Chapter Five - Make the Jungle Rock
Chapter Five - Make the Jungle Rock
The feeling of wanting to be sick dissipated quickly this time. It was as if she were getting used to time-loop travel. Dropping to one knee she scanned the area looking for her companions but could see no one. In the dense jungle that surrounded her she could only see a few feet in front of her at best. She sniffed the air hoping to pick up a scent or perfume… Evans, she remembered wore a very distinctive aftershave, but nothing was evident.
Fishing inside her shoulder bag she removed a small pocket sized book her father had once given her. She’d put it in her bag hoping to keep her sister quiet but had never got around to reading it. Before she’d left for university she’d asked him why he’d given her that particular book in a vain attempt to show that she’d read it or at least looked at it. With his usual smile she remembered his reply as if he’d just said it.
‘Some people need weapons, pepper spray or stun guns to make them feel secure but these would be useless to you. Your mind is your best weapon against any odds. The book is merely there to help you focus your thoughts.’ The most annoying thing about her father, she remembered, was how right he always was… even when he was wrong.
Removing it she looked on at the glossy pages and realised she’d never even opened it. Covered in plastic to protect its pages from all weathers, it had survived the soaking better then other items in her bag.
With poorly concealed annoyance she discarded two packets of unusable tissues and yet another leaflet on Chlamydia, which also hadn’t faired well. Her annoyance turned to frustration as she wondered where she was getting them from. The last one had been taken from her outside the ancient city of Alexandria when she had first travelled with the Doctor. She shook her head realising the distance she had travelled since she had first stepped out from the TARDIS’s blue doors. She missed the Doctor and in the back of her mind wondered if she would ever see him again.
Looking down at the book which oddly enough, was titled ‘Survival, a short guide,’ she tried to put memories of the Doctor to the back of her mind. She had enough distractions as it was. Flicking through the stiff pages she came across a section titled Jungle survival.
‘The things that always give you away are shape, shine, shadow, silhouette, spacing and movement. Forget about them and they’ll get you killed. Nice… very reassuring I must say.’
Shaking her head she pocketed the book and began searching for her companions. Ever watchful of the changes to the approaching environment, she noticed that ahead the path began to narrow. The trees on either side were linking their leafy arms to form a tunnel. The air was thick with the smell of flora and fauna but the heat she would have expected from such an environment was absent. It was as though the surrounding vegetation sealed in the air and kept the sun’s gaze out.
She walked on and at irregular intervals glanced from left to right, occasionally checking the path behind her. Everything seemed quiet and peaceful. Removing the book she gave it another glance searching desperately for inspiration. The inside cover carried the legend, ‘Lead, follow, or get out of the way’. Nowhere did it say go it alone; but that was exactly what she was doing.
The path in front of her, she noticed, began to curve, leaving no visible sign of an exit from the leafy tunnel. She turned as a stirring of leaves by the side of the path held her attention. Then relaxing she saw that it was no more than a breeze rustling the vegetation then moving on.
Taking her first step into the tunnel she realised she’d made a mistake. Five men either side burst out of the jungle onto the pathway, all brandishing weapons. Without moving she looked at the men and realised, with a sinking heart, that they were Robo-men; ten of them, all staring directly at her.
‘All right boys and girls… who’s first?’ Looking closely she realised that one of the men was staring beyond her and to her left. Quickly and without warning, she lunged at the first unlucky man to enter the clearing. They seemed to be frozen in their tracks, faced by the sight of her standing in front of them.
She used this moment to her full advantage as her fist caught the first man on the corner of his jaw knocking him unconscious instantly. Turning towards the next attacker she hit him square in the face, with the heel of her hand, breaking his nose and dropping him unceremoniously to the leaf covered ground. Looking up it was as if they were all ignoring her, staring passed her as if something of greater interest stood behind her.
Turning she noticed a figure dash passed her and slam into her attackers with such force, that the closest five were immediately thrown to the ground. Like macabre chorography the figure dance between them taking one partner after another until none were left standing. With shocking realisation she noticed the bandage around its upper arm and knew that she had placed it there earlier. The plasters had fallen off as the wounds healed in the time rift, but the bandage had stayed. With the dance finally over the figure of the wolf-man stood with its back towards her, a low growl coming from its throat. Slowly the beast turned its eyes locking onto hers as blood dripped from its outstretched hands.
‘Lenore… sorrow for the lost Lenore.’ She remembered the words of the poem had calmed her when she’d been a girl and hoped they would have the same effect now she was a wolf. The wolf tipped its head to one side as if she was studying her. Taking a deep breath Louise Ruth fought to recall the words to Edgar Allen Poe’s work.
‘The rare and radiant maiden whom the angels named Lenore, thrilled me… filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before.’ That wasn’t right, she knew, but how true it was right now, she thought to herself, the pain in her right hand, from the blow, throbbing as she tried to relax it.
Transfixed by the half woman half animal she watched as the rough skin smoothed out and the figure seemed to shrink before her eyes. What was once at least six foot six reduced to roughly five and a half feet, she thought. The hair stayed the same blonde dirty and tangled, but the hands also reduced in size as the talons turned into claws, then nails.
‘Well… that was a rush,’ Louise Ruth said, not sure what else to say. Fiddling inside her shoulder bag her hand gripped the stun gun then thought better of it. If it was the girl she’d treated in the desert then she appeared to be safe and approachable when she was in this form. Slowly the naked figure turned and stared at her. It wasn’t a wolf that stood before her but a small thin woman and she was crying.
‘Help me Raven… please help me,’ she pleaded. Walking towards her, still a little apprehensive, Louise Ruth held out her hand and more frightened than she was the girl that had been the she-wolf took hold of it.
Walking her away from what was left of the Robo-men she found the ankle length Afghan coat and placed it back over her shoulders. ‘Thank you… my Raven… thank you.’ Gun shots rang out in the distance and she knew that the rest of her companions had engaged the remaining Robo-men. To her surprise the wolf-girl’s skin began to harden, her muscles filled with blood and her breathing increased as her grip tightened. Looking across at her, Louise Ruth noticed her features change considerably.
‘But the raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only, that one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour. Nothing further then he uttered, not a feather then he fluttered, till I scarcely more than muttered, other friends have flown before.’
The words to the poem came flooding back to her as if a defence mechanism had opened up her memory. Bracing herself to pull away, Louise Ruth watched as the girl’s skin softened and the muscles that had filled began to fill with blood receded. With a startled look in her eyes she turned to Louise Ruth.
‘You… you can stop it… you can send the beast back. You are the Raven sent to protect me.’ The girl looked at her with pleading and hope in her eyes.
Louise Ruth shook her head. ‘Probably not; you’ve just killed. But… if you learn to calm down and not loose your temper… perhaps you could send the beast away yourself… perhaps for good.’
The girl smiled as they walked through the forest hand in hand, like two sisters walking home from school reciting Poe in unison as they went. ‘Caught from some unhappy master whom unmerciful disaster followed fast and followed faster till his songs one burden bore…’
Cresting a small hill Louise Ruth was stunned into silence at the sight that stretched out before her. A road twisted and turned below her and what looked like an industrial estate covered the land. She wasn’t in a jungle, she was in a small forest in the centre of a bubbling metropolises. More roads led off from the estate and sign posts show distances to major towns. To her surprise she recognised the name of a town under a series of jumbled words and letters. It said they were twenty five miles from Cardiff. The jumbled words were in fact Welsh.
A noise to her left startled her and she turned to meet it as the girls hand was pulled from her own. Johnson, Barrett and a recovered Evans stepped out of the forest, guns held out in front of them as they came to bare on the girl. Quickly Louise Ruth stepped in front of her both arms raised.
‘No… no… don’t shoot. She’s with me.’ Louise Ruth managed to say as all three UNIT soldiers dropped onto one knee staring at the figure behind her, their machine guns and pistols never wavering. ‘She saved my life and killed a bunch of Robo-men back there.’
She gestured towards the forest behind her and noticed the giant wolf that stood behind her towering over her. The hair was the same but all the other features had changed considerably. Long talons protruded from each hand and muscles had increased in size giving the impression of a body builder. Her powerful legs throbbed as veins were pulled tight around muscles. The sight of the beast, so close to her, sent shivers of fear running up her spine. Slowly and carefully she extended her right hand and took hold of one of the beast’s claws. She was braced, ready to pull back at the slightest movement of the wolf, but it remained still.
‘Then, upon the velvet sinking,’ her voice started low then grew in confidence as the words fell form her lips. ‘I betook myself to linking fancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of yore, what this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt, and ominous bird of yore,’ she cringed at the words but realised that they were having an effect on the beast. Her breathing began to slow and she could see the beasts muscles reduce in size. As her breathing slowed even further to near normal levels the girls facial muscles also reduced in size.
Standing, open mouthed, the UNIT team looked on as the giant wolf decreased in magnitude, finally looking like a young girl. Lowering their MP5’s they cautiously walked forwards, their eyes never leaving the girl as if she could return to the beast at any given moment.
‘Is she…’ Evans was about to ask but Louise Ruth cut him off.
‘Yes she’s safe… and house trained. Now if any of you have any chew sticks we can take her for a walk.’
Evans dropped his eyes in embarrassment but Louise Ruth’s gaze went passed him to Agent Johnson who stood gazing down at the warehouse below. Walking towards her they all noticed the folk lift truck as it threaded its way through a number of out buildings, the driver appeared to be no expert as he caught the stone gable end of one building in his rush to pass.
Without stopping they looked on as the truck paused for a moment as if the driver was checking something then headed off at full speed, slamming into the wall of the main warehouse. The battery powered vehicle ground to a halt and the driver lifted the folks throwing it into reverse. Louise Ruth heard Agent Johnson take a audibly deep breath as the truck pulled free of the building with a giant coffin-sized concrete brick on its folks. After what appeared to be a moment’s conversation, the truck driver headed off towards the outer fence with two other figures running after him.
As the truck disappeared into the distance Louise Ruth gave a gasp of her own as she recognised a second Agent Johnson clear the side of the building with a number of black clad troops either side of her all with guns firing in the truck’s wake.
‘That was you… chasing the lift truck… what…?’ Louise Ruth asked then stopped as Barrett shook his head. Turning Agent Johnson looked either side of her then headed for a section of bush which she could squeeze passed and head down towards the warehouse. She froze when she heard Louise Ruth shout.
‘No… you can’t… whatever it is you can’t.’ Agent Johnson rounded on her anger showing clearly in her eyes.
‘I am… I’m going to save that boy and no one’s going to stop me. Do you know the nights I’ve spent dreaming of this moment? Do you know how many times I’ve cried myself to sleep? The times I’ve spent with the barrel of a gun in my mouth just waiting for the strength to pull the trigger. The pain’s too much to bear… I can’t take it anymore. I have a chance to stop it from ever happening.’
Louise bowed her head as thoughts flashed before her eyes. Her mind tried to latch onto logic, what would the Doctor do in this situation? She almost smiled as she pictured his great intellect bumbling around as if he were on an extended sight seeing holiday. Then it hit her like a steam train. ‘That’s what the Rani wanted us… wanted you to do.’
‘What…?’ Johnson was a just about to turn and walk away when the Rani’s name froze her to the spot.
‘That was the time loop she was on about.’
‘I don’t understand… what do you mean by the time loop?’ As her thought processes fell into place Louise Ruth looked at her three companions and shook her head.
‘The Rani wanted us to be trapped in a time loop like she had been for a thousand years… yes?’ Barrett nodded and Evans joined in. Johnson stood stony faced wondering how long it would take her to get to the warehouse that the boy would be held in. ‘If I’ve learned anything from travelling with the Doctor then it’s that time travel is never random. There’s always a purpose behind everything. Whether it’s the creator manipulating us or set patterns are put in place for us to follow, I don’t know but there is always order and reason in everything.’
Johnson was getting bored with her thinking and was ready to head off whether Louise Ruth came to a point or not. ‘What I’m saying is that these bracelets can’t send us to random places in time like the Rani said. There has to be order.’
‘So… there’s order… what’s that got to do with me saving a boys life and my own sanity?’
Louise Ruth saw the manic look in Johnson’s eyes and knew she was on the edge and one push the wrong way would send her over. ‘I believe that the Rani can’t send us into a time loop. She hasn’t the power. These bracelets are coordinated to fixed points in time… points that mean something to all of us.’
Barrett’s eyes redden perceptively as he spoke. ‘Like the day before the World Trade Centre attack?’
Louise Ruth nodded. ‘Exactly… that’s what tipped me off.’
‘But what about the desert… that means nothing to me. I never went to Afghanistan.’
Louise Ruth turned to Evans, ‘No but you did. Was there something there that you wish you could have stopped happening?’
Evans nodded as he remembered his friend. ‘I was on patrol when a bomb exploded killing two fellow soldiers and a number of Afghans. One of the soldiers was my friend. If I could have just warned him he would still be alive today.’
Johnson looked aghast as realisation hit her. ‘And… the boy… if I can get to him… I could save him.’
Louise Ruth took a step forward. ‘No… you can’t. You see the way I see it is that each event was so strong in your lives it changed you forever. Made you into the people you are today.’
‘But I don’t want to be the person I am. I’m miserable… unhappy and borderline suicidal. I can’t live with this on my conscience any longer.’ She turned to go but Louise Ruth stopped her with a restraining hand on her shoulder. Johnson turned with a look in her eye that said hands off in no uncertain terms.
‘Look at all the good you’ve done… the people you’ve saved. You once said you’d stand between me and the enemy before you’d let anyone harm me… well I need you to make that stand… now… and not just for me for all of us.’
Johnson was about to shrug Louise Ruth’s hand off then changed her mind. ‘Go on… tell me your theory.’ She didn’t look convinced, but at least she was willing to listen.
‘The Rani wanted us to cause the time loop that would trap us here. She couldn’t do it on her own. Her time loop was powered by her TARDIS ours was going to be of our own doing.’
‘What do you mean our own doing?’ Barrett asked as his anger rose inside of him.
‘Simple… what made you join UNIT and fight the Rani?’
Barrett’s face dropped as he looked at the ground as if searching for something. ‘My wife and child were killed… on September the eleventh.’
Louise Ruth nodded then turned to Evans. ‘You joined UNIT when your friend died in Afghanistan yes?’
Evans shrugged. ‘Sort of… I joined the SAS then went on to join UNIT… but yes that was the reason.’
Then turning to Johnson she added, ‘And you joined UNIT when a child was killed. It was the reason you fight the way you do. You want them to pay… anyone that hurts innocents… you want them to pay.’ Johnson remained quiet but nodded. She wanted them to pay so badly she could taste it. ‘If I’m reading this right if anyone of you changed history and saved your friend,’ she looked at Evans then turned to Barrett, ‘your wife and child,’ then turning looked back at Johnson, ‘that boy… then they wouldn’t have died.’
Johnson looked up and took in a slow deep breath. ‘Then we… wouldn’t have joined UNIT… and fought the Rani… and…’
‘And you wouldn’t have been able to return to save your friends… thus causing a paradox, a time loop which would have frozen us in time until our bodies died of old age or the Rani’s Robo-men killed us.’
Johnson covered her face with both hands and shook her head. She’d almost fallen for it as well. She’d almost condemned her friends to a lifetime of repetition where death was the only escape. Looking up she was just about to say something when she felt queasiness in her stomach and a need to be sick.
Epilogue - A Twist of Fate
The feeling of wanting to be sick dissipated quickly this time. It was as if she were getting used to time-loop travel. Dropping to one knee she scanned the area looking for her companions but could see no one. In the dense jungle that surrounded her she could only see a few feet in front of her at best. She sniffed the air hoping to pick up a scent or perfume… Evans, she remembered wore a very distinctive aftershave, but nothing was evident.
Fishing inside her shoulder bag she removed a small pocket sized book her father had once given her. She’d put it in her bag hoping to keep her sister quiet but had never got around to reading it. Before she’d left for university she’d asked him why he’d given her that particular book in a vain attempt to show that she’d read it or at least looked at it. With his usual smile she remembered his reply as if he’d just said it.
‘Some people need weapons, pepper spray or stun guns to make them feel secure but these would be useless to you. Your mind is your best weapon against any odds. The book is merely there to help you focus your thoughts.’ The most annoying thing about her father, she remembered, was how right he always was… even when he was wrong.
Removing it she looked on at the glossy pages and realised she’d never even opened it. Covered in plastic to protect its pages from all weathers, it had survived the soaking better then other items in her bag.
With poorly concealed annoyance she discarded two packets of unusable tissues and yet another leaflet on Chlamydia, which also hadn’t faired well. Her annoyance turned to frustration as she wondered where she was getting them from. The last one had been taken from her outside the ancient city of Alexandria when she had first travelled with the Doctor. She shook her head realising the distance she had travelled since she had first stepped out from the TARDIS’s blue doors. She missed the Doctor and in the back of her mind wondered if she would ever see him again.
Looking down at the book which oddly enough, was titled ‘Survival, a short guide,’ she tried to put memories of the Doctor to the back of her mind. She had enough distractions as it was. Flicking through the stiff pages she came across a section titled Jungle survival.
‘The things that always give you away are shape, shine, shadow, silhouette, spacing and movement. Forget about them and they’ll get you killed. Nice… very reassuring I must say.’
Shaking her head she pocketed the book and began searching for her companions. Ever watchful of the changes to the approaching environment, she noticed that ahead the path began to narrow. The trees on either side were linking their leafy arms to form a tunnel. The air was thick with the smell of flora and fauna but the heat she would have expected from such an environment was absent. It was as though the surrounding vegetation sealed in the air and kept the sun’s gaze out.
She walked on and at irregular intervals glanced from left to right, occasionally checking the path behind her. Everything seemed quiet and peaceful. Removing the book she gave it another glance searching desperately for inspiration. The inside cover carried the legend, ‘Lead, follow, or get out of the way’. Nowhere did it say go it alone; but that was exactly what she was doing.
The path in front of her, she noticed, began to curve, leaving no visible sign of an exit from the leafy tunnel. She turned as a stirring of leaves by the side of the path held her attention. Then relaxing she saw that it was no more than a breeze rustling the vegetation then moving on.
Taking her first step into the tunnel she realised she’d made a mistake. Five men either side burst out of the jungle onto the pathway, all brandishing weapons. Without moving she looked at the men and realised, with a sinking heart, that they were Robo-men; ten of them, all staring directly at her.
‘All right boys and girls… who’s first?’ Looking closely she realised that one of the men was staring beyond her and to her left. Quickly and without warning, she lunged at the first unlucky man to enter the clearing. They seemed to be frozen in their tracks, faced by the sight of her standing in front of them.
She used this moment to her full advantage as her fist caught the first man on the corner of his jaw knocking him unconscious instantly. Turning towards the next attacker she hit him square in the face, with the heel of her hand, breaking his nose and dropping him unceremoniously to the leaf covered ground. Looking up it was as if they were all ignoring her, staring passed her as if something of greater interest stood behind her.
Turning she noticed a figure dash passed her and slam into her attackers with such force, that the closest five were immediately thrown to the ground. Like macabre chorography the figure dance between them taking one partner after another until none were left standing. With shocking realisation she noticed the bandage around its upper arm and knew that she had placed it there earlier. The plasters had fallen off as the wounds healed in the time rift, but the bandage had stayed. With the dance finally over the figure of the wolf-man stood with its back towards her, a low growl coming from its throat. Slowly the beast turned its eyes locking onto hers as blood dripped from its outstretched hands.
‘Lenore… sorrow for the lost Lenore.’ She remembered the words of the poem had calmed her when she’d been a girl and hoped they would have the same effect now she was a wolf. The wolf tipped its head to one side as if she was studying her. Taking a deep breath Louise Ruth fought to recall the words to Edgar Allen Poe’s work.
‘The rare and radiant maiden whom the angels named Lenore, thrilled me… filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before.’ That wasn’t right, she knew, but how true it was right now, she thought to herself, the pain in her right hand, from the blow, throbbing as she tried to relax it.
Transfixed by the half woman half animal she watched as the rough skin smoothed out and the figure seemed to shrink before her eyes. What was once at least six foot six reduced to roughly five and a half feet, she thought. The hair stayed the same blonde dirty and tangled, but the hands also reduced in size as the talons turned into claws, then nails.
‘Well… that was a rush,’ Louise Ruth said, not sure what else to say. Fiddling inside her shoulder bag her hand gripped the stun gun then thought better of it. If it was the girl she’d treated in the desert then she appeared to be safe and approachable when she was in this form. Slowly the naked figure turned and stared at her. It wasn’t a wolf that stood before her but a small thin woman and she was crying.
‘Help me Raven… please help me,’ she pleaded. Walking towards her, still a little apprehensive, Louise Ruth held out her hand and more frightened than she was the girl that had been the she-wolf took hold of it.
Walking her away from what was left of the Robo-men she found the ankle length Afghan coat and placed it back over her shoulders. ‘Thank you… my Raven… thank you.’ Gun shots rang out in the distance and she knew that the rest of her companions had engaged the remaining Robo-men. To her surprise the wolf-girl’s skin began to harden, her muscles filled with blood and her breathing increased as her grip tightened. Looking across at her, Louise Ruth noticed her features change considerably.
‘But the raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only, that one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour. Nothing further then he uttered, not a feather then he fluttered, till I scarcely more than muttered, other friends have flown before.’
The words to the poem came flooding back to her as if a defence mechanism had opened up her memory. Bracing herself to pull away, Louise Ruth watched as the girl’s skin softened and the muscles that had filled began to fill with blood receded. With a startled look in her eyes she turned to Louise Ruth.
‘You… you can stop it… you can send the beast back. You are the Raven sent to protect me.’ The girl looked at her with pleading and hope in her eyes.
Louise Ruth shook her head. ‘Probably not; you’ve just killed. But… if you learn to calm down and not loose your temper… perhaps you could send the beast away yourself… perhaps for good.’
The girl smiled as they walked through the forest hand in hand, like two sisters walking home from school reciting Poe in unison as they went. ‘Caught from some unhappy master whom unmerciful disaster followed fast and followed faster till his songs one burden bore…’
Cresting a small hill Louise Ruth was stunned into silence at the sight that stretched out before her. A road twisted and turned below her and what looked like an industrial estate covered the land. She wasn’t in a jungle, she was in a small forest in the centre of a bubbling metropolises. More roads led off from the estate and sign posts show distances to major towns. To her surprise she recognised the name of a town under a series of jumbled words and letters. It said they were twenty five miles from Cardiff. The jumbled words were in fact Welsh.
A noise to her left startled her and she turned to meet it as the girls hand was pulled from her own. Johnson, Barrett and a recovered Evans stepped out of the forest, guns held out in front of them as they came to bare on the girl. Quickly Louise Ruth stepped in front of her both arms raised.
‘No… no… don’t shoot. She’s with me.’ Louise Ruth managed to say as all three UNIT soldiers dropped onto one knee staring at the figure behind her, their machine guns and pistols never wavering. ‘She saved my life and killed a bunch of Robo-men back there.’
She gestured towards the forest behind her and noticed the giant wolf that stood behind her towering over her. The hair was the same but all the other features had changed considerably. Long talons protruded from each hand and muscles had increased in size giving the impression of a body builder. Her powerful legs throbbed as veins were pulled tight around muscles. The sight of the beast, so close to her, sent shivers of fear running up her spine. Slowly and carefully she extended her right hand and took hold of one of the beast’s claws. She was braced, ready to pull back at the slightest movement of the wolf, but it remained still.
‘Then, upon the velvet sinking,’ her voice started low then grew in confidence as the words fell form her lips. ‘I betook myself to linking fancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of yore, what this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt, and ominous bird of yore,’ she cringed at the words but realised that they were having an effect on the beast. Her breathing began to slow and she could see the beasts muscles reduce in size. As her breathing slowed even further to near normal levels the girls facial muscles also reduced in size.
Standing, open mouthed, the UNIT team looked on as the giant wolf decreased in magnitude, finally looking like a young girl. Lowering their MP5’s they cautiously walked forwards, their eyes never leaving the girl as if she could return to the beast at any given moment.
‘Is she…’ Evans was about to ask but Louise Ruth cut him off.
‘Yes she’s safe… and house trained. Now if any of you have any chew sticks we can take her for a walk.’
Evans dropped his eyes in embarrassment but Louise Ruth’s gaze went passed him to Agent Johnson who stood gazing down at the warehouse below. Walking towards her they all noticed the folk lift truck as it threaded its way through a number of out buildings, the driver appeared to be no expert as he caught the stone gable end of one building in his rush to pass.
Without stopping they looked on as the truck paused for a moment as if the driver was checking something then headed off at full speed, slamming into the wall of the main warehouse. The battery powered vehicle ground to a halt and the driver lifted the folks throwing it into reverse. Louise Ruth heard Agent Johnson take a audibly deep breath as the truck pulled free of the building with a giant coffin-sized concrete brick on its folks. After what appeared to be a moment’s conversation, the truck driver headed off towards the outer fence with two other figures running after him.
As the truck disappeared into the distance Louise Ruth gave a gasp of her own as she recognised a second Agent Johnson clear the side of the building with a number of black clad troops either side of her all with guns firing in the truck’s wake.
‘That was you… chasing the lift truck… what…?’ Louise Ruth asked then stopped as Barrett shook his head. Turning Agent Johnson looked either side of her then headed for a section of bush which she could squeeze passed and head down towards the warehouse. She froze when she heard Louise Ruth shout.
‘No… you can’t… whatever it is you can’t.’ Agent Johnson rounded on her anger showing clearly in her eyes.
‘I am… I’m going to save that boy and no one’s going to stop me. Do you know the nights I’ve spent dreaming of this moment? Do you know how many times I’ve cried myself to sleep? The times I’ve spent with the barrel of a gun in my mouth just waiting for the strength to pull the trigger. The pain’s too much to bear… I can’t take it anymore. I have a chance to stop it from ever happening.’
Louise bowed her head as thoughts flashed before her eyes. Her mind tried to latch onto logic, what would the Doctor do in this situation? She almost smiled as she pictured his great intellect bumbling around as if he were on an extended sight seeing holiday. Then it hit her like a steam train. ‘That’s what the Rani wanted us… wanted you to do.’
‘What…?’ Johnson was a just about to turn and walk away when the Rani’s name froze her to the spot.
‘That was the time loop she was on about.’
‘I don’t understand… what do you mean by the time loop?’ As her thought processes fell into place Louise Ruth looked at her three companions and shook her head.
‘The Rani wanted us to be trapped in a time loop like she had been for a thousand years… yes?’ Barrett nodded and Evans joined in. Johnson stood stony faced wondering how long it would take her to get to the warehouse that the boy would be held in. ‘If I’ve learned anything from travelling with the Doctor then it’s that time travel is never random. There’s always a purpose behind everything. Whether it’s the creator manipulating us or set patterns are put in place for us to follow, I don’t know but there is always order and reason in everything.’
Johnson was getting bored with her thinking and was ready to head off whether Louise Ruth came to a point or not. ‘What I’m saying is that these bracelets can’t send us to random places in time like the Rani said. There has to be order.’
‘So… there’s order… what’s that got to do with me saving a boys life and my own sanity?’
Louise Ruth saw the manic look in Johnson’s eyes and knew she was on the edge and one push the wrong way would send her over. ‘I believe that the Rani can’t send us into a time loop. She hasn’t the power. These bracelets are coordinated to fixed points in time… points that mean something to all of us.’
Barrett’s eyes redden perceptively as he spoke. ‘Like the day before the World Trade Centre attack?’
Louise Ruth nodded. ‘Exactly… that’s what tipped me off.’
‘But what about the desert… that means nothing to me. I never went to Afghanistan.’
Louise Ruth turned to Evans, ‘No but you did. Was there something there that you wish you could have stopped happening?’
Evans nodded as he remembered his friend. ‘I was on patrol when a bomb exploded killing two fellow soldiers and a number of Afghans. One of the soldiers was my friend. If I could have just warned him he would still be alive today.’
Johnson looked aghast as realisation hit her. ‘And… the boy… if I can get to him… I could save him.’
Louise Ruth took a step forward. ‘No… you can’t. You see the way I see it is that each event was so strong in your lives it changed you forever. Made you into the people you are today.’
‘But I don’t want to be the person I am. I’m miserable… unhappy and borderline suicidal. I can’t live with this on my conscience any longer.’ She turned to go but Louise Ruth stopped her with a restraining hand on her shoulder. Johnson turned with a look in her eye that said hands off in no uncertain terms.
‘Look at all the good you’ve done… the people you’ve saved. You once said you’d stand between me and the enemy before you’d let anyone harm me… well I need you to make that stand… now… and not just for me for all of us.’
Johnson was about to shrug Louise Ruth’s hand off then changed her mind. ‘Go on… tell me your theory.’ She didn’t look convinced, but at least she was willing to listen.
‘The Rani wanted us to cause the time loop that would trap us here. She couldn’t do it on her own. Her time loop was powered by her TARDIS ours was going to be of our own doing.’
‘What do you mean our own doing?’ Barrett asked as his anger rose inside of him.
‘Simple… what made you join UNIT and fight the Rani?’
Barrett’s face dropped as he looked at the ground as if searching for something. ‘My wife and child were killed… on September the eleventh.’
Louise Ruth nodded then turned to Evans. ‘You joined UNIT when your friend died in Afghanistan yes?’
Evans shrugged. ‘Sort of… I joined the SAS then went on to join UNIT… but yes that was the reason.’
Then turning to Johnson she added, ‘And you joined UNIT when a child was killed. It was the reason you fight the way you do. You want them to pay… anyone that hurts innocents… you want them to pay.’ Johnson remained quiet but nodded. She wanted them to pay so badly she could taste it. ‘If I’m reading this right if anyone of you changed history and saved your friend,’ she looked at Evans then turned to Barrett, ‘your wife and child,’ then turning looked back at Johnson, ‘that boy… then they wouldn’t have died.’
Johnson looked up and took in a slow deep breath. ‘Then we… wouldn’t have joined UNIT… and fought the Rani… and…’
‘And you wouldn’t have been able to return to save your friends… thus causing a paradox, a time loop which would have frozen us in time until our bodies died of old age or the Rani’s Robo-men killed us.’
Johnson covered her face with both hands and shook her head. She’d almost fallen for it as well. She’d almost condemned her friends to a lifetime of repetition where death was the only escape. Looking up she was just about to say something when she felt queasiness in her stomach and a need to be sick.
Epilogue - A Twist of Fate