Authoress Note: Welcome to Chapter 8 of Between the Lines. Thank you to all of those who have reviewed it really does mean a lot to me. I hope that you guys will like this next part of the story. Without further ado Chapter 8.
Chapter 8
Place to Go
Nancy went into a shack in some railway sidings and hides the food that she had taken from the Lloyd's kitchen. She stood up seeing the Doctor and Alexys who were smiling. "How'd you follow me here?" She asked her tone fairly soft knowing that there probably wasn't an answer she was going to like.
"I'm good at following, me. Got the nose for it." The Doctor said proudly looking at Nancy.
Alexys let out a soft breath rubbing her arms a little bit due to the cooling air. She should've worn a jacket, but didn't think all that much about.
"People can't usually follow me if I don't want them to."
"My nose has special powers."
Alexys shook her head softly knowing that he was being a bit of a dick to her.
"Yeah? That's why it's…"
"What?"
"Nothing."
"What?"
Alexys laughed lightly knowing what Nancy was trying to say. She covered her mouth when she saw that he was looking at her.
"Nothing. Do your ears have special powers too?" Nancy questioned looking at the Doctor.
"What are you trying to say?"
"Goodnight, Mister."
"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? 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."
"Take us there."
"There's soldiers guarding it. Barbed wire. You'll never get through." Nancy said looking at them.
Alexys pursed her lips together.
"Try me."
"You sure you want to know what's going on in there?"
"I really want to know."
"Then there's someone you need to talk to first."
"And who might that be?"
"The Doctor."
Alexys looked at the Doctor with her lips pursed together, she was a bit concerned about going and seeing this Doctor.
DWDWDW
The Doctor used a pair of super-binoculars to scan the area.
Alexys stood behind him with her lips pursed together in worry.
"The bomb's under that tarpaulin. They put the fence up over night. See that building? The hospital." Nancy explained to them.
"What about it?"
"That's where the doctor is. You should talk to him."
"For now, I'm more interested in getting in there."
"Talk to the doctor first."
"Why?"
"Because then maybe you won't want to get inside."
"Where're you going?"
"There was a lot of food in that house. I've got mouths to feed. Should be safe enough now."
"Can I ask you a question? Who did you lose?"
"What?" Nancy asked looking at him confusion written across her face.
"The way you look after all those kids. It's because you lost somebody, isn't it? You're doing all this to make up for it."
"My little brother. Jamie. One night I went out looking for food. Same night that thing fell. I told him not to follow me, I told him it was dangerous, but he just. He just didn't like being on his own."
"What happened?" Alexys asked softly wondering if there was a bad ending to this. It made her heart ache for Nancy.
"In the middle of an air raid? What do you think happened?"
"Amazing." The Doctor said softly thinking.
"What is?"
"1941. Right now, not very far from here, the German war machine is rolling up the map of Europe. Country after country, falling like dominoes. Nothing can stop it. Nothing. Until one, tiny, damp little island says no. No. Not here. A mouse in front of a lion. You're amazing, the lot of you. Don't know what you do to Hitler, but you frighten the hell out of me. Off you go then do what you've got to do. Save the world."
Nancy walked away from the Doctor and Alexys.
Alexys took a soft breath. "Come on Doctor let's go."
The Doctor used his sonic screwdriver to open the padlock on the ornate metal gates to go to the hospital grounds.
The two of them walked into the hospital following the long dark hallway leading to a large room that was dark. Every bed had patients in them that were all very still and all had gas masks on them.
An elderly grumpy doctor appeared leaning on a walking stick. "You'll find them everywhere. In every bed, in every ward. Hundreds of them."
"Yes, I saw. Why are they still wearing gas masks?" The Doctor questioned as he watched Alexys looking at the patients not touching them.
"They're not. Who are you?"
"I'm, er. Are you the doctor?"
"Doctor Constantine. And you are?"
"Nancy sent us."
"Nancy? That means you must've been asking about the bomb."
"Yes."
Alexys nodded her head softly as she came over to the Doctor.
"What do you know about it?"
"Nothing. Why I was asking. What do you know?" The Doctor questioned as he looked at Dr. Constantine.
"Only what it's done."
"These people, they were all caught up in the blast?"
"None of them were." He chuckled then coughed. He sat down in a chair by the desk where the ward sister would usually be.
"You're very sick." The Doctor said looking at Dr. Constantine with a worried look on his face.
"Dying, I should think. I just haven't been able to find the time. Are you a doctor?"
"I have my moments."
"Have you examined any of them yet?"
"No." He said shaking his head.
"Don't touch the flesh."
"Which one?"
"Any one."
Alexys swallowed the lump in her throat.
The Doctor pointed his sonic screwdriver at the nearest patient.
"Conclusions?"
"Massive head trauma, mostly to the left side. 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."
Alexys saw him scanning another. Her brows furrowed in worry.
"This isn't possible."
"Examine another."
"This isn't possible."
"No." Constantine said shaking his head.
"They've all got the same injuries."
"Yes."
"Exactly the same."
"Yes."
"Identical, all of them, right down to the scar on the back of the hand." He noticed that Constantine had the same scar. "How did this happen? How did it start?"
"When that bomb dropped, there was just one victim."
"Dead?"
"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. Physical injuries as plague. Can you explain that? What would you say was the cause of death?"
"The head trauma."
"No."
"Asphyxiation."
"No."
"The collapse of the chest cavity"
"No."
"All right. What was the cause of death?"
"There wasn't one. They're not dead." He hit the waste basket with his stick and the noise makes the patients sit up in their beds. "It's all right. They're harmless. They just sort of sit there. No heartbeat, no life signs of any kind. They just don't die."
Alexys took a shaky breath wondering how this could be so.
"And they've just been left here? Nobody's doing anything?" The Doctor questioned lowering his hands.
Alexys let out a breath as the patients laid back down.
"I try and make them comfortable. What else is there?"
"Just you? You're the only one here?"
"Before this war began, I was a father and a grandfather. Now I am neither. But I'm still a doctor."
"Yeah. I know the feeling." The Doctor said letting out a soft breath.
Alexys closed her eyes in thought.
"I suspect the plan is to blow up the hospital and blame it on a German bomb."
"Probably too late."
"No. There are isolated cases. Isolated cases breaking out all over London. Stay back, stay back. Listen to me. Top floor. Room eight oh two. That's where they took the first victim, the one from the crash site. And you must find Nancy again."
"Nancy?" Alexys and the Doctor said at the same time.
"It was her brother. She knows more than she's saying. She won't tell me, but she might Mummy. Are you my mummy?" His face suddenly turned into a gasmask.
Alexys gasped stumbling back into the Doctor.
"You're okay…" The Doctor said softly to her.
"Hello?" A male voice rang out.
"Hello?" Rose's voice rang out.
"Hello?"
The Doctor led Alexys out of the ward and into the corridor.
"Good evening. Hope we're not interrupting. Jack Harkness. I've been hearing all about you on the way over."The man said with a smile.
"He knows. I had to tell him about us being Time Agents." Rose said looking at the Doctor and Alexys.
"And it's a real pleasure to meet you, Mister Spock." Jack walked forward to the ward.
"Mister Spock?" The Doctor asked in confusion at Rose.
"What was I supposed to say? You don't have a name. Don't you ever get tired of Doctor? Doctor who?" Rose questioned looking at the Doctor.
"Nine centuries in, I'm coping. Where've you been? We're in the middle of a London Blitz. It's not a good time for a stroll."
"Who's strolling? I went by barrage balloon. Only way to see an air raid."
"What?!"
"Listen, what's a Chula warship?"
"Chula?" The Doctor thought for a moment.
Alexys walked into the other room to see Jack using a wrist tricorder thing to examine the patients.
"This just isn't possible. How did this happen?" Jack questioned, worry was evident in his voice.
The Doctor came up behind Jack. "What kind of Chula ship landed here?"
"What?" Jack asked turning his head.
"He said it was a warship. He stole it, parked it somewhere out there, somewhere a bomb's going to fall on it unless we make him an offer." Rose explained softly to the Doctor and Alexys.
"What kind of warship?" The Doctor questioned Jack again.
"Does it matter? It's got nothing to do with this."
"This started at the bomb site. It's got everything to do with it. What kind of warship?"
"An ambulance! Look." Jack produced a hologram of it from his wrist device. "That's what you chased through the Time Vortex. It's 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."
"Bait?" Rose questioned looking at Jack with wide eyes.
"I wanted to sell it to you and then destroy it before you found out it was junk."
"You said it was a war ship."
"They have ambulances in wars. It was a con. I was conning you. That's what I am, I'm a con man. I thought you were Time Agents. You're not, are you."
"Just a couple more freelancers."
"Oh. Should have known. The way you guys are blending in with the local colour. I mean, Flag Girl was bad enough, but U-Boat Captain? Anyway, whatever's happening here has got nothing to do with that ship."
"What is happening here, Doctor?" Rose asked softly.
Alexys let out a breath pinching the bridge of her nose.
"Human DNA is being rewritten by an idiot." The Doctor said, letting out a breath knowing that this wasn't a good sign. Not in the least bit and it was very very dangerous.
"What do you mean?" Rose asked even more confused than what she was before.
"I don't know. Some kind of virus converting human beings into these things. But why? What's the point?"
The patients suddenly sat up again.
"Doctor…" Alexys said looking on with wide eyes.
"Mummy. Mummy. Mummy? Mummy?"
"What's happening?" Rose asked softly backing up some.
"I don't know."
The patients and Doctor Constantine all got up to their feet. "Mummy."
"Don't let them touch you." Alexys said moving back with the Doctor.
"What happens if they touch us?"
"You're looking at it." The Doctor said looking at Rose.
The patients began to close in on the Doctor, Rose, Alexys, and Jack. "Help me, mummy. Mummy. Mummy. Mummy. Mummy. Mummy. Mummy."
Alexys bit her lower lip in nerves.
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This is the end of Chapter 8. I hope that you all enjoyed it. Please leave a review. Reviews keep me writing and going. I want to bring you the best stories that I can. Even though it's taking a tiny bit of time to develop Alexys. I promise you guys will like her in the end. At least that is what I'm hoping anyways. Until next time guys.