Part 19 (1/2)

not to judge. . . the banana by its skin. . . '

'He's delirious,' said the Doctor. 'There could be brain damage.'

'No,' said Martha with a laugh. 'No, he's not delirious. He's asking me for a date, that's all.'

The Doctor frowned, then looked back at Duncan. 'Crikey, you don't waste any time, do you?'

By this point quite a crowd had gathered around the well. Gaskin and Angela were the closest, but behind them were all the people from the pub, now considering it safe to approach, and a number of people from the nearest houses. The commotion grew.

'What's going on?'

'Someone call the police.'

'Has someone died?'

'Is it a murder?'

'There's been an accident.'

'Wait, I'll get my camcorder.'

'Let me through, I'm a doc. . . oh. Well. Perhaps not. . . '

Gaskin turned and addressed them. 'All right, everybody, there's nothing to see here. . . '

'You're the one with the shotgun, mate!'

Quite a lot of people had their mobile phones out and were taking pictures. Angela had fetched a blanket from the Land-Rover and put it around Duncan's shoulders. With help from Martha, he was just about able to stand. 'How did I get here?' he asked weakly. 'I don't remember anything after the skeleton. . . '

'It's all right,' she told him gently. 'It's over. We'll look after you now.'

But the Doctor was shaking his head. 'No. No, no, no. It's not over.'

There was a sudden tremor beneath their feet. Everyone felt it, including those still lurking outside the pub to watch. A buzz of consternation pa.s.sed through the crowd, and many of them looked down at their feet.

Angela was the first one to notice the change. 'Look at the gra.s.s!'

she said.

Even in the light of the Land-Rover's headlamps they could see that something was wrong. The gra.s.s was no longer green. Every blade had darkened to an oily black colour, as if suddenly poisoned by something beneath the soil.

'Eew,' someone said. 'Look. Worms.'

Everyone looked down at their feet, where the ground was beginning to squirm. Hundreds of worms were crawling out of the earth, oozing from the soil in a sudden, horrifying exodus. A lot of the women and some of the men screamed and ran as the worms continued to emerge, until the entire village green was alive with a glistening, rippling carpet.

'What's happening?' Martha said, revolted and fascinated at the same time. She helped Duncan into Angela's Land-Rover and climbed up onto the footplate to avoid the crawling ma.s.s at her feet.

'They're trying to escape,' said the Doctor.

'Escape what?'

'That,' he replied, pointing at the well.

The green glow had returned, but this time it was much brighter. It shone fiercely up into the night like a search beam, casting a strange alien pallor across the clouds above. The light seemed to pulse in time to a desperate, awful heart beat unlike anything Martha had ever heard before.

And then, inside the green glow, something moved. Thin white fingers crept over the edge of the parapet, hundreds of them, creeping over the wall and down the outside of it like something boiling over in a pan.

And then, in the midst of the groping weeds, the Vurosis started to emerge from the well.[image]

Thegreenglowflickeredasthecreaturecrawleduptheshaft,filling the head of the well with a profusion of brown, segmented tentacles. They rose from the shaft like a cl.u.s.ter of snakes searching for prey, probing at the wall, the stanchions, the broken windla.s.s. They wrapped around the spindle like thick ropes, and then with a grind-ing, crunching roar, the wooden beam broke in two.

'It's. . .

enormous,' Martha breathed, reaching out automatically and grasping the Doctor by the hand. She felt the rea.s.suring pressure of his grip, and when she looked at him she could see his expression of awe as the monster continued to spew out of the earth.

A crusty, carbuncled head emerged from the shaft, the tentacles rooted inside it like those of a squid. Beneath the gnarled carapace was a moist, puckered mouth. It opened and closed spasmodically, revealed rings of tiny, spine-like teeth strung with mucus. At once the orifice dilated and emitted a loud, piercing hiss. Slime sprayed through the air on a gust of fetid breath.

'It's been growing down there for years, remember,' the Doctor said as they began to back away. 'It's spread out beneath the well, beneath the whole village probably.' Martha could feel the rising panic thudding in her chest as the Vurosis oozed further out of the well like toothpaste from a tube. Around the glistening body, sharp spines were emerging like barbs, extending and then waving like antennae. The mouth was still sucking in air, hyperventilating as if the creature was building up to something.

'What's it going to do?' she asked the Doctor.

'I don't know.'

'How can we stop it?'

'I don't know.'

Martha looked at him again. His long, angular face was taut with fear, his eyes wide and anxious. The Vurosis was still climbing, a long, segmented body rising from the well-shaft trailing long, prehensile white roots. The roots began to creep down the wall and onto the gra.s.s.

By now many people were screaming and running. Angela was in the driver's seat of the Land-Rover, struggling to get it started.

Gaskin joined the Doctor and Martha and raised his shotgun. 'Don't try to stop me this time, Doctor,' he growled.

'Feel free,' the Doctor told him. 'Won't do any good.'

Gaskin put the gun to his shoulder, aimed at the monstrous thing crawling out of the well, and pulled the triggers. Both barrels discharged with a deafening crack, and a cloud of shot tore into the creature's dirt-streaked hide.

The Vurosis let out a gasping snarl, and a brown tentacle snapped down and wrenched the shotgun out of Gaskin's hands.

'Told you,' said the Doctor.

Gaskin looked at his empty hands in disbelief. 'What now?'

'Retaliation, I imagine.'

The ground trembled and, all over the village green, thin white roots emerged from the gra.s.s, forced up out of the earth like needles.

They extended, stretching, wavering, and all of them seemed to be concentrated in cl.u.s.ters where people were still standing.

The weeds attacked whoever was nearest, suddenly attaching themselves to their flesh. One of them was Lucy, the barmaid from the Drinking Hole. She let out a blood-curdling shriek as the roots rose up and overwhelmed her. Within seconds, she was completely submerged.