The group were walking through the cornfield, huge, great stalks shooting up into the sky, more than twice most of their heights. The leaves were much thicker than those found on Earth, and also happened to be bright blue, but Yaz couldn't help but be taken back to long, summer walks through fields with her family, her sister frequently losing herself in every sense of the word. She instinctively began playing with the necklace around her neck before tucking it into her shirt.
The sky, meanwhile, was starting to turn a dark purple, a large moon with a giant chunk cut out of it now visible in the sky.
"Are we resting anytime soon, Doc?" Graham asked, trying not to sound huffy. "No point us rushing. I'm sure this King's not going anywhere."
"You're probably right. K-9, is there some sort of farmhouse nearby? I can't see over this stuff."
"Affirmative. There is a domicile approximately 983.78m to the north."
The Doctor went to speak.
"The north is where you are looking, mistress," K-9 clarified.
"Perfect. Let's hope farmers are friendly on this planet."
After a little more walking, Graham doing his best not to mention the blister he could feel developing on his foot, the group reached the edge of the cornfield.
Before them was a huge metal structure, painted a dark red in colour, approximately the size of a couple of football stadiums placed back to back.
"I guess they might have a few beds to spare," Ryan gawped.
"Mistress, it would be wise for me to recharge my energy systems while you all rest. I may be retrieved from the Pathfinder devices when you are ready to leave."
The Doctor nodded, watching as K-9's image phased back out of existence as quickly as it had appeared.
The Doctor led everyone to the door on the far left, under the reasoning that it was the friendliest looking of all the doors.
After first knocking and then banging to no answer, the group tentatively peered in to the black expanse behind the unlocked entrance.
What light there was remaining from outside shone through the opening, showing a huge room whose floor was coated in hay, and which housed various pieces of what were presumably farming equipment and vehicles, although the most any came to resembling a tractor was in their sheer size.
"Graham, can you find a light? Yaz and Ryan, take a look around," the Doctor said, immediately pulling her sonic and three torches from her pocket and handing them to her friends.
"Why? This just looks like an equipment shed," Ryan shrugged.
The Doctor wiped her finger across one of the tractor-like vehicles. "Dust," she said, holding her finger up. "In terms of ongoing activity, dust is never a good sign."
"So where do I find a light switch, then?" asked Graham, squinting around the room. "Is there some keypad I need to use, or verbal command I have to say?"
"Probably that big switch on the wall over there," Yaz offered, pointing to an ordinary looking toggle on the wall.
Graham approached the switch and flicked it back and forth a few times. "Power's out."
"Looks like there's a generator by your feet," the Doctor called, her head currently inside a box on the floor. "Good old-fashioned hand cranked one."
Graham looked down at the device dubiously. "Guess I know my place," he sighed.
"Doctor, look at this," Yaz said, picking a piece of paper up from a desk in the corner and handing it to the Doctor.
The Doctor beckoned for Yaz's torch, which she proceeded to place between her teeth for no obvious reason, and began examining the paper.
"Isshano," the Doctor explained.
Yaz and Ryan looked at her, confused.
"Sorry," the Doctor said, removing the torch. "It's a note: They're coming for me. To take what is mine. I've seen their webs; they will return by nightfall. The King warned me. Or perhaps it was a threat. A wish is only worth so much."
The Doctor flipped the note over looking for more but was only met with ink blotches and dirt.
"I told you this wish stuff was baloney," Graham called from the corner, pausing his somewhat lacklustre cranking.
"Do you think someone killed them?" asked Yaz, becoming increasingly concerned. "The note said something was coming to get them."
"Something that makes webs," Ryan added. "I thought we were done with spiders."
The Doctor hopped over to a corner of the room and pointed both torch and sonic at an intricate, spherical structure. It wasn't so much a web as a series of interlocking shapes, weaved together and hanging from the wall. It would be considered beautiful under other circumstances.
"Not good," the Doctor muttered under her breath.
As she said this, the main door burst open and two skittering objects raced into the room and immediately up on to ceiling.
"What was that?" Ryan yelped, swinging his torch around.
"Everyone get down!" the Doctor shouted. "Hide behind something and make yourself small."
Everyone did as they were told, collapsing to the floor and trying to disappear from view. Yaz and Ryan huddled behind a pile of boxes, and Graham did his best to shrink down next to the generator.
"What were those things?" Yaz called.
"Monkey spiders," replied the Doctor.
Graham peered up. "You mean spider monkeys?"
"No. I don't."
There was a screeching and clicking from above, like a bat flapping in the darkness, and without warning something jumped down, landing on Ryan's face.
"Ah! Get it off me!" he yelled.
Yaz immediately went to help, but couldn't stop herself taking in the monkey spider. It was roughly the size of a large cat, with coarse, brown hair that stuck out at ends. It had six arms that seemed to move independently, all of which were flailing wildly at Ryan. Although its simian-looking head was fairly small, its giant yellow teeth still violently gnashed as it screamed directly into Ryan's ear.
"Ryan!" the Doctor called, making to run towards the other two before having her leg yanked back by the other monkey spider.
"Doctor, what do we do?" pleaded Yaz, trying to prise each individual leg off of Ryan's head.
"They…don't like light," the Doctor grunted. "Try your torch."
Yaz looked desperately around for the torch Ryan had dropped and found it up against a box.
"The bulb's smashed," she called back.
The Doctor, whose torch and sonic had skidded off to the side of the room, reached out a desperate hand to grab them. "Whack it, then!"
"The torch?"
"The monkey spider!"
Yaz once again found herself wondering about the flexibility of police training as she began hitting a giant six-legged monkey with a broken torch.
Watching all this with increasing horror, Graham slid back down onto the floor, desperately trying to calm himself and focus.
"Right, looks like it's up to me, then," he muttered to himself. "Would help if I was any good on my own."
"When are you ever on your own, Graham O'Brien?" asked Grace.
"Less and less with you around, that's for sure."
"Are you being sarcastic, you old fool?"
"What, me? Never."
"So how are we getting out of this one?" Grace asked, sounding as excited as she always did when faced with danger.
"Graham!" the Doctor yelled, feeling the monkey spider creep its way up her leg. "Hurry up already!"
"What's that mean?" Graham asked, mostly to himself.
"The Doctor said they hate the light, remember," offered Grace.
Graham frowned before remembering the giant generator he was propped up against.
"Oh, right. What would I do without you?"
"That's something you really need to face," sighed Grace, as Graham began turning the generator, slowly but surely picking up speed.
"I…am…facing…it," Graham insisted, sweat appearing on his forehead.
"By running off into space with an alien?"
"I'm being more adventurous…more brave…isn't that…what you wanted?"
"What's the point if you don't have the courage to go home?"
Graham continued to crank the generator in silence, listening to the yells and protests from the other three, still scrambling on the floor with the monkey spiders.
"It's too quiet…and you're…too noisy."
"I've been called worse," Grace laughed.
"It was always…our home…not mine."
"Well it's nobody's if we're both out here, now is it? All those memories. Lost in time."
"Why…did I marry…someone so fearless?"
Grace chuckled. "C'mon. Our next great adventure; going home. Let's do it together," she said, placing a hand on top of Graham's to turn the crank one last time.
"Anytime, Graham!" Yaz yelled, prying two more limbs from Ryan's face, only for three others to spring back.
"On it!" he shouted, jumping up and slamming the light switch on.
A bright orange glow flooded the room, shining off the farming equipment and illuminating things previously unseen.
Everyone briefly stopped, monkey spiders included. Unfortunately, it wasn't for long; the creatures soon returned to terrorising the Doctor and Ryan.
"It didn't work!" Yaz yelled.
"Just needs a bit more oomph," the Doctor insisted, her fingers finally making contact with her sonic screwdriver, which she promptly pointed at the light on the ceiling.
The orange turned into a bright white, forcing everyone to shield their eyes. The monkey spiders began screeching even more loudly, their bodies swaying in all directions, before they skittered off back out of the door they had entered through.
"Phew!" the Doctor sighed, picking herself up and wiping her leg. "You all alright?"
"I think it poked my eye out," Ryan grumbled, his face now blotchy and slightly scratched.
"You've still got two," assured Yaz. "Nice going, Graham."
Graham shrugged. "I had a little help."