It gave Mary the creeps. The Doctor had told her a bit of what he had done in his life, but actually experiencing it was a different matter. She turned to look at him as he stared straight ahead, shining his torch from tree to tree. His eyes sparkled. He looked alive. He was enjoying this.
“They’re all down this tunnel,” said the Doctor. “I’m surprised they’re not already springing up at other stations.”
“It’s strange,” said Mary. “Where did they come from?”
“That’s what we need to find out.”
“It’s like they’re waiting.”
“Yes,” said the Doctor. He turned to look at her. “Worrying, isn’t it?”
“Just a bit.”
“Well, now we’ve established they’re all over down here, we best see what we can find out from them.” He pulled out a pair of toe nail clippers from inside his blazer pocket and placed them around a very small twig coming from a larger tree. “Just a small clipping will do.”
Snip.
He pocketed the sample and they were about to turn and leave when Mary jumped at the sound of a low, creaking coming from the tree.
“Was that that one?” she said, nodding at the tree,
“I think it was,” said the Doctor.
It’s branches began to twitch.
“I’m sorry,” said the Doctor. “I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
Mary looked bewildered. He was actually talking to a tree.
Then, with a lightning move, a branch suddenly bent backwards and flung itself at the Doctor, wrapping itself around the Doctor’s neck like a misshapen, wooden arm.
“Doctor!” said Mary, her fingers grabbing at the branch and trying to dislodge it from the Doctor.
Another branch snapped out and grabbed Mary around her ankle, pulling her to her knees. She twisted onto her back and kicked out with her free leg whilst the Doctor dropped to his knees.
The Doctor hit at the branch around Mary’s ankle with the end of his torch and it finally recoiled with a creaking scream from somewhere in the depths of the tree’s trunk.
Mary scrambled to her feet and brought her foot down on the branch wrapped around the Doctor’s neck. It snapped and the piece around the Doctor’s neck went limp.
He pulled it away from him, grabbed Mary’s hand and they both ran back up the tunnel the way they had come, all the time tree branches lashing out and snapping at them.
Back at the platform Maxus and Tylaya were sat on the edge dangling their feet over. They were aware of a commotion from up the escalator and a group of green-clad policemen came running in.
“You two need to get out of here,” said the oldest policeman.
“We’re just waiting for someone,” said Maxus quickly.
“There’s nobody left on that train,” said the officer. “You need to leave now. We’re evacuating the area around the cathedral.”
“Wait,” said Tylaya, holding out a finger. “Can you hear that?”
It was a creaking sound coming from the trees surrounding the train. The group turned to look at the train as the branches began to sway, slowly at first, and then more and more violently, causing the train to shake.
“We need to leave now,” said the officer.
“No, we can’t,” said Tylaya.
“Ty,” said Maxus, taking her hand, “we can’t risk staying here. The Doctor’s on his own now.”
“I can’t just leave him!” she said, pulling away from Maxus.
Maxus frowned. “Why not? It’s not like he’s our friend or anything.”
Tylaya couldn’t answer that. She had no loyalties to him. Maybe she was doing it out of guilt for what they did to Alice, but there was something niggling away at the back of her head. She just couldn’t leave him.
“Get out of here!” came a familiar shout from down the tunnel.
Emerging from the darkness and climbing up onto the platform was the Doctor, Mary in tow. They both looked battered and bruised and the Doctor had a large gash on the side of his face.
“I said get out of here!” yelled the Doctor.
Tylaya, Maxus and the police didn’t need any other warnings. The tree branches burst from the wrecked train carriage and lashed out at them as the group made their way across the platform and up the escalators. One of the policeman had stayed back to usher up his civilians, when a branch lashed out at him and dragged him towards the train.
His colleague turned and was about to run back when the Doctor grabbed his arm to stop him. “No. It’s already too late.”
They made their way through the upper part of the station, the screams of the policeman coming from behind them, and finally made their way up the steps and back into the open area outside the cathedral.
The Doctor dropped to his knees, out of breath, and Mary rushed to his side.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” said the Doctor. He shook his head. “We should never have gone down there.”
“Did you find what you were looking for?” said Maxus.
“I got a sample of the tree. We just need to examine it to find out what we’re dealing with.”
“Back to the ship then?” said Tylaya.
“Yes, is it still there?”
The Doctor had parked the TARDIS in a car park behind some bins at the back of the hostel Tylaya and Maxus were staying at.
“Of course it’s still there,” said Tylaya.
“Good,” said the Doctor. “Mary, I suggest you go back to the Corkonian, gather your belongings and get out of the city.” He looked. The police were sending more and more reinforcements and more trees were beginning to push their way through the concrete from the station below.
“I’d rather stay with you, Doctor,” she said.
“Mary-”
“No arguments. You need someone to take care of you.”
“I have Ty and Maxus.”
Mary leaned in and spoke in a hushed voice. “Do you trust them?”
The Doctor narrowed his eyes and then looked down at Mary. He wasn’t sure he really did trust them. They weren’t his friends after all. “Okay. You can come. But stay beside me at all times.”
“Wouldn’t wanna be anywhere else, sweetheart,” said Mary with a smile.
In one of the suburbs of the city, a white van was racing through the streets. They weren’t bothered about keeping to the speed limit. The police had too much on their hands already. The van didn’t have any number plates and no signs on it whatsoever.
At the wheel was a heavy set man with a beard and greying hair. Sat next to him was a small, dark-haired woman who looked like one of her parents could have been Korean.
“Be careful, Michael,” said the woman.
“I am careful,” said Michael with a grunt. “We need to get there, don’t we? Before they close off the city?”
“Yes,” said the woman, “but I’d preferably like to get there alive.”
“We should have thought about this before they started growing.”
“We couldn’t be sure, could we? Now drive safely. We need to get there in one piece.”
The four of them made their way from the cathedral area, down some steps and past the taxi area in front of the main train station. People were now hastily making their way from the cathedral and the police were beginning to coordinate the evacuation.
The Doctor led the group down a side street and across another main road until they found the street where the Station Hostel was located on. It was a basic, red-brick building and had been welcoming travellers for quite some time.
When the TARDIS had originally landed, the Doctor had checked Tylaya and Maxus into a room and had left them there.
The inside of the hostel was warm and inviting. To the left was a reception desk and to the right a seating area were a couple of young men were sat playing chess.
All along the walls were posters and pictures of various musicians and maps of the world. The CD player had a Beatles album playing on it. The Doctor recognised it as the White Album. He fondly remembered singing the chorus to “The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill” at the recording studio that day. There was an inner door set in the far wall that led to the lift, stairwell and out into the car park.
The Doctor disappeared through the door and returned a few minutes later with a complicated looking microscope.
He politely asked the chess players to move - which they did with a little grumble - and set up the microscope. With a small filing knife he cut part of the twig away and placed it on a glass slide under the microscope.
He peered into the device for a good few seconds before looking up, slightly bemused.
“Well?” said Maxus.
“Just a minute,” said the Doctor, returning to look in the microscope.
Maxus sighed and the other three sat down. Tylaya picked up a magazine and began flicking through it.
“What is it with you two?” said Mary.
The Doctor glanced up momentarily, but then returned to the microscope.
“What do you mean?” said Tylaya, looking up from the magazine.
“What do you have against the Doctor?” she said.
“Nothing,” said Maxus. “We’re just not friends. He kidnapped us.”
“Kidnapped is a strong word,” said the Doctor, still looking down the microscope.
“Then what happened?”
“Long story,” said Tylaya.
“Well we’ve got time,” said Mary.
Tylaya closed her eyes. “I possessed his friend. My fiancé wiped his friends memory and now he’s keeping us with him in case he finds a way to wipe me out and bring her back.”
“That’s enough,” said the Doctor.
“Is it true?” said Mary, trying to understand this world that she’d just been thrown into.
“Yes,” said the Doctor. “Can we move on and deal with the task at hand?”
“Which is?”
“Aha!” said the Doctor.
“Alien trees?” said Maxus, sounding as disinterested as he could possibly be.
“No,” said the Doctor. “In fact, they’re normal Earth trees.”
“Then what-?”
“It looks like they’ve been infected with something. There’s some kind of DNA sequence running through them. Like they’ve been augmented.”
“Who by?” said Maxus.
“By whom,” corrected the Doctor. Then his face turned into a look of anger. “And how the hell should I know?” said the Doctor. “I’m looking at the damn thing through a microscope. It’s not going to have a ‘made in such-and-such’ label running through it.”
“Okay, easy now, Doctor,” said Mary.
The Doctor closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’m sorry.” He looked at Maxus and Tylaya. “I’m sorry to you two as well.”
“Apology accepted,” said Tylaya.
“It’s not the first time and it won’t be the last,” said Maxus.
“We need to go and find out what else is happening out there,” said the Doctor.
Maxus and Tylaya had remained in the hostel, keeping an eye on the Doctor’s equipment whilst he and Mary had ventured back outside.
The city was slowly descending into chaos. They made their way down the narrow road that led from the Station Hostel and past the Cologne Hilton. Overhead two helicopters whirred into view, both of them heading towards the cathedral area, the snowflakes whipping around the blades. It reminded the Doctor of being back in Thornsby when the snow came.
When they turned the corner Mary didn’t know what to make of the scene. Trees had sprouted up all over the area around the cathedral, each of them from a hole in the ground. These trees weren’t as aggressive as the ones they had encountered down in the tunnels, but they were still moving. It was like they were getting used to their new surroundings.
All of the trees were being watched by the police, but nobody dared to make a move. They had heard what had happened to their colleague down in the station.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Mary.
“No,” said the Doctor. “They seem to be springing up all over the place. If we don’t work this out soon this whole area will look like a forest.”
Mary shook her head. “You do this all the time?”
“Most of the time,” said the Doctor.
There was still a small number of vehicles moving around the built up area around the cathedral, but by now the city was almost at a standstill.
Mary and the Doctor were both distracted when they heard the screeching of tyres and a white van emerged from around the corner, narrowly missing a stationary car.
The Doctor watched on intently as the van sped past them and screeched to a halt. A young, dark-haired woman and a heavy set man with a beard jumped out. They both ran to the back of the van and pulled out black balaclavas, pulling them over their heads.
“What the hell…?” said Mary.
The man then pulled out a chain saw and the two of them headed towards the nearest tree.
The man switched on the chainsaw and it whirred into life.
“Hey!” said the Doctor, making his way towards them.
“Be careful, Doc,” said Mary.
“Stay back!” said the woman, pulling out a gun and aiming it at the Doctor.
The chain saw hit the tree and wood shavings spat up, covering the man’s balaclava as he began slowly cutting through the tree trunk.
“What are you doing?” said the Doctor, careful not to make any sudden moves.
“It doesn’t concern you,” said the woman. “Stay back!”
By now two police officers had spotted the commotion and were heading over.
“Hurry up!” said the woman.
“What was it you said about speed?” said the man with a chuckle.
The policemen were now running over.
“Don’t make me use this,” said the woman. She was talking to herself more than anyone else.
“Stop!” said one the officers. They were almost on top of them.
“Don’t do it,” said Mary, noticing the woman’s wavering hand.
The man was almost through the tree, but the police man was almost on top of them.
“HURRY MICHAEL!”
The police officer lunged at the woman and she shot. The sound rang out around the built up buildings and the policeman fell to the floor, clutching his knee in pain, the gun shot wound oozing blood.
“Any further and the next one goes in his head,” said the woman.
“It’s done!” said the man as the small tree screamed and came away from its roots.
“Get it in the van,” ordered the woman.
She covered the remaining police officers, the Doctor and Mary with the gun as Michael hefted the tree up and bundled it into the back of his van.
“Follow us and you’re dead,” said the woman as they clambered back in, revved the engine, reversed, skidded around and made their way back down the street.
The Doctor whipped out his screwdriver and took a reading from the van as it disappeared around the corner.
“Do we follow them?” said Mary, worriedly.
“We need to know where they’re going first. Come on!”
As the Doctor and Mary headed back to the hostel, the trees began to scream, their branches whipping around and knocking people out of the way.
And as Cologne descended into chaos, something stranger began to stir back in the tunnels.
Next time: The Doctor and Tylaya had to the suburbs, whilst Mary and Maxus attempt to cross the Rhine. Coming Sunday 21st September 2014.
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