Chapter 6: The Colony Of Ruins

While she'd been fixing systems on the ship, the Dalek's cruelties had existed only in theory. Now, she was seeing them in practice.

Clara soon found that she was on her own much less frequently too. It left little hope of slipping away undetected. She had to do what she could from her assigned station. And now that there was no end to a lot of tasks, she could be at each one for a long time.

One of the first tasks she'd been given was to stand guard at the side of the procession of slaves who were being herded into labour camps. Almost a week, she'd been left there, hardly moving from the spot.

Eventually, all the people had either been forced from their homes or gone into hiding. Now she was ordered to move on to guarding the camp itself. Here, she saw 20000 people crammed into a few streets, with perhaps 100 houses. The Daleks fed them, but there was very little medicine, or sanitation, or organisation. The people were living in their own filth.

It was almost a relief when daybreak came and she was ordered to take parties out for hard labour. The Daleks had begun mining operations elsewhere by now. Here, the humans were responsible for preparing the ground for a series of factories and refineries the Daleks had planned. All backbreaking work. And all done with no rest.

The Daleks themselves weren't responsible for the work though. That job fell to the troops that the collaborationist government had supplied. This was under the theory that they could motivate their fellow humans better. But they wouldn't hesitate to drive them with the rod, knowing the Daleks would severely punish them if they failed to meet their extortionate daily targets.

The main hope for these people came from the resistance movements, which had sprung up everywhere. News would filter through now and then of spectacular raids and ambushes the resistance had conducted, or even labour camps, like their own, where the resistance had breached the perimeter and liberated everyone within.

The Daleks were doing their best to quash this hope. They'd announced that for every Dalek destroyed by the resistance, they would shoot 10 people within the nearest camp. This led to the people trying to keep clear of the perimeter. The (now puppet) President would make regular blanket broadcasts, urging any rebels who were listening to lay down their arms for the sake of the people.

"Fat chance." She'd overheard a couple of collaborationist guards muttering on one occasion. "They all know the Daleks'll work 'em to death anyway. At least it's a quick death."

Several times she'd considered trying to talk to one of the humans. But she'd always decided against it. Everywhere the slaves went was crawling with Daleks and robomen. Patrolling night and day. One of them would see her climbing out of her casing and have a few awkward questions. If her legs indeed were not working, they'd shoot her, as she'd seen them do to others who were unfit to work.

But worse than that, they might label her a trouble maker. The people caught trying to escape, or fighting with the guards, or most other offences, were singled out for robotisation. The robomen, with no armour to protect them, were regular casualties in the resistance's attacks, so they needed to keep the numbers up. Every now and then, parties of them were led away to the chambers in the ships. Inevitably, a time came when that task fell to her.

Knowing that the prisoners, with nothing left to loose, would likely make a run for it. They had assigned eight Daleks to form a tight ring around the twelve person party, as they marched them to a ship parked a couple of miles away.

The only way Clara had been able to live with herself throughout all this was to make as many "mistakes" as she could. Now that the situation was more fluid, she had plenty of opportunities. She'd exaggerate production reports when asked to read them off, turn a blind eye to smugglers and escape attempts within the camp and even distract other Daleks at key moments. Now faced with the prospect of pushing twelve people into a mind wiping chamber, she decided to try something more daring.

As they moved along a pathway by a forest, Clara turned her eyestalk to a ridge line on their right. "Movement detected!" She shouted and fired a rapid burst of shots at random points along the crest of the ridge.

"WHERE IS IT?" The Daleks demanded, halting and looking around at where she was shooting.

"They must have ducked down. There's one!" She fired somewhere they weren't looking, increasing the confusion.

Just as she'd hoped, the Daleks were breaking formation to look for non existent rebels. But there was only so long she could keep them distracted.

That was time enough. A woman in the crowd had found a large stone on the ground and brought it down on the nearest Dalek's eyestalk. She fled for the trees, with the rest soon following.

One hesitated a few rels longer than the others. Clara pointed her gun at him. "Halt! Do not move!" That spurred him into action and he ran. She fired into the spot where he'd just been, Hitting a Dalek behind him in the gun.

The other Daleks quickly formed up and fired at the retreating humans, hitting two of them. Paralysing rather than killing.

A Dalek turned to some of the others. "YOU TWO, DRAG THEM TO THE SHIP. YOU WILL GO BACK TO THE CAMP AND TELL THEM TO PREPARE TO MARCH OUT TEN MORE PRISONERS. THE REST WILL FORM A SEARCH PARTY AND LOOK FOR THE OTHERS."

To her immense relief, they never found those who'd escaped. To her further relief, she wasn't ordered back to the camp once the search was complete. Instead, she was sent to patrol a different area for rebels.

She'd been trying to get into the patrols for ages now. Partially because it took her away from the slave labour she was technically aiding, partially because she hoped she might find some resistance people to assist her. But she soon found this task as frustrating as everything else. Almost everywhere she went, the Daleks were patrolling in groups. All the better to cover each other. All the better to stop her going off alone.

Occasionally, they'd meet up with rebels or refugees and fire on any that didn't put their hands up. So far, Clara hadn't been forced into a situation where she'd have no choice but to kill somebody, but she knew it was only a matter of time.

The Daleks were in the process of cordoning off areas where the rebels proved a nuisance, and sweeping them through. If they didn't need the space at all, they'd carpet bomb it. Fortunately, they were on the human's turf and they were getting good at slipping through the cracks.

On occasions, she'd been sent off alone, or found an excuse to break off from the pack. But even this was getting her nowhere. She had to report back to a certain point by a certain time before the Daleks would search for her. If they couldn't find her, they'd declare her destroyed and shoot ten prisoners.

She tried to use this time to look for help, but soon found that the humans had gotten very good at evading Daleks, particularly lone ones. She saw fleeting glimpses here and there, but they always fled for the hills before she could say anything.

That was when they didn't attack. A lone Dalek made a tempting target. On one occasion, she was patrolling a street in a ruined city when she saw something move through the air in front of her. She recognised its shape as a Dal bomb. Something the resistance had built specially to smash their casings. The bomb missed her and flew through a smashed window, blowing up the room upon impact.

This was followed by several shots, aimed at her eyestalk. She didn't wait to see if they had more bombs, she just elevated out of there.

Those were her choices then. Rebels, refugees, prisoners, or Daleks. One would blow her up before she could speak. One would flee the continent at the sight of her. One would get her caught by the Daleks. And one would purge her mind and turn her into a puppet to their will. The feeling of despair was only getting harder to hold back when rescue was always so close, and yet so far away.

Clara had calculated that it was six weeks now that she'd been trapped in this armoured cage.

Today, she was patrolling by a river. There was a rebel cell that was hemmed in by it.. Their task was to stop them crossing, while another group of Daleks pressed in from the other side.

There were several patrols of robomen supporting them, filling in the gaps. From her position on the riverbank, Clara watched through her stalk's infra red mode. There was a long straight path they'd cleared through the trees, which a column of robomen was marching along.

Just then a roboman, at the back of the column ducked out and hid behind a bush. The figure looked around, unaware that Clara could see them, and unable to see her. They were lucky it was only Clara watching at this point.

The figure hurried down to a rock formation. Clara had to find out more. She quickly said to the Dalek she was patrolling with. "I need to redirect some robomen. Continue the patrol."

"I OBEY." It said.

Fortunately, their patrol route took them away from the rocks so she was able to approach them alone and arrive within earshot of it.

The roboman, or woman rather, though that seemed to be a gender neutral term, stood casually by the rocks and said "How now."

"Brown cow." Said a male voice within the rocks. "Hello Sarah."

"Don't use that name." Sarah hissed. "I only have a few minutes so listen carefully. The patrol's are thinnest around Cally's Rock. They don't expect you to cross there. The northern group are planning an attack at first light tomorrow to distract them. Move then. Swim back and tell the others. Got to go." She then dashed off as the next wave of patrols moved in.

So this woman was a spy, posing as a roboman. An opportunity. She considered talking to the man in the rocks but didn't want to risk leading the Daleks to him. Sarah was the key.

Clara tailed the woman as she hurried ahead of the Daleks and slipped into position at the back of the robomen once more.

"Halt." She ordered them, before singling Sarah out and ordering the rest on. "Your name is Sarah."

"I do not remember." She said, with all the blankness of the rest of the robomen she was good at her job.

"I need your assistance." Said Clara.

"What is it?"

Clara felt for the Daleks in the next patrol, advancing up the straight path. They were close enough to see her, which ruled out opening her casing, but they wouldn't be in earshot for a couple of minutes..

"I am a human female trapped in a Dalek casing." She explained. "I need your help to contact the resistance so they can extract me. I saw you talking to that man in the rocks."

Sarah looked at her blankly, though Clara could detect some confusion in her eyes. She wasn't sure if she believed her.

"Listen." Clara elbowed the inside of her casing. "Daleks are squidgy. They can't make that noise. If you believe me, meet me in the place you call Blue Wood Stream at first light. Once the attack starts."

Felling the Daleks cone within earshot, Clara moved back to her assigned patrol. She didn't know if Sarah believed her. Hopefully something she'd said would convince her, or just the fact that Clara wouldn't report her. She knew there was a good chance Sarah would ignore her, or would be unable to help her. But finally, she had something she'd been lacking for several weeks. She had an immediate hope.