Free Doctor Who: The Way Through the Woods by Una McCormack

struggled to find him today—’
    ‘—because he’s helping the police with their enquiries.’ Jess turned the key in the ignition and the engine and the lights went off. ‘Poor Gordon Galloway. I think he may have drawn the short straw. At least you occasionally make sense.’ She smiled at Amy through the darkness. ‘Told you it was my business to know everything that happens around here.’
    ‘OK, now I’m officially speechless.’
    ‘Thank goodness for that… Are you ready for our excellent adventure, Amy? I think it’s about due to start.’
    ‘Always ready,’ said Amy, and grinned.
    They left the car, crossed the lane, and climbed over the fence. As they walked across the field, Jess said, ‘Don’t you get scared, Amy?’
    ‘Scared? Of course. But even when things are scary, they’re still amazing.’
    ‘I didn’t mean that so much as… Tinkering with time. Don’t you worry you’ll get something wrong? Break things somehow so that they can’t be put right?’
    ‘You can’t think that way,’ Amy said. ‘You’d be paralysed if you did. If I’ve learned anything from the Doctor, it’s that it’s always better to act. It’s always better to do something . OK, and then it’s true that you have to accept the consequences. But if you think about it, nobody’s guaranteed a happy ending, are they? Not in the great scheme of things. And you never know in advance what ending is best.’
    ‘Not much different from real life, then?’
    ‘Not really, no. Sometimes the heebie-jeebies are worse.’
    The trees were now very close. ‘I think I understand where you’re coming from,’ Jess said, feeling some heebie-jeebies of her own.
    ‘Ready?’
    ‘Ready.’
    The two young women clasped hands, and together walked into Swallow Woods.
    At once, the light changed. They were no longer walking at night through a wood on the cusp of winter. Here, now – wherever and whenever this was – it was daytime, and it was summer.
    ‘Oh,’ Jess whispered.
    ‘OK,’ said Amy briskly. ‘Don’t worry. This’ll be one of those warp thingies the Doctor was talking about. It’s a perfectly normal side effect of this particular kind of interstellar drive. We’ll soon get used to it.’
    ‘Amy, your voice is shaking.’
    ‘Is it? Well, the Doctor said that disorientation was…’
    ‘Perfectly normal?’ Jess brushed her hand through the thick green leaves of the nearest tree sending golden trails of pollen drifting down. ‘So as soon as time starts progressing in a linear fashion, and the paths start going where I expect them to go – that’s when I should start worrying?’
    ‘That’s when you should start worrying,’ Amy confirmed. They looked at each other and burst out laughing. ‘It’s amazing, though, isn’t it?’ Amy said. ‘Like stepping through a portal and coming out on another world.’ She frowned. ‘I assume that’s not actually happened.’
    ‘Would it matter if we had?’ Jess said. She felt light-headed; she wasn’t sure if it was excitement or shock or fear.
    ‘Well, the TARDIS can travel in space too, so the Doctor could still come and find us – provided the police ever release him. But I do prefer having at least a rough idea of what’s happening. You know, minor details, like where I am and when I am.’
    They walked on. The woods hummed with life – the sudden sweet chirping of birds; the dry rustle of grass and the crisp crack of wood. The light through the leaves was soft and shimmering.
    ‘I like it here,’ Jess said. ‘It’s as if the birds and the animals have been left to get on with things. There’s nobody to hunt them, or disturb them, or harm them. This must be what the world was like before people.’ She frowned. ‘Although, given what you said about time pockets, this could very well be the world before people. Do you have any idea where we’re supposed to be going?’
    ‘Further into the woods,’ Amy said. ‘Whichever way that is. I’m