Chapter 3:

Donna woke, and stretched on out on the surprisingly comfortable hay filled mattress. She turned towards the light, and saw The Doctor standing beside the window, leaning on his arm which rested across the top of the frame. He was looking out through the wooden bars, over the now empty fields of the farm. He spoke as he heard her roll over.

"Robert says he sent three of his men to look for the Tardis along the lane to the village first thing this morning – but they found no trace of her - or of the missing sheep. I can't say I'm surprised –they could be light years away!"

Donna groaned as she sat up and rubbed her eyes.

"So how do we go about looking for her, Doctor?" she asked him.

"Whatever this is, it obviously only opens intermitently and briefly, or things would be falling through, in both directions, all the time. We walked up and down that lane several times, and there was no sign of any energy field whilst we were there….." he mused. "We'll just have to sit and take some readings for a while, and see if there's some sort of energy spike. But c'mon -breakfast!" he finished brightly, and looked at her for the first time. "Hmm…. You might wanna…" and he waggled his finger around his head, indicating that she should do something about her appearance before going downstairs.

Donna pulled a face, and shooed him out of the room. Rachel had provided some water, a ball of spiced soap, and a cloth, so she set about cleaning herself as best she could. She put on her own clothes, in the hopes that they would soon find the Tardis and be off.

After breakfast, they thanked Rachel, and headed off down the lane. They saw Robert walking towards them with two of his men. He was smiling as he approached them and opened his mouth to speak, but then stopped in his tracks, and turned his head as if listening.

A moment later Donna realised what he had heard. Somewhere in the distance behind Robert there was a steady, insistent throbbing noise. As Robert and his men turned to face this noise, it grew louder and louder, until the sound filled the sky. Donna could actually feel the sound waves hitting her as they stood looking towards the village.

Then, suddenly – over the tops of the trees bordering the lane came three huge military style helicopters. They were black all over, with two giant rotors apiece, and seemed to be almost hugging the ground as they came. The noise was overpowering, and Donna was forcefully reminded of scenes from the film 'Apocalypse Now' she and her Grandad had watched one Bank Holiday afternoon. She instinctively clutched at The Doctor's arm, as they both stared open mouthed at the sight before them.

The effect on Robert and his men was necessarily more considerable. They had never seen or heard anything remotely like this in all their lives, and had flung themselves to the ground as soon as the helicopters had appeared. All the men had turned white, and the youngest was sobbing uncontrollably as he buried his head in his hands, seemingly trying to disappear through the ground.

As the helicopters passed over head, and the noise abated somewhat, Robert could be heard gasping "Monsters – monsters in the sky!"

The Doctor, who had been watching the retreating aircraft, was suddenly galvanised into action. He grabbed Donna's hand and yelling "C'mon – quick!", dragged her off down the lane in the direction the 'monsters' had come from.

They rounded the small copse of trees, and ground to a halt. Donna looked all around her, but could not see anything amiss. The Doctor was scrabbling in his pockets, and produced his little brass instrument with the dials, and buttons on it. He frantically turned the dials, pushed a couple of buttons, and then thrust it at Donna.

"Scan the whole area in that direction with it!" he instructed. "It's effectively a compass, but if there's some type of spatial disturbance, it should register – let me know if it goes 'ding'!"

He then produced the Sonic, and set about a thorough scan of the air above and around them.

Donna walked forward, slowly swinging her 'compass' from side to side, looking out for anything unusual ahead of her. She could hear the shouts of the men in the lane behind them as they recovered from their ordeal. Other voices seemed to be joining them, as everyone tried to tell each other the same tale, and to comprehend what they had seen. Donna heard the shouts rising in fear once more as the noise of the helicopters began again. They had obviously looped round and were coming back.

The Doctor turned the Sonic towards them as the noise grew ever louder and more palpable. Donna suddenly realised that a small red light she had not noticed before was flashing on her device.

"Doctor!" she cried out, but he didn't hear her over the sound of the aircraft. She held it up to her ear, and could just hear a repeated 'ding' sound. She turned towards The Doctor and opened her mouth for good old 'Donna' yell….

…..When suddenly the air around her seemed to go solid for a moment, before fizzing green and blue. She heard a loud 'Thwunkk!' sound, just before her vision cleared, and she found herself standing in what appeared to be a huge concrete floored hangar, with the doors at the end standing wide open. Through the doors she could see open fields – much larger than the one she had been standing in.

In the air, above the trees she saw three huge black helicopters, disappearing into the distance.

Silence

There was no sign of The Doctor – who had been just yards from her a moment ago.