Out of Time

Chapter Sixteen

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

 Professor Raynor lay sprawled on the ground floor of the glass towers, through the translucent floor he stared down into the depths, a perilous drop and into an unending tunnel of infinity the opening into the time vortex which was known as the untempered schism of Verdopolis. Except there was something wrong, a great big fracture tore across the skin of the schism and like a stricken vessel time energy was leaking out of the gap. It could not be seen with the naked eye; Raynor stood up and removed the time energy filter glasses from his eyes with painful slowness he uttered repeatedly, deep in denial.  

 “Verdopolis is still safe. We’re still safe…The towers still stand.” When he was a child they said if you stared at the schism long enough it sent you insane, Raynor laughed as if it was the funniest thing he had ever heard. “Perhaps on refection they were right…” Raynor smiled and cocked his head to one side, transfixed by his own wild eyed reflection in the tower wall.  All attempts at reversing the time acceleration and accompanying entropic waves had ended in failure. “Oh but I tried, it was only with the best of attentions. I did not mean to bring about this.” Raynor held up his hands pitifully and surveyed the screens he had erected, satellite pictures of the neighbouring galaxies. The silence and darkness stretched on into infinity; there was no sign of life as the last stars burnt out. “I wanted to be known as the conqueror of time. Why should we mortals be slaves at Times’ mercy, at its every whim hmm?”

 And there Raynor would have stood, locked in his madness if one of the ancient ones had not disturbed its master, the creature squawked and glided down beside him, the other three flew continuously around the circular room. The ancient one trod over the wizened corpses of Raynor’s former colleagues, they had been completely drained of life, the ancient ones had fed well but the creatures knew if the time acceleration could not be halted there would be no other worlds left in the Universe where they could feed and that simply would not do… The creature flapped its wings and screeched impatiently at his master aware that the Doctor was now their only salvation and must be found.

 “Yes we must find the Doctor…The Time Lord is our only hope.” Raynor uttered resentfully as he rocked back and forth, cradling his head, lost in a lifetime of ruined dreams. “The life of his companion to bring him back to me yes…The Doctor hasn’t been taking me very serious. What is he doing and why hasn’t he returned? Someone or something has been shielding him from me… I must bring her back…Yes and Ida.”

 Raynor nodded taking instruction from his pets, he pulled down the lever on the transmat beam. Professor Ida Givanny stood blinking in the middle of the room, she shuddered when she took in her full surroundings but after a while she barely registered Raynor and the ancient ones as she looked at the monitors around the room absorbed in silent horror at the pictures.

 “Where’s the girl?” Raynor examined his instruments. “Why isn’t she here with this one!”

 “Oh Raynor, you mad, mad wretch you really have done for all of us…” Ida turned bitterly on the Professor.

 “And perhaps if you’d have stayed loyal to me and my work, you could have persuaded the Doctor to stay and help with my experiments than the Universe would not be ending my dear.” Raynor sneered with contempt at his former lover and colleague; in his warped mind somehow Ida was just as much to blame.

 Professor Ida Givanny could stand it no longer, after spending her time in the “mind” prison she had faced her fears and was no longer afraid of Raynor and his creatures as she bellowed out with frustration.

 “Of course it would have done you fool!”

 Raynor swivelled on the spot and struck Ida across the face, she collapsed to the floor with the momentum of his violence. Raynor stepped over her dithering body and continued to stress about the missing companion of the Doctor.

 “She must be out of the teleport range.”

 “Good…” Ida croaked bitterly but then uttered to herself as she struggled to her feet. “Oh Anna, I hope you’re okay. No of course you’ll be okay…” Ida’s whole stance stiffened with defiance. “You’re one of the Doctor’s companions. And the Doctor will find a way out of this.” She was unable to tear her gaze away from one of the screens, the grim sight of scorched rocks which were once planets and stars blazing in their final moments was inconclusive, the Universe was dying before its time; it was a terrifying sight and hope utterly drained away from Ida. The realisation that the whole of existence all rested upon the Doctor, this wonderful though quite blatantly mad man and his blue box was a little frightening. “Oh Doctor wherever you are and whatever you’re doing please hurry…”

 Raynor pointed to one of the ancient ones.

 “Bring the girl to me!” With a temporary respite from his insanity and in a second lucid phase of purpose Raynor pointed to the remaining three creatures. “And this time find the Doctor!”

 When Anna opened a door this time she found herself inside a large but stuffy warehouse which contained endless rails of clothing, of cheap “sweat shop” clothes to be precise as this was some kind of superstore outlet and it was sickeningly familiar. Anna suddenly recalled the words of a jaded colleague laughingly referring to the place as Dante’s first circle of hell, Anna herself had joined in the lively banter and nicknamed the organisation “The dark satanic rails”. For this was a place nobody worked in unless they had no other choice and it was the first job Anna had while she was a student…Anna had lasted less than a month, in a defining moment in her life she simply uttered the immortal words “I’ve had enough of this” and then proceeded to walk out in the middle of her shift, spurred on to find a better job which of course she did when she became a Bookseller. But this place was always waiting even in a recession there were vacancies due to the high turnover.

 “Of course you would have to be here wouldn’t you.” Anna turned to go, her hand pulling on the door handle but it came as no surprise that it would not open. “Okay so you want me to do my unfinished shift from thirteen years ago before you let me out?…”

 Anna addressed the prison as though it was malevolent entity and then turned to face the room and rolled up her sleeves.But the hordes of insane shoppers and harassed workers were nowhere to be seen, it was just Anna doing the lonely night shift.And then without warning the clothes began to fall by themselves from the rails and without thinking Anna began to pick them up and put them back on the rails, knowing all the time that they would keep falling. The only sound was a terrible screeching as the hangers scratched against the rails, time no longer had meaning in this hellish place. Anna continued her thankless task, doomed to failure as she wiped the sweat from her brow. The room was now growing hotter, the menacing clothes having taken on a life of their own and now raining down on her head from above, trying to bury her beneath them.

 “This isn’t 1998, I’ve moved on from all this!” But then wiping a tear away another fear began to take possession. “Or are jobs like this all I’ve got left to look forward to in my future, is this all I’m good for now?” Anna waded through a waist high sea of clothes, clambering over them, trying to find another way out…But the heat was rising until her nose caught the smell of burning…“No, it can’t be…”

 The warehouse walls suddenly constricted, space folding in on itself as Anna was transported to an attic which was very reminiscent of the dreaded boarding house in Brighton, smoke filled the room, causing her chest to tighten and her eyes to sting as a fierce orange flames suddenly erupted in front of her… Anna screamed and shut her eyes when she opened them she was enclosed in a circle of fire. There was no way out…