Title: Darkness Falls
Authors: Gillian
Taylor
Rating: PG
Characters: Nine/Rose
Summary:
When does adventure turn to danger? Is it the instant the locals
start shooting? Or the instant you get shot?
Spoilers:
None, specifically.
Disclaimer: Don't own them. I just like
playing with them...a lot.
Archive: Sure, just let me
know.
A/N: Thanks, as always, to my lovely betas WMR, Ponygirl & NNWest. This story is dedicated to NicoleS for 'stumping' me in my 'Stump the Author' meme.
"Darkness Falls"
By Gillian Taylor
Chapter 1: Nightfall
Darkness.
It surrounded her, bathed her in nothingness so thick she could practically taste it. This planet had no stars, no moon, no means of seeing anything without the means of a torch. All she could feel was his hand in hers. All she could hear was the sound of their breathing.
"Careful," the Doctor whispered. "There's a rock just in front of you." He guided her around it with a touch.
"How much further?" she asked, not wanting to think about what followed behind them. They couldn't move quickly, not in this darkness. She was completely reliant on the Doctor to guide their steps until the sun rose over the horizon, whenever that was supposed to be.
"Another mile. Maybe two," he replied.
In the darkness, her senses seemed sharper somehow. Vision was useless, of course. Hearing, though… She stiffened as she caught the sound of something – no, several somethings – coming after them in the dark.
His hand tightened on hers as he commanded, "Run!"
She trusted him enough to do as he said, stretching out her legs, following the unspoken directions that he gave via a tug of her hand. She cursed this darkness. How was she supposed to be able to help if she couldn't even see?
There was a whistling sound now, almost like the rain, though she didn't feel anything fall on her. It was everywhere, really. She could hear the Doctor grunt – in pain? – beside her and his running faltered.
"Doctor?" she asked, but he didn't answer, instead turning them into another direction. God, if only she could see!
Her world narrowed to running. The sound of their feet hitting the rocky ground, the sound of her blood thundering in her ears and the fear. Oh, the fear, because she knew what was chasing them. What would happen if they caught them.
The planet's native population rightfully feared the dark. Now she knew why. Oh, god, did she know why.
She thought they might be gaining ground, outdistancing their pursuers. The whistling sound was fading, too, and she wondered if she might've only imagined it. However, they still ran. It seemed like an eternity, though perhaps only minutes, before they slowed.
The Doctor tugged her hand again, weakly, to the right and she obligingly turned. The sound of their walking seemed to echo strangely now. She realised that even the slight wind was gone. They were inside somewhere. Somewhere safe? A cave?
That was when she felt his fingers slip from her grasp and the soft thud of someone hitting the ground. The Doctor.
Mindful of their hunters, she bit back her automatic cry, instead sinking to her knees and feeling around her for his body. The soft leather of his jacket was the first thing that she touched and she followed it around his torso. There was something…there. It was sticky and wet. There hadn't been any rain since they'd been here. Why would he be…?
Oh. Oh, god.
She lifted her hand to her nose and sniffed. There was a sharp tang to the smell, maybe a hint of iron. It was blood. The Doctor's blood.
There wasn't enough time to panic. She couldn't afford it, not now. She moved closer and touched him, flushing slightly as she felt along his body for other wounds. Sight was a problem, of course. She'd have to rely upon touch alone, until dawn, to determine the extent of his injuries.
"Doctor?" she asked, deciding to risk the chance of someone hearing her.
Nothing. Just the shallow sound of his rough breathing.
Right. She was on her own, then. Letting her senses guide her, she paused each time she felt another spot of blood. There was so much, she realised. Her fingers were sticky with it and she could barely feel the leather or his jeans as she moved her hands. No. She had to deal with what she'd already found.
Again, she cursed her lack of sight. This was near impossible, but she had to do it. Had to save him. She wasn't ready to lose him. Not here, not now, not ever.
Keeping one hand on him as a reference, she used her other to unzip her hoodie. It'd do as a temporary bandage, at least until she could find something better. Pulling her arms out of it without losing contact with him proved difficult, but not impossible. Once it was free, she found what she assumed was the site of the injury – at least judging by the amount of blood – and pressed down on it as hard as she could.
He gasped in pain, the first sound he'd uttered since falling to the floor.
"Doctor?" she asked again, but he didn't answer. She assumed he'd relapsed back into unconsciousness.
What were the basics of first aid? She knew that she had to keep pressure on his wounds to staunch the bleeding, but what else? Keep him warm? How the hell was she supposed to do that? She couldn't even see, let alone build a fire or…
She frowned. Well, there was always body heat. She was definitely flushed now, she realised. She shifted again, keeping pressure against the wound. Using one hand to maintain the pressure, she moved her hand up his torso until she found his neck. Pressing her fingers against the side of his neck, she tried to feel for his pulse.
When she felt the double-beat, she almost drew away from him in shock. Two pulses? No. He was an alien. So what if he had two pulses? Two hearts? Why the hell should that matter?
Because I don't know what to do to save a human, let alone an alien! a part of her replied in despair.
Resolutely ignoring that thought, she focused on what she could do. Her arms were starting to get tired, but she couldn't afford to release the pressure. She doubted that she could shift him enough to tie her hoodie around his body as a makeshift bandage, even if that was the only chance she could see of relieving her need to maintain the pressure. Without her sight, she couldn't tell if the bleeding was slowing or not. She couldn't even tell if he was bleeding anywhere else that she hadn't already noted.
"Don't die on me," she whispered.
As she expected, he didn't answer.
It had all started because of a request. She'd asked to go somewhere he'd never been before. A first time for both of them. God, how she regretted that now.
In the thick, almost stifling darkness, she let her thoughts dwell upon her first view of this planet – Nerfalis-something. It had been breath-taking. Gorgeous purple sky, brilliant blue-coloured rocks and a blazing white sun overhead. She would've been happy to simply sit and watch for a few hours, bask in the beauty of the world, but that wasn't what they tended to do.
Too ape-like, for one. A strangled sob escaped her lips and she firmly stopped herself from making another sound. He'd be fine, she reminded herself. He had to be. She just wished… Well, that didn't matter, now did it?
If wishes were horses…
Shaking her head, she remembered the village. It had been an hour's walk away from the TARDIS, the distance between the two points deceptive in the reflected light of the planet's surface. When they had reached the village, the locals were even more alien than the ones she'd seen on Platform One. They resembled large, crystalline spiders and it had taken her several moments to get over her instinctual urge to back away from them. She'd been thankful that they were friendly. The last thing she'd wanted was to have to run from something that looked like that.
They had been warned, repeatedly, to seek shelter before nightfall. When they'd pressed for more details, the spider-like beings had refused to tell them more than that their legends were adamant. They were scared of the dark, she had realised.
She and the Doctor had been caught outside after nightfall. Even the cheerful blaze of lights from the village couldn't mask the pitch darkness that surrounded the area. They'd heard a scream…
She closed her eyes against the memory, not wanting to relive the moment that they'd come across the body. Not wanting to remember the limbs and the…
"No," she said, the word echoing ominously around her. She shivered in the darkness and moved even closer to the Doctor. Her body was starting to tremble from exhaustion, but she refused to give in. She had to remain alert.
The soft sound of his breathing was her only comfort at the moment. She longed for the light of day. It seemed as if the night lasted an eternity, and always would. Each time she'd thought the darkness seemed less dense it had turned out to be nothing more than her imagination.
She was about to shift again to ease her numbed limbs when she heard it. It was a soft sound, barely noticeable. In the day, she probably would have dismissed it as nothing important. But now she couldn't afford to do that. She identified it as the scattering of pebbles – kicked by a foot? – somewhere nearby.
She froze, straining her senses in an attempt to locate where the sound was coming from. She didn't know if they'd been found out or not. She could only hope that…
"Krr-nalish reeeenal'tk," someone said. A language, perhaps? But why wasn't the TARDIS translating it for her? She should be able to understand whatever was being said around her. Her fear – it had never left her, really, just got pushed aside for other, more important matters – notched upwards. She had to understand what was going on. Had to know.
She heard more movement, more stones shifting. She thought that there might be at least two people, if not more, just outside the cave.
Don't look. Don't look. Don't look. She chanted the words in her mind.
"Ill'hesha cral'tk somewhere nearby."
What? The Doctor shifted slightly beneath her hands. She prayed that he wouldn't make a sound.
"Sunrise comes. Ushalret yerantis." The shift between English and alien was disconcerting, to say the least. However, whatever the person said seemed to mean that they were leaving. She waited until the noise of their departure faded into nothingness before she dared to move.
Her body ached, pins and needles chased up and down her limbs as she tried to find a slightly more comfortable position. She decided to ease the pressure she'd been keeping on the Doctor's wound, hoping that time had slowed the flow of blood to a stop. Leaving her hoodie where it was, she began to touch him, trying to feel any more wet-spots that might mean she'd missed something.
Thankfully, there was nothing. His continued unconsciousness was worrying, though. But how could she know? He was alien. What if this was his typical response to a wound? No. She'd seen him bash his hand before, drawing blood and he hadn't lapsed into unconsciousness then.
God, what did she know? She was just guessing now. And if the TARDIS wasn't working, or whatever it was that caused her to understand languages, she couldn't go for help – provided, of course, that she could find the village let alone lead anyone back here. Besides, even if she did manage to get into the village, what could she do? There was no guarantee that any attempt at charades would even be understandable to the spider-people.
Bloody hell.
Despair was an easy trap to fall into, but she refused to give herself the luxury. She was tired, hungry, thirsty, scared, worried and any number of other things but she couldn't give into any of them.
"Rose," he said and she almost jumped in shock.
"Doctor?" she asked hopefully, but he only groaned and was silent once more. Shit.
She glanced in the direction of the cave's opening and realised that the darkness had gained a greyish tint. Dawn, she realised. It was finally coming. She changed her position slight so that one hand was still resting on the Doctor's back while the rest of her was angled towards the entrance. She wanted to be ready the instant that she could see farther than, well, her eyelids.
It might've been minutes or hours later, but she was finally able to see where she was. It was a cave, a fairly deep one at that. She was just thankful that it was uninhabited. After she saw what roamed the planet at night, the last thing she wanted to encounter was their version of a wolf.
Catching her lower lip between her teeth, she turned her attention to the Doctor. In the faint light, she could see that his face was bloodied, but not badly. Head wound of some sort, probably from falling to the ground. However, when she turned her attention to his torso, she finally saw what she'd felt the previous night.
Her hoodie wasn't completely covering the wound, and from what she could see it was nasty. The leather was caked with blood and she could see even more oozing slowly onto the fabric. She needed to remove his jacket somehow, and his jumper. Anything to prevent the clothing from infecting the wound. She couldn't clean it much, of course, but she had to do something.
Frowning, she tried to ease one of his arms out of the jacket, wincing each time she moved him. She was thankful that he was unconscious for this. It was hard to be gentle when she shifted him, especially given his inability to assist.
It took several minutes to wrestle his limp arms out of the jacket. With every moment, she feared that he'd regain consciousness, but he mercifully didn't. Now that his limbs were free, she tried to determine the easiest way to remove the jacket from the wound. If she did it quickly, it might cause more damage. Slowly, it might do the same.
Erring on the side of 'get it over with', she ripped the jacket free with one sharp tug. He groaned at the movement and she grimaced as she was able to see the extent of the wound itself. Whatever had hit him, it'd done a great deal of damage. His flesh was puckered in places, oozing fresh blood. Bits of dirt and cloth were sealed to the injury with caked blood and she did her best to clean it with the small bit of her hoodie that wasn't soaked through.
Removing his jumper would be far too much effort, she realised. She couldn't manoeuvre his torso enough to pull it over his head. And she didn't have anything to use to cut it away from his back. So she'd have to make do with what she did have. Glancing down at herself, she frowned. He needed a fresh bandage.
When she lifted her hands from him, she was arrested by the sight of blood – his blood – coating her fingers. It was everywhere. On her clothing, on her body, on him. His blood…
She swallowed the lump that built in her throat, telling herself that the dampness she felt on her cheeks weren't tears. He wasn't going to die. Not. Now.
New bandage. She could do that. Thankful that she'd worn another T-shirt beneath this one, she tugged it off herself and tried to rip it into two. At least that way she would have two bandages. However, the fabric proved far tougher than she'd expected, so she had to use it as it was. Pressing it against his wound, she didn't think she needed as much pressure this time. There definitely wasn't as much blood as before, just from what she'd re-opened by removing the jacket.
"You'd better not bleed any more, Doctor. I'm afraid I need this shirt," she told him, even though he couldn't hear her. There was something comforting about hearing her own voice, but she was still mindful that their pursuers might still be out there. Giving the Doctor one last look, she forced herself to stand and go to the entrance of the cave.
Wishing she'd thought to bring sunglasses, she squinted in the bright morning light. She had no idea where they were. She seemed to be at the foot of some sort of mountain range. Could it be the one she saw in the distance yesterday? Damnit, this wasn't getting her anywhere.
She couldn't see anyone outside, though that meant little. Maybe they were lucky and their pursuers had given up. She sighed and glanced back into the cave. She knew that they were going to need food and water, though water was much more important at the moment. She'd have to leave him behind on her search, and she was loath to do that. Anything might happen to him. A predator might come or he might die without her there or…
She shook her head. This wasn't helping. She had no choice. She'd have to leave him. If she couldn't find someone to help, at least she could try to get some water. Though how would she carry it? She leaned against the side of the cave's entrance, bracing her head against the cool stone, and sighed.
She had to do something. That was a given. The question was what? She ran a hand through her hair, grimacing as she felt bits of the caked blood on her hands flake off. She was filthy, but there was nothing she could do about that. But first she figured that she should investigate the cave, see how deep it was. There might be water inside the cave, and she wouldn't have to leave him. Or there might be another entrance on the other side. No matter what, she wanted to be certain that, if she left the Doctor here, he'd be as safe as she could make him.
She just needed a torch – or, she suddenly realised, the sonic screwdriver. Though its blue light was faint, she could use that to see where she was going and, hopefully, scare off anything that might be lurking in the darkness.
Returning to the Doctor's side, she lifted his torn jacket, wincing at the hole that was ripped through the back. "He's not gonna like that," she said softly, fingering the tear. Shaking herself out of her reverie, she reached into the interior pocket. She couldn't feel the sonic screwdriver for a long moment, though she knew he kept it there. When she finally closed her fingers around it, she felt as though she'd been searching a space far larger than it appeared to be.
She withdrew the device carefully, feeling comforted by its presence. When she looked at the Doctor, she decided that having his face pressed against the dirt couldn't be comfortable. After slipping the screwdriver into her pocket, she slid the leather jacket underneath his head as a makeshift pillow. Letting her hand linger on his brow, she stared at his face, memorising it. She could feel the soft puff of warm air against her wrist, feeling intensely comforted by it. Trusting that she could leave him for a few minutes, she allowed her hand to fall away from him. "I'll be right back," she told him reluctantly.
Shifting to her feet, she pulled out the sonic screwdriver and thumbed it on. With its vibrating hum echoing oddly in the cave, she began to follow the cave wall, trailing her fingers against the stone and casting the blue light across the ground as she walked. She paused when she felt grooves beneath her fingertips and turned the light towards it.
They were pictures. Very basic pictures etched into the stone, but she could see what looked like the rudimentary form of the spider-people that lived on this planet. There were hash-marks next to each image – words? – that made no sense to her. She suspected they told a story, but what? Shaking her head, she moved on, noticing that as she went deeper into the cave, the pictures were rougher, almost frantic. Scratches marred several of the images and she thought that someone might've been trying to erase them – they were far too deliberate. Spider-person faced spider-person, and she wondered if it was supposed to describe a war. The hash-marks were haphazard and, rather abruptly, they stopped.
Feeling uneasy, she continued on until she reached a curve in the wall. At this point, she turned, glancing back the way that she'd come. In her mind, she'd travelled a great distance, but in reality she was only a few yards away from the cave's entrance.
There was no moisture in this cave, she realised. The walls, while cool, weren't damp. She wouldn't find any pools of water back here. There was nothing for it, really. She would have to leave.
She spent a few more minutes investigating the back of the cave before returning to the Doctor's side. Maybe, if she left the cave, she'd be lucky and find a farmer or someone who might be able to help them. She resolutely did not consider that anyone she might encounter might be one of the people that had been chasing them. Paranoia wouldn't save the Doctor's life.
She rested her hand against his forehead, frowning when she realised that he felt almost as warm as she did. Fever had set in, she realised. He was shivering slightly, the movement causing her makeshift bandage to shift against his back. There was nothing for it.
He needed water and help. Now.
Thumbing off the sonic screwdriver, she put it back into her pocket. She might need it later. "Hold on, Doctor," she told him fiercely, wishing that she could give into the despair that threatened to overwhelm her. To give into the fear and the sorrow that he might leave her. She didn't care that she was stuck on some alien planet with no way home. What she cared about was him. And he needed her.
With one last look at him, she walked to the cave's entrance, wincing in the sunlight. She tried to memorise this location, specific landmarks that would guide her back here. There was some loose brush nearby. Maybe she could try to disguise the cave? No. She didn't have the time for that.
Biting her lower lip, she set off towards her left, in the direction that she thought they'd originally come from. Maybe she'd find help.
Or maybe their pursuers would find her.
She'd found a pool of water about half a mile from the cave, but it'd taken her over an hour to find something to carry it with. It was ungainly, difficult to carry and rather heavy, but the hollow, bamboo-like plant that she'd found was the only thing that she could use to carry water back to the Doctor. It didn't hold much, maybe a gallon at the most, but it was far more than what she'd had before.
The sun was starting its descent now and she cast a wary eye at it. She wasn't certain, but she figured that she'd have maybe three hours until the sun set and those things came back. She wished that she could move faster, but to do so would be to risk spilling the water. Part of her worried that he might've taken a turn for the worse, or that something else had happened to him while she was gone. She needed to clean his wounds, give him something to drink, anything to combat the fever that wracked his body.
God, she wished she could fly.
"No use worrying, Rose," she told herself, however she knew that her heart wouldn't, or perhaps couldn't, listen.
A journey that had taken her maybe fifteen minutes took closer to forty for her to return to the cave's entrance. However, she knew that something was wrong. Outwardly, everything was the same. The rocks, the brush, the cave. Nothing had changed.
But inwardly…
She bit her lower lip and carefully set her makeshift water jug down, balancing it against a small pile of stones located near the entrance. Without saying a word, she crept closer to the cave. She couldn't hear anything inside, but that didn't mean anything.
When she was close enough, she dared to sneak a glance inside the cave. The contrast between the light of day and the darkness inside blinded her momentarily, blocking the interior from view. As her eyes slowly adjusted, her gaze was drawn immediately to the spot where she'd left the Doctor.
In his place, she could see disturbed dirt and a wet-looking spot of what could only be blood. Of the Doctor himself, though, she could see no sign.
He was gone.
To be continued...
