Part 13 (1/2)

The Doctor grabbed hold of Angela by the collar of her camouflage jacket and heaved. The creature's twisted fingers grasped thin air as she was hauled out of the way. It roared furiously, drooling black spittle, surging up the tunnel after them, filling the narrow s.p.a.ce with its writhing veins.

'We're not going to make it,' gasped Angela, falling again.

'We've got to try!' Martha shouted.

The Doctor pushed both of them ahead of him and then turned to face the snarling beast. There was no hint of reason or intelligence now, just an insane anger.

Grim-faced, the Doctor pointed his sonic screwdriver straight up at the ceiling. It gave a shrill whine, quickly building to an ultrasonic squeal. There was a noise like a crack of thunder reverberating down the tunnel and a shower of dust dropped from the roof onto the creature's shoulders.

'Oh that's a big help,' said Angela, unimpressed.

But then a huge section of the roof caved in with an ear-shattering roar, and Duncan disappeared under an avalanche of collapsing soil and rock. The Doctor pushed Martha and Angela away as the tunnel was filled with dust and noise. Gradually the falling debris ended in a shower of loose earth and there was no longer any sign of the creature.

'How. . . how did you do that?' asked Angela.

'Sonic resonance,' replied the Doctor, helping her towards the light of the tunnel entrance. 'Found a weak spot in the roof, hit the correct frequency and hey presto.'

'You nearly buried us too,' said Martha, coughing drily. 'What about Duncan?'

'I don't know,' the Doctor admitted. 'I can't see him. But at least he won't follow us now.'

There was a dull rumble over their heads and an ominous trickle of loose earth.

'Uh oh,' said Martha as the whole tunnel began to shake. Dust and lumps of earth were pouring from the ceiling, and then the wooden cross-beams supporting the tunnel roof began to sag, splitting apart with sudden, fierce cracks.

'Run!' yelled the Doctor. But they didn't get far. The tunnel was suddenly filled with falling earth and everything went black.[image]

Jess was still making a fuss. At first Gaskin thought she was upset about the stone, so he wrapped it up again in a tea towel and, after a moment's consideration, put it in a drawer in the kitchen.

Nigel Carson remained spark out in the conservatory, but Jess still wasn't happy.

'Be quiet, there's a good girl,' Gaskin said. But the dog was having none of it. 'What's got into you?'

The Collie ran across to the conservatory doors and whimpered.

'Oh, you want to go out, do you?'

Jess gave a peremptory 'Wuff!'

And it was at that moment that Gaskin suddenly had the strangest feeling like a chasm of anxiety opening up inside his guts as he remembered Angela disappearing into the tunnel alone. Jess barked urgently again and this time Gaskin knew exactly what to do.

He opened the door and the dog shot out into the garden. Gaskin hurried after her.

At the tunnel entrance, Jess stood and barked loudly again. Gaskin peered inside but it was too dark to see anything. One thing was for sure, however: Angela hadn't yet returned, and nor had Martha Jones. Gaskin knew he should go into the tunnel to look for them, but he couldn't bear the thought of such a horribly confined s.p.a.ce. He loved the wide-open s.p.a.ces, the outdoors, craggy mountains under wide blue skies. The idea of going into that narrow patch of darkness made him feel physically ill.

Jess looked up at him with her big brown eyes, asking the impossible. 'I can't go in there,' Gaskin told her plaintively. 'You know I can't.'

Jess whined and went into the tunnel alone.

'Oh, all right,' muttered Gaskin crossly.

He followed her inside. It was all right for the first few yards because of the light from outside, but it quickly grew dark and the smell of earth was overwhelming. Gaskin felt his old heart begin to race.

Summoning the courage that had served him well in his days in the Parachute Regiment, he fought back the urge to turn around and followed Jess further into the shadows.

It wasn't long before he met an awful sight: the way ahead was completely blocked by soil and rock and a thick wooden beam lay diagonally across the tunnel.

'Great Scott! There's been a rockfall!' Gaskin forgot all about his claustrophobia as Jess barked again, loud and urgent. She must have sensed it in the house, felt a faint tremor in the earth, or perhaps heard the distant subterranean thunder. But now she'd found something in soil, something that stirred near the ground, under the fallen roof beam.

A thin, white hand.

'Angela!' Gaskin grasped the hand and pulled. The hand, cold and shaking, held on to him with an iron grip as he hauled Angela out of the earth. Loose soil poured off her camouflage jacket and hat, and, with a sob of relief, she grabbed hold of Gaskin. He pulled her upright. 'Thank G.o.d you're all right!'

'Martha. . . and the Doctor. . . ' she panted. 'They're still in there!'

Jess was barking and prancing around their knees in excitement as someone else slowly emerged from under the roof beam. Covered in soil and dust, coughing and choking, Martha Jones clambered out, followed by the Doctor.

'Mr Gaskin!' said the Doctor cheerily as he stood up. In the dim light of the tunnel entrance, his face was streaked with cuts and mud.

He offered a grimy hand. 'How nice to meet you again!'

They went straight back to the manor. Martha was amazed to find that the sun was already setting and there was a chill in the air as they walked across the garden. The adrenalin was fading now, leaving her nervous and exhausted.

She s.h.i.+vered, and the Doctor put his arm around her. 'Cheer up!

We've lived to fight another day.'

But Martha kept thinking about Duncan. She'd liked him; it had been horrible to see him transformed and inhuman. She was relieved to have survived, of course, but what about him? If the trans.m.u.tation hadn't killed him, then surely the rockfall must have. She wondered about it all the way back to the house.

In the conservatory, Nigel Carson was still unconscious.

'Been like that ever since I brought him back,' Gaskin told them.

'I much prefer him that way,' said Angela.

Gaskin wanted to take Angela to the A&E department at Wardley Hospital, but she was having none of it.

'I'm perfectly all right,' she insisted. 'All I need is a bath and some of that brandy.' All the same, she accepted a chair from the Doctor and sank into it with a groan. 'I'm beginning to think Sadie has a point.

Perhaps I am getting too old for all this gallivanting.'

'Nonsense,' said the Doctor. 'Keeps you young look at me!'

Martha insisted on examining the old lady. 'No bones broken, at least. You're lucky. Just minor cuts and contusions.'

'She's as tough as old boots,' said Gaskin, handing her a drink.

'Here, get this down you.'

The damage could have been worse for all of them. Most of the rockfall had been deflected by the fallen cross-beam, under which the three of them had been able to shelter. Martha and Angela were bruised and dusty, but the Doctor had a nasty graze on his forehead. Angela's mobile phone chirped. 'Excuse me.' She opened it and then held it out at arm's length as she tried to focus on the display.