Chapter 1: The Girl and The Sandwich
"Who are you?"
"Pissed, because you stepped in my sandwich."
The doors opened. A man leaned his head out, taking a glance at where he was. He could see a golden M whizzing by and humans wandering the streets below.
He leaned against the blue doorframe and crossed his arm, watching Earth cities go by. Suddenly, the whole craft slammed into something and the man was pitched forward. He yelped as he tumbled from three hundred feet up to the nitty gritty bottom. He could see the blue box flying away as he got farther and farther away from it. He reached inside his jacket pocket, pulled out a metal device and waving it around madly.
He landed on the cloth covering an outdoor cafe. He breathed a sigh of relief that he had not landed on the concrete. Then the cloth, dipped under his weight and the man rolled off with another yelp. Feet first, he landed with a thud on a cafe table. He grinned triumphantly and placed his hands on his hips heroically.
There was a loud cough from beneath him. He looked down to meet the brown eyes of a girl.
"You're stepping on my sandwich," she said.
He glanced underneath his left shoe and found a ham and Swiss sandwich beneath it.
"Oh! Dreadfully sorry!" he exclaimed, jumping off of the table. He straightened his bowtie.
"Now I probably have to buy a new one."
The man gave her a look.
"You're American."
The girl raised an eyebrow.
"You're British."
"Am I in America?"
The girl studied him for a moment.
"Where am I?" he asked.
"Lost."
"This is obviously Earth, since I was just viewing it from above and unless the Earth has suddenly changed, I am on earth, so what continent is this?"
"You're in America, whether you want to be here or not," she said almost snippishly. "Who are you?"
"I'm the Doctor."
"You're the Doctor. Not just a doctor. The Doctor."
"Well... Yeah," the Doctor said, trying to hide an amused smile.
"That's quite arrogant of you."
"What is?" he exclaimed.
"You're not just any doctor. You just happen to be the Doctor."
"That's my name."
"Like your first name is Doctor? You don't seem like you got a medical degree."
"I don't. I just… fix things," he said, meshing his fingers together awkwardly.
"So why aren't you Construction Worker or Plumber? I could definitely see Plumber."
He fixed his gaze on the girl and could see her amused grin. He gave her a disdainful frown.
"Who are you?"
"Pissed, because you stepped in my sandwich."
"Oh!" He remembered. "I'll buy you a new one."
"That's-uh-alright. My name's Myla."
"Myla," he repeated. "So what state in America am I in, Myla?"
"Florida. You know, if I didn't know any better, I would say that you were an alien."
The Doctor's eyes widened. How did she know that he was an alien? Was she an alien? Could she read minds? What kind of alien could read minds? Why did Florida have so many palm trees? Why didn't they put up Christmas trees?
"You're too pale to have been across the border, and I really doubt smuggling 'chaps with monocles and fish and chips' is an actual thing."
"Chaps with monocles and fish and chips," he repeated.
"British people," she clarified.
"That's a strange way of calling them."
He was confused about this Myla girl. Americans were certainly strange. Although Jack wasn't as strange as this. Ah Jack. He should visit him one day.
"I need to go, pleasure to meet you Myla," he said, realizing he needed to go find the TARDIS. He shook her hand vigorously and began jogging away. She got up from her table, putting her money on the table.
"Hey! Hey Doctor! Wait!" He stopped and turned to face her. Now he got a good look at her. He forced his eyes to look at hers and not anywhere else. If she caught him staring, even subtly, he had no doubt that Myla would slap him. Something about her classified her a feisty.
"Where do you think you're going? You didn't even know what country you were in. How do you expect to find anything?"
"I'm looking for my ride."
"I'm sure you are. But there aren't exactly taxis or trains here to help you anywhere."
"I don't need that kind of transportation. I can find my ride on my own, thank you." He started marching off. She easily jogged next to him.
"Doctor, you have no idea where you're going. I live here. Let me help you find it."
He blew a strand of hair out of his face. It was obvious this American girl wasn't going to leave him alone. He did kind of need help finding the TARDIS.
"Fine."
She beamed and he found himself grinning infectiously.
"What does your 'vehicle' look like?"
"It's a blue box. A police box."
"What?"
"Ah... Never mind, we can get into this later. Now, I need to find a place to hide before the Rheineeoneos find me because they-"
"The rhinocer-what?"
"Not rhinocer-what. Rheineeoneos. They're a species from Rheckter, a planet three hundred million miles from here, and they were chasing me so we need to hide me before they find me."
She stared at him for a minute. He looked at her expectantly.
"I know a great mental asylum a few minutes from here," she finally said. He groaned and slapped his hand to his forehead.
"No! Humans are so dense sometimes! Don't get me wrong, humans are fantastic but some of them, I mean," he blew out a breath of air, "are a lot of work."
"Well pardon me if I'm not understanding enough when you're talking about Rheineeoneos, whatever that is, and acting like I should know, when you obviously don't even know and why are you saying humans it's not like you're an alien or something and I don't mean illegal alien because you quite obviously aren't but I just wish for three seconds that you would clear something up!" she blurted.
The Doctor stared at her. Then he started cracking up. She gaped at him for a moment before bursting into giggles. Myla guessed the situation could be a little funny.
So there they were. A crazy man with a bowtie and a brown-haired girl who was just upset about her sandwich laughing hysterically in the middle of the sidewalk.
Until a Rheineeoneo materialized ten feet from them.
The Doctor spotted the green block of suffocating and poisonous slime and abruptly stopped laughing. Myla noticed his sudden seriousness.
"What's wrong?" she asked with a teasing smile in her tone. When he didn't answer, she followed his gaze as another Rheineeoneo materialized.
"What is that?" she asked.
"Remember the Rheineeoneos I was telling you about?"
She blinked a couple of times. The slime cubes began hopping forward, towards the two with an ominous squishing and squelching noise.
"Vaguely," she said sarcastically. "Are these them?"
"Yes."
"Are they dangerous?"
"Yes."
"Can they fly?" Myla asked.
The Doctor gave her a puzzled look.
"No..?"
"Then I recommend we run."
"Couldn't have said it better myself," he said. He grabbed her hand and they turned on their heels and took off down the street. More Rheineeoneo appeared and began their agonizingly slow trek towards them.
"Take a left!" Myla shouted, still gripping onto the Doctor's hand. He let her lead them into an alleyway.
They ran for about eight feet before reaching a solid brick wall.
"It's a dead end!" she exclaimed. "What do we do?"
"I thought you knew! You live here, wouldn't you know that there was a brick wall here?" he exclaimed, placing his hands over the wall.
"They probably just added it! How was I supposed to know?"
Before the Doctor could reply, the light streaming in from the back of the tunnel was blocked. They both turned to see three green slime cubes hopping towards them.
The Doctor took out his sonic screwdriver and scanned up and down the walls, his brain stammering for a plan.
"We're going to die!"
"We're not going to die."
"Are they poisonous?"
"Possibly."
"Well that just seals our coffins, doesn't it?" she exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air. An idea occurred to the Doctor.
He ran down the alley, closer to the Rheineeoneos.
"Where are you going?" she called, darting off after him.
"Can I borrow your shoe?"
She took off her boot and handed it to him. He smashed the glass of the fire extinguisher IN CASE OF EMERGENCY box and threw the shoe back at her. She caught it and put it back on. She scooped a garbage can lid off the ground. One Rheineeoneo was closer and faster than the rest and was agonizingly close to the Doctor who was fumbling with the fire extinguisher container.
"Hey snot cube!" Myla shouted. The cube turned towards her. She could see dark eyes set in the green gel. It made a squishing noise. She slammed the garbage can lid against the front face of the cube. The Doctor got the fire extinguisher prepared. The cube was a little thrown back, but the others were advancing.
"When I say 'now', hide behind the trash lid, alright?"
"What about you?"
"Now!"
She pulled the garbage can lid up to cover her face as the Doctor released a full blast stream of ice into the Rheineeoneos. When the loud noise of the fire extinguisher stopped and Myla lowered her lid, the three Rheineeoneos were frozen solid. It appeared the Doctor was as well. Frost tipped his hair and dusted his clothing. He shook the snow away and sprung upright.
"We need to go before they thaw out."
She followed him down the alleyway.
"Were those aliens? Aliens are real? Who the hell are you? Why are they chasing us? Why do they look like that? What? I- I just... What?" Myla started spouting off questions.
He stopped and turned to face her exasperatedly.
"Yes, those were aliens from the planet Rheckter; aliens are real; I'm the Doctor; they're after me; and don't judge them by their looks, they think humans look quite weird just like you think cats or dogs might look weird; and Myla I'm sorry I dragged you into this and if you really want another sandwich i'll be more than happy to buy you one, but right now I just need to get you home and safe where you can't get hurt."
She paused for a moment, thinking over the answers and newfound information.
"What about you? Where would you go?"
"I need to get my vehicle and then I'll be gone forever from you, I promise."
"Well I don't want that. You're an idiot. You're coming to my house. My mom will make you dinner and we can go over our next move to find your vehicle. Without dying."
"Not 'our' next move," the Doctor said somberly.
She gave him a withering look.
"Yes, 'our' next move," she said stubbornly. "I said I would get you to your vehicle and that's what I'm going to do. Don't pull any of that 'there isn't an us' dramatic crap on me, Doctor, I don't live in a soap opera. So shut your mouth, you strange man, and let my mom poison you with biscuits and gravy."
He gaped at her for a moment. What sass! What nerve! How fantastic could this girl get?
She grabbed his hand and pulled him back where they had run.
"I have MY vehicle and that's how I'm getting home."
"Why do you live at home?"
"My previous job I lost because the store burned down. Now I have no job and I'm staying with my family until I get one."
He took the time spent walking to her vehicle to let his brain wonder about her. Myla's tenacity and ability to comprehend that aliens were real astonished him. She was at least a 23-year-old girl who was small for her age and had enough fire in her to burn down a building.
He liked her a lot.
They arrived at the cafe parking lot, Rheineeoneo free.
"Where did they all go?"
"They probably beamed back to their mothership and are planning what to do next."
"That doesn't sound terrifying or ominous in anyway possible," she said sarcastically. She let go of him and walked up to a motorbike.
"You own this?"
"No, I'm stealing it. Yes I own it. Come on, you can wear the helmet if you're scared."
"I'm not scared," he said indignantly. "I was in the Anti-Gravity Olympics of 2074 and I rode a motorbike."
"When we get to my house, you are so explaining that entire sentence to me."
She swung her leg over the bike and pulled the helmet on.
"Are you getting on or what?"
He realized he had been staring at one of her amazing female attributes and quickly slid on the bike behind her to avoid being embarrassed. He put his hands on her shoulders to avoid being too intimate.
"God, I'm not going to eat you!" She held the bike up with one let and used her hands to remove his from her shoulders and onto her waist. "I don't need you falling off and dying."