I blinked my eyes uncertainly at my surroundings. Color. There was too much color. Though my vision was blurred and my mind swam with my disorientation, I was able to discern that much. Hadn't I been, only seconds ago, surrounded by harsh white walls?

Pain. That was the second thing I figured out. I could feel a bruise beginning to form along the side of my leg, the one I was currently laying on. My head was throbbing and my stomach churned uncomfortably. I tried rolling over to get off my tender leg, but was met with a sharp prickling pain along my back.

I tried to remember what had happened to me, but I just… couldn't. All my thoughts were blurred together. Think… think! My name… my name is Darcy Lynn Roberts. I am 21 years old. I am a student. I work at… what's the name again?

There's a girl there… my boss. I am her intern. Rose. Her name is Rose. Rose Tyler. I work for Rose Tyler, Director of the Torchwood Institute.

Torchwood.

The word made my blurry memories click into place. It was November 26, and Torchwood was under attack.

…

Tick tock… tick tock… tick tock…

Thirty minutes. Thirty minutes and I could finally leave "White Walled Tedium" and return home, to my parents, to delicious food, to my incredibly over used lap top (to look at cats and sob over fictional characters, I swear!), and to a nice warm bed.

Don't get me wrong, I love Torchwood. This place has practically been a second home to me. When I was born, both my parents had worked here, my mum as the leading physician and medical researcher, and my dad a field agent. My dad has since retired, but my mum still comes in everyday at 5 in the morning and doesn't leave until both my dad and I have had dinner and settled into our bedtime routines. As much as I love this institution, the thought of working in an office like my mother's, all plain white walls and a big desk overflowing with paperwork, sent literal shivers down my spine. No, I longed for my dad's work. The adventure of an alien encounter, face to face, protecting the planet with just my quick wit (and perhaps a gun if the need arises).

So I guess you can see my conundrum. What was I, a future field agent; doing in the same kind of white walled hell my mom currently works in? Simple. I was an intern for the director, a Miss Rose Tyler; a job I had only secured due to my mum's high position and the respect of my father's retired field agent status. It's not all bad though. I mean, Rose is really nice. She's barely older than me and we get along great. Speaking of…

"Darcy, I'm about to head out. You sent out that memo didn't you?"

"Just now." I lied. I had actually spent the past 15 minutes staring angrily and the clock, willing it to just go faster.

She raised a suspicious eyebrow but let the subject drop. It's not like memos were all that important anyway. Rose had once confided in me that she didn't really like her job all that much. Like me, she'd rather be out in the field. But after her father had retired to spend more time with his family, he had trusted nobody but Rose to take over the job. But at least she was let out of the white cage on special occasions to do some work of actual substance.

I'm coming across rather whiny and ungrateful, aren't I? I don't mean to, I just tend to get carried away. I only have 6 months left as an intern until I can start my official Torchwood Agent training. For now, I am perfectly content to help at Torchwood in any way I can, even if it is boring, and tedious, and the worst possible-

Right. Sorry. What was I talking about? Oh yeah, work of actual substance. See, Rose was married to this man called the Doctor (though his real name, he said, was John Smith), and he was basically Torchwood legend. Each day there was a new rumor going around about who he really was, usually crazy and outlandish (but the Doctor was a crazy and outlandish sort of bloke). Personally, I suspected him to be an alien, though according to my mum my idea was ridiculous. Her tests had shown him to be 100% human.

Human or not, the Doctor's experience with all things alien was unparalleled. He was often called in as leading consultant on particularly difficult cases. When there were no particularly difficult cases he was usually found in the tech department fixing things that didn't really need to be fixed or here, in Rose's office, being utterly distracting and talking both women's ears off.

That was why I wasn't too surprised nor concerned when he rushed in thirty minutes before I was about to leave, out of breath but still managing to gasp out his wife's name.

"Rose! You need to come quick." He panted. I finally turned towards him once I heard the urgency in his voice, and saw how panicked he actually was. This wasn't one of his average visits.

"What's going on?" Rose asked taking in her husband's disheveled appearance.

He looked her straight in the eye, and said the one word that would ultimately change my life for good. He said it so coolly, but with a cold, hard anger. He said, "Daleks."

Rose jumped into action and started towards the door, I was about to follow but the Doctor pulled me back and gripped me by both shoulders. "Don't come after us. Run. Just run and don't stop no matter what. You have to get out."

Looking back on it, I think he must've known then what was going to happen. The Doctor was an intelligent man; he must have noticed what had been happening with me my entire life, even if nobody else did. But at the time his words only caused me to grow angry. "I can help! My dad's been teaching me how to-"

He cut me off. "Run."

Then he left, leaving me stunned, and admittedly a little hurt. Sure, I wasn't officially trained or anything, but that didn't mean I was useless. I could help just as much as the next person, and if people were in danger…

My decision was made. I know the Doctor had my best intentions in mind, but I'm not about to just run out like some kind of damsel in distress. I would fight, just like my dad would. To this day I can't exactly decide if that was the best decision I ever made, or the dumbest. But it could have quite possibly been both.

I took a deep breath to steady myself, my head still spinning at the thought of what I was about to do, and stepped out the door. That's when I heard them. Horrible, screaming, alien voices rising over the sound of guns and my coworkers, "Exterminate! Exterminate!"

The sound sent an involuntary chill down my spine. In a moment of panic, I ran in the opposite direction. Perhaps the Doctor was right. I was just an intern, what was I going to do against a Dalek? And I didn't even have a weapon. I could hear their voices coming closer, and the screams as people, people I knew and worked with, had coffee with, joked with; fell to the ground. Dead. I didn't even want to think about identifying them.

"Darcy! What are you doing here? Get out!" I whipped around quickly to see my mum, her color completely drained from her face. She was holding tight to a gun, as if it was her lifeline, but if the earlier screams were any indication, it was practically useless.

"Mum!" I nearly cried in relief at seeing her alive and had to fight the urge to hug her as tightly as possible. "I can't believe you're actually-"

"Experiment obtained! Exterminate!"

I could only watch in horror as one of those things came around the corner, aimed its "blaster" and fired. At my mother.

"Oh my God! Mum!" I could've collapsed right there from grief, but there was a bigger problem at hand, fighting off these monsters. I grabbed the gun out of Mum's limp hands and pointed it at the dalek. "You bastard… Stay back!"

I don't know why I thought that would work. A gun hadn't intimidated the thing earlier, there was no way it was going to now. I heard another coming up behind me.

"Experiment obtained! Move Forward!"

I was caught, surrounded by Daleks, I had no choice but to obey. The Doctor was right, I had decided to fight and was caught not even five minutes later. I was pathetic. I was practically shaking in shame and fear as I was paraded in front of my colleagues who were, miraculously, still trying to fight the Daleks off. I tried not to look at the ones that were lying on the ground, like Mum.

As we neared the end of the hallway, a couple standing off to the right caught my attention. It was Rose, she looked visibly upset, like she wanted to come forward, but she was being held back by the Doctor. His expression was unreadable and I couldn't bring myself to look him in the eye.

I was surprised at how many Daleks there were, hundreds, and all of them had stopped fighting to watch my procession through the halls of Torchwood. The walk was excruciatingly long because every corner we turned there was a new scene of carnage that I tried desperately to ignore. It was almost a relief when we reached the lowest level and stopped in front of a door which I had never seen before.

"Enter!" The Dalek commanded me. I reached out one shaky hand to push the door open, dreading what I would find on the other side. I took a deep breath and stepped forward.

…

And that's all I can remember. After that it gets a little… fuzzy. I remember vaguely having my arms and legs strapped to a metal table. Though for the life of me I can't understand how. Those Daleks didn't even have hands! There must have been somebody else there…

I shook off the thought. I can't be thinking about stuff like that now. There were bigger problems at hand. I'm alone, in the woods, and it seems to be getting darker. I needed to find shelter immediately, then I could worry about everything that had happened. Though my body groaned in protest, I managed to push myself up and wandered into the woods with only the clothes on my back and miraculously, the gun I had taken from my mum. At least I would have some protection.

The day had been long and exhausting, both emotionally and physically. But as the sun was setting and casting the forest in darkness, I couldn't help letting out a sigh of relief. The worst was behind me, I was sure of it.

But I was wrong.