Read Online Doctor Who: The Awakening by Eric Pringle - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Eric Pringle
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willow trees about the perimeter, the green grass was badly overgrown, tufted and choking the weatherbeaten old gravestones. Many of these were crumbling away, and others were themselves greened over with a growth of moss and lichen. The rest loomed grey-white above the crowding vegetation.
It was peaceful here as the Doctor led Will Chandler towards a row of, gravestones. They stood silent as a row of speechless old men, still and warm in the hot sunshine.
Yet around them the air was restlessly throbbing; there was an incessant cawing of rooks and a constant chattering of smaller birds, moving unseen among the flowering grasses and cow parsley and about their hiding places in the willow trees.
Will, too, felt restless. He didn’t like this place, and what he saw in it he didn’t understand. The implications terrified him. He wanted to run away but the Doctor wouldn’t allow it – even now he was pointing at another worn gravestone for Will to look at. The youth crouched obediently down in the grass and pushed a clump of red sorrel aside, so that he could look at the stone properly.
Some lettering was still visible beneath the clinging moss. There were figures – a number ... Will touched it with his fingers to convince himself that it was real, and the breath sobbed out of him. A date had been carved into the stone: ‘1850’ it said. Yet when Will had shut himself into the priest hole, to escape from the battle that had raged around the church – only hours ago, it seemed – the year was 1643!
‘This ain’t possible,’ he breathed. He was scared to think what it meant if it was true. His eyes misted over. The Doctor was walking along the other side of the row of gravestones. He watched Will’s reactions carefully. ‘Look at the others,’ he suggested in a gentle, sympathetic voice.
Will stood up. With a last glance at that unbelievable date he moved further down the row, observing the worn, ancient monuments – and every one, thrusting as silently out of the grass as if it was growing there, told a similar story. They were all from the nineteenth century. Will grew more and more agitated; he moved faster and faster until he was running, away from these gravestones and across the path around the church. His feet crunched the gravel. He found another memorial tablet, containing another awesome date, set low down into the wall of the church itself. He crouched down and pretended to examine it.
In reality he was hiding from the Doctor the tears in his eyes. Will wanted to blub like a baby.
Not far away from where he was crouching, the Doctor noticed a small door in the church wall. He tried the handle. The door gave a little. His fingers tightened around the latch, and he pushed harder. With a fall of dust and a creaking noise that echoed hollowly inside, the door opened.
At that moment there was a sound of hooves approaching. A mounted trooper rode around the corner of the church. As soon as the Doctor saw him he pushed the door wide open and hissed, ‘Will! Come in here!’
Instantly, as the Doctor disappeared inside, Will left the memorial tablet and ran towards the open door. A second trooper appeared close behind the first; they were walking their horses through the green churchyard. Will’s curiosity overcame his fear and he ducked down behind a buttress to watch their approach. This was a foolhardy thing to do, because already the troopers were almost upon him, and now he dared not move again. ,Just as he thought he must be discovered, the Doctor’s hand reached out of the open doorway and yanked him inside.
The Doctor closed the door without making a sound.
The horsemen rode on by, quite oblivious of the fact that their quarry was only inches away.
As the Doctor and Will Chandler were going through that side door, not far away from them Tegan and Turlough were entering the TARDIS.
Turlough was in front, and he hurried through the console room without looking around him; but as soon as
It was peaceful here as the Doctor led Will Chandler towards a row of, gravestones. They stood silent as a row of speechless old men, still and warm in the hot sunshine.
Yet around them the air was restlessly throbbing; there was an incessant cawing of rooks and a constant chattering of smaller birds, moving unseen among the flowering grasses and cow parsley and about their hiding places in the willow trees.
Will, too, felt restless. He didn’t like this place, and what he saw in it he didn’t understand. The implications terrified him. He wanted to run away but the Doctor wouldn’t allow it – even now he was pointing at another worn gravestone for Will to look at. The youth crouched obediently down in the grass and pushed a clump of red sorrel aside, so that he could look at the stone properly.
Some lettering was still visible beneath the clinging moss. There were figures – a number ... Will touched it with his fingers to convince himself that it was real, and the breath sobbed out of him. A date had been carved into the stone: ‘1850’ it said. Yet when Will had shut himself into the priest hole, to escape from the battle that had raged around the church – only hours ago, it seemed – the year was 1643!
‘This ain’t possible,’ he breathed. He was scared to think what it meant if it was true. His eyes misted over. The Doctor was walking along the other side of the row of gravestones. He watched Will’s reactions carefully. ‘Look at the others,’ he suggested in a gentle, sympathetic voice.
Will stood up. With a last glance at that unbelievable date he moved further down the row, observing the worn, ancient monuments – and every one, thrusting as silently out of the grass as if it was growing there, told a similar story. They were all from the nineteenth century. Will grew more and more agitated; he moved faster and faster until he was running, away from these gravestones and across the path around the church. His feet crunched the gravel. He found another memorial tablet, containing another awesome date, set low down into the wall of the church itself. He crouched down and pretended to examine it.
In reality he was hiding from the Doctor the tears in his eyes. Will wanted to blub like a baby.
Not far away from where he was crouching, the Doctor noticed a small door in the church wall. He tried the handle. The door gave a little. His fingers tightened around the latch, and he pushed harder. With a fall of dust and a creaking noise that echoed hollowly inside, the door opened.
At that moment there was a sound of hooves approaching. A mounted trooper rode around the corner of the church. As soon as the Doctor saw him he pushed the door wide open and hissed, ‘Will! Come in here!’
Instantly, as the Doctor disappeared inside, Will left the memorial tablet and ran towards the open door. A second trooper appeared close behind the first; they were walking their horses through the green churchyard. Will’s curiosity overcame his fear and he ducked down behind a buttress to watch their approach. This was a foolhardy thing to do, because already the troopers were almost upon him, and now he dared not move again. ,Just as he thought he must be discovered, the Doctor’s hand reached out of the open doorway and yanked him inside.
The Doctor closed the door without making a sound.
The horsemen rode on by, quite oblivious of the fact that their quarry was only inches away.
As the Doctor and Will Chandler were going through that side door, not far away from them Tegan and Turlough were entering the TARDIS.
Turlough was in front, and he hurried through the console room without looking around him; but as soon as
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