Read Online Doctor Who: Engines of War by George Mann - Free Book Online

earlier good humour. She could hear their rasping, tinny voices, barking indiscriminate commands at one another as they combed the ruins, searching for whomever had destroyed one of their patrols.
    Cinder had no idea how they were going to get out of this. Scrabbling back up the wall was no option – it was far too high. They would need to find an alternative route out of the city – preferably one that wasn’t being guarded by Daleks.
    That, however, was for later. Right now, she needed to concentrate on getting them to the Dalek base without triggering any warning systems or bringing down the wrath of a patrol.
    She stopped at the corner of an intersection, putting a hand on the Doctor’s chest to hold him back, and peered around. At the end of a long, narrow street she could see the curve of one of the Dalek domes, its outer surface stippled with familiar globes. Before that, however, was a single Dalek, standing with its back to them, its eyestalk swivelling from side to side, as if keeping watch.
    She pulled back. ‘Dalek,’ she whispered.
    ‘Now I wasn’t expecting to find one of those here,’ whispered the Doctor.
    Cinder punched him gently on the shoulder. ‘Seriously, what are we going to do? If I fire my weapon this close to the dome, they’ll hear it. There’ll be swarms of them on us in moments.’
    The Doctor stuck his head around the corner, assessing the situation for himself. ‘We could just ask it nicely?’ he said. ‘Tell it we’re lost and that we want to go back to our cells in the camp. It’s as good a way as any of getting inside.’
    Cinder looked at him as if he were mad. ‘My liberty is more important to me than getting inside that dome,’ she said. ‘And my life. I have my limits.’
    The Doctor grinned. ‘In that case, let’s go round.’
    They backtracked until they found a gap between two rows of houses, forming a narrow alleyway. Quietly, they traversed the length of it, their feet sloshing in the unwholesome effluvia that ran in a constant stream from the overflowing drains.
    ‘Come on, in here,’ said the Doctor, pulling her into the doorway of an empty house. It looked relatively intact – a standard-issue, prefabricated habitation bloc, built for a family. He tried the door, but it was locked.
    Cinder watched as he removed his screwdriver from its hoop in the ammo belt he wore slung across his chest, and tinkered for a minute with the settings. He held the tip of it to the lock and pressed the button. The end of it lit up, and it emitted an electronic warble. Seconds later, she heard the lock mechanism slide open.
    ‘What did you do?’ she asked.
    ‘Agitated a few molecules,’ he whispered, tapping the end of his nose. ‘Let’s go inside.’ He led her into the building.
    It was dark inside, without the flickering glow of the Tantalus Eye and the radiation storms still raging overhead. What light there was seeped in through the gaps between the lichen that was growing over the downstairs windowpanes, just about allowing her to see once her eyes had adjusted to the gloom.
    She swallowed. She felt as if her heart were in her mouth. The room they’d entered was laid out as if the family who had once occupied it had simply upped and left; had got up and walked out, with every intention of returning later to pick up where they’d left off. Children’s toys were strewn across the carpet. An empty glass rested on a side table. A picture frame on the wall still projected the holographic resemblance of a man and a woman, clutched in a happy embrace.
    Cinder felt the weight of guilt upon her shoulders, of immense sadness. How had she survived all this time, while the Daleks had taken these people and their families? What right did she have to still be alive? How had she been allowed to live on while her mother, father and brother had been exterminated?
    Her entire life up until this point had been about eradicating those memories, those insidious, guilt-ridden thoughts;