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He walked towards London, his eyes were red from lack of sleep however he could see the great metal dome that covered London and protected her occupants from the light of the sky.

‘See that, Alice. Even after all these years people are still afraid of seeing the Other again. Even I find it difficult to look at the sky.’

He laughed happily while his companion didn’t reply. He reached one of the four Lockouts that acted as the entrance to London. Pulling out his identity papers, he ran them under a machine. It checked his data the machine coughing up clouds of smog as it tried to read the messy writing. Finally with a beep the door unlocked and he walked inside. His companion followed him.

Two guards stood inside. They pulled him over and began checking him for signs of insanity. However he was confident that he would be fine.

‘What’s this?’

One of the guards held up his left hand. It was wrapped in bandages. The guard cautiously unwrapped the bandages while he watched them with a sad expression. Finally the bandage completely fell away and the guards stepped back, horrified.

‘Did you do this!’

One of the guards shouted, both of them training their guns on him.

He shook his head sadly and held up his hand. Rather than skin, it was covered in a hardened leather, it seemed to have been burned onto the skin of his forearm. Certainly if he had done  it himself it would be a sign of insanity and give them a cause to execute him. However…

‘This happened during the Oscillation. If you will check my papers you’ll see that it also caused me to stop and my brain to mutate.’

Taking the papers the guards started reading them confirming what he had said. While they read he wrapped the bandages around his hand again.

Finally after a brief consultation they nodded and let him enter. However as he left they called out:

‘Hey, wait!’

He turned around to them, wondering what they could want.

‘You forgot your bag.’

They passed him his tattered bag and he smiled.

‘Thank you.’

He left entering London with his companion.



I am well aware I am insane. Just like most of the people who saw the Other on that day 30 years ago. Ever since the world broke being insane is nothing special. How do I know I’m insane? The ghost I occasionally talk to is a big clue.

It’s been apparent for a long time that only I can see the girl. Her red and black clothes, and long dark brown hair seems so real to me. Yet sometimes she fades out of sight and ceases to exist. But when she’s hear I talk to her, just so I can listen to her not reply and reaffirm myself. That I have gone insane.

‘So I guess we need to find somewhere to stay, Alice.’

I adjust my hat as I listened to her not reply. She was looking around London with interest, well it had been ten years since I had last walked her covered streets, so even I was interested in how much it had changed.

         - We have to run away.

I looked around in surprise at Alice. I had her speak only once before when she had told me her name.

‘Well, well. If it ain’t the Doctor.’

Standing in front of me was three people I recognised. Yvn and his underlings, Milo and Rendell, they were part of London’s darker side. Milo was a con-artist while Rendell was an ex-boxer hired for muscle, however Yvn was the truly dangerous one. He was a murderer, he liked collecting a ‘Not Dead Yet’ tax from anyone he didn’t like.

I once worked as a failing Doctor, in this age my medicinal skills usually came to naught. However since I did heal people I was a nuisance to him and he enjoyed visiting me regularily.

‘Good day to you Yvn, Milo, Rendell. I hope London has been treating you well,’ I said bowing my head to them.

Yvn’s hand shot out and he grabbed me by the head, pulling my hair he dragged me into an alley.



The Doctor, Echo, was dragged into the alley and thrown into the wall. He hit it, his nose let out a sickening ‘CRUNCH’ and he fell to the ground, blood running down his face.

‘I thought you had run, Doc? But to think you returned after ten years and think you can get by without catching up on your taxes.’

Rendell kicked Echo in the stomach and the Doctor fell onto his side, retching.

‘I think a decade’s worth of taxes comes to about… eighteen million.’

A long forked tongue unrolled from Yvn’s mouth, it licked one of the blades fused to his elbow.

‘Pay up.’

‘You should know I am nothing more than a poor Doctor, Yvn. Poor in quality and poor in finance, right? How do you expect me to pay that much?’

Yvn’s mouth split open into a mad grin, a light shining in his yellow eyes.

‘If you can’t pay then you’ll DIE!’

Yvn stabbed forward, the blade on his elbow whistling through the air towards Echo’s neck.

Light spat out from Echo’s bandaged hand and the bandages started falling away revealing what was beneath. It was not a human hand. Nor was it a hand made from toughened leather. Black-green scales glistened, serrated claws extended from his fingertips. This hand reached forward and grabbed the knife extending from Yvn’s wrist. With a screeching sound the metal blade was crushed and twisted by the pressure from that scaled hand.

‘What the fuck is that!’

Yvn sounded scared as Echo stood up.

‘I am afraid I do not yet tire of this life and have no intent to leave it.’

Echo’s voice was weird, it sounded like two voices talking at once. The Doctor smiled, a smile that didn’t reach his empty eyes.

‘But I have tired of you.’

The thing about humans with exoskeletons is that when bending, the muscle and skin of the owner of the limb will rip and tear before the bone’s break. With a wet spluch sound that was what happened to Yvn. He let out a wail and Milo and Rendell moved forward to help their boss but stopped when they saw the Doctor’s face.

For the first time since the world broke his face matched the state of his mind. Everyone who lived through that time was insane, and none more so then the Doctor.

‘Please let him go, Doctor Echo.’

‘We’ll leave you alone from now on, we promise!’

‘Yvn’s all we got!’

The Doctor looked at them coldly.

‘Very well, but he needs to be punished first.’

Echo pulled Yvn’s arm off. Yvn screamed in pain blood gushing from the wound. He fell to the ground writhing, desperately clutching at the stump that was once his right arm.

‘That wound won’t kill him but if you don’t act fast he suffer acute blood loss.’

Milo and Rendell took Yvn and ran away while Yvn shouted hysterically at Echo.

‘I’ll kill you! I’ll fucking kill you!’

Echo goes and picks up his hat from the roadside placing it back onto his head.

‘You’re welcome to try any time.’

He mutters darkly.

After searching, I found a small one room lodging. I had to use my faded skills as a Doctor to provide relief to the aching lower back of my new landlord but considering I was broke it was the only way I could pay. I needed to start getting some income again soon. I may have forgotten a lot of the stuff I learned in medical school however with abilities I had acquired in my travels I should be able to perform adequately.

Or perhaps I could work as a mercenary or something.

I glanced at the spectral girl standing beside me.

‘I’ll be going out for a while, Alice. Can you watch me while I’m gone?’

No reply. She seems to have returned to normal. I lay down on my bed and opened up the mental channels linking to my benefactor and partner.

<<Sorry about before, partner. You probably wanted to solve that without violence right?>>

‘Not really.’

I replied to the growling voice that echoed through my body.

‘Even I am aware that when dealing with someone like Yvn, violence is necessary.’

I smirked.

‘Besides, this works out well.’

<<What do you mean?>>

‘Now rumours will spread. That the insane Doctor Echo has returned to London. That the Mad Hatter had come back home.’