Aliens Among Us (Chapter 6)

Chapter 6 (The Turning Tide)

Holly had finished another days work at the newsagents and was just locking up (it shut at 6pm), when Arnold turned the corner into the street and gave her a wave, jogging over.

“Hey, Arnold,” said Holly, laughing at a memory of a kids TV programme of the same name.

“Hello, Holly,” he said in the same jolly voice he always had.

“Everything okay? I’m just locking up.”

“Well, no actually,” said Arnold, looking down at the path. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to let you go.”

“What?” Holly closed the door and locked it. “Why? What have I done?”

“Nothing at all. It’s not you,” said Arnold, “but Keller Ltd, who runs the chain, says we need to cut back.”

“You already close at 6pm.”

“I know,” said Arnold, “but I have my orders. I’m sorry.”

Holly nodded and grabbed the top of the shutter, pulling it down to seal up the window and door. “It’s not your fault, Arnold.”

“I just feel absolutely terrible. Of course you’ll be paid for the hours you’ve done this month.”

“Thank you,” said Holly, nodding at him sadly. “Don’t let it bother you, Arnold.”

“I used to own the place independently, but the costs were becoming too high and Keller put in an offer, and well…the rest is history.”

“Trust me, Arnold, you don’t have to explain it to me.”

Arnold sighed and walked with her as she headed up the street and towards home. “So what will you do now?”

“Oh, I don’t know. I guess I’ll find something closer to the town centre.”

“There’s not much going in Hanwick I’m afraid. You and your friends may be better off leaving full stop.”

Holly stopped and turned to face the man. “That sounds a bit extreme.”

“You have to think about your future, Miss Dangerfield.” He stared at her, his blue eyes burying deep into her soul.

Holly frowned. “Thank you, Arnold,” she said. “I’ll bear it in mind.” She turned to go. “I’ll see you around, yeah?”

Arnold nodded. “See you soon, Holly.”

She made her way down the street and turned onto Coventry Avenue. She crossed the road at the pelican crossing and then turned into Waterloo Close. She contemplated everything Arnold had said. Something about this wasn’t right. As she turned into the front garden she stopped dead in her tracks.

The Doctor and Lilly were on ladders at the front window. Both of them had a bucket of water and sponges and were attempting to remove some graffiti from the glass.

“What happened?” asked Holly.

“Ah, hello,” said the Doctor, waving with the sponge in his hand.

The Doctor hopped down from the stepladders and Holly could see what had been spray-painted on the window:




“LAST CHANCE”




“Holy crap,” said Holly, her hand to her mouth. “Did anybody see anything?”

“I’ve asked around,” said Lilly, dropping her sponge into the bucket, “but nobody’s saying anything.”

Holly exhaled. “I think it’s time we went on our way, Doctor.”

“Not yet,” said the Doctor. “We need to uncover this mystery.”

“But that is a clear warning,” said Holly, pointing to the partially smeared words on the window. “Not to mention this morning’s phone call telling us that one of us is going to die if we carry on.”

“An empty threat I think,” said the Doctor. “But never the less we need to route out this alien. It could be dangerous.”

Holly pinched the bridge of her nose and closed her eyes.

“Everything else alright, Dangerfield?” asked Lilly, crossing over to her.

“Not really,” said Holly. “I’ve lost my job.”

Lilly rolled her eyes. “Both of us in two weeks!”

“Arnold said he had to make cut-backs. His hand was forced by the company, but it all sounds a bit suspicious.”

“How do you mean?” asked the Doctor, sitting on the front door step and looking up at her.

“He actually suggested that we should try and find work outside of Hanwick.”

“If he’s not the alien then I’m a nun,” said Lilly.

“I don’t think he’s the alien,” said Holly.

“But he clearly knows something,” said the Doctor, tapping his chin.

“That much is obvious,” said Holly. “He maybe knows who the alien is but wants us out of here to get us out of danger.”

“I’ll pay him a visit,” said Lilly.

“No,” said the Doctor. “We’ve gone beyond visits and investigating. We need to get the escape pods set up and activate the field. Then we’ll know for sure who this alien is disguised as.”

Holly sighed. “If you say so, Doctor. I’m off in for a shower.”

“Then we eat,” said the Doctor. “And tonight, when it’s dark, we’ll put our plan into operation.”




Although the darkness had fallen it was still a warm summers night. Holly and Lilly had both taken to wearing dark tops and trousers so they could slip about the estate without attracting too much attention. None of them had really spoken during dinner.

For Holly she was quite nervous about what was going to happen. A direct threat to them had been made. Whether the Doctor believed it was a genuine threat or not didn’t really ease her nerves.

Lilly meanwhile had tucked into her spag-bol and gulped down an ice-cold glass of water before going for a jog.

The Doctor led them down Waterloo Close back onto Coventry Avenue and back to the motorway where the TARDIS was waiting in the bushes.

“Do you think he’s out there somewhere?”

“Who?” said Lilly, turning to face Holly as the Doctor unlocked the door.

“The alien.”

“Probably,” said Lilly, calmly.

Holly pulled her jacket closer around her shoulders as they entered the TARDIS. Although she was new to travelling in the time machine, she felt a lot safer once she was in the confines of its dimensions.

The Doctor flicked a few switches and then double-locked the doors.

“You can never be too careful,” he said, giving a glancing grin towards the girls. “Follow me.”

He led them through the console room and into the interior door, down the corridor and then took a door off to the left. The corridor they entered was lined with vertical, pink fluorescent strip lights that cast an eerie pink glow on the three of them.

“What’s this all for then?” said Holly, stopping to examine one more closely.

“What, can’t a Doctor have mood lighting in his home?” said the Doctor.

They continued on their journey, past a blue door that looked like it led to a disused hospital wing, went down a spiral staircase and then back up the same one, and to Holly’s amazement found themselves in a totally different corridor.

They passed through a room which was lined floor to ceiling with rows and rows of bookshelves and then through a small, grassed area with a large oak tree reaching up to the roof, which was barely visible due to the darkness up above.

Finally they reached a doorway with a sign on the front of it which read “Other Ways & Means”.

The Doctor opened the door. Inside was a narrow, stone room lined with white roundels. Along the left hand side of the room were rows and rows of dull-grey boxes which stood at a height of around six foot.

“The escape pods?” said Holly, standing and eyeing them up.

“That’s right,” said Lilly. “I’ve never had cause to use them myself. Thankfully.”

Holly looked at Lilly and frowned. That was clearly a lie and the Doctor gave her an accusing glance.

The Doctor touched one of them. “You can never have too many escape pods. I always keep a good stock of them. Only in the direst emergencies have I ever used them.”

“But you’re using them now?” said Holly, touching the side and feeling the same, odd tingling that she got from touching the TARDIS exterior.

“Needs must,” said the Doctor. He turned to face the girls. “Here’s what we do. I programme three of them to land at a corner of the estate.”

“What about the fourth one?” said Holly.

“The TARDIS can act as the fourth point,” said the Doctor. “I can operate them automatically from the console room, but I’d like the three of us to each stay with a pod to make sure it’s functioning properly.”

“What about the TARDIS? Who keeps an eye on that?”

The Doctor looked frustrated and rubbed his eyes. “The TARDIS is like the brain. The pods are like the limbs.”

“Okay, I understand,” said Holly.

“Right. Let’s do this.”




Holly boarded the escape pod and was almost taken aback. She wasn’t exactly sure what she was supposed to expect. She imagined it to be more relative to its outside size, but no, the pod was large as well. Not quite as big as the TARDIS, of course, and as far as she could tell it only consisted of one room - the control room.

The room was circular, on one level, and dark-grey. The walls were dotted with yellow roundels and through the centre of the room was a smaller version of the TARDIS console with the glass tube containing the yellow rods rising up from the console into the roof.

Three steps led down to the console and Holly went and sat herself down.

The Doctor’s voice came over an intercom on the console.

“Now listen you two,” he said, sounding more serious than ever. “The TARDIS is going to land in one of the corners and then it will automatically dispatch the three pods to their allocated corners. Once your pods have landed then make sure you disembark.”

“Do we need to do anything else?” came Lilly’s voice over the same intercom.

“No. Just keep an eye on the pods. Make sure nobody sees. I’ll manually activate the field.”

“What do we do then?” said Holly. “I mean it’s the middle of the night. We’re not going to know if an alien has appeared.”

“The aliens shielding will be down,” continued to the Doctor. “The TARDIS will detect it and pinpoint its location.” He took a deep breath. “This is it folks. The grand finale.”

“You scared yet, Dangerfield?” came Lilly’s voice.

Holly frowned. Was she just teasing. “I’m bloody terrified.”

“So you should be,” came Lilly’s voice again. “I’ll see you in a bit.”

Holly smiled. She couldn’t be entirely sure, but since the Rock and since arriving on this estate Lilly had nearly thawed out. There seemed to be a warmth in her voice now. Had she broken through?

“Enough chatter, ladies,” came the Doctor’s stern voice. “Stand by for departure.”

Holly remained sitting as she waited. She wondered what Roxy would think to her now, getting herself involved in all sorts of dangerous situations. She smiled at the thought - Roxy would have loved to have come with her. She should have taken her as well.

Although Roxy probably would have had a harder time with Lilly than she had done.

Suddenly there was a deep boom from somewhere within the escape pod. The lights lowered and the yellow rods in the glass tube began to rise and fall steadily as a similar sound to the TARDIS engines filled the room.

It only lasted a mere ten seconds before the engines came to a stop with a thud and the lights returned to their normal brightness.

“We’ve arrived ladies,” said the Doctor, cheerily. “Keep those peepers peeled.”




Holly’s capsule had landed her beside a playing field. The orange streetlights shone down, but there wasn’t much to see. Over to the left was a road which led towards some houses, and Holly could just make out a sign:




“WELCOME TO THE RUNSWICK ESTATE. PLEASE DRIVE SLOWLY”




Holly turned to look at the pod, but was surprised to see it had turned into a large bush that blended in with the bushes that lined the playing fields.

Neat trick, thought Holly, touching the artificial leaves, if only the TARDIS could do that.

Holly’s phone rang and she answered it quickly. “Hello?”

“Are we all alright?” came the Doctor’s voice. “I’ve got us on conference call.”

“Fine,” said Holly. “Neat trick with the pod blending in.”

“I’m fine too,” came Lilly’s voice. “Hey, mine turned into a children’s shed. I’m near a park.”

“Never mind that,” said the Doctor. “Is there anybody around?”

“No,” said Holly, gazing out at the surrounding area, cast in the eerie orange light. “Nothing but me and myself.”

“Good,” said the Doctor.

“Just a drunk wandering past,” said Lilly. “He’s too out of it to notice me.”

“Take care, Lilly,” said the Doctor. “Right, I’m going to activate the field now. Keep communication channels open and be prepared. Once I have the location I’ll let you both know where to meet me.”

“Do we take the pods?” asked Holly.

“No, no, no,” said the Doctor. “You’re just gonna have to run.”

Holly nodded. “Good job I keep myself in shape.”

“Stand by, ladies.” There was a pause. “Activating the field…NOW!”

There came a high-pitched whine from the top of bush. Holly covered her ears up with her hands and stepped back. Then a beam of energy erupted from the top of the bush, high into the night sky. Some distance away Holly watched as another beam appeared. Over to the other side of the estate were the beams from the Doctor’s pod and the TARDIS. The beams slowly arched over until Holly’s had connected to Lilly’s and the Doctor’s had connected to the TARDIS’s, effectively creating a curved energy field over the estate.

Crackles of electricity and energy waves coursed over the curved, energy field.

But something was wrong. The beams of light were flickering.

“What’s happening, Doctor?” came Lilly’s voice.

“Something’s wrong,” said the Doctor. Holly could hear him frantically flicking controls. “It’s overloading!”

With a flash of energy the field crackled and flared. The beams separated and travelled back down. Holly backed away as the beam hit the bush and the bush exploded in a ball of flames.

Holly was thrown back down to the ground. She could hear the other explosions.

“Doctor!” came Lilly’s voice over the phone. “My pod exploded. Are you okay?”

“Mine too,” said the Doctor.

“What about the TARDIS?” said Holly as she watched the remains of the bush crumple into twisted metal.

“The TARDIS will be fine,” said the Doctor, resignation in his voice. “We failed. Again.”

Holly closed her eyes and lay the phone down next to her. For a moment she contemplated going to sleep. She was so tired. She was fed up. She couldn’t see any other way to find the alien. She lay there for a moment, the smell of smoke and the night air in her nostrils. It reminded her of bonfires when she was a child. She thought of hot dogs and sparklers and bright colours and she smiled.

And then she opened her eyes.

Looming over her was a spindly, tall, alien figure. It’s arms outstretched. Holly was frozen to the spot as it drew it’s hand up and deadly, two-inch claws shot out.

“I told you one of you would die,” said the alien as it brought it’s claws down on Holly.

The last thing that Holly did was scream.




The Doctor and Lilly had heard the scream over the phone and had both raced to Holly’s location. They almost ran into each other as they turned onto the street and made their way towards the playing field and the burning wreckage of the escape pod.

Holly was lying face down on the floor and it had started to rain. The Doctor raced over the road and onto the playing field as quickly as he could. He skidded to a halt and crouched down over Holly, slowly turning her over.

“Is she okay?” said Lilly, hurrying up to the Doctor’s side.

The Doctor looked down at Holly. She was still and silent as the rain drops pattered down onto her face.

“Is she okay?” said Lilly again, this time her voice faltering ever so slightly.

The Doctor looked down at Holly, her eyes wide open and her face a look of horror.

“DOCTOR!” shouted Lilly.

The Doctor turned to Lilly and closed his eyes. “I’m sorry, Lilly, but Holly’s dead.”

To be continued...