Doctor Who: The Seeds of Doom (10 page)

‘Stop it! Stop it!’ Chase’s mad voice shrieked above the noise.

The Doctor reached Sarah and dragged her to her feet. Scorby too was free but the butler had disappeared beneath the writhing mass of leaves.

‘Animal fiends! You’ll pay for this!’ Chase struggled desperately past them and ran from the room.

‘Quick, get out,’ ordered the Doctor, covering their exit with a jet of defoliant. The swirling mass of branches and creepers continued to harry them, but not so strongly, and they gained the safety of the Laboratory.

The Doctor banged the doors shut and hauled a heavy filing cabinet into position to secure them. The creepers were already poking through the gaps in the door.

‘I feel like I’ve been pulled through a hedge backwards,’ said Sarah, smiling weakly.

‘What is that stuff?’ asked Scorby, catching his breath for the first time.

‘The latest military defoliant. Still on the secret list. Sergeant Henderson helped me scrounge a few cans from Sir Colin.’

‘Nice to see you, Sergeant,’ said Sarah, ‘but are you all they could spare?’

‘There’s a unit on the way,’ answered the Sergeant with a smile.

‘Yes, and before they arrive we must clear the house of all plants,’ barked the Doctor. ‘They are the eyes and ears of the Krynoid.’ He started to tear out the experimental trays containing plants and seedlings, and the others quickly followed suit.

Within minutes they had successfully disposed of a hundred or so plants into an outside courtyard.

‘That’s all we can find for the moment, Doctor,’ said Sarah.

‘Good. Back inside, everybody.’

As they turned to re-enter the house a loud roar reached their ears and the stone walls of the courtyard began to vibrate. For a moment it seemed the house itself was about to fall down.

Sarah looked up and there, towering above the roof-tops, was the Krynoid. It had grown to about sixty feet, and hundreds more tentacles protruded from its trunk-like body, each one capable of smashing a man to pulp.

‘The door!’ yelled the Doctor and he leapt to open it. It wouldn’t budge. Someone had locked it from the inside!

‘Chase! ‘ exclaimed the Doctor and hammered on the door. But it was solid Elizabethan oak. They were trapped.

‘Look!’ screamed Sarah.

The Krynoid had moved closer and one of its giant tentacles was poised to swoop down on them. This time there was no escape!

Suddenly, there was a blinding red flash and the Krynoid let out a screech of pain.

‘It’s the Major,’ cried Sergeant Henderson. ‘They’re attacking it with the laser.’

They watched transfixed as bolts of red lightning slammed into the upper part of the monster. Distracted by this new threat the Krynoid turned from the courtyard and, letting out a deafening rattle, bore down on the small knot of soldiers operating the laser.

The Doctor saw the opportunity. ‘Quick! Follow me.’ He led the others at a gallop out of the courtyard and along the side of the house.

In the distance Beresford’s commands rang out. ‘Ready—fire! And another—fire!’

The Krynoid was advancing steadily despite the laser and, deciding discretion was the better part of valour, the Major ordered his men to retreat. As the khaki-clad figures scurried into the woodland the Krynoid gave a final roar of defiance and turned its attention once more towards the house.

The Major’s diversion had created precious seconds for the fleeing group to find another entrance, and they were now heading back to the comparative safety of the Laboratory.

‘Well, at least the Major had a go,’ said Sarah rue-fully as they entered. ‘Even if it was like using a peashooter on an elephant.’

Scorby, shaken by their narrow escape, sank into a corner. ‘I never thought Chase was so far round the twist,’ he muttered.

‘Maybe he counted on the Krynoid sparing him if he sacrified us,’ said Sarah.

The Doctor shook his head. ‘No. We were mistaken about who—or what—Chase is.’

The others stared at him.

‘You said he went out in the grounds with a camera and came back unharmed. I should have realised. He locked that door behind us because he is acting as a plant. He’s in league with the Krynoid.’

‘Doctor, the radio’s been smashed.’ The Sergeant pointed to the broken apparatus which once kept Chase in contact with his patrolling guards.

‘Now we’re completely cut off,’ whispered Sarah. Behind the doors leading to the greenhouse the trapped plants could be heard clawing and scratching on the polished metal.

‘We’ve got to find Chase,’ snapped the Doctor, ‘before he does any more damage.’ He strode out into the corridor. ‘Sarah and I will take this wing... you and Scorby check along there, Sergeant.’

The two couples set off in opposite directions along the dim passageway.

Sir Colin Thackeray, looking sleepless and tense in the early morning light, paced impatiently up and down the gravel drive by the gatehouse. The main house was invisible from where he stood and nothing had been heard of Major Beresford and his men after the initial burst of firing. Behind Sir Colin, anxious and expectant, a second unit stood ready for action.

Then, appearing at first in ones and twos, Beresford’s troops began to emerge from the woods. Breathing hard the Major reported.

‘We had to pull back. The laser was hopeless against it. ’

‘And you haven’t made contact with the Doctor?’

‘Not yet. He must be trapped inside the house. I’m going to try and sneak through with a couple of men.’ He hurried off.

Sir Colin twirled his umbrella and pulled hard on the brim of his bowler hat. The Doctor was the only person with any idea of how to combat this alien menace. Somehow they had to get through to him.

Inside the house the Doctor and Sarah had covered the East Wing without coming across Chase. Now they linked up again with Scorby.

‘No sign of him anywhere,’ said Scorby. The Doctor scrutinised his dark, sullen features. There was no telling whether he could be trusted—even in this desperate situation.

The Sergeant ran up. ‘Doctor, there’s a load of creeper breaking through into the corridor back there.’

‘All right, we’d better retreat to the Lab.’ The Doc-tor led them smartly away.

As they disappeared, the lurking figure of Chase stepped from behind a pillar and glided off into the gloom like an evil ghost.

Back in the Laboratory, the Doctor set about mending the two-way radio. Scorby crossed to the window and peered through a chink in the boards.

‘It’s like being under siege,’ he murmured nervously.

‘Yes,’ the Doctor replied calmly. ‘Soon the Krynoid will be large enough to crush the whole house. We haven’t much time.’

As he spoke one of the wooden planks was forced away from the window, making Scorby jump.

‘I’ll try and find some more timber,’ volunteered the Sergeant and hurried out.

‘Be careful,’ Sarah shouted after him.

The Sergeant made his way to the rear of the house where there was more likelihood of finding some spare wood. Too late he realised he was unarmed, he had left his rifle in the Lab. He decided to press on regardless.

Suddenly he thought he heard a noise. He stopped and peered ahead. The passage was deserted. Then, without warning, a figure sprang from the shadows and struck him hard on the back of the head with a heavy metal spanner. Mercifully, that was the last the Sergeant knew.

Quickly his assailant dragged the unconscious body through a doorway, and moments later re-emerged, smiling malevolently. He closed the heavy door and vanished silently into the shadows. Within seconds a strange, muffled noise penetrated the door, like a heavy machine whirling into action, or a hungry monster devouring its prey.

‘Any hope, Doctor?’ Sarah peered anxiously at the tangle of wires.

‘Chase didn’t do any irreparable damage. I’ve nearly fixed it.’

‘Well done, Doctor,’ sneered Scorby. He was huddled on the floor like a man who had given up all hope. ‘Why are you bothering? It’s obvious your Army friends have scarpered. We’re as dead as mutton.’

‘Stop feeling sorry for yourself, Scorby,’ said the Doctor, eyeing him distastefully.

Suddenly, the whole room gave a lurch, the radio shot out of the Doctor’s hands and large pieces of masonry fell from the ceiling, smothering them all in a choking white dust.

‘This looks like the final attack,’ whispered the Doctor.

Scorby, sweating with fear, glanced towards the door.

‘Don’t be a fool, Scorby,’ said the Doctor, guessing his intention. ‘Everything that grows in the grounds is your enemy. You’ll never make it.’

But Scorby’s nerve had snapped. He scrambled to his feet and tore out before anyone could stop him.

Gripped with panic Scorby reached the East Wing and hunted for a door that would let him out. The Krynoid could not possibly be on this side of the house. All he had to do was make it to the wall.

He found a door and pushed it open. With a shock he ran headlong into a mass of creepers but somehow clawed a way through. Once out in the open he set off towards the heavy undergrowth which lay between himself and the main road. As he ran, he snatched a backwards glance at the house and gasped in horror. The whole West Wing, where the Doctor and Sarah were still trapped, was covered by the sprawling shape of the Krynoid, now over a hundred feet high. Its major limbs and tentacles had encompassed the roof and walls, like a giant spider sitting on its prey, and it was now beginning to slowly crush the solid masonry inwards. At the same time the surrounding vegetation had grown larger and wilder and was covering the house at the points the Krynoid could not reach, blocking every window and exit.

Scorby had just time to take all this in before he plunged headlong into the murderous jungle which still separated him from safety. Tendrils and branches flapped menacingly as he drove his way through. He was not far from the cottage and the stream that ran near by. Once across that he would be almost at the outer wall. Cursing and swearing he stumbled into the shallow water and struck out for the far bank. Fifteen... ten... five yards... he was nearly there. Then, from nowhere, he felt a tangle of weeds wrap around his legs beneath the water. They were pulling him down! He lunged and thrashed about but the weeds were now around his body, trapping his arms, dragging him down, down, down beneath the icy water...

With a final swirl the waters closed over Scorby’s head and he disappeared below the surface. The writhing weeds subsided, their deadly purpose accomplished.

‘Hello! Hello!’

The Doctor fiddled desperately with the radio tuner but all he got was an unfriendly crackle. He shook his head angrily, dislodging bits of plaster from his thick locks. ‘Where’s the Sergeant? I need the Major’s wavelength.’

Sarah looked up uneasily. The Sergeant had been gone a suspiciously long time. ‘I’ll go and find him,’ she said bravely. Before the Doctor could stop her she vanished down the corridor.

She had seen the Sergeant take the corridor towards the rear of the house, and she followed the same route.

Besides the continuous rattle of the Krynoid outside she could now hear another sound, a knocking from inside the large hot water conduits which ran all round the building and provided special heating for the plants. Here and there holes must have appeared in the pipes for small bursts of steam shot out periodic-ally. She guessed the whole system must be overheating.

With a flicker of fear Sarah realised she was nearing the crusher room. There was something lying on the stone floor ahead. It was the Sergeant’s green beret.

‘Sergeant?’

There was no response. The door to the crusher room stood open. Sarah crept up and peered in. The room was empty, the giant machine at rest. She stepped inside.

‘Sergeant?’

A movement behind her made Sarah spin round. Leering at her, a heavy spanner raised high to strike, was the evil figure of Harrison Chase.

‘The Sergeant is no longer with us.’

‘Chase! ‘

‘He’s in the garden. He’s part
of
the garden.’

Sarah cast a glance of horror towards the crusher.

‘We’re both serving the plant world, the Sergeant and I—in different ways, of course. I have joined a life-form I have always admired for its beauty, colours, sensitivity. I have the Krynoid to thank for that, as it thanks me for its opportunity to exist and burgeon here on Earth. Soon the Krynoids will dominate everywhere... your foul, animal species will disappear!’

‘And you will all flower happily ever after.’

Chase’s black-gloved hand gripped the spanner more tightly. ‘You and your kind are merely parasites, dependant upon us for the air you breathe and the food you eat!’ His voice grew hysterical. ‘We have no need of you...’ He began to advance on her. Sarah cowered against the wall, raising her arms to ward off the blow she knew was coming. Then, in a state of pure frenzy, Chase leapt towards her.

The Doctor was inwardly cursing himself for letting Sarah go off alone as he twiddled with the tuner. Suddenly, the crackling gave way to a voice.

‘This is Scorpio Section. I say again this is Scorpio Section. Are you receiving me? Over.’

It was the Major.

‘Hello, Beresford. This is the Doctor. What action are you taking against the Krynoid? Over.’

‘Hello, Doctor. The laser had no effect, but I managed to get nearer with a couple of men. The Krynoid is completely covering the house and beginning to crush it. All exits are blocked. I repeat, all exits are blocked.’

The Doctor gripped the microphone tightly. ‘Listen, Beresford, by my reckoning you have less than fifteen minutes before the Krynoid reaches the point of primary germination.’

There was a pause at the other end. Then a new voice came on the line. ‘Doctor... Thackeray here. What do you mean, primary germination?’