Chapter One
Christopher Smith had had a bad day. His alarm clock did not go off in the morning so he was very late for work and he got fired. All because of a dead battery! The box claimed it would give you a warning when the levels were low, but he heard no warning the night before. Well, he did have a bit of beer…
As if getting fired wasn’t enough, his wife for a grand total of 3 months phoned to say she was leaving, and that by the time he got home she would have left to go to her sister in Washington. She said she would give the baby a good home and family, unlike he would. The baby. Christopher pondered on that thought. His wife was one and a half months pregnant, and it was an accident. Now he would not get to see him grow up. Chris assumed it was a boy, although there was nothing to prove it was.
Chris was thinking so deeply while he was walking home that at first he did not notice
the call. It was the third call before he noticed.
‘Mu-mmy!’ the word was split into the two syllables. ’Are you my mummy? I’m scared of the bombs. So very scared. Mu-mmy!’
‘Hello? Anyone there?’ called out Chris, wondering whether he had imagined it or there really was a scared child. Probably imagining it, he told himself. After all, there were no bombs, unless a bad day had got even worse with World War Three starting.
‘Are you my mummy?’
A child walked out of the evening shadows. He looked about 5 years old, and he was wearing dark, old-fashioned clothes. Chris thought that was strange, but then he
looked at the face. Well, he didn’t, because there was no face. Just a World
War Two type gas mask, that was actually part of the flesh. Then the strange child reached out and touched him once on the right hand. Chris screamed his final scream, and his last thought was about getting a new alarm clock. As he screamed the child repeated its question.
‘Are you my mummy?’
It was the last thing Christopher Smith ever heard.
The TARDIS slowly appeared in the depths of space and it moved around as if to get its
surroundings. Then it slowly disappeared out of space and time. Moments later it appeared in the Time Vortex, much quicker than in normal space. The TARDIS then flew around the vortex like it was choosing a favourite time and place. Although the TARDIS police box exterior was far from calm, the interior was still, except for the occasional jolt. Amy Pond was directing the Doctor where she wanted to go next and he was frantically pressing buttons and pulling levers.
‘I would like to visit somewhere exciting, maybe the Earth in the far future. I’ve seen
it in space – Starship UK – but I want to see the actual Earth…’
Amy’s directions were cut off by a loud noise that shook the whole TARDIS.
‘Now that is something good. A problem, yes. In fact, a big problem, because I’ve never heard that noise before. It could be the hertroftical stabilisers, the TARDIS’ own gravity to you, it stops us shaking about when the outside does. Or it could be a warning signal… ‘
‘Just be quiet and fix it!’ came the Scottish voice from the other side of the central
console.
‘Oh, yes. I’ll lock on to where that noise is coming from and try to materialize. Geronimo!’
Chapter Two
The calm London street was disturbed by the sound of grating alien engines and a 1950s police box slowly appeared. The doors opened an out came a young woman with a mini-skirt and ginger hair and a man in a tweed jacket with a red bow tie that
appeared to be in his late twenties, but seemed somehow much older.
‘This is where the signal, if that is what it is, came from. Early 21st century. 2010 to be exact. And it seems to be about lunchtime. Yes, I could do with some
lunch. Anyway, the signal could mean that there is a big alien threat that could take over, well, everything and the Time Lords should stop them. The elders of the Time Lords. Problem is, I’m the last of them, so it is my job to save the universe. The signal came from about 16 hours ago, so expect the threat to be gone by now.’
Suddenly, the TARDIS doors slammed shut and it started to de-materialize, leaving the Doctor and Amy alone.
‘Oh great. Not. I should know by now to close – and lock – the TARDIS doors. Anything could get in. And they could access the manual, which is kept in my bedroom – not that I ever sleep. You know what I said about the threat moving on, Amy, well I think
it is still here and it sent the TARDIS away. So we are stuck in one point in
space and time, with a big enemy trying to take over the universe. And now they
have time travel as well. If this was a game of, say, Monopoly, I’d say they
have got the huge advantage and that we should get something to help us!‘
The last part he said loudly. Then the TARDIS appeared, one of the two doors opened, and a newspaper fell out and the TARDIS disappeared once again, too quickly for the Doctor to stop it.
‘A newspaper!? I know we should be grateful that the enemy helped us for once, but I don’t think we need to catch up on the news…’ stated Amy in confusion.
‘But look at the headline,’ said the Doctor in a scared tone.
The headline read “More People Go Missing“. It said that lots of people had recently gone missing, and police suspect gang activity. But it also said that one man
claimed to have escaped, and that man had seen a child in old-fashioned clothes
and a World War Two type gas mask that was part of the flesh. There were also
other people of all ages with the same face. They all had an injury on their
hand, and they all said they wanted their mummies and that they were scared of the
bombs. The newspaper wrote that the police think the man was/is on drugs.
‘Look at the date,’ The Doctor noted. ‘It’s for today. There was a man taken yesterday, but local police suggest suicide because that day he got sacked from his job and
his pregnant wife left him. I know it wasn’t suicide. These gas-masked zombies – I’ve fought them before. An old friend made them by accident, and I thought I’d fixed them all. Obviously one escaped. But how?’
‘Look on the back cover of the newspaper, Doctor,’ called out Amy as she studied it. ‘I
doubt that was part of the standard issue. Maybe the gas-masked zombies
don’t like the football results.’
‘I think they are mildly telepathic – the actual newspaper doesn’t show the writing. If it did, the readers wouldn’t make sense of it anyway. They’d probably dismiss it as a prank.’
On the back of the newspaper it explained how they survived and their plans for the
gas-masked shaped future of all universes. This is what it said:
The troops were called in by The Original, and you set them right. You thought that was them all. But you, face-changing Time Lord, you were wrong. I had only just been infected by The Goodness, and my cells were still changing when the call came. By the time I was fully transformed, The Original and the others were transformed back into humans. At least what you call humans. We are the proper humans. I hid and over the years I gathered an army of people who I’d improved with The Goodness. They help me to get more worthless so-called humans. After a few years, I had a huge army at my disposal. But I continued to get more, even in 2010 I gather some
people who are alone on some empty streets. Soon, with your time and space machine, I will upgrade the whole universe. Then why stop there? I can upgrade other universes, and then break my way into parallel universes. Everyone with be with The
Goodness, and everyone will be immortal and happy. You will thank me Doctor.
You will see all the universes happier, all peace loving. But first I must give
you, and your companion, The Goodness…
Chapter Three
Bill Rook knew that he had drunk too much. He stumbled outside of the night club and
promptly threw up, all over a letterbox. Bill slowly moved to have a look at the date and time on it.
‘That postman is going to have some trouble delivering those letters at …… 17:30
tomorrow …. or is it today?’ he slurred, while looking at his watch. He couldn’t make out the numbers, but he thought he should be heading home. He stumbled down the empty street, thinking slowly over what he had to the next day, or was it today? He pondered on that timing, pausing in his tracks at the strain. If he remembered – which is very unlikely, he thought to himself – he had to go to a stupid job interview for a
checkout place at ASDA at 10AM, and then his kids were coming that night so they could stay with him for the weekend. Boring.
Suddenly a 40ish year old man walked in front of him. Bill guessed, by the height and clothes, that it was his friend Christopher Smith. Now that he thought a bit more, he remembered that Chris should have come to the night club, but he didn’t.
‘Hey, Chris! It is Chris there, isn’t it? Why weren’t you at the night club? I had so much alcohol I’ve thrown up 4 times. And I think I might again soon…’
His speech was cut off when a passing car’s headlights lit up a gas mask on Chris’ face. It actually seemed to be part of the flesh.
‘Are you my mummy?’ asked the gas-masked zombie as it touched Bill on the hand. Bill screamed as a gas mask began to take shape on his face.
*
‘Run!’ shouted the Doctor as the TARDIS materialized, full of gas-masked zombies. He dropped the newspaper and pelted – until he noticed that Amy wasn’t following.
‘Okay, just coming,’ called out Amy. A zombie had grabbed onto her coat, but she took it off and ran.
‘Are you okay?’ asked the Doctor worriedly. ‘Forget about that coat, I know you’ve got
it from the TARDIS wardrobe, but I have others. Romana used to wear that coat
though, back when we were children. My parents hated it. They said I should grow up to be like them. Be a powerful Time Lord like my father, and marry a beautiful Time Lady like my mother. No chance. I’m an adventurer!’
‘Doctor, we don’t have time for this. We have loads of zombies after us, and I know they don’t run, but they are getting closer. Just run!’
The Doctor and Amy ran until they found an old warehouse. They sat down on the floor, out of breath.
‘I could grow a new TARDIS, but by the time it was working they’d have got to us. Plus we’d be dead bored,’ calculated the Doctor.
‘Can’t you call a nearby, say, Martian with your sonic screwdriver?’
‘Might be able to,’ as he was saying that he took it out of his bigger-on-the-inside
pockets and set the green tip glowing. ‘But what could they do?’
‘Mummy! Are you my mummy?’ came a childish voice from nearby.
The Doctor and Amy pelted at full speed until they ran right into an old man.
‘You two should be more careful, you know,’ the old man noted. ‘Or are you running from the police? You young people are always breaking the law.’
‘You want the truth?’ asked Amy. ‘We are actually running from hundreds, maybe thousands, of gas-masked zombies.’
‘I’d go for thousands,’ said the Doctor.
‘Is this a joke? Did you get this from a movie? Well, you are not tricking me.’
Then the man saw the zombies. He turned pale and hobbled away at top speed. The Doctor and Amy ran fast, but the man didn’t, and he was soon infected with “The Goodness”.
‘The poor man,’ said Amy sadly.
‘Come on,’ said the Doctor. ‘I think I can see a computer store.’
‘What good is that?’
‘My sonic screwdriver can get one of the computers to get in to the door scanners – you know the things that check if you have stolen stuff? Well, it can build up the power and use the fingerprint you will give it, so it can put that in the Chula programming and the Chula will put the people right – for good.’
‘Chula?’
‘What they
call “The Goodness”, except the first person it found was a
gas-masked dead little boy, so the warrior in them thought that was right.
Anyone they touched got the same injures and gas mask as the little boy. He was
called Jamie. And he lived!’
They ran in to the computer store and the Doctor selected a laptop with a fingerprint
scanner and used the sonic screwdriver to get into the door scanners. Amy then
placed her fingerprint on the laptop scanner and it broadcasted the human DNA
into the scanners. The zombies walked through the scanners, one by one, with
each automatically changing back into normal humans. The last one was the
leader, and it changed into a scared child.
‘I’ve wiped their minds of what happened, but some people who are not from this time may have some trouble getting homes. Reckon we could give them a trip home in the
TARDIS? They won’t believe their eyes when they see the other dimension. And
I’m going to throw that manual in a supernova..’ he said the last sentence
under his breath, so the Scottish former kisso-gram wouldn’t hear. Well, she’d
find out soon enough…
Author’s note: This was written ages ago, in early 2010. This is why the story is set in 2010, and Rory Williams/Pond is not mentioned/featured.
A victim of "The Goodness"
