The Doctor had left and had returned 20 minutes later with the same headset he had used on Holly, some incense sticks and a device that looked like a kidney dialysis machine. The Doctor had hooked the rig up to the back of the TV and Richard had sat down on the sofa across the room, wondering what the future had in store for him.
“Are you okay?” said the Doctor as he slipped the headset onto Richard.
“Not really,” said Richard. He laughed nervously. “To be honest I’d rather be at work now on the fruit and veg stall. Me, preferring to be at work?” He laughed again. “Do you think this will work?”
The Doctor nodded. “It has to. I’ve contacted some friends of mine that work with these sort of things. When you’re in your coma they will come and take you away. They will care for you and look after you. I promise you that.”
Richard nodded. “My family as well?”
The Doctor smiled. “They will give your wife and children anything they need.”
“Okay,” said Richard as the Doctor moved away and lit a number of the incense sticks. “So how will this work exactly? Run through it again.”
The Doctor sat down next to him. “At the moment the signal breaking down the walls is transmitting in the other world. My being here has, in effect, thinned the walls meaning that the walls could break any moment. If they did it would be catastrophic. More catastrophic than events taking their normal course of action.”
“Okay, and how has you being here thinned the walls?”
“Because I’m a time traveller,” said the Doctor to Richard’s astonished face. “My time machine has become like a beacon for the signal. If I leave without dealing with the signal, it’ll pull the walls down anyway. What you will be is a focus. I will open your mind all the way to let your other self through. You in turn will cross over to his body. The signal will use your minds as the focus point, sort of like smashing a hole in a damn to let the water through, except with both of you in coma’s it will trap the focus signal, like a bubble trapped in a spirit level.”
“Okay, that makes some sort of sense. But then what happens in five months?”
“In five months the inevitable happens anyway and the Kro’Tenk come through, at which point I’ll be able to bring you out of the coma and I can properly fight them.”
Richard nodded. “So the world really does rest of my shoulders then? Me, a fruit and veg stall vender.” He laughed.
The Doctor patted him on the back. “The most ordinary people can sometimes do the most extraordinary things.” He got up. “Ready?”
Richard nodded. “Just don’t forget to wake me up, mate, yeah?”
The Doctor nodded. “See you in five months.”
Holly was at her granddads graveside, the flowers nearly dead, but the earth on top still looking as fresh as it had been the day it was covered over. She dropped to her knees and put her hand on the mud. She knew this was madness. All around she could see bodies climbing out of their graves and she summarised that all over town - the world even - there will people having visions and people blacking out. She knew she shouldn’t be here. Nothing about this made her certain her granddad was still alive. There was no reason why he should be. For all she knew he could have died many, many years ago in the dead world. Maybe when the first wave of the Kro’Tenk arrived, and even if he did rise from the dead he may not know who she was. In the other world Holly Dangerfield was obviously still alive and fighting, but if he had died years ago then he wouldn’t recognise her.
She looked at the mud. This was insane! She laughed. She shouldn’t be doing this. She was about to get up and go, when she saw the earth beneath her shift ever so slightly.
She gasped.
Richard was in a haze. He could see the images of carnage on the TV screen. The flames, the buildings turned to ruin, the death and destruction. It all seemed so familiar to him. He tried to fight against it, but then stopped himself and let himself relax. He had no choice. He had to do it for his family. He had to.
The Doctor shifted into focus and rubbed his arm to comfort him. He moved over to the dialysis-like machine and flicked a switch.
Richard felt a sharp pain run through his forehead and he stiffened on the sofa.
“Open your eyes,” he heard the Doctor say on the edge of his hearing.
Richard fought against the pain and opened his eyes wide just in time to see the carnage and death from the TV screen straight at him.
The world shimmered, he felt light headed. He was aware that he was no longer sitting down, but standing up, a pain in his left arm. The world around him was a massive dark blur with the occasional pinpoints of colour trying to break through. He held his left arm up to his face and gasped. His hand was gone and nothing but blood was pouring from his left wrist. It had been sliced clean through.
His head snapped up. The world was coming into focus. He was standing in a ruined old building with flames and smoke all around. He had arrived at the dead world, which meant the mind of the man he was occupying would be back in his body.
And then Richard became aware of something else in the ruined rubble. He focused and a figure was standing there. An eight-foot figure looming over him and holding a sword that was dripping with blood. His blood.
Richard screamed as the face of a lizard with a grimacing look came into focus. He was about to turn and run when the world went black.
Roxy and Lilly raced up to the graveside as Holly staggered to her feet. Holly was just about to turn and run when the earth in her granddads grave stopped moving. All around the corpses began to collapse to the ground like rag dolls. The ash figures began to disintegrate back into ash and everything went silent.
Holly turned to look at Roxy and Roxy opened her arms out. Holly ran to her and buried her head in her chest, sobbing uncontrollably.
Lilly breathed and sigh of relief and sat down on a bench nearby. She pulled out a bottle of water and took a sip and closed her eyes. The Doctor had done it.
The Doctor flicked the switch and a pulse was sent through the machine, locking Richard into a coma on this world and the dead world. The Richard that had come through hadn’t had time to say anything before the Doctor had activated the machine.
“Sweet dreams, Mr Hicks,” said the Doctor, laying a hand on his shoulder.
And then the Doctor went to his phone in his pocket, dialled a number and waited for an answer.
“Hello, Roger. It’s the Doctor. Remember that situation we were having in Huxley? Yes, I know it’s going on all over the world. Well, it should have stopped now. For at least five months anyway. I need you to come and collect Richard Hicks as agreed. Me? No, I’ve got to get out of here, but rest assured, Roger, that I’ll be back in five months time and your lot better be ready.”
Two Days Later
Holly opened her eyes and stared at the blank ceiling above. The curtains in her room were quite thin and let the sunlight through. She lay there for a good ten minutes contemplating the last few weeks and running it over and over in her head. She hadn’t told her family what had happened. They wouldn’t understand. Even Agatha wouldn’t have understood judging by her reaction to meeting the Doctor
She flung off her bed covers and got dressed. She made her way downstairs, was polite to the family as she ate her cornflakes and then headed off into town. There she met Roxy were the two of them quietly discussed what had happened. They had gone over it over and over again until they both reached the point where they felt they needed to stop, but if they spoke about anything else it would seem too boring.
Roxy and Holly were both sat in the shopping centres Costa Coffee when the Doctor and Lilly walked up to them. Holly almost spat her coffee out when she saw them.
“I just wanted to say thank you,” smiled the Doctor.
“What for?” said Holly.
“For helping us,” said the Doctor. “Okay, it may not be over yet, but the signal is being contained for now and Mr Hicks is in safe hands.”
“And we’ll be back in five months to deal with the next phase.”
“Jesus,” said Roxy. “I keep forgetting that it’s not all over.”
The Doctor smiled. “You’ll be fine, I promise.”
“Promise you’ll look in on us when you come back?” said Roxy, that mischievous look back in her eyes.
The Doctor pointed to Roxy as they headed away. “You especially, Roxanne.” He winked.
Roxy went red.
Holly watched them disappear out of the sliding doors and then drained her coffee.
“Where are you going?” said Roxy.
“Wait here for me. I want to see where they go for the next five months whilst we have to sit here getting bored.” She grabbed her coat and scarf and jogged over them.
When she emerged into the cold sunlight outside the shopping centre she saw the Doctor and Lilly disappear around the corner towards the train station. She followed them at a discreet pace until she saw them turn into a passage way.
She followed up to the passage and saw them walk into an old builders yard. She peeped around the wall and standing there under an overgrown tree was the same blue box she had seen outside the YMCA a few days ago.
The Doctor pulled out a key and unlocked the door.
“Another job well done, eh?” he said to Lilly.
She smiled. “I guess so. Glad to see the back of the place though.”
The Doctor shook his head, opened the door and the both went inside.
Holly frowned as the light began to blink on top of the box and a low sound came from somewhere within the box. She had to make a decision. Who were these two? Other than a few snippets here and there they hadn’t really told her anything. She felt like she was coming to the end of a book and some bugger had torn out the last page. She couldn’t let it end here. She knew there was a sequel coming in five months, but she needed to see the last few pages of this particular story.
With lightning speed she darted from her cover and ran for the blue box, launching herself at the door and crashing straight through and inside just as the box disappeared from the yard.
What Holly found inside the box, was not what she had expected.
The End
Next time: The TARDIS runs into a spaceship full of Human explorers...and an old enemy awaits. The Cyber-Mondassians (from "The Tenth Planet") return in "Mondas Down" coming soon!
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