The legend of the Yaleef
Chapter One, The End?
"Where are we going Doctor?" Evelyn asked slightly out of breath, as she tried to keep with the Doctor.
"Sst, not so loudly," he said in a whisper, "We're late for a meeting and I would prefer it if we're not noticed." Evelyn snorted; it was usual the Doctor who was loud, so him telling her to be quiet was rather funny. Her mirth was short lived, as the Doctor picked up the pace even more. Evelyn didn't have the chance to take in her surroundings; all she knew was that it was big city and that they were moving through the small backstreets, with their hidden alleyways. Then the Doctor stopped as the street became wider again, staying in the shade. They had reached an open square, a rather big open square. The Doctor removed the hood of his cloak and looked around thoughtfully.
"We need to go to that house," he whispered to Evelyn, pointing at a tall building. "We'll stay in the shade." Evelyn looked around as she listened to the Doctor. The square had once been beautiful. A big fountain stood in the middle surrounded by tall houses, all fighting to be the grandest, most beautiful once. But they were clearly neglected the last few months and to her horror she even saw some bullet holes in the wall next to her. The people on the square seemed to be worried too, most kept their heads down and even hidden in their cloaks. Their eyes darting over the surroundings, looking around furtively, it was clear they wanted to stay out of sight too, so nobody would notice them. The Doctor started to move again. Evelyn stayed still, feeling uneasy.
"What's wrong?" The Doctor turned back to Evelyn, looking slightly annoyed because she didn't follow him immediately.
"First of all, why couldn't you have just landed the TARDIS closer, I hate all this running. It's killing my knees. And secondly I'd like to know what's happening. I mean you almost flee the TARDIS, you start wearing jewellery," she said, as she pointed to the metal band around his wrist. He consciously rubbed it for a moment, before looking at Evelyn again. She immediately went on. "And now we're running through these streets. I want to know what is happening, before I move on" she demanded.
"I don't want the TARDIS in the city, at least not yet. I first want to asses the current situation."
"And what do you think the current situation is?" Evelyn asked tersely, already suspecting the answer.
"Worst than I expected," the Doctor replied curtly, while he put up the hood of his cloak back on, gesturing for her to follow suite. The Doctor took her hand; she felt at least a slightly bit better, holding his hand, but she wasn't sure what to think of all this. It wasn't really like him to be this cautious. He usually would just waltz in. Then he put his finger against his mouth and he started to walk out of the alleyway.
They were halfway around the square when a loud bang made them both stop death in their tracks. Evelyn watched as all the people walking in the open dived to the ground, before the Doctor pulled her down too.
"Stay down, Evelyn," he said, pushing her against the wall, shielding her with his body. Within the next several moments several more shots could be heard. Evelyn tried to look around the Doctor, but he kept her firmly in place.
"They're shooting?" she asked him, feeling scared.
"Yes, and if we don't keep down they'll be shooting at us," he answered angrily, pushing her head down again, but his words came too late
"There, in the shadow," a loud voice yelled over the square. And before he had finished speaking Evelyn heard a shot, followed by a groan from the Doctor, who slit down leaning heavily on Evelyn. Evelyn started to panic, trying to push the Doctor off her to see the damage.
"Doctor?" she asked softly
"I'm okay," the Doctor said, but his voice sounded laboured, "Don't move, please," he added almost soundless. She sighed relieved; he was still alive. But her relieve didn't last long as she heard another shot and his body shook with the impact, sliding down the wall, taking her with him, his body still hiding her. Before she knew it there were three more shots. She felt every hit impacting with the Doctor's body. The Doctor was still conscious as Evelyn could hear him groan softly, grabbing her arm tightly. She felt so afraid that she couldn't move. She couldn't do anything, being helpless as her best friend was shot, protecting her with his own body. She heard the shots move to the other side of the square and she willed herself to stay calm, to stay hidden.
"Doctor?" She tried to see his face, but failed and to her dismay the Doctor didn't respond anymore. "Come on Doctor, stay with me. I can't have you die on me, not like this." She became silent again, as she heard footsteps walking up to them. Unfortunately the Doctor groaned again at that moment.
"I think that one is still alive," a surprised voice said.
"Well, looking at him, I don't think it will be for long," a callous voice replied.
"Just to be sure," the first man said and then Evelyn heard the shot, immediately followed by a burn in her left arm. She managed to stiffen the scream she wanted let out, feeling heat spread through her arm.
"You idiot, you can't even hit a target that big." Evelyn listened to the men's joking banter, as she felt the tears run down her face. They were killing everybody and they saw it as a joke. She couldn't think about the Doctor dying, lying on top of her and it took every last ounce of her resource to stay silence, just so she would live. She could feel something sticky slowly drip on her left hand and as she realized it was the Doctor's blood she had to do everything to keep from going into fits of hysteria.
Suddenly she heard the footsteps again, moving closer to her. She closed her eyes and kept completely still.
"Just do it like this," the callous voice said again. The shot sounded even louder to Evelyn's oversensitive senses, and everything seemed to slow down. The blood that hit her face tasted salty and made her feel nauseous. The little rocks that sprayed around, after the bullet hit the wall, stung her face.
"Well, he's death now. Nobody can survive a bullet to the brain." Evelyn felt the tears run down her face in earnest now, feeling completely lost. The Doctor couldn't be death. He just couldn't. This was the Doctor; the Doctor who could survive everything and even if he couldn't, he would just regenerate, not lie here, being death.
"Come, we need to leave now." And at those words she heard running footstep leave her. The silence returned. It was so still she couldn't even hear any birds. They had probably fled too.
After several moments she realized she was just lying there feeling stunned. She needed to move; she needed to get away, if only to get help. She felt the adrenaline run through her blood, giving her a sudden burst of energy. Perhaps other people had survived; if she had perhaps other people did too. But at the same time she didn't want to move, because moving would mean return to the world. It would mean reality, a reality her stressed mind was very hard trying to suppress already. A reality in which she was alone and he was death. At these thoughts she chocked back a sob.
"Come on Evelyn, you have to do this now. There might be people depending on you." She took a deep breath and pushed up. Only to have her left arm give way. She turned her head in surprise and looked at her now quite literally blood red cardigan. A small round hole was located somewhere roughly in the middle of her upper arm. She stared at it, feeling angry suddenly. This was her favourite cardigan and now it was ruined. She stopped her thoughts, as she realized how ridicules this was and suddenly started to laugh. Here she was, probably bleeding to death, her best friend being killed and all her mind could come up with was worrying about a hole in her cardigan. The next thing she noticed was the lack of pain; she should be in agony and all she could feel was her heart beat irregularly and her mind race. Then she heard sirens far away and she knew there was help on its way. She tried to move again this time with her right arm. But the doctor felt heavy on her and she couldn't really get any hold. Suddenly she heard the sounds of stone on stone and to her surprise a gap appeared where only seconds before had been a wall.
"She is alive," a soft voice said bewildered, "Let's get her in here" She watched as two figures appeared from the gap and she felt the Doctor's weight being lift of her, before she was dragged towards to darkness. She watched detached as they dropped the Doctor's body back to the ground. She looked at the scene before her. The Doctor's blue coat had turned dark and a big bloodstain was slowly forming around it. Her eyes travelled up to his face his blond curls now blood red and matted, his face covered with blood luckily his eyes were closed. She didn't think she could have stood to look in his empty, death eyes.
She brought her hand to his face, touching; it was cold, but that wasn't unusually. She half expected his hand to take hers, but nothing happened. She just felt ill, nobody could survive this, not even he and she felt the panic rise again. She struggled; she couldn't let him lay there like that. They needed to protect the body, get it away from here. But before she could voice her objections she felt a hand pull her away.
"You can't do anything for him now," an urgent voice said. she followed the figure leading her inside. She ended up in a dark room, only lighted by a small light bulb on the ceiling.
"You're lucky, miss," one of the figures, a young man, said, "We thought everybody would be death. How did you survive?" he asked looking at her curiously. Evelyn's eyes adjusted and saw that the boy was about eighteen years old. There were about three other people in the room.
"He," she started to say, but before she could finish she was interrupted.
"Chris, what are you doing? Who is she?" a woman, somewhere in her thirties, asked.
"She survived and I don't know how long this will last if the authorities find out, Ama," Chris answered.
"Great, now we've a stranger in one of our hiding places. We'll have to leave this now." Ama seemed disappointed with him.
"Ama, I think we've other problems to think about. For instance the fact they dressed like us and most definitely have the same arms dealer we have. At this he held up a gun.
"I know", Ama sighed, "They did this to put the blame on us and rally the people against us."
Evelyn had followed the conversation numbly. She didn't understand a word of it. Slowly she felt her energy leave and she became very tired suddenly. She just wanted lay down and sleep. She held out her hand and steadied herself on the boy as she felt her knees wobble and darkness was edging in.
"I think she's in shock." he said, as he turned around to look at her.
The words reached Evelyn and she realized this was probably true and would explain why she was suddenly so calm and not completely hysteric. The edges of her vision started to blur, her heart seemed to skip more than one beat and breathing seemed to become difficult.
"Oh, I think don't I feel completely right," Evelyn said, before she felt her legs gave way and the last thing she saw were two pair of shoes, before the darkness claimed her.
