Without warning, the Doctor jumped back up onto the wall. He stood, balancing precariously for a moment, then jumped down again, now on the other side so he was outside the graveyard.
‘I think you should join me,’ he told Olga. ‘Best to keep out of sight.’
She swung her legs round and over the other side of the wall before pushing herself off. The Doctor caught her and gently but firmly lowered her to the ground. He put his finger to his lips and pointed back into the graveyard.
At first she could see nothing. Then the moonlight increased slightly as clouds scudded away, and Olga saw that the ground was moving. It was most obvious in the new soil packed down over Liza’s grave. But even the grass was swaying, twisting, moving …
Suddenly, a silver fist punched up through the ground. The hand unclenched, fingers grasping the air. Another followed, and another. All over the graveyard, metal hands and arms thrust upwards like grotesque trees erupting from the grass.
Liza’s grave was alive. Soil rolled away as the whole area heaved upwards. The hands of a Cyberman pushed through and upwards. The head followed, earth and mud falling from the black eye sockets as the creature rose up, heaving itself out of the ground.
‘Get Klaus,’ the Doctor said.
But Olga was unable to move. She could only stare in horror as more of the Plague Warrior Cybermen pushed their way up through the ground. They hauled themselves out into the night air, metallic bodies tarnished with mud and dirt, glinting in the cold moonlight.
Chapter 13
‘Get Klaus,’ the Doctor said again, his voice stern.
Olga nodded, but still she did not move.
He put his hand on Olga’s shoulder. ‘Go on – it’ll be all right. The Cybermen need to orientate themselves. They know they’re low on power, so they won’t risk draining their reserves using energy weapons …’ He frowned as he looked at her. ‘You’re not following any of this are you?’
‘Yes I am. A bit.’ Finally she turned to look back at him, tearing her gaze away from the sight of the Cybermen. ‘No, not really.’
‘Just find Klaus. Tell him the Plague Warriors are on the move. He and the others have to keep them away from the village – away from the children. Do you understand that?’
‘Of course. They need to make the warriors tire, exhaust them.’
‘That’s right. Good girl.’
She blinked at being called a girl, especially by someone as young as the Doctor appeared to be. But he didn’t seem to notice her surprise.
‘And you, Olga, you stay with the children. That’s where you’re needed. You understand that, don’t you?’
She backed away from the wall, turning to negotiate the dark path back to the village. ‘I understand,’ she said. But she suspected he knew she didn’t believe him.
Old Nicolai and Klaus were sat together at a table in the tavern. Both had their heads down, resting on their arms which were folded on the table. Nicolai was snoring.
Klaus was awake immediately at Olga’s touch. He blinked the sleep from his eyes. ‘It’s started.’
He wasn’t asking a question, but Olga nodded in confirmation.
Nicolai snorted and woke. ‘Is it time?’
‘It is,’ Klaus told him. ‘Let’s get everyone ready.’
‘Hurry,’ Olga said. ‘We don’t have long.’
‘Where are you going?’ Klaus called after her.
‘To get all the children together.’
‘You’re staying with the children?’ Klaus looked both surprised and relieved.
‘Of course not,’ Olga told him. ‘I’ll get them all together, and their mothers can look after them. I’ll put Gretl in charge. She’ll take no nonsense from any of them.’ Except Heini, she thought – your own children were always the worst behaved. Or so it seemed.
The Cybermen stood like statues in the graveyard. Rain splashed off their metal armour. The first rays of the morning light glinted on the silent figures.
‘What are they waiting for?’ Olga asked.
‘I thought you were looking after the children.’
‘The children are fine.’
The Doctor nodded. ‘It might not have been the children I was worrying about,’ he murmured.
‘Klaus wants you to talk to the men,’ Olga said. ‘He wants to know if they should attack.’
The Doctor shook his head. ‘No point in provoking a response. The longer they just stand there, the better. Gives me more time to put my new plan into shape.’
‘Into shape?’
The Doctor followed her back towards the village. They’d know soon enough if the Cybermen started to move.
‘Into shape,’ he said again. ‘You know – work it out, add it up, decide what it sort of is. Really.’
‘You don’t actually have a new plan, do you?’
‘Let’s say I’m working on it. Work in progress.’
Olga hoped progress would be swift. Having seen what the Cybermen could do, she dreaded the moment they started to move, the moment they turned as one towards the village and marched out of the graveyard …
The men from the village had assembled in the street outside the tavern. There was less of a sense of bravado and excitement than there had been before the battle in the catacombs. A sense of foreboding hung over them all, reinforced by the absence of those killed or injured the previous day, and a few who were too sick with plague to help.
Old Nicolai and Klaus were standing at the front of the crowd. Klaus in particular looked relieved to see the Doctor.
‘Why are we doing what he says?’ a voice called out as soon as the Doctor approached.
‘Yeah – he got people killed. And for what?’
‘So that the rest of us can live,’ Old Nicolai shouted back.
‘That’s right,’ Klaus agreed. ‘So pipe down and listen to what the Doctor’s got to say.’
‘What have I got to say?’ the Doctor asked quietly.
‘Tell them what they have to do, and why,’ Olga said. ‘And tell them what will happen if they don’t. They’re scared, and when you’re scared it’s easiest to do nothing. So they need to know they’re doing the right thing.’
The Doctor nodded. He stepped up to stand beside Klaus and Old Nicolai. ‘You need to know that you’re doing the right thing,’ he called out. ‘Well, you are.’
‘But what are we doing?’ Klaus asked quietly, when it became apparent that the Doctor thought he’d finished.
‘Ah – good point.’ The Doctor nodded for a moment before seeming to realise that it was a point he should address. ‘Oh right – yes. There is a plague in this village. I don’t just mean the disease, though that’s bad enough, obviously. But under the village, beneath the graveyard, another poison. What you call Plague Warriors, and you’re right – the Cybermen are like a plague. They poison and corrupt everything and everyone they come into contact with. They want to survive, which I suppose is fair enough, actually, but they’ll go to any lengths to do it. They don’t care – literally don’t care, as they have no concept of emotions – about what or who gets sacrificed for their survival.’
‘But what do they want from us?’ someone called out.
The Doctor clicked his fingers and pointed at them. ‘Ah yes, coming to that. They want whatever they can find. They’re scavengers. Not just metal and bits and pieces to repair their ship, but people too. You and me. That’s what they want.’
‘What for?’
‘To turn them into more Cybermen – more Plague Warriors. Or just for spare parts. You’ve seen that, some of you – what they did with the bodies of the dead. They’ll hunt you down – you, your friends, your children. Anything that might be useful they’ll take. Anything that might be a threat to them they’ll destroy. You, your village, even the land you live on. And they won’t stop there – they’ll spread out and infect the whole country. In time, the whole world.’
‘How do we stop them?’
‘Another excellent quest
ion – you guys are on fire this morning. Well, not actually on fire.’ The Doctor glanced down at his feet. ‘Sorry, probably not the most tactful allusion there. Moving on … Stop the Cybermen, the Plague Warriors, yes I think we can. At the moment they’re relatively weak. They daren’t use their most powerful weapons as they don’t have the energy for them. Drain their power and they’ll run down like … like …’ He struggled to think of something it might be like that the villagers would understand.
‘Like a clock?’ Nicolai suggested. ‘When it runs down?’
‘Like a run-down clock, yes good one – bit more complicated than that, but it’ll do. It’s a bit more like when you get tired and need sleep, actually. Make them work too hard and they’ll need to go back to sleep, or recharge. But we need to wear them out soon, before they set up more energy extraction points and build power converters out of whatever they can find.’
‘Why should we believe any of this?’ someone called out. It was the man who had first accused the Doctor of getting people killed. ‘How do we know he has a clue about these Plague Warriors?’
Another figure pushed through the crowd to join the Doctor, Nicolai and Klaus at the front of the group. The villagers gasped. Several of them bowed their heads.
‘I wonder if I can answer that?’ Lord Ernhardt asked.
The Doctor gestured for him to go ahead. He had seen Ernhardt and his wife together with Caplan and several guards join the back of the group as he was speaking. Lady Ernhardt, he noticed, kept the hood of her cloak pulled up. Even so, the nearest villagers drew back slightly.
As he turned to address the villagers, Ernhardt kept one hand thrust into the pocket of his coat – a hand, the Doctor knew, was not actually there.
Ernhardt cleared his throat. ‘What you all need to appreciate,’ he said, ‘is that the Doctor is a man of wisdom and learning. Oh, I don’t suggest he can solve all our problems, but he does have a better understanding of the Plague Warriors than anyone else.’
‘What about the Watchman?’ someone shouted. ‘What does he think?’
‘The Watchman is dead,’ Ernhardt said.
There was a general muttering and shuffling of feet at this news. Evidently the Watchman had been respected.
‘He was killed by the Plague Warriors,’ Ernhardt went on. ‘And he died helping the Doctor to fight them. Make no mistake,’ he went on, ‘I have seen what these creatures can do, as I know have some of you. And the Doctor is right – if we do not oppose and stop them, then our whole way of life may soon be forfeit. Now …’ He stepped closer to the people, lowering his voice as if he was speaking to each of them now as individuals rather than addressing the crowd, ‘I can’t tell you what to do. I can’t order you to do as the Doctor says. But I for one have no hesitation in placing myself at his disposal. I shall do everything I can to help him, and I urge the rest of you to follow my example.’
There was silence for several moments. Then, a smattering of applause and shouts of approval.
‘Doctor,’ Lord Ernhardt prompted. ‘Tell us what we must do.’
It started abruptly. There was no pause for the orders to get round, no hesitation at all. One moment the Cybermen were silent and still, assimilating data and waiting for strategies to compile and download. The next moment all of the Cybermen gathered in the graveyard were in motion. All turning towards the village, all stepping forward, feet slamming down into the soft earth as they marched forwards, towards their objective.
Crouched behind the wall, watching nervously through the spattering rain, one of the younger men turned and ran ahead of the advancing creatures.
‘They’re coming!’ he yelled at the top of his voice. ‘The Plague Warriors are on the move!’
Chapter 14
Since Olga refused to hide away with the children, Klaus insisted she stay with the Doctor. He seemed to think this was the safest place for her. Lord Ernhardt made the same suggestion to his wife.
Again, armed with what makeshift weapons they could find, the villagers set out for the graveyard to confront the Cybermen. The Doctor gave them advice. Some was useful – like the fact the Cybermen would be a little sluggish as their power levels were low, so speed would be to the villagers’ advantage. Some was of less help – like: ‘Try not to die.’
In numerical terms, the Cybermen and the villagers were fairly evenly matched. In a straight battle, the Cybermen would have destroyed their opponents without trouble. But following the Doctor’s advice, Klaus and Nicolai organised the men into small raiding parties that ran up to the advancing Cybermen, delivered a quick blow of sword, shovel, or whatever they had, then retreated rapidly.
The Cybermen retaliated by breaking into smaller groups themselves. They pursued the attackers, but as the Doctor had predicted their movements were slower and their reactions sluggish.
‘This will tire them out?’ Olga asked as the Doctor watched and nodded thoughtfully.
‘It’ll take a while,’ the Doctor admitted. ‘But every little bit helps. So long as they’re using up more power than they’re drawing from the storms.’
An ominous rumble of thunder punctuated his words.
‘How long will it take to defeat them?’
‘At this rate,’ the Doctor said, ‘several years. That’s why we need another plan. Keep the Cybermen busy while I do a Plan B thing.’
‘I have some questions,’ Lady Ernhardt said.
‘Oh, don’t they always,’ the Doctor muttered.
Olga raised an eyebrow. ‘Women, you mean?’
‘I mean humans – people. Questions, questions, questions, it’s all I get.’
‘Why are they doing this?’ Lady Ernhardt went on. ‘These Cybermen – why don’t they just stay sleeping underground? Why wake and, when woken, why attack us?’
Olga looked at Lady Ernhardt. She still had the hood of her cloak pulled up, and her face was hidden in shadows. Rain dripped off the hood.
‘It’s what they do,’ the Doctor told her. ‘It’s instinctive – except of course they don’t have instincts any more than they have emotions. But there’s a logic to it.’
‘Which is?’ Olga asked.
‘Survival, for one thing. Any threat or potential threat must be deleted. You lot might not attack them now, but you know they’re there so they’re vulnerable in the future. Another reason is defence – they’re spreading out to maintain a cordon round their ship. They know Worm and Drettle were scavenging bits and pieces, and they’ve already lost their precious power converter. They don’t want you getting inside.’
‘If they are concerned about what we might do inside their ship,’ Lady Ernhardt said, ‘then isn’t that precisely where we should be?’
‘Yes, well, maybe …’ The Doctor’s face crumpled like scrunched-up paper as he considered this. ‘There’s a difference between what the Cybermen might think is inconvenient enough to want to prevent, and what we need to do to stop them completely.’
‘This power they need,’ Olga said, ‘does that come from their ship?’
‘Routed through it.’
‘Then that is where we can stop it, surely?’
‘It’s not as simple as that,’ the Doctor protested. ‘You have no idea.’
Lady Ernhardt fixed him with an unblinking stare. ‘At the moment, Doctor, neither do you.’
The Doctor stared back, his face now set in a stern expression. ‘Oh yes I do. Lots of ideas. Full of them. And here comes Idea Number One. Numero Uno. Digit the first. Wait here!’
Olga and Lady Ernhardt watched as the Doctor ran off to speak quickly with Lord Ernhardt and Klaus, who between them were coordinating the latest hit-and-run raids on the slowly advancing Cybermen.
The metal warriors were spread across the area, while the villagers tried to draw them away from the village itself. It was working up to a point, and the Cybermen had been sufficiently inconvenienced to start chasing after the attacking villagers.
There were some casualties, but so far all f
airly minor. One of Caplan’s soldiers had lingered too long as he swung his sword repeatedly at a Cyberman, and another had caught him a blow across the shoulders. Several villagers had cuts and bruises from glancing blows, or from falling over as they scrambled to back away.
In return, a few of the Cybermen were dented or slightly damaged. A lucky stroke from Caplan’s sword severed tubing on a Cyberman’s arm, and it spewed green fluid across the ground. The Cyberman was now fighting one-handed. Another had spectacularly exploded when several villagers ganged up on it and managed to knock its head violently backwards into a stone wall.
‘Right, here’s the plan,’ the Doctor told Olga and Lady Ernhardt breathlessly as he ran back. ‘Klaus and Lord Ernhardt and the others are going to lead the Cybermen after them. They’ve caused enough problems that if they seem to be on the run, the Cybermen will follow them.’
‘But – into the village?’ Olga asked. ‘The children …’
The Doctor was shaking his head. ‘Even if we divert most of them, the Cybermen will still send a few scouts to hunt through the village for anything useful to them. And that, sadly, includes the children. So it’s up to the castle. That’s the best place to defend. Everyone gets inside – including the children, everyone.’
‘Everyone?’ Olga checked.
‘Everyone,’ the Doctor confirmed. ‘Except me.’
‘No,’ Lady Ernhardt told him. ‘Everyone except us.’
There was no time to argue as Klaus and the others were already drawing most of the Cybermen away from the village and towards the castle. So the Doctor didn’t waste time trying.
Instead he led Olga and Lady Ernhardt through the outskirts of the village so they could double back to get behind the Cybermen.
‘Are they all following the other villagers?’ Olga asked.
‘Probably not. But most of them, I expect. Fingers crossed.’
‘I hope Victor will be all right,’ Lady Ernhardt said quietly.
The Doctor frowned. ‘Yes, should have thought of that. Never mind, don’t worry about him for now.’
Doctor Who: Plague of the Cybermen Page 12
