Elsewhere (Chapter 9)

Chapter 9 (The Final Throw)

Our world…




Lilly closed her eyes and ducked her head down as a shower of brick dust landed on top of her. She screwed her eyes tightly shut and crouched as low as she could get to the partially destroyed wall that surrounded the car park.

She could smell burning from somewhere nearby mixed in with the stench of burning flesh. She opened her eyes and lying to her right was one of the UNIT soldiers lying at an awkward angle, part of his face smouldering.

She edged away from him a little. She could hear the panicked cries of the public running away from the carnage that was raining down from above.

The Riders had struck quickly and without mercy. As soon as they had emerged from the clouds they had dived bombed the waiting troops, blasting them with laser bolts and swiping at them with swords and daggers. And then they had dismounted their bike contraptions and had taken to hand-to-hand combat.

When an explosion had gone off nearby she had legged it to the car park, but had been pinned down by laser fire from above. The Kro’Tenk that was firing at her must have gone for a harder challenge as he had flown away to join the other two dozen or so fighters that were attacking the UNIT troops.

“Hold your ground!” she heard Bambera shout over the sound of gunfire. “Aim for the exposed parts!”

“Lilly!”

She turned to see Roxanne running towards her, sheltering her head from the occasional burst of mud or brick dust.

“What are you still doing here?!” yelled Lilly as Roxy reached her and crouched by her side.

“I thought the Doctor was going to stop all this?”

“Clearly he failed.”

Another explosion. Lilly heard Roxy let out a yelp of fear.

“Get out of here!”

“Show me the way, blondie!”

Lilly frowned. Her hand went to her pocket and pulled out her phone. The Doctor was calling her. She answered it and looked up to the sky. “Doctor?”

His voice was very distorted, but she could just make him out. “…doing?…damage there?”

“You’re going to have to say again. The line is bad!”

“What…happening?”

“The Kro’Tenk are happening you silly sod. What happened?”

“…to…stop them. Got a…plan….need Stark.”

“What do you need him to do?”

“Tell…hold…off. Hold…them…”

“Hold them off? Okay, I think it’s a given that they’re already doing that.”

“How’s Holly?” said Roxy, anxiously.

“Shush,” said Lilly. “And what are you going to do?”

“….”

“Doctor?”

“….”

“He’s gone,” said Lilly, cancelling the phone call. “I guess we need to tell Stark to keep them at bay.”

“So you reckon he’s got a plan?” said Roxy, as she half-crouched, half-walked with Lilly across the car park, keeping to the shelter of the wall.

“He’s always got a plan,” said Lilly. She glanced back up at the sky as another Rider zoomed over their head, narrowly missing Lilly with it’s sword. “Let’s just hope it means that they come back from it.”




Elsewhere…




“I cannot advocate you destroying an entire planet,” said the Doctor, shaking his head.

“This isn’t your world,” said Aldridge.

“No, but what gives you the right to decide the fate of billions of people?”

“You should know, as I do, that we make those decisions every single day.” Aldridge got up and walked away, his back to the Doctor. “Every single day, Doctor.”

“But there has to be-”

“There is no other way,” said Aldridge, his voice a little louder than he had intended it to be. “This is not your world. This is mine.”

“Wrong, Aldridge. It’s not your world. Your world is Gallifrey. This place belongs to the Human race.”

“And the Human race have made this decision,” came the other Holly’s voice.

The Doctor turned to face her. She was stood in the doorway, leaning on the door frame with her arms folded.

“Holly-”

“I’m not your Holly,” said the other. “I’m a twisted, bitter version that never got to live her wonderful life.” She walked into the room and picked at some loose brickwork on the wall. “Doctor, if you had lived here and seen everything we had seen….there is no coming back from this for us, but the least you can do is help us to help all the other realities to come.”

The Doctor walked over to the other Holly and looked closely at her. Her face was so different. On the surface it was the same Holly he knew, if a little scarred and dishevelled, but inside was a totally different woman. The woman who had leapt on board the TARDIS a while back was nowhere to be seen behind those eyes.

“Aldridge convinced me - he convinced all of us - that it’s the only way.”

He closed his own eyes and turned away.

“Will you understand?” asked Aldridge softly.

The Doctor turned back to him. His eyes were wet. “A long, long time ago I watched another world die in flames. Another, alternate world.”

“But your world - your reality - survived.”

“Yes,” said the Doctor, feeling utterly defeated. “And it was for the good of my world. I stopped the problem from happening in my world.”

“Just as we can all stop this problem now.”

The Doctor shook his head and smiled in defeat. “I never was very good at arguing with myself. I’d always lose one way or the other.”

“Then you will help us?”

The Doctor looked at him. “Tell me your plan.”




Our world…




Lilly and Roxanne had found shelter in the library building. The children’s section was downstairs and it seemed as safe as any place to shelter from the destruction outside. With every explosion and every shout Roxy flinched, holding her knees to her chest.

“It’ll be fine,” said Lilly, who was flicking through a well-read copy of “The Very Hungry Caterpillar”.

“I’m more worried about Holly,” said Roxanne.

“I know,” said Lilly.

“Come off it, blondie,” said Roxy. “You barely know her.”

“I know her enough,” said Lilly. “I know that I almost lost her a while back.”

“What do you mean?”

Lilly put the book down and turned to face Roxy. “I thought she was dead. Turns out she was put into some kind of deep, alien coma.” Lilly looked away and smiled. “I didn’t realise how much I needed her until then.”

“You have feelings for her, don’t you?” said Roxy.

Lilly nodded. “More than you can imagine. More than I think she knows herself.”

“Listen,” said Roxy, edging a little closer towards Lilly, “Holly’s never had much experience with relationships before. I guess her and I were the complete opposite. But let me give you this advice - if you really do care for her, make sure you’re willing to take it to its final outcome.”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re not the most stable person, are you?”

Lilly looked angry and then closed her eyes, laughing. “No, I’m not. I lost someone very close to me a while ago. My brother.”

“I’m sorry about that.”

“Don’t be sorry. It was my own, stupid fault.” She straightened herself up. She wasn’t going to go into this with Roxy. She barely knew her. “I don’t want to hurt Holly.”

“Then don’t hurt her. If you really, really trust your feelings for her then go for it. If you don’t…then don’t. Whatever you do don’t destroy her. If you do I‘ll come after you.”

Lilly nodded.

And then there came the sound of gunfire from somewhere outside the building. No, it was in the library foyer. The two girls got to their feet. A shadow was moving about and the sound of struggling men coming from above.

And then they both jumped as one of the UNIT soldiers came rolling down the stairs and landed at the bottom with a deathly thud.

The two girls backed themselves up against the wall as armoured footsteps stepped ominously down the staircase. Emerging into the light of the library was a huge, nine-foot lizard-man - bigger than any they had seen before - wearing black, polished armour and a red, glittering cape. He brandished a huge, broadsword and its muscles rippled under its skin.

“Keep back,” said Lilly.

The lizard turned to face them and raised its sword. “What have we here?” he said, with a deep, almost Russian-accented voice.

“Just a couple of young ladies with no intention of harming you,” said Lilly, worriedly.

The lizard laughed. “Neither one of you could put even the smallest dent in my armour.”

“What’s your name?” asked Lilly, feeling a little braver.

“Captain Leet,” he said, almost bowing to her.

“Well, Captain Leet, I’d very much appreciate it if you could let the two of us go.”

Leet raised his sword and swung it down at the dead UNIT troop, slicing his head clean from his body.

Roxy yelped.

Leet brought the sword to his face, ran his scaly finger down the blade and then licked the blood off his finger. “I’m afraid that’s not going to happen, young lady.”

“I was afraid you’d say that,” said Lilly.

Leet raised his sword again and then began advancing on the two girls. “I’ll make this swift for you two.”

“I’ll make it swift for you as well,” said Lilly.

In one motion she grabbed Roxanne and pushed away out of the way where she landed beside the booking out desk with a thud. Then she leapt out the way of Leet as he swung his sword and slice through all seven Harry Potter books.

Lilly ran behind the bookcase and gave it a shove, causing it to come toppling down, showering the lizard-man with a cascade of children’s books.

Leet fell to the ground under the weight of the book case and Lilly jumped on top of it, pounding her feet across the heavy wood.

“Get out, Roxy!” yelled Lilly.

Roxy didn’t have to be told twice. She got to her feet and began making for the bottom of the staircase, trying her best not to look at the decapitated UNIT soldier.

Leet hefted the bookcase off the top of him and sprung to his feet angrily. “I will crush you, Human!”

Lilly span around. She was holding the UNIT soldiers discarded rifle. “I’m not a Human.”

He raised his sword and she shot at him, but she didn’t shoot at his armour. Instead she shot at his sword, which flew out of his hand and clattered to the floor a few feet away.

Leet went for the fallen sword, but Lilly was much more lighter on her feet and leapt to it, grabbing it and hefting it up. It was heavy, but she used all of her anger and might to lift it.

“It is too heavy for you, Human.”

“I’m already told you, Kro’Tenk, that I’m not Human.”

Leet dived for her, but Lilly swung the sword, hitting Leet on the arm. It didn’t hurt him, but it was enough to throw him off balance. Lilly grabbed the riffle again and shot a few more rounds at Leet, knocking him back further before he tripped backwards over the fallen bookcase and landed on his back.

Lilly saw her chance and leapt on top of Leet. His neck was exposed between his breastplate and helmet. She raised the sword as high as she could and thrust it into his neck. Leet screamed in agony and the sword dug deeper and deeper. Thick, blue blood gushed and spurted from the deep gash, covering Lilly in it. But she didn’t relent. She continued to push the sword down and down until Leet’s head was almost severed from his body.

When Leet finally stopped writhing she stopped herself. She remained crouched there for a good few minutes, panting heavily, blue blood and sweat dripping from her.

And then she relaxed. “I’m not Human. I’m Gallifreyan.”

She collapsed to the ground and let the blood-soaked sword fall to the side. She turned her head and standing there, fear across her face at the top of the stairs, was Roxanne. She shook her head and then quickly ran away as fast as she could.

To be continued...