Arcadia's Love (Book TWO)

Gangers

"Sera, Doctor, look." Rory pointed to where the pipe was leading, off the island. Great, more water to terrify my poor Sera. Well, whatever type of copy this was, anyway.

"Yeah. It's a supply pipe." I explained. "Ceramic inner lining. Something corrosive. They're pumping something nasty off this island to the mainland."

"My mum's a massive fan of Dusty Springfield." He commented, making me smile a little, both at that and the fact that Sera slipped her small hand inside mine.

"Who isn't? Right, let's go. Satisfy our rabid curiosity." I lead the way to a courtyard, where the sound of Dusty Springfield was getting louder.

Amy asked, "So where are these Dusty Springfield loving monks, then?"

I didn't really hear her, I was too busy thinking. "I think we're here. This is it."

"Doctor, what are you talking about?" Mr Pond asked, getting confused. "We've never been here before."

"Hmm?"

"We came here by accident?" Sera reminded me, nudging my ribs. If only.

"Accident?" I repeated. "Yes, I know. Accident."

Then Rory put his hand on the pipe. "Ow!"

"Acid." Ser told him after a quick inspection. "They're pumping acid off this island. That's old stuff. Fresh acid, you wouldn't have a finger." And then a tannoy started blaring, knowing that we were here. "There are people coming. Well, almost." She didn't know why she said that, she was playing with her hair in thought.

"Almost coming?"

"Almost people." I corrected, really knowing.

"I think we should really be going." Rory tried, but his wife just grabbed his arm and pulled him along. "I'm telling you. When something runs towards you, it is never for a nice reason."

We walked into a room where there were people strapped into strange harness type things, all in a state of unconsciousness. "What are all these harnesses for?"

"The almost people?" Rory questioned, which was a close guess.

"What are they, prisoners, or are they meditating, or what?"

"Well, at the moment they fall into the or what category." Sera murmured, looking around confused. She seemed very dopey today. Yesterday all she'd wanted to do was clean our room. She even disinfected the bath and shower head, that was rather strange.

The tannoy told us to stop and keep calm. "Well, we've halted. How are we all doing on the calm front?" I asked no one in particular.

"Don't move!" Some people were coming in now.

Another man spoke to a small woman. "Stay back, Jen. We don't know who they are."

"So let's ask them. Who the hell are you?" 'Jen' asked us, while Amy looked around the harnesses in confusions.

"Well, I'm the Doctor, my wife Seraphina, and this is Amy and Rory, and it's all very nice, isn't it?" I smiled, while Amy finally decided to ask about why the people asleep in the harnesses were somehow in front of us talking.

"Hold up. You're all. What are you all? Like identical twins?"

Then two more people walked in, the woman looking to be in charge. "This is an Alpha Grade industrial facility. Unless you work for the military or for Morpeth Jetson, you are in big trouble."

"Actually, you're in big trouble." Sera told them, slipping the psychic paper out of my pocket and showing them.

"Meteorological Department? Since when?"