Marie and Jane barely had time to acknowledge that they were in a prison cell before the lights went out; from their perspective the last few weeks of captivity were wiped away in the blink of an eye. From the commotion going on all around them, it seemed that many of the other occupants of the holding cells were going through this same process.
“What’s going on?” asked Jane.
“Where are the lights?” added Marie.
“Never mind the bloody lights what about the Daleks!”
They didn’t have long to wait for an answer to this last question as the sound of a mechanical voice penetrated the cell walls. “Get back!” it called. “Get back into your cells!”  The grim noise of a Dalek gun stick followed and for a brief instant the corridor outside was bathed in an iridescent blue light. To their surprise the firing stopped and there was the sound of a struggle going on. “Stop! Let go of me!” squealed the Dalek. “Under attack!”
There was the unexpected sound of tortured metal being subjected to immense force and something flew through the air and clattered to the floor nearby. By now hundreds of people were milling in the corridors outside.
“What was that?” asked Marie.
Before Jane could answer a second voice echoed down the corridors. “It can’t hurt you now! You can kill it and get out of here!”
“I know that voice!” exclaimed Jane. “Captain! Over here!”
“Jane, wait! I can’t see you!” screamed Marie, but it was no use. In the pitch-blackness of the holding cells, with the noise and commotion of thousands of people pushing past and trying to escape, they soon lost each other. Too late, Jane realised her mistake and tried to double back to find her companion, but it was impossible to swim against the tide of humanity that was sweeping down the corridors. “Marie! Marie!” Jane’s calls were futile as the noise of the crowd swallowed her words.
Invidious and Morrison were so involved with monitoring events in the holding cells that they were taken by surprise by the sound of a grating voice over the intercom: “Invidious! We are here to take you to the Head of Dalek Intelligence, you will open this door now!”
“Daleks!” exclaimed Invidious. “They must be onto us!”
Morrison turned his attention to the view screen, which presented the scene outside in the corridor. “Five of them; looks like they mean business!”
Invidious thought quickly: “I must go to the Emperor right away, he is the only one who can get us out of this mess.”
“But how?” asked Morrison. “We’ll never get through five of them!”
Outside the Daleks continued to call for Invidious, sounding more impatient by the moment. The scientist quickly gathered up a small instrument case and made his way over to a raised platform at the back of the laboratory.
“This transmat will take me straight to the Emperor’s chambers,” he said breathlessly. “You are to stay here and evade the Daleks. You must keep track of the Olsen girl and use her to draw the others into your power.”
“B-but how am I to evade the Daleks?” asked Morrison.
“Oh, I’m sure you’ll think of something,” said Invidious as he operated the teleport controls. Within moments he faded into insubstantiality and then disappeared; the moment he did there was a deafening boom from the entrance of the laboratory. The Daleks cautiously emerged through the rubble, eyestalks twitching left and right as they scanned for their quarry. They were surprised to find another one of their own kind already in the lab.
“What are you doing here?” demanded the squad leader.
“I was responding to an emergency message from the Head of Dalek Intelligence,” said the lone Dalek.
“Where are Invidious and his cyborg?”
“They incapacitated me with an electromagnet,” the lone Dalek explained. “Then they escaped using the transmat device.”
“You have failed!” snarled the squad leader angrily. “You must report to Dalek Intelligence immediately to face disciplinary action authorised by the Section Leader.”
“I obey!”
The Dalek silently wheeled away as the rest of the squad gathered to inspect the teleportation machine. Once he was safely out of sight down the corridor, Morrison allowed himself to slip back into his normal shape. Maintaining his form as a Dalek had been enormously draining for him, he didn’t intend to repeat the exercise too soon.
“So that’s what its like to be a Dalek,” he muttered as he made his own way to the central plaza.
On the north side of the plaza the doors to Dalek intelligence were opened when the power to the lower levels cut out; thousands of escapees now surged out of these doors and gathered like supplicants around the towering statue of the original Golden Emperor. At first there were so many of them that they simply overwhelmed the few Daleks that were at large in the square. Soon however, Dalek reinforcements began to arrive on hover bouts and on the ground from the south side of the plaza. Then the killing began in earnest, hoverbouts screeched low across the square strafing the surging crowd at random. Soon the square was echoing with the screams of the dying and the roar of energy weapons. The people just emerging into the plaza tried to turn back, only to be met by thousands of others coming in the opposite direction. Hundreds were crushed in the confusion and the air was thick with the smell of blood and the stench of panic. The enemy blocked off all escape routes as columns of grey and silver machines began ploughing through the crowd from the south and the east. The escapees were forced to whirl from one exit to another in a grim circuit of death blasted on all sides, men, women and children crushed or roasted in the turmoil.
Jane was turned around several times before eventually finding herself in the middle of the square with a Dalek pointing its gun stick at her.
“Exterminate!”
She instinctively dropped to the floor as a bolt of energy ripped through the air and struck a tall man standing behind her. He crumpled and fell over her supine form, shielding her with his arms and legs.
Dazed by the impact, Jane slumped into unconsciousness as the killing continued around her.
Marie had been weeping for what seemed an age; abandoned and alone in the darkness she sobbed for herself and the loss of her only companion on this nightmare world.
“Why are you crying?”
Marie looked up; a silhouetted figure stood in the open doorway, half obscured by a flashlight it was carrying. “Because I am afraid,” said Marie. “Who are you?”
The figure stepped closer and Marie saw that it was a young girl, probably not much older than eleven or twelve, dressed in a filthy grey smock and carrying a torch in both hands. Her hair was long and matted together, the auburn locks tied back with an Alice Band. “My name is Charlotte,” said the girl. “Though I prefer to be called Charley.”
Marie smiled: “Well Charley, were they holding you a prisoner here as well?”
The little girl nodded. “Yes, they wanted my dad to work for the Daleks,” she said, her face screwing up in revulsion. “But he refused, so they brought me here and left me in one of their horrible rooms.”
From further off in the distance came the sounds of screams and the report of energy weapons’ firing. “We can’t stay here,” said Marie, pulling herself from the bed. “Charley, do you know how we can get out of here?”
“Not out the front door,” said the girl. “The Daleks are killing everyone out there.”
“Yes, I can hear,” said Marie. “But can we get out any other way?”
The little girl thought for a moment, scratching her chin with the head of the torch as she pondered the question: “There might be a route out at the back here, I remember there being some holes in the wall, small holes, but big enough to squeeze down.”
“Service access,” said Marie quickly. “You must show me where they are Charley, our lives depend on it!”
“Sure thing,” said Charley, her green eyes twinkling. She led Marie back down the tunnel, but being a light-footed child she soon out paced her new associate.
“Hang on!” called Marie. “I’m nearly due to have a baby! I can’t keep up!”
Ahead of her Charlotte muttered to an invisible companion: “No I don’t know where the other one is!”
Marie had caught up with her: “Were you just talking to some one?” she asked.
“No, just pretending,” said the strange little girl. “The holes are right back at the rear of these corridors. Just keep on going, I’ll catch you up in a minute.”
“Okay,” said Marie. “If you’re sure, it’s pretty dark in here.”
“Don’t worry,” said Charlotte. “I’ll catch up with you in a minute. Best you get a head start,” she added helpfully.
As Marie disappeared in the darkness, Charlotte continued her invisible conversation: “No, don’t shout at me. I’ll bring you the fat one, she can help you find the other!”
Jane had moved in and out of a waking nightmare for several hours; the shock of the dead man’s face leering above her nearly made her faint once more. The smell was appalling, a mixture of decayed and burning flesh, mingled with something else. Something thick and damp, which made breathing more laboured. She continued to lie there for she knew not how long, the sounds of weapons fire now less frequent. Every time she felt like it might be safe to extract herself from her nest of corpses she would hear movement outside. Then she would feel her dead companions above her start to press down even closer as more bodies were thrown on top. A new fear overtook her, that she would be squashed to a pulp by the already dead. Fortunately she didn’t have to dwell on this new danger for long as she soon felt the weight of the bodies shifting as someone pulled them away one at a time.
“Well Ms Horowitz, fancy finding you here!”
Jane gasped for breath in the foul air: “Captain!” she exclaimed. “It was you!”
Forrester put a finger to his lips. “Sh!” he said urgently. “The Daleks have finished their work, but they’re still very much in evidence!”
With Forrester’s help she was soon able to see what he meant; the diffuse light made it difficult to focus, but she soon realized that all over the plaza the ground was knee deep in corpses, here and there the Daleks were gathering these into great piles to be taken away. The air was opaque with a smoky mist.
“My God!” cried Jane.
“The Daleks overdid it with their exterminating,” said Forrester calmly. “The air is heavy with ionised particles. Fortunately for us that should impair their sensor sweeps and this light before dawn makes it particularly hard for the Daleks to see properly.”
“Can we get out of here then?” asked Jane shivering. Once again she couldn’t help wondering where Forrester got all his information on the Daleks.
“Yes, if we stay close to the ground and don’t make any sudden movements!”
They moved cautiously through the piles of bodies, stopping to hit the deck as Dalek patrols skirted around the square on hoverbouts scanning for any survivors. Eventually, after what seemed like hours, they managed to make the south side of the plaza and there they sheltered in an open doorway.
Jane threw up copiously once they were out of immediate danger; Forrester had a sardonic comment for this. “Worst case of morning sickness I’ve ever seen.”
Jane stopped to wipe her mouth and regarded him carefully through bloodshot eyes. “I didn’t know you were there when the Daleks announced my pregnancy,” she said.
“No, I wasn’t,” said Forrester. “But I’ve learnt a lot of things since I’ve been here.”
“How did you escape from them?” she asked.
“The same way I assume you did,” he explained, “when the power failed in the holding cells. Clever trick that, don’t you think? Freezing time for your prisoners, must save a lot on food bills.”
Jane looked out on the grim scene of carnage in the plaza: “So what now?” she asked.
“We have to get to the Mark V Factory.”
“Mark V Factory?”
“The place you ended up in when you turned the corner in that little experiment,” he said. “The place where Stillman is now.”
Jane gasped: “Simon! You know where he is!”
“Look we’ve plenty of time for explanations later, right now we have to get to that factory, and it’s the only place we can be safe. And you can see Simon again.”
“Yes, yes of course,” said Jane dusting herself off. “If you know how to get there.”
They crept away from the open doorway and made their way along the narrow passages between the buildings, ducking and diving away from the smouldering bodies in the square. Jane didn’t know if she could trust this man who seemed to be her Captain, but there was one thing she was sure of; if she stayed where she was death was an absolute certainty.
The service ducts in the Dalek City were designed as access routes for the multitude of small mechanical drones that buzzed around the infrastructure of the city in the constant maintenance cycle. They were not designed for easy use by humanoid life forms.
 “How much more of this is there?” asked Marie as she pulled herself another few agonising inches along the darkened service duct.
“Not long now,” trilled Charley. “Then we can get out in the open again.”
Like her former cellmate Marie had little option but to trust in her guide, this was exacerbated by the fact that her guide was a child.
There was the sound of compressed air being released and a shaft of light appeared in the tunnel. Marie just had time to see Charley’s legs disappear through an airlock.
“Hold on!” she called urgently. “I can’t move as quick as you!”
Then she found herself being pulled upwards by powerful arms; she barely had time to speculate on how a thin strip of a girl could pull a heavily pregnant woman out of a service duct when she found the answer.
“You!” she gasped as she looked at the deformed yet still familiar face before her.
“You and Horowitz have caused us no end of bother,” said Morrison hoisting her into the air and setting her on the ground. They were in some quiet back alley in the Dalek City, and the light was just beginning to change as the mechanical sun crept over its artificial horizon. His hands maintained their vice like grip.
Marie shot Charley an icy stare; the young girl remained impassive.
“Where is your companion?” barked Morrison, tightening his grip on her arms.
Marie gasped: “I don’t know! She ran off when the lights went out!”
“Why? I would have thought you would have clung together?” demanded Morrison.
“S-she said something about…a voice…the Captain…she said the Captain,” Marie screamed with pain and Morrison slapped her across the face. She collapsed to the floor in tears, looking with terror into the cyborg’s glowing eyes.
“Forrester!” exclaimed Morrison. “I forgot all about him!”
“I don’t know who he is,” whimpered Marie, “please don’t hurt me again!”
Before Morrison could answer this with more sadism, Charley interjected with a question of her own: “Where is my father?” she asked. “You promised you’d take me to him.”
Morrison laughed: “You should have learnt that no one keeps promises around here,” he turned towards the expectant Charley.
“But you said you’d help me find him if I brought the fat woman to you!”
“The fat woman and her companion. You failed to bring me the other one!”
“She probably went into the square, so she’ll be dead by now!” squealed Charley.
“Then I have nothing further to say to you,” said Morrison holding up his hand. To Marie’s astonishment the young girl flew backwards into a nearby wall.
“Leave her alone!” she cried.
“Silence!” roared Morrison, his eyes glowing yellow.
“You promised!” screeched Charley determinedly.
“Shut up!” bellowed Morrison. Marie saw to her horror that his left hand had sprouted a kind of gun. He levelled it at the girl. “You’re really starting to piss me off!”
A bolt of light shot from the muzzle of Morrison’s fleshy blaster, it struck the air around Charley and seemed to become absorbed into a kind of force field. Meanwhile a terrible transformation had occurred in the young girl. He hair now stood on end like it was electrified and her eyes glowed opalescent in their deep sockets.
“You’re not the first person the Doctor has messed up!” cried Charley in a frightening voice. Puzzled Morrison let loose another energy bolt, Charley continued to glow white-hot.
“Die you freak!” hissed Morrison, firing once more, this time a long sustained burst.
Charley screamed with pain and indignation: “You promised!”
As her voice rumbled like thunder, twin forks of lightening erupted from her hands, returning the full heat of all of Morrison’s energy bolts directly at his chest. The force of the blast tore a hole straight through the cyborg’s innards and threw him back against the entrance to the service duct. His body slumped to the ground, a look of surprise fixed on the face.
Marie turned to see that Charley was just a little girl once more crying for her lost father.
“He promised,” she sobbed. “He promised!”
“Come on,” said Marie getting to her feet. “We better get out of here.”
As she led the crying child away Marie turned to look back at the felled cyborg. This girl could certainly come in handy she thought to herself
When they were out of sight the light behind Morrison’s eyes began to glow once more, deep within his chest the nanites were busily stitching together new flesh to replace the destroyed parts. The blast had drained Morrison of much of his power reserves, so it could take several hours for him to regenerate. When he did he knew that he had to continue with his mission. Failure wasn’t an option.