Blink
Don't blink. Blink and you're dead. They are fast. Faster than you can believe. Don't turn your back. Don't look away. And don't blink.
Good Luck.
"Er," the Doctor looked down the two sides of the oncoming road, "down here, Martha." They crossed the street and then walked down an alley.
"Oh, sorry 'bout that." The Doctor backed out of the alleyway as soon as he had entered it. Calling back down the alley, he yelled, "There's a bathroom in this store over here!"
"That's just disgusting." Martha proclaimed.
"Well, you know," the Doctor shrugged, "he had to go. Now," he began to run down the opposite side of the road, "we have, er, half an hour until hatching and the migration should start in about ten minutes."
They ran down another street and the Doctor checked his watch again, "Okay, this isn't working. Taxi!" The Doctor flailed his arms as if they were on fire,
"Oh, for God's sake. Put your arms down, it just looks embarrassing." Martha calmly hailed a taxi. "Have you really never had to hail a taxi?"
"Um, once."
"What'd you do that time?"
"Th-that's not important now. Hand me my bow, will you?" The Doctor slung the bow over his head and one end under his arm. "There we are, how does it look?"
"Ridiculous." Martha snickered.
"Oi! For that, you have to carry the arrows. Oh, driver, here we are, thank you. Martha, pay the man."
The two stepped out of the car in a hurry. "Come on, this way, it looks like." Martha said.
The Doctor looked around to make sure Martha was correct, which indeed she was, when heard the cry of "Doctor!"
Martha and the Doctor stopped in looked back as a young blond haired woman rushed out of a store right behind them continuing to say "Doctor, Doctor!"
He looked back at her, quickly knowing they were running out of time and said, "Hello, sorry, bit of rush, there's a sort of," The Doctor quickly fished around for the right word, but instead said, "thing happening…very important we stop it."
The woman had a look on her face that seemed to be a combination of euphoria and disbelief as she looked straight at the Doctor's face. "My God it's you. It really is you."
The Doctor had a look of slight confusion on her face as Martha walked up to him.
"Oh, you don't remember, me do you?"
"Doctor," Martha interjected, "we haven't got time for this, migration's started."
"Look, sorry, I've got a bit of a…complex life, things don't always happen to me in quite the right order." Trying to explain to the woman best he could, although he wasn't quite sure he knew what she herself was talking about. "Get's a bit confusing at times," the doctor recalled some of the events he was talking about with an inner smile, "especially at weddings, I'm rubbish at weddings. Especially my own."
The woman had momentary look of confusion on her face and then lit up, "Oh my God, of course, you're a time traveler, it hasn't happened to you yet, none of it. It's still in your future."
The woman's knowledge of the Doctor interested him and he asked, "What hasn't happened?"
Before she could answer, Martha came back up to the Doctor and said in an almost frightened tone, "Doctor, please, twenty minutes to their hatching!"
"It's me." She realized, "Oh, for God's sake it was me all along, you got it all from me!"
"Got what?" The Doctor said looking down to see what the woman was indicating.
"Okay, listen," the woman to a deep breath, "One day, you're going to get stuck in 1969." The Doctor nodded, thinking it might be fun and the woman handed him a couple of sheets stuck in a purple case. "Make sure you've got this with you. You're going to need it."
"Doctor!" Martha cried from behind them.
The Doctor turned around, knowing they were running out of time. "Yeah, listen, got to dash, things…happening…well," he said in an afterthought, "four things. Well, four things and a lizard."
"Okay," the woman said, sounding slightly disappointed as if she perhaps wanted him to stay, "no worries. Got to go. See around, someday." She said hopefully.
The Doctor turned to leave when, although he knew he was pressed for time, he turned around and inquired, "What was your name?"
The woman smiled, happy to be asked and proudly declared, "Sally Sparrow."
The Doctor grinned and said, "Good to meet you, Sally Sparrow."
Sally beamed back him as another sandy haired man rounded a corner holding a tin of milk and approached Sally with the same look of disbelief she had had moments ago. The man stared at the Doctor for a long moment. His stare was then broken as Sally took his hand in hers and gripped tightly.
"Goodbye, Doctor." Sally turned away with the other man and the Doctor realized it was about time to leave.
"What was that all about?" asked Martha, after they had crossed the street.
"Not exactly sure. I'm going to 1969 someday, so that's a bonus."
"We are?"
"Well, I am, at least." The Doctor remarked.
"What do you-?" Martha started but abandoned her thought as the Doctor took out his sonic screwdriver and began to scan a wall they had approached.
"Yeah, it's here all right." The Doctor put his ear to the wall. "There probably some sort of secret, hyper-locked door, locked by a series of-"
"Doctor? There's a door right here."
"Oh, well it's probably-"
"Open." Martha swung open the door.
The Doctor walked over to the door, shut it, and then open it again. "Well, you'll never believe this, I got it open. Let's go."
They entered the building which was built into some sort wall. It was dark; the only source of light was the dim blue light radiating from the Doctor's screwdriver. They walked for several minutes until the tunnel–like trail they were walking through began to lighten. Soon, the Doctor and Martha began to hear noises.
"Doctor, you hear that?"
"How many minutes until the hatching?"
"Three."
"I've done worse. C'mon."
They entered a large cavern. It was warm, warmer than it was before they had entered. The entire place was made out of red rock. It was nearly featureless albeit a single spire that ran from the base to the top of the cavern at the far end of the area. The spire was made of the same red rock at the base, but was a snow white color in the middle, with a blue lizard wrapped around it.
The entire place was filled with bird-like creatures. They were for the most part, red and yellow colored and their wings were skeletal, with a thin layer of skin so that they created a near buzzing sound as they flapped.
"Martha, back!" the Doctor said in an urgent whisper. He pushed her back a little to try and avoid gaze of the bird creatures.
"They've finished migration, Doctor. What are we going to do?"
"Um…here. Follow me and, I can't stress this enough, be quiet."
Martha and the Doctor stood moved forth from their hiding place and began to move against the cavern wall. They inched over like snails. Slow enough to avoid detection, but fast enough to make progress.
"The spire!" the Doctor whispered to Martha, who was in front of him, as soon as they got within range of it. "Use the arrows, here," The Doctor silently passed her his bow, "Now, quickly we have a minute.
Martha slung an arrow when a voice like that sounded like a child whining boomed throughout the cavern. "Halt!"
"Martha, freeze!" the Doctor said. The two of them flew their hands into the air and the Doctor began to talk to the bird creatures. "Hello, er, not sure if you're aware of this but you are currently trespassing on Earth property.
One of the bird creatures moved forward. He was bigger than the others, had an extra set of wings, and most discerning, was colored jet black. "We do not trespass; we only seek to continue of species, is that a crime?"
"Right, and tell me, after your hatching, are you going to leave this planet?" The Doctor stared intently at the bird creature and when the creature did not respond, the Doctor asked, "Because as I recall, your species eat the first living things they see, which in this case, will be the humans. And in addition to that, you want to…what's in this spire? You want to freeze the world after the feast, why?"
"You are wise, who exactly are you, earthling?" said the black bird.
"I'm not earthling," he grinned, "I'm the Doctor. Martha!" The Doctor turned to his companion. "The spire!"
Martha let her arrow fly of her bow and fly right towards the nearby spire. The arrow pierced the torso of the lizard. The lizard fell to the ground and the part of the spire that had been white turned to the same red color as the other rocks.
The entire cavern went silent except for the flapping of wings which themselves seemed to silence.
"I've dealt with creatures like you before and if you aren't getting angry," the Doctor smiled at his own genius, "than you're afraid. Which means, that for some reason, if you can't freeze the Earth, than you don't want to hatch here. Am I correct?"
Instead of responding, the bird creatures disappeared in a blue light.
Neither of them moved for moment. Then, Martha slowly put down the bow and asked, "Is that it, then? Are they gone?"
"Yes." The Doctor seemed to be thinking deeply about something.
"So where is it?"
"Hm?" the Doctor said still thinking.
"The TARDIS! I though you said it was here?"
"Mm," The Doctor then snapped back into the present, "the TARDIS, yes! Er, let's see, if I can use the residual energy from the last teleport jump, I should be able to harness it and afterwards reverse it and bring back…!"
Vworp Vworp
"Where to now, Doctor?" asked Martha as they walked into the TARDIS.
"The bird creatures normally birth on a foreign world so they can feed, but they never freeze the world so the question is," The Doctor bent over the TARDIS console, "what frightened them enough to want to freeze the Earth?"
"Maybe they didn't want to risk people fighting them?" Martha suggested.
"No, they themselves can't survive that kind of cold; it would be something they'd activate after leaving Earth." The Doctor waved Martha's theory away.
"Maybe there is something else on Earth they are frightened of?"
"Oh, yes!" The Doctor threw his hand into the air and spun around to start the TARDIS. "Brilliant, Martha! They must have seen something that was a threat, something they couldn't destroy so they wanted to trap it! Brilliant!"
"Where are we going, then?"
"I'm going to the last place the TARDIS traveled after it was taken from us by the birds."
"So," Martha began to ask as they traveled, "are they going to come back?"
"Not so long as they think they're threatened. They were seconds away from hatching anyways, they won't need to come back here. They will have already hatched."
"Wait, they couldn't have gone to another planet already. What are the hatchlings going to eat?"
The Doctor didn't answer but looked darkly downwards.
"Is that ship going to find its way home with survivors on it?"
"We're here." The Doctor said, acting as if he didn't hear Martha.
Martha gazed at the Doctor with a reserved sadness as he opened the TARDIS door with a swipe of his hand. He walked out with seemingly heavy feet and the stopped. Martha was still looking at him from inside the TARDIS.
"Doctor? What's wrong?" Martha questioned.
"Martha," the Doctor said, keeping his head facing forward. "come out slowly, reach into my coat pocket, and hand me my screwdriver."
"What?"
"Martha, please just listen to me: come out and give me my screwdriver."
Martha cautiously walked out of the TARDIS. She looked towards the ground at first, knowing that whatever could scare the Doctor must be terrifying. From was she could see in her peripheral vision, she was in some sort of old, withered house. Slowly, knowing she couldn't stare at the ground forever, she looked up and found herself face to face with-
"A statue?" Martha asked confused, "I don't get it, what's the big problem?"
"They're not statues. Now, reach into my pocket and try and keep your eye on the Angel. Don't blink."
"Don't blink?" asked Martha as she bent down towards the Doctor.
"They can't hurt you if you don't blink."
Martha stared at the Angel. It looked like an ordinary statue. It had wings and its arms were covering its eyes. It seemed to glow, in an odd way, but not like an angel should glow. It was as if it radiated a dark coldness, which accompanied by the fact that it was in the middle of a broken down, old house, made for an overall frightening experience. Martha was no longer calm as she had initially been, but was breathing almost erratically, staring at the Angel with a ferocious intensity.
"Martha." The Doctor sounded deathly serious, "My screwdriver."
Martha moved her arm towards the Doctor. Slowly as she stared at the Angel, Martha felt around for the screwdriver and caught it with three fingers. She withdrew it and put it in the Doctor's hand.
"Good. Now, Martha, turn around and tell me: are there more of them?"
Martha kept her arm against the Doctor's as she turned, feeling his warmth to counteract the coldness coming from the statues. As Martha turned, she let go of the Doctor's arm and she moved so that she and Doctor were back to back.
"Well?"
"Yeah, there's one here." Out of the corner of her eye, Martha could see two other Angel's in the distance coming from the Doctor and her sides.
"I know I see them too." The Doctor said as if sensing what Martha was thinking. "Common tactic of the Weeping Angel's. Don't even give their prey the opportunity to run. Not that we could."
Martha's breathing grew heavier. She unintentionally began to back into the Doctor with her hands clenched in tight balls.
"Now listen to me Martha. We've got one shot at this- listen to me!" the Doctor sounded nearly impatient as Martha's breathing grew worse. "We've got one shot at this. Grab my hand, there you go, and when I say three run to the TARDIS and lock it. Got it?"
Martha slowly nodded. She unclenched her fists and moved her hand into the Doctors.
"And Martha?"
"Yeah?"
"Hold on to me."
The Doctor opened his mouth to say "one" but before he could do so, Martha rushed to TARDIS door. She had just inserted her key, which was around her neck, into the lock when she began to feel something cold wrap around her body. She clicked the key in place as the world grew dim.
Then everything went black.
"Leave the key here so Sally can find it."