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

guessing we’ll know when we get near to the ship. We can hear it already, I think. That throbbing sound?’
    ‘Yes, of course, I guess I thought that was the motorway. You know how traffic sounds from a distance. But this is different.’
    ‘Less swooshy?’ Amy suggested.
    ‘Less swooshy,’ Jess agreed. ‘Steadier, more constant. OK, let’s follow that.’
    They went in single file through the trees. The ground became rough, knotted and gnarled with sudden tree roots or unexpected branches, and they made slow progress. After a little while, the trees quietly parted, and Amy and Jess came into an empty glade.
    Here, it was winter. The trees were bare and black, and the air damp with thin grey fog and the moist smell of mulching leaves. The women walked together around the perimeter of the clearing. The barren arms of the trees locked together to form great archways. The mist clung to the boles of the trees, curling around them, so that Amy and Jess could only glimpse the start of the bleak narrow pathways that faded into the darkness.
    ‘Do you know what place this reminds me of?’ Jess spoke in a respectful whisper. ‘The parish church in the village. St Jude’s. But a ruin. It’s like we’re in a ruined church.’
    ‘St Jude?’ Amy whispered back. ‘That’s the patron saint of lost causes. Your town is creepy .’
    She walked to the centre of the clearing, where a deep pool of water lay. She dipped her fingertips into the dark liquid and tasted it. Brackish and bitterly cold. Something by the pool’s edge caught her eye and Amy reached over to pick it up. It was a brooch of some kind, jet black, in the shape of a butterfly, scuffed and scarred, as if it had been here for ever. She showed it to Jess.
    ‘Pretty,’ she said. ‘I don’t recognise it though.’
    ‘Me neither.’ Amy pinned the brooch to her jacket. She imagined it as a gift from someone to his beloved. Now it was lost, for good. Suddenly Amy felt very sad. She longed to see Rory again; hold his hand, joke with him, kiss him, know that he was safe. Where could he be? Was he lost for good? Amy shut her eyes and touched the tiny jet object, as if it could somehow link her to Rory, through time. She could almost imagine that he was here, now, standing beside her; she could almost feel his breath upon the back of her neck…
    ‘Who’s there?’ Jess cried out.
    Amy’s eyes shot open. Spinning round, she saw a figure dash across the glade towards a gap between the thickly woven trees. Both women moved quickly, too quickly for their prey. They got to the gap first, blocking the escape route. Jess grabbed one arm, Amy the other.
    ‘Oh no you don’t!’ said Amy, as they turned the figure round to face them. ‘Come on, let’s take a look at you!’
    Jess gasped, recognising her immediately. Amy recognised her too. So would anyone in the country. Her face had been appearing almost non-stop on television and the front pages of the papers for the last four days.
    ‘My watch,’ Vicky Caine whispered. ‘My watch stopped.’
    ‘A ship,’ Rory mused out loud, as he and Emily walked slowly along the dim corridor. ‘But is it in flight? Could we be heading somewhere? And why haven’t we seen any crew? Where are they?’
    ‘You said the machine was dead, remember?’ Emily ran her finger along the wall, from which a gentle yellowish glow was emanating. The light responded to her touch, as it had to Rory’s palm in the hold earlier, thickening around her fingertip as she drew it along. ‘I feel like I’m still in the woods. In October. But the air’s stale. I can tell we’re not really outside.’
    ‘A ship like this would have to be tightly sealed if it was going to be able to move about in space,’ Rory said.
    ‘I know that,’ Emily said. ‘Like something in a story by Mr Wells. Me and Sam used to read him to each other.’
    ‘Sam?’ Rory looked around, bewildered. ‘Who’s Sam? Is there someone else here? Why haven’t you