Chapter 8! Oh my god, I never thought this story would go as far as this. I know theres still quite a few chapters left for me to write, but originally it was going to be like 6 chapters. I was never going to send the Doctor and Jackie back home to begin with but I did and I came up with the concept of the spider story. Thanks to all who R&R.
"Quietly, now, we don't want to wake them up." The Brigadier whispered while walking slowly through the halls of parliament, where the spiders were sleeping.
He found it hard to believe that spiders slept, but these ones did.
A group of ten soldiers tiptoed slowly past the decaying corpses or humans and cobwebs. They had left two soldiers by the trapdoor in which they had entered Parliament.
Nothing had to be disturbed.
"We cannot afford to be seen or heard." The Brigadier whispered to the rest of the crew.
Only a few spiders were present at the moment, but they were all asleep it seemed.
The Brigadier looked up and saw many pods hanging from the ceiling.
Eggs, the Brigadier thought, must be.
"Where to sir?" a soldier whispered beside the Brigadier.
"Let's just keep following the decaying corpses. I assume that the more decaying corpses, the closer we are." The Brigadier whispered while tightly holding his flame thrower. He continued forward.
It never used to be like this, the Brigadier thought. I wish I never had met the Doctor.
The smell was overwhelming here. Death lingered in the air. The Brigadier looked at some of the corpses. Some had clothes and ID on them.
One of the corpses was wearing a name badge. Melanie.
The Brigadier felt a pang of remorse while walking away from the corpse. Half of these people will never be remembered, never be able to have a proper funeral, never be able to be identified.
This should never have happened, the Brigadier said and instantly thought of the Doctor as the culprit.
He was glad the Doctor stayed behind. He would have lost his rag with the Doctor by now. He had chosen the group himself and knew what these soldiers were capable of. He insisted on going himself as he wanted to watch the queen spider suffer. Of course a lot of civilians volunteered themselves, but this was a mission which could not fail therefore unskilled and untrained civilians were out of the question.
A shuffle came from the right to the group.
They all turned and saw a spider, very much awake, looking directly at them. It got into pouncing position. It pounced.
A soldier pulled the trigger on his flame thrower. The flames hit the spider directly and it fell back. It curled up and died.
"Soldier, did I give an order to fire?" The Brigadier asked, watching the smoking corpse of the spider.
"No sir." The solider replied, standing to attention.
"It cannot be helped now, but in future wait for my signal. We needed to know if these worked anyway. It seemed to on that one. No guarantee with the rest." The Brigadier said and the group continued their hunt.
It was not long before they found the queen. She was massive. She covered a whole wall, but, like her children, was asleep. Once in a while, one of her hairy legs moved, but other than that, she hadn't noticed a group of ten humans walk into her domain.
Not too far away from the queen, there lay a woman surrounded by cobwebs. The cobwebs covered all her legs. She wasn't moving, but did not look dead like many of the other corpses they had seen.
"We need to get that woman away from her. Go quietly and bring her back to us." The Brigadier said to two soldiers.
Two soldiers walked quietly up to the woman. Her eyes were open, but she was not moving. They checked her pulse quickly. It was there. She was very much alive.
One of the soldiers picked her up gently and quietly while the other stood watch. She was quite light, they noted. They didn't know how she had got here or survived this long as anyone left alive in London is in the base.
They started to walk back to their group when there was a faint sound of metal hitting concrete behind them. The woman had been wearing a loose bracelet.
The soldiers stopped and held their breaths. Even the slightest sound might wake these creatures.
Nothing seemed to be happening. The soldiers breathed a sigh of relief but braced themselves as they would have to run quickly when the queen died.
"Good work lads, good work. Now get ready to kill this beast." The Brigadier said. All but the soldier carrying the woman held their flame throwers pointing towards the giant spider.
"Ready, Aim," the Brigadier said and they all put a little pressure on the trigger, "Fire!"
Flames erupted everywhere and the spider caught fire instantly. It started moving, but did not attack the group. They continued to fire at the spider which starting moving upwards back into the cobwebs.
"Let's get back quickly." The Brigadier said.
The group turned and ran for their lives.
Spiders began to emerge from everywhere at once and chased after the intruders.
They managed to catch one of the intruders and killed him on the spot.
"He lied!" The Brigadier screamed. He was livid now. The Doctor said that they would either die or be confused. They seemed to be more focused than before.
The group was now down to nine (with the woman) as another man went down.
The trapdoor was so close. Two soldiers were waiting, trapdoor already open as they heard the commotion beforehand.
"Get in quickly!" The Brigadier screamed. He took a quick glance behind. The soldier carrying the woman was right behind him and all he could see behind his group was hairy legs.
The soldiers jumped through the trapdoor. The group arrived and three soldiers dived in. The woman was thrown in and caught by a soldier and everyone followed.
"Close it quick!" The Brigadier screamed after landing on the floor. He was one of the last ones through.
"I can't. It won't shut!" The soldier screamed and the spiders entered. The solider didn't stand a chance.
The group ran back down the corridor. A closed door metal door was at the end. It needed a code. A soldier typed in code and the door opened.
The Brigadier could see Liz Shaw standing there reading some papers but she looked up when the door opened. Her face dropped, as did her papers. The Doctor was there as well helping the soldiers through and took the woman off a soldier. The Brigadier couldn't hear much of what he was saying but he could hear "Jackie".
"Close the door quick. The rest of you out of the room now in case they come in." The Brigadier screamed.
Liz Shaw ran out of the room. The Doctor carried the woman out of the room as well. Many soldiers followed.
The door was closing but not quick enough to stop the spiders.
The spiders came through.
The Brigadier ran for his life.