Doctor Who Future (Series Three)

Mould Malice : Episode Two

Someone was knocking on the postal departments double doors.

"I'm coming," Cambel yelled as she ran to the doors and opened them.

"Hello, I'm Detective Armester," a beefy man in police uniform stepped inside the department. "I'm here to ask you a few questions about the disappearance of Sophia Luxem."

"Some Detectives have already been by to ask questions," Cambel frowned with confusion. "I told them all they needed to know."

"What were these Detectives names?" Detective Armester asked as he flipped over his notebook to make notes.

"Detective Farmore," Cambel remembered. "Detective Hide and Detective Smith."

Detective Armester looked up slowly. "There are no Detectives with those names our police department."

"They had Detective papers-"

"Probably forged," Detective Armester sighed. "I'll find them and find out what they want to do with this case and if they're a threat, I may well kill them but for now I'm going to need descriptions. Can I get you in front if a sketch artist?"

"Yeah," Cambel gulped. "Okay."

* * *

"Highville is quite a big place y'know," the Doctor sighed. "I certainly dont envy the post person delivering to this place."

"Where do we even start?" Max looked up and down the street. "This is pointless. Looking through this place is like-"

"Looking for a needle in a haystack," Stacy sighed. "Max is right, this is hopeless."

"I have an idea," the Doctor rubbed his hands together and pointed up. "Security cameras, we find the route she takes and go to the last house she delivered at."

"That's actually a really good idea," Stacy smiled. "But how can we get the footage."

The Doctor pointed his sonic at the cameras. "Elementary, my dear Farmore. Elementary. I've always wanted to say that."

He pulled another device out of his pocket and pointed his sonic at the screen on the device.

It hummed and started to emit smoke as images appeared on the screen.

"1PM," the Doctor remembered as he rolled the video back to Wednesday at 1PM. "Fast forward a little bit, and, there!" He pointed at the woman placing post in the boxes.

"So that's Sophia," Stacy bit her lip. "She looks so young."

"Shame," Max shook his head.

"You guys speak like she's dead," the Doctor walked down the road, pointing at differant CCTV cameras and examining the footage. "We dont know that yet, she's just missing."

"I guess," Stacy looked at the street around her. "So this is what it was like in the olden days. Didnt that COVID-19 thing happen in 2020, I had to do an essay on that in ACSE History."

"Look," the Doctor peered curiously at his screen and looked at a derelict house across the street. "A UNIT soldier kicked the door down at that house, carrying an assault rifle," the Doctor let the footage play out further. "And Sophia puts post in the box and goes inside."

Max watched as nothing else happened in the footage. "Neither of them come out, at all."

"I think we should take a look," Stacy turned to the Doctor.

"Why is nobody asking the obvious question?" The Doctor sighed as he crossed the street and walked up to the door. Stacy and Max followed him. "Who delivers post to a derelict house?"

Stacy and Max turned to eachother with raised eyebrows as the Doctor rummaged through the contents of the letter box.

"Let's see," the Doctor opened a letter addressed to a Mr S Akild. "Oh," the Doctor looked down at the letter and read the single word on the paper below him.

Die.

"How pleasant," Stacy stated sarcastically.

"This is sick," Max looked at the letter in disgust.

"I know," the Doctor stuffed the letter back into the box. "Now onto the part we dont like," he pushed the door open.

* * *

"Why did you call me back?" Detective Armester asked Cambel as he went into her office.

"I thought you might want to see this," Cambel went onto her computer and clicked on her CCTV application. She showed the break room camera footage from an hour or so prior. She clicked fast forward and showed the detective what she had found.

"What the hell?" The Detective watched in awe as a police box appeared out of nowhere. "Has this footage been tampered with?"

"No," Cambel shook her head. "This box, is still there in the break room and you haven't seen the craziest thing yet." She clicked play one final time and the Doctor, Stacy and Max emerged from the box.

"Madness," Detective Armester wiped his forehead. "This is now my number one priority, I must get to the bottom of this."

* * *

The Doctor took a step into the house first, slowly looking around for any clues to find the missing people. "Sophia?" He asked the silence, the unknown.

Stacy took step in after him. "You go upstairs, Max check that way, I'll check the kitchen."

"Why do you get the kitchen?" The Doctor sighed.

"Because I said so," Stacy snapped as she walked into the kitchen.

"What the actual hell happened here?" Max stepped over the broken plates and rubbish to get to the Living Room door. "It looks like."

"A crime scene," the Doctor finished his sentence as he slowly made his way up the stairs.

"Yeah," Max nodded as he started to look around the living room.

In the kitchen, Stacy resisted to urge to vomit as she examined a very mouldy fruit bowl. "This looks like it's been left to rot for centuries."

The Doctor had just reached the top of the stairs. "Oh dear," he noticed blood, pooling out from under the bathroom door. "Guys," the Doctor yelled to them. "I think I found something!"

No reply.

"Stacy! Max! Oh brilliant," he bit his lip. "On my own now I guess."

He kicked the bathroom door open and blindly ran into the room.

"Oh my god," he gasped as he saw a severed arm on the floor by the door. A knife and a UNIT beret lay on the floor in the middle of the room.

With his sonic, the Doctor scanned the room. "Alien readings," the Doctor examined. "Definately alien, but there's nothing here."

Then he realised.

Not many people do.

He looked up at the mould on the ceiling rapidly expanding over the roof. He gasped and ran to the door but mould had already grown on the handle. He was trapped.

It started to grow down the walls and onto the floor.

"Ah," he moved back.

Where could he go?

Nowhere.

He was trapped.