Doctor Who - 02 - The Art of Forgetting

.9. The Fire and the Butterfly

Josh grasped the screaming woman's wrists and, with a sudden jerk, pulled her closer to himself. He adjusted the grip, wrapping one arm around her waist and pressing the other hand to her mouth. Her screams turned into muffled moans. She didn't try to defend herself; didn't even move her arms; she was so scared, she resembled a mannequin. Josh counted to ten, then backwards to one, and up to ten again. He could feel cold sweat trickling down his neck, under his space suit's collar; he could hear his own heart pounding. Brilliant! Just what he needed!

He whispered straight into the woman's ear, "Shush... It's okay. Shush, shush, shush, shush. You're safe now."

He looked around the corridor. Lamps were flickering as if it ready to go out at any moment; the emergency lights were glowing red, turning the familiar corridor into a ghastly maze. The alarm was blaring continuously, but Josh somehow managed to get used to the noise. Almost. He could not see Dell or Maigretta anywhere and he thanked high heavens for that. The woman he was holding with all his strength whimpered weakly now. He removed his hand from her lips, a little bit anxious that she might start screaming again, but she remained silent. He looked out into the corridor again.

Jeez, he had come to Emporia to relax, and he had chosen a perfect adventure to do so – climbing, fishing in a mountain creek, building a shack, the night under a starry sky. And now he was onboard 'Victoria' and that hell was rolling through the corridors of the old freighter again. The life support system failure; desperate attempts at retrieving the oxygen from the ship's hold; Dell's death; a last shot at reprogramming the computer; temperature raising; Maigretta, third degree burns all over her body, trying to shut the bulkheads. It was so real. But who could know? Some of the detail... He had never put a full, unabridged version of events in an official report; he had not intended to commit a professional suicide. Who would have believed in what had really happened onboard 'Victoria'; who would have believed in a mindless, destructive evil that had touched their ship and killed all but one inside. And now the Emporium Everdream was replaying that nightmare for him, including all the minute details known only to Josh and maybe to that evil force he faced on 'Victoria'. Who had programmed the adventure? Who knew?

„Huuuummmpffff!"

Josh jumped and turned in the spot, pressing the woman against plastic panels. The wall of fire moved along the corridor; for a while they were exposed to heat which seemed to carbonise their bodies down to their bones. Josh tried to control his panic, but he failed. His heart accelerated into mad gallop. He opened his mouth, ready to scream.

"Blimey! Whose nightmare is it? Yours?"

Josh opened his eyes and blinked in surprise. There was a skinny man in a pinstriped suit standing in the middle of the charred corridor.

"Breathe," he said sternly. "You're holding your breath."

"Who...?" mumbled Josh. "How...?"

"I'm the Doctor," the man introduced himself. "Just the Doctor."

"Fire..." Josh gibbered.

"You realise it's all just a projection?"

"Of course, I fucking realise!" yelled Josh, surprising himself. "What the fuck else could it be?!"

"For a moment there you seemed really scared," the man said. "No, wait, I understand. I was scared myself. But your own memories are the worst of all. Everything gets twisted and garbled. It gets into your head. It finds the weak spot and hits so hard, you stop fighting."

"What, the fuck, are you talking about?"

"You have to get out of this adventure." The man ignored Josh's insulting tone. "As I said, only your own memories are real buggers. Somebody else's may burn you alive or eat you up, sure thing, but if you don't let them burn you or eat you, I don't think they'll reset your brain."

"What are you saying?"

"This adventure is turning your memories into nightmares. You have to wake up."

"Wake up?" Josh snorted nervously. "And what the hell am I trying to do?! I've been looking for the exit since... I don't even know since when! But nothing is working! Nothing will work!"

"There's something that will." The man took a small device out of his pocket and started twiddling with it. "So, how shall I call you?"

"Josh. Josh Hunter."

"Nice to meet you! And her?"

Josh shrugged. "No idea. Found her in the air-lock. Howling with fear. She's probably just a part of the projection."

The Doctor pointed the device at the woman, just to put it to his ear after a second. He shook his head.

"Nope, she's a player. A one hundred percent, living and breathing human being, just like you."

He leant forward, curiously looking into the woman's unseeing eyes. He moved his hand in front of her face. He smacked his lips in dissatisfaction.

"It looks like she's withdrawn completely. It's a defence mechanism; when the amount of stimuli exceeds a certain level, the mind powers off. She's like a rabbit in the middle of the highway. Staring into the lights of an approaching car, but unable to move."

"What a lovely metaphor," Josh growled. "But how did she get here? It's my adventure... I mean... It was my adventure. Now it's my worst nightmare."

"The system can't sustain the adventures' autonomy. Slowly but surely all of it – every projection, each world, each adventure – starts to merge into one reality. If you look around carefully, you'll see cracks. They're everywhere – gateways connecting your adventure to those of other players. I suspect she has simply walked through one of such cracks."

"And a fat load of good that was!"

"Hey, don't whine! You'd rather stay here alone with your nightmares?" The Doctor knitted his brows, giving Josh an annoyed look. "I don't think so."

"Are you saying we can reach other players?"

"And then look for the way out together? Yes. YES!"

Josh jumped again at the Doctor's scream. His nerves were in rags and tatters.

"What are you...?"

"There, look!"

Josh's gaze followed the direction shown by the device in the Doctor's hand. He saw that the wall behind his back was moving, bulging and tearing. Lively green leaves, brown lianas, the smell of greenery and sounds of the jungle burst through the tear and into the corridor.

"We have a rift!" the Doctor yelled. "Come on, before it closes!"

"Wait." Josh raised his hand in a protective gesture. "Where does it go?"

"I've no idea!" answered the Doctor happily. He was already one foot in the jungle, reaching his hands towards the woman.

"You've no...?"

"All is better than a wave of redirected plasma that'll flow through the corridor," the Doctor answered light-heartedly. "I imagine it'll be very hot here in a moment."

Without a second thought Josh pushed the woman in front of him and crossed over into the jungle. The wet ground sploshed under his magnetic boots. A large butterfly fluttered its green and orange wings in front of his face. In the tear behind Josh's back, the corridor flared up with intense, radioactive-green flame of plasma leak. At the same instant the woman, whose arm Josh was squeezing tightly, sighed quietly and slid to the ground. She fell on her back and lie there motionlessly; her wide open eyes staring at the roof of tangled branches.

"Jeez, what...?" Josh started with simultaneous anger and fear. He broke off when the fat, green and orange butterfly landed on the woman's open eye. The woman didn't blink. The butterfly opened and closed its wings, shifting its fuzzy legs over the moist surface of the woman's cornea.

The Doctor looked down, his brow furrowed, lips pursed into a thin, pale line. He turned his eyes away, once again starting to tune his mysterious device. Josh swallowed slowly.

"Oh, fu..."