The first chapter of my new Rose fanfic. I know I said I was gonna wait before starting another, but this brilliant idea came to me in a dream, so it must have been a sign, right? Anyway, this is just the introduction, so it will get more interesting and will make more sense as it goes along. Honest.
Doctor Who (c) BBC.
Chapter 1:
Lisa Knight picked her way across the rubble and debris of the ruined city. It was night, and pitch black. The toxins clouding the planet's atmosphere blocked even the light of the stars – or was that the great mother-ship, hovering above her like a bloated spider over its prey? The lamp on her helmet cast a faint glow, which drew out eerie shapes and ominous shadows from the piles of broken buildings all around her – outside the circle, the world plunged into darkness. She would have used the spare flashlight kept in one of the radiation suit's large pockets if she weren't afraid she would draw unwanted attention to herself.
Lisa stepped carefully around a chunk of stone that used to belong to a church, if the crumbling, dilapidated spire was anything to go by. It still amazed her that after all this time religion had survived. It was as if when all else failed, people relied on belief to solve their problems. Lisa on the other hand, had long since discarded her God, thinking that nobody could look down of the trials of their community and do nothing.
A sudden noise in the darkness made her spin round, heart hammering in her throat. Fingers encased in thick, radiation-proof gloves gripped the pistol at her hip, but there was no sign of anything moving in the shadows. Breathing out heavily, Lisa reluctantly let go of the weapon, turned back round and kept walking.
"Keep it together, woman!" she hissed to herself. "You're twenty-three, for God's sake! Use your common sense!" Taking deep, calming breaths, she took her own advice. Nothing could creep up on her in this place without making a considerable amount of noise, Lisa reasoned, and she was armed with cat-like reflexes and a gun that fired 3,000-volt bolts of electricity.
Even so, cautionary tales and children's stories mingled in her head: "Stay away from the ruins or the Grizzlies'll getcha," sang her brother. They ran around in her memory, playing one of their childish games, at the time when adults dealt with those sorts of problems and stories were just stories. "Beware the Grizzly!"
For the twentieth time in as many minutes, Lisa wondered just what she was doing. Nobody knew she was down here, miles below the safety of the ship, looking for fairy-tales. It was suicide to go blundering about in the dark, where she could fall and break her leg, or be cornered by the Grizzlies. Yet that nagging suspicion wouldn't go away; that there was something not right about all of this, something management wasn't telling them, and the answer was somehow hidden in the ruins of the city they had been sent to investigate.
One of her boot-clad feet knocked against a stone, and she jumped as it flew out of range of her lamp. She tensed, waiting for it to land, hoping it wouldn't make too much noise…but no sound came. Curious, Lisa shuffled forwards, and a few steps later discovered the reason. She had to jerk to a halt as the ground in front of her suddenly dropped away. Scrambling backwards, Lisa almost fell, then collected herself and edged back to the edge of the hole. Gazing down nervously, she saw only the blackness of a deep pit, and the same if she cast the light to either side. Whatever she was looking for, it seemed she was looking in the wrong place.
With the heavy sigh of someone who thought that retracing her steps and starting again would be a waste of time, Lisa turned around to do just that. A thin wire trailed away from her into the darkness; the end of it was attached to a yo-yo like contraption on her belt. Wearily, Lisa pressed the retract button and set off, the lifeline that lead back to the ship threading back into her belt as she went. However, she had only taken a few steps into the oppressive darkness when a sixth sense made her pause and examine the hole again. There was something strange about it; and after a few moments of close scrutiny, it clicked. Whereas everything else in the ruins was…well…ruined, the edge of the pit was smooth, as if it had been cut intentionally. Lisa sank to her knees, even her fear forgotten, and ran her fingers over the surgically smooth edge in puzzlement. She concentrated, her breathing the only noise in the weighty silence, and discovered she could feel a slight vibration under her fingertips that sent a deep hum reverberating through her. There was something at the bottom of this pit – something bit and powerful, and maybe, just maybe, it was what she was looking for.
Suddenly exhilarated, Lisa rose to her feet; one hand strayed to the lifeline on her belt. A finger traced the retract button, then drifted to the next one – release. She pressed down, and the yo-yo sprang free to drop useless on the ground. This was the procedure they were taught only to use in an emergency – if you believed your life was in jeopardy, then releasing your lifeline would lead a rescue team directly to your last location. That done, she pulled off her gloves and shoved them in another pocket, preparing to climb down.
Before she could, however, the rumbling increased. It responded to her, as if she had passed some sort of test, until she could hear as well as feel it. The ground began to shake, rattling Lisa's bones and clicking her teeth together. Stepping back so she wouldn't fall in by mistake, Lisa drew the weapon she had no actual experience of using and held it in both hands. The fear had returned, clogging thickly in her throat. She swallowed dryly, and then, for reasons unknown, pointed the gun into the pit.
A few seconds later, a target appeared. A speck of bright blue light blinked on in the depths, and then another. Lisa hesitated, wondering whether or not to fire. After all, she had no idea if this was an enemy – it didn't look threatening, and wasn't trying to attack…
Before she had made up her mind, another light flickered into existence beside the others, and then another. Lisa watched with mounting panic as more and more appeared, until there were too many to count. Lisa jerked the gun from one to another as they continued to multiply. The gun was slippery with sweat in her bare hands.
"If you're going to fire, do it now!" she snapped at herself, and then squeezed the trigger. The shot rang through the night, but there was no sign of impact. She didn't even hear the electric bolt hit the bottom. The lights were breeding faster now, and they didn't look friendly any more. They also looked to be getting closer, bigger, brighter.
Lisa panicked. No amount of military training could have prepared her for what happened next. The gun slid from her hands as she threw both arms across her face in a futile attempt to protect herself, and a scream that no one heard split the night.
