Chapter 9

Dylan dropped the last few rungs, bending her knees. She quickly ducked behind some barrels on the edge of the platform. She could see The Doctor talking to the leader of the Sectivores, his face was a mask of concentration. He hadn't seen her yet.

Dylan looked around to find out where she actually was. She could see the platform she had been on before, and the long beam leading to the ladder behind her. They were a long way up, and it made Dylan dizzy just looking at them. A nauseous feeling crept into her stomach again, but she fought it down. She was crouching on a separate platform to The Doctor's one, they were cut off by a strip of water. The water had a slight rainbow sheen to it, That must be the diesel, Dylan thought. There was evidence of a walk-way where two iron brackets were screwed to the edge nearest the other platform, but the walk-way had long since vanished, cutting her of from the door. Dylan turned to look behind her; there was a small blue door that blended in so well with the dark wall, that Dylan hadn't seen it from where she had been suspended.

She slowly and quietly crept towards it, making sure to keep her head well down. Reaching the door she saw a rusty plaque nailed to the chipped wood. It read: Mr.I., Cargo Carriers Inc. It must have been an office, maybe there would be something she could use in there. Dylan took a deep breath, and tentatively pushed the door open.

She quickly shuffled in and stood up behind the door, stretching. The room was virtually empty, apart from an old desk in the middle of the floor, and three filing cabinets with their contents gone or strewn on the dusty ground. Dylan made her way over to the desk and started searching through the draws. Whoever Mr.I. was he had left in a hurry. There was an assortment of stationary in the first draw, a half eaten packet of mints in the second and a small box of matches in the third. The box of matches had three left in it.

Suddenly, Dylan had an idea. She would get rid of those aliens and their spawn together. Quickly pocketing the matches she dashed out the door and back across the platform, keeping her head low. She reached the barrels and peeped over. The Doctor was still talking to the Sectivores, he didn't seem to have a plan. Well, at least she had one. Dylan carefully tipped the first barrel in front of her, spilling its contents into the water. Not one of the aliens noticed, good. After tipping the second barrel, Dylan saw The Doctor watching her warily. She looked at him hard, trying to convey her plan to him, but he just stared back dumbly. Dylan sighed and struck one of the matches from her pocket, it flared and caught. She slowly held it up so The Doctor could see; finally realisation dawned on his face. She extended her arm, and just as she let go Dylan could have sworn she saw a look of pure terror cross The Doctor's face before he flung himself to the floor.

She let go of the match.

~*~

The water caught alight with a thunderous Woomph! Dylan recoiled from the heat of the fire, as it glided across the water destroying anything in its path.

The Sectivores and their pets had noticed now and were screeching horribly. Some of the mutants were stumbling around blindly as their bodies burned. But most had been incinerated in the first heat wave. The Doctor was still lying on the floor, but he was looking about him with a bewildered expression so he was okay. Dylan sighed with relief before coughing back up the smoke she had inhaled.

Her plan had worked, but there had obviously been more diesel in the water than she had suspected. The fire was raging now and Dylan realised for the first time that she was trapped. Idiot! She cursed herself and her stupidity. The water between her and The Doctor, and therefore the door, was a blaze. Dylan began coughing more and more as the smoke obscured her vision and stung her eyes. She sank to the floor trying to find clean air, but the blackness quickly consumed her.

~*~

The Doctor cursed.

The force of the first fire ball had destroyed most of the bugs around him, only a few were fleeing desperately for the still open door. The fire quickly devouring them. The two Sectivores that had been hovering above their heads had been burnt within seconds of the match being dropped, only their commander remained. He was circling above the inferno screaming a torrent of threats down on The Doctor.

"Curse you Time-Lord. My children are dead. See them burn, my brothers too, are gone. Curse you and your kind."

The Doctor pushed himself to his feet, covering his mouth with his sleeve. He looked around the boathouse, the smoke drifted in thick clouds making his visibility limited. He couldn't see Dylan, the platform she had been on was covered in angry flames.

Suddenly he heard a dreadful cry as the Sectivore commander dive bombed him. The Doctor ducked just in time, and the rabid insect wheeled to face him.

"You shall die Doctor!!" He screamed as he charged, his scythe-like arms extended, aiming for The Doctor. The Doctor stood his ground and drew his Sonic-Screwdriver, he pointed it at the enraged Sectivore speeding towards him and set on maximum. The deafening whirr drowned out the crackling of the hungry fire around him, and the screech of the Sectivore. The commander stopped and his cry of rage turned to agony, as he collapsed lifeless in front of The Doctor. The Secitvore's body twitch a few times before becoming still.

"I warned you, one chance." The Doctor said solemnly to the dead alien before him, his face lit red by the flames.

He tucked the Sonic-Screwdriver away and scanned the building again. The fire on the water was dying off; it had turned its attention to the bricks and mortar holding the boathouse together. The building gave an unsteady groan.

"Time to go I think." The Doctor exclaimed. He leapt into the water separating him from Dylan's former hiding place, a determined expression on his face. Reaching the other side he hauled himself out and jumped into a ring of fire. He couldn't see her, oh, no not again, please, he thought as the smoke blinded him.

Gradually the wall of smoke shifted and The Doctor saw the motionless form of a girl.

"Dyl!" He cried, rushing forward. He flipped her body over gently, and examined her face. She was just unconscious, The Doctor sighed and picked her up in his arms. He needed to get her to the fresh air. He deftly leapt back into the water, making sure to keep her head above the surface. His two hearts beating frantically from the excursion.

"I'm getting too old for this," he grunted, heaving Dylan's body out of the water. He dashed for the opening that was still, thankfully, fire free, and broke through into the cool night air.

He set Dylan down on the hard concrete and checked her pulse. He carefully opened her airways and put into the recovery position.

"That CPR class in the 80's did me good." He muttered to himself. Dylan began to cough violently, her eyes shooting open, she turned blearily to look at The Doctor.

"Hello." She said uncertainly.

"That was a bit stupid, and reckless, and unnecessary." The Doctor told her sternly

"Blimey, I save your life again, and almost die myself, and you're telling me off." Dylan sat up shakily.

"Hmmm, all the same I'm going to have to keep an eye on you Dylan Harris." The Doctor looked at her for a moment, as Dylan's eyes slid past him and fixed in horror at a point behind his shoulder.

The Doctor whirled round and saw a bedraggled, half burned spider blinking evilly back at him.

"Ah, hello," The Doctor said, eyeing the spider dubiously.

"Doctor," it said back pleasantly. "If you don't mind I'm going to leave thiss planet, now that my massterss are dead I can begin again. I can sstart my own sspeciess and not have to complete menial taskss for over-grown flyss."

The Doctor nodded, stunned, "o..k, how will you leave?"

"Oh, I found ssome sstolen technology from their crash ssite. I think I'll head to the starss and sstart my race there. What wass that name they ssaid before? Ah, yess, Racnosss. I kind of like that, I think I'll usse it. Anyway, farewell Time-Lord and human, I hope we never crosss pathss again." So saying the spider scuttled off into the darkness, leaving a dumb founded Doctor and Dylan.

"Wibbly, wobbly, timey, wimey." The Doctor murmured. Dylan just stared at him, confused.

"Right, and now for you." He said turning to Dylan. She stood up with his help and glared at him.

"What do mean, and now for you?" She stood facing him, hands on hips. The Doctor looked at her seriously.

"I need to take you home Dylan, it's way past your bed time."