Elsewhere (Chapter 5)

Chapter 5 (I'm Not Planning on Going Solo)

Holly had been awake for a good hour now and she couldn’t get back to sleep. She’d switched Radio 4 on. Sometimes listening to talk radio would help her to drift off, but not this time. She’d listened to the morning Shipping Forecast and then watched as her room grew brighter and brighter with the sunrise.

She turned to her side and looked at her bookcase across from the bed. She counted each of the spines - 28 books - and still didn’t feel like falling back to sleep.

She had too much on her mind.

The Kro’Tenk. Her family. Lilly.

Lilly…

Last night after Roxy had complained at the Doctor for drinking her drink, they had all gone their separate ways. Holly saw no reason to sleep in the TARDIS now she was back home, but she hadn’t had a proper chance to say goodnight to Lilly either, with the Doctor getting all frustrated about something he wasn’t telling them and ushering her into the TARDIS quickly.

So she had got in, made herself a quick sandwich and then gone to bed.

It’d taken her ages - possibly hours, to drift off to sleep. She must have only slept for about three hours before waking up. She couldn’t get used to not having the gentle humming of the TARDIS to help her drift off.

Lilly…

So what if Lilly was a girl? She had girl friends who were in relationships with other girls. It wasn’t anything new. It wasn’t a problem.

But these feelings were new to her. Only a few weeks ago she’d been contemplating a relationship with Alfie. Now….

There came a rumble of thunder from outside her window and it dragged her back to reality. Back to her room. She sat up in the bed, swung her legs out to the side and turned sideways to look out of the window. In the distance were more thunder clouds, slowly consuming the bright, rising sun.

And then she felt a pain across her head. A searing, white-hot pain that made her ball up her fists and clamp them against her temples.

She screamed.




Elsewhere…




Holly and Ellie stood on the hill. It was the highest point they could reach in Huxley. From here the devastation could be seen much more clearly. The sky was full of dark, ash-covered clouds. They floated over the ruined town like ghostly, demonised balloons, casting dark shadows on her home below.

From somewhere in the centre of the town was a beam of green light. It shot up from somewhere near to the ground. Where it had hit the clouds a swirling, green and white portal had opened. Near to the opening Holly could see Riders flying around on their sky-bikes.

Holly couldn’t see too far because of the ash, but she knew that in every town and every city, and in every country all over the planet these beams of light were erupting.

“So they really are leaving us,” said Holly, shaking her head at the distant spectacle.

“Aldridge says they’ve got what they came for and are moving onto the next place.”

“How does Aldridge know so much?” asked Holly.

Ellie smiled and wiped the sweat from her dirty forehead. “Relax. I told you. Richard and I were working with him and his contacts across the county for months before Richard went into his coma.”

“He can be trusted then.”

“I’ve been telling you that for five months, Holly,” said Ellie. “They just stripped our entire planet of all its resources and are moving onto the next universe along.”

“Good riddance to them,” said Holly, folding her arms and walking back towards the woods.

“They’re going to nuke us, you know?” said Ellie, turning to follow her.

“It can’t get any better though.”

“We can stop them, Holly,” said Ellie as she sat down on the grass and took an almost-rotten apple out of her jeans pocket.

“How?”

“Aldridge has been coordinating with everyone else. We’re going to shut down their machines.”

“But that means they’ll be stuck here. With us.”

“But the next world will be safe.”

Holly shook her head. “Oh, no. We’ve lived through this for twenty years. It needs to end one way or the other, but not with them staying here.”

“I’m sorry, Holly, but it’s already been decided. The Committee are going to bring them down.”




Our world…




“And you found her like this, Mrs Dangerfield?” asked the Doctor as he shone a light into Holly’s open eyeball.

“Yes,” said Wendy Dangerfield, her arms folded and her face a picture of worry. “I heard her screaming and then ran in. She was on the floor face-down.”

“I’m fine now,” said Holly. “It was like an ice-cream headache.”

“Without ice-cream,” said Lilly, arching her eyebrows.

“It was the effect of the next world trying to bleed through,” said the Doctor, popping his pen-torch into his inside pocket.

“The what?” asked a confused Wendy.

“Everything alright, love?” asked Holly’s dad as he walked in with a cup of tea and Agatha at his side.

“I’m fine,” said Holly, sitting up and rubbing her head. “Now can you all get out of my bedroom please.”

The Doctor pointed to her. “Outside in ten minutes, Miss Dangerfield. We need to plan and prepare.”

“Aye-aye, sir,” said Holly, saluting the Doctor.

“But-” began Wendy.

“No questions, Mrs Dangerfield. You won’t understand the answers.” He winked and smiled at her and then exited.

Her mum, dad and sister stood there watching her with curiosity.

“Bedroom. Privacy,” said Holly.

They shuffled out quickly.

Twenty minutes later and Holly had showered, brushed her teeth, got dressed into a grey hoodie and jeans and grabbed a slice of cold toast.

“Where to then?” asked Holly, as she said bye to her family, unhooked her jacket from the peg and followed the Doctor out of the front door.

“We’re meeting up with Roger and his team here,” he said, showing her a map of Huxley.

“That’s the middle of the industrial estate by the motorway,” said Holly, frowning at the map. “It’s just warehouses and frozen food factories up there.”

“And UNIT:X’s base of operations while we’re here.” The Doctor took her around the corner and standing on the corner was a quaint, yellow vintage car.

Holly stifled a giggle.

“Is there a problem, Miss Dangerfield?” asked the Doctor, looking slightly annoyed with her.

“Is this yours?”

“Yes,” said the Doctor, affectionately stroking the bonnet. “I’ve had Bessie for many a year.”

“Bessie!?”

“Yes,” he said, as if there was nothing wrong with naming your car. “You’ll hurt her feelings.”

“And you’ve just been keeping it here for a rainy day?” asked Holly as the Doctor helped her into the passenger.

“One of the UNIT people brought it up here from London. She’s been in storage for some time. I thought it was about time I blew the cobwebs off her.”

He clambered in and started the engine. There was a puff of grey smoke from the exhaust and then a loud bang.

Holly looked at the Doctor and then broke down in giggles.

“I told you - I need to blow her cobwebs away.”

He put his foot down on the accelerator and the little car reluctantly trundled from its parking space onto the road.

A few minutes later they were heading towards the motorway that took them out of town. But instead of entering onto the motorway the Doctor took a left turn and headed down an estate road towards the industrial area. Here it was a like a ghost town. During the week it’d be a lot more busier with lorries and vans and traffic, but today was a Sunday and the whole industrial estate was virtually shut down.

The Doctor consulted the map again and then took a right and then a left before arriving at a chain-link fence with a road heading into it through two gates.

Two camo-clad UNIT sentries were standing guard. The Doctor gave them a wave, they acknowledged him and then opened the gates.

Bessie drove up the road until they reached a large, abandoned factory. A long-faded sign hung limply on one screw and a small gathering of pigeons were nesting in the gutter along the roof.

To the right was a number of military vehicles, including an ambulance and a smart Rolls Royce.

The Doctor parked up Bessie and stopped her engine as the door to the building opened and Lilly came jogging out.

She glanced at Holly. “You okay?”

“I’m fine. Just the after effects of you know who,” said Holly with a smile.

“Good,” said Lilly, nodding. She tuned to the Doctor. “You better get in here. Richard’s not doing well.”

The Doctor got out of Bessie and then the three of them made their way inside the building. The reception looked like something out of the 1970’s with wood-chipped walls and orange, leather sofas.

Lilly took them through another door and into a darkened corridor. They passed various pictures of packaging and old black and white photos of former factory workers before heading into a large, open space with white walls and covered-over machinery pushed up against the walls. In the centre of the space was a stretcher with all manner of medical equipment hooked up to it. On the bed was an unshaven Richard Hicks. He was sweating and looked to be in some distress.

Faith Crossland was just finishing tightening some leather straps over him when the Doctor, Lilly and Holly entered.

“Is that really necessary, Mrs Crossland?” asked the Doctor, nodding towards the straps.

“It’s for his own safety, Doctor,” said Faith, sadly.

“You’ve met Lilly,” said the Doctor. He turned to Holly. “Faith, this is Holly. Holly, meet Faith.”

“Nice to meet you,” said Holly, shaking the woman’s hand.

“I heard you had a funny turn this morning?” said Faith, making sure the straps were secure.

“Just a bit,” said Holly. “The Doctor said it was the effects of the Riders trying to break through.”

“That’s correct, Miss Dangerfield,” came Roger Stark’s voice as he entered the room. “We can only assume that the Kro’Tenk are beginning their final break-through into our world.”

“Holly, this is Roger Stark, head of operations at UNIT: X.”

“Charmed, I’m sure,” said Stark, smiling at Holly.

“But I thought Richard was meant to block their effects,” said Holly, watching on as Richard continued to struggle.

“Well it was only a hope,” said the Doctor. “I’ve never tried it before. I suppose we were lucky it lasted while it did.”

“There’s been multiple reports of people having similar fits to Miss Dangerfield all over the world,” said Stark, handing the Doctor a computer tablet. “Only minor fits, but still fits all the same.”

“There is one positive in all this,” said Lilly. “Richard is still alive in that other world.”

“But in what state?” said Holly.

“We should try and wake him,” said Faith. She saw the Doctor’s horrified face. “Look, I know what you’re going to say, but they’re coming. We can’t stop them now.”

“We’re not yet ready, Sentinel,” said Stark, taking the tablet back off the Doctor.

“But the damage it could be doing to Mr Hicks-”

“The damage it could do to the inhabitants of this planet is my concern,” he looked down at Richard. “If we wake him then people will begin blacking out, having even stronger fits-”

“And the dead will walk again,” said Holly, remembering what happened last time.

“Exactly.”

“I’m afraid I’m more inclined to go along with Roger’s decision,” said the Doctor. Stark arched his eyebrows and looked across to the Doctor. “Much as it pains me,” he added quickly.

Holly’s phone began ringing. She looked at the screen. “It’s Roxy.” She answered. “Hey….wait, what? Slow down….what’s wrong?”

“Is she okay?” asked the Doctor.

“Yeah. Yeah…okay, we’ll be there in a bit. Relax. Just stay inside.”

“What is it?” asked the Doctor as Holly hung up.

“Roxy says there’s something weird going on in the town centre.”

The Doctor, Lilly, Holly and Stark made their way outside. Over towards the centre of the town the sky was a mass of grey, swirling clouds, tinged with a sickly green colour. There were flashes of light in amongst the clouds and the thunder was louder than anything Holly had ever heard before.

“It’s them, isn’t it?” asked Holly.

“I thought we had a few more hours,” said Lilly, glowering at the Doctor.

“Give or take,” said the Doctor, his eyes transfixed on the spectacle in the sky.

“Give or take a few minutes.”

The Doctor sighed. “I must have miscalculated. The Kro’Tenk are about to arrive.”

To be continued...