CHAPTER 2: THE RAVENOUS MAN
I dropped the bags and turned round. The truck was shaking, and sparking like a power pole had fallen on it. I could see Hoodie's legs hanging halfways out the front window – I couldn't see Mrs. Custer, but blood was pouring out the back door and pooling under the steps. A skeleton dressed in Mr. Hajib's clothes was thrown out the front window and lay there in the mud, looking like a ridiculous science-lab prank. I froze. All talk of aliens eating us for Happy Meals seemed less academic all of the sudden – but I had been right in one thing: there was no Doctor to save them. Not this time. Hoodie jumped out of the window, his face and mouth dripping blood. He turned half-towards me, sniffing. I ran before I could catch what his expression might tell me this time.
I ran, and ran. The wind and the pounding of my own heart and the shuffle of my feet on the industrial shale concealed whether or not the Ravenous Man was following me – in my mind he was always only but a few steps behind, his hot, bloody breath on my neck. I was completely off my head – I could think of nothing but running a little farther, a little harder, a little bit longer from the screams and skeletons and the infernal emptiness of the Ravenous Man's eyes. I ran until my lungs felt like cement boulders grinding together in my chest. I ran until I was blind with sweat. I ran until I lost a shoe, tripped over a girder, and fell head-long into a pit. I must've been knocked out the instant I hit the bottom. I dreamed that the Ravenous Man was eating me – starting at the toes on my bare left foot.
The crackling of electricity nearby woke me. After a few minutes of waking darkness & confused pounding in my ears, I made out that it was night, and I was still at the bottom of a shale-pit. I could hear two men talking, one harsh and passionate, the other desperate and weak. I listened for quite a few minutes, trying to gather my limbs from where they seemed to be: scattered to the four-winds by my aching head.
"What if I ask you for help?" said the weaker voice. There was an edge of pain in it. "There are more at work tonight than you and me."
"Oh, yeah?" Something in the harsh voice chilled me – reminded me of my dreams.
"I've been told something is returning."
"And here I am."
"No, something more."
"But it hurts!"
"I was told the end of time."
"It hurts, Doctor, the noise. The noise in my head . . . Doctor, can't you hear it?"
"I'm sorry."
The Harsh Voice had called the Weaker Voice "Doctor." Could it be the same entity that Elton & Ursula always brought up? I had no way of knowing what they were talking about – only they both seemed awfully determined to get their way. I hoped that whatever they were arguing for, it would eventually conclude in one or both of them getting rid of the Ravenous Man. If they were such powerful spacemen as their talk lead me to eventually conclude, that seemed only reasonable. And if the Doctor could maybe get around to pulling me out my hole and doctoring the hurt in my head a bit, I wouldn't have argued either.
Suddenly the Harsh Voice was laughing. "It's real," he said. "IT'S REAL." There was a bright flash, and the figure of a man shot high above me, lighting pouring from his feet. Even in the dim light I could make out his black hoodie: The Harsh Voice belonged to the Ravenous Man. And the Ravenous Man could fly.
Though my head was still spinning, I shot to my feet, all my fear returning. If he saw me he would come for me – he would eat me like he'd eaten the others. I tried to scramble up the sides of the pit, cutting my hands and knees on the sharp stones. Even in my mad fear, I could still hear them shouting. Then there were bright lights and a roar of noise in the sky – helicopters and bullets flying. The Doctor's friends? Come to defeat the Ravenous Man? In less than a minute it was over. A lone voice cried out, then silence and darkness. It climbed out of the hole and looked around. The Wasteland seemed as barren as ever. Harsh, white security lights bathed the ruined landscape and revealed nothing but acres of refuse – then I saw him. A figure in a long brown coat, slumped in a twisted heap at the top of a nearby slag pile. If the Ravenous Man had been talking to someone he called "the Doctor" - could this ragged, silent heap possibly be the hero that Elton talked on and on about?
I worked my way up to the top of the pile, slowly for the sake of my head and my hands. Halfway up I would've sworn he was dead, he lay so still. But when I finally got up next to him I could tell he was breathing – shallow, slow breaths that rather frightened me. I turned him over and opened his coat, revealing a wound in the lower abdomen. He didn't seem to be bleeding much, which surprised me. I'd seen a mate get stabbed in that same place in my 6th Year at school – he'd died in a pool of his own blood. I felt around under his coat in the back – it was a clean hole, going straight through. And yet only a slow trickle of warm, sweet-smelling blood ran over my fingers. I put my head on his chest, then pulled back in surprise – the rhythm was unfamiliar: two strong, fast beats, then a one single, slow "thump." I grabbed my phone to call an ambulance, but it rang as I began to dial. It was Elton.
"Oy, Liz, where ARE you? Weren't you supposed to drop by for supper tonight? We've ordered from that Chinese place down the –"
"Elton – I think I found him."
"What?"
"Long coat. Brown suit. Skinny. Hair like that chap who . . . oh, you know, who played the crazy boyfriend in Secret Smile. Weird heartbeat. Your Doctor."
"You're winding me up – how do you know?"
"He right here in front of me."
"Lemme talk to him."
"Can't. He's not exactly conscious."
"What? What's wrong with him?"
"I dunno. I assume this is a bullet hole, since I heard shooting. He's got this big burn on his chest too . . . but it looks to be healing up. His heart sounds odd. Three beats instead of two."
There was a pause. When Elton spoke again I thought I could hear his steps pounding down the estate stairs. "It's supposed to have four beats. Stay with him – tell me where you are, I'm on my way."