A/N: The Doctor and the swarm are not mine. There are no spoilers, though this story was inspired by too much thinking about "A Good Man Goes to War," and wondering just what effect the Doctor must have on the countless people he encounters. Hopefully the first of a series of short pieces about the nameless who are left behind.
Never Look Back
1.
She drew her sword, knowing it would be the last thing she ever held. These creatures were mindless eating machines, like the legends of locusts in the plagues in the history of the far-away home planet Earth. Backing further under the cover of the overhang, she carefully drew her other sword. She felt better for a wall at her back, a roof over her head, and two good, sharp swords in her hands.
She took a deep breath. It wasn't easy, she found, this waiting for death. She'd been training for combat since she'd been old enough to both pay attention and hold a practice sword the right way up. But this—this wasn't combat. There was no ritual, no battlefield, no enemy just as well-trained and as frightened as you. No one had ever prepared her for these long moments of knowing that she would soon be eaten alive.
She could hear the sounds of thousands of powerful jaws tearing through everything in the path of the swarm. Metal flashed in the sun that shone mercilessly on fields as they were devoured, reduced to dust. She resisted the urge to run. She'd been in the observatory, and had seen her family mown down in the far fields. If she ran into the open, she had no more chance than they.
The tearing sound was closer now, the flashes brighter. She raised her swords as the wind rose and one repeated flash nearly blinded her. When her vision cleared, however, there was an inexplicable blue box in front of her. The creatures were still a ways off, though growing steadily nearer.
The door of the large box opened and a strangely dressed man stepped out. He raised his hands in a gesture of surrender when he saw her swords pointed at his throat.
"Ah. Hello!" he said brightly—too brightly for a man facing a frightened, angry young woman pointing two swords at him. "I'm looking for a wormhole. Have you seen it?"
"A what?" she asked suspiciously.
"A rupture in space," the man said, agitatedly running a hand through his brown hair. "It should be around here somewhere…" He turned his gaze to the middle distance, eyes scanning for something.
"Is that how those creatures came through?" she asked, lowering her weapons slightly.
"Yes, and it is how they will leave," he said, eyes settling on a point just beyond her family's house. "So, if you'll excuse me—"
She lifted her swords again, threateningly. "So you can—what—keep them here until the planet is destroyed? Besides, they didn't come from near here…"
He sighed. "It doesn't matter where they came through…and no. I'm not here to destroy the planet. It's far too late for that." He started to walk away, but she blocked him. He rolled his eyes, adding, "A long time ago, I diverted the path of the wormhole to an uninhabited system. They must have gone through it more quickly than I thought."
"So they've done this before and you didn't destroy them and now you've brought them here. You're some sort of alien, destroying planets," she hissed.
"No, no, no," he said. "I wanted to stop them destroying inhabited planets—"
He was cut off as one of the creatures slammed into the blue box. He glanced at it, then he looked back at her and said urgently, "Run!"
"Where?" She stabbed at one of the creatures, her sword bouncing off the metal exterior. "What are they? Robots?" She gasped as it caught her blade with sharp teeth and, pulling it from her grip, apparently ate it.
"No, they secrete a metal exoskeleton. In here," he said, dragging her into his box, as another of the creatures yanked her remaining sword from her hand. "I'll see if I can't shift the wormhole without getting a closer look…" Still mumbling he ran deeper into the room. She stopped, stunned at the size of the room beyond. She didn't know what to say, and the moment for asking anything passed. He was already at the central controls, hair flying, feet skidding as he madly threw switches and pressed buttons. Then he pulled a monitor around, typed something into what must have been a keyboard, and exclaimed, "Haha, gotcha!"
From outside came the sound of tearing wood and crashing glass. "That was my house," she whispered. "They're eating my house…" He paid no attention; he was focused on punching more buttons. Then he glanced up and smiled.
"That should do it," he said. "Wormhole's locked onto another, larger set of uninhabited planets. Where would you like to go? We can go…anywhere." He'd obviously meant this statement to be impressive. He was still smiling, staring at her expectantly.
She felt vulnerable without her weapons. She glanced back at the door, where she could still hear the swarm rushing past, teeth gnashing over what was left of the house. "Home," she said.
His smile became fixed. "I'm so sorry, but it was lost the moment those things broke through your atmosphere. There was nothing I could—"
"I know," she snapped, angrily dashing tears from her eyes. Soldiers didn't cry. Not when there was still a war being fought for the outer colonies…
They stood in silence, except for the hum of his machine. Finally, she said, "My brother. I've a brother in the inner colonies." She drew herself up. "Take me to him."
"Of course," the man said quietly. A few very bumpy, uncomfortable minutes later, she opened the door of the box and stared out at her brother's mine. She could see him, leaning against the door of his workstation. About to run to him, she abruptly turned back. "Who are you?"
"I'm the Doctor," he said, which wasn't an answer at all. Teeth clenched, head held high, she turned away and walked into her new life. She could still remember this Doctor's emphatic instruction to run when there had been nowhere to go, mocking her for wanting to do exactly as he said. So she walked, refusing to give this Doctor the satisfaction of seeing her flee.
Even years later, she dreamt of that day. And when people asked, for they never stopped asking, how she'd escaped the destruction of the entire planet when no one else had, she told them about the nightmare Doctor, who shifted paths and changed worlds, and, above all, ran and never looked back.