Amy Awakens
With a muffled moan, Amy opened her eyes and immediately squinted at her surroundings. She was in a bright room on a table, at least she thought she was. But, she was bewildered as to how she got there.
She tried to sit up but she found it felt different; like a huge weight was pinning her down. Looking down, she saw a huge bulge protruding from under her shirt that appeared as if—.
Amy shakily felt her stomach and to her horror felt something move inside her. Whimpering, Amy began to hyperventilate.
"Doctor," Rory said as Amy listened close by. "How can we possibly trust them? They're Gangers, they're clones."
Before the Doctor could speak, a huge rumble shook the conservatory. Everyone quickly covered their heads as dust and rubble fell from the ceiling above. Coughing, Amy looked at the Doctor as he pulled out his screwdriver to survey the air.
"Doctor!" Amy yelled. "What's happening?"
"Solar flares," the Doctor said, almost to himself as he looked at his screwdriver.
"But what does that mean?" Amy asked.
The Doctor looked directly at Amy with a meaningful stare. "The solar flares are affecting the Gangers so that they don't need a human source. It means the humans are waking up."
"Where am I?" Amy whispered to herself as she stood up. It was strange to stand; she had to adjust her center of balance so she wouldn't fall forward.
Amy tried to breathe slowly and think about her situation. She didn't know where she was, how she got her and most importantly, how she was suddenly heavily pregnant. The most important thing as well as the hardest thing for her to grasp was her new condition.
Hesitantly, she placed a hand on her stomach and waited again for something to move against her hand. A flutter brushed her hand and she found that her vision was blurry with tears. Smiling, Amy wiped away her tears and carefully caressed her belly. She was going to have a baby. Glancing behind her, she half expected Rory to be there to take her hand and hold her close.
Rory not being there jogged Amy's memory that she wasn't where she ought to be. Where were her boys? Where were her husband and the Doctor? It was only a moment ago she was with them. She frowned. The Doctor was talking about the sun—no, solar flares. And Gangers.
Amy stumbled forward and she quickly reached for the wall to steady herself as she suddenly realized why she wasn't where she ought to be: she was never there to begin with.
"We need to get out of here, Doctor!" Amy said, urgently tugging on his arm.
Snapping out of his trance, the Doctor looked around at everyone standing by, nervously looking at the closed door in front of them. Faintly, under all the shaking and rumbling, he could hear the Gangers on the other side of the door, pounding on it in an effort to get in.
"Not without the Gangers," the Doctor said firmly as he ran toward the door so that he could sonic them out with his screwdriver.
"We're coming for you," the Doctor murmured as he pointed his screwdriver at the door.
Unsteadily, Amy half-walked, half-ran down the corridor. She was easily able to get out of her room but now she needed to find an escape pod or something she could use to send a message to the Doctor.
Up ahead was a banister that split into two directions. Approaching it, Amy rested against it.
"Ah," Amy panted. "Figures. The one time escape is easy and I wake up and find myself looking like a hippo with a gland problem."
She looked down both directions, unsure of which way she ought to go.
"Suppose I can go left first," Amy mused and then sighed before lugging herself again.
"Quickly, come on," the Doctor said as he urged them all forward.
Obediently, the Gangers followed the Doctor down the hallway with Amy and Rory right on the Doctor's heels. The Doctor skidded to a halt and threw up his arms.
"Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait," the Doctor warned them as he stared upward at the ceiling in front of them. Liquid was steadily dripping and as it hit the floor, it emitted a hiss.
"Acid," the Doctor said grimly. He turned around and ran back the way they came. "Come on, MOVE!"
By now, Amy was getting the hang of walking quickly while carrying a huge load in front of her. Up ahead, was a window and she hurriedly went for it.
"Maybe I can get an idea of how to get out here," Amy said to herself and she crept up to the window and stared out of it.
Amy was only expecting to see the vast space or a nearby planet that she might be able to get to via an escape pod. What she wasn't expecting was seeing an entire legion of ships hovering around the ship she was previously on.
"Why are there so many of them?" she wondered out loud. "What are they for?"
"To protect you," a voice said.
Startled, Amy turned around to see two guards coming at her. Unafraid, Amy faced them and stood her ground.
"Why?"
"Why are they protecting you?" the first guard asked. "To stop potential armies from taking you away from us," he answered.
"What does an army want from me?" Amy asked.
"It's not you, specifically," the first guard explained.
Abruptly, Amy felt a violent cramp seize her body and she groaned. The guards held out their arms to take Amy's shoulders.
"Allow us to escort you back to your room," the second guard offered. Amy shook her head.
"No," she said firmly. "I'm leaving."
"Not in your condition," the first guard insisted and with a tight grip on her shoulders, he began to take her back to her room.
"Everyone, in here!" the Doctor ordered and everyone followed him. Glancing over her shoulder, Amy went up to the Doctor.
"Doctor, they're not getting along," she muttered so that only he could hear. "The Gangers, the real people; they all hate each other."
The Doctor pulled out his sonic and scanned the room. "I've taken us into a storage room, but it's not a storage room," he said out loud to himself.
"Doctor," Amy said, slightly annoyed.
"But it's not a storage room because this is a terrible place to store food because of how humid it is in here, do you feel it?" he asked Amy.
Amy nodded. "Yes, it smells moldy."
"Yes! Moldy! Love that word; moldy. But, in order for there to be mold, there has to be water. Well, water can't just come into a room, it needs an entrance."
"It could just come in from the cracks," Rory said, joining in on the conversation.
"And a crack is all I need," the Doctor grinned.
Amy was back in her room again. This time, she was being strapped onto her bed.
"When I get out of here, I'm going to take you outside and show you what it's like!" Amy said, glaring at them.
"No need for that," a voice said and Amy looked up toward the door to see a woman with an eye patch coming forward to meet her.
"As soon as they've finished strapping you down, they will hand in their credentials and be terminated effective immediately." The woman chuckled lightly before saying coldly to the two women next to her, "Get out."
Obediently, the women left the room. Amy stared after them and then looked at the woman who was near her side.
"Who are you?" she asked.
"Names are not important," the woman smiled before glancing toward Amy's swollen belly. "Speaking of names, have you thought of what you are going to name her?"
"Her?" Amy repeated and felt a lump in her throat and tears welling up in her eyes. "It's a girl?"
"We've been scanning you for a while, of course. Is there a name that you have reserved for an occasion such as this?"
Amy shook her head and wiped away at her eyes. "I've considered for a while when I thought I was pregnant but—I-I don't know."
"Do you know what I've been calling her?" the woman asked.
Amy's red-rimmed eyes narrowed. "No, what?"
"Hope," the woman answered.
"I think I've almost…" the Doctor gritted his teeth for a moment. "There!"
Happily, the Doctor watched as the wall in front of them tipped forward to reveal another passageway.
"False wall!" he yelled and went inside to have a closer look. He pointed ahead. "This is part of the old sewage system! That's where all the water was coming in. Everyone, this way!"
It seemed like forever to the Doctor; he was always impatient about things. At last, coughing, the Doctor stumbled out of the sewage passageway and onto the grass outside. Looking up, he could see his Tardis exactly where he had left it and he was relieved to see the acid had not affected it.
"Quickly, everyone inside!" the Doctor ordered.
"Why?" Amy demanded.
"No need to explain myself. Is there something wrong with that name?" the woman asked politely.
"Everything in that she is not your child," Amy said angrily. She tried to sit up but another sharp pain made her wince and she fell back against her pillow. The woman tsked.
"Now, now," she said. "You mustn't stress yourself. You're going into labor." Amy's eyes widened before the woman continued. "Don't worry, we have the best midwives. I won't stick around when it happens, of course. I hear that it can get messy."
"There's a reason," Amy said, eyeing the woman with suspiscion. "There's a reason you want her; why?"
"All in due time," the woman assured her before leaving the room and a bewildered Amy.
Alone, the woman activated a comlink and said into it, "Bring me a flesh duplicator."