Doctor Who_ The Deviant Strain Part 21

'She's no good to us. Just a husk, a sh.e.l.l,' one of the scientists told the other. His voice was cracked and brittle, a hoa.r.s.e whisper. 'No life left. Nothing worth taking. We should throw her to them them.' He gestured at the creatures across the room.

'They won't want her either,' the other scientist said. 'But she may be useful as a hostage. The villagers protected her before, and while they have hardly hampered us so far, we might need to hold them off.'

They led Valeria through the broken wall. It was a bizarre sight, Rose thought two zombies from Dawn of the Dead Dawn of the Dead escorting a young woman with an aged face, and all illuminated by the pale*blue glow of the blob monsters from h.e.l.l. Best not to think about it. Best not to think about what she was doing either, she decided, as she glanced back at the creatures, then tiptoed after Valeria. escorting a young woman with an aged face, and all illuminated by the pale*blue glow of the blob monsters from h.e.l.l. Best not to think about it. Best not to think about what she was doing either, she decided, as she glanced back at the creatures, then tiptoed after Valeria.

Krylek was working as fast as he could. Another scream another soldier dragged away, clawing at the concrete floor as the life and vitality was sapped from him. There were only a few of Levin's troops left now perhaps a dozen in all.

'Soon would be good,' Jack murmured.

Levin glared at him.

Krylek stepped back from the wall. 'Ready.'

'Do it,' Levin snapped. 'Cover!' he shouted to the survivors.

Tentacles flailed and thrashed as the creatures pressed forwards. Then Krylek pressed the detonator and the world was filled with noise and smoke.

They didn't wait for it to clear, didn't wait to see whether the explosives had blown a hole in the wall. They just threw themselves at it. Smoke clawed at the back of Jack's throat and stung his eyes. But then it cleared and he was coughing and rolling in the cold snow, and laughing and leaping to his feet, and helping Krylek and Levin and the others. And running.

'Where to?' Levin asked.

'After the Doctor. He might need help.'

'We might need help,' Krylek said. 'Look!' might need help,' Krylek said. 'Look!'

From round the end of the low, grey building came the scientists. Klebanov was in the lead. He paused, staring at the soldiers. He might have been surprised, but there was not enough of his face left for any expression. Suddenly he was running, the other scientists stumbling and staggering after him on stick*thin, bony legs.

'Move it!' Levin ordered.

Behind them, when Jack looked over his shoulder, Klebanov was standing watching them run. The other scientists were grouped round him. It seemed to Jack that they were all laughing.

'They won't pose much of a problem,' Klebanov said. It sounded as if he was chewing gravel.

'They're making towards the harbour,' one of the other scientists pointed out.

'Doesn't matter,' Klebanov told him. 'They can't stop us. And when we launch the missiles, the ship will absorb enough power to regenerate us all. Enough power to make us invincible. Enough power to keep us alive for centuries.'

Behind them, in the shadows of the building, pressed close to the wall, Rose watched and listened. Valeria was at the back of the group perhaps they would just leave her. Forget her. Abandon her.

'What about the girl?' one of the scientists who had brought her asked.

Klebanov walked over to Valeria. He reached out and stroked her cheek. 'She is no use to us,' he said. 'Except... Yes, bring her.'

'Why bother?' one of the others asked. 'She'll just slow us down.'

'Don't be so impatient. That Intelligence captain, he'll be in charge now. And he cares for her. That makes her useful. Gives her a purpose.' Klebanov laughed. 'The only purpose she can have now.'

Some of the villagers had slipped away, escaping into the night. The light flickered on the dark, rusting bodies of the submarines and glinted on the ice*covered water.

The lights were all out now, so Vahlen and some of the others had organised torches burning lengths of wood scavenged from the dockside and soaked in petrol from a drum outside the inn. The procession of villagers, with the Doctor at the head, made its way through the abandoned harbour and down towards the dry dock at the end.

On the hillside behind them was another procession a line of pale glowing blue that was following them to the harbour.

'I think they can sense us,' one of the men said. 'Just like old Georgi could sense things without seeing them.'

'I certainly hope so,' the Doctor countered. 'We need those things to believe they've got us where they want us.'

'The dry dock?'

'If that's where the fuel is. We'll check it out, set it up and then I'll leave you to it.'

'What?' Vahlen said. 'You're just going to let us fend for ourselves?'

'You'll do all right. Really.'

'You sound like poor Georgi. So where will you be?'

'Me?' He shrugged. 'Thought I might go for a swim.'

The dry dock was not dry any more. The gates that had once held back the icy sea were buckled and broken and the whole dock was flooded and frozen. Two submarines jutted up from the white landscape one almost on its side, resting on the other. The hull had rusted through, huge ragged holes of even deeper blackness. The dark shapes towered above the Doctor and the villagers.

'So where's the fuel?' the Doctor asked.

Vahlen led them to the end of the walkway round the dock wall. Another shape loomed up out of the night black against the white of the ice. It didn't look like fuel drums, more like one of the shapeless creatures asleep and waiting. But Vahlen and several of the men pulled back the tarpaulin that covered the drums of fuel to reveal them piled into a rough, flat*topped pyramid.

'Now what?'

The Doctor blew out a long misty breath. 'Now we cover the ground for as far as we can. We wait for the creatures.'

'And when they're on the oil, we set fire to it,' Vahlen realised.

'Yeah, well. Cross your fingers first and hope you get 'em.'

'And in the meantime you're going swimming?'

He grinned. 'Thought I might. Could walk, but it's a long way from here. Good bracing swim, just the job.'

'You're serious, aren't you?' Vahlen realised.

'Oh yeah.'

'But you can't go swimming in this this,' the old man said. He gestured out across the frozen harbour. The wind was whipping up, scattering the flames from the torches and sending sparks flying from the burning wood.

'Well,' the Doctor said, 'I'll have to break the ice first, I suppose.'

The surviving soldiers made their way rapidly down the path to the docks. Jack and Levin led the way. Neither of them was in the mood for much conversation; both of them were agreed that they should find and help the Doctor rather than risk their lives against the scientists.

Further up the hill, a long line of the glowing creatures was making its way after them. Klebanov and his scientists had disappeared into the night, but Jack was pretty sure they too would be making for the docks. He just wanted to get there first.

Their boots crunched on the recent snow. By the time they reached the inn at the edge of the docks, the snow was gone swept away by the creatures' earlier advance. They headed for the dry dock, where they could see the distant glimmer of firelight. And always the blue glow kept pace behind them, only minutes away.

Jack's foot slipped as they approached the dry dock. He stumbled and almost fell. Beside him, Levin was also having problems.

'Oil,' Lieutenant Krylek said. 'They've spread fuel oil all across here.'

Jack managed to regain his balance. He could see now that the ground was dark and slick. 'What a life,' he grumbled. 'Attacked by the walking dead, chased by life*sucking blobs and now our own team's trying to make me break my neck.' He shook his head and yelled, 'Hey, we're on your side, you know!'

There was an answering shout from up ahead. Two of the men from the village were wheeling a drum of fuel oil along the quay towards them. The barrel was unstoppered so that oil slopped out as it rolled. One of the men, Jack realised, was Mamentov Valeria's father. As they pa.s.sed, the man met his gaze and then looked away.

'The Doctor down that way?' Jack asked.

'No,' the second man replied. 'He went for a swim.'

'He what?' Levin said.

Jack just smiled. 'Typical. Come on, then, let's help with these barrels.'

The scientists seemed oblivious to the creatures slithering down the hill with them. But Rose was only too aware that they would kill her as soon as they caught her. She just hoped they didn't realise that there was food following the scientists and Valeria down from the cliffs to the harbour. She concentrated on not making any noise, on keeping to the darkest shadows, on watching where the group in front of her was going.

She knew they were heading for the docks, she just didn't know exactly where. In the distance Rose could see the faint flickering of small fires the villagers, Jack and the Doctor. Was Klebanov leading them to attack the villagers? Evidently not, as they headed for a different area of the docks. They were close close enough to make out the people working, rolling drums along the wall surrounding the dry dock and out on to the approach road. But there was an expanse of frozen water between them and the snub*nosed bulk of one of the submarines.

Getting as close as she dared, Rose took shelter behind a pile of rotting crates. Thick ropes coiled like enormous decaying snakes on the top. She peered out at the scientists climbing up to the top of the submarine's conning tower. She could see Valeria with them still, being helped up the ladder. One by one the dark figures disappeared inside the sub, leaving Rose alone outside in the cold.

Perhaps the best thing would be to get to the dry dock and tell the Doctor where Klebanov had gone, which submarine he was on and what he was planning. But while it wasn't far across the frozen harbour, Rose wasn't going to risk falling through into the icy water. And it would take a long time to get there using the access roads. Klebanov would think they were safe and unseen. With luck they would leave Valeria alone and unguarded confident that she wasn't going to wander off or escape.

Before she knew it, Rose was climbing the ladder after them. The rusting metal flaked away under her hands. It was cold and rough. She hauled herself on to the top of the submarine. Across the harbour she could see the first of the creatures approaching the road to the dry dock, tracking down the villagers and the soldiers. She could make out the small, dark figures hurrying back and forth, desperately spreading as much oil as they could before the creatures arrived. All except one.

That one, she was sure, was Jack the way he was standing, the way he had his hands in his pockets and appeared to be out sightseeing rather than waiting to fight for his life. Typical. She couldn't see the Doctor anywhere. Also typical.

The circular hatch open at Rose's feet was smaller than she had expected. Another ladder led down into the blackness. 'Well, at least I can just climb out again if things get nasty,' she muttered to herself, and started the climb down.

She was only just inside, her head barely below the level of the roof, when there was a loud clunk from immediately above her. Like the sound of something hitting the hull. Or a long*neglected mechanism shocked into sudden life.

Then a grinding, and what little light there was slowly dimmed and vanished. As the hatch swung shut above her, trapping Rose in the dark with the monsters.

'Did you see that?'

'What?' Jack asked.

'Looked like Klebanov and his old cronies,' Levin said.

'Disappearing into that submarine over there.' He pointed across the small bay to one of the larger subs.

'Nuclear?' Jack asked.

Levin just nodded.

'Don't worry,' a voice said. 'They can't do much harm in there.' It was Vahlen.

'You sure?' Jack asked him.

'The nuclear ones they did did decommission,' he said. 'Just last year they made the missiles safe in that one. The decommission,' he said. 'Just last year they made the missiles safe in that one. The St Petersburg St Petersburg. I remember when it arrived here.'

'Yeah, well, something else is about to arrive, but thanks for the info,' Jack told him. 'Here they come!'

The glowing line of blue was getting ever closer. It looked as if most of the creatures were now on the oil*slick roadway.

'Another minute, then we light her up and hope for the best.'

'Why wait?' someone asked.

'To be sure we get them all.'

'I don't want to get them all.' The someone was the Doctor, and he was standing soaking wet beside Levin and Jack. He struggled into his jacket. 'I need a couple of them to survive.'

'Looks as if you've been having fun,' Jack told him. 'So why's that? And where have you been the ship?'

'The ship. Long swim, but I wanted a little play with the equipment. That's why you need to light up now and leave a couple of the remotes undamaged.'

Levin shouted orders to his men and the villagers. Those with burning torches stepped towards the dark trail of oil.

'So what do you want a couple of pets for, then?' Jack wondered.

'I want them to chase you.'

'Gee thanks a million.'

'No problem,' the Doctor said. 'Where's Rose?'

Jack's smile froze. 'She's not with you?'

The Doctor turned a full circle, as if to check. 'She's not with me.'

'Sorry, daft question. She's with Valeria somewhere.'

The torches dipped, in unison, on Levin's orders. Trails of fire leaped from them across and along the roadway. Orange and red raced towards the harbour, and the creatures. They squealed and shuddered and retreated from the flames.