed so far away.
The Doctor was already leading the way out of the cemetery as Holly, Lilly and Roxy brushed themselves down.
The Doctor was staring intently at the device that Lilly had handed him and almost ran straight into a stern looking man in a suit. He had a high forehead and receding hairline, but looked quite handsome on his never-cracked-a-smile-before face. It was the same man Lilly had seen the previous night.
“I’m so sorry,” said the Doctor, smiling up at the man.
“What are you doing?” said the man, noticing the dirt-covered hands of the quartet. He noticed Lilly. “You were hanging around last night.”
“Looking for-”
“We planted some flowers,” said Holly quickly.
“In the ground?” said the man.
“Yep,” said Holly.
“There are plant pots for that,” said the man, still standing stock still and unmoving.
“We don’t believe in plant pots,” said Holly with a wave of her hand.
The man’s eyebrow arched.
“Do you work here?” said Lilly, trying to brush more of the dirt off her clothes.
“Why?” said the man.
“Because you should really lock these gates.”
He frowned and looked at the gates and then back to the group. “And why ever would I do that?”
“You lock them at night, don’t you?” said the Doctor.
“Of course. To keep people out.”
“Yes,” said the Doctor, nodding sagely. “Well, you might want to lock them now to keep people in.”
The man frowned as the Doctor guided them away from him and up the path to the leafy avenue that led up to the south side of the cemetery.
“What’s the plan then?” said Holly, eagerness in her voice.
“Lilly, I want you and Roxy to follow that energy spike. It’s moving, by the way.”
“Can’t I stay with you?” said Roxy.
“No. I don’t do big groups. It gets too confusing. You all look the same after a while.”
“Charming,” said Lilly.
“What about me?” said Holly, hoping she hadn’t been forgotten.
“You and I are going to perform a little experiment.”
Holly smiled and then looked at Roxy. Roxy clearly looked frustrated with the situation, but Holly gave her a weak smile and then realised that the Doctor had already started heading towards the main road.
“Come on,” said Lilly, marching on ahead of Roxy.
“See ya later,” Holly shouted back.
The Doctor led Holly across the main road and towards a large, pale, stone building. It was five stories high with box-like window bays looking over a playing field, nestled amongst trees.
“Why are we going to the YMCA?” said Holly, frowning.
“Just a storage space for me, really,” said the Doctor. “Well, not for me. For my…equipment.”
“Oh yes,” said Holly, “do you also rent a room out here?”
“Not at all,” he said, as they rounded the corner. Holly began heading for the entrance when the Doctor put his hands on her shoulders and guided her past the doors and to the side of the building.
“Not inside?” she queried.
“Round the outside,” he smiled, going in his pocket and pulling out a silver Yale-lock key. He turned the corner and then popped his head back around. “Maybe you should wait here.” He winked and disappeared around the corner.
Holly leant on the wall and watched the trees blowing in the wind. It was quite chilly this morning and the sun looked very pale and cold. After a while she started to wonder where the Doctor had gone and glanced around the corner.
Sat a few metres away was a large, blue box with the words “POLICE PUBLIC CALL BOX” written at the top. It looked to be made of some kind of wood and it had a light on the top.
She stepped a few paces towards it when the door burst open and the Doctor emerged with a collection of items and cables wrapped around his shoulders like some kind of technological scarf.
“Is that a shed or something?” said Holly. “I didn‘t think you were the police. Do you work with them?”
“Not exactly,” smiled the Doctor, handing her a collection of items.
“Not exactly what? Not exactly a shed or not exactly working with the police?”
“Not exactly both,” he said.
Holly frowned but smiled. She was obviously not going to get any straight answers out of this guy. She’d keep trying though. “So what experiment are we trying?”
“I want to try and open your senses. Open your mind.”
“Okay…” Holly suddenly felt a little worried. “And how are you going to do that? More to the point, why?”
“Why? Because I have an ever-so-slight bit of a theory of what might be going on here. How? Well, you’re just going to have to trust me.”
“If you say drugs-”
“Not drugs,” said the Doctor. “Not at all. But your friend, Roxy, saw something when she collapsed. I think if we open up your mind wide enough, you might also see it.”
“Then why not just try Roxy?”
“Your friend is a little…feisty.”
Holly smiled. “That’s Roxy for you. Go for anything that moves.”
“In what way?”
Holly laughed. He really was quite naive. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll keep her way from you.”
The Doctor frowned. “We need to find a TV.”
“There are plenty of TV’s in the YM,” said Holly, nodding towards the building.
“No,” said the Doctor. “Too hard to explain. Do you have a house?”
“I do,” said Holly. “Well, it’s my parents house at least.”
“Can we use your TV?” asked the Doctor, as Holly began to lead the way out of the car park and onto the avenue that led from the YMCA.
“Yeah, I mean my parents will be at work. My sisters at school. So, yeah, it’ll be fine.”
“You have a sister?” said the Doctor as they made their way down the avenue.
“Yeah. You’ll like her. Cute kid.”
Agatha stood with her arms folded and her eyes narrowed. The Doctor had been there for only five minutes, but already he had scared the cat, smashed a mug and managed to stop her Sky+ from recording one of her favourite TV programmes.
He was annoying her.
“What?” said Holly, as the Doctor pulled out the TV and scattered a load of stacked DVD’s.
“Who is he again?” said Agatha, eyeing him up and down. “Is he that new boyfriend I heard you talking to?”
“What?” said Holly, looking all flustered, “no of course not.”
“I was gonna say…”
“Say what?” said Holly, instinctively checking her phone for any messages from Alfie.
“Well, he’s a bit too old for you, isn’t he?”
Holly frowned at her sister. Okay, so he was older than her, but maybe only by about ten years. He didn’t look that old. He looked dashing and handsome and…and he wasn’t her boyfriend.
Snap out of it, said Holly to herself. Snap Agatha out of it.
“Haven’t you got homework to do?” said Holly.
“Nope,” said Agatha, sitting down on the armchair, arms still folded. “I’ve got DVD’s to watch.”
Holly sighed. “Why aren’t you at school?”
“Teacher training day,” said Agatha with a smile.
“I used to be a teacher once,” said the Doctor, looking up from behind the TV and looking wistful. “Several times in fact. I was a caretaker too. Several times in fact.”
“Look,” said Holly, grabbing her sisters arm and hauling her to her feet. “Go and put the kettle on. Mr…?” She looked at the Doctor.
“Doctor,” he said.
“Doctor…what?” she said.
“Smith. Doctor John Smith.” He gave her the campest wave she’d ever seen and then dived back behind the TV.
“Doctor Smith is very thirsty.”
“I’m 13 years old, Hols, not seven. I can tell there’s something not right about him.”
Holly sighed and then guided Agatha out of the door and into the hallway. She sat down on the stairs and Agatha remained standing in front of her, defiantly.
“Listen,” said Holly, “there are some strange things going on around the town.”
Agatha rolled her eyes. “Not the spooky club again. I thought you’d grown out of that.”
“No, not the spooky club,” said Holly, her voice a whisper, “but Roxy and I saw some weird stuff out by the cemetery.”
“Granddads cemetery?” said Agatha.
“Don’t call it that,” said Holly, the memory of her granddads passing still raw. “But, yes, that cemetery.”
“Well what?”
“Just…weird things.”
“Like devil worshippers or witch craft or something.”
“No,” said Holly. “I saw a…body climb out of a grave.”
“Oh, don’t be stupid,” said Agatha, walking off with a shake of her head. “I’m off to make the tea.”
“Finally!” said Holly with a smile.
When she returned to the living room, the Doctor was kneeled in front of the TV, two wires hooked up to the back of the set and connected to a brass head-band-like device with two antennae sticking out of the top. It looked like some weird, comedy alien head-dress and she stifled a laugh.
“I’m going to need you to sit down for this, Holly,” he said with a slightly worried smile.
Lilly and Roxy stood outside the terraced house. The morning sun had decided to hide behind the dark clouds that had been gathering from the east and it was starting to spit with rain.
“Brings back memories,” said Lilly glumly.
“Memories?” said Roxy, not really sure why she was hanging around with this moody Scottish girl she didn’t even know.
“Of my childhood.” She checked her device. “Well, this is where the signal originated, but it’s faded now. Or rather it’s moved.”
“Moved where?” said Roxy.
“I don’t quite know. This thing only pinpoints when the signal started. If it’s still going on or finished then it’s not going to pinpoint the spike, or the start.”
“So what now?”
“You okay loves?” came the voice of an elderly man.
“We’re just looking for the owners of this house,” said Lilly, walking up to the old man and flashing him a rare smile.
“Well that’ll be a difficult, sweetheart,” said the man. “They live in Spain.”
“Oh,” frowned Lilly.
“It’s rented, love,” said the old man.
“Ah,” said Roxy. “And where are the tenants?”
“The Hicks? It’s a bit of a shocker really. About an hour ago I saw them loading him into the back of an ambulance. Poor old Richard.”
“And they haven’t returned yet?” said Lilly.
“Nope. Reckon he had some sort of seizure.”
Roxy’s eyes widened.
They thanked the man and then made their way in the direction of the hospital.
Simon had tried to get a nap that morning. He hadn’t slept well that night and had spent all night watching the shopping channels and flicking back to music channels. He was laid in bed staring at the ceiling and thinking about his mum and the strange goings on from the previous day, when he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his head.
The pain was a sharp, piercing feeling - like an ice-cream headache - and it made him sit bolt upright and clutch at his temples. It got stronger and stronger and he screamed out in agony.
And then flopped down onto the bed, still and unmoving.
Lifeless.
To be continued...
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