Chapter 2 – Story's Edge

The cursed shoes were beginning to get on my nerves. The first thing that amazed me about them was the fact that when they were on my feet they seemed to fit. Now, however, I was finding out the hard way that they were not made for walking. I would've given anything for my comfortable trainers.
Munchkin Land was a distance behind Toto and me and in front of us was a great expanse of rolling cornfields and beyond that was a great forest – just as it looked in the film only I was able to see some of the small ripples in the fabric backdrop that Judy Garland would walk towards.

Here, wherever here was, there was no mistaking the depth and the fact that the yellow brick road actually continued on its course through the corn fields and into the forest until it curved out of sight and my eyes couldn't follow it anymore.
I let out a grunt and stopped on the road, thick stalks of corn edging the road on both sides. I muttered something about the blasted shoes as I took one off and rubbed my poor toes. Toto stood beside me and caught my eye as I put my foot down on the ground, the shoe still in my hand.

"Were do you reckon we really are?" I asked him as I took off the other shoe and wiggled freedom back into my cramped foot and toes.
Toto wagged little stub of a tail in reply.
"I don't know either," I sighed and walked on the hard road in my stocking feet for a little while.

I think Toto heard it first. He stopped walking with me. I only noticed because his little bell wasn't jingling next to me. I stopped a few steps ahead of him and turned around. The little thing was still as stone, his ears pricked and his legs stretched, making him as tall as he possibly could be.
"What is it?" I said as I walked back to him.
He twitched his little body but stood his ground. Then I finally heard it. Someone was moving through the corn stalks. They sounded close. I heard the thick flapping and brushing of the stalks and leaves but I couldn't see anyone else around. A few stalks swayed with movement several meters away from us but I couldn't figure out if it was a person or an animal or, heaven forbid, a Munchkin.

Whatever it was, it was moving clumsily towards us. It fell to the ground once. I heard the rush of the leaves and a thud on the dirt and then soft cursing afterwards. I glanced around helplessly as it came closer. I had nothing to defend myself with save for a pair of magic shoes that I still held in my hand and a yipping dog that apparently believed he was actually the size of a saint bernard.

More grumbling and moving in the stalks when a figure stumbled out onto the road in front of us. I gripped the front of one of the shoes, ready to smack whatever it was with the heel if I had to. It definitely was a person. He was tall and thin, wearing patched trousers that were badly frayed at the bottom, an old button down shirt that also was patched to within an inch of its life and what looked like soft fabric shoes on his feet. Clumps and chunks of straw stuck out from his clothes and from beneath the raggedy hat he wore on his head.

"Of course," I said, lowering the shoe as he looked at me. "You're the first one Dorothy meets on the way to Emerald City, that's right. Scarecrow."
The Scarecrow approached me, a rustle and crunching noise of straw with every movement he made. His face looked as though it was made of canvass or burlap with stitches in random places along the nose and forehead. But the eyes were real…big brown eyes. "Hold on," Scarecrow said as he got a better look at me. "Alice?"

The brown eyes and the mouth were the same beneath that strange face – I still knew him.
"Doctor!" I squealed. Toto jumped at my side in surprise.
Scarecrow smiled the same smile I knew and scooped me up in a grateful hug. I held onto him tightly, thanking the maker that he was alright and more so that we'd found each other.

He held me in front of him to have a look at me as he brushed some of the straw off of my dress, "You okay?"
"I don't know," I said, holding up my suddenly long hair. "Weren't you supposed to be stuck on a pole or something?"
"I started out that way, hanging from my shirt but I found that this was still on my person," he pulled the sonic screwdriver from the depths of his straw stuffed shirt. "I got myself down and started looking for you."

"Do you know what's going on or where we are?"
"Not entirely, no," he looked at my frock as though it was the first time he'd seen it and then the shoes that were still in my hands, "The shoes are a nice touch," he said as he nodded. "But what are you supposed…" his eyes lost focus and drifted for a moment as it dawned on him who I was and who he was supposed to be.

"Yep, I met the Good Witch and the Wicked Witch already," I said when he refocused on me. "We're supposed to continue the story," I put the shoes back on much to the chagrin of my feet.
"And then what?"
I shrugged, "I don't know. She wouldn't help me."
"Who?"
"Glinda, the Good Witch of the North."

The Doctor nodded as he looked around.
"I guess we're not in London as originally planned," I joked bitterly.
"We're not in Kansas either," he scratched his head beneath the raggedy hat. "We did land somewhere but it wasn't here. The TARDIS would have detected all of this life and space," he thought out loud.

"Are we being held prisoner for something?" I suggested.

The Doctor shook his head with a scratchy crunching noise as though he really were made out of straw, "No one would use so much power to create this world for prisoners. It's much easier to keep them locked up."
"Have you seen Jack?" I felt a small prick of guilt that I'd forgotten about him in light of finding the Doctor.
"I was hoping he might've been with you,"
I brushed my obnoxious hair behind my shoulders as I shook my head. I bit my lip trying not to be worried. Jack was a very capable man from what I knew of him, he'd be able to handle himself in most situations if you asked me. But I couldn't be certain and that's what had me worried.

Toto barked at my heels and the Doctor looked down at the small dog standing in between us. He squatted down and scratched the dog behind the ears. I knelt down next to him, my eyes flicking in between him and Toto.
"You don't think – ," I gasped and crouched down lower to look Toto in the face. "Jack?" I said squeakily.
The dog panted and wagged his tail. The Doctor's hand was still on his little head. A few seconds later he pulled away, looking satisfied, "It's a dog, Alice." He got to his feet, offering his hand to me and helped me back up.

"What did the witches say? Tell me exactly." He tried putting his hands in his pockets but the ratty trousers didn't seem to come with them so he compromised by folding his arms in front of him.
I went back over what happened from finding myself in the gray house to the Munchkin Land with no Munchkins in it and Glinda's warnings to stay with the story.
"It's the film, not the story," the Doctor interrupted. "In the actual story they're silver slippers, not ruby. And I've still got my brains apparently." He patted the hat on top of his head.

"So is this real or is it just some sort of hallucination or delusion?" I asked.
"It's real enough. It might be some sort of hologram but it's an extremely sophisticated one at that," he said as he stepped closer to a stalk of corn at the edge of the road and examined it. He straightened up again and looked at me, "Looks like we'll have to continue the story for now," he shrugged and looked around again. "It's quite pretty."
"Oh yes," I said. "I'm planning to build a summer home here in this world that's not supposed to exist!"

"But isn't that what you always imagine doing, Alice?" he said, his eyes brightening. "Falling into worlds that have only existed on paper or on the telly? Every child longs for that to happen to them sometime in their life. I know there's a fairy tale or two you wanted to be a part of."
"Yes," I caved. "I wanted to be Sleeping Beauty because her hair was long and blonde and all of the animals in the forest came to her and understood her when she spoke."
The Doctor smiled and nodded. "Exactly,"

"What about you?"
He raised his eyebrows as he thought for a minute, "I've always had an objection to gravity as a whole. It is rather restricting which is why I enjoyed The Matrix so much I think. They were able to bounce off walls and fly through the air simply through the control of their own minds over the world they were in." he said as he scratched his head again.
I laughed at the wistful expression on his face. "So, let's continue the story," I said.

He winked and offered me his arm. I took it and we started down the road again.
"I refuse to sing and dance about," he said sternly as we walked.
"I wouldn't worry too much about that. This version isn't even an accurate version of the film," I said.
The Doctor looked at me curiously and I explained again about the absence of Munchkins, no music or singing, and the fact that Dorothy could never physically remove the slippers when I had just done so to get the blood back into my feet.
He mulled it over in his head as we walked.

A half hour went by, or so I guessed. There was no way to tell time in that place. For one thing, I didn't have a watch and for another, there didn't seem to be any proper point of origin for the light in this place. It was just lit up like the sun would light up the outside but I couldn't find the sun in the sky.
The blasted ruby slippers were pinching the life out of my feet as we continued down the road. The Doctor would stop us once in a while to examine a plant or a tree or a cottage we would pass by in search of some sort of controls or power matrix. There was nothing. The world seemed to be separate from anything and everything else in the universe.

All of it was real, the smells, the sound of bird song in the trees, the touch of the road beneath our feet – all of it was real which had me questioning if I'd actually and finally lost it.
The corn fields stopped and turned into thick, colorful forests.

"If I remember right," I said, pointing at the trees. "This is where Dorothy gets hungry and tries to pick some apples."
"Are you sure there aren't any bananas anywhere?"
I walked up to one of the apple trees and reached for a particularly shiny red apple but the Doctor caught my hand and pulled it back down. "You do remember what happens after she picks an apple, don't you?" he said, looking wary.
"Yeah, but I'm following the story," I said.

"I don't feel much like getting pelted with apples at the moment."
"What do you suggest?" I said, putting my hands on my hips.
"I suggest we find out who the Tin Man is seeing as how you're Dorothy and I'm Scarecrow," he said smartly.
"Jack's the Tin Man," I said, amazed that I hadn't thought about it before.
"Probably the only one I know who can survive without a heart," the Doctor joked.

He moved through the trees with Toto and me following behind. A thick dark branch swung low and hit the Doctor in the chest, knocking him backwards.
"Doctor!" I knelt down next to him, putting my arm around him to help him sit up. "Are you alright?"
"That may leave a mark," he said, holding onto me.

Toto started barking. His little face was pointed upwards. The Doctor and I followed where Toto was looking and I nearly collapsed the rest of the way to the ground.
"What do you think you're doing?" a low gravelly voice said.
It came from the tree that had knocked the Doctor down. The face was composed of knots and gashes in the bark of the trunk that created two eyes, a nose and a crooked mouth. It glared down at us waiting for an answer.

"Why have you brought us here?" the Doctor said.
"Go and find your own apples," the tree replied.
The Doctor and I exchanged glances as we helped each other up. "I want you to tell me where I am first," the Doctor spoke slowly and clearly.

The tree grunted and shook its leaves but didn't reply.
"It's part of the story," the Doctor said. "That's all it knows."
We ducked another swing from the tree and stumbled back onto the road. The trees were beginning to sway and move with and against the wind. "Doctor," I said, staring around with wide eyes. "I think they're getting angry."

He shushed me and held up his hand as he listened. "Do you hear that?" he whispered.
I listened sharply. Above the grumbling and moaning of the trees was a sort of clanging, violent thrashing noise coming from far off.
"Come on," the Doctor took my hand and we quickly moved down the road several meters, Toto trotting along at our heels.
"That banging," I said as we stopped to listen again. It was closer and much louder. The Doctor broke into a run and I clamored after him in the pinching shoes with Toto barking close behind.

The Doctor ran around the bend in the road, shedding a trail of straw behind him as he went, and I chased after him, holding a stitch in my side. I came around and saw the Doctor greeting a man made entirely of metal. If I hadn't known better I would've turned on my heel and ran in the other direction as fast as I could because the metal man reminded me sharply of the Cyberman invasion that happened a few years before on Earth.
I'd kept safe by locking myself in the cellar and keeping deathly quiet until for some reason I still couldn't figure out, they were called off of the streets.

But it was the Tin Man most certainly. I approached the two men, both already in rapid conversation.
"...it's too detailed to be a hologram," the Tin Man was saying.
"Yes, so either we've all been kidnapped and this is some sort of elaborate idea to make us lose our minds or it's all in our heads," the Doctor said, pulling a loose chunk of straw from his sleeve.

"Jack," I said breathlessly. "It's good to see you."
The Tin Man smiled that big smile I recognized and took my hand in a squeeze.
"I'd hug you Alice but I'm not the most cuddly thing around at the moment," he rapped his knuckles on his metal barrel chest.
"There's a change," the Doctor said.
"You know you'll miss it until this is over," Jack said, his eyes twinkling at the Doctor.

Everything about Jack was metallic. Even his face and eyes had a silver sheen about them. Jack stepped back with a clang and observed the Doctor and me for a moment until his eyes moved to my shoes.
"Oh great," he said. "Well, that explains a lot."
"I know," I said.

Toto yipped at my heels and Jack laughed as I bent down and scratched Toto's head. A rush went through the trees next to us. I barely got a glimpse of the Doctor's back before he disappeared into the trees. Jack and I didn't hesitate and ran into the woods after him. I was dong my best not to fall and sprain my ankle in the ridiculous shoes. Jack was just behind me sounding like a one man percussion section with all the clanging and banging he created as he ran.

The Doctor had stopped and stood in one spot, his eyes fixed on a point somewhere further ahead of him.
"Doctor, what – "
He held up his hand for quiet and gestured for us to follow, walking carefully across a small clearing towards a thicker clump of trees. He reached behind him and without thinking I put my hand in his. He grabbed a hold tightly and pulled me with him into the trees. His hand felt like a thick wad of canvass was wrapped around my hand.

I reached out for Jack behind me and felt a cold metal touch on my fingers but I held onto him as best as I could. The Doctor led us through the trees which became thicker and thicker the deeper we went to the point that I was having a hard time finding my footing. The boys had to help to keep me upright as we walked. Low branches and shrubs scratched out at my legs but the Doctor continued.

"Oh yes," the Doctor said quietly and then turned to Jack and me. "We're not following the story, correct?"
"Not exactly," I muttered back to him.
"They haven't planned for us to go off course at all," the Doctor's eyes darted around. "But," he lifted his finger to me. "We strayed from the yellow brick road to find the edge."
"The edge of what?" Jack asked.
"The story," he replied, his eyes were nearly round as plates and I could almost see the intensity in his voice.

The Doctor lifted his foot and gingerly stepped forward and moved some thick branches out of the way. I gasped and moved forward next to the Doctor while trying to keep my balance at the same time. Behind the row of shrubs and trees was the white space we had landed in originally. The ground and forest stopped dead and the white space continued forever beyond the world we stood in.

"This couldn't have been here before," I said.
"It wasn't," the Doctor said. "Nothing ever magically appears out of nowhere either. This has to do with us somehow."
"Do not stray from the story,"

The three of us twitched around in surprise. Glinda stood elegantly next to us in the foliage completely unscathed by the thick branches and brambles that grabbed at her dress. She didn't appear angry as I thought she might, only firm. As for the Doctor, he pushed his way in front of us nearly knocking me over in the process. Thankfully, I fell into Jack which felt like falling into a rock. But he was able to stabilize me back on my feet.

"Why? Why do we have to continue the story? What happens if we don't?" the Doctor was saying.
"So many questions," Glinda said calmly. "The story must continue for us to learn and for you to live. Unfinished stories come with a terrible price."
"If we finish the story will you let us go?" I said.

Glinda observed me for a moment but didn't answer.
"So we're imprisoned either way?"
"Well that's not very fair," Jack added.

A grumble came from the Doctor as he took a hold of my hand again, "What about my ship?"
"It is unharmed," Glinda answered.
"Comforting," Jack said, his eyes narrowing.

The Doctor's eyes were narrowed into slits as he approached Glinda, "You don't know do you?" he said.
She said nothing.
"You've only been told that it's a terrible price if we don't go through with the story. You don't really know what would happen either way, do you?"
Glinda only returned his glare with innocent glittering eyes. The Doctor turned back to us. "She's just like the others. She's part of this place," he said, lifting up his hands and waving them around. "She has a little more information but not enough to help us."

"Do not stray from the story," Glinda said again.
"Are you getting as tired of this as I am?" the Doctor said to Jack.
"Absolutely," Jack replied.

"Given the choices my Good Witch, I'd rather be imprisoned on my own terms. First thing though, I'm going to find out what's behind all of this."
Glinda stepped towards us but the Doctor yanked me back to the edge of the woods. All I could do was scream as he dragged me to the last row of trees and bushes and hold onto him for dear life when we leaped off of the edge of the story. A loud clanging indicated that Jack was right behind us.