The Deviant Strain

by Justin Richards

  Silence.

  Then the creaking, like a ship starting to set sail. Movement. Skull-heads turning slowly towards the doorway. Figures jerking into unsteady life – twisting, rising, shambling . . .

  ‘Who are they?’ Rose breathed.

  ‘The scientists who found the spaceship about fifty years ago,’ the Doctor said. ‘The scientists who adapted its systems to keep them alive. If you can call this life.’

  ‘It isn’t always like this,’ said a voice behind them.

  Klebanov pushed his way through the crowd of people. He stood staring at the decaying figures that were slowly shuffling towards them.

  ‘He’s right. Sofia wasn’t like that,’ Rose said. ‘Not all the time.’

  ‘Takes a lot of energy, though. This lot are waiting for the power to build enough to give them all a dose. Isn’t that right?’ He was talking to the nearest of the skeletal figures.

  Its reply was cracked and dry, like old bones. ‘Is it time?’ the figure whispered hoarsely. ‘Have you found a way for us all to live again? To live for ever?’

  But it wasn’t talking to the Doctor. It was talking to Klebanov.

  The chief scientist nodded. ‘It is time. And look . . .’ He turned towards the people crowded into the back of the room, opened his arms to include them all. ‘I’ve brought you food,’ he said.

  FOURTEEN

  FROM THE STOREROOM behind them came the sound of crashing masonry as the creatures started to force their way through.

  ‘Not doing that great,’ Jack said. ‘Plan D?’

  But the Doctor ignored him. He was talking to Klebanov. ‘So was Barinska working with you? Or was she freelance? Cos she’d been here for a while, hadn’t she?’

  As Klebanov started to reply, the Doctor glanced at Jack. A look, no more – but Jack knew what it meant. Plan D was up to him while the Doctor kept talking.

  ‘She found the ship almost a century ago. Didn’t understand it, or what it did for her when she meddled,’ Klebanov said.

  The Doctor nodded. ‘She’d been able to draw off some energy, influenced by the pilot’s lingering soul and spirit. But it needed a scientist to adapt it further.’

  ‘Barinska showed me the ship when I took over as director here in 1947.’

  ‘No wonder Minin couldn’t find a record of your assignment. He was looking thirty years too late.’

  The husks of the scientists were shuffling forwards, arranging themselves in a semicircle around the people. The villagers were frightened but quiet. Everyone watched the Doctor and Klebanov, which gave Jack a chance to tap Lieutenant Krylek on the shoulder. The two of them slipped away, hiding within the group.

  ‘And you all think you’re gonna live for ever, is that it? No idea why, of course. That’s the pilot’s influence again. Wanting you to want to stay alive until you’ve done his job. So what was the deal? She stays young. Her and you. And the rest of your mates wait here while you sort out a solution, a way of keeping you all young and vibrant?’

  ‘Something like that.’

  ‘Because there isn’t enough power for you all, is there? Not while the ship’s just ticking over. It only needs one of you, after all. And a lot of the energy it had left wasn’t the right sort of power anyway. So it got you to adapt it, play with it – before you all got too old and had to take it easy in here. You tried using the monkeys.’ The Doctor gave a short laugh. ‘Not such a success, was it, though?’

  Klebanov frowned. ‘How do you know about that?’

  ‘About what? About how some of your chums got monkeyfied. Give them the energy of a simian and they turn into proto-baboons. And there aren’t many bananas to be had out here.’

  Klebanov gave a snarl of rage and the other scientists took a step forwards, hands raised now – ready to strike.

  ‘So you had to keep draining human energy. Not too much, though. Don’t want people getting too suspicious, and you don’t want to run out of food either. So just now and then – the odd sacrifice on the stones, was it? Set the controls in the ship and strap some poor young human down. Get Barinska to blame it on the mythical Vourdulak. That’s what happened to Valeria’s friend.’

  At the edge of the group, Jack froze, listening intently to the Doctor’s words. He could see Valeria standing impassively beside Rose.

  ‘He got drained to feed you lot. To keep you going. Top you up like a mobile phone. And then you started on Valeria, only the ship got distracted part of the way through. Switched off when someone answered its little message. Whatever else he may have done, Jack saved her life.’

  Jack swallowed. Had he saved her? For this? And was it worth it? He couldn’t even begin to think about that, though he knew what the girl’s father would say. He nudged Krylek and they edged out of the group towards the side of the room. Towards where Jack calculated the main corridor ran right outside the wall . . .

  The lights flickered. When they came back on they seemed dimmer than before.

  ‘It’s started,’ the Doctor said. ‘As the ship powers up, it’ll reverse your modifications. Those remote collectors out there will be after any energy source soon. Not just humans, though they might have acquired a taste for them. One of them’s found the power lines, or the generator. It doesn’t need to keep you lot alive any more. It thinks help’s almost here and it’s after all the power it can find for itself.’

  ‘That doesn’t matter,’ Klebanov said. ‘As you said, the problem is one of quantity as much as quality. We can absorb a proportion of the energy. If there is enough, it won’t matter where it comes from. And believe me, we have planned for this moment. We have an energy source ready and waiting that will power up the ship and fill us with life for ever. The stronger the ship gets, the stronger we become.’

  ‘What power source?’ Rose said. ‘Anyway, whatever it is, it won’t work if we destroy your dentist’s chairs.’

  Krylek was the expert. Jack let him get on with positioning the charges against the wall while he stood in front, shielding the soldier – he hoped – from the view of the scientists. One of the emaciated husks turned towards them. Jack made a show of cowering away in apparent fright and horror. The scientist snarled and turned back towards the main group of villagers.

  Klebanov was tiring of the conversation with the Doctor. He dismissed Rose’s comment with a wave of his hand. ‘Not necessary. Oh, Sofia liked to connect herself up in the old-fashioned way, to feel the energy flowing into and through her. She didn’t trust our methods.’

  Jack could see Vahlen and a few of the others watching him and Krylek, glancing furtively so as not to give anything away, but wondering what they were up to. He nodded, as small a movement as he could so they could understand that they needed to be ready, even if they didn’t know what for. At the front of the group, Colonel Levin seemed to pay them no attention at all. But he clasped his hands behind his back – one of them in an obvious thumbs-up.

  ‘Your methods?’ the Doctor prompted.

  ‘Direct connection to the ship’s storage cells. The energy comes to us as soon as it is available. We can draw it off at will. Once there is enough energy available, we can take what we need to live for a thousand years or more.’

  ‘Wireless network.’ The Doctor sounded grudgingly impressed. ‘You adapted an energy transmitter from the ship, I s’pose. Neat solution. Bit like how poor old Georgi communicated. I assume you waited till he was in his trance, then gave him different instructions. Won’t help, though, cos you’ll all be dead soon.’

  ‘And why is that?’

  ‘Because I have to shut down the ship. And once it’s gone, you’ll find that time catches up with you.’

  ‘I don’t think so.’

  ‘I know so.’

  Klebanov shook his head. ‘But you, Doctor, are never going to leave this room.’ He snapped his fingers and at once the other scientists lunged forwards.

  At the same moment, there was a crash from behind and the door vibrated under a sudden impact.

/>   ‘Those things out there will kill you too!’ Rose shouted.

  ‘They won’t harm us,’ Klebanov said. ‘They know that if they drain energy from us it will just feed right back. They’d be wasting their time.’

  ‘They might still try,’ the Doctor told him. ‘Could be rather painful, I’d think.’

  The desiccated remains of the scientists hesitated, turning to look at Klebanov. He frowned. Maybe he hadn’t thought of that, Jack realised. Or maybe he was dealing with one problem at a time. Whatever the case, now seemed like the best moment to make their escape.

  ‘Now!’ Jack hissed to Krylek.

  The lieutenant nodded. ‘Just about done,’ he murmured. He was holding a small radio-detonator. ‘We’d better take cover and hope this works.’

  Jack glanced quickly round the room. One of the scientists was heading their way, bony fingers clicking as it stretched out its arms for them. Jack swallowed. ‘Er, cover?’ The lights were flickering again now – each time they came back less brightly than before.

  ‘What you gonna do – feed us to them?’ Rose was shouting above the hammering of the creatures outside. The door was beginning to give way.

  ‘Exactly right,’ Klebanov shouted back. He was smiling. ‘It should begin to sate their appetite while we slip away to attend to some unfinished business down at the docks. There is a way out of here, you know. But you’ll never find it.’

  ‘Don’t need to,’ the Doctor snapped back. ‘Jack!’

  ‘OK,’ Jack decided. ‘Forget cover. Just do it.’ He threw himself to the floor.

  The door collapsed inwards and a mass of writhing tentacles stabbed into the room.

  The skeletal remains of the scientists hissed in anger and anticipation, and charged forwards ready to drive the villagers – and the Doctor and Rose – back towards the creature forcing its way through the door.

  The lights went out.

  Then Krylek set off the charge.

  Lightning crashed across the darkened room and debris rained down on top of Jack. He coughed and flinched. A flash illuminating clutching hands, frightened faces, the soldiers hustling the villagers towards the smoking gap in the wall.

  Jack was on his feet again. Krylek was stumbling beside him, one side of the man’s face slick with blood as the lights flickered one last time, then died.

  The room was bathed in the eerie, faint glow of the creature that finally heaved itself through the doorway. Plaster and concrete were now crashing down from the ceiling above it.

  Shots rang out as the soldiers tried to delay the husk-like scientists charging after the villagers. The emaciated figures staggered back but did not fall.

  ‘Move – move!’ Levin was shouting.

  The Doctor bundled Rose ahead of him, urging others towards the hole in the wall. Jack, through the gap now, was pulling people through after him as quickly as possible, hoping they didn’t jam up the hole in their frightened hurry.

  One of the men fell, immediately in danger of being trampled. Jack reached into the mass of crushing bodies and hauled him to his feet, dragging him through – away from the mayhem and out into the corridor.

  The man gasped his thanks, wiping a trickle of blood from his face with the trembling back of his hand. His eyes locked for a moment with Jack’s – and Jack saw that it was Mamentov. Valeria’s father.

  Valeria.

  He was back at the hole in the wall, trying desperately to see where she was. And glimpsed between the rushing, desperate people, he could see the silhouetted figure of the girl – standing still and alone.

  ‘Rose!’ Jack shouted ‘Help Valeria!’ There was no possibility that he could force his way back inside, and if he waited until everyone else was through it would be too late.

  On the other side of the broken wall, Rose nodded. She turned and ran back towards Valeria, struggling against the current of people. Then the wall was a mass of dark bodies, heaving through, and they were lost to sight.

  The Doctor was pulling Jack away. ‘Go with Levin – keep Klebanov and his mates busy.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Weren’t you listening? They’ve got a plan to create a sudden, massive release of energy that will power up the ship and make them all but immortal.’

  ‘Bad, huh?’

  ‘The ship’ll be too powerful to stop then. And how would you generate that much energy in a place like this with just a makeshift village, a ruined scientific base and a few old nuclear submarines loaded with barely decommissioned missiles?’

  Jack bit his lip as he considered. He didn’t need to consider for long. ‘Good point. I’m on it. Colonel Levin!’ he shouted.

  Some of the soldiers had torches. Their beams criss-crossed the bare concrete walls and floor and ceiling of the corridor as they hustled the villagers along.

  The Doctor was running with Jack. ‘I’ll take the villagers.’

  ‘Great – where?’

  ‘You sort out the zombies, I’ll defeat the blobs.’

  ‘Deal,’ Jack shouted back. ‘Where’s Rose?’

  A line of Levin’s men was firing at Klebanov and the scientists, driving them back with a wall of bullets. More of the soldiers were shoving villagers towards the ragged hole in the wall. They poured through, desperately trying to evade the thrashing tentacles of the first of the creatures as it slithered into the large room. Behind it another filled the doorway. The whole room was lit with pale, pulsing blue.

  Rose struggled through the mass of people, trying to get back to where Valeria still stood in the middle of the room. A tentacle whipped past the impassive girl, withdrew, lashed out again – this time latching on to one of the men from the village and dragging him back. Rose forced herself not to watch, struggled onwards.

  But she knew she wasn’t going to get there.

  The soldiers were retreating, in an orderly line, despite the advancing creatures. Halfway to the wall, they stopped shooting, turned and ran.

  Leaving Valeria alone with Klebanov and his men, and the creatures.

  One of the soldiers grabbed Rose as he ran past, dragging her with him towards the way out – away from Valeria.

  She shook herself free. But there was nothing she could do.

  Klebanov reached out and stroked the girl’s wrinkled cheek. ‘Have they left you behind?’ he said.

  She did not move or answer.

  The villagers were stumbling and running back down the hill they had so recently climbed. The fire was all but burned out now. The creatures that had been there were gone – having taken a different route to the institute or been burned in the flames.

  The Doctor was at the front, encouraging them along. Telling them his plan.

  ‘They’ll come after us,’ he shouted. ‘They’ll take any energy they can get, but they still like humans best. Yum yum. So we lead them to where we want them, right?’

  ‘Right,’ Vahlen agreed. ‘But where is that?’

  ‘Anyone who wants can go home. Or at least to a home at the edge of the village, as far away as possible from the harbour. Cos that’s where we’re going. We lead the blobbies there, OK?’

  ‘And then what?’ Catherine Kornilova asked, breathless and afraid. Her lab coat was stained and torn.

  ‘Must be plenty of fuel left. Even if we have to siphon it out of the subs, though I don’t fancy that – tastes disgusting. We get them all there and light up.’

  ‘The dry dock,’ Vahlen said. ‘That’s where most of the fuel is. What’s left of it.’

  ‘Great. Let’s get set up, lead the blobs to us, and then you can light the blue touch-paper while I nip off and sort out their ship.’

  ‘Simple as that?’ Catherine asked.

  The Doctor grinned. ‘Doubt it.’

  Jack and Colonel Levin stood side by side. They were moving back slowly along the corridor, together with the rest of the soldiers. It was a classic retreat. The back row of troops fired, then moved to the front, while the next row fired before moving on itself.


  The grotesque figures stumbling after them were being torn to shreds. But still they kept coming – nothing seemed to stop them. The best they could hope for, Jack knew, was to slow the advance. To keep them busy so they didn’t realise what the Doctor was up to. At least, for the moment.

  Klebanov himself was at the front of the group. His coat was riddled with bullet holes and his face was cratered and torn. But still he and the others kept coming.

  They backed round a sharp corner in the corridor, close to the main entrance now.

  And behind them, a creature appeared – tentacles extended as if to welcome them.

  ‘Back!’ Levin shouted.

  Jack expected – like the others – to find Klebanov and his men waiting. Instead there was another of the creatures.

  ‘They’ve gone,’ Jack realised. ‘They knew another way out. They’ve got away – and left us trapped.’

  The soldier next to Jack screamed as a tentacle wrapped round his leg and ripped him off his feet. The whole corridor was now pulsing with blue light as the creatures advanced.

  FIFTEEN

  MOST OF THE walking dead had gone after Jack and the soldiers. But two of the zombified scientists waited long enough to lead Valeria after them. The girl was still sleepwalking her way through things. Rose pressed back into the shadows, trying not to think what would happen if she ended up trapped between the scientists and the creatures that were pulsing gently but menacingly in the corner of the room.

  ‘She’s no good to us. Just a husk, a shell,’ one of the scientists told the other. His voice was cracked and brittle, a hoarse whisper. ‘No life left. Nothing worth taking. We should throw her to them.’ He gestured at the creatures across the room.

  ‘They won’t want her either,’ the other scientist said. ‘But she may be useful as a hostage. The villagers protected her before, and while they have hardly hampered us so far, we might need to hold them off.’

  They led Valeria through the broken wall. It was a bizarre sight, Rose thought – two zombies from Dawn of the Dead escorting a young woman with an aged face, and all illuminated by the pale-blue glow of the blob monsters from hell. Best not to think about it. Best not to think about what she was doing either, she decided, as she glanced back at the creatures, then tiptoed after Valeria.