Struggling To Adjust (Book Three of The Bad Wolf Chronicles)

Evolution of the Daleks

Jessie grinned. "It plays music," she answered. "What’s the point of it? Because with music, you can dance to it, sing with it, fall in love to it . . . in fact, you could practically do anything with it." She frowned. "Unless you’re Stark after too many drinks . . . then it’s a wailing banshee." She shook her head, then got back on topic. "Or, unless you’re a Dalek, of course." She shrugged, then whipped her sonic screwdriver down her sleeve. "Then it’s all just noise!" She aimed it at the radio, and the sound waves that erupted made the Daleks, the pig men, and Sec double over in pain.

The Doctor took his cue. "RUN!" he roared.

Martha bolted after him, Frank in the middle, helping lead the people out. He heard the sound of gunshots behind him, so he assumed that meant Jessie was in the back, protecting the others. "Come on!" he shouted. "Move, move, move, move, move!" He skidded to a halt when he nearly ran into Tallulah. "And you, Tallulah," he added. "Run!"

"What’s happened to Laszlo?" the show woman demanded.

Martha grabbed Tallulah, and the Doctor found the ladder up out of the sewers. "Come on!" he ordered, Martha and Tallulah going first, Frank helping him guide people up. "Everyone up! Come on!"

Jessie came running around the corner, shoving her gun into the waistband of her jeans, and she took a jump onto the ladder. The Doctor followed up behind her, and together, the two of them shut the manhole to block the pig men. They both took panting breaths, then the Doctor grinned at Jessie. "You," he stated, "are completely insane."

Jessie grinned as wolfish as her name. "Jeopardy friendly, me."

The Doctor swallowed, that title like a sting to the hearts. "Yeah," he agreed softly.

He didn’t miss Jessie’s fading smile as he stood.

***

"These Daleks," Solomon said later that night in Hooverville. "They sound like the stuff of nightmares. And they want to breed?"

"They’re splicing themselves onto human bodies, and if I’m right, they’ve got a farm of breeding stock right here in Hooverville," the Doctor explained. "You’ve got to get everyone out."

"Hooverville’s the lowest place a man can fall," Solomon argued. "There’s nowhere else to go!"

"He’s right, Solomon," Jessie told him. "You’ve got to scatter. Go anywhere you can. Down to the railroads, travel across state. You just need to get out of New York as fast as you can."

"There’s got to be a way to reason with these things," Solomon muttered.

"There’s not chance," Martha interrupted from where she was with Tallulah.

Frank nodded, standing behind the two women. "You ain’t seen them, boss."

"Daleks are bad enough at any time, but right now, they’re vulnerable," the Doctor explained. "That makes them more dangerous than ever."

"And they’ve got the killer of their Emperor loose in here," Jessie added. "They’ll take any chance they can get to get revenge."

"And who killed their Emperor?" Solomon asked.

Jessie pointed to herself at the same time as the Doctor. "Kind of committed genocide against the entire race," she confessed. "Last minute decision. Wasn’t really in control."

"Saved me, though," the Doctor pointed out. "That’s something."

Jessie made a motion to him. "And then you saved me."

The Doctor winced. "Shame I couldn’t do it again."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Martha asked.