It came Upon a Midnight Clear - Written bY Peter Darwin
“His name was Lukas Wells, 17 years old and lived with his mother. We’ve no idea what happened, but his mother said that as she came to wake him up this morning he was like this. She wasn’t woken up by an intruder in the night,” Archie sat on the rocking chair in the corner, hypnotically swinging back and forth.
“Ooh. Nasty,” the Doctor flicked out the sonic screwdriver and waved it over the body on the bed. If you could call it a body.
“I’m fairly certain this could be linked to some disappearances – four people in the last four nights,” Archie continued.
“And this room is fairly tight. I don’t know how anyone could get in here without waking the mother up”
“Or anything,” the Doctor interrupted. He moved round and crouched at the side of the bed. Archie was right, it was a small room, hard to move around properly. It could only be basically furnished, containing just a bed and the rocking chair.
“I’m sorry?”
“A person would’ve had to have gone to great trouble to kill someone and cut off all the flesh. Nah, Mr Sawyer, I reckon we’re dealing with a thing. Brilliant, it always makes things more exciting when things are involved,” the Doctor turned quickly to see April burst in. Archie let out a large sigh.
“I told you to stay away. This is probably more dangerous than normal”
“It’s not too bad,” April glanced at the skeleton lying on the bed. “Okay, I take that back”
“See, we’re dealing with violent murders, and could easily be getting ourselves in to serious trouble”
“Oh, come on Archie. Let her stay. I’ve put girls April’s age in a fleet of Daleks. And anyway, we might need saving!” the Doctor smiled at her.
“Oh, fine. But do exactly as you’re told and no messing around,” Archie gave in. He wasn’t particularly in the mood for reckoning with the Doctor. As he looked away April mouthed a ‘thank you’ at the Doctor.
“Oh by the way, dad, Abramal wanted to see you. Said that there’s trouble in the pub”
“Trouble in the pub? We certainly can’t be having that,” Archie grinned at his joke, stood up and moved to the door.
“Doctor, I’m giving the order to have the skeleton moved. I’m going to go over to the pub to find out what’s happening”
“Humour really isn’t my dad’s thing,” April said when she knew he was gone. “So, any idea what this is?”
“No,” the Doctor said after a few moments thought. The Doctor abruptly stood up. “They’ll be someone to collect the body soon. Come on!”
April and the Doctor trudged through the snow, down the streets of Christmas.
“Do you see things like that often?” April asked him.
“What? Murders like that?”
“Yeah”
“Oh yeah,” the Doctor nodded, smiling with sad eyes. “Too often. Still, I brought it upon myself. It’s how I get my kicks. I must admit, it’s sometimes fun”
“Fun?” April said incredulously.
“Yeah, fun,” the Doctor grinned. “I worry I enjoy it too much! I’ve sort of tuned myself to enjoy this sort of thing – hunting down aliens and murderers and stuff”
“I bet you’ve seen loads of aliens then?”
“Definitely. All sorts. Space rhinos, intergalactic plant life, lizard people,”
“Oy! Doctor! Here now!” Archie shouted from outside the pub. “We’ve found something”
“Here we go,” April said.
The inside of the pub was huge. Majestic in in fact. Thick, rustic beams branched across the ceiling, holding the thatched roof up. In front of the creaking oak door stood a bar, stretching from the far end of the building around an outstretched bit of wall. Glasses that needed washing cluttered it, along with a rack containing several bottles of fine wines. Shelves ran down the left and right sides of the outstretched brickwork. On these shelves were tankards, all stood neatly next to each other with a sense of order. Spirits, some of which the Doctor wouldn’t have seen before, crowded a few of the shelves. Embedded in to the wall behind the wooden surface were several barrels stacked on top of each other. The pub was furnished in a messy, yet quirky fashion. Many different types of chair, all different sizes, some like majestic thrones, others just basic stools, sat around tables. Some rectangular, some circular. Some tankards were still left out. Underfoot was a floor crafted of stone slabs. Staircases branched out the side of the main room up to balconies that stretched out below the ceiling, with more seating on. On the left wall was a large brick fireplace. Large flames were blazing away inside, licking up the chimney, giving the room an orange light. Occasionally smoke would escape, and a whiff would fly up your nose. Combined with the stench of ale, it gave an unusual and strange smell. Beside it sat a wood crate full of coal and several logs piled on top of each other. A beautiful, ornate panting of a frozen river deep in a frosty forest hung above the flames. Dotted evenly along the walls were thin, lattice windows. On an incredibly cold day the wind would creep through the edges. Abramal and Marta, the owners of the pub and the first people the Doctor had met in Christmas, stood in front of the bar. They looked terrified. He remembered that first meeting with them well. Back before he sent Clara away. A shiver of guilt ran through him.
“Doctor, I think you might want to have a look in the cellar,” Archie said. He led the Doctor to a trapdoor behind the bar. It creaked open and the Doctor climbed down. There were a few empty barrels stacked up against a wall, but that was it. The Doctor couldn’t see anything – it was completely pitch black. Archie followed with a candle. As he stepped down off the ladder it blew out.
“That was strange,” Archie said. April climbed down and stood behind them. The Doctor raised the sonic screwdriver and pointed it out in front of him. Through the bright light he could see four skeletons, piled up untidily against each other. Suddenly the beam from the sonic went out.
“Was that? More skeletons? Like the one we were looking at earlier?” April was confused.
“Yes. I think so,” the Doctor murmured. He tried the sonic screwdriver again. It wouldn’t work. There was no light.
“That’s… definitely, very, very odd,” the Doctor kept pressing it. “We need to get out of this basement very, very fast. April, you first,” the Doctor didn’t take his eyes of the skeletons. April made her way out. “Archie, now you,” when April was completely upstairs again. “Hello old friend,” he said quietly. The Doctor himself clambered up the wooden ladder attached to the stone.
“Abramal, would you like to explain to me why you’ve got four skeletons in your basement?” Archie asked. The Doctor jumped over the bar.
“Do you think I did this?” Abramal didn’t look happy.
“Did you?” Archie said, jokingly.
“Of course he didn’t,” the Doctor said. He ran to the stairs that led up to the balconies.
“So you know what we’re dealing with?” Archie asked.
“Dealing with? Yeah. Stopping it? No idea,” the Doctor dashed up the stairs and moments later appeared on the balcony.
“Please, Doctor, tell me what’s living in my pub?” Abramal said.
“Vashta Nerada”
“Vashta Ne-what?” April asked.
“Okay, everybody, stay still,” the Doctor waved the sonic around.
“What’s all this in aide of?” Archie ignored him.
“If my sonic screwdriver’s light wouldn’t work down there then I’ve got no idea how many of them there are. Many, probably”
“And that’s bad because?” Archie had finally taken notice.
“They can eat flesh in milliseconds,” the Doctor clicked his fingers. “We need to get out of here right now,” Archie ran over to the door.
“Well done, Doctor. You’ve gone and put us in one huge trap,” he said.
“We’re like a readymade meal, a meat feast. But before we do anything I just want to make sure,” the Doctor ran back down the stairs and in to the main body of the pub again.
Minutes later soldiers from the Papal Mainframe filled the pub, setting up equipment. The tables had all been cleared to the side of the room and a circle of heavy flood lights lit up a large circle in the centre. The lights were plugged in to a set of computer banks, manned by a few soldiers. A tall, bulky man in camouflage walked up to the Doctor.
“Colonel Dorav of the Papal Mainframe,” Dorav saluted. The Doctor poorly tried to do the same. “I have been ordered to give you this”
Dorav carefully placed a parcel in the Doctor’s arms. He pulled the string and the brown paper fell down around a Tupperware box.
“Hmm! Yes!” the Doctor clicked it open and tucked in to his new stash of jelly babies.
“I am also here to assist you with the threat in any way you might wish”
“Brilliant, Dorav, so, ever heard of the Vashta Nerada?”
“No”
“I think we might be dealing with them. They’re tiny carnivorous life forms, invisible to the naked eye. A few won’t do any harm, but I think this place is infested with a swarm. Enough to easily wipe out the town and most likely the planet”
“And how exactly do we stop them?”
“I’m not sure. Light always helps though. First, however, have you got the meat I ordered?”
Dorav reached under the desk and pulled out a second plastic container, containing several slices of meat.
“Brilliant! Don’t move,” the Doctor reached in and gingerly pulled out a slab of meat at arm’s length. He took it and placed it in the centre of the light circle.
“Okay!” he shouted. “You there, computer people, when I reach three I want you to turn off the lights in the centre of the circle. Only for a second. As soon as they’re off switch them back on again”
“Understood,” one of the replied.
“In three, two, one”
It was as if everyone had blinked. The lights had been switched back on again, only giving a few milliseconds of darkness. A few morsels of the meat remained.
“Excuse me, sir,” one of the men at the computers said to the Doctor. “During that tiny period of time the life signatures rocketed. Whatever was here before gradually multiplied by millions during that time. The number is slowly going down”
“Oh. Oh dear. We are in trouble”
“What is it Doctor?” April chimed in from by the bar. She was sat alongside Marta on top of it. Abramal sat behind. They had thought it best to keep out of the way.
“I’ve never seen this many. Ever. Okay, keep those lights switched on. Don’t turn them out,” the Doctor noticed Archie sat alone in the far corner of the room.
“My one responsibility is this town,” Archie said as the Doctor sat next to him. “I need you to guarantee their safety. And more so, my daughter’s safety”
“I don’t know. I pledged to protect this town, and I will”
“You said there’s millions of these things, and if they can strip flesh down in milliseconds that can’t be good”
“Okay, yeah. I must admit, no one is completely safe. But I promise, I won’t let any harm come to your daughter. As long as I am here, she will be safe”
“I’ll hold you to that,” Archie smiled.
“Doctor! Over here!” Dorav shouted. The Doctor attempted another salute, then rather sheepishly walked over to the colonel.
“We’re scanning for life forms in a radius of 20 metres. There aren’t anywhere nearly as many life forms now as when the lights were switched off. They must be coming from somewhere else outside that 20 metres”
“Abramal!” the Doctor called over. “Is there any part of this building, I don’t know, another cellar, or something? It must be far away if there is”
“We do have a second cellar. It was built above a cave underground, and a few weeks ago part of the floor fell in. If you’re careful, you can still get down there. That’s the only thing I can think of”
“That must be their ‘nest’. Their… breeding ground. Okay, Archie, April and I are going down there”
“Where would you like us Doctor?” Dorav asked.
“Move this equipment outside so it surrounds the building. If we cover it in light then nothing else can get out. Light is their one weakness”
“Understood”
Dorav’s team had already started moving the crates of meat outside.
“But what are these Vashta Nerada things?” Marta scuttled over to the Doctor.
“Microscopic piranhas. They’ll eat anything and anyone that is meat. They latch on to food sources and then eat them. Can you tell me how to get to this cellar?”
“Out that door there,” Marta pointed to a door behind the bar. “You’ll enter a storeroom full of barrels. Take a right in there, enter another storeroom. Then go to the right again. The entrance is in there”
“Good, storerooms. I love storerooms”
April ran over to the door in the far right corner of the room. The door was locked. Archie crashed in to it with a long kick, the door flying backwards.
“Doctor, you will stop these Vashta Newhatsit? This pub, it’s… well, it’s our life, you know”
“Course I will,” the Doctor clipped the lid back on his jelly babies and left to join Archie and April.
April slammed the door shut behind her father and the Doctor as they came in, the Doctor spinning on his heels and using the screwdriver on the lock. This first store room stretched out quite far. There were barrels on both sides of them, leaving a narrow channel that they could move through. Ahead there was a door. The only light in the room was the luminous tip of the sonic.
“Doctor, I presume you’ve met these creatures before?” Archie asked.
“Yeah. On a planet called the Library. Literally, the whole place was a library. The Vashta are hatched in trees. There were several who were born on some forest planet, anyway. The forest was cut down, and made in to books for this planet, but they survived. They lived in the paper. When they escaped everyone in the library had to be evacuated, but there obviously wasn’t the time, so they were physically saved on to a hard drive. We eventually stopped them and brought back the people. I met my future wife there. Well, sort of met her. Sort of wife. She’d already met me, it was complicated”
“So if you’ve stopped them before, how did you do it?” April said.
“I talked them out of it”
“Well, if you did that back then, then surely you can do that again here?”
“I could. That’s plan A. Well, that’s what plan A always is. Find out what’s happening. But first I have to hope and pray that we can communicate with them. Last time they managed it through neural relays. I think it might work with this,” the Doctor whipped a communicator out of his pocket.
“Papal Mainframe communicator”
“Doctor. Just through here,” Archie said. A thin channel stretched through the towers of barrels.
The second room was similar to the first – dull brickwork, the occasional weed growing from a crack in the wall. There wasn’t much in there, only some chairs stacked on top of each other, and it certainly wasn’t as confined.
“Erm… Doctor. There’s another skeleton,” April pointed to the back of the door. A set of bones hung from a hook.
“These creatures are brutal,” Archie walked over to it and placed his hand on the skull.
“They don’t care about anything else. That’s all they know. Food”
“We can’t stop them. They’ll just rip us apart,” he said lifelessly. “And before. You never guaranteed the safety of this town”
“Do you want to get out of this pub alive?” the Doctor turned to him. “This town is in more danger right now than it’s ever been. The Vashta Nerada are everywhere by now. A town in darkness for 1435 minutes of the day, the ideal feasting spot. Right now I am your one hope, so if you’ve got any sense you’ll be quiet”
Archie’s gaze was locked with the Doctor’s.
“Fine. You’ve saved us before. You could’ve just been on a lucky streak. Do it again. Show me,” Archie turned away and walked in to the next room.
The third storeroom was completely empty, apart from a few chairs stacked up in one corner. There was a square trapdoor in the other. The Doctor ran over to it.
“This is the entrance,” he waved the sonic at it. “Let’s go…”
The second cellar was a close copy of the first one. Damp stone walls and a dusty floor.
“The wall? Where’s the wall?” April crept up to the edge. She remained cautious, alert that she could easily fall. There was no wall opposite the ladder. Below was a pit, shrouded in shadows. They couldn’t see how far down it went.
“And that’s where they all are? So, you’ll talk to them?”
“Yeah. Probably,” the communicator emitted a small cloud of sparks as the Doctor carelessly waved his sonic screwdriver at it. He stared at it.
“Well go on then! No time to lose. The longer we wait the quicker they’re going to destroy my town and kill my daughter”
“Calling the Vashta Nerada,” the Doctor held a button down on the side. Static came back through.
“Anything?” Archie said desperately.
“What does it sound like? Nothing. Right, here we go again. Oy. Vashta. Speak to me. You’ve got my friend. And I’m not happy”
The static slowly diminished.
“Midnight,” was all it said. The voice was deep, groaning slightly. Archie let out a sigh of relief.
“Midnight?” the Doctor asked.
“The girl will die”
“Oh fantastic,” Archie muttered sarcastically. He lunged for the communicator. “If you lay a finger – or, a tooth, I should say, on my daughter, I will kill you all”
“And then the town shall follow”
“Oh my day just gets better and better,” the Doctor said. He took the device back.
“The girl will die at midnight, and then the town shall follow”
“Go on then. How did you get here?”
“There,” it stuttered. “There… There was a signal. We were sent. We grew in the trees of Trenzalore. The source of the signal is this habitat”
“So why eat everyone? Hmm?” Archie asked.
“The town that spends it days in darkness. We can hide in the shadows of Christmas. You cannot stop us. The girl will die, and then the shown shall follow”
The Doctor angrily kicked the wall and began climbing up the ladder.
“Don’t you go anywhere,” Archie followed him closely.
“Come on, weaknesses, weaknesses,” the Doctor was pacing the storeroom, both hands ruffling his hair. He glanced at April. She had two shadows.
“You!” Archie grabbed the Doctor by his collar. “You promised me you would keep my daughter safe!”
“Do you really think I’m going to lie down and accept this? The losses I’ve felt, believe me, Archie, there is no way I’m going to feel another. I will move heaven and earth to stop this,” Archie gently let go.
“Doctor. What’s going to happen to me?” April interrupted.
“The Vashta Nerada have latched on to you. They will wait. At midnight, they will eat you,” the Doctor said bluntly. April nodded slowly.
“Well then! Come on! Let’s stop them!” Archie said enthusiastically.
“April, take this,” the Doctor tossed the sonic screwdriver at her. “That door up there, open it. Go and have a look around up there”
“On it,” she dashed up the creaking stairs. She used the sonic on the door and disappeared from sight.
“Doctor, I can’t. I can’t lose her. She’s my one child. Please, try and do something, anything,” Archie broke down in front of him.
“I know how it feels,” the Doctor looked at him. “To lose someone that close to you. Like a part of you dies with them. If you can imagine that, imagine it times infinity. Every day, that’s what I live with. That’s who I am. The sum of all of those people. I will find some way of stopping them”
“There’s nothing up here,” April poked her head round the door. “It’s just a corridor”
The Doctor jumped up the stairs two at a time. They lead up to a thin upstairs corridor. The walls were crafted with wood panels, the floor creaking as they stepped on it. Gas lamps hung on the walls. There was a second door in the middle of the corridor, and another at the far end. The Doctor took the communicator out of his top pocket.
“Calling the Papal Mainframe, this is the Doctor”
“Hello Doctor. We’re reading your position as inside the pub,” Dorav’s voice came through the end.
“Fantastic. Dorav, is everything outside?”
“Yes, we have the pub surrounded by floodlights. None of the Vashta Nerada can get in or out”
The computer banks from before were set up outside the main door. The soldiers busily tended to their duties. Larger floodlights made the pub glisten in the night sky, more than any of the other buildings in the town. Set up on tall tripods, they formed a square around the building along the surrounding streets.
“I’m hoping if we isolate the nest, the ones outside will disperse”
“Would you like us to bring smaller lamps in to the building’s interior?”
“Yes. Light it up as much as possible. Bring up internal schematics as well. I’ve got no idea where we are”
“You are… top left of the building. Abramal and Marta’s quarters. Below you is the guest accommodation, and finally the main lobby”
The Doctor slid the communicator away.
“They’re sending in people! Brilliant, we may be in luck,” the Doctor pulled out his jelly baby box again.
“Stop eating sweets!” Archie glared at him and took the box “What are we doing?”
“Oy! I’ve got a plan!” the Doctor angrily grabbed it back.
“Well, go on,” Archie was interrupted when the door they had come through abruptly opened. April jolted up and ran to the far end, the second door. Archie and the Doctor gathered with her, the Doctor opening it. Another skeleton stood in their way.
“It’s? It’s walking!” she exclaimed, falling back towards the Doctor. The zombie had a skeletal arm stuck out, spindly fingers grabbing for the three.
“Oh damn it,” Archie shouted. The three of them moved to the middle, as both skeletons advanced.
“What now Doctor?” April asked.
“Not sure. I didn’t quite bank on anything like this happening”
Archie thrust a kick in to one of the skeletons, just like he had with the door. It stumbled back, losing its footing. It regained its balance, arms outstretched. The three huddled closely on the floor, terrified of what was about to happen.
“This can’t be right, this can’t be how I die”
“Well, it seems fairly obvious that it is!” Archie replied.
“No, but there’s prophecies and stuff, the first question, the question that must never be answered, this isn’t how it ends! Not yet!”
“The door!” April realised. “We’re being cornered by a door!” The Doctor lunged at it with the sonic screwdriver.
“Why isn’t it opening?” Archie said.
“It doesn’t do wood!”
The skeletons were closing in. They walked like puppets on strings.
“Wood? It doesn’t do WOOD?” April shouted.
“Oh for goodness sake,” Archie pushed past them both, connecting to the door with a forward kick. It swung forward, colliding in to the wall. They burst through, like a pipe bursting. And shut the door behind them.
“Where the hell did you learn how to do that?” the Doctor grinned. They were in a living room. It was lit by a blazing fireplace. There was an oak table just in front of the mantelpiece, covered in books. Abramal and Marta must enjoy their reading, April thought. It had an air of cosiness about it.
“Wood?” April slumped in to one of four arm chairs.
“Yes, it doesn’t do wood, sorry, as I’ve said before, I need to install an app for it”
“I don’t know if you’ve forgotten yet, but my daughter has, hmm, not long to live”
“Ah, yes, sorry about that,” the Doctor took the communicator out of his top pocket
“You said you had a plan, yes?” Archie asked.
“Yeah, I do, as it happens. The plan that’s gonna save April, save the town, and stop the Vashta Nerada. They’ve got one weakness. Light. Imagine, it we could light this town up on a scale so massive, it would completely drive them out”
“Well, it would work, but we only get five minutes of light a day,” Archie interrupted.
“Think about it. The Papal Mainframe. They must have enough energy to be able to light up the whole town. Maybe they can act as a second sun. If they’re whizzing around up there, they can use their spaceship to generate a source of light that lights up Christmas”
“Like one massive spotlight?” April asked.
“Calling the Papal Mainframe… again,” the Doctor said.
“Hello Doctor,” Dorav’s voice came back through the communicator.
“Right, I’ve got a plan. A sort of, possibly possible plan that might not work. I don’t suppose you could lower the church itself through the atmosphere and shine a light so massive on Christmas It sends them running?”
“Not possible I’m afraid. It would mean having to let down the shields to relay the power. The second those shields go down there’s going to be chaos”
“I thought it was a bit crazy. Everyone up there, racing, desperate to reach the planet first”
“However, the plan isn’t completely stupid. Not yet. We can get auxiliary shields. They won’t last long, however. We’ll have to be quick, and everything will have to be timed perfectly”
Slowly, a huge, clownish smile spread across the Doctor’s face.
“It could work. It could possibly work. I hope you’ve been taking notes, Colonel Dorav,” the Doctor thought.
“I’ll contact the Mother Superious. We’ll meet you in the main part of the pub,” the Doctor put the communicator away.
“So now, I’m not going to be eaten or killed or anything?” April jumped up.
“No. Most certainly not. Right, the skeletons out there. When I open that door, we run!” the Doctor reached over and grabbed the handle.
“Run!” he smiled. They barged out of the door, knocking the creatures out of the way. One was knocked backwards, shattering when it smashed in to the wall. Bits of brittle bone flew everywhere. The second was knocked on to the floor. April reached the far door and flung it open. It lead them in to a room with similar décor as the first, several doors leading out of it. A bookshelf stood up tall against the wall, so full of books several novels were being squeezed out. The Doctor slammed the door shut behind him. The Doctor peered at the spines of books on the shelves.
“Ooh, Lord of the Rings of Akhaten. Great story, one of my favourites as a child,” he took it off the shelf and slipped it in to his pocket.
“How long till I… you know, die?” April said.
“About fifteen minutes,” Archie stopped checking the doors and glanced at his watch. The final door opposite the bookcase lead in to a hallway with a staircase stretching down.
“Doctor, this is the way out. The soldiers should be waiting downstairs,” Archie walked towards it. The Doctor followed him out, but April stopped at a large window. Below she could see people, retreating back in to their homes. So oblivious to the fact that their homes were probably hives of Vashta Nerada. Snow was gradually piling up on the window sill in front of her.
“Aw. New snow. Like every young child, when I was younger I would wake up, and as soon as I saw it I would rush outside to play”
“This isn’t the end, you know. Don’t get nostalgic yet”
“We’ve got fifteen minutes to save the town and myself”
“I always say you can do loads in fifteen minutes”
“Even save a whole town?”
“Even save a whole world,” The Doctor gripped her hand tightly. Together, they walked slowly down the stairs.
The main lobby of the pub had been illuminated with a rudimentary lighting system. Small lights were strung up on the wall with bundles of cable.
“Move in to the storerooms,” a squad of Dorav’s men stood in front of him. “Begin to light those up, do not, under any circumstances, risk it in the cellar”
“Okay, hello everyone,” the Doctor, April and Archie burst through a door behind the bar. As the soldiers dispersed they joined Dorav, who sat down by a computer bank.
“Hello Doctor. As you can see this section here is lit up, we’re going to work on the storerooms next”
“Fantastic. Can we get a squad to prepare the lights around the rest of the town?”
“Already on it”
“Great, keep going”
“Over here is the auxiliary shield,” he pointed to a large metal box, a bit like a computer server. It had a screen in the centre, and was covered in switches and buttons.
“It hasn’t been set up yet. I was hoping you would be able to do that”
“Most certainly,” the Doctor pulled the sonic screwdriver out of his pocket.
“Doctor, I’m going to go out and reassure people. After all, it’s probably a bit of a shock to strange soldiers wandering around hanging lights up”
The Doctor knelt down by the box. He zapped it with the sonic and the back fell down to the floor. Inside was a mess of wires.
“And you really know how to fix that?” April laughed.
“Of course I do. I saved the world with a kettle and some string. If there’s one thing I’m good at its world saving plans where I’ve got no idea what the hell is gonna happen”
“Do you count? Like, do you keep track of how many times you’ve saved us?”
“No. It’s not about keeping score. I don’t save planets to make myself popular. I do it because I feel like I owe them something. But you see, just like every normal person, all I want to do, just occasionally is be loved. But no. I don’t keep count. And what makes it even more terrible is that I’ve done it so many times I couldn’t even make a rough estimate”
“You don’t owe them anything,” a sad smile on her face.
“No. Believe me, I owe the people of this universe everything,” the Doctor reached in and ripped out a handful of wires. He threw them on the ground behind him and continued working.
“This should be ready soon. Dorav!” the Doctor called over to the other side of the room.
“Sir?” Dorav looked away from the computer screen.
“This is nearly working. All you’ll need to do is power it. Are the mainframe ready to take down the shields?”
“Yes. We’ve got the majority of the town lit up from down here as well now,” Dorav walked back over to the computer terminal and sat down. The wooden door creaked open and Archie poked his head in.
“Are we ready?” he asked. The Doctor nodded. Archie slipped in and shut the door quickly, attempting to conceal the heat in the room. He joined the Doctor and April by the computer bank. Dorav pulled a communicator out of his pocket.
“This is Colonel Dorav to the Papal Mainframe. The Auxiliary shield is ready and powered. We are ready when you are”
There was silence on the other end.
“Shields are down!” shouted a soldier working next to Dorav. The Doctor dashed outside, closely followed by April. The sky was ablaze. The creatures above were sending everything they had the planet. The air became tainted in a fiery hue. The town was filled with an orange light. They suddenly heard a scream close to them. A house had caught on fire.
“Oh, no, no, no!” the Doctor murmured.
“What’s happening?” Archie asked.
“As we thought, the shield can’t take it, there’s so much firepower,” the Doctor ran back in to the pub and over to the box.
“Doctor, the shield is failing!”
“Yes, I can see that. This might just fry my insides ever so slightly,” the Doctor said.
“Please. Doctor, let me. Let me save my town and my daughter. It’s the least I could do,” Archie said.
“Archie, you won’t survive” The Doctor jammed the sonic screwdriver in to a circular plug socket on the side of the box.
“And you will?” he snatched the screwdriver from him and pressed the button. He writhed in agony and screamed a bloodcurdling scream, as electricity flooded through him. He suddenly stopped. Groaning, he tried to stand up. April helped him back to the floor again.
“Doctor, they’re all gone. The Vashta Nerada are officially gone!” Dorav exclaimed.
April and the Doctor sat next to each other on a bench. They were on the edge of the town, looking out over the fields.
“And he’ll definitely be okay?” April asked.
“Yes. If he just stays in bed and rests. It’s a miracle he survived.” the Doctor asked. “You know.… he was good out there”
“You will never say that he’s brilliant will you?”
“He’s good at his job”
“You like him don’t you? You think he’s really great but you just won’t admit it”
“I do not! But today, when it really mattered he saved you, which to me is brilliant”
“Go on. Admit it for me!”
“He’s brilliant. There we go. I like him”
“Thank you. Beautiful sunrise today. I was under the impression earlier that it would be my last one. Do you think they’ll come back?”
“Oh, no. Probably not. They’ll have to hatch a whole new swarm here and that will take a while. I don’t think they’ll ever return. If they do, though, we’ll stop them”
The intercom buzzed.
Archie tiredly connected.
“IDENTIFY” came the gravelly metallic voice.
“Archibald Sawyer,” answered Archie.
“WHEN WILL THE PLAN BE EXECUTED?”
The Cybermen didn’t like to beat around the bush, apparently. Archie sighed. No lying here. He even had to avoid the Doctor in case he asked.
He couldn’t wait any longer.
He had to protect his village.
But…
He shook the thoughts away.
“Soon,” he promised. “Soon.”
“WE WILL TAKE THE DOCTOR.”
“Well…” Archie paused. “It feels me with pain to say this, but if that’s what it takes – I’ll give him to you.”
“Ooh. Nasty,” the Doctor flicked out the sonic screwdriver and waved it over the body on the bed. If you could call it a body.
“I’m fairly certain this could be linked to some disappearances – four people in the last four nights,” Archie continued.
“And this room is fairly tight. I don’t know how anyone could get in here without waking the mother up”
“Or anything,” the Doctor interrupted. He moved round and crouched at the side of the bed. Archie was right, it was a small room, hard to move around properly. It could only be basically furnished, containing just a bed and the rocking chair.
“I’m sorry?”
“A person would’ve had to have gone to great trouble to kill someone and cut off all the flesh. Nah, Mr Sawyer, I reckon we’re dealing with a thing. Brilliant, it always makes things more exciting when things are involved,” the Doctor turned quickly to see April burst in. Archie let out a large sigh.
“I told you to stay away. This is probably more dangerous than normal”
“It’s not too bad,” April glanced at the skeleton lying on the bed. “Okay, I take that back”
“See, we’re dealing with violent murders, and could easily be getting ourselves in to serious trouble”
“Oh, come on Archie. Let her stay. I’ve put girls April’s age in a fleet of Daleks. And anyway, we might need saving!” the Doctor smiled at her.
“Oh, fine. But do exactly as you’re told and no messing around,” Archie gave in. He wasn’t particularly in the mood for reckoning with the Doctor. As he looked away April mouthed a ‘thank you’ at the Doctor.
“Oh by the way, dad, Abramal wanted to see you. Said that there’s trouble in the pub”
“Trouble in the pub? We certainly can’t be having that,” Archie grinned at his joke, stood up and moved to the door.
“Doctor, I’m giving the order to have the skeleton moved. I’m going to go over to the pub to find out what’s happening”
“Humour really isn’t my dad’s thing,” April said when she knew he was gone. “So, any idea what this is?”
“No,” the Doctor said after a few moments thought. The Doctor abruptly stood up. “They’ll be someone to collect the body soon. Come on!”
April and the Doctor trudged through the snow, down the streets of Christmas.
“Do you see things like that often?” April asked him.
“What? Murders like that?”
“Yeah”
“Oh yeah,” the Doctor nodded, smiling with sad eyes. “Too often. Still, I brought it upon myself. It’s how I get my kicks. I must admit, it’s sometimes fun”
“Fun?” April said incredulously.
“Yeah, fun,” the Doctor grinned. “I worry I enjoy it too much! I’ve sort of tuned myself to enjoy this sort of thing – hunting down aliens and murderers and stuff”
“I bet you’ve seen loads of aliens then?”
“Definitely. All sorts. Space rhinos, intergalactic plant life, lizard people,”
“Oy! Doctor! Here now!” Archie shouted from outside the pub. “We’ve found something”
“Here we go,” April said.
The inside of the pub was huge. Majestic in in fact. Thick, rustic beams branched across the ceiling, holding the thatched roof up. In front of the creaking oak door stood a bar, stretching from the far end of the building around an outstretched bit of wall. Glasses that needed washing cluttered it, along with a rack containing several bottles of fine wines. Shelves ran down the left and right sides of the outstretched brickwork. On these shelves were tankards, all stood neatly next to each other with a sense of order. Spirits, some of which the Doctor wouldn’t have seen before, crowded a few of the shelves. Embedded in to the wall behind the wooden surface were several barrels stacked on top of each other. The pub was furnished in a messy, yet quirky fashion. Many different types of chair, all different sizes, some like majestic thrones, others just basic stools, sat around tables. Some rectangular, some circular. Some tankards were still left out. Underfoot was a floor crafted of stone slabs. Staircases branched out the side of the main room up to balconies that stretched out below the ceiling, with more seating on. On the left wall was a large brick fireplace. Large flames were blazing away inside, licking up the chimney, giving the room an orange light. Occasionally smoke would escape, and a whiff would fly up your nose. Combined with the stench of ale, it gave an unusual and strange smell. Beside it sat a wood crate full of coal and several logs piled on top of each other. A beautiful, ornate panting of a frozen river deep in a frosty forest hung above the flames. Dotted evenly along the walls were thin, lattice windows. On an incredibly cold day the wind would creep through the edges. Abramal and Marta, the owners of the pub and the first people the Doctor had met in Christmas, stood in front of the bar. They looked terrified. He remembered that first meeting with them well. Back before he sent Clara away. A shiver of guilt ran through him.
“Doctor, I think you might want to have a look in the cellar,” Archie said. He led the Doctor to a trapdoor behind the bar. It creaked open and the Doctor climbed down. There were a few empty barrels stacked up against a wall, but that was it. The Doctor couldn’t see anything – it was completely pitch black. Archie followed with a candle. As he stepped down off the ladder it blew out.
“That was strange,” Archie said. April climbed down and stood behind them. The Doctor raised the sonic screwdriver and pointed it out in front of him. Through the bright light he could see four skeletons, piled up untidily against each other. Suddenly the beam from the sonic went out.
“Was that? More skeletons? Like the one we were looking at earlier?” April was confused.
“Yes. I think so,” the Doctor murmured. He tried the sonic screwdriver again. It wouldn’t work. There was no light.
“That’s… definitely, very, very odd,” the Doctor kept pressing it. “We need to get out of this basement very, very fast. April, you first,” the Doctor didn’t take his eyes of the skeletons. April made her way out. “Archie, now you,” when April was completely upstairs again. “Hello old friend,” he said quietly. The Doctor himself clambered up the wooden ladder attached to the stone.
“Abramal, would you like to explain to me why you’ve got four skeletons in your basement?” Archie asked. The Doctor jumped over the bar.
“Do you think I did this?” Abramal didn’t look happy.
“Did you?” Archie said, jokingly.
“Of course he didn’t,” the Doctor said. He ran to the stairs that led up to the balconies.
“So you know what we’re dealing with?” Archie asked.
“Dealing with? Yeah. Stopping it? No idea,” the Doctor dashed up the stairs and moments later appeared on the balcony.
“Please, Doctor, tell me what’s living in my pub?” Abramal said.
“Vashta Nerada”
“Vashta Ne-what?” April asked.
“Okay, everybody, stay still,” the Doctor waved the sonic around.
“What’s all this in aide of?” Archie ignored him.
“If my sonic screwdriver’s light wouldn’t work down there then I’ve got no idea how many of them there are. Many, probably”
“And that’s bad because?” Archie had finally taken notice.
“They can eat flesh in milliseconds,” the Doctor clicked his fingers. “We need to get out of here right now,” Archie ran over to the door.
“Well done, Doctor. You’ve gone and put us in one huge trap,” he said.
“We’re like a readymade meal, a meat feast. But before we do anything I just want to make sure,” the Doctor ran back down the stairs and in to the main body of the pub again.
Minutes later soldiers from the Papal Mainframe filled the pub, setting up equipment. The tables had all been cleared to the side of the room and a circle of heavy flood lights lit up a large circle in the centre. The lights were plugged in to a set of computer banks, manned by a few soldiers. A tall, bulky man in camouflage walked up to the Doctor.
“Colonel Dorav of the Papal Mainframe,” Dorav saluted. The Doctor poorly tried to do the same. “I have been ordered to give you this”
Dorav carefully placed a parcel in the Doctor’s arms. He pulled the string and the brown paper fell down around a Tupperware box.
“Hmm! Yes!” the Doctor clicked it open and tucked in to his new stash of jelly babies.
“I am also here to assist you with the threat in any way you might wish”
“Brilliant, Dorav, so, ever heard of the Vashta Nerada?”
“No”
“I think we might be dealing with them. They’re tiny carnivorous life forms, invisible to the naked eye. A few won’t do any harm, but I think this place is infested with a swarm. Enough to easily wipe out the town and most likely the planet”
“And how exactly do we stop them?”
“I’m not sure. Light always helps though. First, however, have you got the meat I ordered?”
Dorav reached under the desk and pulled out a second plastic container, containing several slices of meat.
“Brilliant! Don’t move,” the Doctor reached in and gingerly pulled out a slab of meat at arm’s length. He took it and placed it in the centre of the light circle.
“Okay!” he shouted. “You there, computer people, when I reach three I want you to turn off the lights in the centre of the circle. Only for a second. As soon as they’re off switch them back on again”
“Understood,” one of the replied.
“In three, two, one”
It was as if everyone had blinked. The lights had been switched back on again, only giving a few milliseconds of darkness. A few morsels of the meat remained.
“Excuse me, sir,” one of the men at the computers said to the Doctor. “During that tiny period of time the life signatures rocketed. Whatever was here before gradually multiplied by millions during that time. The number is slowly going down”
“Oh. Oh dear. We are in trouble”
“What is it Doctor?” April chimed in from by the bar. She was sat alongside Marta on top of it. Abramal sat behind. They had thought it best to keep out of the way.
“I’ve never seen this many. Ever. Okay, keep those lights switched on. Don’t turn them out,” the Doctor noticed Archie sat alone in the far corner of the room.
“My one responsibility is this town,” Archie said as the Doctor sat next to him. “I need you to guarantee their safety. And more so, my daughter’s safety”
“I don’t know. I pledged to protect this town, and I will”
“You said there’s millions of these things, and if they can strip flesh down in milliseconds that can’t be good”
“Okay, yeah. I must admit, no one is completely safe. But I promise, I won’t let any harm come to your daughter. As long as I am here, she will be safe”
“I’ll hold you to that,” Archie smiled.
“Doctor! Over here!” Dorav shouted. The Doctor attempted another salute, then rather sheepishly walked over to the colonel.
“We’re scanning for life forms in a radius of 20 metres. There aren’t anywhere nearly as many life forms now as when the lights were switched off. They must be coming from somewhere else outside that 20 metres”
“Abramal!” the Doctor called over. “Is there any part of this building, I don’t know, another cellar, or something? It must be far away if there is”
“We do have a second cellar. It was built above a cave underground, and a few weeks ago part of the floor fell in. If you’re careful, you can still get down there. That’s the only thing I can think of”
“That must be their ‘nest’. Their… breeding ground. Okay, Archie, April and I are going down there”
“Where would you like us Doctor?” Dorav asked.
“Move this equipment outside so it surrounds the building. If we cover it in light then nothing else can get out. Light is their one weakness”
“Understood”
Dorav’s team had already started moving the crates of meat outside.
“But what are these Vashta Nerada things?” Marta scuttled over to the Doctor.
“Microscopic piranhas. They’ll eat anything and anyone that is meat. They latch on to food sources and then eat them. Can you tell me how to get to this cellar?”
“Out that door there,” Marta pointed to a door behind the bar. “You’ll enter a storeroom full of barrels. Take a right in there, enter another storeroom. Then go to the right again. The entrance is in there”
“Good, storerooms. I love storerooms”
April ran over to the door in the far right corner of the room. The door was locked. Archie crashed in to it with a long kick, the door flying backwards.
“Doctor, you will stop these Vashta Newhatsit? This pub, it’s… well, it’s our life, you know”
“Course I will,” the Doctor clipped the lid back on his jelly babies and left to join Archie and April.
April slammed the door shut behind her father and the Doctor as they came in, the Doctor spinning on his heels and using the screwdriver on the lock. This first store room stretched out quite far. There were barrels on both sides of them, leaving a narrow channel that they could move through. Ahead there was a door. The only light in the room was the luminous tip of the sonic.
“Doctor, I presume you’ve met these creatures before?” Archie asked.
“Yeah. On a planet called the Library. Literally, the whole place was a library. The Vashta are hatched in trees. There were several who were born on some forest planet, anyway. The forest was cut down, and made in to books for this planet, but they survived. They lived in the paper. When they escaped everyone in the library had to be evacuated, but there obviously wasn’t the time, so they were physically saved on to a hard drive. We eventually stopped them and brought back the people. I met my future wife there. Well, sort of met her. Sort of wife. She’d already met me, it was complicated”
“So if you’ve stopped them before, how did you do it?” April said.
“I talked them out of it”
“Well, if you did that back then, then surely you can do that again here?”
“I could. That’s plan A. Well, that’s what plan A always is. Find out what’s happening. But first I have to hope and pray that we can communicate with them. Last time they managed it through neural relays. I think it might work with this,” the Doctor whipped a communicator out of his pocket.
“Papal Mainframe communicator”
“Doctor. Just through here,” Archie said. A thin channel stretched through the towers of barrels.
The second room was similar to the first – dull brickwork, the occasional weed growing from a crack in the wall. There wasn’t much in there, only some chairs stacked on top of each other, and it certainly wasn’t as confined.
“Erm… Doctor. There’s another skeleton,” April pointed to the back of the door. A set of bones hung from a hook.
“These creatures are brutal,” Archie walked over to it and placed his hand on the skull.
“They don’t care about anything else. That’s all they know. Food”
“We can’t stop them. They’ll just rip us apart,” he said lifelessly. “And before. You never guaranteed the safety of this town”
“Do you want to get out of this pub alive?” the Doctor turned to him. “This town is in more danger right now than it’s ever been. The Vashta Nerada are everywhere by now. A town in darkness for 1435 minutes of the day, the ideal feasting spot. Right now I am your one hope, so if you’ve got any sense you’ll be quiet”
Archie’s gaze was locked with the Doctor’s.
“Fine. You’ve saved us before. You could’ve just been on a lucky streak. Do it again. Show me,” Archie turned away and walked in to the next room.
The third storeroom was completely empty, apart from a few chairs stacked up in one corner. There was a square trapdoor in the other. The Doctor ran over to it.
“This is the entrance,” he waved the sonic at it. “Let’s go…”
The second cellar was a close copy of the first one. Damp stone walls and a dusty floor.
“The wall? Where’s the wall?” April crept up to the edge. She remained cautious, alert that she could easily fall. There was no wall opposite the ladder. Below was a pit, shrouded in shadows. They couldn’t see how far down it went.
“And that’s where they all are? So, you’ll talk to them?”
“Yeah. Probably,” the communicator emitted a small cloud of sparks as the Doctor carelessly waved his sonic screwdriver at it. He stared at it.
“Well go on then! No time to lose. The longer we wait the quicker they’re going to destroy my town and kill my daughter”
“Calling the Vashta Nerada,” the Doctor held a button down on the side. Static came back through.
“Anything?” Archie said desperately.
“What does it sound like? Nothing. Right, here we go again. Oy. Vashta. Speak to me. You’ve got my friend. And I’m not happy”
The static slowly diminished.
“Midnight,” was all it said. The voice was deep, groaning slightly. Archie let out a sigh of relief.
“Midnight?” the Doctor asked.
“The girl will die”
“Oh fantastic,” Archie muttered sarcastically. He lunged for the communicator. “If you lay a finger – or, a tooth, I should say, on my daughter, I will kill you all”
“And then the town shall follow”
“Oh my day just gets better and better,” the Doctor said. He took the device back.
“The girl will die at midnight, and then the town shall follow”
“Go on then. How did you get here?”
“There,” it stuttered. “There… There was a signal. We were sent. We grew in the trees of Trenzalore. The source of the signal is this habitat”
“So why eat everyone? Hmm?” Archie asked.
“The town that spends it days in darkness. We can hide in the shadows of Christmas. You cannot stop us. The girl will die, and then the shown shall follow”
The Doctor angrily kicked the wall and began climbing up the ladder.
“Don’t you go anywhere,” Archie followed him closely.
“Come on, weaknesses, weaknesses,” the Doctor was pacing the storeroom, both hands ruffling his hair. He glanced at April. She had two shadows.
“You!” Archie grabbed the Doctor by his collar. “You promised me you would keep my daughter safe!”
“Do you really think I’m going to lie down and accept this? The losses I’ve felt, believe me, Archie, there is no way I’m going to feel another. I will move heaven and earth to stop this,” Archie gently let go.
“Doctor. What’s going to happen to me?” April interrupted.
“The Vashta Nerada have latched on to you. They will wait. At midnight, they will eat you,” the Doctor said bluntly. April nodded slowly.
“Well then! Come on! Let’s stop them!” Archie said enthusiastically.
“April, take this,” the Doctor tossed the sonic screwdriver at her. “That door up there, open it. Go and have a look around up there”
“On it,” she dashed up the creaking stairs. She used the sonic on the door and disappeared from sight.
“Doctor, I can’t. I can’t lose her. She’s my one child. Please, try and do something, anything,” Archie broke down in front of him.
“I know how it feels,” the Doctor looked at him. “To lose someone that close to you. Like a part of you dies with them. If you can imagine that, imagine it times infinity. Every day, that’s what I live with. That’s who I am. The sum of all of those people. I will find some way of stopping them”
“There’s nothing up here,” April poked her head round the door. “It’s just a corridor”
The Doctor jumped up the stairs two at a time. They lead up to a thin upstairs corridor. The walls were crafted with wood panels, the floor creaking as they stepped on it. Gas lamps hung on the walls. There was a second door in the middle of the corridor, and another at the far end. The Doctor took the communicator out of his top pocket.
“Calling the Papal Mainframe, this is the Doctor”
“Hello Doctor. We’re reading your position as inside the pub,” Dorav’s voice came through the end.
“Fantastic. Dorav, is everything outside?”
“Yes, we have the pub surrounded by floodlights. None of the Vashta Nerada can get in or out”
The computer banks from before were set up outside the main door. The soldiers busily tended to their duties. Larger floodlights made the pub glisten in the night sky, more than any of the other buildings in the town. Set up on tall tripods, they formed a square around the building along the surrounding streets.
“I’m hoping if we isolate the nest, the ones outside will disperse”
“Would you like us to bring smaller lamps in to the building’s interior?”
“Yes. Light it up as much as possible. Bring up internal schematics as well. I’ve got no idea where we are”
“You are… top left of the building. Abramal and Marta’s quarters. Below you is the guest accommodation, and finally the main lobby”
The Doctor slid the communicator away.
“They’re sending in people! Brilliant, we may be in luck,” the Doctor pulled out his jelly baby box again.
“Stop eating sweets!” Archie glared at him and took the box “What are we doing?”
“Oy! I’ve got a plan!” the Doctor angrily grabbed it back.
“Well, go on,” Archie was interrupted when the door they had come through abruptly opened. April jolted up and ran to the far end, the second door. Archie and the Doctor gathered with her, the Doctor opening it. Another skeleton stood in their way.
“It’s? It’s walking!” she exclaimed, falling back towards the Doctor. The zombie had a skeletal arm stuck out, spindly fingers grabbing for the three.
“Oh damn it,” Archie shouted. The three of them moved to the middle, as both skeletons advanced.
“What now Doctor?” April asked.
“Not sure. I didn’t quite bank on anything like this happening”
Archie thrust a kick in to one of the skeletons, just like he had with the door. It stumbled back, losing its footing. It regained its balance, arms outstretched. The three huddled closely on the floor, terrified of what was about to happen.
“This can’t be right, this can’t be how I die”
“Well, it seems fairly obvious that it is!” Archie replied.
“No, but there’s prophecies and stuff, the first question, the question that must never be answered, this isn’t how it ends! Not yet!”
“The door!” April realised. “We’re being cornered by a door!” The Doctor lunged at it with the sonic screwdriver.
“Why isn’t it opening?” Archie said.
“It doesn’t do wood!”
The skeletons were closing in. They walked like puppets on strings.
“Wood? It doesn’t do WOOD?” April shouted.
“Oh for goodness sake,” Archie pushed past them both, connecting to the door with a forward kick. It swung forward, colliding in to the wall. They burst through, like a pipe bursting. And shut the door behind them.
“Where the hell did you learn how to do that?” the Doctor grinned. They were in a living room. It was lit by a blazing fireplace. There was an oak table just in front of the mantelpiece, covered in books. Abramal and Marta must enjoy their reading, April thought. It had an air of cosiness about it.
“Wood?” April slumped in to one of four arm chairs.
“Yes, it doesn’t do wood, sorry, as I’ve said before, I need to install an app for it”
“I don’t know if you’ve forgotten yet, but my daughter has, hmm, not long to live”
“Ah, yes, sorry about that,” the Doctor took the communicator out of his top pocket
“You said you had a plan, yes?” Archie asked.
“Yeah, I do, as it happens. The plan that’s gonna save April, save the town, and stop the Vashta Nerada. They’ve got one weakness. Light. Imagine, it we could light this town up on a scale so massive, it would completely drive them out”
“Well, it would work, but we only get five minutes of light a day,” Archie interrupted.
“Think about it. The Papal Mainframe. They must have enough energy to be able to light up the whole town. Maybe they can act as a second sun. If they’re whizzing around up there, they can use their spaceship to generate a source of light that lights up Christmas”
“Like one massive spotlight?” April asked.
“Calling the Papal Mainframe… again,” the Doctor said.
“Hello Doctor,” Dorav’s voice came back through the communicator.
“Right, I’ve got a plan. A sort of, possibly possible plan that might not work. I don’t suppose you could lower the church itself through the atmosphere and shine a light so massive on Christmas It sends them running?”
“Not possible I’m afraid. It would mean having to let down the shields to relay the power. The second those shields go down there’s going to be chaos”
“I thought it was a bit crazy. Everyone up there, racing, desperate to reach the planet first”
“However, the plan isn’t completely stupid. Not yet. We can get auxiliary shields. They won’t last long, however. We’ll have to be quick, and everything will have to be timed perfectly”
Slowly, a huge, clownish smile spread across the Doctor’s face.
“It could work. It could possibly work. I hope you’ve been taking notes, Colonel Dorav,” the Doctor thought.
“I’ll contact the Mother Superious. We’ll meet you in the main part of the pub,” the Doctor put the communicator away.
“So now, I’m not going to be eaten or killed or anything?” April jumped up.
“No. Most certainly not. Right, the skeletons out there. When I open that door, we run!” the Doctor reached over and grabbed the handle.
“Run!” he smiled. They barged out of the door, knocking the creatures out of the way. One was knocked backwards, shattering when it smashed in to the wall. Bits of brittle bone flew everywhere. The second was knocked on to the floor. April reached the far door and flung it open. It lead them in to a room with similar décor as the first, several doors leading out of it. A bookshelf stood up tall against the wall, so full of books several novels were being squeezed out. The Doctor slammed the door shut behind him. The Doctor peered at the spines of books on the shelves.
“Ooh, Lord of the Rings of Akhaten. Great story, one of my favourites as a child,” he took it off the shelf and slipped it in to his pocket.
“How long till I… you know, die?” April said.
“About fifteen minutes,” Archie stopped checking the doors and glanced at his watch. The final door opposite the bookcase lead in to a hallway with a staircase stretching down.
“Doctor, this is the way out. The soldiers should be waiting downstairs,” Archie walked towards it. The Doctor followed him out, but April stopped at a large window. Below she could see people, retreating back in to their homes. So oblivious to the fact that their homes were probably hives of Vashta Nerada. Snow was gradually piling up on the window sill in front of her.
“Aw. New snow. Like every young child, when I was younger I would wake up, and as soon as I saw it I would rush outside to play”
“This isn’t the end, you know. Don’t get nostalgic yet”
“We’ve got fifteen minutes to save the town and myself”
“I always say you can do loads in fifteen minutes”
“Even save a whole town?”
“Even save a whole world,” The Doctor gripped her hand tightly. Together, they walked slowly down the stairs.
The main lobby of the pub had been illuminated with a rudimentary lighting system. Small lights were strung up on the wall with bundles of cable.
“Move in to the storerooms,” a squad of Dorav’s men stood in front of him. “Begin to light those up, do not, under any circumstances, risk it in the cellar”
“Okay, hello everyone,” the Doctor, April and Archie burst through a door behind the bar. As the soldiers dispersed they joined Dorav, who sat down by a computer bank.
“Hello Doctor. As you can see this section here is lit up, we’re going to work on the storerooms next”
“Fantastic. Can we get a squad to prepare the lights around the rest of the town?”
“Already on it”
“Great, keep going”
“Over here is the auxiliary shield,” he pointed to a large metal box, a bit like a computer server. It had a screen in the centre, and was covered in switches and buttons.
“It hasn’t been set up yet. I was hoping you would be able to do that”
“Most certainly,” the Doctor pulled the sonic screwdriver out of his pocket.
“Doctor, I’m going to go out and reassure people. After all, it’s probably a bit of a shock to strange soldiers wandering around hanging lights up”
The Doctor knelt down by the box. He zapped it with the sonic and the back fell down to the floor. Inside was a mess of wires.
“And you really know how to fix that?” April laughed.
“Of course I do. I saved the world with a kettle and some string. If there’s one thing I’m good at its world saving plans where I’ve got no idea what the hell is gonna happen”
“Do you count? Like, do you keep track of how many times you’ve saved us?”
“No. It’s not about keeping score. I don’t save planets to make myself popular. I do it because I feel like I owe them something. But you see, just like every normal person, all I want to do, just occasionally is be loved. But no. I don’t keep count. And what makes it even more terrible is that I’ve done it so many times I couldn’t even make a rough estimate”
“You don’t owe them anything,” a sad smile on her face.
“No. Believe me, I owe the people of this universe everything,” the Doctor reached in and ripped out a handful of wires. He threw them on the ground behind him and continued working.
“This should be ready soon. Dorav!” the Doctor called over to the other side of the room.
“Sir?” Dorav looked away from the computer screen.
“This is nearly working. All you’ll need to do is power it. Are the mainframe ready to take down the shields?”
“Yes. We’ve got the majority of the town lit up from down here as well now,” Dorav walked back over to the computer terminal and sat down. The wooden door creaked open and Archie poked his head in.
“Are we ready?” he asked. The Doctor nodded. Archie slipped in and shut the door quickly, attempting to conceal the heat in the room. He joined the Doctor and April by the computer bank. Dorav pulled a communicator out of his pocket.
“This is Colonel Dorav to the Papal Mainframe. The Auxiliary shield is ready and powered. We are ready when you are”
There was silence on the other end.
“Shields are down!” shouted a soldier working next to Dorav. The Doctor dashed outside, closely followed by April. The sky was ablaze. The creatures above were sending everything they had the planet. The air became tainted in a fiery hue. The town was filled with an orange light. They suddenly heard a scream close to them. A house had caught on fire.
“Oh, no, no, no!” the Doctor murmured.
“What’s happening?” Archie asked.
“As we thought, the shield can’t take it, there’s so much firepower,” the Doctor ran back in to the pub and over to the box.
“Doctor, the shield is failing!”
“Yes, I can see that. This might just fry my insides ever so slightly,” the Doctor said.
“Please. Doctor, let me. Let me save my town and my daughter. It’s the least I could do,” Archie said.
“Archie, you won’t survive” The Doctor jammed the sonic screwdriver in to a circular plug socket on the side of the box.
“And you will?” he snatched the screwdriver from him and pressed the button. He writhed in agony and screamed a bloodcurdling scream, as electricity flooded through him. He suddenly stopped. Groaning, he tried to stand up. April helped him back to the floor again.
“Doctor, they’re all gone. The Vashta Nerada are officially gone!” Dorav exclaimed.
April and the Doctor sat next to each other on a bench. They were on the edge of the town, looking out over the fields.
“And he’ll definitely be okay?” April asked.
“Yes. If he just stays in bed and rests. It’s a miracle he survived.” the Doctor asked. “You know.… he was good out there”
“You will never say that he’s brilliant will you?”
“He’s good at his job”
“You like him don’t you? You think he’s really great but you just won’t admit it”
“I do not! But today, when it really mattered he saved you, which to me is brilliant”
“Go on. Admit it for me!”
“He’s brilliant. There we go. I like him”
“Thank you. Beautiful sunrise today. I was under the impression earlier that it would be my last one. Do you think they’ll come back?”
“Oh, no. Probably not. They’ll have to hatch a whole new swarm here and that will take a while. I don’t think they’ll ever return. If they do, though, we’ll stop them”
The intercom buzzed.
Archie tiredly connected.
“IDENTIFY” came the gravelly metallic voice.
“Archibald Sawyer,” answered Archie.
“WHEN WILL THE PLAN BE EXECUTED?”
The Cybermen didn’t like to beat around the bush, apparently. Archie sighed. No lying here. He even had to avoid the Doctor in case he asked.
He couldn’t wait any longer.
He had to protect his village.
But…
He shook the thoughts away.
“Soon,” he promised. “Soon.”
“WE WILL TAKE THE DOCTOR.”
“Well…” Archie paused. “It feels me with pain to say this, but if that’s what it takes – I’ll give him to you.”
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