She Who Wandered

Part 2

Alone in the Jungle

Whenever her children, students or nanny kids, got lost, Clara taught one simple rule. Stay where you are. Don't move. Don't go looking for everyone else. Just sit tight at your last known location and wait for everyone else to find you. It was a good rule, worked well for students. Worked well for kids.

Clara was trying it now, doing her absolute best not to panic as she waited for the Doctor to come back for her. She'd pulled out her mobile, only to find that there was no service. It was probably connected to the TARDIS.

He had to come back, just as soon as he realized she was gone.

Apparently the rule didn't work for time lord's companions.

Even if he didn't figure out what was wrong right away, there was no reason for it to be more than a few minutes on her end. After all, the Doctor was the one with the time machine. Even if it took him days to figure it out, and there was no way he wouldn't notice her absence after days, he could just return right to the moment he left.

Clara was going to kill him.

Tackle him. Hold him so tight he could barely breathe. Then kill him.

Even in her anger, it was well over an hour until she finally gave up on him. The realization that he wasn't coming was worse than anything on this creepy planet.

Clara was alone.

Alone in the jungle.

And it was getting darker. If that was at all possible. It was the encroaching night that finally convinced Clara that it was time to move. It was as though the shadows were growing, creeping farther towards her. The sight made her skin crawl.

"If you're going to abandon me, you could have at least done it on a paradise planet. Then I could have just sat around on a beach and waited. Then you could have taken your sweet time. But not here. Not on the creepy planet."

For some reason pretending to talk to the Doctor made her feel better, probably because he made her feel safe. This planet wouldn't be scary at all if he was here with her. Her Doctor, there was nothing he couldn't solve.

Clara, on the other hand, wasn't near that smart, though she'd never admit it to him.

"Ok." She began, spinning around with a swoosh of skirt, trying to figure out which direction was the least dangerous looking. Basically, it was a choice of dark, darker, and darkest, so the answer was quite simple.

"Dark it is."

Taking a deep breath, hesitating slightly in the hopes that he would choose this exact moment to arrive and make it though she didn't need to move all, Clara squared her shoulders and walked off in the forest.

Every few steps she looked back, chocolate brown eyes searching desperately for TARDIS blue, and finding only darkness. Even when she couldn't see anymore, her ears still strained to hear that beautiful sound.

But the brunette didn't hear anything, only the sound of her breathing. There was no sound of animals, nor that of leaves rustling in the wind. There was nothing. Only silence and darkness. It was as though Clara was the only living thing on this entire planet.

She was wrong, though the woman didn't know it yet. Had she turned around, Clara would have seen the slightest shift in the shadows, like there was something moving inside.

In the beginning, she tried to keep track of where she was, in an attempt to make sure she could return to the original spot if necessary. But it was hopeless, for soon she was hopelessly lost.

There were trees she was sure she'd seen before, as though she was walking in circles. When she could see the trees anyway, Clara could swear it was getting darker and darker. Before long, fingers were only dim shadows in front of her face.

Clara kept tripping, over rocks and roots, plants and dirt. The ground was uneven, made even worse by the fact that she couldn't even see it. Most of the time, she would catch herself before she fell completely, but sometimes she wasn't as lucky, falling on her knees often enough to rip her tights, palms scraped up in attempts to catch herself.

The worst time, her palm slipped on a rock as she tried to catch herself, causing arms to fly to the side as she fell on her face, flat into the dirt. It took a few minutes before she could move again, her breath completely knocked out of her.

Even then, all she did was push herself up to sit straight on the ground, pulling her legs up to her chest and wrapping her arms around them, using bloody knees as a chin rest.

There was no point in walking anymore, it wouldn't do anything. Clara was hopelessly lost, bruised, bloody, and miserable. The decision was simple, for her at least, sit here until morning, then continue on.

"Doctor. Where are you?"

As if in answer to her question, the whole world went insane. Bright light flooded the area, chasing the shadows away and blinding Clara, the woman yelping and burying her face in her knees, eyes clinched shut.

She was just as blind as before, it just hurt now.

If it was the Doctor, she probably would have forgiven him for the shocking light. But it wasn't the Doctor.

There was no sound of the TARDIS moving, no time lord yelling her name. There was sound, which should have been a relief, but it wasn't the sound she needed to hear.

She could hear the scrape of metal, gears turning, and engines running. And the heat. The heat was unbearable, as though she had just fallen into a desert. Then Clara heard the voices. Voices. That meant... People.

They were the wrong voices, but they gave her hope.

"Clear! Clear! Clear!"

Each time the word was spoken, it was in a different voice. Three people then? Clara raised her head, but she still couldn't see, squinting into the white light.

She was shocked out of her musing when two of the people came up behind her, each one grabbing her behind the arms and forcing her up.

"Hey!" The word burst from her lips, timed with the start of her struggling, made difficult by the fact that she couldn't see them.

They didn't even answer, still yelling at each other as they dragged her along.

"Still clear over here!"

"I don't see any!"

"The count is the same! How about everyone else?"

"It's the same! We're good!"

What were they yelling about? Clara was just as clueless about that as she was for everything else she wanted to know. The Doctor would have known.

Before long, she felt metal beneath her feet, dragged up an incline by her two captors. A ship, Clara realized, they were getting on a ship.

They finally released her, but Clara still didn't move, trying her best to open her eyes and see. She could only manage a squint. The inside of the ship was just as brightly lit as the outside.

What did these people have against darkness anyway?

"Everyone's inside! Get us out of here!"

"No wait! The count! What's the count at?"

There was a moment of hesitation, at which Clara assumed they were counting. She could see vague outlines of people now, all of them looking around as though searching for something. Probably whatever they were counting.

"Zero! Zero! Zero!" The three voices shouted one after another.

"We're clean! Now take off!"

Clara couldn't take it anymore. She was having the day from hell, and this certainly wasn't helping.

"What are you counting!?" She finally shouted, all of her anger, fear, and pure frustration pouring into the words.

They all went dead silent for a moment. It would have reminded her of the jungle outside if it weren't for the rumble of the engines and the slight jolt of the ship as they took off. Once they were airborne, Clara finally got the answer she was looking for.

"The shadows. We're counting the shadows."