Chapter 2: The Child:

Rose plummeted downwards, watching the ground rushing up towards her. But, all of a sudden, it stopped as a strange blue glow enveloped her.

"OK, OK. I've got you." Announced an American voice.

Rose instinctively flailed to grab on to something, but the middle of the sky yielded nothing. She still felt as though she was falling. She just wasn't moving anywhere. She looked down this straight tunnel, with blue glowing walls. "Who's got me? And, you know, how?"

"Captain Jack Harness. I'm just programming a descent pattern. Keep as still as you can. Don't put your hands outside the light."

"Descent pattern?"

"Could you switch off your cell phone?"

Rose just spluttered at the ridiculousness of the situation.

"No seriously," Jack explained, "it interferes with my instruments."

"You know, no-one ever believes that." She said, but turned it off anyway.

"Thank you, that's much better."

"Oh, that's a relief!" She shouted. "I'm in the middle of a German air raid with the Union Flag across my chest, but hey, my mobile phone's off!"

"I'll be with you in a moment." Jack audibly grinned.

"Mobile telecommunication device indicates non-teraneous life form." Said his ship's computer.

"She's not from round here, I know." Said Jack, as he moved to another control panel. He pressed the button for the loudspeaker within the tractor beam. "OK, hold tight."

"To what?" Cried Rose.

"Fair point." He shrugged, and pulled a lever.

Rose suddenly felt as though she was slipping along the world's most frightening water slide, with no tactile sensation from the translucent-blue walls around her, it had little difference from her fall a minute ago. To make matters worse, she could see the end of the tunnel, and there appeared to be nothing there. She closed her eyes in anticipation.

Jack caught the girl in a sort of bridal carry. "It's OK, you're safe now." He assured her.

Rose opened her eyes again, and promptly got a very entranced look. "Hello."

"You OK? The tractor beam can scramble your head." He gently placed her standing on the deck of his ship.

"Yeah, fine." She said vaguely. "I hope you weren't expecting me to faint or something."

"You sure, you look a little dizzy?"

"What about you? You're not even in focus!" She laughed and promptly fainted. Jack caught her and moved her over to the nearest bunk.


The sounds of explosions echoed from all round the city as the German bombs rained down. But the children scurrying along the street never paid attention any more. They'd been hearing that sound every night since they'd been on the streets. There was no-where particularly safe for them to go anyway. Their only thought was food. They so rarely had a decent meal. But word had got around of a girl called Nancy who could provide some, free of charge.

Steven made his way to the house his friend had directed him to, pausing briefly to tie his shoelace. He failed to notice another child, watching motionlessly from the shadows across the street.

His shoelace tied, he hurried in through the front door and followed his friend into the dining room. He found the girl Russell had told him about, finishing carving the large joint of pork on the table.

"It's got to be black market." Ernie was grinning. You don't get all that off coupons.

"Ernie, how many times do I have to say? We are guests at this house." Said Nancy, with maturity beyond her years. "We will not make comments like that. Washing up."

The children gathered round the table laughed, as Steven took the only free seat he could spot. Nancy turned to look at him for a moment. "I've not seen you at one of these things before."

"He told me about them." Steven gestured to Russell.

"Sleeping rough?" She asked.

"Yes miss."

"Alright then." She shrugged. Having filled the plate with pork slices, she passed it to the right. "One slice each. And I want to see everybody chewing."

The children passed it along the line, each taking a slice with a quick "Thank you miss."

"Thank you miss." Said Ernie.

"Thank you miss." Said Steven, as he grabbed his first piece of fresh meat in several months.

"Thank you miss." Said the Doctor, spearing a couple of slices with his fork.

The sudden appearance of an adult at the end of the table caused a cry of alarm from the children, but Nancy quickly calmed them. "It's alright. He shouldn't be here either."

"Good this." Said the Doctor, scooping some apple sauce onto his plate. "Has anyone got the salt?"

The children settled down to resume eating.

"So, you lot, what's the story?" Said the Doctor.

"Why do you wanna know that?" Said Ernie.

"Are you a copper?" Said Jim.

"Course not. What's a copper gonna do with you lot? Arrest you for starving?" That got a laugh from the kids. Children always appreciated a funny man. "I make it 1941, you lot shouldn't even be here. You should've been evacuated to the country."

"I was." Said Steven.

"So what happened?"

The boy suddenly avoided everyone's gaze. "There was a man there." He said simply.

"Same with Ernie." Said Jim.

"Shut up!" Ernie snapped. "It's better on the streets anyway, better food. Nancy always brings the best food."

"So that's what you do, is it Nancy?" Said the Doctor. "As soon as an air raid comes, you find a nice family meal, still warm on the table. Whole family down the shelter. You move in and, bingo! Feeding frenzy for the homeless kids of London town. As long as the bombs don't get ya."

She raised an eyebrow. "Something wrong with that?"

"Wrong with that, it's brilliant! Not sure if it's Marxism in action, or a West-End musical."

The kids just looked at him blankly, clearly not understanding the reference.

"Why'd you follow me?" Said Nancy.

"I want to know how a phone that isn't a phone gets a phone call. You seem to be the one to ask."
Nancy suddenly became very interested in the table. "I did you a favour. Told you not to answer it. That's all I'm saying."

"Alright." He shrugged. "I'm also trying to find a blond in a Union Jack. A specific one," he added to the children, "I didn't just wake up this morning with a craving. Anyone seen a girl like that?"

Nancy marched over and snatched his plate from him, before he'd even taken a bite. "You took two slices!" She snapped at him. "No blondes. No flags. Anything else you want before you leave?"

"Year, there is actually. I'm looking for a bomb that fell recently, only it wasn't a bomb." He began scribbling something on a notepad. "Probably wouldn't've exploded. It would've just buried itself in the ground. And it would have looked something like... this." He held up a rough sketch of the cylinder for everyone to see.

Before anyone could answer, a knock came from the window, followed by a soft voice saying "Mummy?"

The children, who hadn't flinched once as umpteen bombs went off around them, were now filled with looks of utter terror, as though their worst nightmare was knocking on the window, not a small boy in a gas mask.

"Who was the last in?" Breathed Nancy.

"Him." Said Ernie, pointing to the Doctor.

"No, he came round the back. Who came in the front?"

"Me." Said Steven.

"Did you close the door?"

"Erm, I..." Steven couldn't really remember.

With no time to wait for a response, Nancy bolted for the hallway. Indeed, the door was ajar so she slammed it shut and shoved every bolt into place, just as the child's silhouette appeared in the window.

The Doctor was watching events with a look of confusion. "What's this then? It's not easy being the only child left outside in the cold, you know."

"I suppose you'd know." Said Nancy, as she backed away from the door.

"I do actually, yes." Said the Doctor.

"He's not exactly a child."

"Are you my mummy?" Said the child. "Mu-mmy."

Nancy raced past the Doctor, back into the dining room. "Right, everybody out the back garden and over the fence! Move, now come on!" The whole table promptly abandoned their half-finished food and ran, only a 5-year-old girl stayed behind, looking scarred. Nancy promptly shovelled her from her seat and guided her towards the back. "Go on. Think of it as a game, just like chasing. Go!"

The Doctor was even more confused now, he looked back at the door in search of further answers.

"Mummy?" Said the child. "Please let me in Mummy." It stretched a hand through the letter box. A small hand with a y-shaped scar on the back.

"Are you alright out there?" Said the Doctor.

"I'm scared of the bombs Mummy. Please let me in. Mummy?"

A small vase flew across the room and shattered against the child's hand. Nancy having tossed it at him. "Don't let him totch ya!"

"What happens if he torches me?" Said the Doctor.

"He'll make you like him!" She looked away.

"And what's he like then?"

She headed for the back. "I've got to go."

"Nancy, what's he like?"

She stopped where she was. "He's empty."

At this point, the phone in the hallway began to ring.

"It's him." Said Nancy. "He can do that, make phones ring. Just like that police box you saw."

The Doctor picked up the phone. "Are you my Mummy?" Said the child's voice on the other end. Nancy snatched the phone off him and slammed it down.

"Mummy?" The radio turned itself on, the child's voice sounding over the ragtime orchestra that was playing. "Please let me in Mummy. Please let me in." The Doctor fiddled with the frequency. The music and the voice vanished.

"Mu-mmy! Mu-mmy!" The Doctor looked around for this new source of voice and found it on a cupboard by the door. A clockwork monkey with cymbals spoke with the child's voice, bashing in time with the call. "Mu-mmy! Mu-mmy!"

"Look, you stay if you want," Cried Nancy, "I've got to go!" And she fled out the back.

Curiosity got the better of the Doctor and he went back to the door, keen to find out how a scared little child could do all these things and usher such terror from the others.

"Mummy." Said the child. "Please let me in."

"Your Mummy isn't here." Said the Doctor.

"Are you my Mummy?"

"No Mummys here. Nothing but us chickens!" He glanced at the empty hallway behind him. "Well, this chicken."

"I'm scared."

"Why're those other children frightened of you?"

"Please let me in. I'm scared of the bombs." The child said softly.

The Doctor pondered for a moment. The kid's wouldn't leave meals half-finished without a seriously good reason, and the child did seem to have strange abilities. But then he also didn't seem malicious in any way, just misunderstood. At any rate, there was only one way to find out. "OK, I'm opening the door now."