IV

IV. Forest of the Dead

The group ran down the corridors, running from a once friend, that had now been taken away from them. His echoing voice could still be heard following them down the long corridor. They looked in rooms that were not yet affected by the man-eating swarm, but unfortunately so far it had been unsuccessful.

Robert held tightly to Jenny's hand. She who was not paying attention, all she could think about was Donna. Her best friend, the friend she had led to her death. Jenny felt a pang of guilt wash over her it was then she just stopped running. Robert stopped with her and looked deep down into her eyes.

"Jen, it's not over, we'll get her back," He cupped her face and placed a soft kiss upon her lips before grasping her hand quickly and running again.

After running for longer than anticipated, they finally worked their way back to the room they were originally in, where the moon shined through the sky window. The group ran into the middle, but darkness surrounded the opposite side. Jenny slowly walked over to it, examining it. Everyone just looked at her; she was so silent now, now that she knew what fate her friend had taken.

"We can't stay here, sunset's coming." Robert said, all Jenny did in response was nod. "Okay so she's no help," Robert turned back to his group who were all shivering with fear. "Chicken leg, anyone?"

Other Dave, placed his bag on the ground, and began searching through it. He took out his lunch box, opened it and chucked Robert a chicken leg. Robert smiled his thanks and walked over to Jenny who still stood staring into the darkness. He threw the chicken leg and just as before the chicken leg landed on the ground with just a bone.

"Okay, we've got a hot one here, watch you're feet." Robert said to his group.

"They won't attack until there are enough of them…but they've got our scent now and they're coming." Jenny muttered.

The group all shuddered; thinking any of them could be the next victim to this dark death. Other Dave walked up to Robert; he placed a hand on his shoulder whispering in his ear. "Who is this girl? You haven't told us and yet you seem to trust her."

Robert turned to look Other Dave in the face, "She's Jenny…The Destroyer of Worlds. Only she hasn't been dubbed with that name yet…The Oncoming Storm, Defender of the Earth and The Destroyer of Worlds…a legend waiting to happen."

"You know so much about her, but she seems not to know that much about herself, or you for a matter of fact, why do you trust her?" Anita spoke, listening in, as was Mr. Lux.

"Listen!" Robert demanded. "I got the wrong Jenny, alright, this…she…she isn't the Jenny I love…yet."

"What do you mean yet?" Mr. Lux asked.

"She hasn't met me..." Robert trailed of, turning back to Jenny who obviously wasn't paying attention to the compotation around her. He noticed her face turn in one of confusion as she stared at the darkness. "What is it?" he asked her.

"Something's different." Jenny answered. "What's different, though? That's the question…Think! What's different?"

Everyone just stood and stared at her.

"I donno," Other Dave answered. "Nothing…it's getting dark."

"Nope, not that." Jenny said flatly. She glanced up, noticing the moon. "Moon rise." She whispered to herself. "Tell me about the moon, Mr. Lux."

"It's not real, it was built part of the library, its called a 'Doctor Moon.'" Mr. Lux said.

"And…a 'Doctor Moon' is?"

"A virus checker…it supports and maintains the main computer at the core of the planet."

"Right!" Jenny said jumping up with excitement. She ran over to a computer and began contacting the moon, entering codes. Suddenly a foggy image of Donna appeared. And just as quickly the image had appeared, it faded away.

"She's alive." Robert said smiling towards Jenny who smiled back. She looked at the rest of the group who stood looking at her like she was a madman. But her smile was wiped off her face, seeing the horror she had faced earlier. Everyone noticed her sudden change in mood and looked towards the thing she was staring at.

Robert looked from the double image on the floor to Anita who stared down at herself and tears flowing down her cheeks. "I'm so sorry," he muttered sadly. He walked up towards her and placed the helmet on "Put you're helmets on everyone."

Jenny walked over to Anita cautiously; she pressed a button which caused her helmet to go pitch black. "If they think their already in there, they might leave you alone, but I can't promise you."

Anita nodded.

"You think they can be fooled?" Robert asked.

"Don't know, it's not like we chat," Jenny answered, she looked about the room, something catching her eye. She counted in her head, one, two, three, four, five. Five other people not including herself.

"There were five of us left, right?" Jenny asked.

"Yeah, why?" Robert said, eyeing her.

"Whose that?" she asked pointing the mysterious sixth member.

After a moments pause nothing happened then came the voice, "Hey! Who turned out the lights?"

The group quickly began to run out of the room as Proper Dave's skeleton and voice followed them closely. They ran as fast as they could down the corridors until they got to one corridor that connected two buildings of the library acting as a bridge. Jenny stopped, having a bright idea, or in more cases not so bright, but it could work. She told the other's to keep running and they did, except for Other Dave, who was forced to stay with her from Robert

"Hey! Who turned out the lights?" 'Proper Dave' appeared from the corridor they had just ran from. Jenny walked towards him and Other Dave just froze from behind her.

"You hear that?" Jenny spoke, in a stage whisper. "Those words. That is the very last thought of the man who wore that suit before you climbed inside it and stripped his flesh. That's a man's soul trapped inside a neural relay, going round and round forever. Now, if you don't have the decency to let him go, how about this? Use him, talk to me."

There was a pause from the space suit. Nothing said, he didn't move.

"Why'd you come here?" Jenny asked seriously.

"We…did not…"

Jenny looked in amazement as the swarm was learning how to speak. "Did not what?"

"We…did not…come…here…"

"Yes you did, you came here."

"We…came…from here…"

"From here?" Other Dave questioned.

"We hatched here…"

"Jenny we should go." Other Dave said.

"But how?" Jenny asked 'Proper Dave', "How did you come from here?"

"Jenny we should go."

"Books! Of course, the books, a million million hatching shadows."

"Jenny we should go."

Jenny swung around to Other Dave, whose helmet was pitch black, and on his comm. was one last blinking light. Jenny shook her. "I'm so sorry." She whispered to herself.

"Hey! Who turned out the lights?"

"Jenny we should go."

Jenny who stood in the middle of both Dave's looked around for a way out. They were nearing closer to her. Noticing a trap door on the floor, she quickly bent down opening it and jumping straight down. She quickly grabbed hold of the metal structure underneath the floor, hanging. Underneath her were bookshelves creating shadows.

XxXxX

In another large room in the Library, Mr. Lux, Anita and Robert stood around nervously. Watching every shadow out of the corner of their eyes. Anita was the only person watching her own two shadows. She was terrified.

"Jenny's coming back, yeah?" Anita asked Robert.

"Yeah…she always does." Robert smiled. "The only time I've ever seen her walk away from something was…the war…she never understood her father till that day. Learned the hardest lesson of all…you can't save everyone."

"No, you can't." Jenny said, jumping from the roof. "But you can always try." She walked up to Anita. "How you doing in there?"

"Where's Other Dave?" Anita asked.

"They got him, I'm sorry." Jenny turned back to Robert. "See, I know you can't save everyone." Everyone just went silent, looking down at the ground. Mr. Lux having this sudden interest in his space boots.

"Am I safe?" Anita asked, suddenly.

Jenny was about to say something when she thought about, "Safe…" she trailed off. "You don't say saved…4,022 people saved, no survivors."

"Jen, what is it?" Robert asked.

"It didn't mean safe, it meant saved…literally saved." Jenny said, a smile tugging on the edges of her mouth. She ran over to a computer and began typing codes into it. "The Library, a whole world of books, and right at the core, the biggest hard drive in history. The index to everything, ever written backup copies of every single book. The computer saved 4,022 people the only way a computer can. It saved them to the hard drive."

Suddenly an alarm set off around the building. Something flickered on the computer screen. The words 'Maximum Erasure.'

"What does that mean?" Robert whispered in Jenny's ear.

"The planet's going to crack like an egg." Jenny muttered back.

Mr. Lux ran over to Robert and Jenny, standing next to them, "Don't worry, Doctor Moon will take care of it, it's programmed to protect CAL" he said unconvincingly.

The computer screen suddenly went blank. Over head, a computer generised voice came over the comm. "All Library systems are temporarily offline."

"We need to stop this; we've got to save CAL!" Mr. Lux yelled over the alarm.

Jenny turned to Mr. Lux, "What's CAL?"

"It's the main computer, in the planet's core, I'll show you."

The four began to run down the corridors that led to the core of the planet. As they reached the planet's core, they stood at the main computer.

"Help me." Came a child's voice.

"What's that?" Anita asked.

"A child?" Robert said looking around.

"Computer's in sleep mode." Jenny said tapping keys into the computer. "It's almost like it's…dreaming…"

"It is, of a normal live, with a lovely dad and of every book every written." Mr. Lux murmured.

"Computer's don't dream." Anita said.

"No, but little girls do." At that the three all turned their heads to Mr. Lux who stood staring at a blank piece of wall. He pulled a lever and the wall opened up to reveal a NODE with a young girls face.

"Help me, please, help me!"

"Oh my, God." Anita gasped.

"CAL is a child, a young girl, why didn't you tell us before?" Robert asked.

"Because she's family, Charlotte Abigail Lux. My grandfather's youngest daughter. She was dying, so he built her a library, and put her living mind inside, with a moon to watch over her, and all of human history to pass the time, any era to live in, any book to read. She loved books more than anything. He gave her them all. He asked only that she be left in peace. A secret, not a freak show."

"You weren't protecting a patent, you were protecting her." Jenny whispered. Mr. Lux just nodded.

"A half life that lasts forever." Mr. Lux muttered.

"Then the shadows came."

"Shadows! Have to save…Have to save…"

Jenny looked at the little girls face repeating her words. "She saved everyone in the Library, and placed them in her dreams."

"Then why didn't she say?" Anita asked.

"Because she forgot…" Jenny whispered back.

"Autodestruct in ten minutes." The computer said.

"Okay, here's the plan," Jenny said turning to the group. "We beam all the people out of the data core, the computer will reset and stop the countdown. Charlotte doesn't have enough memory space left to make the transfer. So I'll hook myself up to the computer and she can borrow my memory space!"

"No!" Robert shouted, "You'll kill yourself…no regenerating, nothing."

"Yes, well…I'll try my hardest to not die and if it comes to that I'll try my hardest to regenerate." Jenny smiled.

Robert drew an angry sigh.

"Now, you take Mr. Lux and get him to the reception computer to back up the files."

With an angry stomp, Robert walked out with Mr. Lux while Jenny stood at the computer, typing keys into it.

"What are you going to do?" Anita asked.

"Well, I'm gonna seal Charlotte inside her little world, take everybody else away. The shadows can swarm to their hearts' content." Jenny answered.

"And you think, that'll make them leave us?"

"Sure, why not. But you don't need to worry, you know why?" Jenny left the computer and walked to Anita. "It's a shame, I really liked her and you ate her."

"How long have you known?" 'Anita' asked.

"I counted…" Jenny pointed at the ground were only one shadow stood, she looked at her comm. noticing one light. "She's going, be nice." Jenny turned back to the computer.

"We are not kind." Suddenly shadows came from Anita and reached out towards Jenny.

"No…neither am I! You ought to look my father; The Doctor…heard of him, I'm his daughter." Jenny said bitterly.

There was a pause, the shadows descended away from Jenny. "One day…One day to save them, if you fail…they're ours." And with that, Anita's space suit fell to the ground. Moment's later Robert walked back in seeing her space suit on the ground and Jenny working at the computer.

"What did you do to her?" Robert asked.

"Sorry, she was already dead, I didn't do anything…I thought I sent you with Mr. Lux?" Jenny said not looking at him.

"He can manage, but…" He walked over to her, pulling handcuffs from his suit and placing one on the side metal pole and the other on Jenny's wrist. "You can't."

He walked over to the system, and began to strap himself inside.

"What are you doing, this thing is going to kill you…and where'd you get handcuffs from."

"You'll have to wait for you're future." Robert said with a flirtatious smile.

"Seriously, though, it's going to kill you." Jenny hissed.

"I'm timing it for the end of the countdown, there'll be a blip in the command flow. That way it should improve our chances of a clean download." He said ignoring her anger.

"Robert! Don't, please!" she began to get hysterical.

"I think I finally realized why you didn't say goodbye to me when we broke up. Cause you'd have to come to terms with the fact I died…and you never said, all the endless nights, the sweet kisses…you were trying to save me from this fate. But I'll let you know this, it was never you're fault why I left…I couldn't deal with it after the war…the last four Time Lords in existence with eight broken hearts."

Jenny shivered listening to his words, tears streaming down her face. "Please…" she pleaded him. She tried reaching him, but the cuffs kept her from doing so.

"If I let you die…we'll never meet…history will change…I'd never be here, you'll never come here and the Library be trapped by the darkness."

"It doesn't matter, time can be rewritten…it has to be…" Jenny cried.

"Jen…I love you so much…" And with that, he plugged two cables together, exploding bright light coming from the cause. Jenny was blinded, she desperately wanted to see if he was okay, though deep down in both her hearts she knew he wasn't.

XxXxX

Jenny spent two hours sobbing her hearts out, just staring at Robert's lifeless body. She had her knees brought closely to her chest, her right wrist still cuffed to the metal pole. Someone touched her arm, and by the long red hair that fell onto her arm, she knew it was Donna. Saved from whatever fate she had fallen into.

"Hey," Donna said sadly. "Never believe what I've been through…"

Jenny looked up to her, Donna's eyes were wet and distant, she too had been crying. "You're sad." Jenny whispered.

"You can speak." Donna sat next to her, looking at Robert's body. "I'm sorry."

Jenny just shook her head. "Me too…what happened to you?"

"It was like a dream…I had a husband, children…everything I've ever wanted and now…"

"Bad day for lovers..."

"Yeah…" Donna nodded solemnly, she looked at Jenny's wrist cuffed to the metal pole that separated them. "You're hand cuffed, Mr. Robert is kinky."

Jenny smiled. "If everything you ever wanted was a life…why'd you stay when you had the chance to go home?"

"I can't just leave you, look at you, broken."

"Thank you...When we get back to the TARDIS lets take a holiday, we'll ask her what's the best place to go and relax."

"Sound's like a plan." Donna smiled.