Ivy, Dennington and Caroline were in the distance and shouting towards the Doctor's party.
“I'm sorry,” said the Doctor, putting a hand to his ear. “I can't quite hear what you're saying?”
Ivy shouted a bit louder, but the Doctor still could only make out bits. “I.....shoot.......bloody thing.”
“Shoot it?” suggested Captain Nivere.
“Ah yes, of course. Grasp.” The lizard didn't move.
“Grasp,” said Nivere. “Fire a few shots at that thing.”
“Yes, Captain Nivere,” Grasp said obediently and began blasting bolts of deadly energy at the giant cloaked figure. The thing screeched out in horror.
“What the hell is it, Doctor?” asked Nivere.
“It looks like a walking nightmare,” said the Doctor. “After Ivy’s fiancée died, she had had nightmares about the Grimm Reaper taking James’ body away from her”
By now the giant was beginning to recoil backwards and Ivy and the others were getting ahead of it. Eventually the giant fell to it's knees, gave out a large howl and the final blast from Grasp's gun dispersed the giant into a cloud of nothingness.
Ivy helped Dennington and Caroline up to the side of the river and they collapsed in the sand beside the Doctor, gasping for air.
“Are you okay?” asked the Doctor, gazing down at her.
“Yes. I think so,” she said. “I sometimes have the nightmares. Even now. Are you okay?”
“No, we've been sat here all night waiting for you. Where have you been?”
“We had some problems.” Ivy pointed to Caroline who was lying on the floor next to Dennington.
“Caroline,” gasped the Doctor, looking at her wounded thigh. “What happened?”
“They attacked me. Then they locked me up and then threatened to stab me with a flaming spear.”
“Other than that, did they do anything to hurt you badly?” asked the Doctor eagerly.
“Badly? Doctor, they stabbed me through the leg.”
“Yes,” he said, examining her thigh, “but it's a superficial wound. It's nothing compared to what Danny's been through.”
Caroline looked over to Danny who was sat alone beside the river, dangling his fingers into the running stream and staring into space. “What's up with him?”
“He had a brush with a dream.”
“So did I,” said Caroline. “I didn’t quite understand it either.”
“What happened?” asked the Doctor.
“I was on a beach, but I was five years old. There was a health care woman talking to my parents. Apparently they were refusing to have been tested.”
“Hmm,” said the Doctor. “Keep a hold of that memory.”
“Memory?” questioned Caroline. “You mean that actually happened?”
“Quite possibly. Some dreams are just a jumbled collection of thoughts. Some relate to possible truths, and others…well, others are actual memories.”
“Here, Doctor.” Nivere handed the Doctor a medical kit from her travel bag and the Doctor began dressing up Caroline's sore wound. She winced in pain and stared at him, trying to work out what was going on in his head.
“Bridges. Dead,” whispered Dennington slowly.
“Yes. It was Grasp's fault,“ said Nivere sadly to her second in command. “He was only trying to protect me.”
“So he killed Bridges. My god, what have you got as your bodyguard?” said Dennington in disbelief.
“He's extremely loyal. You know that, Mark.”
Dennington turned away in disgust and knelt down beside Bridges' body. “We should bury him.”
“We don't have time. The expedition -”
“Damn the bloody expedition. Human life is more important than some mission. The Eye can wait.”
“No it can't,” said Nivere, grabbing Dennington by the shoulders and turning him towards her. “I have heard that the keeper of the Eye needs someone to share in his power. He needs someone new to take over.”
“What a very interesting way to put it, Captain,” said the Doctor. He'd been listening in.
“How do you mean?” asked Ivy.
“Well, we all knew that Nivere wanted the secret of the Eye.”
“I don't see what I've said that's out of turn,” said Nivere, shifting her eyes from Ivy to the Doctor and to Dennington.
“You sound as though you want to take the power for yourself.”
Nivere chuckled uneasily at the suggestion. “Oh, Doctor, I didn’t mean that. I mean, how would I know about the God wanting to share his power anyway?”
“How indeed,” wondered the Doctor.
“Right,” said Nivere, clapping her hands together as if she wanted to move off the subject. “Are we all ready?”
“We can’t carry on,” said Dennington.
Aamina groaned on the floor.
“How are you Aamina?” asked Ivy.
“Fine,” replied the quiet woman. “I don't fancy talking.” She got up and slowly and shakily wandered off to sit beside the river.
“No, you never do,” whispered Ivy under her breath.
The Doctor crossed over to Danny who hadn't spoken for the past few minutes. “We're ready to get going again, Danny,” said the Doctor gently.
“Fine. I'm not going.” He refused to look up.
“What? You can't stay here?”
“Why not? It's perfectly safe now we're off the Dream Path.”
“Because there’s a dangerous tribe out there looking for us, that's why.”
“I'm not coming, Doctor,” said Danny defiantly. “You find your Eye, get yourselves killed, whatever. I'll wait for you here.”
“Danny, why are you being like this?” asked Caroline, sitting herself up. “You know it’s dangerous out here.”
“Everything’s dangerous,” said Danny, staring blankly out across the river. “I wish I’d never come with you. I wish I’d never come back to Thornsby and gotten involved. I should be sat at home, drunk and stuffed after my Christmas dinner, watching old films on ITV.”
“Danny, don’t say that.”
The Doctor was about to speak again and then decided against it. No point in forcing the issue. He patted Danny on the back, explained to the others and they walked off, leaving Danny to his own thoughts. They hid Bridges’ body under some bushes with the Doctor making a promise to give him a proper burial later and then they made their way onwards.
When they were gone Danny turned away from the river and faced the Dream Path - waiting.
They’d followed the banks of the river around to where it turned and flowed into the jungle.
Nivere took out her notepad, made a few marks in it and then turned to face the others. “This is where we must cross onto the river.”
“Why?” asked Caroline.
“Because the river heads towards the fortress that the God inhabits.”
“Why can’t we cross through the jungle?” asked the Doctor.
“Because, it is said, that this is the most dangerous part of the jungle. Even the tribe of Tressure won’t venture into it.”
“The river’s looking pretty rough though, Captain,” said Dennington.
“Even so, it’s much safer than the jungle. It’s daylight now and we need to get a move on.”
“What do you suggest we do? Build a raft and float along?” suggested Ivy.
“That’s exactly what we’ll do, Coldstone.”
The group began gathering up thick vines which could be used instead of ropes. Grasp drew out his blaster and splintered a tree into thick pieces. Then, with his blaster beam set on a low setting, he began to carve the pieces to make them float better.
“Nice to see your concern for the plant life, Nivere,” said the Doctor, staring at her.
“Survival, Doctor,” she responded cheerily.
He walked over to join Caroline. “How are you feeling?”
“You really want to know, Doctor?” said responded. “I’m tired, worn out and in need of some clean clothes.” She sat down on the floor and began picking at one of the vines.
“Is that all?”
“No,” she said sadly. “Everything’s falling apart. I can’t even rely on Danny anymore.”
“Danny’s not well,” said the Doctor. “We’ll get him checked out as soon as we get off Theen.”
“If we get off Theen.”
Nivere called over. “Come on, you lot. Grasp’s cut up the wood and we can begin assembling the rafts.”
“Do we build one big raft?” asked Caroline.
“No. I thought we could make two.”
“Good idea,” said Ivy. “And then maybe we’ll end up getting separated again.”
“Will you stop being so sarcastic all the time?” said Aamina.
“Oh, you’ve piped up. Why don’t you just -”
“Ladies, ladies,’ said Dennington, trying to smooth the situation over. “Let’s just try and work together, shall we?”
“Good idea,” said the Doctor. “If we have to continue with this absurd mission, then we can at least let the captain find what she’s looking for and then we can all go home.”
“You’re forgetting, Doctor,” said Caroline, “our way of getting home is sat the bottom of a swamp.”
“Yes, thank you, Caroline,” said the Doctor.
The next few hours were spent tying the strips of wood together with the vines and making the two light rafts secure, interspersed with bickering and whispered jibes at one another.
When Nivere was satisfied that they were safe she ordered Aamina, Grasp and Dennington to take one whilst her, Caroline, Ivy and the Doctor would take the other.
They mounted the rafts and cast them off into the river as the winds began to pick up around them.
“Please don’t attack me,” said Danny, worriedly, as Yentob and Slavin approached him.
“And what makes you think we’d want to do that?” asked Slavin.
“Because you’ve already attacked the others.”
“Yes,” said Slavin, “we did. So that, I suppose, is a good enough reason to attack you.”
“No, please,” said Danny desperately. He held out his hands in front of him to show he wasn’t armed and then walked slowly towards the two savages. “You can see I mean you no harm.”
“Why are you doing this?” asked Yentob. “Why do you risk your life?”
“Because I believe I am what your God wants.”
Slavin turned to Yentob and they began laughing.
“What’s wrong?” asked Danny, desperate to get the two men on his side.
“How could you possibly know what our God wants?”
“Because I am not just a normal human being.”
Slavin’s face froze. “Then what are you?”
Danny grinned. “Now that would be telling. Take me to your God and I shall prove I am what he wants.”
Yentob looked at Slavin, unsure of what they should do. Slavin’s eyes narrowed and he walked up to Danny. “We will take you to our lord. But if he is angry then you will die.”
Danny wasn’t exactly sure why he felt so different, but he knew that something was urging him to do this. Something deep inside his soul.
And he could still hear the voice whispering over and over again.
“Danny….Danny….”
Problems had arisen already. The two rafts were being tossed about on the current of the river. Almost as soon as they’d gotten onto the river the wind had picked up and made things difficult for the travellers. It was almost as if someone had known that they were going to travel across. The river had narrowed and the dense jungle on either side hung over, obscuring the sunlight.
The Doctor was soaked through and he grabbed hold of the raft as tight as he could. Dennington’s raft was a little way behind and they’d gotten stuck against a rock.
“We have to turn back,” shouted the Doctor over the rushing water.
“Why?” asked Nivere.
The Doctor pointed towards the raft that they were rapidly sailing away from.
“Mark!” shouted Nivere. “Mark, can you free your raft?”
There was no answer, and Dennington was trying to push away from a large boulder with his oar.
“What’s going on?” asked Ivy, crawling around to look.
“Mark’s trapped,” said Caroline anxiously. “We’ve got to help.”
“Mark can help himself,” said Nivere, grabbing a nearby oar and pushing the raft against the wind again.
“I don’t believe you,” said the Doctor, grabbing her shoulder. “He’s your friend. And your damned body guard is on that raft as well.”
Nivere suddenly realised that she wasn’t protected. “Grasp will be okay,” she said a little shakily.
“That’s it, Doctor, I’ve had enough,” said Ivy, grabbing the oar off the captain. “We’re not leaving those poor people.”
Suddenly a blast flew through the wind and splintered Ivy’s oar.
“What the hell was that?” asked Caroline.
They looked back and saw Grasp aiming his gun at Ivy.
“Loyal to the end,” grinned Nivere. “Thank you, Grasp!” she shouted over the wind.
“This is unbelievable,” said the Doctor.
Nivere grinned and began to push the raft away with the other oar.
On Dennington’s raft, Aamina and him were clinging for dear life whilst Grasp covered them with his blaster.
“Come on, Grasp,” said Dennington. “There was no need to shoot at Ivy like that.”
“My captain’s life was threatened. Now get us free,” ordered the lizard.
“We can’t,” said Aamina, trying to wrench the raft out from between the boulders.
“Then get into the water and push from behind,” he growled.
“No way,” said Dennington. “We’ll be swept away in an instant.”
“You will obey,” commanded Grasp, putting the blaster up against his forehead.
Dennington swallowed hard, looked at the water, took his shirt off and prepared himself to jump in.
Aamina had had enough. She leapt to her feet, steadied herself and launched herself at Grasp. The lizard was taken by surprise and stumbled to the floor. Dennington lunged on top of the lizard and wrestled the blaster from his grip. He pointed the blaster at the snarling creature.
“Shoot me then,” said Grasp.
“Don’t tempt me,“ replied Dennington. “Tie him up, Aamina.”
Aamina got out some of the spare vines and was about to tie up Grasp when he lashed out at her. She fell backwards into the river. Dennington shouted in horror and dropped the blaster. He hung over the edge of the raft and tried to grab Aamina, but she was already being dragged away by the rapids. He called out to Nivere’s raft, but they were too far away to hear or see what was going on.
Then Dennington felt something cold on his cheek. It was the barrel of the blaster. Grasp was aiming it at him and was about to shoot when…
Aamina, halfway down the river, had shot a blast from her gun. It hit Grasp on his arm and he yelped, falling from the raft and cracking his head against a jagged rock. Dennington scrambled to his feet just in time to see Aamina get dragged under the water. He looked around for Grasp but he was nowhere to be seen.
Dennington began to panic and, as if he hadn’t been through enough already, the raft began to fall apart, jostled to pieces on the rocks. The space explorer felt himself fall through the wood and into the water. Before he could grab a hold of the rocks he was swept away. All he could think of was keeping his head above water.
And still the river raged on.
No comments:
Post a Comment