Author's note: Sorry I'm late with "Escape in Time." It's finally here though, so enjoy! "The Green Fires" will be published as soon as possible. :)
The lift moved violently from side to side. The darkness was strange and horrid. I could barley make out the Doctor's face, even though he was standing right next to me. The floor dropped away, before rushing back up. I lost my balance and landed hard on the floor. Amy and Rory helped pull me to my feet. The Doctor was running his strange device - the sonic screwdriver - up and down the buttons panel.
"Doctor?" asked Amy. "What's that smell?" We all stopped and stood still; there in a small dark windowless box. There was a acidic smell, like something from a chemistry lab, burning through something. Suddenly, a strange green smoke started to appear from above. I looked up and gasped. The slime was appearing on the ceiling of lift, giving off a strange yellow-green smoke.
"Oh, my God," I gasped. I took a step back and then another. On my third, my back hit the wall. The stain of ooze continued to grow until it was about the size of a dustbin lid. The, a zombie burst out of it.
The four of us screamed at once. The slime dripped down the monster's neck. It was a man - or a man-ishthing - hanging upside down with everything below his waist hidden under the slime. It wore a T-shirt that had been torn to ribbons and it had leathery grey skin. We were transfixed as it. Only the Doctor moved. He pulled out his screwdriver and pointed it at the doors.
There was a small explosion of sparks and smoke from the door. The lift dropped down, and then stopped again. This time, I managed to keep hold of the golden railing at the side. The doors opened to reveal an empty hallway. "Out, out, out!" screamed the Doctor. The zombie-thing moaned as more of it started to slid out from under the wet green goo.
We made a run for it. We darted down the hall and then off to the right. Rory and the Doctor in the lead, and me and Amy just behind them. We came to a pair of wooden doors. Rory kicked them open and we ran on. It was a small reading room, with oil paintings and large soft blur chairs and frilly white curtains and a large bookcase that was creaking under the wait of the old books. The only thing out of place in the room, was the large dark blue box.
It was made of wood and, as I said before, it was dark blue. There was a small white lantern on top and it had small white windows around the edges of the top. There was a door (it had small, barley noticeable hinges at the side) with the words "POLICE BOX, FREE OF USE" written on a small silver circle that was stuck to the wood. I stopped to look at it. The Doctor and Amy opened the door of it.
"What is that thing?" I said. I watched as the Doctor lead Amy and Rory inside. Rory turned around and looked at me. "Come on," he said. I marched up towards the door. "Why are you three hiding a cupboard?" I called. I walked in the open door. "This is-" I started. I stopped. My eyes were sent into shock. My jaw dropped by about a mile. I looked around myself in something that was partly shear terror and partly shear joy. Mostly, I was overwhelmed.
I was standing inside a large room. The walls were made a strange brass, and there was a bright green light coming from somewhere. In the middle of the room was raised platform with a large control centre-like bit in the middle. The Doctor and Amy were running around it madly, pulling switches and hitting buttons. Rory was rushing to join them. It was a room, but too big to fit into a box.
"What - what - what …?" I started, looking around. It was weird. Everything was highly advanced looking, but at the same time it looked old and over-used. The Doctor pulled a large switch and the door behind me slammed shut. "It's a space ship," said the Doctor flatly, note looking up from his work. "Does it fly?" I said dumbly. "No," said Amy. "It sort of, vanishes in one place and then reappears somewhere else." I walked up to the Doctor. "What is this?" I asked. "The TARDIS," he said. He looked at me with a strong solemn look on his face. "It stands for Time And Relative Dimension In Space." "Time and Space," I said. "You mean, it's … a time machine?"
The Doctor looked straight at me and smiled. "In a nutshell, yes," he said. The Doctor jumped away, and started to pull knobs and things. "Right," he said. "That smile's been under the hotel for quite some time now. When I scanned it, I got traces of the hotels cement compounds from thirty years ago. So …" he looked at Amy with a smile. "We got back in time by thirty years," she said gleefully. "Rightyo!" cried the Doctor. He slammed down a small silver lever. At once, the ancient sounding engines roared as the TARDIS descended into the past.
The floors stopped moving and the engine stopped humming. The Doctor looked at a small silver screen at the side of the TARDIS controls. "It's 8th August, 1980. Sometime around midnight. If the TARDIS trackers are right, we should find the smile around heresomewhere." At once, he and Rory and Amy started to tun towards the door. I followed, jogging to keep up. When th others opened the door, I gasped. We were somewhere else now. Not the reading room, or anywhere in the hotel by the looks of it. The TARDISstood at the end of a long, narrow corridor. The walls were covered with a strange green wallpaper that had an ugly flower pattern. Every few meters, there was a wooden door. From nearby came the sound of music.
"This is the Wolf Dale Hotel?" I said, looking around. The Doctor closed the door of the TARDIS and locked it with a small silver key. "I'm not sure," he said. "How many stars does it have in the future?" "Four and a half," I said. "My dad's a fairly rich banker," I added, before anyone could ask how my family had gotten into the hotel in the first place. Or will get in the next place. We started to walk down the hall. The faint music grew sounder. It was the sound of the early eighties kicking in. "In here," said Rory. He pulled open a nearby door. We walked in and stopped dead in our tracks.
It was a large hall, full of people. Balloons of every colour were togged to cloth-covered tables. There was miles of food and drink. A bang of three guitarists and a drummer stood on a raised platform, playing loudly. Lights flashed, large crowds of people were dancing madly. Over the band was a large yellow and green banner that read: "HAPPY RETIREMENT HARRY, FROM ALL AT THE YELLOW HILL HOTEL!" "Yellow Hill Hotel?" I said frowning. "It's meant to be Wolf Dale Hotel" "That's what scares me," said the Doctor slowly. Then, someone jumped on stage. It was a woman in her late twenties, with black hair and purple dress. The band stopped playing as she grabbed a microphone.
"Everyone," she called out, in a heavy Welsh accent. "There's a large meteor heading for the hotel! I saw it from my room!" The audience stared for a moment and then started to laugh. "No really," panicked the woman. "Look outside!" Everyone went on laughing. "Come on," said Rory. He headed back out the door. The Doctor, Amy and I followed. We raced down the hall. "If there's a meteor heading for the hotel-" I started. "That's it," said the Doctor. We turned a sharp corner. "The slime. It got under the hotel from inside the meteor." "But wouldn't the meteor need to crash?" said Amy. She looked worried, like she didn't want the Doctor's answer.
"The meteor does crash here," he said, running faster. "I used to help a group of people, UNIT they were called. In 1980, a large meteor struck the Welsh highlands. Middle of nowhere, no one even noticed. Ecept to