The Pale Cage

Chapter 4

The trip to Cardiff was the worst. Proximity to the residual Artron Energy, left by his blue box had a major influence on Raeburn's stability. Once they had left the Island and it was out of view, Raeburn began to melt. He had wires connected to every part of him, electric surges pulsed every thirty seconds to keep his major organs alive. Every thirty seconds, electrified, to stabilize his hearts and brain and lungs, for thirty seconds. Then they'd begin to deteriorate and electricity would be sent through his body again. His screams had long gone unheard....his vocal cords had long melted. White hot energy searing through him, again and again and again. HE couldn't see, couldn't hear, couldn't smell, but he felt every surge of electricity, over and over again.

His mind locked onto the memory of Amelia. He had managed to finish his read of her book, Summer Falls, before the team moved out. It was fiction, but he...the Doctor had starred in it. It was a very good read, Amelia was able to talk about the Doctor in her story with out revealing any of his secrets. And she had picked out names that he/the Doctor would have liked. So in the end, he felt like his name, Montmorency was a gift from her to him.

He tried not think of how or why she published it in 1954. That was so-

FLASH

The electricity sent his neurons into a frenzy. He almost hoped he didn't survive this. As much as he wanted to live and find Amelia again, he wasn't sure if this pain was-

FLASH

Worth it...It was speeding up, every fifteen seconds now. He could feel his lungs dissolving into flesh. He was glad he couldn't see, he imagined, floating in his bath of liquid flesh, two hearts thumping wildly-

FLASH

Exposed brain-

FLASH

He was losing-

FLASH

Couldn't even-

FLASH

Think anym-

FLASH

And his mind stilled.

A horrible wet gasp ripped through his body. Pain exploded around him, in him, through him. He shivered and burned...and all at once he sat up. He could hear, see, smell, sense time. He was in his cubicle. He could sense the Artron Energy, it was close. The reflection of himself in his glass prison revealed his fleshy form, the milky wet, rubbery flesh was back, pale eyes stared back.

His chest hurt, his hole body did. There were wires sticking out of him, tugging on his insides. He choked in agony. A memory flashed forward, in the back of a car, his hearts thumped wildly as a wire poked through his chest. He pulled it out, the probe that had snapped off and left in his arteries.

“GAH!” He cried out, pulled back to the present. This was ultimately worse than that. There were hundreds of wires sticking to him. He tried to pull them out, but it burned and tore at him. There were too many, and the nerve endings in his fingers were numb rubber ends. They wouldn't do what his brain told them to do. Panic set it. Claustrophobia like he couldn't ever remember before. The Pandorica, that was pretty bad. He was held down, and closed into a box...for less than an hour. That was pretty terrifying, but he didn't have wires attached to his hearts and lungs and in his throat and touching his brain.

He suddenly remembered what those wires were for, shooting electricity through him. The thought of that happening now, now when his nerves were already on fire, forming and becoming strong again.

He gasped for breath, his panic over taking his hearts and lungs, his eyes flailed wildly around his cubicle. He couldn't see beyond his terrified reflection. All there was, was panicked flesh.