HELTER SKELTER
Chapter Three It took about a half hour navigating London traffic before Paul arrived at Devon and Carol's flat. They lived up on the fourth floor. They took the lift up and when they knocked on the door, Carol opened it. She was a young black lady with her hair swept up in a beehive. She was wearing light makeup, had a full, slightly chubby face with a dimple in her cheek and high cheekbones. She wore a brown peasant dress with sandals. She hugged Paul. "Roger's already here," she said. "Who are they?" Paul made introductions and everyone shook her hand. She invited them in and stepped aside while they walked through the door into the living room. Roger was sitting on the couch with Devon and Ian on either side of him. Devon was a Caucasian in his mid-twenties with long, brown shoulder length hair that shimmered in the afternoon sunlight. He had a slight tan all over his body and he had granny glasses that were perched on the end of his hawk-like nose. He had an angular face, rugged with a five o'clock shadow. He wore a dark blue paisley shirt with a brown vest and brown trousers. Ian's face was thin and sallow. There were dark circles under his eyes and he looked much older than he was. He was in his mid thirties with blonde hair that had been shaved in a military style haircut. He had several scars across his cheeks, arms and legs and he was dressed in a plain white shirt with blue jeans and white plimsols. His light green eyes were dull and had a hopeless look in them as he stared up quietly at the visitors. Devon and Carol got some chairs for the visitors and brought out a tea tray. After they sat down and fixed their tea, Paul turned his attention to Ian. "We hate to bother you but Amy and I have had a run in with the Illuminati and we barely escaped with our lives. We want to help stop them so any information you can give us will be helpful." "I was hired by the Bank of Zurich to be an interpreter for English speaking clients," he said softly. "That's why I was there. Me and several others had access to the vaults. Five years ago I was working and two people came into the bank, man and a woman. They were interested in opening an account with us. They spoke English so they let me handle it. They seemed nice enough. While I was opening the account for them we chatted and went from small talk to talking about personal things. They were very polite and articulate. Knew a lot about world affairs. We ended up speaking for about a half hour before they left. I noticed they took one of my business cards from the holder in the front of my desk but people do that so they can call me if they have any questions about their account so I didn't think anything of it. I deposited the thousand dollars they gave to me in one of the vaults and went on with my day. Three weeks went by and I completely forgot about them. I was going on a three week holiday to Florida and I told everyone goodbye and left for the day. I went back to my house and that's when they ambushed me. They'd been following me without my knowledge and learning where I lived and my daily routine. They used chloroform and knocked me out, tied me up and put a hood over my head so when I did wake up I had no idea where I was. All I knew was I was laying in the back of a lorry or something like that because I was able to stretch my legs out. "And they never allowed you to see where you were the entire time," the Doctor said. "No. They stopped the lorry and took me out so I could urinate but even then I kept the hood on." "Do you know how long you were in the lorry?" "Not sure, hours maybe? I was eventually taken to an aeroplane and strapped into a seat." "With the hood still on," Paul said. "No, they took the hood off as long as I was in the plane but they kept the window shades down so I couldn't see where we were going. They fed me some food since my arms were tied to the arm rests. It was a long journey thought, several hours and then as soon as the plane landed, the hood was back on and they escorted me out, tied me up on the runway and put me in the back of another lorry. When they finally removed the hood, I was inside a building. The people around me told me that it was a prison camp and I was going to be kept there in case they needed me again. I told them that someone would miss me eventually and they told me they were preparing a double to take my place and he would be ready by the time my holiday was up. After that, I was basically tortured, starved, worked like a slave, you name it, they did it to me." "Is that what they were going to do to us then?" Amy said. "I mean, they wanted to keep me and Paul alive until we tried to escape. Would we have been sent to this place eventually?" Rory put his arms around her. "I'm glad you weren't," he whispered in her ear. "Lost ya once, I don't know what I'd do if I lost ya again." Amy smiled. She nuzzled his cheek and snuggled up close while they listened to Ian. "So, how did you escape then?" Paul asked. "Supply lorry. They go up to the surface every so often, I managed to get in the back of one when a guard wasn't looking and hid behind a shipment of supplies and the door closed and they went up." "Went up, implying there's some sort of road between the island and the surface," the Doctor said. "I s'pose so. I didn't see anything. I just waited until they stopped and when one of the people opened the doors and went inside to check the stuff, I hit him in the face with the butt of a rifle and leapt out with it. I was at some warehouse here in London, looked abandoned but I didn't care I ran and didn't look back." "And this factory, the men there were receiving shipments of guns?" the Doctor said. "Guns, ammo, I saw some office supplies while I was running out of the lorry. Apparently it's everything they need to function. Unfortunately, the gun I had wasn't loaded so I hid it nearby so the police wouldn't detain me. I kept on running and when I felt like I'd gotten far enough away, I came to this block of flats and chose one floor. I heard noise coming from behind the door of this flat so I knocked on it and the rest you know." "Wait, why wouldn't you want the police to find you?" Rory said, confused. "Shouldn't you have gone to them and told them what was going on?" "No, because I don't trust the police. I know for a fact that several police are on their payroll and I was scared to talk to one in case he was one of them," Ian said. "I needed to find someone I didn't think would be working for them. That's how I found Carol and Devon. I don't know what to do now though. I assume that double they have is still pretending to be me so I'm sure they'll be out hunting for me before I come out of hiding and tell everyone what's happened." "Well, you're safe now, love," Carol said, laying a hand on his arm, "you can stay here as long as you need to." "Thank you," Ian said. "Ian, where is this warehouse?" the Doctor said. "Can you give us directions to it?" "I think so. Are you going to check it out?" "Yes, we need to see what's in there and if there is any information about this island since I s'pose you have no idea where the entrance to it is." "No, I have no idea; I was in back of the lorry the whole time." "That's the first thing we have to do then," the Doctor said. "We have to go to this warehouse and find out if anything significant's in it." "And then what?" Roger said. The Doctor grinned. "Then we find this island and we rescue whoever's trapped there and take out more of the Illuminati," he said. After they got directions to the warehouse and left the flat, they climbed back into Paul's car and drove back to the studio. "We need to go back and tell the others where we're going, just in case they need to contact me on my future phone," Paul said. "And William wants to come along as well," Amy said. "Oh yes, I hope you don't mind," Paul said. "No, no, we need all the help we can get," the Doctor said. Paul was silent for a moment as he drove his car. "You must think I'm daft for doing this, wanting to stop the Illuminati when I'm just a musician." The Doctor chuckled. "Paul, my two associates here were ordinary people before I asked them to help me. Rory here was a nurse and Amelia here…" He stared at her. "Um…she dressed up in costume and kissed people." "She did what?" Paul said as they laughed. "Dressed up in costume and kissed people?" "I was a kiss-o-gram. I dressed as a nun or a policewoman or several other things and I went round to people's houses and kissed them for their birthdays and stuff like that." Paul looked at Rory beside him. "Nun? She went round to people's houses dressed like a nun and kissed them? Interesting wife you have there," he said. Amy blushed when Rory and the Doctor sniggered. "But the point is," the Doctor said, sobering up, "all the humans who have traveled with me or assisted me started out as ordinary humans and they were filled with a desire to fight evil just like you and just like William. So I don't find it weird at all. It's how I've found most of my allies. The most ordinary human can do the most extraordinary things, believe that." "So," Rory said, looking behind him at the Doctor, "does this mean he and William are honorary companions then?" The Doctor beamed. "Sure, if they want to be," he said. Paul's mouth dropped open. He was so much in shock that he nearly rear ended the car in front of him and only slammed on the brakes when Amy yelled at him. They were stopped at a traffic light and Paul looked behind him. "You mean you would consider me one of your time travelers?" he said in disbelief. "A companion? Yes. After all, you and William have seemed to appointed yourself companions in my absence and since I don't want anything to happen to either of you, I hereby proclaim you and William an official companion." The car behind Paul honked. He turned his head back around, saw the light had turned green and drove on, feeling giddy that the Doctor, Amy and Rory were accepting him as one of their own. He frowned and glanced in his rearview mirror when Amy tapped him on the shoulder. "Yeah?" he said. "I was just wondering how you passed your driving test. You fell off your moped, rolled your Aston Martin and nearly collided with that car. Are you fit to drive?" "Now wait just one minute!" Paul said while everyone laughed hysterically. "I'm a perfectly capable driver. I admit I should have been paying attention now and when I crashed my moped but the Aston Martin accident wasn't my fault, I was pushed off the road and you were a witness to it so shut your gob!" "Just sayin', I think the whole Paul is Dead rumor got started because people know what a shitty driver you are." The Doctor and Rory laughed. They laughed harder when Paul pulled off into a carpark, parked the car and tried to make a grab for her. "Doctor, stop him!" Amy squealed as she batted at his arm. "Now, now! Stop it! Stop it! I won't have discord between my companions!" the Doctor said. "First rule of mine, companions get along and work together. Well…actually rule number one is don't wander off…so rule number two, companions don't fight! Behave!" Amy giggled when Paul tousled her hair. She gave him a playful swat on the back of his head and chuckled to herself as he put the car in gear and left the carpark.
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