The Nightmare of Black Island

by Mike Tucker

  Goosebumps ran across her skin and she felt the hairs at the back of her neck stand on end. Her heart was pounding in her chest, her breathing becoming faster and faster. She forced herself closer to the monstrous shape. Every fibre of her being screamed at her to run, to get out of this place as fast as her legs would carry her, to run and not look back, to hide from this monstrosity before it reached out for her and dragged her into that horrible crackling web.

  She swallowed hard, trying to control the fear that threatened to overwhelm her. She had to let the Doctor know what was going on. He was relying on her and she wasn't going to let him down.

  She forced herself to take a step closer, then another. Waves of energy seemed to ripple across the creature, almost changing its shape as they washed around it. Horns and claws and tusks seemed to appear and disappear across the writhing skin. One minute it looked almost humanoid, the next it was something hunched and animal-like. High above her, almost pressed against the ceiling, Rose thought she could make out the shape of a head of some kind. Shadows flitted this way and that, making it difficult to see. She leaned closer. She had to get a proper look.

  The creature's eyes flicked open.

  The Doctor raced through the wood, branches whipping at him as he followed the line of the old rectory wall. The villagers were now integral to his plan, giving him time. With the kids awake, the woods would be safe, and no monsters to avoid meant that he didn't need to be stealthy. But it also meant that whatever was going on at the rectory would now be interrupted, and that probably wouldn't be a good thing for Rose. He had to get inside quickly, preferably unseen. Ali's mysterious tunnel seemed like the best way.

  If all went the way that he hoped, then Morton's plans would be interrupted until morning. It was unfortunate that he had so many disparate elements to deal with. The lighthouse was out of the way and tricky to get to – which was no doubt why they had used it to house the transmitters in the first place – the rectory was tucked away on the cliff tops and Bronwyn was down in the village.

  The Doctor still wasn't certain how Bronwyn Ceredig fitted into the puzzle, but she was part of it, of that he had no doubt. Bronwyn, Nathaniel Morton and a small boy called Jimmy who was almost certainly Bronwyn's son. All of them pieces of a puzzle he still had to solve...

  'In between rescuing Rose and Ali, dismantling the transmitters and stopping all this ever happening again. I do love holidays by the sea!'

  The tangle of rhododendron bushes and broken brickwork that Billy Palmer had told him about loomed out of the darkness. The Doctor pushed his way through the wet leaves and into the remains of the old coal bunker. The tunnel entrance was only partially concealed. Billy had said that they'd left in a hurry.

  The Doctor pulled the sodden plywood to one side, peering into the dark.

  'Cold, wet tunnel... just my sort of thing!'

  His sonic screwdriver flared into life, casting a bright blue glow into the gloom, and the Doctor dived inside.

  Rose ran faster than she could ever have believed possible. She made no attempt at concealment; she just wanted to put as much distance as possible between herself and the nightmare in the library.

  When the thing had opened its eyes Rose had felt such fear and dread and total despair that she thought her legs were going to give way beneath her. As the cold, black gaze had swept over her, every nightmare and every bad moment of her life had bubbled up from the places in her memory where they had been hidden. She had started to shake uncontrollably, too frightened to cry or to scream. All warmth had left her, all hope; she was cold and empty and alone, abandoned, at the mercy of this thing.

  She had screwed her eyes up, waiting for the final blow, for teeth and claws to tear into her flesh, but that blow never came. She forced herself to open her eyes again, physically flinching under the silent gaze of the towering monster.

  The eyes were dead. Vacant. Nothing had glimmered in those cold black orbs: no intelligence, no life, nothing. The creature was a shell, a vessel. It couldn't see her, but somehow that made it even more frightening.

  And so Rose had run. She had turned and fled from that room, tearing down the long corridor, throwing open the window and escaping into the night. She had almost broken her neck on the fire escape. The metal was wet and slippery and her feet had slid away from her a couple of times, sending her tumbling down the steep stairs. She had hit the courtyard running and hadn't looked back, diving headfirst into the tunnel.

  Only now, in the cool dark, did she finally start to slow down, aware that if she carried on in her manic flight she was liable to fall headfirst into the mud and brain herself on the wet brickwork.

  She dropped to her knees, oblivious to the freezing water, her breath coming in great ragged gulps. She hated herself for running, hated herself for being unable to stand her ground. After all she'd been through! But most of the things she had faced somehow paled into insignificance beside the terror she had felt in the library.

  'What are you up to Morton? What the hell are you up to?'

  Ali sat in the dark tunnel, banging her torch against the palm of her hand in frustration. The blinking light from the LEDs had been fine when she'd reached the safety of the tunnel, but as she'd progressed further and further into the inky depths it had started to falter. Now she could only get any light if she turned the torch off and then back on again, and even then it only lasted for a few seconds.

  Hunkering down against the tunnel wall, she unscrewed the back of the little keyring and carefully pulled out the two tiny watch batteries. She clasped them in the palm of her hand, trying to warm them up. Whenever the TV remote control had failed at home, she had seen her father take the back of the handset and roll the batteries back and forth in their housing to get them working again. She desperately hoped that warming the torch batteries would give them enough power to get her to the end of the tunnel and safety.

  She squinted, trying to make out any shapes around her, but the blackness was total. She had been walking for four or five minutes when the torch went out so she figured she was about halfway down the tunnel.

  Even though she was more frightened than she had ever been in her life, Ali was hugely proud of herself. She knew that she'd have some explaining to do to her mum, and she didn't even want to think about how angry her dad was going to be, but the rest of the gang... They were going to be well impressed, and there was no way that Dai Barraclough was ever going to be able to tease her again, not after he'd run off like a startled rabbit.

  In the dark Ali allowed herself a little smile. But that swiftly faded as the sound of something further down the tunnel reached her. Had one of the monsters entered the tunnel behind her? The noises were getting louder and louder. Whatever it was was coming fast.

  Ali clambered to her feet. She could hear splashing footfalls echoing down the tunnel and the sound of laboured breathing. She started to back away, fumbling with the batteries. The tunnel was too small to hide in. In her panic the batteries slipped from her grasp. She heard them splash into the water that trickled through the drain. With a cry of despair she dropped to her knees, fingers raking through the slime. The noises behind her were getting closer and closer.

  In terror, Ali abandoned the batteries and started to run. She could see nothing and her feet threatened to slide from under her at every step. She ran with her arms outstretched, desperately trying to balance herself against the wet walls. Her ankle caught on something and she went flying, bouncing off the tunnel wall and diving headlong into the freezing water. Sharp pain shot through her shin, but ignoring it she scrambled to her feet and continued her headlong flight. She didn't care what her parents or friends thought of her now; she just wanted to get out of this tunnel, out into the open air and away from whatever horror was in here with her.

  Her eyes blurred with tears. As Ali made to brush them away with her sleeve, she cannoned into something tall and dark.

  And screamed.

  ELEVEN

  Ali bit
and screamed and flailed at the thing that had caught her, lashing out with her fists and feet. She could see nothing as the darkness was total, but the thing that had her was tall and gangly and she could hear it gasp in pain as her blows connected.

  'Ow! Careful! You're going to do me some serious damage.'

  It was a most un-monster-like voice.

  Ali stopped struggling and an electric blue light lit up the tunnel. Rose's friend the Doctor stood there. He held a slim tube, like a torch, and the blue light was flaring from its tip.

  'You're stronger than you look,' he said, hunching over, wincing in pain and rubbing at his knee.

  Ali slapped his arm.

  'Ow! What was that for?'

  'You scared me!'

  'Well, you scared me too!' The Doctor was indignant. 'Honestly. Charging about like that. Took years off me.'

  He crouched down, looking her full in the face. Ali suddenly realised what nice eyes he had.

  'What were you running from?' His voice was gentle and full of concern.

  Ali pointed down the tunnel behind her. 'Something down there. Something behind me. I can hear it.'

  'Can you now?'

  The Doctor cocked his head to one side, listening. In the quiet dark the splashing footsteps were clear.

  'Hear it?' whispered Ali. 'I think it's one of the monsters.'

  'Do you? Well, it's your lucky day.' The Doctor stood up, pulling his coat straight. "Cause I'm the Doctor, and if there's one thing that I do well, it's monsters.'

  He held out the silver tube, pointing the glowing tip down the tunnel. Ali huddled behind him, staring into the shadows cast by the bright blue light. The splashing was getting louder and louder. She could just make out a shape in the dark. She screwed her eyes up, wondering what exactly the Doctor was going to do.

  'Rose!'

  The Doctor's voice was like a gunshot in the dark. He stood in the glare of the blue light from his sonic screwdriver.

  Ali's face peered out from behind his legs. The little girl was drenched with filthy water, but the relief on her face mirrored that on Rose's own.

  The Doctor splashed forward and gave her an enormous hug.

  'Hello, you! I was just coming to get you!'

  She hugged him back gratefully.

  'Talk about leaving it until just after the nick of time.'

  'Sorry. Got a bit caught up.'

  Ali hurried over to them and Rose tousled her hair. 'I thought I told you to get out of here.'

  'My torch packed up.'

  'She thought you were a monster.' The Doctor grinned. 'Personally, I think that's a bit harsh...'

  'Hey!' Rose frowned at him.

  The Doctor winked at Ali, then caught Rose by the arm, leading her a little way down the tunnel.

  'I've been worried about you. We had some... interesting visitors out on Black Island. Some old friends conjured out of the ether. Slitheen, Daleks, that sort of thing...' All flippancy had gone from his voice now. 'Do I gather that Mr Nathaniel Morton has been a less than perfect host?'

  Rose nodded, and proceeded to tell him everything that had happened since she had made it into the cellar, grateful for the chance to finally unburden herself to someone who might understand what was going on.

  The Doctor listened, his face hard and his jaw tightening as Rose described the mind-scan that Morton and the others had subjected her to. When she finally reached the thing in the library, she lowered her voice so as not to alarm Ali. The little girl had already been through enough; she didn't need to know that the worst monster was still to come.

  The Doctor stroked his chin thoughtfully. 'Cynrog. That's not good.'

  'You've met them?'

  'Not met them, but know them by reputation. Not a very nice reputation either.'

  'And they've got a thing about frightening children, have they?'

  'No, that's the bit that's puzzling. The equipment is nothing that the Cynrog aren't capable of. But they're behaving oddly. All this sneaking about, hiding under masks... not like them at all.'

  'So how should they be?'

  'Oh, I dunno. Stamping about and giving orders. Blowing things up. That sort of thing... They're warriors, subjugating the galaxy in the name of their great all-powerful god.' He frowned, looking almost disappointed.

  'Well, let's just count ourselves lucky that they're not stamping around, blowing things up, shall we?' Rose said. 'What are we gonna do about stopping them?'

  'First things first.' The Doctor pulled a crumpled photograph from his pocket. 'Look familiar?'

  Rose took it, squinting at it in the dim light. It was the photograph of a small boy.

  'Oh, my God! It's the boy I saw in my dream.'

  'I've been seeing a lot of him tonight. It seems that it's not just monsters being brought to life.'

  'Where did you get this?'

  'Bronwyn Ceredig. Now, I need you to find out who this is... I think his name is Jimmy and I think he was her son. Find out what happened to him, Rose. Find out what Bronwyn knows.'

  'You think she's something to do with this?'

  'That's what I need you to find out! What I do know is that there's a thumping great alien transmitter in the lamp room of the lighthouse that needs sorting out.' The Doctor smiled that mischievous smile of his. 'And that's where young Ali here comes in.'

  Peyne stared in frustration at the inert equipment that littered the cellar. All around it, Cynrog technicians scurried to and fro, pushing past her without catching her gaze. Psychic reception had fallen practically to zero.

  Hadron hurried over to her.

  'Well?' Peyne snapped.

  'The equipment is functioning perfectly, Priest Commander. And the generators are at full power. If we are not receiving a signal, then it can only mean that...'

  'That the children are not asleep.' Peyne gave a hiss of displeasure.

  'You think they have realised?'

  'The primitives in the village have no concept of what is going on. No, I think our friend the Doctor has had a hand in this. A Time Lord desperately trying to uphold the principles of his people. Protecting the lesser species.' Peyne's voice was filled with contempt.

  'Do we still have his companion, the girl?'

  'Yes, Commander Peyne. Locked in one of the upper rooms.'

  Then the Doctor might regret siding with these humans.' She licked her lips with a flick of her tongue. 'Can the equipment be modified to induce sleep in the target subjects?'

  Hadron's brow furrowed. 'Theoretically it is just a matter of recalibration of some of the components in the emitter.'

  Then do it! Force the children back into their dream state. The Synod will not wait much longer and I am keen to be free of this world.'

  'Peyne?' Morton's voice bellowed from upstairs.

  Peyne hissed in irritation.

  'Peyne, I want to talk to you!'

  'I expect a report from you in fifteen minutes, Priest Technician Hadron.' Peyne's voice made it perfectly clear that she would brook no more delays. Take as many novices as you need from other duties to get the work done, but get those children dreaming again!'

  Hadron hurried back towards the machinery, summoning technicians as he went. Peyne turned and made her way up the cellar stairs.

  Morton was waiting for her at the top.

  'What is going on, Peyne?'

  The old man's face was red and beaded with sweat. Peyne wrinkled her nose in disgust.

  She shut the door to the cellar, determined to keep her tone civil. She still needed Morton's cooperation, at least for the present. It would do them no good for the man to get unduly agitated.

  'It seems our friend the Doctor has some understanding of what we are doing here, of how we are generating the creatures at any rate. It seems that he has persuaded our dreamers not to sleep tonight.'

  Morton's hands tightened on the arms of his wheelchair, knuckles whitening.

  'Why is he interfering?'

  Peyne gave an unpleasant smile.
'Because he's a Time Lord. He thinks that it is his role to put right the wrongs of the universe. They always were an arrogant race and this one is no different.'

  'Damn him!'

  There was anguish in Morton's voice. It was this anguish that was responsible for what they had started here, this anguish that Peyne had used to drive Morton ever further, that had brought them here to this ancient rectory and so close to completing her mission.

  It had made Morton ambitious and dangerous.

  'Is the Doctor's friend still locked up?' he snapped.

  Peyne nodded. 'In one of the upper rooms.'

  Then get her! Bring her down here.' Morton was shaking with rage. 'If the Doctor insists on interfering, then he and the girl will regret it.'

  Peyne gave a smile of amusement. It never ceased to amaze her how far this primitive was prepared to go for his own survival. She had chosen wisely when she picked him.

  'The technicians are busy. I'll get the girl myself

  'Bring her to the ward.'

  With that Morton spun his wheelchair on the spot and wheeled himself out of the hallway. She liked seeing him like this. Too often he moped and moaned his way through the day, constantly whining about his condition. Anger made him powerful, anger let her see what lay within him, and it thrilled her.

  She crossed the hall, climbing the old staircase to the upper floor. It might be interesting to let Morton have free rein with the girl, to see just how far he was prepared to go. If nothing else, it would provide the technicians with a much needed diversion from the monotony of their duties.

  She crossed to the door of the room where the girl was locked and pulled the snub-nosed disintegrator pistol from her pocket. The girl should still be groggy from the drugs that she had been given, but there was no harm in being cautious. She reached out to open the door then stopped, puzzled. The key wasn't in the lock. She reached for the brass handle and turned it. There was a soft click. The door was unlocked!