Read Online Doctor Who: The Many Hands by Dale Smith - Free Book Online

side
instantly.
    'We have to go down,' he said.
    'Are you mad?'
    'Look at them,' the Doctor insisted. 'Most of the
creatures are moving up to block the route to the
Castle: if we go down, we might have a chance.'
    'If we don't run straight into a den of smugglers,'
the Captain argued. 'If they see a troop of soldiers
running for them, do think they'll wait to ask what
we're doing before they open fire?
    'Smugglers have boats,' the Doctor hissed.
    McAllister looked into the Doctor's eyes, and
nodded.
    'This way, men!' he ordered.
    The soldiers turned, but none of them stopped
running. The creatures were closing in all around, and
all they could think of was the possibility of getting
back behind strong castle walls. Even if none of them
would ever make it.
    'I said follow me!' McAllister barked angrily. 'Or I'll
shoot every last one of you myself!'
    If it was an act, it was a convincing one. McAllister
glanced at the Doctor, and then led the charge back
down the hill. As one, his men charged behind him,
all heading for the shore where the Loch bent around
the foot of the hill.
    The Doctor took a moment to watch the creatures
as they were wrong-footed: some slid a little on
the grass as they suddenly tried to turn and switch
directions, but some were already above the knot of
soldiers and just continued in their relentless march
downwards.
    'Move, man,' said the first soldier as he passed.
    There was a soldier at the end of the group, a young
man with short dark hair and blue eyes. He'd been at
the head of the charge away, so he was the closest to
the creatures that were cutting across to intercept. He
was almost close enough to reach out and touch their
dripping clothes. He had heard the order to turn, and
might even know that it was the right thing to do, but
his eyes were blind with panic. He kept on running
up, trying to swing around a knot of creatures in
mouldy sackcloth.
    'No!' the Doctor shouted, pacing forwards. 'This
way.'
    It was too late. It had already been too late when the
Doctor had first spotted him. The knot of creatures
reached out with pale, slimy hands and, although the
soldier managed to pull away from some, more of the
hands held tight. He was pulled down into the middle
of the creatures with a loud scream, and disappeared
amongst them.
    A few seconds later, the Doctor saw him again. His
blue eyes were dead and cold, and he was marching
down after his fellow soldiers with the same relentless
step as the other walking dead. There was no saving
him now. There might be no saving any of them.
    'Come on,' urged the last soldier as he rushed by.
    Reluctantly, the Doctor followed.
    McAllister harried his men down to the shore of the
Loch, where the ground grew damper and muddier
and the marsh gas hung on the foul water. The Loch
circled the rear of the Castle, cut at either end by a
road leading into the city: their best hope was to circle
behind the Castle and back up the Grassmarket. With
any luck, they would be able to attract the attention of
a few muskets on duty as they ran, and these watery
devils would soon be dispatched.
    His men, however, had other ideas: they had
stopped by the Loch's edge and were fretting to each
other.
    'Sir!' one yelled as soon as McAllister was near.
'Look!'
    McAllister looked: the prisoner had been wrong.
Loping towards them from the other direction were
ten more of the undead creatures. McAllister and
his men had no escape route now, just the decision
between two groups of creatures and the dank waters
of the Loch.
    'This way,' the prisoner shouted, charging in behind
McAllister.
    The Captain expected him to stop and despair when
he saw the second group of pale figures moving in on
them, but he didn't. He just kept charging on – not
towards them, not around the edge of the Castle, but
towards the Loch and a small clump of sickly looking
trees that grew there. He disappeared into them for a
moment, making McAllister suddenly afraid that his
only plan was to hide and hope the