Maddie woke up on a studio floor. A dark-skinned man was bending over her. “What happened?” She asked confused.
The man looked at her. “It’s all right. It’s the transmat. Does your head in. Get a bit of amnesia. What’s your name?”
“Maddie.” Maddie replied confused. “But where’s the Doctor?”
The man sighed. “Just remember do what the android says. Don’t provoke it. The android’s word is law.”
“What the hell?” Maddie exclaimed.
Suddenly a woman called out instructions. “Positions, everyone! Thank you!”
“Come on, hurry up. Steady, steady.” The man helped Maddie up. She was wobbly on her feet.
Maddie frowned. “I was travelling, with the Doctor, Rose and a man called Captain Jack.”
“That’s enough chat. Positions! Final call! Good luck!”
“But I’m not supposed to be here.” Maddie protested.
“It says Maddie on the podium. Come on.” The man, Rodrick told her.
Maddie took her place next to Rodrick. “Hold on, I must be going mad. It can’t be. This looks like the...”
“Android activated!”
“Oh, my God, the android. The Anne droid.” Maddie exclaimed confused.
“Welcome to The Weakest Link!” Anne droid told them all.
“Nineteen, eighteen, seventeen, sixteen, fifteen. Thank you, people. Transmitting in twelve, eleven, ten...”
Maddie looked around her. “But I need to find the Doc...”
“Just shut up and play the game.” Rodrick hissed.
“Seven. Six, Five, Four, Three, and cue!”
“Let’s play The Weakest Link. Start the clock.” Anne droid told them. “Agorax, the name of which basic food stuff is an anagram of the word ‘beard’?”
“Bread.” Agorax replied.
“Correct. Fitch in the Pan Traffic Calendar, which month comes after Hoob?” Anne droid asked.
Fitch was confused. “Is it Clavadoe?”
Anne droid spoke. “No, Pandoff. Maddie, in maths, what is 258 minus 158?”
“One hundred.” Maddie replied.
“Correct. Rodrick.” Anne droid told them.
“Bank.” Rodrick interrupted her.
“Which letter of the alphabet appears in the word dangle but not in the word gland?” Anne droid asked.
“E.” Rodrick replied.
“Correct. Colleen, in social security, what D is the name of the payment given to Martian Drones?” Anne droid asked.
Colleen looked at it. “Default.”
“Correct.” Anne droid looked at Broff. “Broff, the Great Cobalt Pyramid is built on the remains of which famous Old Earth Institute?”
“Er, Touchdown.” Broff replied.
“No, Torchwood.” Anne droid told them. “Agorax, in language, all five examples of which type of letter appear in the word facetious?”
“Vowels.” Agorax replied.
“Correct.” Anne droid told them. “Fitch, in biology, which blood cells contain iron? Red or white?”
“White.” Fitch replied.
Anne droid looked at her. “No, red. Maddie, in the holovid series ‘Jupiter Rising’, the Grexnik is married to whom?”
Maddie moved awkwardly. “No, idea.”
“No, the correct answer is Lord Drayvole.” Anne droid told them. “Rodrick: in maths, what is nine squared?”
------------------
Later the contestants were choosing the weakest link of the round. Anne droid looked at Maddie. “So, Maddie, what do you actually do?”
“I just travel about a bit.” Maddie replied.
“Another way of saying unemployed.” Anne droid told her.
Maddie shrugged. “I suppose.”
“Have you got a job?” Anne droid asked.
“No, but...” Maddie was interrupted.
Anne droid looked at her. “Then you are unemployed. And yet, you’ve still got enough money to buy peroxide. Why Fitch?”
Maddie sighed. “I think she got a few of the questions wrong, that’s all.”
“Oh, you’d know all about that.” Anne droid told them sarcastically.
Maddie shrugged. “Well, yeah, but I can’t vote for myself, so it had to be Fitch. I’m sorry, that’s the game. That’s how it works. I had to vote for someone.”
Fitch was in tears. “Let me try again. It was the lights and everything. I couldn’t think.”
Anne droid looked at her. “In fact, with three answers wrong, Broff was the weakest link in that round, but it’s votes that count.”
“I’m sorry. Please. Oh God, help me!” Fitch pleaded.
“Fitch, you are the weakest link. Goodbye!” A barrel came out of Anne’s mouth and a beam disintegrated Fitch.
“And we’ve gone to the adverts. Back in three minutes.”
Maddie blinked. “What’s that? What’s just happened?”
“She was the weakest link, she gets disintegrated. Blasted into atoms.” Rodrick replied to her.
Maddie looked in disgust. “But I voted for her. What the hell? This is sick. All of you, you’re just sick! I’m not playing this.”
“I’m not playing!” Broff exclaimed. “I can’t do it. I’m not. Please, somebody let me out of here.”
“You are the weakest link.” Broff ran across the studio and got zapped by Anne droid. “Goodbye.”
Rodrick looked at Maddie. “Don’t try to escape. It’s play or die.”
---------------------
Anne droid looked at Colleen. “You are the weakest link. Goodbye!” Colleen was atomised.
“Going to the break! Two minutes on the clock. Just a reminder we’ve got solar flare activity coming up in ten. Thanks, everyone.”
“Colleen was clever.” Maddie frowned. “She banked all our money. Why’d you vote for her?”
Rodrick looked at her. “Because I want to keep you in. You’re stupid!” Maddie looked angry. “You don’t even know the Princess Vossaheen’s surname. When it comes to the final, I want to be up against you, so that you get disintegrated and I get a stack load of credits courtesy of the Bad Wolf Corporation.”
Maddie frowned. “What do you mean? Who’s Bad Wolf?”
“They’re in charge. They run the Game Station.” Rodrick replied.
“Why are they called Bad Wolf?” Maddie asked.
Rodrick shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s just a name. It’s like an Old Earth nursery rhyme sort of thing what does it matter?”
“I keep hearing those words everywhere we go. Bad Wolf.” Maddie replied, lost in thought.
“The things you’ve seen. The darkness. The big bad wolf...”
“Attention all personnel. Bad Wolf One descending.”
“Blaidd Drwg.”
“What’s it mean?”
“Bad Wolf.”
Bad Wolf graffiti’d on the side of the Tardis, the Face of Boe on the Bad Wolftu channel.
“Different times. Different places, like it’s written all over the Universe.” Maddie comment.
Rodrick looked at her. “What’re you going on about?”
“If the Bad Wolf is in charge of this quiz, then maybe I’m not here by mistake.” Maddie breathed out. “Someone’s been planning this.”
-----------------
Agorax screamed as he got disintegrated. “That leaves Maddie and Rodrick. You’re going head to head. Let’s play The Weakest Link.”
“Right, that’s the end of tactical voting. You’re on your own now.” Rodrick told to Maddie.
----------------
“Maddie, in geography, the Grand Central Ravine is named after which ancient British city?” Anne droid asked to her.
Maddie frowned. “Is it York?”
“No, the correct answer is Sheffield.” Anne droid told her.
Anne droid looked at Rodrick. “Rodrick, in literature, the author of Lucky was Jackie who?”
“Stewart.” Rodrick replied.
“No, the correct answer is Collins.” Anne droid told them. “Maddie, the oldest inhabitant of the Isop Galaxy is the Face of what?”
“The Face of Boe!” Maddie called.
“That is the correct answer.” Anne droid told her. Then the Anne droid looked at Rodrick. “Rodrick, in history, who was the President of the Red Velvets?”
“Hoshbin Frane.” Rodrick replied.
Anne droid looked at them. “That is the correct answer. Maddie, in food, the dish Gaffabeque originated on which planet?”
Maddie blinked. “Er, is it Mars?”
“No, the correct answer is Lucifer.” Anne droid told them. “Rodrick, which measurement of length is said to have been defined by the Emperor Jate as the distance from his nose to his fingertip?”
Rodrick frowned. “Would that be a goffle?”
“No, the correct answer is a paab. Maddie, in fashion, Stella Pok Baint is famous for what?” Anne droid asked.
“Shoes.” Maddie replied.
Anne droid looked at them. “No, the correct answer is hats. Rodrick, in physics, who discovered the Fifteen Dash Ten Barric Fields?”
“San Hazeldine.” Rodrick replied.
“No. The correct answer is San Chen.” Anne droid told them. Then it was time for the final question. “Maddie, in history, which Icelandic city hosted Murder Spree Twenty?”
“Reykjavik?” Maddie replied.
Anne droid looked at her. “No, the correct answer is Pola Ventura.”
Rodrick got two right, Maddie got one. “Oh, my God! I’ve done it! You’ve lost!”
“What?!” Maddie exclaimed. “But I’m not meant to be here.”
Anne droid looked at Rodrick. “Rodrick, you are the strongest link, you will be transported home with one thousand six hundred credits.”
“Oh, thank you, thank you so much.” Rodrick thanked it.
“This game is illegal. I’m telling you to stop!” Maddie exclaimed.
Just then the Doctor came into the room, followed by others. He rushed over to Maddie. “Maddie! Stop this game!”
Anne droid looked at Maddie. “Maddie, you leave this life with nothing.”
“Stop this game!” Jack shouted.
“Stop it!” Rose shouted also.
“I order you to stop this game!” The Doctor ordered.
“You are the weakest link.” Anne droid told her.
“Look out for the Anne Droid, it’s armed!” Maddie shouted. Anne Droid shot Maddie as she ran to the Doctor. There was just a pile of dust left on the floor.
----------------
There was a familiar rhythmic hum going on when Maddie woke up. Something approached, looking at her through a round lens. “No, it can’t be. You’re dead. I saw you die!”
A sink plunger blocked her way, then a alarm sounded. “Alert. Alert. We are detected.”
“It is the Doctor. He has located us. Open communications channel.” Another Dalek told them.
Dalek looked at Maddie. “The female will stand. Stand!” Maddie stood up. A holo-viewscreen poppedd into view with Floor 500 on it. “I will talk to the Doctor.”
The Doctor looked at the screen. “Oh, will you? That’s nice. Hello!”
“The Dalek stratagem nears completion. The fleet is almost ready. You will not intervene.” Dalek told him.
“Oh, really? Why’s that, then?” The Doctor asked.
“We have your associate. You will obey or she will be exterminated.” Dalek replied.
“No.” The Doctor told them. Everyone looked at the Doctor.
“Explain yourself.”
“I said no.”
“What is the meaning of this negative?”
“It means no.”
“But she will be destroyed.”
“No! Because this is what I’m going to do. I’m going to rescue her. I’m going to save Maddie Brown from the middle of the Dalek fleet and then I’m going to save the Earth, and then, just to finish off, I’m going to wipe every last stinking Dalek out of the sky!”
“But you have no weapons, no defences, no plan.”
“Yeah.” The Doctor told them. “And doesn’t that scare you to death.” Then he looked at Maddie. “Maddie?”
“Yes, Doctor?” Maddie asked.
“I’m coming to get you.” The Doctor replied. Transmission ended, courtesy of the sonic screwdriver.
“The Doctor is initiating hostile action.”
“The stratagem must advance. Begin the invasion of Earth!”
“The Doctor will be exterminated!”
“Exterminate! Exterminate! Exterminate! Exterminate! Exterminate!”
YOU ARE READING
Lost Souls (1)
FantasíaAu from Home, the long way round. Where Maddie met the 9th Doctor instead of the 11th Doctor, but her family is also different. Read to find out! What's up with Bad Wolf? Why does it follow them? What would that mean for Maddie and the Doctor?
