Screams tare through my apartment late at night. Well, I say night, but it's really day. Well, day but not to me.
Okay look, I work the night shift. I'm supposed to be sleep right now. Instead of jumping up to see what all the fuss is about, what do I do? I roll over and go back to sleep.
I managed to fall back asleep, the commotion outside settling- sort of, when my door explodes. My door is not supposed to explode!
"EXTERMINATE!"
I open my eyes, anger pulsing through me. It's be a long day. I need to be sleep!
Just as I open my mouth to explain this to whoever is in my home, a six foot, red salt shaker appears at my bedroom door. I open my mouth to yell at it, but close it when I notice it staring at me. Well, I think it is staring at me. It's eye stalk thing is zooming in and out in my direction.
The salt shaker looking thing has a red body, black balls covering its outside and a black head. Sticking out of the head is what could be called an eye stalk. Sticking out if the base looks like a wisk and a plunger.
"HU-MAN!" It screams, the lights on top of it's head flashing. "EX-TER-MIN-ATE!
Nope. I tear off my blankets, angrily jumping out of my bed. "No!"
I yank a hand through my thick red hair, the untamed curls stuck to my face from how I was asleep. I put up my hair in a messy pony tail. The sudden lack of blankets shocks my body. I had gotten used to the trapped heat that the chilly air in my room slaps my body. Once I'm finished I glare at the object.
"Stop staring! You heard what I said!"
I wrap my arms around myself. The looks, or lack of, that it's giving me is weird. Almost like a guy looking me up and down at a bar.
The salt shaker moves forward when it hears my response. The blue eye stalk sounds as it zooms in. "DAL-EKS DO NOT TAKE OR-DERS FROM HU-MANS!"
"Like I asked." I scoff. "You're not 'exterminating' me or whatever. I'm too tired for this mess. I'm going back to sleep."
I move just a centimeter to get back under my thick comforter when the wisk looking thing on the salt shaker aims at my bed. A light beam comes out of it. I scream in shock as my bed explodes.
"What the-?"
The salt shaker hovers towards me. Fear pushes me back against my wall. "YOU WILL COME WITH ME HU-MAN!" It screams as it turns around to exit the way it came. Apparently I'm supposed to follow?
"Um, no?"
The things turns back around. "YES! I HAVE OR-DARED YOU TO FOL-LOW! YOU WILL O-BEY!"
Anger takes over my fear as I find myself staring right into the blue eye stalk. "I take orders from no one when I'm not at work." I take a step closer to it. "Now GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!"
It stares at me, almost studying me. "YOU WOULD MAKE A GOOD DAL-EK."
Dalek? What the heck is a Dalek?
The "Dalek" hovers closer to me. It reaches out to me, its plunger barely touching the center of my stomach. I remind myself to breathe. I should be afraid right now. I should be boiling with anger from not even two minutes before this moment. But all I can do it watch in confusion as the Dalek gently touches my face and down my arm.
"YOU ARE NOT BAD FOR A HU-MAN," it says, "COME WITH ME." The Dalek turns again and hover to the door.
I step back and cross my arms over my chest, oddly uncomfortable that I'm only in my silk pj top and fuzzy Muppet pants. "Are you going kill me?" The Dalek stops. "If so, just do it now."
The Dalek does not turn around. Instead all it does is answer. "NO, WE WILL NOT KILL YOU, HU-MAN. YOU WILL NOT BE HARMED. PACK A BAG AND COME WITH ME. YOU WILL NOT BE RE-TURN-NING."
I rock back and forth on my heels as I quickly think about the situation. Stay here and clean up this mess and possibly die or go with the homisidal salt shaker and live?
Quickly, I run to my closest and stuff my clothes inside. T-shirts, shorts, jeans, underwear, brushes, hairties, everything. I yank on some tennis shoes and bolt out my broken door.
"Wait!" By the time I reach the Dalek, I'm out of breath.
"YOU... CAME?" The Dalek asks in a low roar.
I straighten my posture, still taking deep breaths. "Try- Trying to. I- I really hate cleaning up. Good grief you are fast!"
The Dalek does not respond. But I imagine that it smirks at my remark.
Suddenly, the Dalek rises higher in the air. "COME!"
I watch as the Dalek begins to fly away. During this short time, I notice all the chaos around me. Buildings broken and on fire, bodies scattered around, families cowering and crying. I even see more Daleks, covered in silver and gold, flying around the area, shooting what looks like lasers.
I shift my weight while looking after it in awe. I'm not running after that thing, but I'm afraid if I stand here too long another one might shoot me.
The Dalek must have noticed I'm not behind it. It circles around to come back to me.
A laugh escapes my lips as the blank stare of the Dalek must be one of confusion.
"Oh! Yeah, um, humans can't fly. So I can't really follow you too well." I rock back and forth for a moment. "Unless there's a way I can climb on top of you and you carry me?"
The Dalek backs away from me, almost fearful. "YOU WILL BE EX-TERM-IN-ATED IF YOU TOUCH ME."
I groan. That sucks. "Skin to what I'm guessing is metal? If I have a protective covering, like a blanket or a shirt, would that protect me?"
The Dalek does not respond. Instead it turns around. "CLIMB ON TOP OF ME. BE CARE-FUL!"
I adjust my bag. Looking at the back of the Dalek, an idea pops into my head. I drop my bag on the ground, which feels a lot like Mary Poppins' bag. I dig around for the roap I somehow grabbed and my large nightshirt.
I throw the nightshirt overtop of what I assume to be its head. If I can get a good foothold on its body, this may work. I take the straps of my bag and cross them over my chest, pulling it tightly. Now comes the fun part...
Using the rope, I tether myself to the Dalek. I hook both ends of the rope around the wisk and plunger thing and myself. Using the black balls as my footholds, I tie the rope around myself and the Dalek as a seatbealt.
Leaning on my stomach, I hold on to its head and lights. It looks like I belly flopped onto the Dalek.
"Okay!" I shout. My stomach warms as I can feel it through the metal. "Promise you wont drop me?"
"I WILL TRY!" The Dalek screams.
"Then let's go!"
Suddenly, the Dalek hovers above the street again. This time, it takes me up with it.
The Dalek slowly climbs higher into the air before going faster towards whatever destination.
Somehow, I don't know how, but somehow I managed to fall asleep while the Dalek was flying. Flying high above the clouds, I managed to drift back to sleep against the warm metal of its head. When we finally land, I almost fell on the ground.
"Where are we?" I yawn.
"WE ARE AT THE DAL-EK BASE. I AM TAKE-ING YOU TO SEE THE EM-PER-OR!"
As rub my eyes as I climb down from the Dalek. When I do, I notice all the other daleks that are doing different jobs, while three others yell orders. All the other daleks are the same silver and gold as before, but now there are three colored ones. There is a white dalek, a black dalek, and a blue dalek. They must but the higher ups. I turn around, coming face to face with a large white ball.
"So... are we going in that then? I ask. "Doesn't seem like we'll be able to fit."
The Dalek looks at me. "WE WILL FIT. PRE-PARE FOR TRANS-POR-TA-ION!"
At its words, the daleks kick into overdrive. I stumble closer to the red Dalek, watching as it shouts orders.
"So... would you mind if I like gave you a name?"
It turns its eyes stalk towards me again. "WHY? DALEKS DO NOT NEED NAMES."
I shrugs and leans against him. Although I can't exactly tell if the dalek is a guy, it seems enough like a jerk to be a guy.
"I don't know. I think if I'm going to travel with you, we should have names." My skin burns as I lean against him, but I don't move. He is looking straight ahead, not daring to move. "I'm going to call you Red."
"RED?" He asks.
I nod and take a step back from him so he can face me. "Yup, Red. My name is Amanda, but people just call me Mandy."
"I AM RED AND YOU ARE MANDY."
I smile at the dalek. He doesn't return the smile, of course, but something tells me he is.
During this short time, we have moved to a window, where I can overlook the stretch of land below.
The cities send smoke into the air as more daleks return to the base. They all seem rather pleased with themselves, while I wonder about what is happening below. How many lives have they ruined?
I open my mouth to ask when the black dalek screams an order. "ALL DALEKS TO THE ARK. WE ARE GOING TO SEE THE EM-PER-OR!" His voice is deeper than Red's. Definitely a guy.
The silver daleks move to the center of the base. There is a dalek-looking object sits. Except, this object is sucking the daleks in and does not appear to be hovering above ground. It must be the Ark.
As I piece this together in my mind, I hear Red and Midnight, the black dalek, arguing.
"THE HU-MAN STAYS!" Red yells.
Arguing about me.
I jog over to where Red is. Without thinking I run my finger across his body, getting his attention. I notice that touching him doesn't burn anymore.
"Hey, so, yeah, I'm gonna stay. I kind of want to meet this Emperor of yours." Midnight and the two others turn to study me. They look at my body up and down, just like Red did. "Oh, and hi, I'm Mandy."
Midnight turns. Without yelling another word, he leaves. Snowball and Blue follow him into the white ball. They take the Ark with them, although I don't know how it follows them.
"Well they seem nice."
"I THINK YOU SHOULD GO." Red says weakly.
I stare at him. "What?"
Red looks down. "IT IS NOT SAFE FOR A HU-MAN TO TRAVEL WITH DALEKS. YOU SHOULD GO."
I cross my arms over my body, which still has nothing but a silks tank top and ph bottoms on. I continue to stare at Red. He broke into my house, told me to pack a bag last minute, and flew me up here, and now he wants me to go?
I chuckle uncomfortably, I reach forwards to his eye stalk. Gently, I lift it enough that I force him to look at me. "Red, I'm not going anywhere. You brought me here, I'm staying."
Red and I stare at each other. I'm sure he would have dropped his jaw by now if he had one. Instead he turns around.
A smile finds its way onto my face. Climbing back on top of him, I laugh as he flies us into the white ball.
Once inside, it turns cold. The four daleks in the ball give off enough heat to warm a small cottage. I climb off of Red's back. When I do, I lower myself to the almost non-existent ground.
I reach in my bag to pull out a small travel pillow. Something tells me its going to be a long time before I'm getting out of here. Might as well get comfortable.
I settle down in my spot. I fell around me as I lean against who I hope is Red.
"That you Red?" I call into the dark.
Lights above me flash. "YES."
I nod as I lean against him. Once I'm situated, I close my eyes.
"Wake me when you want to talk or when we get there." I yawm.
It's at that point that I fall into an everlasting sleep. Not dead, but waiting. Waiting for the day I meet the Doctor.