Chapter 5 (Jungle)
“We can’t just sit here,” said Holly, who had been pacing up and down.
“So what do we do?” said Richard. “Lilly’s down there and we’re up here. The Doctor has it covered.”
She looked exasperated. “There’s something going on here. I say we expose the truth.”
“You mean mess with an alien civilisation and their culture.”
“Well, yeah,” said Holly, nodding. She looked a little unsure. “I mean…not in a bad way.”
“Then it what way?”
“Look, these people know when their old ones are gonna die. That in itself is strange. This festival…Tees said something about a Temple. They feed their dead bodies to the Surfacers, for god sake!”
“The festival’s been put on hold.”
“Well I reckon we should look for this Temple.”
“I don’t know,” said Richard, shaking his head. “You always see it on TV.”
“See what?”
“You don’t go to someone else’s country and interfere with their culture. When in Rome…”
Holly shook her head. “We’re talking about exposing a scam.”
“Are we sure it’s a scam?”
Holly closed her eyes. “Will you at least come with me? Will you help?”
Richard exhaled and then looked towards the door. He shook his head. “If you promise you won’t get us into trouble.”
Holly smiled wryly at him. “I can’t promise that, Rich.”
Richard picked up his shirt, had another look around the room and then joined Holly by the door. The two of them peered out. It was quiet now. Most of the revellers had gone home and Tees had headed back down to the lower platform too look for any sign of Kitz and the Doctor.
When Holly was sure the coast was clear, she led Richard out of the hut and into the shadows of a large tree trunk at the edge of the platform.
“Where do we even start?” whispered Richard.
“There,” said Holly, noticing two white cloaked figures on a rope bridge higher up. “They look templey”
“Templey?” said Richard with a smile.
“Come on.”
They kept to the shadows of the large trunks and made their way off the platform, onto a walkway and then to a wooden ramp that led from a walkway up to a smaller, platform which in turn led to a spiral staircase up to where the cloaked figures had been heading.
“So these Gandrans know the exact moment their elders are going to die,” said Holly, trying to piece it together in her head. “When they die they throw their bodies down to the Surfacers. Why?”
“To keep them at bay. To give them something to eat so they don’t come to their towns,” said Richard.
“Except they are coming up to their towns now,” said Holly.
“Maybe they want younger ones,” said Richard. “Perhaps they got tired of old bones.”
“But this has been going on for years. Tees said. Why change now?”
As they reached the rope bridge Richard shrugged. “Maybe they’ve only just learned to climb.”
“No,” said Holly, shaking her head. “It’s gotta be something else.”
They continued along an old walkway until they reached the rope bridge. This bridge was different. It’s wooden slats weren’t wood at all. They were made of solid gold. Richard knelt down and touched the cool metal. It was slippery with condensation.
Up above on the other side of the bridge was another platform with a pathway visible through overgrown foliage. Through the foliage there were lights - flames dancing about in the night air.
“Looks templey to me,” said Richard.
The Doctor and Kitz had been walking for some time when they heard a sound from ahead of them. The Doctor tried to peer through the foliage, but Kitz instead pulled him back into some denser bushes, concealing themselves.
“You seem to know more than you’re letting on,” whispered the Doctor, his eyes flitting from left to right to see for any sign of movement.
“Only what I’ve managed to work out,” said Kitz.
“Which is?”
“My grandfather was taken by the Age.”
“I’m sorry,” said the Doctor, glancing back at him momentarily.
“We were all prepared,” said Kitz, a hint of sarcasm in his voice, “but still it didn’t feel right. My grandfather was fit and healthy. He was strong minded. Why would he die?”
“You say all your people die at the same age?”
“That’s correct,” said Kitz. “It doesn’t matter if they are fit and healthy or old and decrepit. They all pass to the Age at the same time.”
“And nobody has ever questioned this?”
“People have,” said Kitz, freezing at the sound of a rustling and then relaxing a little when a large blue and white tripple-winged bird broke cover from a bush. “Those people have been silenced.”
“In what way?” the Doctor pulled out a pair of binoculars, trying to get a look at the blue and white bird.
“They were moved further up the trees to work in the temples.”
“Interesting,” said the Doctor, putting the binoculars away and rubbing his chin. “So if you question the Age you are taken to become priests.”
“Exactly,” said Kitz. He shook his head. “We see the people again, but they are never the same. They are quiet and focused on maintaining the Age.”
The Doctor exhaled and rubbed his forehead. “So what do you think happens to them? You said that you believe they are being fed to the Surfacers.”
Kitz nodded grimly. “That’s correct.”
“What proof do you have though? I mean, have you seen anything?”
“After the Age the priests take the bodies. They are never seen again. We’ve seen smoke from the direction of the temple, but never the bodies.”
“So they tell you they cremate them?”
“Yes, but none of us have ever witnessed it.”
“But it doesn’t make sense. We came across the body back there. Pol, was it? The trooper that Jag said fell from the loose vine.”
Kitz nodded sadly.
“It was untouched. Why not eat him?”
“I don’t know,” said Fitz, frustration on his face. “If I knew the answers, Doctor, I’d tell you.”
There came another rustle of leaves and twigs and the Doctor and Kitz crouched even lower. The Doctor peered between two thin branches as a blue shape appeared from the bushes across the pathway.
A damp, dirty and Humanoid blue shape.
The Doctor smiled and stood up.
“Lilly!”
Lilly at first seemed shocked and then relaxed. She was soaking wet from her swim and her blue Supergirl t-shirt was stained with blood from where she had been bleeding. She smiled when she saw the Doctor.
“Are you okay?” he asked, pushing past the bushes into the clearing.
“I am now I’ve found you,” said Lilly. “What are you both doing down here?”
“Oh, come on now, Lilly. You didn’t think we’d forgotten about you, did you?”
Lilly smiled and shook her head.
“Holly’s extremely worried. She wanted to come down here herself but I wouldn’t let her.” The Doctor noticed the wound to her side. “What happened to you.”
“It’s a long story.”
But she didn’t get to finish her story. Before anyone could say anything else a flash of colour shot out from the foliage and launched itself at Lilly. She was knocked to the ground as a hideously deformed creature, which looked remarkably similar to the Gandrans, albeit more dishevelled, snarled and hissed at her.
“Get off her!” yelled the Doctor.
Lilly closed her eyes and waited for the killer blow from the creature. But instead it said one, single word:
“Help…”
To be continued...
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