"Well... I think that's it done now!"
"It's still dark, Doctor. I can't see a thing!"
"Oh? Damn. Something in the... what's it called..."
The usually bright and welcoming interior of the TARDIS was pitch dark. The Doctor was fiddling about with the ancient wiring and director boards – every time this happened, something went wrong. On this particular occasion, it was the lights. But last time the time manipulator pump had gone awry and the time before that the oxygen distributor's sectional computing mechanism decided to stop working!
"Right! Don't worry! Oh yes... Maybe you should worry..."
Sparks went flying from the hatch the Doctor had opened in the floor of the TARDIS.
"Are you okay?"
"Yes! Jolly fine! Oh dear... No, wait... Bingo! Got it!"
Finally the lights came back on and everything whirred to life yet again.
"Are we good to go then?" Jamie asked, looking very impatient.
"Yes, I believe so... sorry about that, Jamie..." The Doctor replied, looking rather sheepish, "But we're definitely good to go now! Let's just take the old girl for a test spin!"
He pranced over to the main console of the TARDIS, fiddling with various buttons and dials.
"Righty-ho. Time... random. Location... random. There we go!"
The Doctor thrust a lever down and the TARDIS shook and groaned. Jamie raised an eyebrow. But after a few seconds of these disturbing noises, the TARDIS finally returned to it's normal, comforting noises. Well, Jamie was had always found the take-off noises the time ship made rather scary. It made unearthly screaches and squeals, before a final wavering sound emitted.
Suddenly the TARDIS made a 'dud-ump' noise, signalling it had made contact with the ground.
"Ohhh! I wonder where we've landed?" The Doctor said as he opened the doors and hopped out.
Jamie followed, and was immediately disappointed.
"London? Again? Doctor, set it to random and try again!"
But when Jamie bothered to look around a bit more, he noticed there was something oddly alien about this place. The buildings were made of brick, and looked fairly neglected; weeds and mosses trailed down the walls, lichen in the grooves between the bricks. What was strange was the massive cliffs in the far, far distance. Huge things that curled around on themselves. They looked slightly blue they were so far away.
"Doctor... where are we?" Jamie asked, considerably more interested now.
"Definitely not London, that's for sure. Hmm. I think we've arrived in an abandoned back garden of sorts," The Doctor said eagerly, "I think there's a way to a high street over there."
The Doctor waved in the vague direction right in front of them. He locked the TARDIS, gave Jamie a spare set of keys (as usual) and they trudged off to the gap in the brick wall facing the TARDIS' doors.
And sure enough it led into a street. It was overgrown too. It was deserted. It's pavements were made of old cobbles, the street of cracked asphalt. To the right the street led on; on the left a building had fallen in and scattered itself across the road, and small chainlink fence with a sign reading 'Closed until further notice!'.
They headed down the passable way. The buildings looked like they were from Earth, around the 1960s or 1970s. But it wasn't Earth they were on. The Doctor just had a feeling they were on another planet. And, of course, last time the Doctor looked there hadn't been those alien looking cliffs jutting out in the distance.
A lot of the buildings look dilapidated and unloved. Plaster had fallen away and crumbled on the street below; paint was flaking off; vines and moss were slowly climbing up gutters and door frames.
"Doctor... I think this is a ghost town... or a ghost city..." Jamie said, nervously. He didn't like this place. It gave him the creeps. Something about it.
"I don't think so," The Doctor replied, quietly, "listen carefully..."
They both stopped moving down the street they had just turned on to, Jamie squinting, as if that'd help. But the Doctor was right. The faint but unmistakable sounds of bustle drifted ahead of them, along the street they were walking. Cars, the low hum of street chat, a faint siren.
"Yes. I'm sure I can here something. Do you think it's ahead?" Jamie said.
"I think so too. Let's carry on."
They carried on walking. At the end of the long street another one opened up; a row of buildings where the road had been going. Two streets snaked around the interrupting terrace of houses. They went on the right side of the row, and sure enough there seemed to be human activity.
A fence blocked their way forwards. It had somebody in what looked like a police uniform on the other side, watching the street from his side. He heard the Doctor and Jamie, and turned around, holding up a large automatic rifle.
"Stay back!" He shouted frantically, "Help! We've got some over here!"
"Wait! Don't shoot!" Jamie said, his voice echoing against the ruined buildings.
The man seemed to become less tense and held his rifle a little lower, but he still had his finger on the trigger.
"Well, at least you aren't definitely infected." He replied, "But don't come any closer. Not yet."
Some other policemen came along, in pale blue livery, also with guns. A van trundled into view; it read 'TSS' on it's armoured sides.
"Infected? What? Excuse me, we've just arrived here." The Doctor chipped in cheerily, "What's been going on?"
"Impossible. This planet is under strict quarantine." The policeman shouted back.
Suddenly a radio on his belt chattered and beeped into life. He picked it off it's hook, a wire trailing after it as he brought it to his mouth, holding the huge rifle in one hand.
"Yes... two survivors... no we don't know if they're – what? No... they say they've just come here," The man glanced back up at the Doctor and Jamie, "Fine, we'll let them in for testing."
The fence lifted upwards on some sort of hydraulics suspended on the roofs of the terraces that surrounded the sides of the street. It groaned and vibrated, the chain linking hissing as it rattle together from the force of being jolted upwards.
The man gestured for the Doctor and Jamie to come forwards. They did, slowly, and when they got there he whipped out a kind of syringe with a little screen attached to it. The actual 'syringe' part was stubby and thick. He skilfully jabbed it against Jamie's arm, and then the Doctors.
The curious device made a cheerful beep, and the man sighed and put it back in his belt.
"You're clear. Not infected. How did you survive out there?" The policeman asked, relieved but bewildered.
"Survive out there? What do you mean? We just taking a stroll around the city-"
"In the infected zone. How did you live? There's meant to be hordes of them out there. We've slowly had to fall back further into the city, they claim more and more of it every few weeks. One day, they'll be nothing left. Unless the infection wears off or somebody gets a cure or Earth actually sends help!" The man glanced up at the sky, as if he was glaring at the Earth authorities.
"Ah! An Earth colony." The Doctor chirped, giving a knowing glance to Jamie.
"Of course... Anyway, this infection means the entire planet is under quarantine. I haven't seen you before."
"Tell me about this infection..."
"You mean, you haven't heard about it? You truly must have just arrived here!" The man looked nervous, "Well, we arrived here and set up the main colony, out of bricks as you see... Earth wanted this to be a pretty little place. Then the infection came. We don't know from where, but it... it drove people mad. Psychotic. Erratic. You could call it a zombie plague, in effect. We have no idea where it's come from, but every day we lose more territory in our own city! We try to close off the streets and sewers... but there's always an overlooked area or a defence not staffed well enough."
The Doctor and Jamie exchanged nervous glances.
"Well, we better be getting back to our ship then." The Doctor said.
"Yes, I think so too!" Jamie added, getting ready to walk away.
"I can't let that happen! If you really do have a ship, you could be spreading the virus all over the Alliance's planets. Even though Earth has ignored us all these months, I have to upkeep the quarantine. And anyway, you're lucky to have survived being out there! Most times we send out squads to try and recover even a single street, well... they don't return."
"So, we're trapped?" The Doctor asked, twiddling his thumbs.
"I'm afraid so, Mr... Sorry, what's your name?"
"Em, well, yes, I'm Doctor... em... Smith, and this is my apprentice..."
"I'm Jamie, nice to meet you!" Jamie said, thrusting out a hand for shaking.
The policeman ignored the offer, recoiling at the thought of shaking hands.
"Remember to stay hygienic! We can't let any diseases break out here, we've got enough to deal with!"
The Doctor and Jamie explored the streets that were still left; it was a good mile or so in diameter, with a big castle like structure in the centre, which they found out to be the Police HQ. In this town, the police seemed to rule it since the government collapsed and contact was lost with Earth because of the isolating quarantine.
The Doctor kept plotting ways to get back to the TARDIS, but he didn't feel like taking his chances with zombies. He had, on two occasions, encountered such a plague in his travels and he certainly didn't want to cross paths with it again! They must have been very lucky.
But there was talk of people disappearing. District after district had been overrun, but almost (it seemed) systematically. Every five weeks another district would be 'overrun'; no survivors. This was the last district, and it had survive for about eight weeks since the last area fell. It was well overdue.
And while the Doctor and Jamie slept at their respective rooms in the abandoned house they'd been given, they could hear people moving. Things moving, at least. There was a curfew from 9pm to 7am, and police patrolled the streets. But it wasn't them. The things that moved in the night... marched.
It was late at night on the last streets of the dying city. A few policemen had been called out, to guard the area in case of anything. These were the military police; second only to the Elite Police, which were being tested...
The military police were clones, bred on Earth and shipped around the Alliance to keep the order. Their left hands had been severed off, surgically, to make way for a powerful gun inserted into their flesh. Some said it was immoral, and that one day all soldiers and police would be made of electronic parts, with only brains showing their humanity.
But the Police Development Department's Division C Team were assured the Elite Police were just robotic. Some of them wondered if one day brains would be inserted into them. Some wondered if there were brains inside of them already...
The back of the truck opened, the metal booming as it made contact with the cold street.
They marched out, perfectly in sync, blank metal faces seemingly staring into the middle distance, as if they were zombies themselves.
"Well, you certainly got the transmission issues fixed Kertin. Well done. These models are great."
Kertin beamed at his latest development in the Elite Police, C Division's latest task to help wrest control of the population. The man who had complimented him was called Dr Cowling. His shy assistant, Ms Port, chipped in.
"Yes, these new models are almost ready for... well, you know. But... I don't think it's right. I mean, even if subjects would consent to it, I just feel..." She trailed off, her breath visible against the chilled night air.
"Don't talk about that in public! Even the military police can't know about it. Top secret!" Dr Cowling hissed.
"Sorry sir... I'm just concerned."
"I'm sure we all were at one point," Kertin interjected, "but I'm sure these will lead us to victory against the infection! The problem is, our current soldiers can get infected. When you're plastic and steel... well... that's another story!"
He clenched a fist. He had lost his wife and two children to the infection, and he would do anything it took to get is revenge.
"Forward two step then due right!" Dr Cowling barked, and then metal men marched out of the truck and forwards, the transparent handles on their steel skulls distorting and magnifying the rear lights of the their transport lorry.
"Very good! Who are you, and what do you serve?"
"We are the Elite Police. We serve the mighty Earth Alliance, to battle the infection that has wrecked this planet. We serve the people and the government's services. We serve justice." The leading Elite Police unit declared in it's emotionless, grating voice.
"Excellent! Tomorrow we shall start work on the brain transplants... I've got a few subjects in mind who'd be willing to help out. Go back into the truck Elite Police units!" Dr Cowling said, as he turned on his heel, heading back to HQ.
"But sir! We need permission!" Ms Port yelled.
"We already have it. In advance, you see. We must act quickly!"
Kertin and, eventually, Ms Port followed Dr Cowling.