As they walked forward the figure came into focus. It was about seven foot tall, wide and with every step it made creaking sounds.
“Hello,” said the Doctor softly as if talking to an animal. “Who are you then?”
“Be careful,” hissed Tylaya.
“I think we’re okay,” said the Doctor. He held up a torch and shone it at the creature.
Tylaya didn’t know whether to feel horrified or sick. The creature was actually a tree. It was part humanoid-part tree. It reminded her of an old film she had seen when she was small - ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz’. In that film there had been strange, talking trees with faces. This is what this tree looked like, except it was stranger. It had almost arm-like branches and dragged itself along on where it’s trunk had split in two like some strange, deformed legs.
And it had a face. Not much of one, but there were two, gnarled holes for eyes and a jagged mouth.
It stretched out a gnarled arm towards the Doctor and Tylaya, and then collapsed to ground in a heap.
The Doctor was at it’s side in an instant and turned it over with great difficulty. The face looked sad and scared, but it was no longer moving. He whipped out his screwdriver and ran it over the tree-person.
“Anything?” said Tylaya, feeling sorry for the creature.
“No,” said the Doctor. “It’s gone.” He stood up, a look of determination on his face. “I don’t know how this has happened, but somebody is playing dangerous experiments. We need to find them. Now.”
Maxus wasn’t really sure what was happening. He could see tree branches flying backwards and forwards in the distance. And then he saw Mary’s face flashing in and out of focus. And then the young soldier. He was moving, the cloudy sky above him made him feel more and more tired.
He felt cold and tired as he drifted out of consciousness again. And for a split second he thought he saw her…
It had taken around 45 minutes, but the Doctor and Tylaya had finally reached a station that was still running it’s tube trains.
They emerged into the light of the Leyendeckerstraße station and quickly jumped onto the platform as curious onlookers frowned, wondering why two people had emerged from the tunnels.
One of the KVB trains was waiting at the platform in front of them.
“Look,” said Tylaya. “Ollenhauerring.” She pointed at the orange readout on the train. “That’s where we’re going, isn’t it?”
“Yep,” said the Doctor, pressing the button and helping her through the double doors. “And then maybe we can put an end to this.”
A few minutes later the train sprung into life and entered into the tunnels, heading towards it’s destination. They passed a number of stations along the route until they finally emerged out of the tunnels and into the sunlight where the tramlines began their overhead journey.
Tylaya stared out of the window and smiled as the golden light of the setting sun shone through, casting everything around them in a haze.
“Sorry,” said the Doctor quietly.
“Hmm?” said Tylaya. She almost thought she hadn’t heard him.
“I’m sorry,” he said again. “I should be a better man.”
She smiled sadly at him and nodded. “Thank you.”
The recorded voice over the speaker system reported that the next station was Ollenhauerring as they turned a corner, the tramline running alongside a main road to the right and a tree lined walkway to the left. Tylaya felt safer here. These trees didn’t look dangerous at all.
The train came to a halt and the Doctor and Tylaya stepped off the train. It was colder here away from the built up area of the city and the sun had almost set. The Doctor rubbed his hands together and then put on a dark blue pair of gloves.
“Where now?” said Tylaya, looking around her.
“This way,” said the Doctor, checking the readings on the screwdriver and heading down sloped ramp designed for wheelchairs, around a corner and down a street.
To their right was a large, white block of apartments. More trees surrounded the various blocks that made it look more picturesque than it maybe should have done.
By now the screwdriver was beeping more and more rapidly as they made another right and headed towards the block of flats. Stood in one of the parking spaces between a red sports car and a yellow people carrier was the white van they had seen earlier in the day.
“It’s them,” said Tylaya.
The Doctor strode up to the security door that led to the stairwell and the flats and activated the screwdriver, unlocking the door. They snuck inside and as the Doctor stepped nearer to one of the apartment doors the sonic beeped faster and faster.
“In there,” said the Doctor. He knocked on the door as hard as he could and a few minutes later the door opened. Standing there was a man with a shaved head, glasses and dressed in a black shirt and jeans.
“Yes?” he said, frowning at the Doctor and Tylaya.
“The game is up,” said the Doctor, with a smirk.
“I beg your pardon?” said the man, looking more and more confused.
“Don’t try and play the fool,” said the Doctor, training to peer over the mans shoulder into the apartment.
“I don’t understand,” said the man. “Who are you?”
“Do you have a tree in there?”
“What?”
“Doctor,” said Tylaya, tugging on the Doctor’s sleeve. The Doctor turned and followed her gaze. On the flight of steps leading up to the next floor there was a small collection of leaves.
They were twitching.
“Oh, yes,” said the man, “you might want to check in the flat above us. I’ve been hearing strange noises coming up there all day.”
“Do you know who’s up there?” said the Doctor, crossing over to the steps.
“No,” said the man, “but I think they moved in a few weeks ago. Been nothing but noise.”
“Thank you,” said Tylaya, smiling at the man.
“Yes,” said the Doctor, still frowning at the man.
“You’re welcome,” he said, closing the door.
The Doctor and Tylaya made their way up to the next floor where the sonic was now emitting almost a constant whine. The Doctor switched it off as they stepped up to the door to the above apartment.
“Do we knock?” said Tylaya.
“No,” said the Doctor. “Not this time.”
He aimed the screwdriver at the door and it unlocked. They then pushed the door open slowly.
Maxus slowly drifted back into the real world. Mary and the soldier came into focus, but he wasn’t lying on the hard concrete of the Deutzer bridge. He was instead lying on a bed with a ceiling and light above him.
“Where…?”
“Me and Fabian got you back to the hostel,” said Mary.
“Fabian?”
“The soldier who shot you.”
“Great,” said Maxus. He turned to the pasty faced soldier. He barely looked old enough to carry a fire arm. “Thanks.”
Fabian smiled nervously.
“What happened?”
“I didn’t think we were gonna get out alive,” said Mary, shaking her head in disbelief. “The other two soldiers were killed. Those branches just ripped the bridge in two. We just made it back in time.”
Maxus sat up and shook his head. He noticed the bandage over his exposed left side of his chest.
“I patched you up,” said Fabian, “but we’re going to have to get you to a doctor eventually.”
“Hopefully my Doctor will come back before too long.”
Mary crossed over to the hostel rooms window and looked out. The view of the Rhine would have been quite beautiful on a summers day, but now it looked quite bleak. She could see the twisted metal and concrete of the Deutzer bridge as it lay, sinking down into the cold water. The branches had also disappeared.
“So what do we do,” said Maxus, sitting up and wincing in pain. “We can’t stay here.”
“That’s exactly what we’re going to have to do,” said Mary. “We can’t go out there now. The streets are being overrun by trees, and -” She stopped, staring at something in the car park below.
“What?” said Fabian, crossing over to join her. “What the hell…?” he said as he looked down at the car park.
Maxus eased himself off the bed and then found the strength to make it over to the window. “Is that a tree?” he said.
Down below in the car park, next to the TARDIS, was a large tree. But something was different about it. It was creaking and cracking and slowly it’s branches were twisting around. It’s base cracked in two, it’s routes wiggling about, helping it to move along the concrete. In the middle of the tree trunk, towards the top of the tree, a crack appeared followed by another two, smaller cracks above it.
“It looks-”
“Humanoid,” said Maxus. He swallowed hard as the tree bent and twisted it’s trunk to look up at them. “They’re evolving into something else.”
The tree screamed in much the same way that a baby cried after it had been born. And then, with one big leap, it launched itself at the building, sticking it’s twigs and branches into any gap it could find in the brick work.
“This doesn’t look good,” said Fabian, picking up his rifle instinctively.
The tree slowly but surely started hauling itself up the side of the hostel, smashing windows as it went. It was slow, but it was determined.
“We need to get out of here,” said Maxus.
“I’ve already said the streets are full of trees. What’s to say they’re not all going to start turning into the same thing.”
Maxus looked around the room for an answer, knowing full well there weren’t any. “We can’t just stay here. We need to risk it.”
“With your wound?” said Mary, nodding towards his bandage. He had started bleeding again.
“I’d rather risk it out there than stay and die in here,” growled Maxus.
Mary couldn’t argue with that. She was terrified. She didn’t want to go out there, but waiting here was just suicide. It was only a matter of time before the tree reached them.
“So we run?” said Fabian, already near to the door. “I can shoot at it if you want.”
“No,” said Maxus, “that’ll only attract attention. We can’t have a whole army of these things after us.”
There was a loud explosion from somewhere in the distance and a plume of smoke appeared over the tops of buildings.
“Looks like your army buddies have brought in the heavy artillery,” said Maxus. “We need to go now. As far away as possible.”
“Agreed,” said Mary. “Let’s go.”
They made for the door just as the branch-like arm of the trees smashed through the window and pulled itself over the window sill.
They bolted down the corridor and flew down the four flights of stairs. The hostel was empty and abandoned now, and thankfully there was nothing on the other side of the outer door.
“Hey,” said Mary, “I have a thought. Why don’t we just hide in the Doctor’s box?”
“Because he never gave me a key,” said Maxus. “I can’t be trusted, remember?”
They exited the building and turned the corner only to discover another five trees in the final stage of their mutation into humanoid shape.
“Back the other way,” said Fabian. “Quick!”
The Doctor and Tylaya crept into the darkened apartment. The walls were white and there didn’t appear to be any sign of furniture in the hallway. To the left was a toilet and directly ahead a bedroom. To the right the hallway stretched down to a bathroom with a kitchen and living room to the right side and another two bedrooms to the left side. From the bedroom nearest to the bathroom a blue glow was coming from behind the closed door.
The Doctor held a finger up to his lips and he and Tylaya inched forward. There was a gentle humming sound coming from behind the door and the Doctor put his ear against the wood to try and listen.
“Can I help you?” came a female voice.
The Doctor and Tylaya span around and standing there was a young, Asian-looking woman in a white lab coat.
“Yes,” said the Doctor quickly. “Yes you can. I’d like some explanations as to what’s going on here.”
“And how did you find us? I remember you from the city?”
“Technology beyond your realm of understanding,” said the Doctor.
“Really? Do you really think that?” She pushed past the Doctor and Tylaya and opened the bedroom door. Inside looked like some kind of futuristic lab. Three people were stood around the various pieces of equipment - including the heavy set man, Michael - and they all turned to look as the Doctor came in.
“Who the hell is he?” said Michael.
“Well?” said the woman. “My name’s Nina. This is Michael and his brother Thomas and over there is Linda. So won’t you please introduce yourselves?”
“Who are you working for?” said the Doctor, ignoring the question.
“Okay,” said Nina, “no pleasantries. Fine. We work for CFN.”
“Which is?”
“Campaigners For Nature.”
“Oh dear,” said the Doctor, rolling his eyes.
“You disapprove of helping nature? Of saving this planet?”
“Nina, I’ve saved this planet more times than you’ve had hot dinners, but I’ve heard of CFN.”
“You have?” said Tylaya, frowning.
“Yes. They died out during the early part of the 21st century.”
Michael laughed. “Don’t be stupid. We’re not going anywhere.”
“Exactly. You’re not going anywhere. Anywhere at all. The United Nations soon worked out that what you were doing wasn’t exactly for the good of the human race, to coin an old phrase.”
Tylaya looked a little sheepish.
“You can’t possibly know the future,” said Nina.
“Look me up. I’m under Doctor.”
Michael whispered in Nina’s ear. “Want me to get rid of them?”
“Not yet, Michael,” said Nina.
“So what have you been up to here?” said the Doctor, pushing past and crossing to some form of incubator. He peered inside the glass fronted cubicle. Inside was part of a tree, and it looked to have started to develop.
“This is hideous,” said Tylaya, joining the Doctor by his side.
“What on Earth are you playing at?” said the Doctor.
Nina folded her arms and looked down her nose at the Doctor. “This planet has been destroying nature for too long now. CFN decided to step in and allow nature to fight back.”
“But not like this.”
“I don’t understand the problem,” said Nina.
“The problem is that innocent people are dying in the city centre,” said Tylaya.
“Exactly,” said the Doctor. “How long before they spread out to the neighbouring suburbs?”
“But they’ll grow and develop and eventually learn to live side by side with us.”
“They won’t,” said the Doctor.
“And how can you be so sure?” said Michael.
“Because I’ve already seen one of your creations. It was lost and confused in the tunnels and it died right in front my eyes.”
“A side effect. We’ll perfect it.”
“And this one,” said Tylaya. “This one’s barely alive.”
“There has to be test subjects. We don’t like it, but it has to be done to better the rest of the race.” Nina was clearly faltering now. She was trying to convince herself.
“How did you even do any of this?” said the Doctor, trying to hold in his anger.
“Alien tech,” said Nina. “We have our contacts. People in the government that can get us the stuff we need. We just engineered a few seeds and dropped them in the heart of the city.”
The Doctor shook his head. “I want names.”
“Whose names?”
“The names of your contacts.”
“I don’t -”
“Tell me,” growled the Doctor.
Suddenly the cubicle next to them rumbled. Everyone’s eyes turned to the cubicle. It shook again. The something inside was waking up.
Maxus, Mary and Fabian had made it through part of the city and to a park area surrounded by high-rise buildings in a semicircle fashion around a lake. This was Mediapark where the Jolly Hotel had set up a refuge centre for people in the city. The deadly trees hadn’t taken route here.
They made their way across the main road and towards the gently curving bridge when Maxus dropped to his knees, clutching at his chest in agony.
“You’ve got to get up,” said Mary breathlessly. “We must keep moving.”
“Get me to the hotel,” said Maxus.
“We need to get further than that. Past the buildings is a hill and on top of that is the train tracks. We can follow them out of the city.”
“I won’t survive the journey,” said Maxus. “You two should get out. Get me inside the hotel.”
“Sorry, sir,” said Fabian, “but I’m not about to run out on the man I shot.”
Mary shook her head. “Maybe there’s a medic inside the hotel,” said Mary hopefully, but not really believing it.
Maxus nodded as they helped him to his feet and across the rest of the bridge.
Fabian happened to glance back and something caught his eye. In the distance, back towards the cathedral, the trees were beginning to move. Not caused by wind through the tree tops or anything. These trees were actually moving.
They were moving away from the centre.
Back in the flat the Doctor urged everyone to step back. The tube-like container shook and the lid of it popped off clanging to the floor.
To Tylaya it looked like a body bursting from a metal coffin.
Inside the cutting of the tree began to scream and cry, once again like a new born baby. It writhed in agony, flailing it’s twig-like fingers and branch-like arms.
“We have to help it,” said Nina.
“We can’t,” said the Doctor, running his sonic screwdriver over the tree. “It’s already dying.”
“That’s impossible,” said Nina, rushing to his side and checking her own compute readouts.
“Just like the one in the tunnels,” said Tylaya.
“Whatever you did to these seeds - these trees - is too much for them. They can’t handle the change. They’re dying.”
Tylaya looked hopeful, and then felt guilty. “Does that mean the trees in the city will-”
“Die? Yes,” said the Doctor grimly as the tree jerked and cried out before finally coming to a deathly stop.
“No,” said Nina.
“You see what your tampering has done?” said the Doctor, disgusted with the scientist.
“I wanted to help nature. I wanted to make nature equal.”
“That’s not how it works,” said the Doctor, looking down at the now still tree cutting, it’s face gnarled and it’s eyes closed. “You gave birth to a new race of creatures and now they’re all going to die.”
They were almost at the hotel when a noise from behind them made them stop dead in their tracks and turn to face the eerie sound. Coming from the city was a sound which could only be described as a thousand cries, screaming to the heavens.
“What the hell…?” said Maxus.
The line of trees that had been moving away from the cathedral area had started to waver and falter. The sound was coming from them, and one by one the trees began to fall.
“They’re dying,” said Mary.
After five minutes the screaming stopped.
And Maxus collapsed to the floor unconscious.
The next few hours had gone smoothly. The Doctor had contacted the police and then taken Tylaya for a walk around Bocklemeund, although he really had no idea of where he was going. They walked behind the flats and through the shallow woods and out into one of the parks. An old steam engine sat beside one of the park pathways. There was nobody about as it was now dark.
“I’m sorry, Doctor,” said Tylaya. She could sense the sadness in his hearts.
“Yes,” said the Doctor, resting his chin on the handle of his cane.
“What will happen now?”
“CFN will be arrested and they’ll have to answer for their crimes,” said the Doctor. “At least this particular gang of them will.”
“And they’ll want to speak to us, the authorities?”
“No,” said the Doctor. “I never deal with the legal side of things.”
She sighed. “At least the city is safe.”
“Yes,” said the Doctor, “but there should always be other - better - ways. An entire new life form died before our eyes. Before they had a chance to shine.”
She put her hand on his and for the first time since she’d met him he didn’t pull away from her. He looked at her and smiled sadly.
“What?” she said.
“I’m sorry, Tylaya,” he said.
“For what?”
“For being the way I have. I shouldn’t blame you for what happened to Alice. If anyone’s to blame it’s your fiancé.” He closed his eyes. “I can’t hold a grudge forever, can I?”
“I wouldn’t blame you if you did,” said Tylaya.
“Alice is gone,” he sighed. “The least I can do is make sure the rest of my days are spent being a better person.” He turned to her. “You’re off the hook.”
Tylaya smiled and thanked him, but she still didn’t think she deserved his forgiveness.
Maxus woke up in the TARDIS console room lying on a stretcher. His chest wound had been patched up again and Tylaya was smiling down at him.
“You alright?” she said.
“Yeah,” he said, wincing at the pain. “What happened?”
“Mary said you passed out. Fancy getting yourself shot.”
“What about the city?”
“It’s safe,” said Tylaya. “The clear-up’s gonna be massive, but they’ll all be alright in the end.”
Maxus nodded. “Good stuff. And what about us?”
“What about us?”
“Are we okay?”
She looked at him sadly. “We’re getting married, aren’t we?”
She walked away from him and he closed his eyes. He lay there for a good five minutes before opening his eyes again.
And for a moment he thought he saw her. He thought he saw Tylaya. How she used to look with her short blonde hair. He suddenly realised he hadn’t taken a breath he was so taken aback.
But she was gone again.
Outside the TARDIS the Doctor was stood in the car park opposite Mary. He smiled at her and she smiled back, wiping away a tear.
“You can still come, you know,” said the Doctor hopefully.
“No,” said Mary. “Like I said, it’s not my life. My life is here in Cologne. Someone’s gotta open up the pub after all.”
He chuckled. “I’ll come back one day.” And then he remembered. He probably wouldn’t have time to come back. “Don’t wait up for me though.”
She took his hand and looked into his eyes. She knew he wasn’t coming back. “Just do me a favour.”
“Anything,” he said.
“Give those two kids a break, yeah?” She nodded towards the TARDIS. “That Maxus is a bit of a dick, but they’ve made mistakes. We all make mistakes.”
The Doctor nodded. “I know.”
“It’ll be good for you and them.” She cleared her throat, held back the tears and then stepped on her tip-toes and gave him a kiss on his cheek. Then she hurriedly made her way across the car park, gave him one final look, and then disappeared back into the hostel.
The Doctor stood there for a good long time. Part of him hoped she’d return. Part of him wanted to stay here with her.
But instead he just turned and went back into the TARDIS.
The story continues in "Before the Dawn"
Next time: We return to regular ordering when the Doctor and his companions travel to Whitby, where a librarian is killed...by a vampire! "The Curse of Nosferatu" begins Sunday 4th October 2014.
Thanks for letting me pop up in chapter 4!:)
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