Doctor Who_ Human Nature Part 22

'If she says yes.'

'You're marrying... her?'

'She's very nice.' Smith tapped Merryweather on the shoulder and indicated that he could unblock his ears. Benny just glowered at him.

Smith took a deep breath and began a chant matched to the rhythm of the jog. 'Do we want to fight and slay?'

'We should all just run away,' returned Benny, remembering the form from grotty route marches around the Academy.

'Do we want to all get shot?'

'If we scarper, no let's not.'

'Do we want to bathe in glory?'

'It's overrated, dull and gory,' Benny continued, with a little grin of pride at that one. The gang of children and adults continued to run down the narrow corridor, repeating the verses.

Smith tried to give Benny a rea.s.suring smile, but the look she returned him was anything but rea.s.sured.

The family met outside the gymnasium, August's party almost b.u.mping into Greeneye and Hoff.

'I gather we've come to the same two conclusions,' said August. 'One, a complete holographic scan reveals that the boy we're after isn't in the building, and - '

'Two, there's a dirty great tunnel around here somewhere. Three, shall we get after the little crukker? Please?' demanded Greeneye, and ducked into the gym. Hoff, August and Serif followed.

Aphasia remained outside, her finger in her mouth, pondering something she'd read as the family had marched through the building. 'Maius Intra...'

Rocastle's party rounded the top of the landing, and scattered down the banisters into pre-arranged firing positions, surprised to find that the only person they were aiming at was a little girl.

'Miss!' Rocastle hissed. 'Miss! Would you please come here?'

Aphasia turned and saw them. She smiled. 'Oh? Why?'

Hoff poked his head out of the gymnasium doors.

'Aphasia, come on, we - '

Then he noticed the boys.

He slapped his weapon up to head height.

The wall exploded with gunfire, splinters bursting everywhere. Hoff ducked back inside.

Aphasia spun as the bullets caught her and slapped her to and fro, her chest and limbs erupting with b.l.o.o.d.y debris.

'Cease fire' screamed Rocastle.

The little girl fell to the floor, and struggled to right herself, her balloon lying burst across her shoulder. Only one arm seemed to be working, and her eyes were blinking at a tremendous rate, like a clockwork toy winding down. She put her teeth to her wrist, and pulled open the pouch there.

Rocastle noticed that a couple of his boys were standing up, about to go to her.

'No! Wait for - '

Aphasia gazed at the black capsule inside her wrist, and a sweet smile crossed her face.

Then her head hit the floor, dead.

Hoff stepped out into the corridor, looked down at the body, almost casually, and turned to face Rocastle and his boys.

They were staring at what they'd done, appalled.

Hoff looked for a moment like he was going to say something, but then he just shrugged.

He raised his gun and ran a burst of blue light up the stairs.

A row of boys screamed, dissolved, were blasted sideways, tried to run, cannoned into each other, threw their guns aside, separated, exploded, bled. The banisters before them steamed away into a cloud of ugly smoke.

'Retreat!' screamed Rocastle. 'Retreat!'

Amidst the smoke, a few boys did just that, running to his voice.

Hutchinson collided with him as they both sprinted up the stairs.

'We got one!' the boy laughed, clutching at his headmaster's lapels. 'Did you see, sir, we got one!'

Rocastle could only stare at him as the others bundled past.

'Aphasia!' Hoff stumbled back into the gym, dragging the body with him.

'Aphasia!'

The family had been scanning the floor for the hidden tunnel their earlier scans had revealed. They all ran to the body, Serif shoving the others aside to bend quickly to the child, putting a gloved hand on either side of her face. 'If there's a chance, any neural activity at all- ' His expression froze and he let out a long hiss. 'No...' His white teeth clenched and he closed his eyes. 'She is dead.'

'Why didn't she put up her field?' Greeneye howled. 'Kill them all, every single one of them.'

'Close the doors,' August told Hoff. 'Put a field across it. Prepare a fusion bomb.

This building will be her memorial. Now, quick as we can, let's be about the ceremony.'

Steaming tears were dropping from Serif's eyes, hissing as they fell on to Aphasia's dress. 'This one who was our mother and daughter, flesh of ours, let her be our flesh again.'

'Let her be our flesh again,' the others chorused.

Together, they bent to the body to feed.

The old wooden door gave way after a couple of shoves. Benny looked around the cellar. 'Yes, that makes sense.'

There were casks of beer, racks of bottles and metal pipes all around. 'It's a secret route to the pub. The Lord of the Manor must have told the missus that he was studying.'

The boys filled the cellar and closed the door after them.

'Fascinating,' Joan said to Alexander. 'I've never been in a pub.'

'It gets better,' he told her, 'the higher up you get.' Smith hopped up a flight of stone steps and listened to the door at the top of them. Suddenly he took a step backwards and waved at the others to get down.

The door opened.

A surprised-looking landlord stared down at them.

'Thirty-eight lemonades, please,' Smith told him.

'And a pint of bitter,' Benny added.

They marched out into the beer garden with their drinks. It was getting dark now and the storm was pa.s.sing. The regulars had stared at the parade of schoolboys filing up out of the cellar. 'School outing,' Smith had explained as he paid for the round. It turned out that the landlord was quite aware of the pa.s.sageway, and that the bursar had been an occasional customer through it.

Several of the locals muttered about the noise from the OTC being loud today, and one who claimed he was a Boer War veteran who'd 'drunk his fill of Bovril'

cornered Smith and tried to row with him about it until the little teacher wriggled out.

'Well, what happens now?' Benny asked once they were in the garden. She'd had the awful feeling that she had been getting disapproving looks from locals who remembered her fleeing from Greeneye. 'We can't stay here long.'

'No, you can't.'

'You?'

'I've got to go back and let the others know there's a way out.'

Joan gripped him by the arm. 'Can't we communicate with the school in some way, let them know?'

'No. They've been cut off from the outside world. I have to go back. I'll be careful.

The rest of you must search for this Pod thing. Bernice, what did the boy who had it look like?'

'He was quite old, but still a bit small. Fair hair. Looked like he'd been dragged across a field.'

'Tim!' Anand said. 'You saw Tim!'

'Dean?' Smith asked, putting a hand on Anand's shoulder. 'Yes, he fits the description. And he's been very secretive lately. Who saw him last?'

'I saw him running out of school,' Alton murmured. 'He seemed intent on getting away. That was near teatime.'

'We saw him afterwards,' Benny told Smith. 'He's out there in the forest.'

Joan squatted down beside Anand. 'Where does he like to go? What are his favourite hiding-places?'

'There are several. He used to walk on his own quite a lot. He liked going to the teashop, and looking around the library in town. They have better books there than at school. And he always liked the orchard. We used to go picking apples there.'

Alexander nodded. 'As I said. We should send out people in all-'

The skyline suddenly went white.

The shadows stretched negative black and long.

'Oh my G.o.d!' Benny shouted, the only one of them that understood it. 'Get - '

The sound cut her off, hitting like an enormous clap of thunder.

The blast knocked Smith's party off their feet, blasting the wooden pub tables into the field beyond the garden.

Benny, Joan and Smith grabbed the children and fell in a sprawling ma.s.s.

Alexander wasn't so lucky, rolling over and over down to the bottom of the garden, finally flattening against the hedge. He looked up and yelled, astonished at what was coming towards him.

Through the blazing sky, a tree trunk was spinning straight at him.

It shot over his head, just clearing the hedge and bouncing off down the field.

Splinters flew from it as it hit.

[image]

The wind roared past, thousands of tiny objects battering across the humans as they lay there. The hedge became a ma.s.s of gla.s.ses, foliage and stones. Alexander shielded his face with his arms.

The blast thundered through the town, signs flying from buildings, shop windows disintegrating, the c.o.c.kerel being torn from the top of the church spire. The market traders, turned back from the roads by the frantic shouts and gestures of the army, had rea.s.sembled in the square, and their carts were hurled all over, skidding and smashing across the cobbles.

People ran out of their houses, crying about the end of the world, and were blown off their feet in the wind, wailing as they skidded down the streets.

Then, just as suddenly as it had started, the sound ceased.

A fine grey dust began to descend.

Joan was curled in Smith's arms. 'What... what was that?' she cried.

'Some sort of explosive,' Alexander called from the hedge, trying to shout over the ringing in his ears. The boys were all shouting and openly sobbing, finally giving in to the fear that had pursued them for so long.

'A fusion bomb.' Benny spat to get the dust out of her mouth. 'High blast, very low radiation yield.' She stood up, and shivered at the spectre of the mushroom cloud that was rising above the slight valley that had once contained the school. 'I had hoped that I would never get to see one of those.'

Smith got slowly to his feet, pulling Joan up with him. The first people were staggering, shouting and screaming, out from the still-intact pub.

'All those boys...' Joan whispered. 'And the teachers...'

Smith held her tight, marvelling at the terrifying shape in the sky.

Tim had been wandering in the forest, wondering when the time would feel right to do anything. He'd felt suddenly certain when he'd happened upon the barrier and rescued that soldier. That had been like following lines in a play, remembering his cues. Now, he was back in the wings, waiting to be called again, hearing the faint whispers that seemed to come from the Pod in his hand.

He'd been startled by a noise in the bushes and come upon Wolsey, staring up at him from his hiding-place in annoyance.

'Hey, come on, boy, come on.' Tim dropped to his knees and crawled towards the cat, clicking his tongue. Wolsey decided that the smell of the boy was interesting and strange, and not really frightening, and so edged up to him, rubbing his neck against Tim's hand. 'That's a good cat. Now where - '