Death of the Doctor by Gary Russell Read Free Book Online Page B

‘So, what’s going on exactly?’ he asked.
    ‘Umm…ask them?’ Santiago suggested.
    And the Doctor turned to see that behind him, the three Shansheeth were entering the huge empty car park.
    He adjusted his bow tie and stepped towards them. ‘Yes, right. The Claw Shansheeth of the Fifteenth Funeral Fleet.’
    Azure stepped ahead of the other two. ‘I am Azure of the Claw Shansheeth. I’m sorry for your loss.’
    ‘Blimey,’ the Doctor muttered. ‘It’s like hearing Eeyore on a bad day. When he’s got toothache. Cheerful lot, aren’t you? Now then, I’ve been looking for you. Have you been telling my friends that I’m dead?’
    Azure bowed his long neck slightly. ‘I apologise. The Death Notice was released a little too early.’
    Amaranth stepped forward. ‘Though we can rectify this.’
    Aureolin stepped forward too. ‘Immediately.’
    And all three Shansheeth unfurled their wings and rose slowly, almost majestically, into the air and circled the group below.
    And all three pointed forwards and down at the Doctor with their twisted clawed hands.
    ‘We are so sorry for your loss,’ they said in unison and a blast of savage red energy erupted from their combined talons and hit the Doctor squarely in the chest, sending him crashing to the floor and across the ground.
    He tried to get up, but a second blast floored him. Sarah Jane and the others could only gasp in horror as he tried to stagger away, but he could only get onto one knee before a third blast floored him completely.
    Azure flew down so low his talons almost shredded the back of the Doctor’s jacket.
    ‘Rest. In. Peace!’ he screeched at the fallen Time Lord.

Chapter Eight
    Come along, Smith
    Clyde was standing alone. Lost. And it was really quite cold and getting dark. He looked into the alien sky, trying to see where the stars were, but the mist was so low, so thick, that he couldn’t see more than about thirty feet in the air.
    After a few moments, the mist parted and Clyde could see part of the night sky. The moon, he could see the moon! He felt a brief feeling of joy as the light moved across the landscape. Then he saw something astonishing – there was a second moon. Slightly bigger than the first.
    He wasn’t on Earth, because Earth certainly didn’t have two moons.
    ‘Thanks, Doctor,’ he muttered. ‘My first alien planet, and no one around to share it with. ’
    He shivered.
    He listened to see if he could hear anyone or anything else in the area. Something, anything, that would give him someone to talk to, to maybe find out where he was.
    But there was nothing except a slight electrical chime coming from back where he’d first arrived. ‘Should’ve stayed put,’ he said out loud. Anything to break the silence.
    Moving back to where he’d first appeared, he realised the mist had lifted slightly and now he could see a tall, thin device, shaped like a small, skinny missile.
    A missile?
    Clyde held his breath. Was it a bomb about to go off?
    Veep. Veep. Veep.
    A small blue light was flashing up and down the device in time with the “veeping” sound.
    Was this a countdown?
    ‘Doctor…what have you got me into?’
    At which moment, Clyde found himself back in the UNIT car park, on the floor.
    He looked up – the Shansheeth were flying! Above him!
    He looked across, and saw the astonished Sarah Jane, Rani and the others.
    ‘But I was on a planet...’ he said.
    ‘Never mind that,’ Sarah Jane yelled, ‘Get up and run!’
    Clyde didn’t need telling twice and he followed the rest of the gang back into the thin corridor.
    ‘They can’t fly down after us!’ Santiago yelled.
    But he was wrong – the Shansheeth were now on their sides, their wing tips just missing the floor and ceilings of the UNIT corridor as they expertly glided down it, screeching their awful noise as they pursued them.
    Sarah Jane pushed open the door to her bedroom. ‘In, in, in!’ she yelled.
    And then stopped. Instead of Clyde, she was again