Hi again! This story is going to take ages to complete I've realised but I'm determined to do this. Anyway, let's meet an old, well known group of characters for the first time. So, Allons-y!

The Survivors

The corridors that lay before them were empty. Trixy briefly wondered how they were ever going to find Barbara in that place. She hoped that Ian starting to call her name from the moment they entered the corridor would help actually. It wasn't actually a clear corridor they stood in, it was more of a room with loads of doors in many directions. Susan, still steadying the Doctor, walked up to a door and opened it to a dark room.

"Miss Wright?" she called.

Ian repeated the action on another door on the other side of the room.

"Why is everywhere but the corridors dark?" Trixy asked quietly.

"Kind of wish I knew the answer to that one" Ian mumbled in answer.

"Hey, there's a corridor over here" Susan called and Ian hurried over to them.

"We might as well see where it goes to. Come on" Ian said moving to take off down the corridor while Trixy still stumbled towards them across the room.

The Doctor stopped everyone however as he heard something. There was a strange ticking noise and they started to follow it around the room. Trixy finally reached them as Ian opened a door to one of the rooms.

"Are you okay, Trixy?" Susan asked and the girl could just shake her head.

"Ah, this is more hopeful. We ought to find some mercury here" Ian said entering the room.

"Measuring equipment. But measuring what? Look here. Look at this drum. The ink's still quite wet" the Doctor said looking at one of the machines.

Trixy had followed Susan further into the room and the older girl looked quite tempted to pick her up. They soon found the source of the ticking and Susan announced it to the Doctor and Ian.

"It's a Geiger counter" she said as Ian came up to them.

"But look at the needle! It's past the danger point" Ian said and Trixy tiredly stretched to try and see.

"Yes, yes, that explains a lot of things, doesn't it. A jungle turned to stone, the barren soil and the fact that we're not feeling well" the Doctor said.

"Radiation sickness?" Ian asked and just from the tone of his voice Trixy could hear that it was bad and she both had no clue what it was and were not feeling well at all.

"Yes, I'm afraid so. The atmosphere here is polluted with a very high level of fallout, and we've been walking around in it completely unprotected" the Doctor gave for an answer.

Trixy lost the conversation there for quite a while just trying to focus on staying upright. The only thing she caught was that the Doctor had indeed bluffed about the link to be able to see the city. There was quite the argument starting when she finally managed to get her focus back.

"No! It's time you faced up to your responsibilities. You got us here. Now I'm going to make sure that you get us back" Ian said and Trixy looked between him and the Doctor as Ian made sure they were going to look for Barbara.

Just outside the room where something done of them had expected though and Susan at once pressed herself against the Doctor with a small scream. Trixy stared as if through a fog at the things standing before them. Big machines with what looked like a sink plunger and a whisk for arms, a lower body without legs covered in small half-spheres, a dome thing with two lamps seemingly serving as head and a single eyestalk sticking out on the front of the dome. Trixy's blood ran cold. There was something familiar about these things even though she had never seen them before. She got the distinct feeling that she didn't want to remember.

"You will move ahead of us and follow my directions. This way. Immediately" one of the creatures said and the monotone voice made Trixy feel colder than just their appearance had.

The Doctor and Susan started to follow the order and the Doctor almost pushed Susan before him as he did so. Susan meanwhile had a hand on Tryxy's shoulder as to not let the girl remain behind. Ian didn't follow however.

"I said immediately!" the creature repeated when Ian hesitated to follow the command.

The other three humanoids turned as one of the creatures gave order to fire. Ian had tried to run away and had now been shot. He collapsed on the ground with a cry and even the Doctor stiffened.

"My legs! My legs!" he said holding onto said body part with a hand.

Susan rushed back towards him with Trixy and the Doctor on her heals. They were stopped from reaching him however by one of the creatures' plunger arm.

"Stop!" the creature said.

One of the other creatures moved over to Ian.

"Your legs are paralysed. You will recover shortly unless you force us to use our weapons again. In that case, the condition will be permanent. You three, help him" it said and the other time travellers hurried towards Ian.

Trixy knew that she was only morally supporting the other three because there was no way she could help in getting Ian anywhere. She saw the shock and possible fear in Ian's face as he repeated what they had all guessed, his legs were out of use.

"Stop here" the creature said and they came to the stop outside a door.

The creature opened the door and they entered to find something great they hadn't expected as Susan and the Doctor carried Ian inside.

"Susan! Trixy!" Barbara's voice was heard and the woman rushed up to them.

"Miss Wright!" Susan said as happily as she could muster as the door slid closed behind them.

"Barbara, thank heaven we've found you. Are you all right?" Ian said in obvious relief.

"Yes" Barbara said starting to assist the Doctor who looked ready to fall over. "What's the matter? What's happened?" she asked looking to how the two aliens were holding up Ian.

"Oh, I'm all right" Ian said.

"He tried to get away and they hurt him" Susan explained.

"Can't you stand up?" Barbara asked sounding worried.

"Not without help" Ian admitted. "The feeling's coming back, don't worry" Ian said and Trixy who was trying to shake off the effects of the radiation sickness saw him dart a glance at the Doctor who looked almost as ready to fall over as Ian.

"Come over here" the woman said and they moved over to a bench where Ian was more or less just dumped down, not that he seemed to mind. The Doctor soon sunk down beside him followed by Susan on the man's other side while Barbara took a seat next to Ian. Trixy sank to the floor and leaned against Ian's useless legs, at least he would know when he got the feeling back.

Ian started to question Barbara about her wellbeing and what had happened to her. Trixy listen as closely as she could manage to the tale of how she was led through the place in what sounded like a more complicated way than they had came. She mentioned a lack of furniture and only usage of lifts, then a strange question came up, if there was anything inside their captors. It continued to telling Barbara about the radiation sickness.

"Well, what's going to happen to us?" Barbara asked.

"Well, unless, unless we get treatment, we shall die. Yes, we shall die" the Doctor murmured.

A chill ran through them all and an eerie quiet came about them. Trixy turned her thoughts inwards trying to figure out why the creatures were familiar. She had heard about something like them before, she knew she had but she couldn't come up with where. An image of her uncles arguing as they tried to tell her a story shimmered past her mind. It had something to do with them. Her mind started to wander, just lifts, no furniture except a few tables. If there was something in there it either had no use for such things or it couldn't get out. The door opened and two of the creatures came to drag away the Doctor, hopefully only to interrogate him and not exterminate him. Exterminate? He wasn't a bug, why had her mind moved to that word so easily. It was there. Somewhere in her mind there was a connection between that word and these creatures.

Ian slapped his legs lightly behind her and Trixy skirted away to allow him to try his movement.

"Is it better?" she asked looking up at him.

"A bit" he said "Well, let's try it out"

Ian tried to stand up and at once Barbara was at his side steadying him, Susan soon joining on the man's other side. Barbara nodded to the bench around the room and Trixy scrambled up on it in case Ian would fall she wouldn't be as much in the way.

"Is it any easier?" Barbara asked after they had walked back and forth for a couple of minutes.

"Yes, I think it is" Ian answered even though even Trixy could see that only one leg was working properly. "I'm going to try and stand on my own"

"Be careful" Susan warned him.

"I'll be all right. Oh, that's not too bad, is it?" Ian said cheerfully standing quite wobbily, Trixy had to bit her lip as to not laugh.

"Why don't you sit down for a minute?" Barbara said in concern.

"No, no, no. I'll be all right" Ian said but as soon as he took a step he fell over forwards. Trixy froze in her seat.

"No good" Ian said in annoyance as the females helped him up and Trixy let out a laugh as she saw he wasn't hurt more.

The laugh caused Ian to send the girl a smile as the adult, or almost adult, females led him to the bench.

"How are you feeling, Barbara?" Ian asked as the woman sunk down beside him holding her forehead as if it hurt.

"Not too good" the woman admitted.

"Trixy?" he said turning to the girl on his other side.

"Varies, but not good" she answered and it really did vary, one moment was better than the other, she briefly wondered if it was due to her two different species.

"Susan?" Ian continued looking at the older girl who was still standing up.

"Well, it doesn't seem to have affected me as much as the rest of you" she answered.

The door opened and the Doctor entered. He looked quite miserable as Susan cried out for him and hurried to his side. She took hold of him and steadied him to the bench.

"Are you all right?" Ian asked.

"What happened?" Susan asked in concern.

"In a moment, child. The phial of drugs left outside the Tardis, remember?" the Doctor asked panting as he spoke.

"Yes, what about them?" Barbara asked.

"It's possible that they may have been anti-radiation gloves. Drugs. I can't be certain, but it does give us a chance. The people here, whoever they may be, are very eager to get hold of them" the Doctor explained.

This revelation caused Ian and Barbara to have a short discussion about who of them that was to go, both very keen on that the other one didn't go. Trixy would have offered to go but she didn't think they would let her.

"Whoever goes must be very careful. As far as I can ascertain, the creatures out there are the ones who dropped the box. They're called Thals. They're mutations" the Doctor said as he moved up to sit in a corner on the bench, Trixy moving out of his way over Ian's lap.

"So it wasn't our captors who left the drugs behind?" Ian asked as he and Susan helped the Doctor in place with his back against the wall.

"No. If they were drugs. I've learnt quite a lot from the Daleks" the Doctor said and that last word struck something in Trixy.

"The who?" Ian asked.

"The Daleks, our captors here. Oh, if I didn't feel so. Oh. But I was right about the neutron bomb. The Daleks built this underground city as a kind of huge shelter" the Doctor said.

Trixy was paling more and more for every second. None of the older beings in the room noticed as the Doctor fainted while Ian asked about the Thals. Trixy's thoughts were on something else though. While the others tried to come up with who was going to go and Susan revealed that it wasn't as easy as giving someone the key to get in Trixy tried to remember where she had heard the word Dalek before. It had something to do with her Uncles and a great fear that made her shudder. She jumped and scrambled as quickly as she could manage to a weak Barbara's side as the door opened.

"You must leave now" the Dalek that came inside said.

"I'm not well enough yet" Ian argued.

"You must leave now" the alien repeated.
"My legs are still –" Ian tried.
"Which one of you is going?" the Dalek continued without a pause.

Ian tried to get up and walk, managing a few steps before he fell over again.

"You must give me more time" he said but Trixy didn't have high hopes of the creature to listen.

"Can't you see how weak he is?" Susan asked after having helped Ian to a place beside Barbara.

"There are others" the Dalek said.

Barbara tried to stand but seemed close to falling the moment she got on her feet causing Ian to pull her down again.

"Oh, Ian, I can't. The whole room's going round" she said panting.

Trixy watched the scene in fear, it leaned towards Susan going alone, if she didn't join her and she wasn't sure she had the energy. Ian also seemed to come to the same conclusion and looked determined at Susan.

"Must I? Alone?" Susan said. She threw a quick look at Trixy but seemed to dismiss the idea quickly, deeming it safer for the younger girl to remain where she was.

"You can't let her go alone. She's just a child. Plead with them. Anything!" Barbara said but Ian kept his eyes on Susan until Barbara had finished speaking when he looked at the woman who was breaking down. Trixy briefly noticed a tender look in his eyes, she smiled slightly knowing all too well where she had seen that look before.

"Susan, you see how ill they both are. We can't afford to wait until I can walk. An hour might make all the difference" Ian said to the young alien taking her hands. "Trixy fluctuates too much between good and bad to be safe for you to bring and speed is important"

"I'm so afraid" Susan said.

"You can do it" Trixy encouraged.

"Go on" Ian agreed with the girl.
"Yes" the supposed teenager nodded clearly trying to overcome her fear.
"Don't stop for anything. Straight there, straight back" Ian said and Susan nodded, eyes closed as she gathered her courage.

"Are you ready?" the Dalek's monotone voice asked.

"Yes, all right" Ian snapped before releasing Susan's hands.
"I'm coming now" she told the Dalek which herded her out of the room, she just stopped for a moment as the door opened to look back at them before she was gone.

"Ian, the others in the forest" Barbara said weakly. "He said they were mutations"
"But what else could I do?" Ian asked and the room fell quiet.

It was several minutes before someone opened their mouth again and then it was a weak voice from Trixy.

"But isn't all life mutations? Isn't that how evolution works?" she asked and both adults turned to look at her and even as the room fogged over she saw hope in their eyes.

Everything was dark. Trixy looked around trying to make something out, anything. Then suddenly everything around her was in flames. She clutched the backpack in her arms tighter to herself as she looked around in fear. The heat of the flames seemed to lick her and she cried out for her parents. A crash came behind her and she started to run couching through the familiar corridors that seemed to stretch much farther than ever before. A male voice called out from up ahead and she found herself almost tumble down the stairs. The smoke made it hard to breath and to see, she called out for her uncle as she tried to make her way down the stairs. He met her beneath the staircase and rushed her towards the door. Just as she reached it the ceiling above them collapsed. She cried out once again but it never hit her. She looked up and could barely see her uncle holding it up with his bare hands. The sleeves of his suit slowly catching fire she knew he looked down at her as he shouted.

"Run boy! Get out of here!"

Trixy scrambled through the door and down the stairs before turning to look up at the house. Her uncle's fighting cry was faintly heard as she heard something collapse again.

"No!" she cried, her vision blurring from tears. "NO!"

She feels someone touching her arm and starts to trash to get loose just for more hands to join the first.

"NO! MOM!" she screamed. "Mama help!"

"Trixy! Trixy!" a male voice sounded soon also followed by a female.

"Trixy, you have to wake up, it's a nightmare" the female voice said but Trixy just kept trashing.

Then there is something wet, her face is full of water. That wasn't her tears. She stilled and started to blink.

"Ian!" the female voice said accusingly and Trixy could almost see the glare Barbara shot the man.

"I'm open for suggestions if you have any" Ian's voice sounded. "She needs to wake up, sleeping might help put whatever dreams she's having won't"

"She's burning up" Barbara said and Trixy blinked her eyes open to see her face above her looking down in concern.

"Hurry Susan, hurry" Ian's voice said from beside her as well.

Trixy took a deep breath and stared up at the ceiling of their cell, hurry Susan indeed.

And we have Daleks. Quite a bit different from what they will become. That's it for this time now, so, see you next time!