Post by Fitz Kreiner on Apr 6, 2009 23:06:05 GMT
Jess breathed a visible sigh of relief as the masked street performer left the pub. He had come in with a collection pot, collecting for a charity Jess hadn’t heard of, but she’d given him some loose change in her purse to get rid of him none the less. The masks were really freaking her out, they’d been everywhere. No one else seemed to be bothered by it though. Many people even jostled and cheered the man, some getting pictures taken with him. Although she had to admit; the costume the performer was wearing was stunning. Coupled with that bizarre mask, he probably wouldn’t have looked out of place somewhere out in space and time.
Space and time; that was another thing. So far she had managed to avoid all matters relating to that, when Kelly had steered the conversation towards her travelling. She’d managed to slip off comments about the drastic change of her hair length, but she knew she couldn’t lie to Kelly, she had to tell her something. Not that she hadn’t had a good time in catching up but she was itching to tell her the truth, about all she’d seen and experienced. Eventually she decided; it was time to tell the truth.
“You still haven’t said where you’ve been.” Kelly said, stepping in and asking the question before Jess managed to speak.
“It’s a bit complicated,” Jess began. “I’ve met a couple of people, a couple of friends, and we’ve been flitting about all over the place.”
“Where abouts? Britain, Europe, or what?” Kelly asked leaning forwards. “You’re being rather evasive about this.”
Jess sighed and paused thinking about what to say. She soon found that her mouth was moving and the words were coming out before she was aware of it. “A bit farther than that. It’s going to sound crazy, but I’m being totally honest; time and space.”
Kelly sat back, blinking incredulously. “Sorry, I thought you said time and space,” she laughed, her laughter dying down when she saw the deadpan look on Jess’s face. “You are joking aren’t you?”
“Didn’t you wonder why I never came back from town on my last day in the house?” Jess asked. “I stumbled upon this man called the Doctor just as he was leaving. We ended up in the forty first century where we met Tom, he travels with us too. I’ve seen things you couldn’t even imagine; aliens, spaceships, robots, cybernetic creatures, alien worlds. You said about that Derbyshire thing, I was there, with the Doctor and Tom. What’s been about six weeks for you has been nearly six months for me. I’m here now because the Doctor helps out this UN group called UNIT, so I’m kinda an unofficial secret agent or some such.”
Kelly stared at Jess for several seconds. She was aware of a telltale sign when her friend was joking, a glint in her eye and slight smile. “You’re serious aren’t you?"
Reaching into a pocket, Jess pulled out a small, credit card sized leather book and handed it to Kelly. Taking the book, Kelly saw it was an ID card for a United Nations organisation. A silver pressed logo was indented into one of the inside covers; a globe backed by what appeared to be wings. The globe had the acronym ‘UNIT’ round the top with the words ‘United Nations Intelligence Taskforce’ written below. On the other side was the actual ID, which had a digital image of Jess, as she was now, watermarked with the same symbol as on the other side of the card along with information such as her name and age.
“This is unreal.” She said eventually, her eyes widening. “What is this UNIT thing then? What do you do? Is it aliens?”
“Erm, kinda.” Jess admitted. “The Doctor told me it was set up to deal with ‘new and unusual threats to mankind’. Or something like that.”
“I can’t quite believe it. This is all like something out of Star Trek or Professor X!” Kelly exclaimed. “This Doctor, is he like that Professor guy?”
“Kel, this isn’t sci-fi, this is real life, and I probably shouldn’t even be telling you this.” Jess said leaning closer to her friend and speaking in hushed tones.
“Then why are you?”
“Because,” Jess paused. “Because I trust you. You’re my friend and I can’t lie to you.”
Kelly blushed slightly before regaining her composure. “So, this Doctor guy, and Tom, what are they like?”
Jess sighed and rolled her eyes. “Where to begin? They’re not human, but they look it.”
“No way!” Kelly said slowly, interrupting and her eyes widening.
“They’re from a race called Time Lords. They look just like us, but they’re super advanced, it’s the Doctors ship that travels through time and space. The Doctor is kinda like an intergalactic poet, rather Byronesque, all waist coats, cravats and frock coats with long wavy hair.”
“Sounds kinda cute.” Kelly smiled.”Older man as well, yeah?”
“Very,” Jess agreed. “Older than you could imagine; he’s over 1000 years old.” Jess almost laughed as she watched Kelly’s jaw drop.
“What about this other guy?” Kelly asked. “He over a millennium old as well?”
“No, in fact, he just walked in.” Jess said, looking over Kelly’s shoulder and peering at the door, waving.
Kelly turned to look at the figure that had just entered the pub and was now looking around. “Wowee!” She gasped turning back to Jess. “You lucky thing, he’s rather good looking. I’m starting to like the sound of this alien thing.”
Jess waved and hushed Kelly to silence as Tom spotted her and walked over.
“I’ve been looking all over Camden for you.” He said, grabbing a stool from a neighbouring table and pulling it up, sitting down and joining the two girls.
“Hi,” Kelly said, “You’re Tom, yeah?”
“Yes,” Tom replied as if noticing her for the first time. “Sorry, do I know you?”
Pulling a face, Kelly turned to Jess. “Tom, this is my friend Kelly, we used to live together,” she said as way of an introduction.
Suddenly smiling, Tom grinned at Kelly, “Hello there, so you have all the dirt on Jess here?”
“You could say that, although a lot of the stories involve me too.” Kelly smiled, brushing her hair behind her ear. “What’s say we grab a drink sometime and we tell those stories?”
Clearing her throat loudly, Jess cut in before Tom could reply and attracted a distained look from Kelly.
“I thought you were with the Doctor?” She asked.
“I was. We got back about an hour ago, as I said; I’ve been looking for you. We drew a blank at the factory.” Tom replied, turning to look at Jess.
Her eyes widening, Jess brought her arm up to look at her watch. It was seven fifteen. She’d completely lost track of time. She’d promised the Doctor she would be back at UNIT HQ by six. She hoped he wouldn’t be too upset with her; after all, it wasn’t every trip where she had the chance to catch up with an old friend. Swearing softly, she got to her feet.
“I lost track of time. We’d best get back.” Bending down, Jess started to collect up the bags she’d acquired, handing some over to Tom. “Could you help me?”
Nodding, Tom collected some of the bags from Jess, looking at them bemused before dismissing them. Grabbing the glass, Jess picked it up and downed the contents, putting the glass back on the table and turned to Kelly.
“Was great to see you again, Kel,” she said, smiling. “I’ll have to let you know when I’m back about and we should do it again.”
“I’m staying at my sister’s, just round the corner.” Kelly said, finishing her drink as well. “If you’re about later on we can meet back here.”
“Sounds good to me.” Jess smiled, shooting a glance at Tom, who was looking about the inside of the pub. “If you come back with us, I can grab you a phone number.”
Smiling, Kelly slipped her arm through Jess’s and the two girls walked to the door, followed by Tom.
The silence of the Rutilus Allec Plastics factory reception area was broken by an unearthly wheezing and groaning sound, echoing down the empty corridors and the cavernous front desk. Sitting up straight and looking around, Alex Phillips slowly got to his feet and looked round at his colleague, Jason Stretham.
“What the hell was that?” Alex asked as the sound died away.
“No idea.” Jason said, getting up and looking down one of the corridors that lead away from the reception and security area. “Think they’ve left one of the machines in the factory on?”
“They’ve never done that before.” Alex replied, looking round at Jason.
Jason had only been with the firm a day, and being put on the night shift of Rutilus Allec was the Gaffer’s way of breaking him in gently. It had fallen to Alex to show him the ropes. Fortunately, on the night shift, all they had to do was sit about drinking machine tea or coffee and occasionally chasing away the odd youth who broke through the fence and tried to spray graffiti on the walls. This strange sound was a new thing to Alex, though. He’d worked the night shift at this and several other factories and businesses and never heard any machinery like it.
“Looks like we could have some excitement your first night.” He winked at Jason.
“Break in? What’s the routine?” Jason asked.
“Dunno what it is yet mate.” Alex replied. “Keep an eye on them monitors, I’ll just quickly check the corridors.”
Nodding, Jason sat back down behind the desk, looking at the flickering black and white images on the monitors. Walking down the nearest corridor, where the sound seemed to have come from, Alex passed and completely ignored a Coke vending machine that hadn’t been there five minutes previously. Drawing a blank in the otherwise deserted corridor, Alex turned back.
“Anything on the cams?” He shouted down to Jason.
“Not a thing. It’s all quiet, and main gate haven’t seen anything.” Jason shouted back.
Scratching his head, Alex breathed out deeply. He had no idea what that noise was or where it came from. Walking back, he spotted the vending machine and put his hand in his pocket feeling the change inside.
“Fancy a drink?” He called out again, looking down the corridor to where he could just see the front desk.
Unseen by Alex and while his attention was taken elsewhere, the front of the vending machine opened and the Master stepped out, closing the front slightly behind him. The flicker of movement caught Alex’s eye and he spun back round, stumbling back by the sudden appearance of the shorter man.
“What-? Who the hell?” He started.
Without a word, and surprisingly quickly, the Master withdrew a small black tube from inside his jacket and pointed it at Alex. A look of pure malice washed over his eyes as the end of the tube glowed red. Crying out, Alex felt all his muscles contract in one swift and painful second and the world seemed to swiftly grow to a monstrous size before descending into blackness.
Hearing the cry, Jason stepped round the desk and instantly ducked back into cover upon seeing the sight before him; a bearded man in a dark suit was pointing a short stubby black tube at Alex, the end glowing red. Before his astonished eyes, Jason saw Alex’s body twisting and shrinking to the size of a child’s doll before laying still, a few wisps of smoke coming from the now tiny corpse. Peering round the corner of the desk, Jason saw the figure step over the tiny body, soon joined by a blonde woman, who seemed to emerge from a vending machine. Together, the two figures walked down the corridor and deeper into the factory.
Scrabbling in the inside pocket of his uniform jacket, Jason pulled out a small radio and hurriedly spoke into it.
“Greyhound thirteen to Trap Seven.”
“Go ahead greyhound.” Lodings’ tinny voice replied.
“At Rutilus Allec Plastics; have eyeball on the Master.” Jason reported.
“‘Ere, take a look at this clown,”
Gaz Pritchard, sniffed loudly before spitting the phlegm onto the pavement and then taking a puff on the joint he held. Turning back, Gaz passed it onto Dean who was stood behind him. Pulling his Burberry baseball cap lower over his eyes he strutted ahead taking a long swig out of the can of Strongbow he held, emptying it, before tossing the empty can into the street.
“Wha’s ‘e still doin’ out ‘ere?” Dean said, eyeing the living statue stood just down the street.
“There’s loadsa them, ain’t there? This celebration thing, innit?” Colleen Cooper said, dropping her cigarette butt on the ground.
Sniffing again, Gaz took the joint back from Dean and took a long drag and then passed it to Colleen. Looking at his two friends, Gaz grinned showing his yellowed and crooked teeth and walked up to the living statue. Looking back at Dean and Colleen, Gaz turned back to the performer and leant right into him and swore loudly into his face. Laughing, Colleen and Dean shouted to him, egging him on to do more.
“Just like them palace guards, ain’t ‘e?” Gaz said turning and laughing to his friends.
Unseen by Gaz, while he was turned to Colleen and Dean, the living statue moved, leaning down to peer closer at Gaz and froze again. Turning, Gaz physically jumped, crying out slightly at the new position of the living statue causing Colleen and Dean to laugh at his reaction.
“‘Ere, I thought these things didn’t move?” He said before turning back to the living statue. Taking a swipe, Gaz lashed out at the statue, his fist connecting with the side of his head. Recoiling, Gaz grabbed his hand back in pain, shaking it and swearing. “Bloody thing’s plastic or some nuts.” He said looking back to Colleen and Dean.
Taking the hint, the two stepped up to Gaz as he pushed hard at the living statue, which toppled from the plinth he was stood on. The three friends stood back confused as the living statue toppled without crumpling. Grouping round the fallen street performer, Gaz and Dean kicked hard in his stomach, causing him to roll over. In one swift motion, the performer rolled and got back onto his feet turning to face the small gang.
“‘Ang on, ‘e’s got no eyes, look at ‘im!” Dean shouted pointing at the blank white staring orbs behind the masks eye holes.
“What the-?” Gaz started, staring at the living statue as it straightened itself before them.
Slowly the street performer raised its arm, pointing it towards his would be attackers. Staring in disbelief, Gaz, Dean and Colleen stepped back as the living statues fingers dropped away and a short, black tube slid out from the hand. Colleen screamed, stepping back as there was a soft explosion from the short tube and Gaz’s smoking corpse collapsed to the ground. Staring at the scene for what seemed like forever, Dean and Colleen turned and fled.
Stepping forward, the Auton followed the two fleeing humans with its arm and fired its concealed weapon again, the blast hitting Dean in the back and sending his smoking body sprawling forwards into a crumpled heap. A third blast from the Auton caught Colleen in the back of her head, her beached hair singing as she dropped dead to the floor. Turning, the Auton’s fingers snapped back up, joining the rest of the hand, as it bent down and picked up the plinth it had been stood on before silently making its way down the empty street.
Space and time; that was another thing. So far she had managed to avoid all matters relating to that, when Kelly had steered the conversation towards her travelling. She’d managed to slip off comments about the drastic change of her hair length, but she knew she couldn’t lie to Kelly, she had to tell her something. Not that she hadn’t had a good time in catching up but she was itching to tell her the truth, about all she’d seen and experienced. Eventually she decided; it was time to tell the truth.
“You still haven’t said where you’ve been.” Kelly said, stepping in and asking the question before Jess managed to speak.
“It’s a bit complicated,” Jess began. “I’ve met a couple of people, a couple of friends, and we’ve been flitting about all over the place.”
“Where abouts? Britain, Europe, or what?” Kelly asked leaning forwards. “You’re being rather evasive about this.”
Jess sighed and paused thinking about what to say. She soon found that her mouth was moving and the words were coming out before she was aware of it. “A bit farther than that. It’s going to sound crazy, but I’m being totally honest; time and space.”
Kelly sat back, blinking incredulously. “Sorry, I thought you said time and space,” she laughed, her laughter dying down when she saw the deadpan look on Jess’s face. “You are joking aren’t you?”
“Didn’t you wonder why I never came back from town on my last day in the house?” Jess asked. “I stumbled upon this man called the Doctor just as he was leaving. We ended up in the forty first century where we met Tom, he travels with us too. I’ve seen things you couldn’t even imagine; aliens, spaceships, robots, cybernetic creatures, alien worlds. You said about that Derbyshire thing, I was there, with the Doctor and Tom. What’s been about six weeks for you has been nearly six months for me. I’m here now because the Doctor helps out this UN group called UNIT, so I’m kinda an unofficial secret agent or some such.”
Kelly stared at Jess for several seconds. She was aware of a telltale sign when her friend was joking, a glint in her eye and slight smile. “You’re serious aren’t you?"
Reaching into a pocket, Jess pulled out a small, credit card sized leather book and handed it to Kelly. Taking the book, Kelly saw it was an ID card for a United Nations organisation. A silver pressed logo was indented into one of the inside covers; a globe backed by what appeared to be wings. The globe had the acronym ‘UNIT’ round the top with the words ‘United Nations Intelligence Taskforce’ written below. On the other side was the actual ID, which had a digital image of Jess, as she was now, watermarked with the same symbol as on the other side of the card along with information such as her name and age.
“This is unreal.” She said eventually, her eyes widening. “What is this UNIT thing then? What do you do? Is it aliens?”
“Erm, kinda.” Jess admitted. “The Doctor told me it was set up to deal with ‘new and unusual threats to mankind’. Or something like that.”
“I can’t quite believe it. This is all like something out of Star Trek or Professor X!” Kelly exclaimed. “This Doctor, is he like that Professor guy?”
“Kel, this isn’t sci-fi, this is real life, and I probably shouldn’t even be telling you this.” Jess said leaning closer to her friend and speaking in hushed tones.
“Then why are you?”
“Because,” Jess paused. “Because I trust you. You’re my friend and I can’t lie to you.”
Kelly blushed slightly before regaining her composure. “So, this Doctor guy, and Tom, what are they like?”
Jess sighed and rolled her eyes. “Where to begin? They’re not human, but they look it.”
“No way!” Kelly said slowly, interrupting and her eyes widening.
“They’re from a race called Time Lords. They look just like us, but they’re super advanced, it’s the Doctors ship that travels through time and space. The Doctor is kinda like an intergalactic poet, rather Byronesque, all waist coats, cravats and frock coats with long wavy hair.”
“Sounds kinda cute.” Kelly smiled.”Older man as well, yeah?”
“Very,” Jess agreed. “Older than you could imagine; he’s over 1000 years old.” Jess almost laughed as she watched Kelly’s jaw drop.
“What about this other guy?” Kelly asked. “He over a millennium old as well?”
“No, in fact, he just walked in.” Jess said, looking over Kelly’s shoulder and peering at the door, waving.
Kelly turned to look at the figure that had just entered the pub and was now looking around. “Wowee!” She gasped turning back to Jess. “You lucky thing, he’s rather good looking. I’m starting to like the sound of this alien thing.”
Jess waved and hushed Kelly to silence as Tom spotted her and walked over.
“I’ve been looking all over Camden for you.” He said, grabbing a stool from a neighbouring table and pulling it up, sitting down and joining the two girls.
“Hi,” Kelly said, “You’re Tom, yeah?”
“Yes,” Tom replied as if noticing her for the first time. “Sorry, do I know you?”
Pulling a face, Kelly turned to Jess. “Tom, this is my friend Kelly, we used to live together,” she said as way of an introduction.
Suddenly smiling, Tom grinned at Kelly, “Hello there, so you have all the dirt on Jess here?”
“You could say that, although a lot of the stories involve me too.” Kelly smiled, brushing her hair behind her ear. “What’s say we grab a drink sometime and we tell those stories?”
Clearing her throat loudly, Jess cut in before Tom could reply and attracted a distained look from Kelly.
“I thought you were with the Doctor?” She asked.
“I was. We got back about an hour ago, as I said; I’ve been looking for you. We drew a blank at the factory.” Tom replied, turning to look at Jess.
Her eyes widening, Jess brought her arm up to look at her watch. It was seven fifteen. She’d completely lost track of time. She’d promised the Doctor she would be back at UNIT HQ by six. She hoped he wouldn’t be too upset with her; after all, it wasn’t every trip where she had the chance to catch up with an old friend. Swearing softly, she got to her feet.
“I lost track of time. We’d best get back.” Bending down, Jess started to collect up the bags she’d acquired, handing some over to Tom. “Could you help me?”
Nodding, Tom collected some of the bags from Jess, looking at them bemused before dismissing them. Grabbing the glass, Jess picked it up and downed the contents, putting the glass back on the table and turned to Kelly.
“Was great to see you again, Kel,” she said, smiling. “I’ll have to let you know when I’m back about and we should do it again.”
“I’m staying at my sister’s, just round the corner.” Kelly said, finishing her drink as well. “If you’re about later on we can meet back here.”
“Sounds good to me.” Jess smiled, shooting a glance at Tom, who was looking about the inside of the pub. “If you come back with us, I can grab you a phone number.”
Smiling, Kelly slipped her arm through Jess’s and the two girls walked to the door, followed by Tom.
*
The silence of the Rutilus Allec Plastics factory reception area was broken by an unearthly wheezing and groaning sound, echoing down the empty corridors and the cavernous front desk. Sitting up straight and looking around, Alex Phillips slowly got to his feet and looked round at his colleague, Jason Stretham.
“What the hell was that?” Alex asked as the sound died away.
“No idea.” Jason said, getting up and looking down one of the corridors that lead away from the reception and security area. “Think they’ve left one of the machines in the factory on?”
“They’ve never done that before.” Alex replied, looking round at Jason.
Jason had only been with the firm a day, and being put on the night shift of Rutilus Allec was the Gaffer’s way of breaking him in gently. It had fallen to Alex to show him the ropes. Fortunately, on the night shift, all they had to do was sit about drinking machine tea or coffee and occasionally chasing away the odd youth who broke through the fence and tried to spray graffiti on the walls. This strange sound was a new thing to Alex, though. He’d worked the night shift at this and several other factories and businesses and never heard any machinery like it.
“Looks like we could have some excitement your first night.” He winked at Jason.
“Break in? What’s the routine?” Jason asked.
“Dunno what it is yet mate.” Alex replied. “Keep an eye on them monitors, I’ll just quickly check the corridors.”
Nodding, Jason sat back down behind the desk, looking at the flickering black and white images on the monitors. Walking down the nearest corridor, where the sound seemed to have come from, Alex passed and completely ignored a Coke vending machine that hadn’t been there five minutes previously. Drawing a blank in the otherwise deserted corridor, Alex turned back.
“Anything on the cams?” He shouted down to Jason.
“Not a thing. It’s all quiet, and main gate haven’t seen anything.” Jason shouted back.
Scratching his head, Alex breathed out deeply. He had no idea what that noise was or where it came from. Walking back, he spotted the vending machine and put his hand in his pocket feeling the change inside.
“Fancy a drink?” He called out again, looking down the corridor to where he could just see the front desk.
Unseen by Alex and while his attention was taken elsewhere, the front of the vending machine opened and the Master stepped out, closing the front slightly behind him. The flicker of movement caught Alex’s eye and he spun back round, stumbling back by the sudden appearance of the shorter man.
“What-? Who the hell?” He started.
Without a word, and surprisingly quickly, the Master withdrew a small black tube from inside his jacket and pointed it at Alex. A look of pure malice washed over his eyes as the end of the tube glowed red. Crying out, Alex felt all his muscles contract in one swift and painful second and the world seemed to swiftly grow to a monstrous size before descending into blackness.
Hearing the cry, Jason stepped round the desk and instantly ducked back into cover upon seeing the sight before him; a bearded man in a dark suit was pointing a short stubby black tube at Alex, the end glowing red. Before his astonished eyes, Jason saw Alex’s body twisting and shrinking to the size of a child’s doll before laying still, a few wisps of smoke coming from the now tiny corpse. Peering round the corner of the desk, Jason saw the figure step over the tiny body, soon joined by a blonde woman, who seemed to emerge from a vending machine. Together, the two figures walked down the corridor and deeper into the factory.
Scrabbling in the inside pocket of his uniform jacket, Jason pulled out a small radio and hurriedly spoke into it.
“Greyhound thirteen to Trap Seven.”
“Go ahead greyhound.” Lodings’ tinny voice replied.
“At Rutilus Allec Plastics; have eyeball on the Master.” Jason reported.
*
“‘Ere, take a look at this clown,”
Gaz Pritchard, sniffed loudly before spitting the phlegm onto the pavement and then taking a puff on the joint he held. Turning back, Gaz passed it onto Dean who was stood behind him. Pulling his Burberry baseball cap lower over his eyes he strutted ahead taking a long swig out of the can of Strongbow he held, emptying it, before tossing the empty can into the street.
“Wha’s ‘e still doin’ out ‘ere?” Dean said, eyeing the living statue stood just down the street.
“There’s loadsa them, ain’t there? This celebration thing, innit?” Colleen Cooper said, dropping her cigarette butt on the ground.
Sniffing again, Gaz took the joint back from Dean and took a long drag and then passed it to Colleen. Looking at his two friends, Gaz grinned showing his yellowed and crooked teeth and walked up to the living statue. Looking back at Dean and Colleen, Gaz turned back to the performer and leant right into him and swore loudly into his face. Laughing, Colleen and Dean shouted to him, egging him on to do more.
“Just like them palace guards, ain’t ‘e?” Gaz said turning and laughing to his friends.
Unseen by Gaz, while he was turned to Colleen and Dean, the living statue moved, leaning down to peer closer at Gaz and froze again. Turning, Gaz physically jumped, crying out slightly at the new position of the living statue causing Colleen and Dean to laugh at his reaction.
“‘Ere, I thought these things didn’t move?” He said before turning back to the living statue. Taking a swipe, Gaz lashed out at the statue, his fist connecting with the side of his head. Recoiling, Gaz grabbed his hand back in pain, shaking it and swearing. “Bloody thing’s plastic or some nuts.” He said looking back to Colleen and Dean.
Taking the hint, the two stepped up to Gaz as he pushed hard at the living statue, which toppled from the plinth he was stood on. The three friends stood back confused as the living statue toppled without crumpling. Grouping round the fallen street performer, Gaz and Dean kicked hard in his stomach, causing him to roll over. In one swift motion, the performer rolled and got back onto his feet turning to face the small gang.
“‘Ang on, ‘e’s got no eyes, look at ‘im!” Dean shouted pointing at the blank white staring orbs behind the masks eye holes.
“What the-?” Gaz started, staring at the living statue as it straightened itself before them.
Slowly the street performer raised its arm, pointing it towards his would be attackers. Staring in disbelief, Gaz, Dean and Colleen stepped back as the living statues fingers dropped away and a short, black tube slid out from the hand. Colleen screamed, stepping back as there was a soft explosion from the short tube and Gaz’s smoking corpse collapsed to the ground. Staring at the scene for what seemed like forever, Dean and Colleen turned and fled.
Stepping forward, the Auton followed the two fleeing humans with its arm and fired its concealed weapon again, the blast hitting Dean in the back and sending his smoking body sprawling forwards into a crumpled heap. A third blast from the Auton caught Colleen in the back of her head, her beached hair singing as she dropped dead to the floor. Turning, the Auton’s fingers snapped back up, joining the rest of the hand, as it bent down and picked up the plinth it had been stood on before silently making its way down the empty street.