Chapter Seven – Stomp!
I am running, faltering, changing direction and then running again. I am surrounded by mirrors and there is no way out. My image is reflected back to me a hundred times over. None of the mirrors move, and no matter which way I turn I am faced with more and more. I move off to my left again, then right, and then right again. It's another dead end. Just more mirrors. And then I see it, in tiny writing on the mirror at the end. Etched across the glass, are the words The Doctor.
I don't want to go through, I am fearful of what fate awaits me. But there is no alternative and I push against the glass, through to another world.
At first everywhere is completely dark, and then gradually everything brightens as though someone has just switched on the lights. I look around and have no idea where I am. Everything is totally alien to me, from the gun metal machinery to the white and cream walls, ceiling and floor. Everywhere feels old and decayed. The surface of the walls is flaking. The ceiling warped and bowed the floor well-trodden.
I walk over to the machinery, but cannot make out what it is, or what it's used for. There are no lights on it, it looks completely dead. Wires hang down from the back and as the machines are arranged in a circle, the centre of this circle is just a mass of wiring and metal sheeting.
I move away from the odd equipment and make my way over to the only door. There must be someone else around here who can tell me where I am. Somewhere I must be able to find the Doctor.
Outside my view is obscured by steam. It billows around me and it's hot. Not scalding, but uncomfortable. Immediately I start to sweat and I feel weak and light headed in minutes. I have to get out of this area, and I walk as fast as I'm able through the haze until I come to an archway. It's not quite so bad in here and I can see around me somewhat.
I walk forward and then stop abruptly as someone calls out in alarm. "Watch out!"
I don't move and wait until the owner of the voice reaches me. "Ah yes, I thought it might be you," he says.
"You did?"
"Yes, now what are you doing here?"
"No idea." I answer.
"Well you might want to move away from the edge. It's a long drop from here."
I look down and realise that I'm on the edge of a very deep pit. There is a huge hole in the middle of the floor.
"What's that for?" I ask. I don't even ask if he's the Doctor, I know instinctively that he is.
"To release the pressure," he says. "Otherwise we'd all be blown sky high."
"Right," I say. "Wouldn't want that."
"Exactly."
I watch as he blows across a small object in his hand. It looks earthenware, made of clay maybe. Something old and ancient.
"What's that?" I ask.
"A phenomatic control."
I don't know why I bother to ask questions, I never understand any of the answers the Doctor gives me.
He looks round at me when I don't answer. "It's from the future Alice. Watch."
He pushes in the end and after a couple of seconds I hear a squeaking noise behind me. Into the room trundles a little machine on two wheels. It's like a space-age wheelbarrow and squeaks as it moves across the floor.
"Needs oiling," The Doctor says. "Otherwise they'll hear it coming."
"Who will?" I can't help myself, I have to ask and I already know I won't be any the wiser come the answer.
"The Cybermen."
"Okay," I have no idea what he's doing and it seems he has no inclination to tell me.
"Hold this Alice and wait here." He passes me the control and wanders off leaving me alone. I watch him go and consider that I could ask a question for every single question mark on his jumper and still be none the wiser. It is a marked improvement on the previous attire but even so, his tweed trousers and safari jacket just made him look odd still.
I don't know where he's gone, and presume he's after some WD40, so I sit on the floor and wait for his return. I turn the control over in my hands and wonder how something that looked so medieval could be something from the future.
As I am pondering this quandary I hear footsteps, big heavy footsteps. They most certainly don't belong to the Doctor. I look up and realise that I'm in a completely different room from before. I cannot understand how I got here, but it's not good. Huge machines are stomping towards me. Humanoid and silver in design, they are metal from head to toe. Their presence is overwhelming and their stature imposing.
I gulp and get to my feet, shuffling backwards, but they stomp towards me unrelenting. They carry weapons and I have no doubt about their power and that they would kill me without a second thought.
As I back away I come up against a wall and I know then that there is no escape. They raise their weapons in unison and fire as one.
The screaming I can hear is mine, totally mine. And I want to pass out from the agony. Then the Doctor is beside me, he has taken off his hat and is kneeling down on one leg.
"Alice, I'm so very sorry," he says.
He puts two fingers to my temple and his touch is a blessed relief. A soft blanket swaddles my mind, bringing me peace and I fall into unconsciousness.