He grabbed Jenny's hand and the three of them took off down the aisle of books, staying just ahead of the darkness. Close to the end of the corridor they found a door, but to their horror it wouldn't open.
"What, is it locked?" frantically asked Donna.
"It's jammed. The wood's warped." yelled The Doctor pushing against it.
"It's getting closer." yelled Jenny pushing herself up against the wall. She was terrified. She didn't know why the darkness scared her so much and, that in its self, made her all the more scared.
"Sonic it!" yelled Donna. "Use the thingy!"
"I can't. It's wood." The Doctor yelled back in frustration.
"What, it doesn't do wood?" incredulously said Donna.
"Hang on, hang on… if I can vibrate the molecules, fry the bindings, I can shatterline the interface." said The Doctor
"Just do something!" screamed Jenny, her hearts racing so fast she thought they were going to explode.
"Oh, get out of the way!" yelled Donna pushing The Doctor aside and ramming her foot against the door successfully causing it to swing open. "In, in, in." urged The Doctor, which he really didn't have to do because Donna and Jenny dashed in at the speed of light. Once in he and Donna slammed the doors shut and The Doctor slid a thick book between the door handles. Jenny watched as her father and Donna secured the room, her intense fear disappearing as soon as it had started. She still had no idea why she had felt that way but, she wasn't complaining no that it was gone. She suddenly heard a whirring sound behind her. She spun around ready to put a fight only to see floating wooden ball with a camera coming out of it. She just stared at the thing as she heard her dad come up behind and talk to it. "Oh! Hello. Sorry to burst in on you like this. Okay if we stop here for a bit?" The wooden ball thing gave a shutter, snapped the camera eye shut, and suddenly fell to the floor with a thud.
"What is it?" asked Donna.
"Security camera." said The Doctor giving it a light tap with his foot. "Switched its self off."
"There's something about it… I can't quite." said Jenny, reaching out to touch the security camera. But as soon as she touched it, it gave of a quick electric shock, not very strong, but it still caused Jenny to crumble to the ground unconscious. "Jenny!" cried out Donna as she fell to her knees beside her. The Doctor quickly knelt on the other side of his daughter and immediately checked her over for injuries. "She's alright. It didn't harm her." he said of a minute causing Donna to let out a sigh of relief. As a extra precaution he pulled out his sonic and did a quick scan of her body for deadly 'things', letting out a sigh of relief when he didn't find any.
"But why did it do that?" asked Donna still mildly worried as she pulled Jenny's head onto her lap.
"Possibly just an electrical build up. I don't think it meant any harm." he said jumping and once again approached the security camera. He carefully lifted up the camera, just in case it shocked him too, and began to sonic the camera lens, hoping to get it to pop open. After a few minutes of silence, The Doctor spoke, "Nice door skills, Donna." he said referring to her killing the door open.
"Yeah, well," she said ran a hand over Jenny's hair, like a mother would do when her child was sick. "You know, boyfriends… sometimes you need the element of surprise. What was that?" she looked over at The Doctor. "What was after us? I mean, did we just run away from a power cut?"
"Possibly." he said off handedly.
"Are we safe here?" she asked looking around.
"Of course we're safe. There's a little shop." he said glancing off to his side. Donna looked and saw a sign that read, 'The Shop' and 'Entrance this way.' She was about to reply when The Doctor let out a triumphant yell, "Gotcha!"; he had finally gotten the security camera to turn back on. However, at the same time, Jenny bolted straighter up and yelled, "Dad, stop!" causing Donna to jump and The Doctor's head to snap toward her. He casted a quick glance down at the camera still in his hands and saw something that made him pause. Just above the camera was a screen and across that screen were moving words that read, 'No, stop it! No, no!'
"Ooh, I'm sorry. I really am. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." he quickly apologized and set the camera down. "It's alive."
"You said it was a security camera." said Donna helping Jenny stand up.
"It is." he said standing up too. "It's an alive one."
"It's a girl." said Jenny. When all she heard was silence she looked up at the other two and saw them giving her strange looks. "What? Why are you staring at me?"
"You said it was a girl?" said The Doctor.
"I know."
"How can you possibly know if it's a girl; it's a machine."
"Well, I…" began to explain Jenny, but at the looks of worry/bewilderment on her dad and Donna's faces, she thought better of it. If she told them that while she was unconscious she had seen a young girl talking to two other men in a house and then watched her crumple to the ground in pain while hearing the sonic screwdriver pulsing, they would think she was loosing it. "I don't know really." she lied. "Maybe I just would like to think of the live security camera as a girl and not a boy." The Doctor and Donna just looked at each other and shrugged; letting the topic go… for now. The Doctor glanced back down at the camera and saw another row of words cross the screen. "Others are coming." read The Doctor.
"Others?" asked Donna. "What's it mean, 'others'?" The Doctor shook his head as Jenny felt a tiny spot of fear creep back in her mind. She shut he eyes, concentrating on blocking out that feeling of fear, when she saw it again. She was in a house and two older men were leaning over the little girl who was laying on the floor. She tried to get their attention just like last time but they still didn't seem to know she was there. She moved closer and heard the girl whisper, "The Library is breached. Others are coming." She moved in for a closer look but the sound of her name being called out caused to snap her eyes open and she was back in The Library.
"Jenny." The Doctor called out again this time getting a response as Jenny opened her eyes. Jenny shook her head and turned to her father's worried face. "Sorry." she said. "Must still have some cobwebs in my head from the shock." The Doctor stilled looked like he didn't believe but let it drop again as Donna began to talk to a courtesy node that was in the room.
"Excuse me." she said. "What does it mean 'others'?"
"That's barely more than a speak-your-weight machine. It can't help you." said The Doctor as the nodes' 'head' turned to Donna.
"So why's it got a face?"
"This flesh aspect was donated by Mark Chambers on the occasion of his death." said the automated male voice.
"It's a real face?" cried out Donna in shock as she turned to The Doctor.
"It has been actualized individually for you from the many facial aspects saved to our extensive flesh banks. Please enjoy." continued the node.
"It chose me a dead face it thought I'd like? That statue's got a real dead person's face on it!" said Donna beginning to freak out.
"It's the 51st Century." said The Doctor calmly coming up behind Donna. "That's basically like donating a park bench." He tried to calm her down but that sentence only caused Donna to freak out even more.
"It's donating a face!" she yelled as she quickly backed away.
"I think it's kind of cool." said Jenny stepping closer to the node looking at the face. The Doctor smiled at her but then grabbed Donna around the middle. "No, wait, no." he yelled pulling her close keeping her away from the shadow right behind her.
"Oh! Oi, hands!" he said slapping his hands off her waist.
"The shadow, look." he said holding his hands up and nodding down to the floor.
"What about it?" she asked as Jenny came to stand beside her.
"Count the shadows." said Jenny remembering what the first node had said. The Doctor looked up at the ceiling, which had a huge hole in the center causing light to flood the center of the room. He looked back down at the shadow and then around the room.
"One." counted Donna. "There, I counted it. One shadow."
"Yeah." muttered The Doctor still looking around the room. "But what's casting it?" He was becoming more and more concerned that he couldn't find any object that could cast a pointed shadow. Donna and Jenny spun around and took a look about the room as well; their concern level raising as well when they realized what The Doctor was talking about. "Oh! I'm thick!" he suddenly yelled making Donna and Jenny jump out of their skin. "Look at me, I'm old and thick! Head's too full of stuff. I need a bigger head!" The Doctor followed an electrical buzzing sound to a short corridor and watched as a light began to flicker.
"Power must be going." said Jenny as she and Donna also watched the light flicker.
"This place runs on fission cells. They'll out burn the sun." said The Doctor.
"Then why's it dark?" asked Donna worry seeping into her voice.
"It's not dark." relied The Doctor his voice hard as he began to realize what was happening and how much danger they were all in.
"Then what is it?" asked Jenny her voice fearful. The Doctor didn't reply, he just watched the light flick ominously, that is until Donna touched his arm. "That shadow." she said looking at the floor. "It's gone." The Doctor and Jenny looked down and sure enough the pointed shadow had disappeared.
"We need to get back to the Tardis." said The Doctor urgently.
"Why?" asked Donna becoming more worried.
"Because that shadow hasn't gone. It's moved." he replied.
"How can a shadow move?" asked Jenny. The Doctor opened his mouth to speak but was but off by the courtesy nodes voice repeating the same two sentences. "Reminder, The Library has been breached. Others are coming."
"What does that mean? What others?" asked Donna looking frantically around the room. Jenny closed her eyes for a second and saw the same room and people as before, only now the little girl was sitting up. "There's more people in my library." cried the little girl into the arms of who Jenny could only assume was her father. Jenny opened her eyes again and saw her dad and Donna casting worried glances around the room as the node continued to repeat the sentences. "Maybe, by 'others' it means other people." she suggested, but neither The Doctor nor Donna had a chance to respond as a crash was heard from one of the door. A bright light and sparks of electricity, which made The Doctor and Donna jump back a few feet, accompanied the crash. Jenny, however, took a tiny step closer as the doors flew and in walked six figures wearing spacesuits. The first spaceman who had walked through the door came up to The Doctor and smiled at him fondly as she said, "Hello, Sweetie."
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