Free Winner Takes All by Jacqueline Rayner Page A

was just the simple phrase: ‘Game over’.
    â€˜Sorry, you’ve not won this time,’ whispered Rose, numbly. ‘Please try again.’
    Mickey leaned over the side of his chair and began to heave. Rose put out a hand to touch his arm, to comfort him, but he shrugged it off. ‘I killed her,’ he said. ‘I just killed someone.’
    The Doctor was still at the controls, eyes glued to the screen, face tense with concentration. ‘Come on, come on,’ he was murmuring. ‘Not far now, nearly out . . .’
    Rose was still feeling nauseous, but then something happened to make her stomach churn even more. She heard a noise. It sounded as if the trapdoor was being opened. ‘Quick! Quick!’ she yelled, panic hitting her.
    â€˜Nearly out!’ called the Doctor. ‘Here we go . . . There’s the exit . . .’
    The three of them stared at the Doctor’s screen, adrenalin pumping.
    â€˜You’re gonna make it!’ said Mickey. ‘Come on, come on . . .’
    The exit was getting closer and closer. Rose imagined the lad, sweat running off his forehead, legs pumping as the Doctor propelled him towards freedom. Five more steps . . . four more steps, three, two . . .
    â€˜You’re there!’ said Mickey. ‘Come on!’
    Sand filled the screen, the landscape outside the pyramid, one more step and he’d be out . . .
    With a press of a button, the Doctor helped the black T-shirted lad, the bloke Mickey had seen down the pub, take the final step to freedom.
    And the screen went white, blinding white.
    They gazed in disbelief as the light faded and the legend appeared: ‘Game over’.
    The Doctor threw the control pad on the floor. ‘No!’ he yelled. ‘No, no, no!’
    â€˜What happened?’ asked Mickey, still looking at the screen.
    â€˜They must’ve booby-trapped him or something. Something to stop people leaving once they’re in there. Try to escape, and you get blown up.’
    Rose hadn’t quite taken this in when she heard the noise again. ‘The Quevvils are coming!’ she said. ‘We’ve gotta get away from here!’
    They raced out into the first room. The door to the corridor was still locked. Rose put an ear to it. ‘I don’t think they’re down yet,’ she said. ‘Shall we make a run for it?’
    But the Doctor had found something, some sort of receptor built into the wall. ‘I think I can reverse the teleportation field,’ he said. ‘Send you back to Mickey’s flat.’ He waved his sonic screwdriver at her.
    â€˜Think you can, or know you can?’ said Rose. ‘I’d rather take my chances with an angry porcupine than end up with my atoms scattered to the four winds.’ And then she took in the rest of what he’d said. ‘What do you mean, send us back? What about you?’
    He frowned, but didn’t stop what he was doing. ‘One, I’ll probably have to stay here to operate this. Two, I need to find out stuff. Like, where their planet is.’
    â€˜So we can go there and rescue everyone?’ said Rose.
    â€˜Something like that,’ said the Doctor, twisting the end of his sonic screwdriver so it emitted a high-pitched hum. ‘Just need a few more minutes here . . . D’you reckon those Quevvils are down yet?’
    There was a loud thud from outside the door. ‘Sounds like one just fell off the ladder,’ said Mickey.
    Rose smiled for the first time in quite a few minutes. ‘I lip-balmed the rungs,’ she said, producing from her pocket a pot that now contained only faint traces of cherry-scented gunk. ‘Thought it might slow them down.’
    The Doctor was now tapping on a keypad. ‘Here we go,’ he said. ‘You two, come here.’
    Rose and Mickey walked over to where he indicated. They were