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.
The same thing was happening with other people. The Doctor ran from person to person with Martha, helping to pull them free before the weeds could get a grip, shoving them away towards the edge of the village green.
Sometimes they arrived too late, and could do nothing but stare in horror as some poor person disappeared beneath the writhing growth, their own mouths and nostrils filled with the pale weed before a single cry for help could be heard.
The white roots spurted from the ground beneath Gaskin, jerking towards his legs, but he was pulled out of the way just in time. "Get back to the Land-Rover!" yelled the Doctor, pushing him towards the approaching vehicle. Angela was at the wheel, driving across the undulating green, crushing the flailing weed beneath the muddy wheels.
She skidded to a halt, and Gaskin climbed in next to Duncan Goode.
As soon as the door shut, she hit the accelerator. The Land-Rover lurched off, heading away from the well. Martha caught a glimpse of Duncan"s face looking out of the back window at her.
"What about us?" asked Martha. She and the Doctor were left stranded in the middle of a mud bath heaving with Vurosis weeds.
But the Doctor was already tearing off in another direction altogether, heading for someone else nearer the well.
Nigel Carson was crawling along on his hands and knees towards the Vurosis, ignoring the white tendrils that s.n.a.t.c.hed at his ankles and wrists. "No! It"s me!" he cried. "It"s Nigel! I"m here!"
Martha couldn"t believe what she was seeing. "What does he think he"s doing?"
"He still thinks the brain is going to talk to him again."
"He must be crazy."
"Desperate," the Doctor corrected her. "But then, so are we."
"What?" Martha watched as the Doctor ran after Nigel. She hurried after him, guessing that it was only the fact that they had kept moving that had saved them from the weeds so far.
Nigel rose up on his knees before the Vurosis, like a supplicant at prayer. He held his hands aloft and cried out to it once more. "Why did you leave me?" he implored. "Why?"
All at once Martha realised he was addressing a particular part of the creature which now curled out from the well-shaft like an enormous maggot crawling out of the ground. A convoluted series of inter-locking cartilage plates shifted as Nigel spoke, opening like the flowers of a petal to reveal a cl.u.s.ter of blood-red eyes the size of melons. Each eyeball was veined with milky lines and had a central, gleaming black pupil. They all moved independently, revolving in the flesh, some of them bulging out as if seeking a better view of the man kneeling before them.
"Can"t you hear me?" Nigel wailed. "Do you even recognise me?"
A hole opened up beneath the distending eyes with a horrible sucking noise. A green light shone from inside it, and as the hole widened Martha saw, and recognised, the stone that belonged to Nigel. It was shining with a rich, emerald light.
nigel carson Nigel sat bolt upright and sobbed with relief. "Yes! Yes! It"s me!"
you have been very useful to me Martha looked at the Doctor, a question on her face. He nodded grimly. "Yes. I can hear it too."
"Oh, please, thank you, thank you. . . " babbled Nigel. He edged forward on his knees, squelching through the mud. "I thought you had forgotten me!"
not forgotten "Thank goodness!"
just ignored "What?" Nigel frowned in disbelief. "What do you mean, ignored?"
you were useful to me The brain glowed brighter.
but not any more A blinding spark licked from the mouth of the Vurosis and connected with Nigel Carson"s head. He was instantly enveloped in a coc.o.o.n of shimmering green light. He threw back his head and arms and screamed, long and hard, as his body blackened and cracked and then crumbled into glowing fragments. The light died as the mouth closed with a rasp, and the human remains were scattered in the mud like dying embers. Within moments they had faded to nothing more than bits of grey clinker and dust.
There was silence for a few seconds, and then Martha heard a slow, deliberate hand clap.
"Oh, very good," said the Doctor. "Instant biomutation every cell in the body changes too fast and overloads. The energy increase has nowhere to go, so phff phff ! Zap! Gone! Of course, I"ve seen it before. ! Zap! Gone! Of course, I"ve seen it before.
Remember Barney Hackett?"
There was a pause.
you address me "Yeah, that"s right." The Doctor stalked forwards, hands in pockets.
"Vurosis, isn"t it? From somewhere near Actron Pleiades?"
you understand my origin "I understand quite a lot of things, Quantum physics and time travel. Black hole theory and cellular regeneration. I even understand cricket. But what I can"t understand. . . is why you did that to poor Nigel."
he was no longer useful "Seems a little harsh."
that is irrelevant "Ah. I thought you"d say something like that."
what are you? you are not like these other things "I"m the Doctor."
you are not of this world "No, I"m just a guest here. A bit like you." The Doctor pulled a face. "Well, when I say a bit like you, of course I don"t mean anything like you. For one thing I don"t have tentacles. And for another, my brain isn"t detachable. You know, that must be a pretty useful knack to have." A frown crossed the Doctor"s face. "Then again, I can"t think what for."
i have no interest in you "What? No interest at all? Surely you want an autograph." The Doctor smiled and winked, "They usually do." Martha moved a step closer to the Doctor. "What are you doing?"
she whispered.
"I"ve no idea. What are you doing?"
"Watching you talk yourself into an early grave. That thing could kill you like that that." Martha snapped her fingers.
"It could but it hasn"t. Interesting, isn"t it?"
The Vurosis may have been listening to this exchange, or it may not. It was impossible to tell. For all Martha knew, it had already lost interest in the Doctor. White roots were still creeping through the mud, probing at their feet and ankles, but apparently willing to leave them alone for now. Whatever that meant Martha could not guess.
She risked a glance behind her. What she saw was like a vision from another world. The village green had disappeared. In its place was a carpet of white weed, stalks waving out of the mud like the fingers of a hundred corpses searching for a way out of the grave. Here and there were larger clumps of the strange plant-like growth, some a couple of metres high, like small, twisted trees made of bone. They were the remains of the people who had been caught on the green when the Vurosis retaliated.
Further out, right at the edge of what once had been a perfect lawn, there was movement. Thin, wire-like strands, knotted with what looked like thorns, were rising from the ground. They grew rapidly, extending up and around the area, forming a barrier around the village green like a wall of brambles. Beyond them, Martha could see Angela"s Land-Rover. Soon it had all but disappeared behind a forest of thorns.
"It"s cutting us off," said the Doctor surprisingly calmly. "An exclusion zone around the well. Why?"
"Does it matter?" Martha could hardly speak. "It"s won, hasn"t it?"
"Has it? Why"s it growing a big, th.o.r.n.y wall around us, then?"
"What do you mean?"
"It"s protecting itself," the Doctor told her quietly. "Which means it"s vulnerable."
"How?" Martha looked back at the Vurosis. It was still oozing slowly from the well-shaft. "I wonder. . . " The Doctor stepped closer to the well and then spoke loudly. "Must be an awful tight fit in that well. Don"t tell me you"re stuck!"