HELTER SKELTER

Chapter Fourteen

It took about an hour to walk from Jane's house to Paul's house. So there was still an hour to go when they reached the front gate. All of them went inside to use the toilet, not knowing how long the journey would take. Before they left, Paul took one last look around and sighed.

"Here we go again," he muttered.

They went outside and waited while the Doctor, Rory and Amy waited behind them. Paul looked over his shoulder and frowned when he saw them standing there.

"Um, I think we have a problem," Paul said.

"And the problem is?" the Doctor said while William gave Paul an alarmed look.

"I can see you. You said those perception filters make you invisible, right?" Paul replied while William looked with him.

"Yeah, I can see you as well."

"That's because you want to see us," the Doctor said. "The perception filters don't make us invisible, just unnoticed. However, if you know we're here or you want to see us, you can see us. Same goes for the TARDIS. It also has a perception filter built into her which is why most people don't give her a second glance. If I'm correct, when they drive up in the lorry, they'll see us but ignore us and not give us another thought while they deal with you."

"And if you're wrong?" William said.

"Then we deal with them and come up with another plan," the Doctor said.

Paul looked back at his house. He chuckled and looked at William.

"What?" William said.

"If I die and you make it, I want you to have everything I own, except for the box of digestive biscuits in the cupboard, you can give those to Piss Off, Pond."

"Shut up!" Amy said while the Doctor and Rory snickered.

"No wait; give her the MBE as well since she seems to admire it so much."

"Fine, I'll take it!" Amy said.

Paul snorted.

"You have it then. You know what that thing does? It allows me to put MBE after my name. That's it. No authority over the government, no ability to make laws, no power of life or death over people. I can just tell people I'm an MBE, big deal. You know…don't know if you know or not but before we went in to get that little doodah, we smoked pot in her royal highness's loo."

"You did?" Amy said while the Doctor snickered.

"Sure did. Pissed off a lot of people and some of them returned their own MBEs because they were thinking how dare these long haired weirdoes do something so blasphemous as smoke weed in Buckingham Palace? Well, we'll show these degenerates they said, we'll all return our worthless medals. Up yours, Beatles," Paul said while they giggled. "Lizzy doesn't even have any real authority so I don't know why they got so angry that we smoked pot in her loo. We've smoked pot in lots of people's loos. Lizzy was a nice woman but she's not God."

"So…" Amy said innocently, "when it comes time for you to be knighted, you're gonna say fuck you and smoke weed in front of her face?"

Paul and William gave her an odd look.

"Knighted? Me?" Paul said.

"Yeah…well, I mean first time around it was him," Amy said, pointing to William.

Paul looked at William.

"You mean I have to call you Sir William Campbell?" he said while they laughed.

"Yes, yes, you do," William said. "Bow to me!"

"P'eh, in your dreams, mate!" Paul said while they laughed. "But wait…Lizzy forgave me for smoking weed in her house then?"

"Um…yeah, I s'pose so. You got it for contribution to British culture or something like that."

"Wait, when does this happen?"

"1997," the Doctor said.

"So thirty years from now, I get to make everyone call me Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE?'

"Yup," Rory said.

"Groovy," he said while he laughed. "That rolls off the tongue nicely. Much better than Sir William Campbell."

"I don't need your lousy knighthood, mate," William said while they laughed.

"Truth be told, I don't either but I'll go just to see old Bessie Boo fawn over me and call me one of the greatest men who ever lived and see if she mentions the weed in the loo incident," Paul said with a wink.

"Um…about the weed," Amy said, "if you plan to smoke any more of it, don't do it in Japan."

"Why?" Paul said while the Doctor and Rory laughed.

"Because you get arrested coming into Japan in 1980 when they find pot on your person and you spend a few days in a Japanese jail before they release you," the Doctor said.

"Okay, no pot if I go to Japan, gotcha!" Paul said. "Anything else I do that I should be made aware of?"

"You crash your Aston Martin into the side of a lorry carrying fifty mopeds and cause a huge mess."

They laughed when Paul chased Amy several feet down the pavement before he turned and checked his watch.

"1:39 a.m," he said as he and Amy walked back to them. "Nearly time."

"Just stay calm," the Doctor said, "we're gonna be with you. Just do what they say and don't resist. The last thing we want is for you and William to get injured."

"I agree," they heard Jane said. "You have to live long enough to get this knighthood. Not to mention marry me so don't be a hero if it's not safe enough."

"I won't, love. I'll be careful," he said.

"Which reminds me. Before they come, do you want the wedding here in 1967 or at some other time? After all, I do have a time machine," the Doctor said.

Paul and William shared a look and an impish smile spread over Paul's face.

"Yeah, I would like to be wed back when dinosaurs roamed the world," he said while William sniggered.

"Okay, however I must warn you that it might be a tad inconvenient for us to stop the ceremony halfway through when the velociraptors jump out of the shrubbery and start eating the guests," the Doctor said.

"Oh yeah, that would be a bit messy not to mention we'd have to force Pond to mop up the blood and pull body parts out of the trees."

"Shut up, Paul," Amy said.

Paul thought for a moment.

"How 'bout you pick a location? I loved the alien planet you took us to," Paul said, looking back at the Doctor.

"Well, there are several beautiful commitment ceremonies on other planets that I could recommend. So if you'd like to have a proper church wedding plus a commitment ceremony…"

"What you think, Jane love?" Paul said.

"I wouldn't mind. As long as we do a church wedding to make it official here on Earth," Jane said to him.

"Yes, you need to have a proper ceremony before you go get married on Mars," Margaret said.

"Um…no marriage ceremonies on Mars, that civilization died out long ago. Unless you have your heart set on Mars then I could go back to the time when they had a civilization and…"

"Doctor, be quiet," Amy said, shaking her head while they giggled.

"I'm just giving him some options," the Doctor said.

"Um…black lorry coming," Rory said, pointing up the road.

Everyone looked where he was pointing and Paul groaned as the three behind him fell silent.

"Here goes nothing," Paul muttered to William.

They adopted a casual demeanor as the lorry pulled up. In the cab were two people Paul didn't recognize. Both of them were menacing, thug types. The one driving had stubble on his slightly pudgy face and the other one was clean shaven. They stared at him and William and Paul held his breath while he prayed they didn't see the Doctor, Rory and Amy. He waited but the two of them only seemed to notice him and William and he let his breath out while they got out of the lorry. He saw on the seat between them a roll of duct tape, strips of black cloth and a couple of black hoods and he stiffened his back as he mentally prepared himself for what lay ahead. He noticed as the two men came towards him that the one with the stubble had a slight limp. The other man was muscular and looked like he could break someone's neck without batting an eyelid. The muscular one grabbed the cloth, tape and hoods as his companion came up to them.

"Right on time, good, the masters will be pleased that you obeyed," he said to them.

Paul looked into his eyes and felt anger rise up in his mind when he saw the familiar glazed look in the man's eyes that he had seen in William's eyes. He forced himself to remain calm and thanked God that the men apparently couldn't see their friends.

"I want some assurance that my friends are okay," Paul said to him.

"Don't know about that, mate. I only do as the masters command," the man replied, shrugging his shoulders.

"Yes, I bet you do," Paul muttered.

He stood quietly and offered no resistance while the man put his wrists together in front of his body and commanded him to keep them that way. Paul obeyed and the man used the duct tape to tie them together. Then he put the cloth over his eyes and secured it by wrapping the duct tape around his head four times. He them put the hood over his head while William watched.

"Don't do anything. I can wrap this tape around the bottom of the hood and let you suffocate in there," the man growled.

"I won't resist, trust me," Paul said.

William swallowed hard and automatically put his wrists together. The man chuckled.

"I see the little sheep still knows how to be docile," he sneered at him.

The Doctor seized Amy's shoulder when he sensed she was about to knock the man on his ass for that. They all watched while William allowed himself to be treated in the same manner Paul was. Then they watched while the two men got behind them and urged them forward. The Doctor beckoned to his two remaining companions and they slowly followed. They waited by the side of the lorry, watching while the men slid open the door. The Doctor held up his finger when the men helped Paul and William to get inside it. Then when they climbed up inside to help them move towards the back, the Doctor nodded at Amy and Rory and they quickly went around the side and quietly got in while the men were busy sitting Paul and William down at the back. The Doctor, Amy and Rory pressed themselves up against the wall and watched while the men walked by, unaware of their presence. Amy walked over to Paul and William and crouched down beside Paul while the Doctor and Rory stood still as the men turned, grabbed a leather strap and pulled the door back down, plunging them into darkness.

"Doctor?" Paul whispered, "Amy, Rory? You here?"

"Yeah, we're here, Bro," Amy said. "All of us."

The Doctor pulled a torch out of his pocket, turned it on and used it to help him and Rory find their way over to the two captives.

"I can't take the tape off around your eyes but I can lift the hoods so you can breathe a bit better," the Doctor whispered to them.

He took the hoods up and Paul and William smiled when Amy kissed their cheeks. They heard the engine start up and the three of them sat down beside Paul and William while they felt the lorry being put into gear and start to move.

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