Winner Takes All (11 page)

The Doctor had made it through the newsagent's cellar and into the shop without hearing any more from the Quevvils, save a few shouts and thuds. The newsagent had a big promotional Percy Porcupine poster on the wall, and the Doctor let out a few feelings by ripping it down and shredding it to bits. What the newsagent would think in the morning, he didn't really care. The door to the street was locked, but this presented few problems to someone who'd picked as many locks as the Doctor had. It was also alarmed, but the sonic screwdriver took care of that.

The street was fairly quiet when he stepped out of the shop – a few youths hanging around, drinking cheap lager out of cans; an occasional shop worker heading home. The booth where the Quevvils handed out their deadly prizes seemed deserted – whatever had caused the noise obviously long gone. The Doctor decided to leg it before they thought to pop out that way to pursue him. He ran off down the high street, heading back towards Rose's flat.

TEN

R
ose looked at all the tubes and things leading into her mum, and felt sick again. Her mum was so protective of her, always had been. If Rose scraped her knee, Jackie'd be there to pick her up. She'd be down the school if anyone had had a go at Rose, have a word with whoever, not let Rose be left out or upset or picked on. It'd been embarrassing at times, but your mum protected you, that's what mums did.

But looking at her mum lying on the hospital trolley, black eye and purple cheek and dried blood under her nose, knowing that her mum was just a fragile human being, not a superhero, that was the worst feeling in the world.

And on top of that, now Rose was the one who was trying to save the world, and part of the world that had to be saved was her mum. That was so wrong.

Jackie's eyes flickered open. She smiled when she saw Rose. ‘Oh, Christ, you're all right. My darling, you're all right.'

Rose stared. ‘I'm fine. Don't worry about me.' Because why should her mum be worried about Rose, when she was in that state?

Jackie obviously saw that in her face. ‘He said he was going to get you,' she said.

Rose leaned down, got closer to her. ‘Who did? Mum, what happened to you? Was it the aliens? Did they find my phone? Did they think you were in league with the Doctor or something?'

Now it was Jackie's turn to stare. ‘What are you going on about? It was that Neanderthal Darren Pye.'

Rose couldn't help herself, she almost felt a twinge of relief. Not aliens! Not her phone, not her fault!

But then she looked back at her mother, and the relief didn't last.

‘They just told me you were in here, that you'd been hurt. What happened?'

Jackie looked reluctant. ‘You'll only blame yourself . . .'

‘Mum!' Now Rose really had to know.

‘Oh, all right then.' Jackie propped herself up on the pillows. ‘I was trying to find you. I'd called Mickey's but no one answered, but I thought I'd pop round, just on the off chance, on my way to meet Dilys. But I saw him. That Darren Pye. He was carrying a telly and I was willing to bet it wasn't his, and I might've said something. And he . . . he said . . . he said things about you. And I couldn't let him do that, so I gave him a piece of my mind.'

Rose closed her eyes, reluctantly picturing it, thinking of the sirens they'd heard, wondering if they'd been coming for her mum. If only she'd gone to investigate, if only . . .

‘And he said that he owed you one for hitting him or something – you didn't hit him, did you, Rose, what d'you wanna go and do that for, asking for trouble? – and you were going to get it. But for now . . .' Jackie stumbled. ‘For now, he'd make do with me.'

‘Mum!'

‘He just hit me a bit. Looks worse than it is.'

Rose knew that wasn't true. And she knew that for her mum to put a brave face on it, not ask for sympathy, well, it had to be pretty bad.

‘Still, I got to jump the queue. There's hundreds out there in casualty, and I just got wheeled right in like a proper VIP, cubicle of my own, nurses running around cleaning and stitching and what-have-you.' She started to smile, but began coughing instead. Rose grabbed Jackie's hands and held on tight, trying not to cry, trying not to feel so helpless.

‘Nicked everything I had, as well, that lout. Purse, keys, everything. Even my winning ticket,' she said, and Rose couldn't bring herself to tell her mum the truth about that winning ticket, not now, not while her mum looked so weak.

‘Oh, and your phone too, love. Sorry. I'll get you a new one.' Jackie sighed. ‘The police won't get it back, for all their “we'll do everything we can, Mrs Tyler”. One was in just before you, said they'd been looking for him around the estate and he wasn't there. Well, of course he wasn't. Even Darren Pye isn't stupid enough to stay hanging around where he'd just mugged someone.'

No, he wasn't that stupid. And maybe he'd think it'd be a good idea to get away until the heat died down. Maybe he'd look at what he'd nicked and see he'd got a winning ticket, a ticket that'd take him out of the country today. And maybe he'd decide to use that ticket.

Looking down at her mum's bruised and bloodied face, Rose really, really hoped that he did.

The Doctor arrived back at the estate. He went straight up to Rose's door, and rang the bell. After a few moments, he opened the letter box and shouted through, ‘Anyone home?'

But still no one answered. The Doctor shoved at the door, but it was locked. He peered through the letter box. No sign of life. So he left.

A couple of minutes later, he was outside Mickey's door. No problems gaining entry here, the Quevvils' violent approaches had seen to that. He knocked anyway, calling out, ‘Anyone home?' as he breezed in.

‘In here,' came Mickey's voice, and the Doctor went through into the bedroom. Mickey was sitting by the computer, his leg propped up on the bed.

‘What d'ya do to yourself?' asked the Doctor, gesturing at Mickey's blister-covered knee. ‘And where's Rose?'

‘I got shot by a porcupine,' answered Mickey. ‘Bit hurt you don't remember.'

The Doctor waved a hand dismissively. ‘What about Rose? Is she all right? They didn't get her as well, did they?'

‘Nah, she's fine. Thanks for the sympathy.'

The Doctor sighed. ‘Next time, I'll bring a bunch of grapes. Anyway, where is she?'

Mickey shrugged. ‘Last I knew, she was off out to collect up those games like you asked her.' He became suddenly serious. ‘Look, there's something you should see. Might be nothing but . . . well, it's worrying.' He turned back to the computer, clicked the mouse a couple of times, and pushed back the chair so the Doctor could get close enough to see.

On the screen were the words ‘KILL ALIEN'S FOR REAL ONLY £50'.

‘Illiterates,' muttered the Doctor, taking over the mouse from Mickey and scrolling down.

There was a picture of a Mantodean, seemingly a screengrab from the game, and more text: ‘kill alien's, this game let's you shoot alein's for real. they are giant insect's and EVIL, you can kill them, this is GARANTEED. Email [email protected]'.

The Doctor thumped a fist on the desk. ‘Idiots!' he said. ‘If someone starts sending these games all over the country – all over the world – we'll have no chance of collecting them all. Still, let's hope no one realises this is actually the truth. Knowing humans, they'd be flocking up . . .'

Mickey cleared his throat. ‘I think they do think it's the truth, though. The people who'll be reading this, anyway. I was just sort of browsing, you see . . .'

The Doctor was already hitting the back button. ‘Alien bondage ring?' he said, incredulously.

‘I didn't think there'd really be sites about it!' said Mickey wretchedly. ‘Er . . . anyone you know?'

The Doctor shut down the site with a decisive click. ‘Ridiculous humans,' he said. ‘I'm going to find Rose. We're stopping this now.'

Dilys's Martin gave Rose a lift home, but by the time she got back, she was exhausted. She'd been so worried about her mum, thinking that she was on some distant planet, going to be killed by aliens. The adrenalin had been pumping something rotten. Now well, she was still worried about her mum, hurt and in hospital, and she was still worried about the whole thing, the aliens and the games and the people being killed – but the adrenalin had drained away, leaving her ready for a sit-down and a cup of tea.

She didn't notice the Doctor sitting outside her front door until she was nearly on top of him. ‘Hello,' she said. ‘You got away from the porcupines all right then, did you?'

He gave her a
yes, obviously
look. ‘D'you do it then?' he said. ‘D'you get all the games?'

She leaned over him and put her key in the lock. ‘No. I haven't got any of them.'

‘Why not?' he said, following her inside.

She gave a big sigh. ‘You'll never believe it. My mum had one of those holiday tickets.'

He looked concerned at that. ‘Did you stop her going?'

She shook her head. ‘It's all right. Well, it's sort of all right. She didn't go. She got beaten up instead. She's in hospital.' And she explained everything she'd been doing.

To her surprise, the Doctor didn't seem very sympathetic. She hadn't expected a lot, but a bit of ‘poor Rose, what you must've been through' would have been nice.

‘So you didn't collect up any of the games,' he said. ‘You didn't even try, not even when you knew she was OK.'

Her eyes blazed. ‘My
mum
was in
hospital
.'

He shrugged. ‘Hospital's where they look after people. You knew she was safe. You could've stuck with the plan, maybe saved some lives. But you went to the hospital instead.'

She was so mad she could hardly get the words out. How could he not understand? Her mum was in hospital! To carry on worrying about some abstract threat when your own mum was in hospital! But a bit of her, deep inside, realised she was getting so angry because she knew, in a way, that he was right. ‘Sometimes you're just not human!' she yelled. And he raised his eyebrows as if to say, ‘D'uh!'

She grabbed her bag. ‘I'm off to collect up these games then,' she said, her voice barely less angry than before.

The Doctor stood up. ‘Good. I'll come with you.'

Her hand was actually on the door handle when the phone rang. She hesitated.

‘Leave it,' said the Doctor.

She might have done, if he hadn't said that. But she was feeling contrary now, and anyway, it might be the hospital – which was important.

She weaved past the Doctor, back to the kitchen, and picked up the phone. Behind her, she heard the door slam, and knew he'd gone without her. Let him, she thought, while at the same time being just a bit terrified that she'd never see him again. But a few moments later she was haring down the steps after him, yelling at the top of her voice.

‘Doctor! Doctor!' she cried, and before she'd gone two floors down he'd heard her and raced back up. All his disapproval had gone in the face of her distress, and he was the comforting best friend again, ready to take charge.

‘What is it?' he asked, gripping her shoulders.

She shook her head, not sure, but as they raced back up to the flat she attempted to explain. ‘Thought it was a dirty phone call. Heavy breathing and stuff. ‘S not. I . . . I don't know. See what you think.'

They were back in the kitchen, and she jammed the handset into its holder and pressed the button for speaker-phone.

It sounded like a man, a young man. There was heavy breathing, but it was the deep, ragged breaths of terror. There were gasps and what sounded like sobs catching in the throat. Just those few sounds, but so much fear.

‘What is it?' asked Rose, sure she knew the answer now, but unwilling to suggest it.

‘Your phone got nicked,' said the Doctor. ‘So did a holiday ticket. Stands to reason the same person's got both of 'em still. So they get carried off to this alien planet, forced to play this –' his face hardened and he spat out the word – ‘game.'

‘But phoning here – no, don't tell me,' said Rose, ‘this was the last place I called, and somehow he's knocked the redial, or the speed dial or something. That's what's happened.'

‘Shh,' said the Doctor, pointing at the phone, and Rose hurriedly shut up and listened. Another sound could be heard, a loud chattering, clicking noise. The strangled sobs were getting faster, and there were choked grunts from deep in the throat, as if someone was desperately trying to form words but couldn't. The chattering sound got louder, closer to the phone.

Then there was a
schnick
noise, like a giant pair of scissors slamming shut. And then there was a soft, heavy thud.

Then the line went dead.

Rose pulled up a kitchen chair, sat down. ‘I wanted that to happen,' she said. ‘When I heard what he'd done to my mum, I wanted that to happen. I wanted him to be made to play that stupid alien game, I wanted him to be scared, so scared, like my mum was when he was hitting her. I wanted him to be killed like that, have his head chopped off by an alien. I wanted all of that.'

The Doctor sat down beside her. ‘It's all right,' he said. ‘Wanting it to happen didn't cause it. It was the Quevvils who killed Darren Pye, not you. You don't have to feel guilty.'

She turned to him, anguished. ‘You don't understand. I don't feel guilty. I don't know what I feel. You know how you say, “I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy”? Well, I'm still not sure that I wouldn't. Cos I feel sick inside, but part of me's still glad he suffered.'