Chapter Text
Paper Cuts
by Charles Mento
It smelled of veiled perfume. A gingerly touch to his face, just a hair veiling across his breathing space as he tried to sleep. Images of blue lines as if a monitor at his job were off line. No. These were separated evenly, spaced all the same. Crust filled his eyes as he jumped up out of his bed. He found he couldn't see any part of his body as yet. He struggled to get it, get them, off of him. He waved his arms about and the rustling of paper filled his ears. He could see his hands now and his arms. But his feet----they slipped on slips of stacked piles. Papers were everywhere. Little pad-like papers, loose leaf papers, insurance bills, receipts of payment from the registrar and the book store, income tax notices, telephone numbers hastily written down in the pub the other night. The seven digits of professors nice enough to give their home phone number. Mail and more mail. Advertisements, fliers, newspapers, college newspapers. TV Guides. The college boy slipped and fell, his back against the bed...but between back and bed side were more papers, falling off the bed, onto the floor, over his head. They seemed alive and covered him from the bed. He screamed.
"Doc---tor," the young boy said with growing but familiar annoyance, "Are we there yet?"
"What?" A man with a large scarf, worn as if it didn't phase him a bit that it was 16 feet long, came running into the room.
The boy was elfin, a pug-like nose, sparkling black eyes, and a roundish handsome face. His youthful enthusiasum was not lost on the older being. "You said we were going to find out what it looked like when people were...abandoned to their, what was it you called it, their paper goods?"
"Money!" The Doctor snapped at the boy, having to bend down to do so, "Green paper. Money. I wanted to show you, Adric, the homeless. Those who are abandoned by their own kind because of lack of paper."
"You mean abandoned as in...?"
"I mean as in left on the streets. Piled into, if they are lucky, shelters where they might be given some food that might sustain them for a forthnight if they aren't mugged or worse..."
"Can't we do something to help them?"
"You know, I quite wondered about that myself for ages, now," the man with the brown curly hair and tall body thought. He looked off into the distance. "Take them somewhere, I suppose..."
The room they were in was white with round insets in the walls. "Well..." Adric gestured toward the main console which filled the room as the rotor on top went up and down, "...did you set the TARDIS to take us there?"
The man, the Doctor hit himself on the top of his curly head, "You know...I don't know..."
Adric sighed. "Can't you check it?"
One moment in deep thought, the next the Doctor ran to the console, startling Adric. He looked at the console direction finder, "I did. I mean I must have. It's taking us to a place where many are destitute and have lost direction, maybe even hope..." He stopped as he heard the wheezing of the TARDIS time itself in sync with the console rotor. Then a sound of landing, the TARDIS settled into one place. "We've arrived."
"Where?"
"Where?! Where?"
"You told me..."
"Where? If I knew where, where would the fun be in that? C'mon, let's find out where." He grabbed a floppy hat and plopped it on his head and waved a hand to the boy. The boy smiled, knowing full well what the Doctor wanted. His young hand moved gracefully over a red ball that was attached to a lever in the console. The two main doors to the exit opened inward and the Doctor strode out, not waiting for Adric. Adric followed.
Outside, Adric bothered to close the doors by hand. For the TARDIS looked like an oblong old fashioned London Police Box, bigger on the inside than the outside. Adric looked up and down the area as the Doctor before him had done. "Well where?"
"I was right, Adric, I was right."
"Well, it can happen," Adric murmured.
"It appears to be some sort of college apartment block."
"Block?"
"A square."
"A cube?"
"Will you stop doing that, please?!" The Doctor snapped but didn't mean anything nasty by it. Adric was almost used to his ways by now. He wondered how Romana put up with the constant changes in mood, the stinging sarcasm, the serious frivolity, the frivolous seriousness, and immature moments. The Doctor would come in and out of all of these with alarming regularity now.
"Ahhh, I see now," Adric pointed all around the square, a large brick building surrounding the open space of the shape. The ground was also done up in brick paths which lead to a lower cement area which lead to another square of shrubbery. Trees lined the geometric shape. It was all quite pleasant in its own way, Adric thought. Very mathematical. The TARDIS right in the middle of it, sat in a center grove of thin trees that had their upper lean trunks only slightly brushed aside by it.
"Seems to be May." The Doctor breathed in, "Feel that sunshine and smell that grass."
"I can almost smell the sunshine and feel the grass," Adric mimicked the Doctor's strange sayings.
The Doctor looked at him, "Can you? You know, you're improving, rather rapidly, too." He smiled. The boy reminded him of himself. In fact, with his powers of regeneration very similar...something caught his attention. He stood up straight again and the goosebumps on the back of his neck made him wide eyed.
Adric noticed this at once, "Doctor! What is i...?"
"Shhh, shhhh, shhhh, shhhh," the Doctor put up a hand. "I feel something..."
"The wind?"
"No, the old girl brought us here for a reason this time."
"Do you know what it is?"
"I can't know everything, where..."
"...where would the fun be in that, I know."
The two of them stopped at the sight of a small white and blue mail truck which stopped nearby, the back of it filled with brown and white postings. The back window was entirely blocked with the packages, envelopes, boxes, flyers, advertisements, and book rejection notices from publishers. A yellow-brown-white mass that seemed to writhe as the truck stopped. The Doctor looked Adric in the eyes for a moment, both of them incredoulous at this. Quickly, a small man, short red hair under a brimmed cap, blue shirt and shorts, emptied out of the truck side, spilling with him letters, envelopes, and other paper goods. Many colors. The man, his face emotionless, resigned to his fate, scooped up a large amount of these. While he passed them the first three times, the Doctor and Adric were both keen to study this but after that, the Doctor perked up his nose as if to sense something that other beings could not. Adric kept watching this interesting task of this rather ordinary man. "Shouldn't we help him?"
"What? Why? Oh, he does seem to have an awful lot of mail, doesn't he? Go on then, help him."
"I said we. I've never seen anything like this where I'm from. Have you?"
"Adric, I'm busy. I'm feeling something in the air..."
"All right." Adric went to the mailman and quickly gained his acceptance. Anyone with this amount of work was not going to turn down his offer even though it went against his job protocol to gain outside help. Adric began his task with gusto. After a few arm loads of delieveries, Adric stopped and went back to the Doctor's side. "Oh, I see now why you didn't want to help."
"Help? I'm always helping."
"What about him?"
"Follow him and learn something about what all this is," The Doctor started up quickly but stopped and turned to stare Adric in the face, bending down, "I mean there's mail and there's mail but there's something not quite right here."
The last doorway to a brick front of the building with a small portico and railings. The mailman was stuffing mail into the box, also the slot on the door bottom and even under the door. Adric was confused as he watched the man do this. He wondered why...
"...are you ringing the doorbell?" The mailman asked the Doctor.
"Well," the Doctor cleared his throat in a most pedantic manner, "Uh, uh, yes, there does seem to be some important things for him to sign for."
"Him?"
"Yes, him," the Doctor said, none too friendly.
"Who?"
The Doctor knelt to the bent mailman and caught a falling letter, "Ahh, William P. Dumont."
The door was open before they knew it and the teenager behind it heard this, "That's me."
William P. Dumont was 19, just started college, blond, blue eyed and at a cursory glance, the Doctor picked up some things telepathically that may or may not have been true. He liked to be called Bill, not Billy, not Will, not William. He was fond of the ladies and they fond of him; he was athletic, probably on the swim team as he had little body hair. The Doctor knew this last bit because Bill answered the door shirtless and in swimming trunks. Bill's bare feet already lounged through a pile of mail on his mat. Those blue eyes looked red with dark rings under them. His voice while sing-songy as a ladies' man should be, was also quite ragged. "This is all yours," the mailman said, about to give it all up.
"What can I do for you guys?"
Adric just stared. Then he scooped up some of the large amount of mail.
The Doctor looked at all the mail, "Mind you, a shovel would help."
"Doctor," Adric admonished, then moved forward since he felt the Doctor and the mailman were unfit to introduce the problem. In his arms were mailings. "We wanted to help deliever these...papers to you."
Bill looked as if he were about to cry. The Doctor dropped some of his papers, "Look, can we help? I mean you don't look well. Are you, are you all right?" The Doctor examined the teenager's eyes as they were rubbed.
"No, I...I am not," the 19 year old stated, "Please...come in..." The three started in but Bill saw Adric and the mailman carrying reams of mail. "No, no, no! Please, leave those out there," he called from the white stucco hallway, which was carpeted with white rectangular shapes...more mail. Adric flung his out the door but the mailman looked stranded between his job and pity for poor Bill. Adric came in, passed Bill and the Doctor, and moved down the hallway. Bill saw the mailman hesitant, "Get out! Get out! Go on, get out!" He pushed the man out the door and shut it tightly, leaned on it, and muffled cries.
Funny, both Adric and the Doctor thought, Bill didn't look like the type to cry easily. He hadn't been rough when he pushed the mailman out the door, just quick and even somewhat gentle. As if wanted the man's cargo of papers out more than the man himself. As they entered a plush living room area, Bill sat down on a brown cushioned couch and looked at Adric, "Did I hear you say your friend there is a Doctor?"
"The Doctor a Doctor? I... "
The Doctor smiled, "Perhaps if you tell us what is wrong?"
"He can put some clothes on for a start," Adric murmured.
"Adric..." The Doctor quietly chastized the boy.
"No, he's right. I'm not up to the swim practice this morning. I'm on the swim team as you might have guessed, you being a Doctor and all...a professor here at the college..."
"Yes," the Doctor said, "Go on."
"Well, bud, look around, go on, just look around."
Hundreds, perhaps thousands of papers littered the room, the brown rugs were hardly seen. The large TV set opposite the couch against the wall was topped by strings of paper, some strung together, uncut computer paper draped over the front of tube. Magazines on a coffee table directly in front of the couch were barely visible under more junk mail.
"You need a maid, you do," Adric noted.
"Adric," the Doctor bit his lip, shut his eyes at Adric's silly comment and said, "If one's words are no better than silence, then one should be silent."
"You mean...ohh, I see," Adric frowned.
Despite himself, Bill laughed, "Sit down, both of you."
Bill began his strange tale. When he finished, the Doctor and Adric merely stared at him. The Doctor didn't look at either one of them after a few minutes but stared into space, "Adric, a few of my things from the TARDIS."
"Like?"
"I'll jot some of it down for you," The Doctor took out a glowing pen from his immensely deep left pocket and a small pad from the right pocket, while at the same time, he turned to Bill, "A table, do you have a...ahhh," he stood up, "Never you mind, you just rest there, I found one..." The Doctor strode to the furnished kitchen area and found a rounded table and quickly with one arm, pushed all the papers and bulk mail off of it with a grunt, "There, that ought to do nicely, now what..."
"The list," Adric smiled, just behind him.
"Yes," the Doctor finished it and sent Adric on his way.
Hours later, the Doctor was finished peering into his microscope, "Come look at this, Adric." Bill was laying on the couch but Adric was reading a curious magazine of Bill's that neither Bill nor the Doctor knew he had a hold of. He was sure they wouldn't let him read it, if they knew so he had finely concealed it from them. Which wasn't too difficult as the Doctor was engaged in scientific studies of the paper and Bill was too out of it to care. Yet he seemed better than when they first met him. "Adric..."
"Coming..." Adric moved off a large plush pull back chair, plopped the magazine under it's cushion seat, and went to the Doctor, skipping gaily. "What have you found?"
"Take a look at that and tell me how many you think there are?"
Adric looked in, "They....they're alive!"
"Yes," the Doctor told him.
Bill stirred from his mind set of cloudiness, "Wha? What's alive?"
As Bill started to move off the couch, the Doctor put his arms out and his hands up, "No, Will, you stay there, don't come over here."
"Doctor, there are papers everywhere," Adric said, "Getting near these can't effect him any more than those."
"Good point," the Doctor said, "There are about a billion of them in that tiny field of view."
"About."
"I think they reproduce at a rate of ten billion a second which would make about..."
Adric gave the correct answer which startled the Doctor, who forgot about his badge for mathematlical excellence. Adric wasn't trying to show he was smart. In fact, he looked frightened. "Doctor, if you're right..."
"And I invariably am..." The Doctor said, his nose and eyebrows high...
"...then Earth is in very grave danger."
"I don't think these things kill but they do spread rapidly."
"How?"
"It seems they lay these eggs on paper, adhere to the paper and when they hatch, they can move the paper but while they make more of themselves and lay more eggs, they make copies of the papers. I think you'll find..."
"That's absurd," Adric raised his eyebrows and looked around the apartment.
"...I think you'll find that many of these are just copies of other original papers."
"Does it originate here, on Earth?"
"It might...I mean Earth has been using paper for a very long time so there is a chance these things came out of the wood or maybe from space. Either way, they don't kill but their presense will mean terrible things."
Bill strode up, looking more fit than before. "What kinds of terrible things, Doctor?"
"Ohhh," the Doctor puffed out his cheeks and blew, "This thing can cause humans to be buried in papers and eventual madness when they get too many tax returns, insurance cards, applications for other Doctors, etc."
"The eggs must be microscopic..." Adric put in.
"Well they aren't exactly like eggs but they are microscopic, they act more like a virus, Adric and viruses...hmmmm, I need some info...we should go to the registrar..."
"Where there is the most proliferation of paper?" Bill asked.
"Yes," the Doctor smiled, "You're thinking, I like that."
"I'll come with you," Bill made for the door.
"No, I think you should stay here. That amount of paper could drive you insane even more than you already are," the Doctor smiled, "...but cheer up, we'll have this sorted out soon enough..."
Bill's face went through a series of expressions from insulted to agreeable. This was a very odd pair.
As Adric made to follow the Doctor, who was already bustling out the door, long scarf tails following, he turned to Bill, "And do put some clothes on, will you?"
Bill smiled as Adric high tailed it out the door after the Doctor. He felt better they were on the job. Bill felt suddenly weak though and had to lay down again.
"Doctor, up there."
"No, Adric, Bill's map, one of about three thousand I found on the floor, says the registar is this way."
"Not that, up there!" Adric tugged on the Doctor's voluminous sleeve.
"Oh my," the Doctor stared. By now, hours later, the square was filled with papers, so much so that more paper showed than pavement, the green of the plant life about was blotted out by whiteness. But where Adric pointed made the Doctor more panicky. A girl, about Bill's age, bruntte, with brown eyes, stood on the top of one of the dorm buildings in the square. Her flimsey night gown blowing in the wind.
Adric, very loudly, stated the obvious, "She means to jump!"
"No one else noticing this?" The Doctor said, "How very strange."
"Who cares!" Adric made to run for the doors to the building but found himself dragged back to the Doctor.
"Adric!" The Doctor sneered and murmured through clenched teeth, "I need you here. Talk to her. Stall her."
"What are you going to do?"
"As I can move so fast that sometimes I don't even exist, I'm going to make it to the top and get her but I need time. You need to keep her where she is at the moment."
"What'll I...?"
"Anything," the Doctor spat lowly.
"Hello up there. I can see you're a pretty girl especially from down here at this angle," Adric said, innocently, then winced as he realized how that sounded.
"Good, good, that's good," the Doctor meant it, "Keep that up and I'll be right up there."
Adric turned a bit as he talked some more, "I think that this place is a fine place...." The Doctor was gone. There was an open window on the first floor.
The Doctor moved through and across someone's bed and as he did part of his scarf took some of the sheets with him. Two people sat bolt upright . "Excuse me," the Doctor's large bulk was at their door. He was out of it in a flash but popped back in, "I say, is this a Saturday morn or something?"
One of the stunned people in the bed answered, "Friday, not many classes..."
"Ahhhh," the Doctor dashed out again.
end part 1