Doctor Who_ The Hollow Men Part 41

Rebecca and Trevor looked like sleeping children as the Doctor and Ace laid them together at the side of the pit that had once been the village green.

'Will she be all right?' asked Ace, wiping the welcome rain from her face.

'She's free of the taint, if that's what you mean,' replied the Doctor, looking into the middle distance, at the smoke rising from some distant catastrophe.

'That isn't isn't what I meant.' what I meant.'

The Doctor shrugged. 'They'll all have to rebuild their lives.

It'll be hard, without Jack, but I have a feeling they'll survive.

Humans usually do.' He paused, picking up a piece of gla.s.s from the mirror. The clouds parted, and it glinted in the light of the afternoon sun. 'Jack was attacked on many fronts, but he was ultimately defeated by humanity. I appealed to those feelings that Jack had spent hundreds of years repressing.

Those people trapped inside Jack decided that true death was preferable to the hollow existence they had. Deep down, I believe every human being, no matter how evil, would have made the same choice.'

'Even me?' asked Ace.

'Especially you. With no energy, no substance, Jack - Jerak -effectively ceased to exist.'

'Jerak?'

'That was Jack's real name. A creature manipulated by the Hakolians to become a war machine.'

'Hakolians?'

'I never did finish telling you about Little Hodcombe, did I?'

The Doctor smiled. 'Oh, well, there's plenty of time for that.

Perhaps I'll take you there. Jane still makes an excellent cup of tea.'

'What about those hunters?' asked Ace. 'Where did they come from?'

'Psychic extensions of the villagers' attempts to buy out of the system before they died, couched in the only mythic expression that seemed appropriate. Rebecca and I were spewed out because we didn't belong...'

'And the b.u.t.terflies?'

'Yes,' said the Doctor, weighing the gla.s.s in his hand, and looking at the sky through it. 'They didn't belong there either.'

'Is that part of the mirror?'

'It is,' said the Doctor. 'Jack used the mirror as a direct access point to himself. Destroying it rendered him incapable of escape. That was a good idea of yours to smash it.'

'It wasn't mine,' said Ace.

'But you wanted wanted to do it,' said the Doctor with a knowing smile. 'If anything of Jack i' the Green did survive,' he said at last, 'then he's trapped in here.' to do it,' said the Doctor with a knowing smile. 'If anything of Jack i' the Green did survive,' he said at last, 'then he's trapped in here.'

The Doctor dropped the piece of gla.s.s, and ground it to dust beneath his foot.

FIRST EPILOGUE.

ENGLISH SETTLEMENT.

Several hours had pa.s.sed and night was just beginning to blanket the land, free of fear. In the vicarage doorway, the Doctor stood watching the flas.h.i.+ng lights of fire engines, ambulances and police cars as they cl.u.s.tered around the remains of the green and the pub. There had been much official scratching of heads, at least until the soldiers turned up. They wore the unmistakable winged-globe emblem of the United Nations, and had been summoned by a phone call from someone who claimed he had once a.s.sisted them.

'Only sixty-three people unaccounted for,' Ace told him after having spoken to one of the army men. 'And another thirty-three found dead. That still means most of the villagers survived. They found a lot of people hiding in their homes, delirious. Of course, they're not saying much.'

'What can they say?' asked the Doctor sadly. 'Who would believe them? Earthquakes aren't common in England, but then neither are aliens menaces destroying whole villages.'

'Just a minute ago you said this sort of thing happened -'

'Twice,' interrupted the Doctor. 'And both times the official explanation was a natural phenomenon. Lethbridge-Stewart's successors will have this one under wraps for a few weeks, and then it'll be as if nothing ever happened.'

'Isn't that a bit cynical?'

'Maybe. In a way, not much has changed. The people of Hexen Bridge have always been good at keeping secrets.' The Doctor paused, and then began walking away from the village towards the TARDIS. Ace hurried after him, slinging her backpack on to her shoulders as she did so.

'I'm glad the rain's stopped,' she said, remembering the thunder storm a few nights before, and her desperate attempt to find the Doctor's craft.

'Oh, a little rain never hurt anyone,' said the Doctor. 'It washes away the madness.' There was a dip in his voice as they pa.s.sed A Taste of the Orient, and he removed his hat as a mark of respect. 'It seems so long ago,' he whispered.

'What, the meal?' said Ace. 'Yeah. Ages.'

'I meant when I first came here,' said the Doctor. 'It's been a shadow at the back of my mind for so long. I can't believe it's gone.' He sighed. 'Still, plenty more where that came from.'

'I've been thinking,' said Ace. 'How much of the violence was Jack's influence, and how much was what was normal for these people anyway?'

'I can't answer that,' said the Doctor. 'Only each individual can. They'll notice a change in each other. But they'll be just as imperfect as any other group of people. At least Jack won't be there, making them worse.' He pushed his hands into his pockets. 'I said I'd take Denman back to Liverpool - he's waiting for us at the TARDIS. Anyway, I want to see for myself what's happened up there.'

'You said Hatch released something into the water supply.'

'Yes. Jack was beginning to travel to Merseyside, you see.

Like a bee to a psychic honeypot. Of course, he'd have overwhelmed the entire country in time. Maybe the world...'

'What'll happen to the people in Liverpool?'

'They'll recover,' said the Doctor. 'I managed to minimise the damage to the water supply. There'll be something of a crime epidemic - but then, that's not unusual in the summer.

The sad thing is, I'm not sure anyone will notice.'

'Sad?'

'None of us need much encouragement to do evil,' said the Doctor. 'Even so, it was difficult to leave the city behind. I knew I had to confront Hatch in London, and Jack in Hexen Bridge. But I can't help but feel guilty at what's happened in my absence.'

'So that's why we're going up there?' asked Ace, but the Doctor did not answer.

'Say goodbye, Ace,' he said as they pa.s.sed the little sign that said HEXEN BRIDGE: PLEASE DRIVE SLOWLY THROUGH OUR VILLAGE. 'I don't expect you'll ever come here again.'

'Oh, I dunno,' said Ace. 'Looks like the perfect place for a holiday. Not.' She helped the Doctor over a stile, and they set off across the fields, the gra.s.s glossy with rain. 'I would like to have said a proper goodbye to everyone, though. Especially Rebecca.'

'Grief and departures do not sit well together,' said the Doctor. He pointed to an indistinct hillside in the gloom.

'Look, nearly there.'

'You said I wouldn't come back,' said Ace. 'What about you?'

The Doctor came to a sudden halt. There were droplets of water on his face, but Ace guessed that it must have been splashes of rain falling from the trees that edged the field. 'I always have unfinished business, Ace,' he said.

Some hours later, Steven Chen and Rebecca Baber were sitting side by side on the wall overlooking the graveyard. In the circ.u.mstances it was a morbid place to be, but it seemed just about the only part of the village that wasn't swarming with policemen and soldiers.

Neither knew the other especially well, but their shared grief was beyond words and understanding. Weak with crying, they had lapsed into hushed silence, thinking only of their dead parents, and wondering if life could ever be the same again.

'I'm sorry we didn't tell you about your father in the restaurant,' said Steven suddenly, making Rebecca jump. 'It's just... Well, you know.'

'I understand,' said Rebecca, her voice a hoa.r.s.e whisper.

'We had to survive. At that point in time, that's all that mattered.' She wiped a hand across her face. 'Look at me,'

she said. 'Snot everywhere. Have you got a tissue?'

Steven pa.s.sed her a handkerchief. 'I suppose we should be grateful we made it,' he said, his voice weak with doubt.

Rebecca blew her nose. 'My beliefs in a cause nearly killed me,' she said. 'But it's no consolation, is it?'

Steven shook his head. 'No.' He paused, trying to control his emotions.

'That's what you get for sleeping with the enemy, I suppose.'

'I can't believe they're dead,' Steven said at last, the tears p.r.i.c.kling at his eyes again.

Rebecca shook her head. 'I lost my mum years ago, and I still miss her.' She sighed. 'You'll never get over that.'

'But life goes on? Is that what you're going to tell me?'

'Yes,' said Rebecca defiantly, despite the tears that coursed down her cheeks. 'My father always used to say that life is more important than death.'

The sun rose over Liverpool, forcing its heat through the thin covering of cloud. It was going to be another hot day in the city.

Denman turned to the Doctor. 'Thanks for the trip,' he said. 'It was certainly different.'

'My pleasure.' The Doctor stood framed in the TARDIS doorway. It had landed inside a subway, its battered sh.e.l.l not out of place against the graffiti. Perhaps he ought to move it before it, too, became daubed with spray paint. After all, it wouldn't be the first time.

'You think the village will be OK?' asked Denman.

'It'll be fine,' said the Doctor. 'More than enough survivors to keep a place like that ticking over. Still, it won't be easy, but at least they won't have Jack to worry about.'

Denman nodded. 'Oh, they're tough enough, I think.' He looked around him, at the familiar streets, still wrapped in the cottonwood coc.o.o.n of early morning. 'For all our faults,'

he continued, 'we know what's what. And I know when it's time to face the consequences of my actions.'

The Doctor nodded. 'Yes. We all must learn to do that.'

Joanna Matson spent the next few days at Trevor Winstone's parents' house, as her own home was rubble at the bottom of a pit. The Winstones had always organised the pub skittles team, and were keen to offer Joanna shelter. Of Trevor himself, however, there had been no sign. Tony Winstone had not been unduly worried, as his son had a habit of disappearing whenever the police or armed forces were nearby. 'I think it all goes back to when he was caught smoking dope in the school toilets,' Tony had said. 'He's always considered himself persona non grata persona non grata where the constabulary are concerned.' where the constabulary are concerned.'

'Oh yes,' chimed in Christiana, with a false optimism that Joanna had found somewhat annoying. 'I expect we'll get a postcard from him soon. It's usually Kenya or Indonesia or somewhere exotic like that.'

A week pa.s.sed, and still she had not heard from Bob.

Joanna was becoming increasingly worried, but the police had so many missing people to investigate that they couldn't give any one case special priority. It was only when she had given up all hope of ever seeing him again that he finally turned up.

Joanna was in the Winstones' garden, weeding their rose bed, when she heard the scrunch of feet on the gravel path.

Bob was trudging towards her, looking like - well, there was no other way of describing it, a tramp. 'Someone told me I'd find you here,' he said with a grin.

'Bob!' Joanna ran towards her husband, embracing him warmly. 'Where the h.e.l.l have you been?'

'Staying out of trouble,' said Bob.

Joanna took an instinctive step backward. 'Sorry, Bob, but... You stink!'

'I've been sleeping rough.' Bob sighed. 'Living with b.l.o.o.d.y gypsies. You won't believe what I've been through. I was...' He paused, searching for the right word. 'I was expelled, I suppose.'

'I said you'd get in trouble if you carried on like that.'

'I was lucky not to be killed. Jack deals harshly with those who draw attention to him.' Bob looked around him. The swifts were arcing overhead as if nothing had happened in the village. 'Is it safe to come back?'

'Oh yes,' said Joanna. 'Safer than ever.' She paused. 'But only if you have a wash.'