Chapter 2: Rose

Holborn tube station had been closed in the 1950's as part of a cost saving measure when the London Transport Company almost went bankrupt. For some reason, no one had bothered to reopen the station. Now there was no certainly no chance of that happening, at least not anytime soon. Hell, the two lines that passed through the station might not be reopened for months or years. A huge gaping hole was all that remained of the Piccadilly line platforms. The lower level was mostly intact, except that the tracks had been torn up by a great force, and a piece of rail was embedded in the wall.

Under a white sheet nearby was the dead homeless man. Rose went over t have a quick look at the corpse: it's arm was missing and he was unrecongnisable.

And in the middle of a large hole in the floor, where the trackbed used to be, was a small silver oblong object. Imprinted into the top was one name: Rose Tyler.

Her name wasn't written on it, it was press into the metal, or whatever it was made of. Rose went to touch it...

...and it reacted to her.

It was as though Rose's presence had awakened the device. It glowed very briefly, and appeared to be humming. Then just as soon as the humming began, it suddenly stopped.

One of the Torchwood agents in the station threw out an off-handed comment about Rose having "magic powers".

'Shut up'. said Rose.

Rose bent down to pick it up, and was about to open it.

'I wouldn't do that if I were you, ma'am.' said the agent. 'We don't know what it is or what it can do.'

'Well then, we won't find out what's in it.' Rose wanted to open it because she was desperate to see what was inside. And as soon as the agent's back was turned, she did just that. A piercing noise filled the station, and the agent's ears began bleeding.

The sound penetrated the roof of the station, windows exploded and car alarms went off. People covered the ears and ran for their lives, having no idea what was making the noise or if it was going to kill them.

In the station, Rose heard a strange squelching sound, more like a pop, before a warm sticky liquid splashed across her back. She closed the device and stood up very slowly. She had a nasty feeling about what that liquid substance might be. She slowly turned around, and saw a horrific sight at her feet. The agent who had tried to stop her was dead. His head had exploded.

Rose screamed.

She dropped the device and ran for her life. On her way out, she tripped over another corpse, her nose cracking on impact with the ground. She didn't take the time to see that his head was still intact.