‘We’ve been rather a long way away,’ explained the Doctor.
‘Come off it! There’s nowhere in the world doesn’t know about what’s happening here,’ said the sergeant, clearly bored by the Doctor’s presence. ‘All right, lads, take ’em away for their mug shots.’
The soldier pushed the Doctor and Sarah to one corner of the church hall where an Army photographer was waiting. They were told to stand facing the camera while a soldier held across their chests their prisoner numbers. Then they were both photographed in profile.
Sarah asked the soldiers, ‘Do you get pleasure out of treating us as common criminals?’
‘We’re treating you for what you are,’ said the soldier photographer. ‘If you hadn’t broken martial law you wouldn’t be here.’ He took the final photograph. ‘All right, I’ve finished with them.’
The soldiers pushed the couple towards the corner where Lodge was already sitting on the floor. One of the soldiers ordered them to sit on the floor.
‘I’d rather stand, thank you,’ replied the Doctor.
The soldier levelled his gun at the Doctor. ‘I said sit down!’
The Doctor sat.
‘What do we do now?’ asked Sarah.
‘Wait till an officer turns up.’ The Doctor inched over to where the young man Lodge was sitting, hunched up, chin between his knees. ‘How do you do!’
Lodge gave the Doctor a surly look. ‘You’ve got nothing to be cheerful about, mate.’
The Doctor smiled. ‘Surely, this is only a misunderstanding.’
‘That’s one way to look at it,’ said Lodge. ‘There’s no judge, no jury. It’s martial law.’
Sarah shuffled over to Lodge. ‘But can you tell us why?’
‘The monsters, of course. But you know about that already.’
Sarah and the Doctor exchanged glances. The Doctor spoke to Lodge very patiently. ‘Let’s pretend that my young companion and I have been for a trip into Outer Space, that we’ve only just returned, and we know nothing about these monsters. Now you tell us what happened.’
Lodge grinned. ‘Outer Space? You must be joking.’
‘It’s only a game,’ said Sarah. ‘You see, I’m a journalist. I want you to tell me what happened, from your point of view.’
This approach made more sense to Lodge. He thought for a few seconds, then spoke. ‘It was about two weeks ago that they saw the first one——’
‘Who?’ said the Doctor, interrupting. ‘Where?’
‘Some kids, I think, on Hampstead Heath. They went home and told their mum they’d seen a dinosaur. Naturally she didn’t believe them. They found some friends of theirs, other kids, to go and have a look at it. Their bodies were found a few hours later.’
Sarah closed her eyes in horror. ‘How terrible.’
‘Do go on,’ said the Doctor quietly.
‘Later that day some sort of big bird was seen flying over Hyde Park. A lot of people saw it. But it wasn’t a bird—not really. It was a… a… I can’t remember the name for it.’
‘Pterodactyl?’ said the Doctor.
‘That’s right! I’ve seen one of them—horrible-looking things. They’ve got no feathers, sort of naked. Anyway, that night a ruddy great big thing turned up in the car park by the Festival Hall. It tramped about, swinging its tail, and wrecked two hundred cars. The next day they were turning up everywhere, killing, crushing motor cars, even walking straight through people’s houses. There was hundreds of people killed.’
Sarah asked, ‘But where had they come from?’
‘Hold it a moment,’ the Doctor told her. ‘We’ll talk about that later.’ He turned to Lodge. ‘What happened then?’
‘It was panic, wasn’t it? Everyone with a car packed everything they could get into it and drove out into the country. The Government declared martial law in London, and said everyone had to leave. They got trains and buses for them, and sent them all over the place.’
‘But where to?’ asked Sarah.
Lodge shrugged. ‘They put ’em in peoples’ houses in the country, I think. And they set up big camps for them. There’s about ten million people gone, you know.’
‘What about yourself?’ asked the Doctor.
Lodge grinned mischievously. ‘I stayed back for the pickings, didn’t I? Same as you two.’ He looked over his shoulder at the soldier who was guarding them. ‘There’s only him,’ he whispered. ‘We could make a break for it. Want to try?’
‘I don’t think so,’ said the Doctor. ‘We haven’t done anything wrong. What I really want is to speak to someone in authority——’
A sergeant marched into the hall, banged his feet on the bare floorboards as he stood to attention, and shouted, ‘Right! On your feet!’
The soldier guarding them came over. ‘You heard the sergeant! Jump to it!’
They stood up. A young Army lieutenant entered the hall, looked at the prisoners, then sat down at the desk. He took off his cap, placed it carefully on the desk, and spoke to the sergeant. ‘Bring them over, please.’
The prisoners were herded towards the desk. ‘I’m terribly glad to meet you,’ said the Doctor, offering his hand. ‘This is just the opportunity I’ve been looking for to——’
The sergeant barked, ‘The prisoners will remain silent unless spoken to!’
The lieutenant asked. ‘What are the charges?’
The sergeant pointed to Lodge. ‘This one, sir, was found illegally in the Central Zone, and illegally in the possession of two tape recorders, one radio, and a colour television set.’
‘Anything to say?’ The lieutenant seemed very bored, and not at all interested in whatever the prisoner might have to say.
Lodge said, ‘I found the stuff, see. I was going to hand it in.’
‘Yes, I see,’ said the lieutenant, as though he had heard that story many times before. ‘You have been found guilty of looting. Under the authority vested in me by the Emergency Powers Act I am sending you to be held in detention for an indefinite period. You will be handed over to the civil authorities for trial and sentence when time permits. Next prisoner step forward.’
The Doctor went up to the desk. ‘Lieutenant, I really must protest. My young companion and I are totally innocent of the charge——’
‘Be quiet,’ said the lieutenant. ‘What is the charge?’
‘Picked up with the girl,’ said the sergeant. ‘Found in possession of furs and a stolen lorry.’
‘Anything to say?’ asked the lieutenant.
‘A great deal,’ said Sarah. ‘We found other people stealing those furs——’
‘And you were going to hand them in?’ queried the lieutenant, with an unconcealed sneer.
The question threw Sarah off her guard. ‘Not exactly,’ she admitted. ‘We were mainly concerned with escaping from a pterodactyl.’
‘And I think you were mainly concerned with getting away with those furs,’ said the lieutenant. He cleared his throat before pronouncing verdict. ‘You are both found guilty of looting. Under the authority vested in me by the Emergency Powers Act I am empowered to hold you in detention for an indefinite period. You will be handed over to the civil authorities for trial and sentenced when time permits.’ He stood up and clapped on his cap. ‘Thank you, sergeant. Get them away from here as soon as possible.’
‘Yes, sir!’ The sergeant stood to attention and saluted as the lieutenant hurried out of the church hall. The sergeant turned to the prisoners. ‘Back in your corners, you lot.’
‘I’m hungry,’ said Sarah. ‘Is starvation part of the punishment?’
‘If you behave yourself, I’ll get some food sent in to you.’ The sergeant turned and left the hall.
One soldier now remained to guard the prisoners. He levelled his gun at them. ‘Back to the corner, and sit down. You won’t have long to wait. Transport will be arriving to take you to the detention centre any minute now.’
Seated on the floor once more, the Doctor turned to Lodge. ‘Did you say somet
hing about making a break for it, old man?’
‘Doctor,’ exclaimed Sarah, quite shocked, ‘we mustn’t do anything of the sort! We’ll get ourselves into even more trouble.’
‘I hardly think that’s possible,’ said the Doctor. ‘No one will listen to us. Escape seems the only way out of this mess.’ He turned back to Lodge. ‘How do you propose we get away?’
Lodge glanced round furtively at their guard. The soldier had sat down, his back to them. ‘There’s three of us. We could jump him.’
‘My dear chap,’ said the Doctor, ‘let us be a little more subtle than that.’
Lodge, whose friends didn’t normally use such words as ‘subtle’, turned to Sarah in despair. ‘What’s the old geezer talking about?’
‘The “old geezer”,’ she said, hotly, ‘is much brighter than you are, so listen to him!’
Lodge turned back to the Doctor. ‘All right. What’s the plan?’
‘We have a fight,’ said the Doctor.
Lodge didn’t understand. ‘Eh?’
The Doctor put on a loud, Cockney accent. ‘It was you what grassed on us!’
Lodge understood now. In his world, ‘to grass’ meant to give information to the police—the worst possible social behaviour. He immediately reacted: ‘I never grassed in my life!’
The Doctor stood up, towering over Lodge. ‘Get on your feet, you low-down dirty stool pigeon!’ ‘Stool pigeon’ was another term that meant an informer.
Lodge jumped up and faced him. ‘You don’t call me names like that and get away with it!’
‘Don’t I?’ sneered the Doctor. ‘I know what they say about you in these parts. You’ve always been a copper’s nark. Your family are well known for it.’
This stung Lodge. The only loyalty he knew was to his immediate family. The insult deeply offended him. ‘All right, you great dressed-up twit,’ he bellowed. ‘You asked for it!’ He swung his fist at the Doctor’s face. The Doctor sidestepped, and landed a light blow to Lodge’s chest.
Sarah screamed at the soldier: ‘Stop them!’
The soldier ran forward, waving his rifle as though he was about to strike his two struggling prisoners. Sarah stuck her foot out. The soldier tripped, tumbling forward. Lodge grabbed and held on to the rifle. The Doctor caught the soldier, applying a Venusian karate hold to the man’s neck. The soldier passed out, unconscious. The Doctor gently lowered him to the bare floorboards. Lodge watched in amazement.
‘What did you do?’
‘Never mind,’ said the Doctor. He looked around for means of escape. ‘We can get through that window.’ There was a brick wall opposite the window: clearly it let on to an alleyway.
Lodge aimed the gun at the Doctor. ‘You go through the door, the way we came in!’
‘But we’ll all three go together,’ Sarah said.
‘Not while I’ve got the gun,’ said Lodge viciously. ‘You two—out through the door. While you’re being overpowered by the soldiers, I’ll go through the window.’
Sarah stood up and faced Lodge. ‘You dirty cheat! We shouldn’t have had anything to do with you.’
Lodge grinned. ‘That’s right. But then I didn’t have your nice education, did I? Where I was brought up life was rough. You had to look after yourself or go under…’ His attention focused on Sarah, he didn’t notice the Doctor’s quick move to come behind him. The Doctor’s hands slipped round Lodge’s neck, again applying the Venusian karate hold. Lodge gurgled for a moment, dropped the gun, then fell to the ground unconscious.
‘What a boring fellow,’ said the Doctor. ‘Now let’s get out of here.’
They raced to the window, climbed out into the alleyway. ‘This way,’ said the Doctor, grabbing Sarah’s hand and dragging her towards the street that ran in front of the drill hall. As they came out into the street, the Doctor stopped. ‘Just what we need,’ he said, eyeing a parked Army truck. It was a small vehicle with a covered-in back. ‘In that we’re not so likely to be stopped by military patrols.’
The Doctor jumped into the driver’s seat; Sarah got in beside him. He looked at the ignition switch.
‘We’re not in luck this time,’ Sarah said. ‘There’s no key.’
‘But with a piece of wire I could jump the ignition. Let’s see what they’ve got in the back.’
The Doctor turned and slid back the door that led into the rear of the van, and looked straight into the snout of a levelled rifle.
‘Ready to go to the detention centre now?’ asked the soldier. ‘Because this is the van that’s going to take you!’
The Doctor and Sarah sat side by side in the back of the detention centre van as it sped through the deserted streets of London. Their wrists were handcuffed together.
‘Honestly, Doctor, that wasn’t very clever,’ said Sarah reproachfully.
‘How was I to know it was the detention centre van?’
The van turned sharply, throwing them sideways. Sarah regained her crouched position on the hard wooden bench. ‘What do we do now?’
‘Someone at the centre will listen to us.’
‘No they won’t,’ she said. ‘No one’s listened to us up to now. I can see us being prisoners for months, probably sewing mail bags or whatever they have to do, and mixing with criminals…’
The van screamed to a stop, hurling them both forward. Suddenly, a thunderous roar made the van vibrate. The Doctor edged forward and slid open the door behind the driver’s cabin. The soldier-driver and his companion were scrambling out, guns in hand. Through the windscreen the Doctor could see the gigantic shape of a tyrannosaurus rex blocking the road.
‘What is it?’ Sarah shouted.
‘Come over here,’ said the Doctor, sliding the door back a few more inches. ‘That’s one of the biggest and deadliest land animals that has ever existed on your planet.’
Sarah looked and gasped. The tyrannosaurus rex was standing upright on its two hind legs, balancing on an enormous tail. Head raised, it was considerably taller than a double-decker bus. Compared with its huge head and six-inch-long teeth, its little two-fingered ‘hands’ looked weak and futile. The two soldiers were crouched against the buildings on either side of the street, firing their automatic guns into the reptile’s neck. The monster roared with pain and anger as dribbles of bright red blood flowed down its leathery green skin.
‘I’ve always wanted to study one of those,’ said the Doctor, observing the scene in his typically scientific manner.
‘Well I haven’t!’ screamed Sarah.
‘During their heyday,’ the Doctor went on, as though oblivious to the danger they were in, ‘they dominated all other living creatures except the pterodactyls, which could fly away. Do you notice the way the serrated teeth curve backwards?’
‘I’ve got my eyes closed,’ Sarah replied, honestly.
‘That was to tear at their victims. Another thing about the tyrannosaurus rex,’ he continued, ‘was that they were much more intelligent than all the other giant reptiles. That still meant they were pretty stupid compared with the smallest mammal. But it gave them a great advantage.’
‘Doctor, do you think we could have the natural history lesson some other time? I’m terrified!’
‘Of course, my dear,’ he said. ‘How inconsiderate of me. With our soldier guards so preoccupied, this is an excellent opportunity to escape. Come along.’
He grabbed her by the hand so that the handcuffs wouldn’t tug at their wrists, and went through the doorway into the driver’s cabin. The soldier-driver had cautiously removed the ignition key before jumping out to fight the monster.
‘We’ll have to run for it,’ said the Doctor, helping Sarah down on to the road. ‘I suggest we go away from our reptile friend.’
‘What a brilliant idea, I’d never have thought of it.’
The Doctor didn’t react to her sarcasm. He started running, Sarah beside him. As they neared the end of the street there was an explosion behind them. They stopped and turned. A cloud of smoke filled
the street near the reptile’s tail. One of the soldiers threw another hand-grenade at the reptile. It exploded with a brilliant flash and a ‘boom’ that must have been heard miles away.
‘That,’ said the Doctor, ‘should bring every soldier in this part of London to this street. The sooner we find somewhere to hide, the better.’
They hurried on down the next street. Then the Doctor stopped abruptly.
‘A mews,’ he said.
‘A what?’ asked Sarah.
The Doctor pointed to a small opening off the street they were now in. The opening led to a cobblestone mews, a narrow street lined with garages.
‘In days gone by,’ said the Doctor, ‘London’s mews were for the stables of the gentry. Now they have all been turned into garages. Garages have work benches, vices, and files. Let’s see what we can find.’
As the Doctor had predicted, the entire mews was lined with big garage doors, most of them carrying the words ‘In Constant Use—No Parking’. There wasn’t a car in sight.
‘Won’t they all be locked?’ Sarah asked.
The Doctor moved from door to door, testing them. ‘Under the circumstances,’ he said, ‘hardly likely. Remember all the shop doors we found open? Ah!’ He had found a little door let into the bigger doors of a garage—and it was unlocked! ‘Mind the step,’ he warned, and went through into the garage, tugging Sarah after him. Inside, a little daylight filtered through a filthy window at the far end. The floor of the garage was thick with black oil. There were various machines for car repairs, and a well-equipped work bench. Clamped to the work bench was a vice.
‘Exactly what we need,’ said the Doctor. ‘Now all we want is a file.’ He looked along the tool shelf, found a foot-long file. ‘Let’s get your cuff open first.’
Sarah held her wrist so that part of the metal cuff encircling it was between the plates of the vice. The Doctor screwed up the vice, closing the plates in on to the metal cuff. Then he started to file through it.
‘Where did that monster come from?’ Sarah asked.
Doctor Who and the Dinosaur Invasion Page 3