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Nick walked into the main guest hall. The doors had juddered open, and released another foot of water into the two foot he’d waded through in the corridor. He was now walking among the seats towards the Collector himself. The jellyfish was lying down flat, as much in the water as possible, strewn between some of the chairs. ‘Hi,’ said Nick. It was rather an uninspired thing to say. ° Hello Nick. I called you here because ‘What?’ ° Well I won’t really be able to move for a while. At least until the water level is much higher. And we need the Doctor right now. Apparently he recognises the young lady who shattered my walls. Or rather the thing inside her but that’s unimportant now. Apparently it’s some ancient evil from the dawn of time. Or something silly like that. ° ‘What are you saying?’ ° I need you to take the Doctor’s mind back to his body for me. ° ‘Umm, isn’t the Doctor’s body, err, unsuitable right now?’ ° Oh no, that was sorted out ages ago. We just got the medical field to… rearrange him again. ° ‘Oh, okay. Err, I didn’t think my head would be big enough to do that.’ ° I can free up untapped potential in your brain. There should be enough room. All you’ll have to do is get close enough to the Doctor and his mind will leap out of you and into his own body. ° ‘Umm, fair enough.’ Nick couldn’t seem to think of an argument. ‘I suppose.’ Alf was using the damaged infrastructure of the zoo to get about. The zoo was exceptionally well ventilated. Instead of crawling through the ventilation shaft it was like a second corridor above the first. It was filled with a maze and network of pipes though. She stepped into something. The shaft was dark - so dark she’d had to use the magnetic resonance imaging on the battle computer. She had stepped into something too fine for the scan to pick up. She stepped back, but the thing was sticky and it was an effort. Her other senses were already being amplified by the battle computer, and she could hear things. A strange metallic scuffling. And an odd clicking. And small, muffled cries for help. Her vision changed to infrared. There was a web blocking her way. She used the weapon to cut it down and step through. The next section of shaft was filled with webs, like a maze. They obscured everything. Except movement. She could see movement. Eight-legged movement. And a glowing patch of heat, body-shaped, hung in the middle of the “room,” suspended by webs and cocooned. Spiders scuttled over it, tearing off bits of flesh. Oh god. It was a member of the zoo’s collection. Suddenly, it moved and she nearly jumped out of her skin. It was still alive. She felt sick. They were eating it alive. Oh god. Oh god, oh god, oh god, oh god. She raised her wrist weapon. She couldn’t rescue the creature. She launched an explosive flechette and the creature was struck and then painlessly consumed by fire. The spiders turned to her. And charged, in their hundreds, swarming all over her and biting. She lowered her arm and pointed to the floor, launching another explosive flechette. She was lifted into the air by the impact, the heat rushing over her legs. It felt like they’d been doused in oil, and it was too hot to actually feel anything properly. The suit protected her but she was still lifted into the air by the explosion. The spiders were swept away by the fire. She dropped down again through the new hole in the floor and landed hard on her rear. The suit was still protecting her, and its control over her nervous system was numbing the pain. She looked up as the spiders started to pour through the still flaming hole in the ceiling. She scrambled to her feet, feeling dizzy from the pain at the top of her legs. She looked about and chose a direction at random, and then started running. She came to a corner and rounded it. The corridor from that point on was submerged. It took a steep decline in gradient, and water had flowed into the corridor. She turned and saw the spiders coming after her. There was no choice. She leapt forward, her body flying in a cat-like arc, into the water. She plunged under the surface. The water was freezing, and it took a moment for the suit to adjust and start to heat her up. She shivered uncontrollably for a moment, but the suit stopped that and returned control of her body to her. She bobbed to the surface and watched the spiders scuttling down after her. She raised an arm and started launching flechettes at them. They easily moved around them, as though they knew where she was going to shoot them before she actually did. She flipped over and kicked down. She had one last plan. She started bypassing safety protocols in the wrist weapon. She could feel through heightened senses when the spiders entered the water. She had to wait until the spiders were near her to try this, or it wouldn’t work, and she couldn’t see anything in the water. She tried to peer through the liquid. She suddenly jumped as two limbs landed on her shoulders. They were followed by more, holding her wrist weapon away from her other hand. Because of the nature of the plan, she needed to activate the procedure manually. More spiders came out of the water at her, binding her up and cocooning her. She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t breathe and she was about to pass out. Almost like a second reflex the suit flowed over her head and started passing oxygen into her mouth. God that thing was useful. In fact that increased her chances of survival by a lot. With a renewed oxygen source she managed to wrench her arm from one of the spiders. She could feel their little teeth biting into her and if she could’ve then she would’ve sneered as she bashed a button on her wrist weapon and pumped all the power she had into the suit. The outside electrified and released a massive charge into the water. She felt the spiders’ limbs weaken and felt them drop off. She kicked upwards and as she reached the surface she had to pull the hood on the suit off. She looked around. She’d need to find a power conduit in order to recharge the suit. But the plan had worked. She clambered out of the water, and strode off. She didn’t notice a set of slender limbs emerge from the water.
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