Written by Zack Crane
The Tomorrow Children
Episode One
He could hear them. Above, in the world outside. Some laughed, some shouted, but all walked at a fervent pace, oblivious to what went on beneath them. In the sewers. And that was for the best, he knew.
He continued along the tops of the water, as footfalls on concrete created too much noise, and swimming through water was unacceptable. As his feet graced the tops of the sewer water, thin blue strips of electricity flowed from them to the surface. The bright quick light from the strips reflected off the dark of the sewer walls, creating the only light around him. He didn’t need it anyway.
He felt a presence around him. More than one. He knew he had arrived.
“You felt it?” a voice whispered to him.
“Yes.”
“Has it begun?”
“No.” he answered, “It was not…familiar.”
“Can you find what caused it? It may be our only chance.”
“I will try.” he replied calmly, “The residual energies are still present. I sense…two…”
“As do we all. How long?”
“An hour.”
“You have it. That is all we can spare. They are amassing. They know where we are.”
“They do not. They know we are still in the city. In this world, with its…instabilities…it is hard to pinpoint our exact location. Stay calm. I will return in an hour.”
“Good luck, Bartholomew.”
He turned and walked back along the surface of the sewer water, blue wisps following and reflecting as he did.
It was loud all around the Ancient Tomes Bookstore and Café, but he didn’t notice. In fact, he hadn’t looked down at his food at all either. He was looking at all of them.
The dwarves running paper stands, the ogres pulling rickshaws, hobos warming their hands by fairy light. But mostly…he kept staring at the sky. The bright, pink sky.
Meredith O’Reilly snapped her fingers in front of his face. He blinked once, and then looked at her, as though finally realizing exactly where he was.
“Fascinating.” It was all that escaped his lips.
Merry giggled, “It is wonderful, isn’t it, Doctor?”
The Doctor craned his neck at the sights around him again, taking in the shuffling gnomes in their business suits, the flying carpets that acted as taxis, and the moon, which shone through the barrier as an eerie orange. He looked back to Merry, and his face furled at the brow.
“I said ‘fascinating’.” the Doctor grunted, “I did not say ‘wonderful’.”
Merry leaned back in her chair, and folded her arms, “And why not?”
The Doctor looked around himself again, this time, Merry noticed, that his eyes were narrower than they had been, “This is…not natural.”
At that Merry had to laugh, “Right! And you’re one to talk about natural? The guy in the dimension hopping phone booth?”
The Doctor leaned back in his chair now, and stretched his
arms out to the side, “Look around you!
There are dwarves peddling papers, unicorn taxidermists, and a vampire
political party!”
Merry blinked at
him, “Okay?”
The Doctor’s shoulders slumped. For the first time, he picked up his fork and poked at his food. Then, absently, he dropped the fork and dabbed at his lukewarm tea. But he suddenly stopped that as well and leaned in toward Merry.
“This is not right. There is evil magic at work here.”
“Oh stop!” Merry laughed again, “There’s definitely magic at work here, but I don’t see any evil afoot, do you? Unless you have something against buying a paper from a fellow half your height…”
“And you’re making jokes.” the Doctor slumped again, “What has happened to this place? It was bad off before…”
“Hey,” Merry leaned in close to the table and put her hand on his, rubbing it gently, “I don’t know what happened here in the time we were gone any more than you do. But let’s try to enjoy our stay. Turn that frown upside down, tiger.”
“I’ve got an even better idea.” the Doctor said quickly, not letting go of her hand, but squeezing it tighter, “Let’s get back to the TARDIS, and try to get the time right. Merry, please trust me. We do not want to be here.” He sighed, let go of her hand, and leaned back. His eye twitched as he looked to each side again.
Merry leaned back as well, with her smile now completely gone, “You’re really worried about this, aren’t you? How can you be so sure of it?”
“I’ve lived eight lives.” the Doctor’s tone was rugged, “I know an explosive situation when I see one.”
“I think you’re overreacting.” Merry said simply, giving him a cockeyed glance.
The Doctor sighed, “Merry, humans are…territorial and instinctive animals. Even if whatever evil created this new world has passed, the aftereffects have only just begun to be felt. Do you think that humans will take kindly to these new creatures? Will they give them equal rights? What will happen when they don’t? And that’s not even mentioning the threats of lycanthropy, voodoo cults—”
“And that damn rap music!” Merry laughed again, “Take it easy, doc.”
The Doctor gave her an even sterner look, “This world is a powder keg, Merry. I know it was your home, but you must listen to me.”
Merry sighed and looked past the Doctor toward the waddling gnomes, skulking trolls, and bouncing leprechauns. Then, she leaned in closer, with a look in her eyes that made the Doctor lean in closer as well.
“No, you listen to
me.” Merry began, “If this world is a powder keg, we’ll be traveling to Pluto
in the TARDIS before it ever gets close to blowing. And believe me when I say this world never
did a thing to deserve my calling it ‘home’ at all. I was shunned to orphanage after orphanage
with no friends and a barely adequate education. That only left me with my imagination to keep
me alive and sane. Not only did I dream
of leaving the States for
The Doctor’s brow
furled deeper, “You’re telling me, you want us to stay
so you can live out some kind of childhood fantasy?”
Merry shrugged,
“Yeah. Why not?” Then Merry brought back her cockeyed glance,
“And don’t tell me you’re not the least bit interested either. I know you’re dying to crack this world open
like an egg and look at all its secrets.”
The Doctor’s eyes
widened for a second and then he squinted.
He opened his mouth as if to say something, but then closed it
quickly. He turned from her and to the
sky again.
“Gotcha.” Merry
smiled again.
The Doctor sighed
and looked back at her, “The sky is pink.
However, as one gazes from completely upward down to the horizon, the
coloration becomes darker, leading me to believe that the sky is not pink, but
rather there is a barrier of some kind over England, possibly over the entire
continent of Europe, if I am judging the angles of reflection correctly. Furthermore, it leads me to believe that this
barrier is somehow connected to the appearance of magical creatures here.”
Merry’s jaw gaped,
“You…already figured it out?”
“Hardly.” the
Doctor smiled, “There is still the issue of what caused this barrier to be put
up in the first place, why it has stayed in place…and what we must do to bring
it down.”
Merry’s jaw
relaxed into a smile, “So you want to stay then?”
The Doctor leaned in and returned her smile, “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
“Thank you, Doctor!” Merry jumped clear across the table and hugged him, knocking her glass of water and his cup of tea over in the process.
“Ack…” the Doctor pushed her off him, “You had me at ‘Thank you’.”
Merry rolled her eyes again as she let go of him, but her smile didn’t fade. But then her eyes tightened, “Doctor…I had forgotten but…umm…how are we going to pay for this?”
“Hmm?” the Doctor looked puzzled for a moment and then he realized that Merry was talking about the food in front of them. The Doctor nodded and looked solemnly at his food, “Oh, yes…capitalism…I had almost forgotten about that myself.”
Merry stood up, “Look, you stay here. I’ve got some money in the bank that I’ve saved up from…odd jobs I’ve taken over the years. I’ll be back in a flash.”
“Ah!” the Doctor’s face brightened and he waved her to sit back down, “Earth currency! I’m sure I’ve got some here somewhere…”
He began to rustle through his long, black overcoat; sticking his hands in about every possible place there could have been a pocket. In the process, he pulled out random objects like strings, buttons, a yo-yo, pens, and an unopened bag of jelly babies.
“Here it is!” the Doctor cried at last, and he flipped a coin into the air. Merry caught it.
Merry cocked her eye at the coin and then looked back at the Doctor, “Uh, doc, this is a Euro.”
“Yes, yes it is.” the Doctor matched her stare, “What? This is Europe, isn’t it?”
Merry sighed and stood up again, “I’ll be back in a flash. And don’t touch anything.”
The Doctor raised his arms in defiance, but then slumped his shoulders. Merry’s smile returned and she flipped the coin back to him. The Doctor caught it, and then watched as Merry disappeared through the crowd of creatures not natural to this world.
Elijah Pryce looked out the twentieth story window and down toward the streets below. He hated looking at it. Looking at what had become of his world. It disgusted him. Freaks of nature running rampant, and now demanding rights…! But, as ghastly as it was, it was still a better sight than what was behind him.
“Pryce.”
He jumped at the sound of his own name, being uttered by something that was so much less than human…yet at the same time so much more.
“Yes, sir?” he was barely able to keep his voice from trembling.
“Have you found them?”
Pryce gulped, “Not yet, sir. We know they are still in the city, however, and—”
“Look at you, you dumb bastard!” it made Pryce visibly jump, yet still not turn around, “You have every resource of this blasted corporation! You have no excuse!”
“But sir,” Pryce’s voice was trembling now, “they are becoming better at using their abilities. Even with the source at full power, they are scrambling it. But I assure you, we are working around the clock to—”
“Work harder! I sincerely hope you do not doubt the seriousness of this situation. Failure is not an option here. And, now, with this new…interruption, our time grows even thinner!”
Pryce frowned at his own reflection in the window, but still did not turn around, “Interruption, sir? I was not aware—”
“Of course you weren’t aware, you idiot! While you were bungling this project, another energy source has been detected. Extra-dimensional. You know what that means.”
“Yes, sir.” Pryce mumbled, “We have operatives tracking the subjects as we speak. The subjects will not encounter this new anomaly.”
“I know they won’t, Pryce. For the sake of this damned planet, they won’t.”
Merry paused as soon as she had entered the bank. It took her a moment to fully take in what was going around her, but soon enough she chided herself for not figuring it sooner.
All around her, scuttling and bustling with papers and stress, were dozens of goblins and gnomes. They chattered in a language Merry didn’t understand, but it was easy to understand none of them were getting along. By the scowls of the bank tellers, Merry could tell they were par for the course.
Maybe I should just find an ATM…Merry thought to herself.
She turned to her left and found an ATM. She also found twenty humans in line to use that very same ATM.
Looks like I’m not the only one with that idea, Merry mused, and she started off to the back of the line.
Before she could though, Merry felt something block her path. She looked down in front of her, and was startled a bit to see a small child. His hair was long and blonde, falling a bit past his shoulders. His skin was a sickly pale, covered by a crisp, pinstriped, grey suit and tie. His crystal blue eyes stared back at hers.
“Oh,” Merry was taken aback by the child’s appearance, but then her face settled into a smile, and she kneeled down in front of him, “I’m sorry. I didn’t see you there. You lost, little guy?”
The child cocked his head to one side, “Help me.”
Merry’s face tightened, and she leaned closer to him, “What?”
The child raised his small hand, and extended a finger toward Merry’s forehead. Just before contact was made, the child repeated himself, “Help me.”
Merry tried to pull back, but as soon as the boy’s finger simply touched her, she felt her muscles freeze. Everything around her started to melt away in bright flash of blue, and before it became total darkness, she saw the boy’s grim face upturn into a grin.
And just as soon as the flash came, it was gone.
Merry looked around herself, at first trying to retain her balance. Her knees were buckling and she felt on the verge of vomiting. But that too subsided, and she began to take in her surroundings.
It was cold, not bitterly so, but cold enough to make her wish she had something like the Doctor’s overcoat with her. As Merry looked, she began to wish that the Doctor were there period.
It was a dark night now, but with the orange moon still shining. In the close distance, she could see quite clearly what she remembered was a school playground. The entire set was accounted for. The problem was, Merry saw no school or neighborhood around her, only the playground. She seemed to be in the middle of a giant meadow, with only the moonlight illuminating everything.
As Merry peered closer, she could see children dashing and playing upon the set. Twelve of them. Moreover, they were children looking exactly like the child that had stopped her in the bank. They all wore the same crisp, grey suit, with blonde hair running past their shoulders. Their crystal blue eyes reflected the moonlight.
Merry stopped, trying to wonder where the child had sent her, and why. But she couldn’t. Her thoughts were all one blur, overwhelmed by something…happy. As she watched the children laugh, jump and run together, all Merry could feel was this thickening joy inside of her. It was an emotion she hadn’t felt since she was so very young. The exuberance of youth.
She felt her lips part into a wide smile and Merry wanted to jump and laugh and play with them, but she didn’t move. She only stared at them, feeling the unadulterated happiness inside herself and being content with it.
But then it stopped. The feeling was gone. And the children had stopped playing. Suddenly, in her stomach, there was an aching sense of dread. The night suddenly became colder.
White lights and a shockingly loud, rhythmic noise suddenly illuminated the sky. She recognized the sounds of the helicopters. Merry brought her hands up to her brow to block the lights, and watched as ropes fell from the helicopters to the ground. She watched as the children began to run.
Merry saw figures slide down the ropes. Figures with bulky vests, helmets, riot shields, and weapons so large it took both hands to cradle them.
Wait…no, don’t…please, Merry tried to scream, but she still couldn’t move.
The men stood in a line, not saying anything, and with but a flick of their fingers, bright bursts of lead erupted from their guns, and the children began to fall, with similar bursts flowing from their bodies, glowing, to the ground.
“No!” Merry was finally able to wail, “Stop it! Good god, they’re only children!”
At the sound of her own voice, Merry found she was no longer in the same place. Gone was the playground, the men, the children…the slaughter. She was…back in the bank. And the child was once more in front of her.
“Help me.” the child said.
Merry could feel beads of sweat trickling down her sticky face, intermingling with the tears that leapt from her eyes. She was panting audibly, and didn’t care that the entire bank had stopped their scuttling, bustling, chattering and waiting just to stare at her.
Merry clutched the boy by the shoulders, “Yes. I will help you.”
The Doctor noticed that Merry had been gone quite a while. So, he decided to leave.
“Umm…sir?” a voice stopped him just as he was at the exit.
The Doctor spun around quickly and saw a small, Indian man in front of him. The nametag on the man’s shirt read ‘Bansi’.
“What can I do for you, chap?” the Doctor asked.
“Sir…” Bansi sighed, “Have you…paid for your meal yet?”
“Meal?” the Doctor squinted, “What meal?”
“Umm…” Bansi looked back to the table where Merry and the Doctor had been sitting, “You did order lunch, sir? You have to pay for it, of course.”
“Of course!” the Doctor repeated, “One can’t digest the meager portions of nourishment from a sub-par eating establishment without first supporting the elitist and outdated economic system of a nation already seeped in more wealth than ninety percent of the rest of the world, can one?”
Bansi squinted, “Well…ah…”
“Of course!” the Doctor laughed, and he reached into his pocket, bringing out the shining Euro, “Here you are my good man!”
Bansi tried to object, but the Doctor forcefully pushed Euro into Bansi’s chest pocket. Then, the Doctor clutched him tightly around the shoulder.
“And believe me,” the Doctor smiled, “the meal was worth every bit of it. Give my regards to the chef!”
The Doctor skipped out the door, and left Bansi with his shoulders slumped. After the door had shut after him, Bansi took the Euro out of his pocket, sighed again, and placed it in the ‘Tips’ jar.
The Doctor strode down the sidewalk, toward where the TARDIS had appeared when he and Merry had first come back to Earth. In the back of his mind, the Doctor hoped that disgruntled elves hadn’t decided to vandalize it.
No, there it was, same as when he had left it, or rather, when Merry had pried him away from it. The Doctor noticed, as he came closer to it, that those creatures walking down the sidewalks apparently didn’t have any problem with an antique police box standing in the middle of their way. Neither did the humans, the Doctor noticed.
The Doctor, finally convinced that his TARDIS was in no danger of plundering, vandalism or theft (was it ever really, though?), walked over to one of the many paper stands run by dwarves.
On his way over, he pondered at the store across from the stand. It was an electronics store, with all manner of televisions stacked methodically around one another, all displaying the same program. It was a commercial, showing a series of captions.
First, a close-up of a light bulb flashing to light. Then, an auto, whose engine was started with voice recognition. A balding man drinking a thick, brown liquid, and suddenly, his hair begins to rejuvenate itself. A mother tending to a crying child by softly sprinkling a glowing powder over the child’s face, and the child proceeding to fall peacefully asleep. Finally, there was a caption of a doctor in the surgery room, sealing a patient’s wounds perfectly with a unicorn’s horn.
The Doctor was close enough to hear the narration of the commercial: ‘Europe has changed. People have changed. They demand that business change with them. We are that change. This is the Prodigy Group. Ushering You Into Tomorrow.’
The Doctor frowned and shook his head, turning to the paper stand fully.
He picked up the first paper that caught his eye, meaning the one whose headline read ‘Nuclear Explosion Decimates Carnac*’. After a few seconds, he had read the article fully, shaking his head as he finished. He flipped through the next few papers, some of which came from all over Europe. His eyes darted back and forth between other headlines: ‘Hulk Rampage through Glastonbury!*’, ‘PM Assassination Plot Foiled!*’, and ‘Union Jack…zombie or clone?*’.
(*okay…let’s
take this slow and in order: Tales of the Pendragons issue seven, bts between
Hulk issues 4 and 5, Miracles, Inc. issue nine, and…well, that last one was
just a question I asked myself after reading Pendragons issue 59- Zack)
The Doctor put them all back and sighed, “I leave them alone for five minutes…”
“Hey, buddy,” a scratchy voice called from his right, “you gonna buy somethin’ or what?”
The Doctor looked to his right, but didn’t see anything. Then, he looked to his lower right, and saw a tiny man sitting on tall stool. He was a dwarf, of course, with a ratty beard, even rattier clothes and black fingertips from handling the papers all day. A knobby cigar hung out of his mouth.
The Doctor coughed, “Well, sir, I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions.”
“Do I look like a shrink?” the dwarf snarled.
The Doctor grimaced, “Shrink? Well, no, you are already. But this’ll only take a moment if you don’t mind.”
The dwarf eyed the Doctor coolly for a moment but then grunted, “Shoot.”
The Doctor nodded and took a deep breath, “A few years ago, Europe came under attack by a sentient creature of dark magick, correct? This creature, after being defeated, left in its wake a barrier, which made it easy for magical creatures to live and survive here. Only now, the intense magical atmosphere is only creating more social and political problems for the human population still in control. I have this right so far?”
The dwarf threw his cigar on the ground, “You writin’ a book or somethin’?”
The Doctor took that as a ‘yes!’ and continued, “Europe, already together in such unions as NATO and the EU, was able to bounce back from being cut off from the rest of the world rather easily, with the new possibilities opened by magic picking up most of the slack, correct? However, countries such as Russia and Turkey, where the barrier split the land in two, have been hit hard by these times, probably sending them into the hands of a despot. I would suspect that’s true for most of the poorer countries in Europe.”
The dwarf groaned, “Look, buddy, you gonna buy a paper or something?”
“Excellent!” the Doctor shouted, and he threw his arms out from his sides and twirled himself into the sidewalk, “I knew it! This resulting, unpredictable environment, along with the predictable cycle of human nature, dictates only that genesis!”
The dwarf lit a new cigar, looked back to his paper, and grunted, “Humans…”
The Doctor let out a long breath and gazed at his TARDIS, “Just like old times…”
“Doctor!”
The Doctor’s smile faded immediately as Merry’s voice rang through his ears. He turned away from the TARDIS, his hand already in his coat to pull out the sonic screwdriver. When he finally saw her, the screwdriver was up, and Merry was in front of him, panting and down in almost a kneel.
“Merry!” the Doctor growled as the panic on her face fully registered, “What’s wrong?”
Then, the Doctor’s eyes drifted from Merry’s exasperated face to what Merry had carried in her arms. It was a child, curious with his crystal blue eyes and shoulder-length blonde hair. The final inspection of the boy made the Doctor lower the screwdriver.
“Who is he?” the Doctor asked, kneeling in front of him.
Merry was still gasping from her run, but she tried to explain, “He says his name is Bartholomew. You’re going to want to see this.”
The Doctor frowned, “What do you mean, Merry?”
The boy’s arm shot out at the Doctor. The Doctor felt the soft, warm flesh of the boy’s hand but then nothing more. The Doctor was frozen. There was a bright blue flash and everything in front of him dissipated like sand down an hourglass.
When everything was clear again, it was still dark. But the Doctor could hear the feet, the voices, the noises of people above him. He looked down at himself, and saw that he was standing on water.
Bright bursts of light came from his left, then from his right, until finally one last burst from in front of him. The Doctor brought his hands up to shield his eyes, the lights faded. And as the Doctor focused on what was in front of him, he realized, the bursts had come from the tiny hands of children.
The small hands glowed bright blue and illuminated the space in between them and the Doctor. Two more boys were standing there, suspended in air, with blonde, shoulder-length hair, crisp, grey suits, and piercing blue eyes.
“Hello, traveler,” the boys spoke in unison, “we would like a few words.”
The Doctor lowered his arms fully, and peered quickly at them and then to his sides, looking for where he was. A sewer. Most likely a sewer close to where his body and Merry and the boy, Bartholomew, were standing. This entire conversation, of course, was astral.
“Speak then.” the Doctor said.
“We are seeking transport from this dimension. We know you can provide it for us. You must provide it for us.” Both in unison, still.
“Children these days…” the Doctor grumbled, but then he raised his arms to the children, along with his voice, “And what if I refuse this request?”
The children looked from the Doctor and to one another for a brief second. Then, they turned back to him, their eyes beginning to crackle with energy like that of their fists.
“If you refuse,” the children spoke, “then this world is doomed.”
The Doctor put his arms down at his sides again, “Why do you say that?”
The children opened their mouths, as if to speak but all paused, as though on cue. Then, their gaze rested upon the Doctor once more.
“Another anomaly.” they said blankly, quickly, “Good luck to you.”
The Doctor was barely registering the last words, when the light appeared again. More quickly this time, and the Doctor found he was still kneeling in the street, near the TARDIS. Merry was there, with Bartholomew, and the boy was looking…behind them.
“Merry!” the Doctor shouted, grabbing the boy into his arms, “Duck!”
Merry was barely registering the last words, when a high, shrill wail forced her to dive farther up the sidewalk, near the Doctor. It was the unmistakable whine of a missile.
In the horrible roar heard just seconds later, an exploding inferno turned up street, automobiles and bystanders in an engulfing flash. In the screams that followed after, under the cry of the flames, the Doctor clutched Merry and forced the boy to her.
“Where’s that knight in shining armor when you need him?” he muttered, “Get out of here now.”
“What are you going to do, Doctor?” Merry grasped the child to her, but she didn’t leave the Doctor’s side.
Before the Doctor could scold her, another voice bellowed from above them.
“You will remain where you stand, Doctor.” It sounded like a controlled growl, as though it wasn’t from a human at all, but rather something much more bestial. At the sound of it, the Doctor’s face lost its grimace, replaced with something akin to shock…and recognition.
“All of the travels / are simply rivers through time / back to his foul brood” The lines were spit from a flat, electronic voice.
“Be nice, Lady,” the harsh voice returned afterwards, “it’s good to see him again.”
As they came closer to them, their forms becoming more and more clear, Merry could only wish she had the will to move herself and the poor boy. She saw their combined appearance, and for a moment, Merry couldn’t breathe.
“Another anomaly.” Bartholomew whispered.
A wolf that stood upright like a man, his right arm not organic, but a machine of cold, yellow steel. A short, bulbous man with bulging eyes and arms down to his feet, two thumbs on each hand. A skeletal, almost-transparent man, clad only in one layer of black from head to toe. A small, floating dish, on which seemed to be a living, convulsing slab of gelatin. A tall, majestic woman with yellow skin accentuated by green hair.
“Who are they, Doctor?” Merry asked, barely above a whisper.
The Doctor clinched his teeth, “The bastards of Rassilon.”
The wolf-man walked forward, clearly leading his pack, and he had all the stature of a great warrior. Merry put her hand in front of her trembling jaw.
“Come now, Doctor.” Wardog beamed a pointed smile at them both, “You know our preferred name…the Special Executive.”
NEXT ISSUE: Who is Bartholomew? What does the Special Executive have to do with it? And how will the Doctor survive long enough to ask them?
DOCTOR’S NOTES:
Well, here we go again. I’d like to think of The Infinity Gauntlet as being very small taste of what I could do with the Doctor in this setting. In this issue here I primarily wanted to show that it’s a much different scenario this time around, but also, this sets up many issues to come. I’m pretty much going to cover all the bases in the coming arcs to get the Doctor and his intricacies woven into this one, while hopefully blazing new territory as well. The Special Executive is one such detail that is as much Marvel as it is Doctor Who. (But if you’re not familiar with them, click on this bad boy…)
It’s going to be a fun ride, so come along. And don’t be afraid to tell me what you think. I’d really like to hear it. Try drcrozack@yahoo.com