The Doctor and Martha held up their arms in defeat surrounded by black suited soldiers pointing their guns at them. However, the Time Lord was also studying the soldiers because something seemed not quite right with them. Most notably a few seconds had passed and not a single one had fired a bullet. Not that he nor Martha were complaining about that very fact.
Suddenly, the lift sounded announcing the presence of a new arrival. The Doctor and Martha turned briefly to see who had arrived as the doors opened. They couldn't believe their eyes. Rose, who they had just seen live footage on Agent T.I.N aka Abel's vortex manipulator of lying on the floor still and declared dead, was leaning against the side of the inside of the lift with a determined look on her face. She was grinning with an almost manic energy and her facial expression was completely contagious to the Doctor and Martha.
The Doctor called out to her, "Rose, the machine on your left! Push the red button!"
Rose's face dropped as soon as she saw the scene before her, but sprung into action limping and leaving pressure off her right leg to get over to the machine as the soldiers all began to aim their guns at her. Her leg was really started to hurt her as she slammed her hand on the red button indicated by the Doctor trusting that he knew what he was talking about. With the action Rose slumped to the floor not able to stand anymore or for that matter see very clearly.
All around the Doctor and Martha the soldiers heads came forward as if in one motion slumping forward into a standing sleep. The Doctor dropped his hands in glee as Martha followed suit not quite believing that it really was that simple. It was like these men, these soldiers, were just robots.
The glee was short lived as they looked back at Rose who was wincing against the floor grabbing her right leg. The Doctor and Martha ran over to her as the Time Lord asked worriedly, "What's wrong?"
Rose looked him the eye through the pain. "My leg. I was shot."
The Doctor bent down and looked at it seeing the back of her leg soaked with blood on her jeans. She had escaped death, but it had come at a price. If anything the Doctor knew that one day Rose wouldn't escape and it was always the close calls or the injuries that reminded him of the doom to come. He felt it in the timelines coming sooner rather than later.
Martha hugged her friend and encouragingly added, "You're gonna be alright, Rose. Got a couple of doctor's here to take care of you." Rose tried to smile as Martha turned toward the Doctor. "Help me here, will ya?"
The Doctor reached for Rose's hand bringing her up as they both hoisted Rose's arms over their shoulders.
Strangely, as they looked over at the soldiers they noticed that they had not even moved an inch. Martha noticed that the Doctor didn't even look the least bit surprised about it. She wanted answers for the weird predicament. "Doctor, why haven't they moved?"
"We can't help them. It's too late in the process."
"Why not?"
Rose weakly commented, "I've lost… a logga flood." Her words were beginning to slur which was definitely not a good thing.
The Doctor attention was on Rose. Explanations could wait because she needed fluids and quickly. "Martha, we have to get her to the TARDIS!"
Martha took another look at her friend noticing all the signs of dehydration beginning to take place as she simply nodded and they both helped Rose walk back towards the lift. If they weren't quick enough she'd go into shock.
Martha pressed the button for the lift and the doors flew open as they helped move the almost unconscious Rose into the lift. The blonde was almost so far gone that her head lolled with each movement as she slurred, "Le gant leaf fem."
The Doctor smiled a bit at Rose thinking about those soldiers despite her condition and then released her weight off him with Martha as the doors shut. She felt a lot more heavier than she looked or maybe that was their own tiredness creeping up on them.
The Doctor entered in the keys for floor 1 which made the computer respond, "One. Is that your floor?"
Maybe it was everything going on, but these lifts were getting very annoying to the Time Lord. "Bloody, yes!"
"Arriving at destination in three minutes."
Martha cheekily asked as the lift sprung to life, "Annoyed much?" before giggling.
"You humans and your verification processes. Why I..."
Martha cut him off in anger. "Three minutes mister! Now you explain why we left those people standing there!"
At first the Doctor was caught off guard before replying. "And they're still up there. Won't move until Abel returns. It's a type of magnified computer chip, Martha. All they can do is follow orders and Rose here..." He turned and briefly smiled at the barely holding on woman, "...shut off their communication so if we slipped and said the wrong code nobody shot at us. A real dodgy situation, that."
"Quite."
"Only reason we're alive is that Abel bumbled and forgot to give the command during his real sheer moment of brilliance." If Martha wasn't crazy she might have detected jealousy there.
"Oh you just wished you could vanish like that. The bloke is rather bonkers, but at least he knows how to make an exit."
"TARDIS."
"Gill ya foo flog arwooin?"
The Doctor straightened up. "Sorry Rose." He wished to Rassilion that he could get this elevator to move faster. She looked awful, but it looked like they'd make it to the TARDIS in time to get her some fluids and bandage her leg. The Doctor really couldn't stand to see her like this.
The last minute was filled by awkward silence before the lift doors opened...
