Chapter One

"Alright, everyone made it out."

"Good. You need to leave too."

"Not without you-"

"No, I have to do this alone. I can't risk your life if something goes wrong. Now leave."

There was a small pause.

"Just don't let anything go wrong."

When she was out of earshot, the second voice said, "Goodbye…"

She began to run. Her whole life depended on it. Not that it really mattered to her. She'd lived a full life. About 65 years was good enough for her.

Finally, she exited through the front doors of the quite large building. She continued running until she had reached the crowd of people she had evacuated just minutes ago. She turned and looked at the building she had just exited.

"Please, please make it…." she whispered under her breath.

Just then, the top of the building exploded in a fiery inferno. The force of the explosion knocked her and a few others off of their feet.

"No!" she exclaimed as the building crumbled straight down.

A couple of hours later, several police cars and fire trucks had appeared at the scene. After the firemen had doused the fire, many officers began searching the area for near impossible survivors.

A tall, bald, black man began questioning several people. He got little to no answers on to what happened. Until, of course, the old woman came to answer questions.

"So, Mrs. Mason, you believe there was still someone in there when the explosion occurred?" he asked.

Quietly, she answered, "Yes…"

"Can you describe him please?" he motioned to the man next to him to start drawing the descriptions.

Mrs. Mason straightened up. "He was a scrawny man, with longish brown-black hair, with some of a colm-over, and he wore a trench coat and a bowtie."

A few seconds later, the artist had finished sketching and showed her the drawing.

"A bit like this ma'am?"

"Yeah, that's him." shed a small tear.

"We will do everything we can to find him." the detective assured her.

"Thank you sir, just..." she paused and took in a breath. "Please find him."

Mrs. Mason stood up and left. A few minutes after she left, an officer ran to the detective.

"Detective Smitt?" he held his chest and took in deep breaths. "We found someone…Barely alive."

The black detective looked up in surprise. "Let me see him."

The officer led Smitt into the ruined building, and laying in the dust was a young man with long, reddish-brown hair, about six foot two, with a torn shirt and blackened bowtie.

"Get him to the hospital." Smitt ordered.

"Right." the officer ran to go get a stretcher.

"And hope we're not too late." He turned and left to go help the officer, but immediately after he turned, the young man exhaled a yellow-gold vapor out of his mouth.

The room was very white, very clean… Could this be heaven? Had he finally died? No, he could still feel his hearts beating. A hospital? Probably. His eyes were beginning to focus so he could see in the bright light.

A woman was in the room with him. She had long black hair, which she had pulled back into a ponytail, and she was holding a clipboard, scanning the notes.

"Aurgh….." The Doctor groaned. The woman looked up suddenly, surprised he was awake.

"It's about time you've woken up. You've been out for at least three days." she said.

"Three days?" The Doctor sat up, swung his feet to the side of the bed, and attempted to get up.

"You really should slow down, sir." said the dark haired woman.

"I've got no time to slow down, GAAHH!" The Doctor hunched over, holding his chest. One of his hearts had stopped beating.

The woman dropped her clipboard. "What, what?" she asked in a panicky voice.

The Doctor answered with a rasp voice. "Do me a favor." He looked up. "Punch me in the chest."

"What?!" she exclaimed. "I can't do that. I won't."

"Relax, it will help me quite a bit." The Doctor said, grunting in pain at the end of his sentence.

"Um, alright…" She brought up her small fist and, with all of her strength, hit The Doctor in the chest. The Doctor immediately straightened up.

He groaned in pain. "Oh. That might have actually worked-GAAHH!" He hunched over in pain again. "Nope, just made it worse."

"What do you need me to do?" the woman asked really fast.

"I don't know. Wait….." He stared at the floor for a second and looked up. "THIS TIME I'M SURE IT'S APPLES!" The Doctor then dashed out of the door and into the hallway.

"Wait!" The woman ran after him. "You can't leave your room!"

They both continued to run through the hallways of the hospital, and The Doctor, with his head start, made it to the cafeteria first. He opened a refrigerator and rummaged through the bottom drawers.

"Where are they….. AH!" The Doctor pulled out a medium sized apple and took a large chunk out of it. By then the dark haired woman had caught up to him. He made a goofy grin at her and moaned in delight.

Out of breath, the woman said, "You feel alright now?"

The Doctor's smile turned into a frown as he said in a muffled voice, "No." He fell over screaming in pain. "I know it's in there somewhere, get me anything!"

"Uh….." She began to rummage through the fridge. She pulled out a yellow banana. "Banana?"

"Bananas are good, but not magical!" The Doctor exclaimed, thrashing about. She reached back in and pulled out a…

"Pear?"

The Doctor made a disgusted face. "We're trying to help my regeneration, not make me vomit."

She began to reach back into the fridge and stopped. "Say that again?" she asked, questioning what he had just said.

"Forget about it, just find something else."

"Jelly baby?" she asked.

The Doctor forgot the pain for a moment and sat up. "Really? You're kidding, right?" The black haired woman shrugged sheepishly. "Wait a moment, I know what I need. I need…. I need…."

Both of them were sitting at a table, and The Doctor was eating leftover beef and some rice.

"You're unbelievable." the woman chuckled a bit. "You kind of got me on the 'freaked out' side."

With his mouth full, The Doctor apologized, "Well, I am sorry, miss…?"

"Krawly." she said. "Dr. Rachel Krawly. And you are?"

"I'm The Doctor."

There was a pause, as Rachel was waiting for a last name. "Doctor who?" she asked.

"Just The Doctor." he answered. "Now. First things first." He leaned forward close to Rachel. "Am I ginger?"

Rachel gazed at his hair. "Well… a bit." she answered. "More of a reddish-brown."

And it was true. The Doctor's hair was finally the tiniest bit ginger. That wasn't the only thing that was now different about him. His new body was nothing like his other regenerations. He was much taller, and he now had a more muscular build. And his hair was even longer than his previous regeneration.

"Good enough for me, and I must say," The Doctor took a bite out of his beef. "It's about, fricking, time."

"Okay…" This Doctor was really starting to get on Rachel's nerves. Who was this man?

"May I ask another question Rachel?"

Rachel reentered the physical world. "Alright."

"Where is everyone?" The Doctor asked.

"What do you mean?" asked Rachel.

"You know perfectly well what I mean." The Doctor's face had grown serious. "It's got to be at least noon and I haven't seen any patients or medical professionals since I've been awake except you."

After a short while, Rachel leaned forward and said quietly, "You wouldn't believe me if I told you.

The Doctor also leaned forward, so their noses were almost touching. "Try me."

"Okay." Both of them leaned back into their chairs. "A day after you got here, these…. Things…. came here and took everything. They killed, burned buildings to the ground, took prisoners, they were ruthless.

"What kinds of things were they?" The Doctor asked with an eyebrow raised.

Rachel shook her head. "You'd have to see them."

"Where are they?" he asked.

"Outside." Rachel pointed towards the front door. The Doctor smirked, jumped up, and skipped towards the door.

"No, wait!" She realized what he was about to do. "Don't open that door!"

"Where's your spirit of adventure?" He grasped the handle and pulled the door open. What he saw behind the door was a complete surprise.

The sky was a dark orange with many ships scattered around. Several buildings had been burnt to the ground, and those that remained had broken windows and walls missing. Not one human being was in sight. But what really caught The Doctor's attention was about 10 yards in front of him.

It's head turned toward him, and it gave a command in a broken, robotic voice; "HALT." The creature in front of him was a Dalek.

The Doctor slammed shut the door and put his back to it.

"Completely unexpected."