"Urgh! What is that smell?"
"That, my dear Evelyn, is the fresh smell of horse manure," the Doctor replied, following his companion out of the TARDIS. "Welcome to Victorian England."
"Hmm. Your idea of fresh and mine are sadly different," said the elderly history lecturer. She looked around herself. "Not many people about. In fact, there's nobody around at all."
The Doctor looked up and down the street of terraced houses. "It's probably early morning," he decided.
"I thought you told me this was London. Whatever time of day, there should be someone about."
The Doctor frowned. It was indeed unnaturally quiet. No bird song, no clatter of cart wheels in nearby streets. Even the wind seemed to whisper by, as if not wanting to be heard.
Evelyn had picked up something flapping against the nearby railings. It was a newspaper. She turned it over and read the headline aloud.
" 'Invasion From Mars! Cylinder lands outside London. Martian War Machines heading for Capital.' " She turned to her Time Lord companion. "Martians in Victorian London? I've never heard of anything more ridiculous!"
"That's because it didn't happen," the Doctor told her. Then a thought struck him. "Unless we've landed in a parallel dimension. In which case, it's quite possible the Ice Warriors could have landed."
"Ice Warriors?" said Evelyn, looking over the top of her horn-rimmed spectacles.
He nodded. "Nickname of the dominant species of Mars. Humanoid reptilians with warlike tendencies. But they left Mars centuries ago, except for a few isolated hibernation units. Can I see that paper?"
Evelyn Smythe was just handing it over when they heard the sound of running feet behind them. They turned to see a scruffy man racing towards them as if all the demons of Hell were chasing him.
"They're coming!" he shouted, barging past them. "The Martians! They're coming!"
For a moment they watched him disappear round the corner at the end of the street. Then they turned back to they way he had come.
Towering over the houses was a massive metal tripod. It supported an oval of metal and glass, which turned from side to side, as if seeking out victims. It locked into position, the front windows staring down at the time travellers.
"Well, whatever these Martians are, I think they've seen us," Evelyn stated.
The Doctor agreed. "I think we can make it back to the TARDIS. Come on!"
During their investigation of the street, they had moved away from the time craft. Now they started running back towards it.
But the Martian machine had other ideas. Moving swiftly, it placed a metal leg between them and the door.
Skidding to a halt, the Doctor pushed Evelyn back the way they had come, following the fleeing man. Above them, the head of the machine swung to follow. A metal rod slid out from its base.
A burst of flame erupted from the rod. It just missed the running pair, singeing the Doctor's multi-coloured coat tails.
"I'm not sure I can run any faster," Evelyn panted.
"You must," the Doctor replied. "If we can't outrun it, we're both dead!"
Suddenly the Doctor pulled Evelyn sideways, into the shelter of a doorway. She was surprised by his action.
"I thought we had to outrun that thing!" she protested.
The Doctor pointed in the direction they had been running. "Looks like help is at hand."
She looked where he was pointing. At the end of the road, a group of soldiers were hastily preparing a field gun. As she watched, the gun was loaded and fired.
Back down the street, there was the crash of an impact. As the smoke cleared, Evelyn could see that the artillery shell had buckled one of the legs of the tripod machine.
The machine wavered, as if drunk. The leg started to give way, slowly.
A soldier dashed towards them. His fellows cheered as the machine began to topple.
With one last effort, the heat ray at the front of the machine spat its deadly fire.
As the machine crashed to the ground, its attackers became a burning pyre. Evelyn and the young soldier turned away in shock.
The Doctor did his best to comfort his companion. The soldier just stood, open mouthed.
"Come on," the Doctor said suddenly. "We should get out of here."
"What, back to the TARDIS?" Evelyn asked, drying her eyes.
The Doctor shook his head and pointed. Visible over the tops of the houses was another tripod machine, heading their way.
Gathering up the stunned soldier, the Doctor led them away from the scene of carnage.
***
"Everybody's being evacuated to the river," said the soldier, whose name they had learned was Jack. "There are steamers taking people to the continent."
"I think we should head that way too," the Doctor decided. They had taken refuge in an abandoned cobblers shop. Outside, the menacing Martian machines kept passing.
"What about the TARDIS?" Evelyn wanted to know.
"We can return for the TARDIS later. First priority must be getting to safety. Then we can plan a strategy of attack."
"Do you know the way to the river from here?" Evelyn asked Jack.
He nodded. "Yeah, I grew up down there." So saying, he led them outside.
***
The dockside was heaving with people, all pushing and shoving, trying to get aboard the one steamer ship docked beside the Thames. In the midst of the crowd, a fight broke out.
Somewhere in the crowd, they lost Jack, swallowed up by the tide of people.
"Doesn't look like we'll catch this one," the Doctor said, as the steamer cast off and pulled out into the river.
"At least those people will get to safety," Evelyn replied.
All of a sudden, a hush fell over the boisterous crowd. All eyes turned downriver. There, striding towards the helpless steamer was a fighting machine.
"Oh no!" Evelyn exclaimed. "All those innocent people."
"Look!" the Doctor said. She followed his gaze. An ironclad fighting ship stood between the tripod and its intended victim.
As two more tripod figures appeared on the horizon, the ship, the name Thunder Child emblazoned proudly on her prow, bore down on the lone machine. Cannon roared on the deck.
The tripod reeled under the barrage. The Thunder Child scored a direct hit. Steam and flame burst from the Martian machine.
"Ullaaaa!" The cry of alien anguish and pain rolled across the waves, to the stunned people watching from the dock. With a splash that could probably be heard in Yorkshire, the tripod crashed to its doom beneath the waves.
A ragged cheer went up from the people on the banks as the Martian war machine sank beneath the waters. Now, the Thunder Child turned to the other two tripods, which were striding downstream.
These were more prepared than their fellow, who had presumably been caught off guard by the humans fighting spirit. Before the ship could fire upon them, they turned their heat rays on Thunder Child.
The cheers of the crowd turned to groans, then became stunned silence as the ship, Mankind's last hope, was cut to pieces by the heat rays. Rapidly, Thunder Child and her entire crew were lost beneath the waves.
As the smoke of battle cleared, the steamer could just be seen on the horizon. The crew of Thunder Child had not given their lives in vain. The passengers were safe.
Turning away from the boiling waters of the Thames, the Doctor led Evelyn away.
***
"What a senseless waste!" the history lecturer said. The Doctor just nodded.
Evelyn paced the floor of the cobblers shop. "All those lives, snuffed out, just like that!" She snapped her fingers. The Doctor just nodded.
"It's just so, so..."
"Senseless?" the Doctor said, quietly.
"Yes, exactly!" Evelyn frowned. "You seem to be taking this rather better than I am," she stated.
"Sadly, I've had a lot more practice," the Time Lord told her. "Plus, there's something not quite right about all of this."
"Is that your Time Lord seventh sense again?" she asked with a trace of sarcasm.
"Possibly," he replied, lost in thought. Then suddenly he stood, startling his companion. "Of course! How could I be so blind?"
"You've had a revelation," Evelyn decided.
The Doctor nodded fiercely. "Of a sort, yes. None of this is real."
"Well, it all seemed pretty real to me."
"Maybe. But it never happened, not really. It's fiction. This is War of the Worlds, by H.G.Wells."
"Never read it," she confessed. Then she realised what he had said. "Do you mean we've been living a novel?"
"Exactly! This is all part of a novel." He raised his head, looking towards the ceiling. "I'm back in the Land of Fiction. Aren't I?"
All around them, the shop started to shift and blur.
The walls of the cobblers shop were replaced by shelves covered with books. The floor seemed to be stone, as did what could be seen of the walls. The ceiling disappeared into darkness overhead. In the centre of the room stood a complex looking device, wired to a dentists chair. A young man was smiling at them from beside the device.
"Welcome back, Doctor. I trust you'll be staying with us for longer this time. A lot longer."
"Who's your friend?" hissed Evelyn.
"That," replied the Doctor in a loud voice, "is the Master of the Land of Fiction. He wants me to take over his position here, so he can go home."
The Master of the Land shook his head. "It's not just me that wants you to take over. So does my friend." He patted the device.
"The computer that maintains this reality bubble outside of the normal parameters of the space/time vortex," the Doctor explained, before Evelyn could ask.
"I assume you taking charge here would be bad?" she asked instead, not having understood some of his first answer.
"It would for me," the Doctor said. "I would have to spend my entire future existence maintaining all this. Keeping the Land of Fiction up and running. Not exactly what I had in mind for my twilight years," he finished wistfully.
"I grow impatient, Doctor," said the Master of the Land.
"Couldn't I take over, save your life sort of thing," Evelyn offered.
The Doctor smiled at her. "Even if you did, you wouldn't last long. It's very labour intensive. Then they would seek me out again. No, I have a longer life span than a human. I'll do it."
He stepped forward. The young man stepped aside, ushering him into the chair. A crown of wires dropped into place over his head. The Master of the Land flipped a switch and the device hummed with power.
"Goodbye, Doctor," said the young man, who promptly faded from view. The Doctor had mentioned him going home, Evelyn remembered.
Then, around her, the walls began to fade too. The floor turned from stone to a hard, white material. The ceiling vanished, replaced by white as far as the eye could see.
The device containing the Doctor faded also. The Doctor remained, sitting on the white floor, eyes closed in concentration.
"Doctor?" asked Evelyn, shaking him gently by the shoulder. His eyes snapped open and he beamed at her.
"It worked!" he declared, bounding to his feet.
"What worked?" inquired his mystified companion.
His smile widened. "The Land of Fiction is a virtual reality. Once I was wired in, it was up to me, as a real person, to make up stories to keep the Land going. The first thing I imagined was writing in my 500 Year Diary."
"How did that help?"
"I wrote that I woke up to find it had all been a dream, that the Land of Fiction didn't exist. I fictionalised the Land of Fiction!" he declared triumphantly.
"Well, that still leaves us without the TARDIS," Evelyn reminded him.
The Doctor rested his hands on her shoulders and turned her around. There, blue and solid, was the TARDIS.
"Now, I suggest we leave, quickly. This artificial environment won't last much longer."
The two of them made a hasty entrance to the Doctor's craft. Then, trumpeting its farewell, the TARDIS dematerialised.
***
The Doctor checked over the instruments one more time. The TARDIS reported that they were nearing their destination, so he went in search of his companion.
He rapped loudly on her door and was greeted by a muffled, "Come in."
The Doctor found Evelyn sitting in an armchair, reading. She peered at him over the top of her spectacles.
"We'll be arriving shortly," he announced.
"The Great Exhibition?"
"London 1851, as promised," he replied. "The real Victorian London this time," he continued, before she could ask.
"Good. I've always wanted to see the Crystal Palace in all its glory."
The Doctor nodded. "Shame I never made it there with Nyssa and Tegan," he mused.
"Probably a good thing," Evelyn replied. "We don't want to be running into too many of you, do we?"
"I suppose not. What's the book?"
She showed him the cover. He looked surprised.
"War of the Worlds? I would have thought you would have had enough of Martian invaders to last your lifetime?"
"I wanted to see how it ended," she told him. "After all, in a way we did live through part of it."
"Yes, I suppose we did." He led her down the corridor, towards the console room. "Did I tell you about the time I met Herbert George Wells? It all started when Peri and I landed on the planet Karfel..."
