Doctor Who Read online

  Contents

  Prologue – Escape

  1. World’s End

  2. Link-up

  3. Tutorial

  4. Level Zero

  5. A New Arrival

  6. Demolition

  7. The Forest

  8. Defrag

  9. The Other Side

  10. Safety

  11. The Bunker

  12. New Places

  13. The Guild

  14. The Architect

  15. Cheat

  16. A Message

  17. A Plan

  18. Battleground

  19. The Sword and the Screwdriver

  20. Breakthrough

  21. Legacy

  22. Mistaken Identity

  23. The Virtual War

  24. Salvation

  Epilogue – The Tower

  PROLOGUE

  Escape

  The city was virtual.

  But that didn’t mean it wasn’t real.

  Dubstep Towers hung in a neon-pink sky above the wireframe city below. The crowds of people hurrying through the outlined streets looked like pixels to Blondie – squares of colour, the building blocks of her world. She stood at the window of her penthouse apartment on floor 73, placed a hand against the glass and returned her gaze to the horizon.

  Beyond the curving buildings and past the cubic city blocks, the darkness was coming. It was a sphere of pure black that extended both above and below the level of the ground and as it grew in size, its radius began to skim the yellow-lit suburbs.

  The suburbs shattered. The roads and houses dissolved into a shower of computer code – carefully balanced strings of numbers and equations that held the world together. The glowing yellow pieces rose and flowed away from the advancing sphere, transforming into a tidal wave that sprayed the edges of the deep blue inner city. The yellow pixels mixed with the blue fragments, forming cool, green puddles on the streets before they were gathered up into the wave once more.

  Blondie drew the blinds, unable to watch, and stepped over to the large four-poster bed that stood in the centre of the white-tiled room. Kneeling down, she pulled a large black trunk from beneath the bed and pressed her hand against the top. The cool dark material dissolved and Blondie smiled as the contents of the trunk reminded her of the adventures of her younger days.

  Placed carefully amongst the protective folds of a crimson cloth was a sword. The ivory handle was sculpted to fit her palm and the perfectly balanced blade glowed with white electricity that matched Blondie’s hair. She lifted it out of the trunk and flourished it with skill before slotting it neatly into the strap on her back. She pulled on a pair of blue boots that matched her blouse and took one last look at the flat that had been her home for Boss-knows how long. Behind the blinds, the soft patter of pixels began to sound against the glass – the wave was almost upon her.

  Blondie opened the front door to the penthouse and looked down at the 200 metre drop below before stepping over the threshold. Her body twisted ninety degrees in the air, and the smooth wall of Dubstep Towers became the floor, as she began to walk down towards the street below. The building shuddered as the wave of destruction broke against the opposite side and Blondie began to run.

  She couldn’t fight the darkness on her own. She needed help.

  CHAPTER 1

  World’s End

  ‘It’s the end of the world. Again,’ said the Doctor.

  ‘Again?’ Rory made a face.

  ‘When?’ asked Amy. ‘The buildings look like the kinda stuff you’d see in 2010.’

  ‘Ha.’ The Doctor laughed. ‘That’s the trouble with you born-in-the-twentieth-century types – you think it’s only a matter of decades before your council estates and tower blocks are replaced with shiny domes and monorails and flying cars. But it’s not. Buildings like this are renovated and repaired, they’ll last for centuries.’

  ‘Okay, so when is it?’ Amy repeated.

  ‘It’s 2222 AD,’ the Doctor answered. ‘Like I said, end of the world.’ He spread his arms and grinned as the group stopped to take in their surroundings.

  All around them, the ruins of Chicago towered above their heads. Huge, broken skeletons of skyscrapers standing half-submerged amongst the vast folds of sand dunes. The dunes glowed white in the sunlight and faded to a cool grey in the giant shadows between the buildings. Beyond that, the desert stretched for miles, rolling hills of dust that rose and fell like a frozen sea towards the horizon.

  ‘What happened?’ Rory asked.

  The Doctor flicked open his sonic screwdriver and pointed it towards the sky before examining the handle. He shrugged ‘Dunno.’

  ‘Dunno?’ Rory repeated. ‘What do you mean, dunno? It’s the end of the world! Our whole world has been destroyed, and that didn’t stick in your memory?’

  The Doctor sighed. ‘I can’t keep track of everything. Earth gets blasted half a dozen times at least in its lifetime. Count yourself lucky.’ He started jumping on the spot. ‘At least the planet’s still here this time.’

  Amy reached out and closed her husband’s open mouth. She turned to the Doctor, ‘Could it be solar flares?’ she asked. ‘It’s about the right era, isn’t it?’

  ‘Possibly.’ The Doctor stuffed the sonic screwdriver back into his jacket pocket. ‘The atmosphere’s taken a beating, that’s for sure.’ He fished out a small white plastic bottle. ‘Here, put this on – for protection.’

  Rory inspected the bottle gingerly. ‘What is it? Space cream?’

  ‘Sunscreen. Your pasty complexions aren’t going to last long without it.’

  Amy snatched the bottle out of Rory’s hand and started smearing it on immediately. ‘And you tell me this now?! I’ve been out here nearly half an hour!’

  ‘What about you?’ Rory asked the Doctor.

  The Doctor grinned and slipped on a pair of sunglasses. ‘Sorted.’

  It wasn’t long before the relentless heat drove the group’s exploration indoors. They blinked to adjust their eyes in the stifling shadows of one of the more intact skyscrapers. The Doctor’s boots left prints in the dust as he stepped onto the green-tiled floor of a large, splintered entrance chamber.

  ‘It’s a block of flats.’ Amy pointed behind a semi-circular reception desk to where a wide grid of mailboxes was screwed into the wall.

  ‘In downtown, no less. Very posh.’ The Doctor removed his shades and wiped them absent-mindedly on his shirtsleeves. Rory tried in vain to blow away the dust that had stuck to the suncream on his arm. His spluttering was loud in the heavy silence and Amy shot Rory a look as the Doctor pushed past her on his way towards the janitor’s closet.

  He yanked open the wooden door and stepped inside. A second later, the green bulb of the sonic screwdriver cast an eerie glow over the contents of the tiny closet.

  ‘What are you looking for?’ Amy asked.

  ‘A power source.’ The Doctor’s voice was muffled in the gloom. ‘Rory, be a good fella and thump that desk for me, would you?’

  Rory raised his eyebrows but did as he was told. Gathering his shirt-cuff into his palm, he wiped a sleeve across the surface of the desk before poking it with a finger.

  ‘I said thump, not poke.’

  Rory patted the desk again.

  ‘Oh, let me do it.’ Amy strode forward and brought a fist down hard on the glossy surface. The desk sprang into life. With a small chime it began to display large rectangles of data – resident’s details, room numbers, virtual post-it notes, all arranging themselves around Amy’s hand.

  ‘It’s a table-computer!’ Rory exclaimed.

  The Doctor emerged from the closet, slapping the sonic screwdriver closed in his palm. ‘It’s a Desktop,’ he said with a grin. Pushing between the pair he rubbed his thumbs over his fists a
nd examined the scrolling read-outs before him. Then he scratched at his nose as his other hand began jabbing at the screen in a dizzying flurry of movements. The read-outs changed; colours and text flashing across the faces of Amy and Rory as if they were lit by a disco ball.

  ‘What are you looking for?’ Rory asked.

  ‘The bills,’ the Doctor replied. ‘Somewhere in this building, something is still switched on. I picked up the power reading when we were outside but it’s too faint for me to pinpoint with the sonic. I reckon whichever apartment it is must have racked up a pretty hefty electricity bill over the centuries. Hopefully that should tell us where the reading’s coming from.’

  ‘Is that why we came here?’ Rory asked.

  ‘It is now.’

  The Desktop made one final chime and the Doctor raised his hand from the surface screen. ‘Floor 48, apartment 23B.’

  Amy eyed the grand main staircase, and pointed a finger. ‘Are you expecting me to climb forty-eight times those?’ she asked.

  The Doctor shrugged. ‘If you want. I was planning on taking the lift.’

  CHAPTER 2

  Link-up

  ‘If it’s the end of the world, how come the lifts still work?’ Rory asked, as the Doctor checked his watch. The blue numbers that seemed to be projected across the top of the door were rising painfully slowly. So was the temperature inside the cramped metal lift.

  ‘It’s one of the basic rules of the universe, isn’t it?’ Amy threw him a wink. ‘Things only work when you don’t need them anymore.’

  Rory nodded wisely. ‘Like when our train broke down on the way to that concert.’

  ‘You mean that gig,’ said Amy.

  ‘Gig, concert, what’s the difference? It’s still people playing music in front of other, slightly less sweaty people.’

  ‘Gig sounds cooler.’

  ‘It doesn’t matter how cool it sounds. They’re still sweaty.’

  Amy sighed.

  The Doctor stroked his bow tie. ‘I’m sweaty and cool,’ he declared.

  ‘Urgh.’

  ‘Aaaand we’re here.’ The Doctor announced, hopping out and into a hallway. Once it must have been decorated in a deep shade of red, but now the paintwork had faded to a rusty brown. ‘Thank heavens for that. Remind me never to listen to you two talk about normal stuff again. Boooring!’

  Sheepishly, Rory and Amy followed the Doctor down the corridor as he checked off the room numbers with a wag of his finger. Amy felt a weird sensation through her shoes and looked down to see the carpet crumbling away beneath her weight. Her feet left red footprints in the powder-snow of the worn out carpet.

  ‘It’s spooky,’ she said. ‘When you go to rundown places back home you expect them to be full of bugs and rats and mice and spiders and . . . more bugs,’ she finished. ‘But there’s nothing here. Not a single living soul in the whole wide world.’

  ‘Peaceful, isn’t it?’ the Doctor called over his shoulder cheerfully. ‘Ah ha! 23B!’ He stopped in front of a blank wooden door whose number he had deduced by examining the numbers of the doors either side. Grabbing the handle, he barged through.

  And nearly fell to his death.

  Amy grabbed him just in time. She shielded her eyes against the sudden shaft of sunlight and hauled him back over the threshold.

  He dropped onto the floor of the hallway with a thump.

  The Doctor sat up immediately and stared in confusion at his legs as they dangled over the broken edges of the floorboards. He looked down at the steep drop below.

  The entire eastern side of the building had been torn away by a force that must have been so powerful it sent shivers down Amy’s spine. Her eyes adjusted to the light and she peered over the edge. The concrete skeleton of the building had crumbled to reveal a series of sharp metal supports nearly twenty storeys down. They were positioned exactly where the Doctor would have landed. Her stomach turned at the thought.

  ‘But, I don’t understand!’ the Doctor finally found his voice. ‘Where’s 23B?’

  ‘Er, here?’ came a small cough from behind them.

  Rory was standing on the opposite side of the hallway. He pointed at the number on the door next to him. 23B.

  The Doctor cleared his throat. ‘Ah, right, thanks.’ He jumped quickly to his feet and began patting his trousers down enthusiastically. ‘I must have confused “apartment 23B” with “creaky door of deathly death”. Ah well, no harm done.’ He straightened up and placed a hand on Amy’s shoulder.

  ‘Thanks,’ he mouthed, and for a second Amy thought she saw a flicker of fear being blinked away behind his deep green eyes. Then it passed, and the blustering madman she knew so well returned once more. This time when the Doctor grabbed the door handle, he opened it considerably more slowly.

  The door swung gently open to reveal a surprisingly small apartment considering the faded luxury of the hallway. Inside was a basic desk and chair. They were tucked neatly in one corner against a small, frosted window. To the right, behind a pokey bathroom, was an unmade bed that looked like it would crumble to ash if anyone so much as breathed on it.

  Rory looked disappointed. ‘I thought this place was meant to be posh?’

  ‘It’s the location you pay for, not the size.’ It only took the Doctor a couple of steps to reach the desk. He ran a finger across the surface, tracing a zigzag in the dust and a small blue light appeared in the centre of the Desktop. With a smooth whirr, a strange device appeared to unfold itself from the desk. It resembled a stylish doctor’s stethoscope. A small wishbone shape was attached to one end, and the spine of the device curved up before straightening out to meet the light.

  ‘Gorgeous.’ The Doctor reached out to touch it and the blue light faded to a soft green. ‘It’s still logged in.’

  ‘What is it?’ Amy breathed.

  The Doctor looked over and grinned. ‘It’s a games console.’

  ‘Like an Xbox or a PlayStation?’ Rory asked.

  ‘Yeah, if they were able to read and adapt to your thought patterns while stimulating all five senses through manipulating chemicals in your brain.’ The Doctor gave him a look.

  ‘I’m sure I saw an advert for something like that,’ Rory muttered.

  ‘So this is what’s been giving out the energy signal?’ asked Amy.

  The Doctor pulled the chair out from beneath the desk and perched himself upon it. ‘Yep, it’s still connected to the network – checking for updates, new software, that kind of thing.’

  ‘But where is it getting the power from?’

  The Doctor leant back in his chair and began toying with the wishbone. ‘The batteries in these Desktops are immense. They have to be. All the major cities moved their power plants away from populated areas a good century back. There’s no such thing as mains power any more. It’s all hydrogen batteries now.’

  ‘But how does that –’ Rory began, but Amy interrupted him.

  ‘We’re missing the big question here. If that thing’s still logged on, it means there’s still an Internet, or holo-net, or whatever the future-people call it.’

  The Doctor frowned. ‘Good point.’

  ‘And seeing as everything else is on the blink around here, it seems to me like someone’s put some serious effort into making sure it’s still working.’

  The Doctor tapped the desk; it beeped encouragingly. ‘Well,’ he said finally, ‘I guess I’d better find out what’s going on then.’ He grabbed the wishbone, and before Amy or Rory could stop him he’d slotted it over his forehead.

  ‘Oh, great,’ said Rory.

  Seven miles away, sitting in the shadow of a rolling dune, a giant robot was reading a book. The air was still and calm and the robot held the thick paperback at an angle so that the sun’s light fell across the pages from over the ridge behind it.

  Its metal exoskeleton was heavy and thickset. The erosion of countless sandstorms gave the chrome finish a rugged texture that made it look more animal than machine. From a distance it almost looked li
ke a silver gorilla.

  A curved plasma screen stood in place of a face and it traced a blue bead of light to the bottom of the paragraph. Then, with a loud hiss of hydraulics, the robot’s arm flexed to turn over the yellowing page.

  Then an alarm sounded. The blue bead danced for a minute as a low wail emerged from the speakers fitted in the centre of the robot’s chest. Then the screen refreshed and a scrolling message appeared. In square red capitals it repeated the words ‘USER DETECTED, USER DETECTED, USER DETECTED,’ over and over again.

  The robot’s shoulders slumped in a digital sigh. With a great effort and clanging of pistons it hauled itself to its feet and began walking slowly up the side of the dune.

  Its great weight caused its feet to slide in the loose sand with each step, but eventually it reached the top. Stretching across the length of the horizon, the half-buried city of Chicago looked like the skeleton of some ancient whale. The robot’s screen dimmed as it scanned the ancient buildings for the location of the download.

  Eventually a small beep announced that the user had been located. The robot crouched; flexing its steel joints, then launched itself into the air.

  CHAPTER 3

  Tutorial

  The Doctor didn’t exist.

  At least, not yet. Inside the Desktop his mind floated in a void that was made even more confusing by the fact that he didn’t have a body. If he had had feet he could at least have found out which direction was ‘down’.

  Then there were letters.

  ‘Welcome to Parallife,’ they said.

  The Doctor would’ve laughed at that if he’d had a mouth.

  ‘Parallel-life. Very good,’ he thought instead.

  The letters rearranged themselves. ‘Are you a new user?’

  ‘Yes.’ The Doctor was getting the hang of thinking instead of speaking now.

  ‘Thank you, please proceed to the Character Creation menu.’

  There was a feeling of rapid movement, although in the blackness it was impossible to tell. A light came on, and the Doctor suddenly realised that he was in a room – a huge, white space in which various body parts, clothes and sliding menu-bars were floating. He stepped forward and discovered that he now had a body. Looking down he saw a green wireframe skeleton. He raised a stick figure hand in front of his face and waved at himself.