Chapter Eleven

The Doctor stopped the car.

There was hail too, or so Benny thought at first. They she realised that the droplets were dead insects of every kind.

'Everything's dying,' the Doctor was muttering.

'It's some sort of poison gas,' Lethbridge-Stewart said, staring up into the dark sky.

Benny looked up, holding her hand up to shelter her face from the steady pelting of tiny bug carcasses. There was a storm cloud above them, growing larger with every instant.

'It's descending.'

'We can't hang around,' the Brigadier said.

The cloud was drifting over the rooftops of Adisham like thick smoke. It was almost invisible in the darkness, but in the pools of light underneath the street lamps it billowed like volcanic ash.

'All those people,' the Doctor cried out. 'All those poor people.' He jumped from of the car and began running back down the road towards the village.

'Doctor! What are you doing?' Benny screamed.

He whirled around, now he was jogging backwards. 'I have to save them if I can. Whatever you do, don't follow me. Alistair, get Bernice to safety.'

'Doctor!' Benny screamed, 'Come back! You'll be killed.'

'Goodbye!' the Doctor called.

The Brigadier grabbed her arm, prevented her from leaving the car. 'You heard what he said.'

'Do you agree with him?'