"Mummy?" he called knocking on the glass "Are you in there, mummy?"

"Who was the last one in?" Nancy asked urgently.

"They were", Ernie said pointing at Alyssa and the Doctor.

"No, they came round the back", Nancy said "Who came in the front?"

"Me", Alf said quietly.

"Did you close the door?" Nancy asked. When Alf hesitated, Nancy asked again "Did you close the door?" she didn't even wait to get a reply, she just rushed out into the hallway and bolted the door.

"Mummy?" the child called through the front door.

"What's this, then? It's never easy being the only child left out in the cold, you know", the Doctor said joining her out in the hallway with Alyssa.

"It's not exactly a child", Nancy informed them.

Alyssa frowned wondering what she meant by that. As she had a soft spot for children, she felt sorry for the child. He must be so scared being out there on his own. Both time travellers watched as the children hurried out into the hall and out the back.

"Mummy?" the boy called again. Alyssa took several steps towards the front door. "Please let me in, mummy", the child begged. A little hand with a scar on it poked through the letter box.

"Are you all right?" the Doctor asked standing beside Alyssa.

"Please let me in", the boy repeated. Alyssa reached out but before she could touch his hand, an object goes sailing past and shattered against the door. The child's hand withdraws from the letter box.

"You mustn't let him touch ya!" Nancy warned.

"What happens if he touches her?" the Doctor asked tugging Alyssa behind him to put some distance between her and the boy.

"He'll make her like him", Nancy replied.

"And what's he like?" Alyssa queried.

"I've got to go", Nancy said not really wanting to spend another moment longer in the house.

"Nancy, what's he like?" the Doctor asked repeating Alyssa's question.

After a moment's hesitation, Nancy answered "He's empty"

The telephone rings "It's him. He can make phones ring. He can. Just like with that police box you saw" the Doctor picked up the phone.

"Are you my mummy?" the trio head the child say. Nancy snatched the receiver and slammed it back down. Radio started to play in the dining room, the child calling through it for his mum. A clockwork monkey also started up, the child's voice also coming from it as well. Alyssa looked at the shadow of the boy by the front door. How can an ordinary child speak through all those things? She thought confused. Nancy left the house not wanting to stay there a moment longer.

"Doctor", Alyssa called seeing the boy stick his hand through the letter box.

"Mummy? Let me in please, mummy. Please let me in", he pleaded.

"Your mummy isn't here", Alyssa said torn between staying where she was and going to the door. On one hand there was Nancy's warning and on the other there was a scared little boy outside.

"Are you my mummy?" the boy asked again.

"No mummies here", the Doctor said when he joined Alyssa "Nobody here but us chickens", he glanced back as the deserted house "Well, two chickens" he corrected.

"I'm scared"

"Why are those other children frightened of you?" the Doctor asked.

"Please let me in, mummy. I'm scared of the bombs", the child pleaded again.

"Should I open the door?" the Doctor asked Alyssa. He wanted because he left sorry for the boy but he also didn't want to if it turned out the Nancy was right and he was dangerous.

"Yes. If the boy turns out to be dangerous, we can always run. I doubt he'd be able to catch either of us, he just a kid", Alyssa reasoned.

"Okay. I'm opening the door now"

The boy pulls his hand back and the Doctor draws back the bolts. When he opened the door, the boy was gone. The Doctor and Alyssa walked down the path looking up and down the deserted street. There was no sign of the child. "I take that back. He's very fast", Alyssa remarked.

"We need to find Nancy. If anyone's going to have answers, it's her"

"She is definitely hiding something, I could sense it", Alyssa agreed.

Nancy was startled when she turned around to see the Doctor and Alyssa standing in the doorway of the outer house she'd just entered. "How'd you follow me here?" she asked.

"I'm good at following, me. Got the nose for it", the Doctor said, sounding rather proud at that.

"People can't usually follow me if I don't want them to", Nancy said looking at both of them suspiciously.

"My nose has special powers", the Doctor explained making Alyssa smile.

"Yeah? That's why it's uh…" Nancy trailed off, not able to finish that sentence without cracking up.

"What?" the Doctor asked wondering why she just trailed off.

"Nothing", Nancy said trying really hard not to laugh.

"What?" the Doctor asked again.

"Nothing!" Nancy grinned "Do your ears have special powers too?" she asked teasingly.

"What are you trying to say?" the Doctor asked calmly as Alyssa burst out laughing. She was aware that his ears were a bit big but that didn't really bother her that much. She didn't even find them funny until Nancy asked her question about them having magic powers.

"Sorry Doctor", Alyssa said when she'd finally calmed down.

"Goodnight, Mister", Nancy said turning away. Her teasing had put a smile on her face as well as making Alyssa laugh.

"Nancy, there's something chasing you and the other kids. Looks like a boy and it isn't a boy, and it started about a month ago, right?" Nancy turned back to the pair "The thing I'm looking for, the thing that fell from the sky, that's when it landed. And you know what I'm talking about, don't you?"

"There was a bomb. A bomb that wasn't a bomb. Fell the other end of Limehouse Green Station", Nancy replied.

"Take us there", the Doctor ordered.

"There's soldiers guarding it. Barbed wire. You'll never get through", Nancy told them.

"Won't stop us", Alyssa said confidently.

"You sure you want to know what's going on in there?" Nancy asked both of them.

"I really want to know", the Doctor replied.

"Same here", Alyssa added.

"Then there's someone you need to talk to first"

"And who might that be?" the Doctor asked.

"The Doctor", Nancy replied. She turns away, missing the confused look the Doctor's face.

Even after Nancy showed them where the bomb was, she still insisted that they go see the Doctor first. When Alyssa asked why, Nancy replied with "Cos then maybe you won't wanna get inside". After talking with her a little longer, during which Alyssa tried to get Nancy to tell them what she was hiding. But the young woman wouldn't tell them, just kept insisting they talk to 'the Doctor'.

And so the two time travellers parted ways with Nancy. They carried on walking down the steps towards the hospital. When they reached the gate, the Doctor uses is sonic on the padlock. He and Alyssa then entered the hospital grounds.

The pair walked through a darkened ward where rows and rows of patents lay on beds, completely lifeless and still wearing gas masks. "This is really strange", Alyssa commented quietly looking at them as she passed. The Doctor agreed with her, it was rather strange. They entered yet another ward, unlike the previous one it was dimly lit. It too had numerous people on beds wearing gasmasks. The Doctor and Alyssa turned when they heard a noise behind them. An older man wearing a white doctor's coat entered the ward.

"You'll find them everywhere. In every bed, in every ward. Hundreds of them", the man said.

"Yes, I saw. Why are they still wearing gas masks?" the Doctor asked.

"They're not. Who are you?"

"Are you the doctor?" Alyssa asked him.

"Doctor Constantine", the old man replied "And you are?"

"Nancy sent us", the Doctor said.

Dr Constantine's eyes widened at his answer "Nancy? That means you must've been asking about the bomb", he said.

"Yes", the Doctor confirmed.

"What do you know about it?" Doctor Constantine asked walking slowly over to a chair, leaning heavily on his cane as he did so.

"Nothing. Why we were asking", the Doctor replied "What do you know?"

"Only what it's done", Constantine said vaguely.

"These people, they were all caught up in the blast?" the Doctor asked looking at the patients.

"None of them were" Doctor Constantine laughs slightly but it turns into a nasty cough. He sits down at the chair by the desk he'd just walked to.

"You're very sick", Alyssa said sympathetically.

"Dying, I should think" Constantine corrected her "I just haven't been able to find the time. Are either of you a doctor?"

"I have my moments", the Doctor replied. Doctor Constantine then told him to examine any one of the patients warning him not to touch the flesh. The Doctor went to a random patient and scanned him with his sonic.

"Conclusions?" Doctor Constantine asked.

"Massive head trauma, mostly to the left side…" the Doctor ran his screwdriver over the patient's chest "Partial collapse of the chest cavity, mostly to the right. There's some scarring on the back of the hand and the gas mask seems to be fused to the flesh, but I can't see any burns"

"Examine another one", Doctor Constantine instructed and the Doctor did so. He found that the other patient had the same symptoms, gasmask fused to the face and a scar on the back of the hand. The Doctor turns his screwdriver off and turned to Doctor Constantine.

"This isn't possible" the Time Lord goes to another bed and the results are the same. "They've all got the same injuries", he said thoroughly confused.

Doctor Constantine nodded "Yes"

The Doctor rushed over to another patient and got the same results yet again "Exactly the same", he said still very confused. How was that even possible?

"Yes"

"Identical, all of them" the Doctor continued "right down to the scar on the back of the hand".

Alyssa looked at the scar, mentally noting the fact that the scar was the same as the one the boy had. "How did this happen?" she questioned "How did it start?"

"When that bomb dropped, there was just one victim", Constantine said.

"Dead?" the Doctor asked.

"At first. His injuries were truly dreadful. By the following morning, every doctor and nurse who had treated him, who had touched him, had those exact same injuries. By the morning after that, every patient in the same ward, the exact same injuries. Within a week, the entire hospital" bloody hell! This thing, whatever it is works fast Melanie thought worriedly "Physical injuries as plague. Can you explain that? What would you say was the cause of death?"

"The head trauma", the Doctor guessed.

"No", Constantine shook his head.

"Asphyxiation", the Doctor said trying again.

"No"

"The collapse of the chest cavity…"

"No"

"All right. What was the cause of death?" the Doctor asked. He'd just listed off all the things that these people had but Constantine still told him 'no'. So what was the cause of death then?

"There wasn't one. They're not dead" Dr Constantine said. He hit a waste basket with his cane, the noise making all the patients sit up in their beds. The Doctor pulled Alyssa behind him ready to protect her against the gas masked people. "It's all right. They're harmless", Dr Constantine assured him "They just sort of sit there. No heartbeat, no life signs of any kind. They just don't die"

"And they've just been left here? Nobody's doing anything?" the Doctor asked. Alyssa moved to stand beside the Doctor as the patients laid down on the beds.

"I try and make them comfortable" Constantine replied "What else is there?"

"All on your own? Isn't there anyone else to help you?" Alyssa asked him.

Constantine shook his head "no. I'm the last one left" he replied "Before this war began, I was a father and a grandfather. Now I am neither. But I'm still a doctor"

The Doctor could relate to Doctor Constantine. He too once had a family but they were gone now as where the rest of his people. "Yeah. I know the feeling", he said. Alyssa took his hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze to let him know that at this moment he wasn't alone. The Doctor looked at her and she gave him a small smile. The Time Lord returned it.

"I suspect the plan is to blow up the hospital and blame it on a German bomb", Constantine told them.

"Probably too late", the Doctor said gesturing to the beds.

"No. They are isolated cases. But… isolated cases breaking out all over London…" Constantine broke off coughing. The Doctor took several steps towards him "Stay back, stay back" Constantine warned him while coughing "Listen to me... Top floor. Room 802. That's where they took the first victim, the one from the crash site. And you must find Nancy again".

"Why?" Alyssa asked

"It was her brother. She knows more than she's saying. She won't tell me… but she might mi…mi…" Doctor Constantine gags and clutches his neck "m…mu…me…"

Both the Doctor and Alyssa watched concerned as speech as becoming more difficult for Doctor Constantine "Are… you… my mum-my?" Alyssa's eyes widened horrified as part of a gasmask started to protrude from Doctor Constantine's mouth. She turned away unable to watch.

"It's ok Ali. Its over", the Doctor said when the gasmask had completely fused to the man's face. She looked back at Doctor Constantine who was slumped over in the chair.

"I swear I'm going to have nightmares over this", she muttered. The Doctor was about to say something when they heard a man shouting in the distance.

The Doctor and Alyssa exchanged confused looks wondering who on earth would be in an abandoned hospital, besides themselves of course. They stepped out into the hall to see a dark haired man wearing a soldier's uniform typical of that time period strolling towards them "Found you at last", he said coming to a stop in front of them "Good evening. Hope I'm not interrupting. Captain Jack Harkness" he shook the Doctor's hand "and you are?"

"The Doctor", the Time Lord replied.

"Doctor who?" the man asked.

"Just the Doctor", the Doctor repeated.

"Fair enough", Jack turned to Alyssa "and who might you be beautiful?"

"Uh…Alyssa", Alyssa said holding out her hand. She was rather surprised when Jack he brought her hand to his mouth and kissed it. The Doctor didn't like that at all.

"Very nice to meet you Ali", Jack said giving her a wink. How dare he flirt with her! the Doctor thought feeling his anger rise. "It's actually rather fortunate that I managed to find you both as my offer expires in a few hours".

"What offer?" Alyssa asked tugging her hand out of Jack's as he'd yet to let go. The Doctor was glad she did that because if Jack had held her hand for a second longer, he would have pulled her away.

"Fully equipped Chula warship, last one in existence", Jack replied "shall we begin negotiations?"

"How about no", the Doctor said grabbing the man by the wrist and dragging him into the ward. The moment Jack had mentioned Chula, everything started to make a little more sense. There was just a few more things he needed to clarify, plus show Jack exactly what he'd done.

"This just isn't possible. How did this happen?" Jack said scanning one of the patients with the device on his wrist.

"What kind of Chula warship landed here?" the Doctor asked. Alyssa was a bit confused by the Doctor's change in behaviour. It seemed to her like he'd figured out what was going on and somehow Jack was involved.

"Does it matter?" Jack asked agitated "It's got nothing to do with this".

An ambulance!" Jack turns on his wrist device to show the three of them a hologram of the ambulance "That's what you chased through the Time Vortex. Its space junk. I wanted to kid you it was valuable. It's empty. I made sure of it. Nothing but a shell. I threw it at you. Saw your time travel vehicle, love the retro look, by the way, nice panels. Threw you the bait and you followed it all the way here. I'd planned to sell it to you and then destroy it before you found out it was junk"

"So you were conning us", Alyssa stated folding her arms. She wasn't impressed with Captain Jack Harkness at all. This entire thing was his fault.

"I only was conning you because I thought you were Time Agents. But you're not are you?" Jack asked.

"More like a couple of freelancers", Alyssa admitted.

"Ahh…should've have known. The way you guys are blending in with the local colour", Jack said looking at their clothes.

"What is happening here, Doctor?" Alyssa asked turning to him.

"Human DNA is being rewritten… by an idiot", the Doctor replied glaring at Jack.

"But why change people to look like this?" Alyssa asked nodding to the bodies "What's the point?"

"I don't know Ali but that's a very good question", the Doctor said.

Suddenly all the patients sit up in the beds. "What's happening?" Alyssa asked as all the patients started calling mummy.

"I don't know", the Doctor said. The three of them started backing up as Doctor Constantine stood along with the patients.

"Don't let them touch you", Alyssa warned as the gas-masked people closed in on them.

"What happens if they touch us?" Jack asked.

"You're looking at it", the Doctor replied. The patients continued to advance on the Time Lord and three humans, who've now been backed against a wall. Alyssa takes the Doctor's hand as they get surrounded by gas-masked people who were still calling out mummy.

To be continued…