Part 22 (1/2)
*YELLOW POWDER DEPOSITS ON SKIN*
*FLAKING SKIN*
*DISSOLVING SKIN OR CLOTHING*
*VOMITING, CRYING OR BLEEDING CORROSIVE ACID*
WHAT TO DO IF YOU THINK YOU ARE INFECTED.
* FOR SKIN INFECTIONS USE HOUSEHOLD BLEACH DILUTED 1:5.
WITH WARM WATER. APPLY TO INFECTED AREA. DO NOT WASH.
OFF.
* FOR INTERNAL INFECTIONS USE HOUSEHOLD BLEACH DILUTED.
1:20 WITH WARM WATER. ADJUST SOLUTION STRENGTH FOR.
INDIVIDUAL NEEDS.
* IF INFECTION PERSISTS OR SPREADS INCREASE STRENGTH OF.
BLEACH SOLUTION.
IF YOU ARE UNSURE ABOUT POSSIBLE INFECTION USE ENCLOSED.
VOMIT KIT.
TO USE THE KIT:.
* INGEST BLEACH SOLUTION UNTIL VOMITING OCCURS?.
* TRAP SAMPLE OF VOMIT IN TEST TUBE PROVIDED.
* APPLY INDICATOR PAPER AND CHECK COLOR AGAINST COLOR.
CHART PROVIDED?.
!!IMPORTANT I!.
A RED COLORATION SIGNIFIES ACID CONTENT COMMENSURATE.
WITH INFECTION.
DO NOT a.s.sUME A BLUE COLORATION INSURES SAFETY?.
REMEMBER: INFECTION CAN OCCUR AT ANY TIME.
REPEAT THIS CHECK REGULARLY TO INSURE YOU ARE FREE OF.
INFECTION.
REMEMBER: ANYONE AND ANYTHING CAN BE A VECTOR.
FRIENDS, FAMILY, HOUSEHOLD PETS, FOOD, CUTLERY, HOUSEHOLD FURNITURE, FAMILY AND PUBLIC VEHICLES, STONE, WOOD, OTHER ORGANIC AND INORGANIC MATERIALS CAN CARRY.
THE INFECTION?.
!IPROTECT AND SURVIVE!!.
***URGENT*** *'*DEPT OF PUBLIC INFORMATION*” ***URGENT***
Chapter 9.
I suppose I'd been lying on the ground for a couple of hours when the Doctor showed up with Jason in tow. That was typical: I'd been working on staying quiet and concentrating on recovering from Liz's taser shock, hoping that as far as Tammuz was concerned it was out of sight and out of mind, when Jason turns up with a football crowd of villagers and half the Turkish army - and a bunch of animals for heaven's sake - who together made a bigger hullabaloo than Springsteen did even before he was elected President.
Of course that was when Tammuz noticed us and began 'spraying bullets everywhere as if they were going out of fas.h.i.+on.
The fact that the Ark itself chose that moment to wake up and try to kill us all was probably just bad luck. But it really felt like someone was out to get me.
By the time the Doctor showed up with an old cardboard box containing a few gramophone records and about a hundred personal force-field units on old wrist.w.a.tch straps, I as just about ready to quit. I'd been shot at, tasered, and now ga.s.sed. I just wanted to call it a day. I felt like I was coughing my lungs up. I didn't want to play the hero any more. I didn't want to second-guess people I thought I knew and then be wrong. I didn't even want to argue with Jason. What I wanted was a beach, some sun block, and a huge mint julep with an alcohol-to-fruit-juice ratio that looked like one of those STEEP HILL warning signs.
Instead I got a personal force-field emitter superglued to a Rolex expandable watch strap, a fifteen-second s.h.i.+atsu pressure-point workout that had me yelling aloud as life bounced back into my tired, electrocuted old body, and a force-field pressure cuff to staunch my dear husband's newly bullet-punctured arm.
Jason himself was squealing. That was the only word I can use to describe it. And he was muttering something about not being able to rescue me.
About being sorry.
I shook my head tiredly. 'Why break the habit of a lifetime?' I had meant to make a joke, relieve the tension a bit. I really was glad to see him. But the words came out more sharply than I intended. Jason took them badly. He turned away. I tried to go after him but the Doctor chose that moment to hand me the cardboard box he'd been carrying. It was then that I saw there were medical supplies inside, resting on a bed of dusty gramophone records and saucy postcards, most of which seemed to date from before the Blitz.
By this time Chris had issued a set of force fields to the soldiers and had led them off after Tammuz. All except the one who was dead. I placed a force-field cuff on his wrist to prevent the sulphur dioxide combining, producing sulphuric acid in his body and rotting it away. As a gesture it wasn't much; it was all I could do.
I told Jason to take some force-field generators and check if Tammuz had left any NASA technicians alive in the main control area. He did as he was told, though there was a too-familiar sulky expression on his face.
I began to treat the injured villagers. I applied pressure cuffs to the three most serious injuries (none of which was life-threatening) and treated the remaining gas injuries (more serious) with organic alkaline. Treating the injuries didn't take very long. Rea.s.suring the people and calming them down was the hard work. Panic's a killer. Especially when you're isolated in an alien environment that is doing its best to kill you, and half of your friends are on the ground with sulphuric acid burns or bullet wounds.
I remember the Doctor turning up at one point, grabbing the gramophone records out of the box and rus.h.i.+ng back off to the TARDIS humming the words to 'Tobacco Road' under his breath. 'I don't know about you, Benny, but I simply can't work without music,' he called back over his shoulder. It was then I noticed that the TARDIS was looking decidedly worse for wear, with crusty yellow patches forming slowly on its blue wooden sh.e.l.l. The doors opened and the Doctor vanished inside, mumbling, ' ”Bring dynamite and a crane. Blow it up, start all over again”.' The doors slammed shut.
Only then did I think to wonder how the Doctor was able to walk around in all this sulphur dioxide without a force field of his own.
That was when Jason came back, favouring his injured arm and supporting a half-suffocated technician with his good one. He had fitted a force field to the technician but had been too late to prevent terminal sulphur dioxide poisoning. The man clutched Jason and convulsed suddenly. He died as I watched.
'Jason. You can let him go now.' Jason blinked.
'Jason, let him go, love. There's nothing you can do.'