The War On Earth (4/8)
Title: The War On Earth
Author: sarah531
Rating: PG13, possibly bordering on R
A Sequel To: Turn of the Earth and all related ficlets (but it just about makes sense without it)
Characters: Trisha Delaney, Shareen Costello, Maggie and Thomas Finch (Clive’s wife and son), Elton Pope, many OCs
Summary: Bad Wolf went everywhere, including people’s heads. That in itself would be troublesome enough without half a million Daleks destroying your planet. Or having the man who changed your life leave to defend an alternate universe. Or knowing that the person who saved Rose Tyler is not coming to save you.
People were in the corridors, on the balconies, leaning out of windows, and all of them were panicked or screaming or shouting.
Trisha, Shareen, Elton and the Finches made their way through the crowds. Maggie clutched Thomas’ hand, and Elton tried to clutch his other hand but Thomas yanked it away. Trisha kept her fingers clinging to the rock.
“Shareen!” someone shrieked.
It was Maria Sutton, the girl Trisha remembered from school, tears streaking down her face. “Have you seen my mum?”
“What?” Shareen answered.
“My mum! She went shopping…the phones aren’t working…” She swiped at her face with her sleeve. In the midst of all the chaos, Shareen pushed her way towards her.
“Go back inside, yeah?” she said. “There’s too many people here. Me and Trisha, we’re looking for our own lot- I promise, Maria, everything will be alright. I swear.”
“They said-” Maria was crying again. “They b-blocked the doors- th-they were saying they were going t-t-to change people.”
“They didn’t change anyone, Maria. I know,” Shareen said. Of course she didn’t know, but no-one disagreed with her. “Maria. Look at me. It’ll be fine.”
Trisha was desperately scanning the crowd for her family. They weren’t there. Probably they were hiding upstairs? She took a deep breath, calmed herself down (oh, it took effort), and waited for Shareen. Then she saw some familiar faces: Shareen’s mother, father, and sister Shania were making their way down a fire escape.
“Hey!” Trisha shouted, hard as it was to be heard above the noise. “Hey!” She waved her arms around. “She’s down here! Shareen’s here!”
Shareen turned and looked, and gave a little gasp of relief. Shareen’s mother came flying down the fire escape, dodged past some people, and flung her arms around her.
“Oh God you’re alright I was so scared…you’re alright, aren’t you, Shareen? I was terrified…”
“Mum! Mum, I’m alright. I was worried about you.”
Maria walked inside, desperately hitting numbers on a phone that wouldn’t work. Trisha sought out Elton: he was staring out over the balcony.
“All these people in one place,” he said worriedly, looking at her. “I don’t like it…if you want to go find your family, Trisha, I’ll keep the others together…”
“Alright,” Trisha said. She couldn’t wait much longer, after all. “Thanks.” She hurried over to Shareen, and grabbed her arm.
“Sorry! Shareen, I need to go upstairs-”
“Oh yeah,” Shareen’s father and sister had joined her now. She was still fending her crying mother off. “Mum, we should go with Trisha now-”
“Right! Everyone!” Maggie called, taking charge. She located Elton and grabbed his hand. “Thomas! Trisha! We need to get out of here.”
Trisha was only to happy to obliege. She scrambled for the staircase. Shareen glanced around.
“Where did Maria go?”
“Back inside.”
They went up the stairs, stepping aside for the people running down. Trisha’s family was just one more floor up.
“These things-” Shania was saying frantically, “they were in the house– they had guns– d’ya think they’re more aliens? Oh God, maybe terrorists or something? Playing off the alien thing? Oh god, no, it wasn’t, they were the ghosts, weren’t they? I didn’t know, I wasn’t there, I just came in the room and this THING-!”
“Shania, shut up!” Shareen groaned, getting right back into the swing of things. “They’re called Cybermen- it was on the radio- and they’ve gone now and I swear things are gonna be alright, okay?”
Elton kept glancing out of windows, running slower than the rest of them.
“Hurry up, Elton!” Maggie yelled, and she grabbed his hand again. “What’re you looking out there for?”
“A blue box,” Elton answered.
Trisha flung open the door at the top of the stairs. People were there too, milling about anxiously, shouting, slamming doors. She was suddenly painfully reminded of the Christmas Invasion…had they learned anything since then? Had she?
She kept her fingers round the rock, and headed for the next flight of stairs. Someone tapped her on the shoulder, and she jumped around with a gasp.
“Miss Delaney!” said a familiar voice. “Have you come to help us?”
It was Howard Martin, Jackie’s former boyfriend, whom she had met during the Christmas Invasion. Now that they were all on their second invasion she was relieved to hear his voice, but…
…have you come to help us?
Trisha stared up at Howard, and Howard stared down at her. “Um,” she said. “Hiya. You…alright?”
“Whatever you did last Christmas, Trisha, swearin’ on the Doctor’s name- you might want to try it again.”
Trisha suddenly felt the urge to cry; everyone else has to save everyone else was running through her head again. Her own Bad Wolf, but a question with no answer. She held out the rock.
“Mickey gave me this,” she said, brushing her face with her sleeve. “For Christmas. It- it- the Cybermen didn’t come near it. It’s a weapon. It saved our lives!”
“Shhh!” Howard said. “Don’t talk too loud or they’ll all want one.” Trisha’s heart sank fast: she hadn’t thought of that. Oh god, would she have to try and save everyone, if the Cybermen came back? Not even the Doctor could do that, could he? Oh God. Oh god oh god oh god.
“Howard, we gotta go upstairs, me and my friends. I’ve gotta find my family.” The tears were starting to fall. “I guess if you want protection you gotta come with me. Oh God. How do I defend the whole estate, Howard? With just this little thing? What do I do?”
“You don’t,” Howard answered, and he gave a small smile, the smile of a man who knew about these things. “You don’t, Trisha, love.”
Trisha stared. Shareen was pulling at her arm.
“Sorry about the mild obnoxiousness of that statement,” Howard added.
“Trisha!” Maggie screeched, sounding just like a parent. “Come on! Up the stairs!”
Trisha grabbed Howard’s hand, purely out of instinct, and Shareen’s as well, and hurried over. They tore up the stairs, down the corridor, to Trisha’s front door. She rang the doorbell, and then scrambled in her pocket for her keys as well. She unlocked the door, burst in-
-nobody was there.
“Mum!” she screamed. “Sam! Rob!”
No answer.
“Dad?”
Shareen wrapped her arms around her. “Trish, it’s alright- they must have gone out, to find you, yeah? Or maybe they went out before the Cybermen came, either way, they’re safe, I’m sure-”
“I…”
Trisha shakily walked towards the kitchen, Shareen still at her side. She was not checking for bodies. She wasn’t. She wasn’t.
And there were none.
“Howard?” she asked, fighting the urge to be sick, “You were downstairs…you didn’t see them?”
Howard shook his head. “I was cowering behind the sofa for several minutes after the Cyberwhatits left. If they were down there, I’d have missed them. But they’re alive, Trisha. They must be. I swear.”
Trisha looked at all of them. For some reason, her gaze fell on Elton- he was looking out of the window again.
“Elton- they’re not out there, are they?”
“No. I’m sorry, Trisha,” He turned away from the window to face her. “Maybe they’re on the top floor, looking for you? We could go now, go and see…”
Trisha nodded, and then she reached for the phone…she knew it was pointless but it was worth a try. She dialled her mum’s mobile number. Nothing. She tried a few other numbers, including her father’s, and every time nothing. She took a deep breath, to prevent herself being sick, and saw Shania walk out of the room.
“Where’re you going?” Shareen asked.
“To see if they’re out here- where is everyone? There’s no-one on this floor now, has everyone gone downstairs?”
Maggie suddenly picked up the TV remote, and switched on the TV. Everyone else in the room- a total of eight people now- turned to look.
“Worldwide emergency status has been declared. We repeat: a great many Cybermen have now gathered in the center of London, at Canary Wharf- all citizens within a five-mile radius must leave immediately-”
Maggie switched channels.
“Utter, utter chaos here in London: a huge amount of people are trying to leave by river and are being told they cannot. Authorities beg for calm-the immediate threat seems to have lessened.” Even the newsreader looked terrified. “We are recieving no news from America-”
“Downstairs,” Trisha said, not knowing what to do. “We gotta go downstairs.”
*****
As they raced down the corridor they could hear somebody shouting: shouts of ‘the TV says everyone needs to get outside!’ Trisha suddenly had an awful, awful sinking feeling.
“It’s not safe outside,” Elton whispered. “It can’t be safe outside, can’t anyone see that? If anything attacks by air, it’ll see us lined up for the fucking slaughter!”
“Language,” Shareen said distractedly. “I’ve never heard you swear.” She glanced down the corridor- there were a few people at the end. Two of them were running down the stairwell already, but there was one more- a young blonde girl. She was Alex Kelly, Rob’s girlfriend and Shareen’s least favourite person.
“Oi!” Shareen shouted at her. “Alex! Don’t go outside, yeah?”
Alex turned to her. Tears were running down her face. “But the TV-”
“Listen to me instead!”
“We don’t think it’s over,” Maggie called. “Everyone has to get back inside, it’s safer!”
Out of the corner of her eye, Trisha saw Elton go to the window. She paid this small action very little attention.
“Alright,” Alex said hopelessly. She rubbed her face, streaking black mascara all over it. “Where is everyone, by the way?” Her voice broke. “Trisha? I saw your family a few minutes ago…”
“Oh my god, you did?”
“I saw them out of the window, they ran outside. Your mum and your dad and your brothers. They were looking for you- so they’re alright, yeah? Are the phones working?”
“No,” Trisha answered. “Thank you, Alex.”
Maggie, Thomas, Shania and Shareen’s parents had joined Elton at the window.
“What the hell is-” someone said.
Alex went inside and closed the door, and Trisha turned to Shareen. But Shareen had shot over to the window, as well.
“Oh God, Trisha-” Her hand clapsed her arm. “Look.”
Trisha went to the window. Her heart beat painfully against her chest, and her stomach hurt. She moved next to Elton-
“Look,” said Elton.
He pointed.
Trisha looked.
She looked through the glass, over the buildings, upwards. And in the sky, there was-
–something. A whole swarm of somethings. Little black dots against blue. And as she watched in horror, there were more and more and more, like bees or flies or birds-
“…w-what are they? Elton?”
Elton said nothing. He appeared to be trying not to scream.
“The monsters,” he whispered. “More monsters.”
Trisha watched transfixed. Thomas started to cry.
“More monsters? What do we do now?” he asked desperately, sounding much younger than he was.
In the distance there was a blast of green light, a small explosion, sudden smoke. The swarm, still growing, started to spread out.
“The people outside,” Shareen’s mother murmured. “Everyone’s outside…”
Trisha took the rock from her pocket.
Oh god how do I defend the whole estate
Oh god what do I do
She closed her eyes. And opened them again.
“We have this,” she whispered, holding up the rock. “Will it work on them?”
No-one said anything, although Shareen’s parents and sister looked slightly confused. Trisha turned her attention back to the swarm. Was it getting closer?
It was.
Closer and closer and closer.
“Where do we go?” Shania whispered.
“We can’t stay inside-” Elton said, “-we can’t go outside- anyone know if there’s a cellar?” He was doing very well, Trisha thought. Keeping his panic in check.
“No,” Shareen moaned.
An explosion shook the air, and the room went white for a second. Thomas, Shania, and Maggie let out an identical scream. Trisha ducked.
Elton looked up first.
“I,” he began, and then there was another explosion, much closer. Everyone else screamed this time, and for a second Trisha couldn’t see Elton, and geniunely thought he was dead. Then he stood up. The window was broken.
Shareen rose to her feet and dragged herself to the nearest door.
“Alex!” she shrieked, pounding on it. “I changed my mind!”