`A Saturday afternoon in November was approaching the time of twilight.' So began the Thomas Hardy novel that Mike Bauer was reading that day. He took a moment and chuckled to himself at how ironic the beginning was. It was a Saturday afternoon, it was November, and it was approaching twilight even as he read it. He may, at some later date, consider how `By the pricking of my thumbs something wicked this way comes' would have been even more appropriate.
Mike had been doing volunteer work as an NREMT-B for Iowa County Ambulance for two years. Whenever anyone in his part of the county dialed 911 for an ambulance the team he was on was called to the scene to prepare the patient for transport. Being closer than the county ambulance station it helped cut down the time from when the call was reported to when the patient arrived at the hospital.
With an abrupt and disruptive shrill his pager interrupted his reading. "Male found unconscious in park," the dispatcher informed Mike's team. "Patient is unresponsive but breathing," came the information followed by the exact location.
Mike quickly swallowed the remains of the soda he was drinking and slipped his shoes on. He slipped into his jacket, grabbed his walkie-talkie, and headed outside into the cool air.
Mike's Emergency Medical Team stored their equipment at the local fire station so he drove the four blocks from his apartment to the station. As he drove he heard on the walkie that two others of the team, Jill and her husband David, were also en route and would reach the scene before him. After getting the equipment it was only a few minutes before he arrived at the City Park. He found Jill and David assessing a patient lying near a pavilion.
"What do you have, Jill?" Mike asked as he approached her.
"Not sure yet," she said. "His skin's real cool, like he's been out here a long time, and his breathing is okay."
"What about his pulse and blood pressure?"
"I can't read his pulse," she admitted. "It's through the roof."
Mike also checked the patient's pulse. He thought he may have been mistaken and repositioned himself to check again. No, he had been right the first time.
"Running like a freight train," Jill commented.
Mike nodded and tried the distal pulses on the patient's ankles. It was the same there. This patient's pulse was too fast to count. They proceeded to check for his blood pressure and, not being able to feel any type of head or neck injury, decided it was okay to take off the patient's jacket.
For the first time Mike took a close look at what the man was wearing. This patient was dressed like some sort of Victorian gentleman. He wore a knee-length dark green cape, buttoned green suede jacket, a white frilly shirt and a green bow tie. He was so surprised by the strange outfit that he took a second to wonder where on earth this guy had come from.
Jill opened up her walkie and reported to the ambulance the approximate age of the patient and all the vital information they had gathered.
Mike and David continued monitoring the patient and tried again to take vital signs. Jill was writing a more detailed report for the ambulance crew. Mike took a moment to look around the scene again. He could find no obvious mechanism of injury or how this man had arrived here. Mike asked David if there had been anyone here when they arrived and David said that there had not. He wondered who had called for an ambulance? There was a public phone in the park not too far from here, somebody probably used that and left before anyone arrived.
The County Ambulance arrived after several more minutes. By then the sun was almost completely down so they used the heavy-duty lights of the ambulance to brighten the scene.
Barb and Tim, the paramedics who had been on duty, were always pretty friendly toward the volunteers. Occasionally, depending on the patient, they would ask the volunteers to send one person along to assist in the transport to a hospital in the next county. It was Mike's turn to go and he took it. Dave and Jill offered to get his car back to the fire station.
From that corner of the county the route to the nearest hospital was 17 miles. The fastest route was pretty clear of obstacles so it was only a 20 minute ride or so when they were running hot. In some cases when they were dealing with a critical injury it was fast and very hectic. In cases like this, where they just have to monitor a stable patient, there were times when there really wasn't much to do.
"Big turn," Tim called from behind the steering wheel.
After the ambulance turned on to the Norberg blacktop Barb got as much information as she could and climbed into the attendant's chair. From there she had access to the headset and radio so she could inform the hospital of their approach and have the E. R. ready for their arrival.
Since the patient's breathing was still slow Mike wanted got a stethoscope to listen to the lung sounds but there was something strange. He checked the cup in his ears to make sure the scope was working properly and then put it back to the patient's chest. He could definitely hear the steady, yet rapid beating of the heart. That was wrong. He knew he was listening way to far to one side to pick up the heart, even if it was beating unusually high, but he could definitely hear a beat. He listened to it for a full 30 seconds and then changed his position. He had read medical journals that detailed how some people had been born with their organs in different places than usual and, thinking that may be the case here, he listened to where the heart should have been and expected, almost hoped, for quiet. He heard the rapid beat of a heart there again. Astounded he repositioned again, checked both spots, then everything in between. There was no doubt. This man had two hearts!
Mike turned towards Barb and was about to say something when a sudden movement caught his focus. The patient's head had just risen an inch or two, as far as he could go, and his eyes were open. Though his face remained stone still there was a terrible look in his eyes. The patient was horrified by what he saw and for a second Mike thought he was looking at him. No, he wasn't. He was looking straight past him and Mike turned to look out the rear windows. There was a horrible skull face and a black billowing shroud was looking in.
The patient reached up and took the collar of Mike's jacket and pulled him down, their faces close. Then, in words Mike could hear in his mind but not his ears, the patient spoke.
"Big turn," Tim called again.
Mike held on to the stretcher as the ambulance took a sharp left turn. The patient's eyes were closed and his face remained stone. He wondered for a second if he had really heard something but wasn't sure. He couldn't understand how they had reached to this turn so fast and he tried to replay the events of the past several minutes in his mind. He remembered the patient coming awake, he remember him saying something...nothing. He remembered the image outside and turned, involuntarily, to look. There was nothing there but the darkness outside and the lights of a few other cars that kept their distance from the emergency vehicle.
"You OK?" Barb asked as she saw the confusion on Mike's face. Mike smiled faintly at her and nodded. "Any luck on the pulse?"
After they arrived at the hospital there was some commotion as word spread around the E.R. about the patient's unusual physiology. All the doctors, nurses and paramedics in the area wanted to have a listen and there was a lot of speculation. Mike chatted with some of his friends. The skull face that he had seen was still echoing through his thoughts. He tried to shake it off as over-work, over-imagination, or being just plain tired.
They left the hospital after about 20 minutes and headed back home. It was getting late and traffic wasn't too bad so it didn't take very long. En route back to base they talked about the possibility of having two hearts. They also debated, at one point, if one heart were taken out would he be able to function properly? They joked about the possibilities that the man had double of anything else.
The ambulance crew dropped Mike off back at the fire station where his car was sitting. The light outside the station had been broken during a storm a few weeks back and no one had replaced it yet so things were almost pitch black. He went to his car and was surprised to find it locked. It really wasn't necessary in this neighborhood but he thanked Jill as he fumbled under the car for the magnetic container where an extra set was hidden.
When the small woman came up behind him he froze for a second. He wasn't so much scared but a little surprised.
"Hello, I'm Sarah Jane Smith," the woman said in a sweet voice.
"I'm Mike," he said.
"I'm trying to find my companion," she said.
"Do you have an address?"
"No, I don't, but I'm sure you do. You took him away in the ambulance an hour or so ago."
"How did you know?" Mark was a little suspicious.
"I was watching you from the TAR-" she coughed, holding back her words. "The trees, I was watching from the trees."
"Did you call for the ambulance."
"Yes, very nice, that idea about just dialing 9-1-1. Read it on the public phone. Where's my friend?"
"Don't you have 9-1-1 in England?"
She paused for a moment before answering. She was a little nervous with the question.
"Well," she smiled, "We didn't when I left but it has been a long time. Seems like years."
"So, you two are from England," he pondered. "I didn't think you guys still wore clothes like that.'
"Some do," she laughed. "It's just for the historical feeling, you know, traveling and meeting people and all that. Where's my friend?"
"He's in a hospital. It's about 20 miles or so northeast of here. Just drive-"
"I'm afraid I don't have a car," she said, disappointedly.
Mike scratched his head and looked at her for a moment. They were too far out to get taxi service and there weren't any regular bus rides so she had no way to get to the hospital. He considered taking her himself but didn't feel like going back. The thought had just occurred to him to ask how they had gotten there when there was a scream, or shriek of some kind, in one of the dark barns less than a block away.
Mike turned in the direction of the noise but Sarah grabbed him by the collar and pulled him down behind the car.
"Don't look over there," she whispered. "I was hoping they wouldn't find me tonight. We have to hide somewhere safe." Mike looked at his keys but she interrupted him. "No, we better not draw their attention. Where is there somewhere safe?"
Mike looked around, not sure whether to humor her or just run from her. He looked at her eyes; she was glancing back and forth from the barns to him, and saw that she was frightened. The images that Mike had seen then came back to him and he started thinking and moving faster. He told Sarah Jane to follow him and they ran around to the other side of the fire station. The doors were always locked but there were five numbered buttons below the knob. He pushed the sequence that they used to get in. His hands were shaking and he had to enter the sequence a second time before it worked. They went in and quickly closed the door behind them.
"Sit down," she said and pulled Mike down into the dark corner. They landed almost on top of each other and huddled quietly. Mike started to speak but she clamped his mouth shut with her hand.
He didn't know how long they waited in silence. At first all he could hear was his heart beating and he tried to slow his breathing and calm down. Then he heard flapping. It was the sound that a bird makes when it flies, the way the wings flap to keep them aloft. At first he thought about there being a bat inside the station but dismissed that. The sound of the flapping was accompanied by another shriek. Even if there were a bat inside, it would have to be huge to make that much noise. Perhaps a large owl? Whatever they were they were flying around the building and there were several of them.
They circled the building at a rapid pace. At one point the sound stopped and they thought it might be safe to leave but after a car passed by the sounds of flight outside started up again. Several times Mike glimpsed something passing by a window. Whatever it was it was incredibly dark and incredibly fast and all he could see was a blur. He tried to count but they were so fast and so alike he couldn't be sure. He guessed at half a dozen.
After a time the sounds weren't as regular. As if whatever was circling outside was changing patterns, searching in some other direction, then returning to the station. Finally the flapping faded out and Sarah and Mike were surrounded by silence. Soon Mike realized that the quiet was even more terrorizing. He knew if he didn't do something soon he would begin to panic.
"What the hell's going on here, Jane?" he whispered to her flatly.
"It's Sarah, Sarah Jane Smith," she corrected him.
"OK, Sarah," he almost smiled at her. "Now, what was all that about?"
"Well, that's a little hard to explain. Maybe I had better tell you a little about my friend first."
In the dark and quiet station Sarah told Mike about her friend, the Doctor. She explained to him how she had only recently met the man and had already seen things and been places she could never have imagined. She told him how she had stowed away in a small police box and found herself in mediaeval times. She told him as quickly and as quietly as she could about some of their adventures and how they had recently left some strange alien planet named Peladon.
Mike listened quietly and took in every word she said. He really didn't believe the fantastical story he heard until she came to tell about their arrival earlier that day.
"The Doctor said he'd picked up something odd on the scanner. He registered the life signs of something, I believe he said, they were Kaldeks and he knew that they shouldn't be here. So he came to investigate."
"Kaldeks? Is that what I saw outside the ambulance?" She looked at him quizzically. "When we were taking your friend to the hospital I looked outside the rear ambulance window and there was this, thing, outside. It looked like death."
"That's it," Sarah confirmed. "I saw them when the Doctor was attacked."
"The Doctor? Yes," Mike remembered. "He said something to me."
"You spoke to him?" Sarah brightened at the thought of the Doctor being well.
"I think..." Mike was puzzled and ran his fingers through his hair. "I just remember him hearing his voice. The next thing I knew we were turning north on the Interstate." Sarah just sat and watched him as he searched his memory for more.
"We need to see the Doctor," Sarah said after a time. "He can tell you more about the Kaldeks than I can."
Slowly and carefully Sarah and Mike moved to the door. They looked through the window, scanning the darkness for any sign of movement or life. Seeing none, they quietly slipped outside and ran to Mike's car. Once in, Mike started the engine and drove away steadily, waiting until they were a full block away before he turned the lights on.
They didn't know that they were being followed.
It was after 10:30 when they got to the city. Neither spoke on the way over.
Mike's thoughts occasionally drifted back to the image outside the ambulance and then the words that the Doctor had spoken to him. He wondered if they were some sort of secret, or warning, dealing with what was outside.
For Sarah this was the first time back on Earth since the business with the Dinosaurs and Operation Golden Age. She guessed it to be a few decades since then but was amazed had just how much the technology had advanced. What other vehicles she saw on the roads were incredibly small and compact compared to what she had been used to but there was still some basic similarities in their design that she found comforting. As they approached the city she became even more bewildered with the amazing sights and colors. Terms and phrases on billboards that were new to her showed up everywhere, too many for her to count, and too fast for her to try and understand one before the next one came in to view. In her first trip with the Doctor she had traveled back several hundred years to the medieval age, even though closer to her home time now, she felt just as out of place.
Mike pointed to her a highway sign that signaled they were approaching the hospital. Sarah was relieved that she was getting closer to the Doctor.
Mike had hoped that they would arrive at the hospital before the 11:00 p.m. shift change. Some of the paramedics that had been on duty there when the Doctor was brought over would still be there and it would make it easier to find out what had happened. He and Sarah entered the emergency room through the ambulance entrance.
"Back again, Mike?"
Mike turned and was relieved to see a friendly face. "Kasper," he smiled. "How's it going?"
"Just fine," Kasper said. "Quiet night and I'm outta here in a few minutes." Kasper stopped as he noticed the attractive woman behind Mike. "Wow, who's this," he asked, obviously impressed, as he came to shake her hand. Sarah smiled and shook his.
"This is Jane," Mike interrupted. "She's a friend of the Doc-, a Doc-," Mike stumbled over the words. He did not want to have to explain to anyone what was actually going on. "The guy we brought in earlier."
"The two hearts guy?"
"Yes," Sarah said. "I travel with him."
"Oh, they took him up to ICU to keep a closer eye on him. Nobody knew what the correct blood work was supposed to be for him so they wanted to watch him."
"Okay, thanks," Mike said. He looked at Sarah and they headed off to the main hallway. "See ya, Kasper," Mike waved.
"Later Mike, bye Jane."
"It's Sarah," she said as they turned out of sight.
The long hallway ended at a bank of elevators. Mike punched the call button and then turned to Sarah, his mind trying to plan things through.
"Since he's in Intensive Care it'll be harder to get to him unseen. Are you part of his family?"
"No," she said.
The light tone that announced the arrival of the elevator sounded and the doors opened.
"Well, if anyone asks, you're his daughter, okay? Otherwise they won't let you get in."
"Good grief," the Doctor said as he stepped out in front of them. "I may be old enough to be her father but please tell me I don't look old enough to be her father." For some reason, Mike thought, now that the man was up and walking, the green cape and frilly shirt didn't look so silly after all.
Mike was so surprised he caught his breath short. Sarah instantly ran toward the Doctor and threw her arms around him.
"Hello, Sarah Jane," the Doctor smiled and hugged her.
"I'm so glad to see you," she finally pulled back. "This is Mike," she introduced them. "He rode in the ambulance with you."
"Yes, I remember," the Doctor said as they shook hands. "You also saw what was outside."
"And you spoke to me," Mike said. "What did you say?"
"I was trying to protect you from the fear."
"From the Kaldeks?"
"The Kaldeks," the Doctor was confused. "What's a Kaldek?"
"I told him how the Kaldeks attacked you when the TARDIS arrived," Sarah said.
"No, no, no," the Doctor corrected them. "You are still thinking about DALEKS on Exxilon, Sarah Jane. Don't you remember?" She nodded as her memory corrected itself and the Doctor continued. "These are the Keladey."
"OOPS," Sarah smiled at the Doctor and Mike.
"Good grief," the Doctor winked at her. "Aren't you, as a journalist, supposed to be able to remember things like that correctly?"
"What difference does it make? If I turned in a report about Aggedor, Exxilon, and the TARDIS no one would dare print it anyway."
"True," the Doctor laughed.
"I hate to break up this reunion but somebody has a lot more explaining to do." Mike said. "How did you get out of ICU?"
"Luckily, this is still a free society here. I had every right to leave."
"No consent," Mike remembered his EMT training. "You can't force a conscious, alert, and oriented patient to accept treatment."
"Right. Now, am I correct in thinking that you have some sort of vehicle that will get us back to the park?"
"Yeah, come on," Mike started to head down the hallway but quickly stopped and turned back towards them. "Wait," he said. "It'd be best if we don't go out through the ER. We can go out through the east exit. There won't be as many people there this late."
He led them up a flight of stairs and outside. Here they were at the opposite end of the parking lot to his car but they could get there without being asked any questions. As they exited the doors the Doctor stopped and looked up in shock.
"No, not here," he whispered.
The parking lot was well lighted but even the giant bulbs couldn't illuminate anything up beyond the third floor. Higher up, between the fifth and sixth floors, something big was flying around, dancing from window to window as if searching for something, looking for someone, or maybe, a way to get inside.
The Doctor grabbed Sarah and Mike and hustled them away from the main entrance and into a darkened corner.
"It's a Keladey," the Doctor whispered to them. "I have to distract it and try and chase it off. If it fully realizes what this place is it'll feast on this hospital."
"What should we do?" Sarah asked.
"Go back through the hospital and get your car," the Doctor ordered, "then pick me up here."
Without a word Sarah started to head back indoors. Mike was a bit shaken but finally got up to follow her.
The Doctor waited until they were inside and then took out his sonic screwdriver. He set the dial for it to emit a low-pitched sound. The sound wouldn't attract the creature or defend him against it, but it would give him something to concentrate on other than the fear.
The Doctor stepped out into the parking lot and started walking away slowly. He'd made it several steps into the open when the hairs on the back of his neck signaled danger. Like a vulture the Keladey was swooping down to attack him. He swung around and held his hands up as the screaming image of death came upon him. At the last second he dropped to his knees and the attacker missed him. It swirled to a high loop around a tree, screaming as it went, then came back to attack. The Doctor used his Venusian Aikido to fend off the attack but for several seconds was in hand-to-hand combat with the creature. Its skull face was next to his and the screaming filled his ears. He held the sonic screwdriver tightly in his fist and concentrated on the noise. With his other hand he jabbed hard into the Keladey's midsection and heard the cracking of bone. The creature stumbled in its attack and flew off, positioning itself for another assault.
The Doctor started running toward the cement barricades that sealed off a part of the lot. He could hear the scream as the Keladey swept down on him again. He waited until the last possible second and then jumped over the barricade and rolled to the ground. He heard the Keladey's scream stop instantly as it dived into the barricade. The Doctor knew he'd done some damage but before he could get to his feet the death creature was on him. The cracked skull face of the Keladey was near his and again the scream filled his ears.
The Doctor suddenly thought about Katarina, that poor girl who was killed when she was thrown into open space. He hadn't thought about her for years.
The sound of the sonic screwdriver brought the Doctor back to the present as the Keladey pressed its skull face against him. He knew he couldn't hold out much longer. He heard the screeching of brakes and a car coming to a halt nearby. Sarah was calling to him.
The Doctor reset his sonic screwdriver to a sound slightly different from the Keladey's death scream. The Doctor wrenched himself free of his foe, stood quickly, and threw the device in a high arc away from him. In a split second the Keladey was gone, following the noise, into the dark lot next door.
It was just after midnight when Mike's car reached the park where the TARDIS stood. They had driven slowly and carefully back from the hospital. There was no sign that the Keladey had followed them but each had felt the strange presence behind them the entire way. The car's headlights bathed the police box as Mike brought them to a stop.
"That's it?" Mike asked.
"That's it?" the Doctor said, offended. "What do you mean, `That's it?'"
"It's just a box."
"Oh dear, I was hoping Sarah had explained that part to you," the Doctor said. He peered into the darkness as Mike turned off the engine and lights. Telling them to wait until he made sure it was completely safe, he stepped outside cautiously and began to look around. Mike listened in disbelief as Sarah explained to him the TARDIS configuration. His questions were cut short when the Doctor opened up the doors of the police box and signaled for them to join him.
Mike locked the card doors and they quickly joined the Doctor inside. All was quiet for a few moments then Mike emerged from the police box again, quickly walked around it to check its external dimensions, and then went back inside the TARDIS.
Inside the Doctor was using the scanner control as Sarah and Mike waited quietly to one side. Mike touched the roundels and ran his fingers around one as if to prove it was actually there. He walked over to the TARDIS console and felt the steady hum of the beneath his hand.
"So what do we do now?" Sarah asked.
"I have to find out where they are at. Where their place of crossing might be."
The Doctor had been pretty quiet on the trip back and Mike and Sarah both felt that they were due some answers. They both finally confronted the Doctor and demanded he answer them.
"Where exactly is it that they are crossing from?"
"The Keladey live between dimensions," the Doctor said. "They occasionally cross into one dimension to hunt and feed and when they have enough then they go back and disappear. Usually they become legends or Gothic myths of some sort. They don't spend much time where they land but the damage they cause is beyond estimate."
"What do they want?"
"They feed on emotion. Not just any emotion, one in particular."
"They feed on fear."
"Of course, top of the class, but not just any fear like the Fendahleen," the Doctor stopped as he saw the look on Sarah's face. "Fendahleen are--. Well, I'll tell you more about them later. The Keladey feed on one particular fear," the Doctor paused. "The ultimate fear."
"Death," Mike said after a time.
"Yes," the Doctor replied simply.
Mike ran his fingers through his hair.
"And not just any death," the Doctor finally continued. "Your own."
Sarah gasped as the thought struck her as well.
"It must have been shattering," the Doctor said. "At some point, probably in your childhood, you suddenly realize that you don't live forever. That you are a finite being with a limited existence. It's a devastating moment when you realise you will die. Yet you don't remember it. Have you ever wondered why?"
"These things, the Keladey, they feed on that moment? On the fear it generates?" Mike asked.
"Yes, they revel the psychic energy of the emotion. Most sentient beings, when they reach that moment, are strong enough to hide the terror and bury it deep inside, to the point where it is forgotten. The Keladey force you to relive that moment again and again. The ultimate fear."
"So the hospital would be the perfect place for them," Sarah said.
"Yes, they could feast there. That's why we have to stop them," the Doctor said. The Doctor started to turn away but Sarah held his arm.
"Was it that fear that hurt you when they attacked you here, before?"
"No, I can control it and hold it back far enough they can't reach it. There were...other fears... that they assailed me with. The second time I was more prepared."
"What can I do?"
"Sarah, I can use hypnosis to push it back even further. Hopefully, it will be beyond their reach, so they can't harm you," the Doctor patted her gently.
"That's what you did to me when you came to in the ambulance, isn't it?"
"No," the Doctor said to Mike blankly. "I tried, I reached into your mind to protect you, but there was no fear there, no terror. You are even more capable of facing them than I," the Doctor paused. He moved close to Mike and looked him straight in the eyes. "Why is that?"
"I've seen death, up close and personal, and I know what it's like," Mike said. "I've seen patients go south in a matter of minutes. I've felt that last heartbeat, heard the last breath, I've seen death in their eyes." Mike swallowed hard. "That's why it doesn't scare me any more."
The Doctor looked at Mike expectantly, but when nothing else followed he went back to the scanner. He didn't know why he couldn't find that moment in Mike's past, but he also knew that Mike was lying as to why.
After several minutes the Doctor shouted "Eureka!" and pointed to the monitor screen. There was a simple map of the area surrounding the TARDIS and a small light was flashing.
"I found it," the Doctor said with relief, "and only seven miles to the north of us."
Mike knew the terrain, and went closer to the monitor.
"What is it?"
"The sonic screwdriver. I've managed to pick up its energy signature. I switched the tone it was emitting to match the scream of the Keladey that attacked me at the hospital. I was betting the similarity would confuse it enough that it would take the sonic screwdriver back to its contact point to show some of the others."
"How many others are we talking about, exactly?" Mike asked.
"Only seven or eight." The Doctor moved to the monitor and tapped it where the sonic screwdriver would be. He asked Mike, "Do you know this area?"
"Sure," he said.
"Please don't tell me it's a graveyard," Sarah shivered at the thought.
"Worse," Mike said, then pointed to the monitor. "It's a golf course."
Being November the golf course had been closed for a few weeks. Only a few grounds’ keepers and gardeners were staffed to check the place out and they weren't there at nights. Crime in this area was low enough that the course itself would be easy to get to but the buildings would be off limits.
"That's okay," the Doctor had explained. "Every night the Keladey have to make contact with their counterparts that remain between dimensions. If they are successful here than more will come through but if we can disrupt them here tonight we can cut them off from this area of time and space. These creatures are very intelligent and organized but small in number. If they send some of their members here, a scouting party, if you like, and that party is destroyed or retreats they won't come through here again."
"You mean we have to kill them?" Mike asked.
"No, no, no, all we have to do is to scare them away, disrupt them enough that they'll think it is dangerous for them here." The Doctor waited a moment and then said. "You don't have to come with me."
"Yes, I do," Sarah said valiantly. "You're not leaving me out of this. I've been through enough with you already that you know I'll go."
The Doctor looked at her and smiled proudly.
Mike also insisted on going but gave no reason.
For the next hour the Doctor hypnotized Sarah to move her ultimate fear further and further back into her subconscious. He offered to do the same for Mike but Mike refused without comment.
It was almost 2:00 a.m. when they left the TARDIS and quietly climbed into Mike's car. He drove to a small country road adjacent to the course and parked there. Then they started on foot into the dark wood with Mike leading the way. From the description that the monitor had given Mike knew it had to have been near the seventh hole of the course.
They had just entered the forest when there was an explosion of sound directly above them. Mike and Sarah jumped back looking for somewhere to take cover. The Doctor yelled a Venusian challenge and stood his ground to face his attacker. A gray owl screeched passed them and flew off into the night. The Doctor put down his hands and then turned to his companions and smiled. All of them felt silly. After a little prodding from the Doctor, continued on again.
After a few moments Mike stopped, crouched low, and signaled them to join him.
From where they were they could see that the course was only a few yards away. Before them was a waterhole and beyond that was the seventh green. From here they could hear a high pitched sound, like a scream, coming from that direction. There was no sign of a Keladey nearby. Both Sarah and Mike looked at the Doctor questioningly.
"I suppose they could have lost interest in it," the Doctor said, scratching his chin. "Once they realized it wasn't anything living or usable by them, they might just have dumped it."
"In the middle of the green?" Mike asked.
"I think it's a trap," Sarah whispered.
"My dear, you may very well be right," the Doctor said, "and what should we do with a trap?" He looked at them and smiled like the Cheshire cat. "Let's spring it." Mike and Sarah tried to pull him back but with a swift move the Doctor was away from them and walking in the open. Mike and Sarah moved closer to each other and watched him intently.
The sky was clear so, though there was no moon, the stars shone enough light to make walking the course fairly easy. The Doctor rounded the pool and came to the edge of the green, stopped there for a moment, then boldly stepped onto the well cared for grass. He waited, expecting an attack, but nothing happened for a full minute. Then he stepped forward again, waited, and took another step. In the center of the green, in the cup, was his sonic screwdriver. With agonizing slowness the Doctor worked his way toward it. Finally, standing next to it, without looking down, he reached into the cup to retrieve it.
Many of the companions who had traveled with the Doctor had wondered just how much of what the Doctor did was planned and how much was improvisational. If the Doctor had planned what was going to happen he had been very creative. If he had improvised it he had made a terrible mistake.
As the Doctor touched the sonic screwdriver his attention was drawn to a flurry of activity behind him. He turned to see a Keladey, the skull face topping a black shroud, come to land behind him. He faced it, showing no fear, and prepared himself for the death scream. It didn't come and for a few moments they faced each other, ready for combat.
Mike and Sarah both started running.
There was another flurry of flight and speed and another Keladey landed to the Doctor's right, then another to his left, then a fourth directly behind him.
Mike and Sarah were just coming around the pond.
The standoff on the green continued as a fifth and sixth monster joined the ring around the Doctor. The shroud lifted away from one of the Keladey and Katarina stood to face him.
"I died alone in space fighting for you," she accused him.
"No," the Doctor protested.
Mike and Sarah had almost reached the green when they heard the death screams behind them. Two more Keladey swept down on them, encircled them in their death shrouds and skeletal hands, and lifted them into the night sky.
Katarina stepped aside and Sara Kingdom came forward. "I became ancient before your eyes and you let me die."
The Doctor believed he had long ago come to terms with what had happened to these two companions and the feelings that were coming back to him caught him by surprise. Perhaps his own confidence was not as strong as he'd believed. The Doctor heard screams both human and Keladey and turned to see Sarah and Mike being carried into the circle and dropped at his feet. Both of them were bruised and shaken but managed to get to their feet. The three of them locked arms, back to back, and made their own circle to stand in defiance.
At first there was a soft wail as all the Keladey started their death screams at once. They started to circle the trio, slowly at first, but their speed steadily increasing.
The Doctor saw the shapes of Katarina and Sarah Kingdom circling him.
Sarah fought hard to concentrate but soon the Keladey images were starting to fade. To her they were replaced by the ghostly images of the creatures she had seen since meeting the Doctor. Sontarans, Ice Warriors, and others. She knew that either one of them could have easily killed her.
Mike watched as one figure became an old man that had died of heart failure, the second, a boy who had been stung by a bee, the third, a woman with cancer, and there were more.
Their Keladey screams were louder now as they moved faster and faster.
The Doctor concentrated on the sonic screwdriver in his hand. The black shrouds of Keladey swallowed up the images of Katarina and Sara Kingdom.
Sarah saw the Keladey scatter as the beast of Aggedor came to her with blood dripping from its razor-sharp teeth.
Mike saw the body of the old woman who had gotten lost outside in a snowstorm. Purple lips on an ice blue face.
The Keladey moved faster.
The Doctor saw his sonic screwdriver turn to dust.
The Keladey screamed louder.
Sarah felt the crushing grip of Aggedor as it grabbed her.
The world was engulfed in the Keladey death screams.
Mike stood straight and thought how the screams resembled the siren of an ambulance.
On a plain white road and a plain white landscape an ambulance was traveling hot with multicolored lights flaring. Behind it were two figures in flight. One was a Keladey with its shroud billowing behind it. The other was light and life.
The ambulance doors faded out of existence. Inside, Mike and Tim and Barb were performing CPR on a patient. Mike looked back at the forces chasing them as Tim read the defibrillator controls and Barb kept the oxygen pump flowing. Mike wasn't afraid. He watched as the Keladey battled with life to catch the ambulance.
Death was coming closer and life was starting to fall behind.
Mike heard the sounds of the defibrillator flat lining and slowly the ambulance siren started rising. Death was closer now, beckoning, silhouetted against life and light behind it. Mike thought he should turn to fight it but he knew that there were times that no matter what was done death would win.
Death was just outside the ambulance. Its bony fingers were just touching the edge of the cot that the patient lay.
Mike thought what the Doctor had said about the Keladey's thirst and wondered what they would gain by putting him in this situation.
The Keladey's hands were pulling the death monster up the cot to the patient's waist.
A dull voice in the back of Mike's mind told him to look at the patient's face.
The Keladey's hand was just above the patient's heart and starting to sink into the chest.
Mike looked up and it all became clear to him as he saw himself lying there, about to die.
He moved forward.
Sarah's scream echoed as Aggedor held her above its head and shook her triumphantly. It held her up higher for just a brief moment than brought her body slamming down on the ground. She saw her own death and went mad.
The Doctor was losing his battle with the Keladey. People he had fought with, and seen die, were coming back to summon him. Some were sad to see him, some were angry, but all of them wanted him to join them.
Katarina, frozen to death, floated away in space.
The Doctor watched as Susan and David Campbell were wed in the remains of a destroyed church.
Sara Kingdom aged quickly and died an old woman.
The Doctor watched as Ian and Barbara smiled at their newborn infant.
Dorothea Chaplet died and was buried in a lonely grave far from home.
The Doctor shook at the sight and tried to remember the bright smiling Dodo that he had known. He hadn't brought her to that fate. Had he?
Then the Doctor was lying still in an open coffin. His eyes were open and he wanted to call but could make no sound. The death screams of the Keladey were so strong, and he watched in horror as the pallbearers took him to his grave. Katarina, Sara Kingdom, and Dodo were on his left. On his right, the Doctor was desperate to push the image from his mind, was a young dark haired boy he didn't know yet, an unfamiliar Asian, and finally Alastair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart who had died in his sleep at an old age.
Directly above him was a Keladey, its skull face looking down on him with a hideous smile. It reached down at him and the Doctor screamed. He had been close to death so many times that he hadn't thought the moment would scare him so.
The Keladey fingertips were just above him as he felt his life slipping away from him.
Then Mike's hand reached into the coffin and held the Keladey's hand. The creature’s concentration was lost for a brief second. The Doctor, no longer in a coffin, hit the ground on the seventh green of the golf course hard. Mike stepped forward again and stared deep into the eye sockets of the Keladey. He started to twist the death creature's hand back upon itself.
The Doctor couldn't move but he could hear the death scream start to change. Almost as if there was fear in the furthest depths of the sound.
Mike was bombarded with the images of the patients that he had seen die.
The Keladey fought harder to keep its hand away and started shaking.
Mike concentrated on what was before him. He knew if he faltered the Keladey could leave and terrorize others. If he kept on it would die.
The combatants were shaking now, not from fear or desperation but from sheer force of will.
Mike faltered slightly as he wondered briefly if what he was trying to do would actually work.
The Keladey took a step back and almost tore itself free. Mike felt it moving and pushed forward. They over-balanced together and Mike landed on top of his opponent. Sweat poured down Mike's face. He knew he had to make a final move now.
"Fight or flight," Mike gasped and pushed everything he had forward.
When the Keladey's bone hand touched itself the death scream was replaced with a wail of anguish and terror. The skull face almost looked surprised as it dropped down and realized the ultimate fear was its own.
Silence. The silence of a dark November night. Even the crickets and creatures that still infested the area fell quiet. With one Keladey destroyed, the rest aborted this mission and returned to their own existence.
Mike was on his knees, leaning hard on the skeleton that lay bent beneath him. The bones had turned to ice; the shroud had fallen apart and lay scattered like puffs of snow. Mike knew what had happened and what he had experienced. He knew why he was one of the few people who wouldn't be afraid.
The Doctor gently called Sarah's name and patted her face. She lay only a few feet away and Mike crawled over to her. He put his face close to hers and felt a slow breath against his cheek. Then he checked for a pulse and found it beating regularly.
The Doctor didn't say anything, just cradled Sarah in his arms.
It was nearly 6:00 a.m. by the time the Doctor, carrying Sarah, and Mike got back to the TARDIS. Mike had opened the door and followed as the Doctor carried Sarah deeper and deeper into his ship. They came to a door that opened on their approach and the Doctor signaled for Mike to wait outside.
The Doctor took Sarah into the room and gently relaxed his grip on her. Instead of falling she floated above the floor, in a deep and quiet sleep.
The Doctor quietly closed the door and they left. "It's called the Zero Room," the Doctor explained on their way back to the console room. "Sometimes my people become very ill or have other difficulties. In there is total peace and quiet that allows the thought patterns to come to rest and sort themselves out."
"She'll be okay?"
"With time, yes. I may have to help her on occasion, but the thoughts and memories of her own death will sink into her subconscious like it did before. Like it did with you."
"It didn't exactly happen to me that way, you know," Mike said as they stepped outside the TARDIS door. "I was splattered across the road after a car accident. My heart stopped for 107 seconds in the ambulance."
"I suspected as much."
"You know, death is a quiet, peaceful thing, not the terror everyone imagines it to be."
"That was why you could defy the Keladey's death scream. You've been there."
"The sun will get warm enough to melt the ice remains in the golf course," Mike said staring away. "Are they gone for good?"
"Yes, they've given up their hold on this moment of time and space and gone back from where they came from. They may appear in other parts of the continuum but not here. I must be going."
"Yes," Mike said as he shook hands with the Doctor.
"You have insights than can serve you well."
"I've been thinking about going the full course and becoming a paramedic."
"You should," the Doctor smiled.
Somewhere in the distance Mike could hear the faint wail of an ambulance passing by. He ran a few hundred feet, stood on top of a park bench, and looked at the highway. He was so intent in looking for the vehicle he didn't even hear the dematerialization sounds of the TARDIS. Finally the ambulance came into view. He stood there watching until it disappeared into the glare of the rising sun.
