"Walkers?"
"No! No no no no! We are not dead…. or walking!" said the Doctor gesturing frantically with his hands.
Another light approached and then a woman with a sword ( A sword!) came after him. With a few swift moves….kind of a samuray actually….she took out three or four zombies that remained behind after the chord passed because of the mobile's noise.
"Could you please help us?" Clara asked as polite as she could. Well… her british accent made everything she usually said overly polite.
The man and woman shared a look, as if they were agreeing on something silently.
"Alrigh' then." the man said lowering his crossbow. However, he didn't do anything to release them, instead he started asking questions.
"How many walkers have you killed?"
"Walkers? You mean those zombie creatures?" Clara asked not very sure of what was all this about. The man nodded so she continued.. " None, actually."
"Then how did you two survive this long?" the woman asked intrigued.
"By running…. pretty much like we always did."
"How many people have you killed?"
"I'm a schol teacher! I don't go round and kill peple!" Clara said offended.
"What about him?" the woman said pointing towards the Doctor.
The Doctor spoke in a cold, even voice:
"Less than I saved."
"Why?" the woman asked again.
"Because I didn't have any other option."
The woman, still carrying a very serious look on her face drew out her sword and used it to cut some ropes near a tree. In just a second, Clara and the Doctor hit the ground violently. With shaky moves, they got up and tried to shake off the dust on their clothes.
"Well, thank you…I guess."
"Yeah, don't mention it. What's your name?" the man asked again.
"Clara, and this is the Doctor."
"You're a doctor?" the woman exclaimed happily.
"Of sorts…" Clara replyed instead of her friend.
"…and of varius qualifications." he concluded. "I suppose you're not here alone, are you? Do you have a camp nearby?"
"You can say that. Are you seeking sanctuary?"
Clara opened her mouth to say something, but the Doctor was ahead of her.
"Yes, yes. The sooner the better."
"So, who are you?" Clara asked curiously.
"I'm Daryl and that's Michonne." the man said in a rough voice.
He and the woman looked tired. Clara wondered what happened to them. She waited for one of them to give more details about themselves, but none followed. Now that she wasn't hanging upside down she looked closer at the starngers and even closer to the crossbow.
"Have you seen a crashed car a few hours distance from here? You must have been there. I recognized the bolts." Clara said to the man, Daryl.
"You did?" he asked without actually expecting a reply.
"Have you-just out of curiosity- seen a blue box on your way here? A bit taller than a human, had 'police public call box' written on it and was, well, blue..?" Clara asked as they all started walking through the dark while she took a small but powerfull flashlight from her purse and used it to light the way.
"Why do you ask? Is it yours?"
Meanwhile, the Doctor kept asking Michonne all sorts of questions about their refuge like 'you're staying in that prison, not two far away, am I right? Well, I certainly must be since you seem smart and that prison is a very smart decision. A little predictable , if you ask me, but still'. However, the woman kept telling him that she won't risk sharing sensitive information, vital for their safety, with some strangers that are potential threats. Hearing Daryl's and Clara's discution he put his sort of interogation on hold and imeadiately jumped into their conversation.
"Well, actually it's mine and I really need it. So have you seen it?"
"Yeah, I did."
"Good. I need to get it. Where is it?"
"Wait a second. You ain't goin' out there in the night all by yourselt. It's full of walkers!"
"I kind of figured it out already, but since you are so kindly offering to come with me, then you're more than welcomed."
"What? We ain't gonna go now. First we get our asses to safety and only after we'll see about that."
"We'll talk this through with the rest of the council and decide what to do in the morning." added the woman.
"Oh, so you have a 't it a bit pointless to carry on with your democracy. I mean I know you're americans, but still….
"We're still alive while others are not. So far it works pretty damn well." said Michonne in a low voice, almost threatening.
"God save America." said the Doctor more to himself and continued walking close to Clara.
It didn't take more than an eventless half an hour until Daryl signaled the others that they reached their destination. In the very dim light of the moon a huge building projected its darkness on the starry sky. Clara thought that it was so unusual to see so many stars, but then realisation hit her. There were no more cityes, no civilisation left on Earth to be fueled with electricity and to pollute with its light the deep and dark unknown. The whole world was lost into shadows.
She could barely grasp the concept as it felt so unreal. Her whole experience with space and time travel didn't prepare her for witnessing her home planet doomed. But there were still survivours. Every time she read about the Apocalypse she always thought that it would be final, that one day life as she knew it will sist to exist and that the catastrophe in the indefinitely-distant future will somehow end creation. Sure there were situations when the Doctor prevented and will prevent the End of the World, but there will come a time when not even him will be able to change things since nobody can fight God or the higher power that said 'fiat lux' and started the Big Bang. So, imagining that distant future, she never thought that there will be survivivours, that some mad people will fight even if everything seemed against their insignifiant existence. However, she was mostly shoked by this discovery: that the Apocalypse was really… quiet. Apart from the occasional zombies, nature seemed unchanged, reclaiming it's throne fron the human kind's empire.
While all those thoughts ran through her head, Daryl used his flashlight to morse some kind of message for whoever was hiding in the shadows of the prison. Some other quick light replyed from indide and then Michonne led them over a small bridge crossing a little spring yo the gates. As they enterd the yard a young man aproached them. He was asian and had a serious look on his face. If she thought about it, everyone they met so far was erious and focused. She supposed that that was one of the things it took to survive in this world. Michonne introduced the asian man to the newcommers.
"This is Glenn. He's one of the members of the council." she then adressed him gesturing towards the strangers." Clara and …the Doctor. We found them in the woods in one of our walker traps."
"The doctor? Doctor who?" Glenn was intrigued.
"It's just the Doctor."
"You don't trust us, I understand, but it's OK anyway. It doesn't matter now what used to be your name. You can be called whatever the hell you want. Now let's get inside and talk this through."
"We won't stay long." Clara said as they entered the building and went through some poorly lit halls into the prison's library.
On their way there, they encountered some other man who was coming from the opposite direction. Muchonne greeted him and briefly explained to him the situation of the strangers in a voice barely louder than a whisper. Finally, she asked him to stay and give his opinion to which he replyed that he wasn't in charge anymore. Michonne insisted, and Daryl supported her. After a minute of quick whispers the man gave up and followed his friends back into the room where an older man's voice greeted them.
"I wad just talking with Rick about the cucumber crops for the next year and…oh, Rick, you're back and…who are these kind new people accopanying you?"
Clara and the Doctor shared a quick glance and waited for Daryl and Michonne to introduce them. Clara almost smiled thinking that it was the 4th time.
The library wasn't very large but felt dry, clean and generally was a round table with 7 or more chairs around it and an old man sitting on one of them. Each took a seat: Clara, the Doctor, Daryl, Michonne, the guy on the hall, the old man and afterwards the asian, Glenn, once he caught up with them.
"Where is Sasha?" Glenn asked.
"She's with Tyreese. I say we don't bother her with this until the morning." the old man said. "I am Hershel. What brings you two to our home?"
"Well, me and my uncle (the Doctor sent her a long and baffled look) were on our way to our… vehicle, when a bunch of zombies made us diverge from our course and we ended up in a hunter trap, and this is when we were found by your friends."
"Why do you call them 'zombies'? I understand 'walkers' or, or 'bitters', but how does this word 'zombies' represent them?" asked Rick truly curious.
Clara was confused.
"I, well, I think it's the best way to describe them. They are practically universally defined by this word. The whole pop culture from before used it."
"What do you mean? I have never heard of such creatures before all of this, nor about this term."
"Like never…ever? Well this is strange. 'Night of the living dead' anyone…no?"
Rick shook his head and the others looked weird at her.
"What about any movie or book or song featuring those creatures and their behaviour?" the Doctor abruptly asked.
"I don't think so. Why is it so important?"
The Doctor stared at them all for what seemed like ages, but then he quickly relaxed and said:
"Oh, nothing, I was just curious."
"So, about your staying", said Hershel, "we can offer you a cell in cellblock B. I'm sorry, but it's a bit crowded here, also.."
"Don't bother, we leave in the morning." said the Doctor.
"What? And where are you going to go? You've seen what's out there."
The Doctor smooothly changed the subject.
"About that. For how long, exactly, has this… situation been going on?
"As early as 2010." said Glenn.
"It's been already 3 years since then. How can you not know that? Where were you all this time?" added Rick.
"And how could the governments let this happen. What about the army or UNIT or Torchwood for that matter?"
"What? I don't know how, but I know that they bombed Atlanta and nothing good came out of it. The army was already over it's head in a few weeks and after that…well, after pretty much everyone were on its own. Most didn't survive. Some did. We did." Rick explained."How can you not know all of this anyway?'
"So this is 2013?" asked Clara suddenly realizing something really important.
"Yes, but how is this relevant and why do you two keep avoiding my questions?"
The Doctor and Clara remained silent, but shared a short and meaningfull look that didn't escape Michonne.
"Where were you all this time? What aren't you telling us?"
In the library's rather bright light Clara thought about her and her friend's clean, almost new clothes, her make-up, jewelry, neat hair and then compared with the other's look. They were all dirty, with over-weared clothes and exhausted, hungry. And smelled. It wasn't surprising that they got suspicious. Even more so after they kept avoiding answering most of their quedtions. These were not people to be messed with and she didn't wanna know what they did in order to survive. She had to do something.
"We were in a secure location until it was overrun by zombies two days ago. My uncle has alzheimer so he did not remember when or how this all started and he wouldn't believe me, so I thought it would be a good idea for him to hear those detailes from others."
She earned with this some raised eyebrous,an offended look from the TimeLord and an awkward silence imediately after.
"Altight. Until tomorow morning… then we'll see about that." concluded Hershel.
"Thank you."
Clara meant it, but knew that they now must be considering them nuts or…bananas. However, it was better than to see them as potential threats.
The meeting ended and they were shown to their cell. They were barely left alone when Clara imediatelly told her friend:
"Doctor, I think we are in…"
"A paralel dimension, I know."
"Most importantly,… here Dany might still be alive."
Hi, everyone! I hope I did justice to all the characters here. Please drop a review if you feel like it. This was a tricky chapter for me to write and I'll be glad to read your opinions. If you like it, you can fallow/favorite it since I can't read your minds and know what you thought of it :)) but know that your interst keeps it alive :)