DALEKS IN MANHATTAN
The TARDIS was parked by the Statue of Liberty. Rose laughed, looking out at the alien view – could she call it alien, since it was a part of her home world?
"Ah, smell that Atlantic breeze, nice and cold," the Doctor joined Rose, shouldering his coat. "Lovely."
Rose looked up to him. An excited glint had found its way into his eyes. She renewed her smile, tugging at his coat arm. "So…why…here?" she waved her hand at the skyline.
The Doctor shrugged, "Well, I figured," he started reasonably, "you've been to New New York twice, but never seen the genuine article, and it was about time, so," he made the same motion to the skyline Rose had made a moment earlier, "here we are. New York, New York! So good they named it twice," he smiled down at her fondly, then looked back to the skyline. "Mind you it was New Amsterdam originally," he considered, that far-off thoughtful look on his face suddenly. "Harder to say twice, no wonder it didn't catch on. New Amsterdam, New Amsterdam," he tested, still thoughtful. He shook his head.
Rose wrapped both her hands around his arm now, jumping a little in excitement. "Ooh, this is so brilliant," she surveyed the skyline, then craned her neck to observe the Statue of Liberty, behind and above them. "Mum always wanted to go to New York, we were planning to go, one day, if we ever had the money," she kept smiling. "I mean - mostly for the shopping!"
The Doctor raised his eyebrows at her, a smirk developing.
"What?" Rose leaned back a little, crossing her brows.
"Nothing," the Doctor spoke quickly and looked down, shaking his head, smirk still in place.
Rose rolled her eyes. "Yeah, all right, I get it, travel the world, just to buy clothes like a couple of thickos when there's so much more to it," she teased.
"I didn't say anything!" the Doctor butted in, laughter in his voice.
"So, can we?" Rose said quickly, a cheeky smile in place. "Do some shopping? Y'know, just walk around like regular people and shop?"
"Wonder what year it is?" The Doctor considered, pointedly changing the subject and clearing his throat. He pointed out in front of them. "Look, the Empire State Building's not even finished yet. Work in progress. Still got a couple of floors to go and if I know my history that makes the date somewhere around…oh, 1930?"
Rose had to shake her head a little and laugh, moving from his side back toward the TARDIS to grab her jacket. It was quite fresh in the breeze. "All right, all right - no shopping - but you owe me," she spun back and pointed at him quickly. "Next place we go..." she considered a second, then; "Oxford street."
The Doctor cocked his head on the side. "The planet Oxford street? Never heard of it," he shrugged.
Rose laughed and dashed back into the TARDIS, grabbing her jacket. When she returned, locking the door behind her, the Doctor's eyes were worried. He was reading the front page of a newspaper.
"Where'd you get that from?" she stood beside him, craning to see what had taken his interest.
"Hmm? Oh," he shook the newspaper to straighten it out, moving a little so Rose could see the headline herself.
"November first, nineteen thirty," Rose read aloud then continued, "Hooverville Mystery Deepens?" she frowned at him. "What's Hooverville?"
The Doctor looked toward the skyline, squinting a little. "Rose, I think our detour just got longer."
The Doctor led them to Central Park. It reminded Rose of the parks in London, back home, only quite a bit larger. The Doctor didn't seem to take too much notice of his surrounds, a worried crease in his forehead as he explained to Rose;
"Herbert Hoover. Thirty-first president of the USA, came to power a year ago," he explained as they strolled. "Up until then, New York was a boom town, the roaring twenties, and then-?" he looked to Rose expectantly.
"...not?" Rose guessed.
"Because..." the Doctor prompted.
Rose shrugged. "…mutant…ninja turtles?"
He gave her a look, shaking his head. "The wall street crash," he finished.
"Ah," Rose flushed.
"Nineteen twenty nine," the Doctor continued, as though she'd not spoken, but gave her another look, not without cheek.
Who was he kidding? Rose knew he loved explaining this stuff to her.
"Whole economy wiped out overnight. Thousands of people unemployed. All of a sudden the huddled masses doubled in number with no where to go," he exhaled, hands in his pockets as he looked around the park. "So, they ended up here, in Central Park."
Rose looked up to him questioningly. They hadn't seen anyone who fitted the homeless look she was used to seeing. "What, they actually live in the park? In the middle of the city?"
The Doctor nodded ahead of them, quite sombrely.
Rose turned back. Ahead of them a little way, she could see a mass of tents and temporary housing. A gatepost hung over the place, proclaiming the area to be Hooverville. It was muddy, dank. Everything, including the people's faces as they got closer and Rose could make them out, reflected some shade of grey.
"Oh my god," Rose whispered, horror in her voice.
"Ordinary people," the Doctor lead Rose into Hooverville. "Lost their jobs. Couldn't pay the rent, they lost everything."
"Why doesn't anyone help them?" Rose asked quietly, innocently.
"There are places like this all over America, no ones helping them," the Doctor answered. "You only come to Hooverville when there's no where else to go."
Rose took the Doctor's arm, feeling somewhat depressed. They walked through the makeshift muddy streets. The desperation on some of the people's faces, the lack of light in some others that looked like weary acceptance, forced a lump into Rose's throat. What mystery of this place would the newspaper be printing – why such a place was allowed to exist? The mystery of why nobody was helping? Where was their government?
A fight broke out a way ahead of them and the Doctor started leading Rose in that direction.
"Cut that out! Cut it out!" a strong voice carried over the top of the argument. A black man in a flat cap was trying to break up the fight.
"He stole my bread!" one accused.
"That's enough!" the man insisted. He turned to the other man who'd been arguing. "Did you take it?"
"I don't know, he just went crazy!" a crack of desperation in his voice. He jumped on the first man again.
"That's enough!" the black man, who seemed to be in charge, broke them apart again. "Now think real careful before you lie to me."
The Doctor stopped, Rose stopped with him, hands still on his elbow. Rose looked up at him quickly; he was considering the fight, observing. Rose wondered why he wasn't helping, though the one breaking up the fight seemed to have it under control.
"I'm starving Solomon," one of the fighting men visually deflated, his shoulders sinking.
The mediator, Solomon, the man had called him, held out his hand with a glare, and without a word. The desperate man slowly handed over a loaf of bread from inside his coat.
"We all starving," Solomon grated, breaking the bread in half, and handing a half to each man. "We all got families somewhere. No stealing and no fighting, you know the rules," he pointed a finger at each man in turn, then looked up, addressing the crowd that had gathered. "Thirteen years ago, I fought in the great war. Lot of us did," there were murmurs of ascent from the crowd. "And the only reason we got through," he continued, "is because we stuck together. No matter how bad things get we still act like human beings! It's all we got."
With that, Solomon turned away, and the crowd began to dissipate.
The Doctor was still observing Solomon. "C'mon," he said lightly to Rose, stepping forward.
They stepped out.
"I suppose that makes you the boss around here," the Doctor asked when they were in earshot.
Solomon turned and looked the Doctor and Rose up and down. "And uh, who might you be?"
"He's the Doctor, and I'm Rose," Rose supplied with a smile.
"A doctor?" Solomon asked quickly, disbelief in his voice. The Doctor nodded. "Huh. Well. We got stock brokers," he pointed to a man in an old suit down a couple of tents in a chair, reading a newspaper. "We got a lawyer. But you're the first doctor," he shook his head, warming his hands over a fire. "Neighbourhood gets classier by the day," he joked.
"How many people live here?" Rose asked, frowning.
"Any one time?" Solomon frowned, shook his head. "Hundreds. No place else to go. But I will say this about Hooverville, we a truly equal society, black, white, men, women, all the same, all starving. So you're welcome, both of you," he finished, his eyebrows hard in a sort of scowl.
"But tell me, Doctor," he turned away from the fire. "You're a man of learning, right? Explain this to me," he pointed over the treetops. Rose could see the top of the Empire State Building, still in construction.
"That there's going to be the tallest building in the world," he told them both. "How come they can do that, and we got people starving in the heart of Manhattan?" he sounded unimpressed. Shook his head, and turned away from them, walking down the road.
They watched him go.
Rose turned back up to the Doctor. "I was sort of wondering the same thing?"
The Doctor's calculating look hadn't left his face since he'd entered Hooverville. Without acknowledging Rose's response, he started off after Solomon. Rose hurried to keep up.
Solomon had stopped by a tent that must have been his home. When they got there, he was emptying a metal jug of what looked like old tea.
"So, men going missing, is this true?" the Doctor held the newspaper with the headline they'd read earlier up.
Solomon's shoulders seemed to sink a little, as he took the paper. "It's true all right," he grumbled, then walked into his tent.
The Doctor followed him in. Rose stepped gingerly beside him, feeling odd about entering – did he even want to talk to them? He seemed to be the one keeping all these people's spirits up, but there was more to him, like he thought deep down it was hopeless, but some inner battle was making him fight.
"But what does missing mean?" the Doctor asked from just inside the tent. "I mean, people must come and go here all the time, not like anyone's keeping a register," he shrugged."
"C'mon in," Solomon sat, motioning them forward. "This is different."
"How?" Rose asked as she and the Doctor stepped forward. The Doctor took a seat by Solomon. Chills began to creep up Rose's spine at Solomon's tone.
"Someone takes them. At night," he pursed his lips. "We hear someone, someone calls out for help, by the time we've got there, they gone. Vanish into thin air," he shook his head.
"And you're sure someone's taking them?" the Doctor had his head resting on his chin.
Solomon shook his head, that futile laugh again. "Doctor, when you got next to nothing, you hold onto the little you've got," he looked up at Rose. She could understand that, and nodded very slightly.
"Knife, blanket, you take it with you," he explained to both of them. "You don't leave bread uneaten. The fire's still burning."
"Have you tried the police?" Rose asked quietly.
"Yeah, we tried that," he shrugged. "If a deadbeat goes missing, big deal."
"So the question is, who's taking them, and what for?" the Doctor sighed loudly.
Before either the Solomon or the Doctor could speculate further, a young man burst into the tent.
"Solomon! Sol, Mister Diagoras is here," and he was gone again.
Solomon gave the Doctor and Rose a short, concerned look, then hurried outside after the young man.
The Doctor and Rose followed.
As Rose ducked her head under the tent flap, the Doctor holding it back for her, she saw three men, substantially better dressed than the rest of Hooverville's population. One in the middle in a pin-striped black suit, was doing all the talking. This must have been the 'Mister Diagoras' the young man had rushed into the tent to announce.
"I need men!" Diagoras called. "Volunteers. I got a little work for you. And you sure look like you could use the money," he said in a jovial way that even offended Rose, and she wasn't in the same position as all the Hooverville residents.
"Yeah, what is the money?" the young man who'd alerted Solomon piped up.
"A dollar a day," Mr Diagoras replied.
Rose's eyes flickered to the Doctor. Was that good money, in this time?
"What's the work?" Solomon called out gruffly.
"A little trip down the sewers," Mr Diagoras continued, an edge beginning to sound in his tone, as though he couldn't believe people were questioning work when they so desperately were in need of it. "A tunnel collapsed, needs clearing and fixing. Any takers?"
"A dollar a day is a slave's wage," Solomon growled. "And men don't always come back up. It's foolish," he turned away, as though he'd heard enough.
"Accidents happen!" Diagoras stressed.
"What do you mean, what sort of accidents?" the Doctor asked shrewdly.
"If you don't need the work, that's fine," Diagorus shook his head at the Doctor, then addressed the crowd again. "Any body else?"
The Doctor raised his hand.
"Enough with the questions," Diagorus scathed.
"Oh no no no, no, I'm volunteering," the Doctor looked from Diagorus, down to Rose, and back up again. "I'll go," he said lightly, nudging Rose with the elbow of the hand that wasn't currently raised.
Rose stared up at him in disbelief. Then raised her own hand. "I hope you know what you're doing," she muttered.
"Anybody else?" Diagorus called.
Rose saw only two more hands raise, reluctantly. Solomon's, and the young man next to him.
"Told ya. Ninja turtles," Rose sighed, unimpressed.
The Doctor looked down at her, his eyebrows lowered.
The New York sewers were large, dank, dark – everything you would expect a sewer to be. Rose held her arms as the chill of the place started to seep into her bones.
Diagorus was explaining the job. "Turn left, oh, about a half mile," he pointed ahead of them. "Follow tunnel two-seven-three. Fall's right ahead of you, can't miss it," he turned and put his hand on the ladder that lead to the surface.
"And when do we get our dollar?" the young man, Frank, he'd introduced himself as to Rose, spoke up.
"When you come back up," Diagorus paused before speaking.
"And if we don't come back up?" the Doctor asked quietly.
Mr Diagorus stared at the Doctor a moment before; "Then I got no one to pay," he replied, shrugging.
"Don't worry. We'll be back," Solomon moved past Rose, stepping into the tunnel, his torch weaving a path in front of him.
"Hope so," Rose turned her own torch on. She followed Solomon.
Diagorus and his cronies left them to it.
Frank fell into step beside Rose. "We gotta stick together," he told her. "Coz if you get lost, it's a huge rabbit warren, you could hide an army down here."
Rose nodded to him. She had no intention of leaving the group. "So what about you Frank? You're not from here are you?"
"You can talk!" Frank laughed at her, a little nervously. Rose smiled as the Doctor walked past to catch up to Solomon. The Doctor looked from Rose, to Frank, as he stepped past them, putting a hand on Rose's shoulder, the smallest hint of irritation in his eyes.
Frank watched the Doctor, then shrugged. "Nah, I'm..I'm Tennessee born and bred," he nodded.
"So, why you in New York?" Rose made conversation, staring at the Doctor's back, crossing her arms, torch waving out behind them. What had that been?
"Oh," he shuffled his feet a little reluctantly. "My daddy died," he replied.
Rose forgot about the odd look the Doctor had conveyed in passing, and gave her attention to Frank.
"Mamma couldn't afford to feed us all," he shrugged. "So I'm the oldest, up to me to feed myself. So I put on my coat, hitched up here on the railroads," he said with determination.
"And you're all on your own?" Rose asked, concerned. He couldn't have been older than her.
Frank grinned sideways, nodding ahead. "Aww…Solomon, keeps a look out for us, it's all right," he turned back to Rose. "So what about you? You're a long way from home."
Rose frowned. "Yeah, I'm just a hitcher, too," she said dismissively. What could she say to him? Perhaps her tone would make him think she didn't want to talk about it. Which wasn't fair, really, since he'd just told her his life story.
Frank didn't seem to mind, smiling that half-smile again. "You stick with me, you'll be all right," he nodded, a protective edge in his nervous voice.
Rose smiled back at him. He was really sweet. Reminded her a little of Adam, only not as pushy.
"So this Diagorus bloke," the Doctor called out quickly, then looked to Solomon. "Who is he then?"
"Couple of months ago he was just another foreman," Solomon shrugged, watching their path with a squint. Rose closed the gap between them so she could listen.
"Now, seems like he's running most of Manhattan," Solomon finished, somewhat ironically.
"How'd he manage that then?" the Doctor asked lightly.
"These are strange times," Solomon frowned. "Man can go from being the king of the hill to the lowest of the low. Overnight."
The Doctor was slowing down, and Rose saw his head move slightly. His attention wasn't on Solomon's tale.
"Must be some folks it works the other way round," Solomon finished.
"Whoa!" the Doctor interrupted, coming to a stop and shining his torch at the ground.
Rose stepped up beside him. There was something, green and glowing, about the size of a brain, in front of them.
"Okay, when I said mutant ninja turtles, I was joking," Rose crouched down to get a better look at it. "Is it radioactive or something?" she covered her mouth as a rotten smell wafted up from the thing.
The Doctor crouched down next to her, putting on his glasses.
Rose gaped, as the Doctor calmly picked it up. "Please don't lick it," she warned him, as he sniffed it, all concerned interest and no revulsion in his expression.
The Doctor was weighing the green thing in his hands. "Shine your torch through here, will you Rose?" he asked softly.
Rose obliged, angling her torch under it. It was slightly transparent, and still looked like an alien sort of brain.
"Composite organic matter," the Doctor muttered.
"Alien?" Rose asked quietly.
"Yes. It is," the Doctor's mouth skewed a little as he stood, putting the thing in his pocket.
Rose made a mental note to send his coat off for dry-cleaning at the next civilised planet they stopped off at.
"And I'll tell you something else," the Doctor spoke a little hurriedly now. "We must be at least half a mile and I don't see any sign of a collapse, do you?" he turned to the other three. "So why did Mr Diagorus send us down here?"
Solomon and Frank looked confused, Solomon with his eyes on the Doctor's pocket.
Rose blew on her cupped hands to warm them. "Where are we now, what's up above?"
"Well," the Doctor's eyes travelled upwards. "We're right underneath Manhattan."
"Maybe it's just a little further ahead," Frank spoke up quietly.
With that, the foursome continued down the dank sewers. Rose's mind was on the green thing in the Doctor's pocket more than her spooky surrounds, now. She'd done spooky alleyways before. Of course, she'd none alien organs before too, but the Doctor had always been able to identify it, in the blink of an eye.
"We're way beyond that mile," Solomon broke their silent patrol eventually. "There's no collapse. Nothing."
"So that Diagorus bloke was lying?" Rose asked.
"Looks like it," the Doctor stopped walking. The other three stopped beside him.
"So why'd he want people to come down here?" Frank asked in a shaky voice.
"Solomon I think it's time you took these two back. I'll be much quicker on my own," the Doctor said in an undertone.
"Oi, I don't think so-" Rose began, but was cut off by a screech in the tunnels.
"What the hell was that?" Solomon fired quickly.
All four listened for it to repeat itself, then-
"Hello?" Frank called out into the gloom.
"Shh, Frank!" Solomon hissed.
"What if it's those folk gone missing?" Frank explained. "You'd be scared half mad down here on your own," he reasoned.
"You think they're still alive?" the Doctor's lips were pursed.
"Hey, could be, we ain't seen no bodies down here, maybe they just got lost," Frank shrugged, a shake still in his voice. Rose put a hand on his arm to try comfort him; he was obviously scared half to death himself.
"It'll be all right," she told him.
There was another screech in the tunnels, and both Frank and Rose jumped.
"Well, I ain't heard nobody make a sound like that," Solomon deduced.
"Where's it coming from?" Frank asked quickly.
Both the Doctor and Solomon started shining their torches around in different directions. Rose and Frank caught on, moving slowly, searching for signs of movement. Rose wasn't sure if she actually wanted to find what it was making that noise. The screeching doubled, echoing off the close walls.
"Sounds like there's more than one of them," Frank announced.
"This way," the Doctor pointed his torch down one of the alleyways.
"No. That way," Solomon was pointing in the opposite direction.
Rose was shining her torch ninety degrees to both of them. The light caught on what looked like a figure, hunched over in the corner. Something or someone that didn't look quite right.
"Doctor…" she whispered urgently, not wanting to move her head.
All three men turned to Rose quickly. The Doctor's eyes followed the path Rose's torch made.
"Who are you?" Solomon called out.
"Are you lost?" Frank called hopefully. "Can you understand me? I've been thinking about folk lost down-" he started to explain.
"It's all right Frank. Just - step back," the Doctor cut him off, not unkindly. "Let me have a look," he turned back to the hunched figure, walking toward it slowly. Rose felt a lump of fear rise in her throat again as the Doctor moved away from them.
"He's got a point though, my mate Frank," the Doctor was addressing the hunched figure. "I'd hate to be stuck down here on my own. But we know the way out. Daylight," he'd reached the creature's side. Crouched down to it. "You can come with us," he said quietly, angling his torch up into the figure's face. "Oh…but what are you?" he asked in quiet wonder.
Rose could see it's face now. It looked like a pig. A pig on a person's body. She'd seen this kind of thing before, ages ago, when she'd first started travelling with the Doctor, when he'd been in his other body. The Slitheen had done it, mutated a pig, as a cruel joke. But they couldn't be here-
"Is that uh, some kind of carnival mask?" Solomon asked. Rose's eyes snapped to him, pulling her out of her reverie. Solomon looked like he'd seen the devil himself; Frank just looked confused, sad even.
"No. It's real," the Doctor called back. "I'm sorry," he addressed the pig-man again. "Listen to me. I promise. I can help."
There was movement in the tunnel beyond them. It caught Rose's attention and she waved her torch towards it. There were suddenly, shadows. Shadows of tall-standing pig-men, all over the wall, just beyond the Doctor. Rose's voice was stuck as she tried to call out.
"Who did this to you?" the Doctor continued quietly to the pig-man on the ground, unaware.
"Doctor, I think you'd better get back here," Rose found her voice finally. "Doctor!" she cried.
The Doctor's head snapped to the movement to his left. "Actually. Good point," he stood, backing away.
"They're following you," Frank told him.
"Yeah, I noticed that, thanks," he said lightly. "Right then. Rose? Frank? Solomon?"
"What?" Solomon asked hurriedly, backing away with Frank and Rose.
"Well. Um. Basically," he stammered.
"Run!" Rose cried.
There was movement, all at once, from all directions. Rose ran, leading Frank, Solomon and the Doctor down the alleyways of the sewer. She could hear the terrifying beat of the pig-man army behind her.
"Where are we going?" Rose called out as she came to a t-intersection in the sewers.
"This way!" the Doctor called back, dashing past her. Rose hurried after him, Solomon and Frank right behind her.
The Doctor led them as though following a mental map. Rose wondered how he knew where to go, when he did a double take at another turning.
"Ah, it's a ladder, c'mon!" he cried in triumph, dashing down an alleyway.
He was up the ladder in what seemed like two bounds, sonic screwdriver out of his pocket, running the blue glow around the edge of the manhole cover at the top. In a couple of seconds, it was open, and he climbed out. Rose was already half way up the ladder, and he lifted her the rest of the way.
"C'mon, c'mon!" the Doctor called motioning upwards to Solomon and Frank as Solomon reached the base of the ladder.
Rose leaned over the side, reaching down her hands to help Solomon up.
"Frank! C'mon!" Rose called down into the tunnel as Solomon joined them at the top.
Frank was brandishing what looked like a piece of square steel, facing off against the army of pig men.
What's he doing?! Rose's heart leaped into her mouth.
He flicked a look up the ladder, and, seeing it cleared now Solomon was at the top, threw down the steel and hurried toward them.
"C'mon Frank," the Doctor reached out as the young man started to clamber up the ladder.
"Hurry!" Rose cried, her hand outstretched as well.
Rose grabbed his hand, just as a group of pig-men grabbed a hold of Franks legs, still only half-way up the ladder.
"I got you!" Rose cried. The Doctor grabbed her wrist, then reached down with his other hand to secure Frank's wrist.
"Fight!" the Doctor screamed down at Frank. "C'mon! C'mon!"
Rose could feel the tug of the pig-men – they were collectively stronger, and they had gravity on their side. The pig-men won; Frank's hand fell out of the Doctor and Rose's grip, and he was carried away by the hoards.
"No!" Rose screamed, flinging herself at the manhole, hands reaching out. The Doctor grabbed Rose's sides and hung onto her to stop her falling, and at the same time, Solomon pushed her out of the way, covering the manhole quickly.
Rose and the Doctor fell back; Rose landed on the floor. She scrambled to her feet and back to the manhole cover, but Solomon had already closed it.
"We can't go after him," he stressed.
"No, we've got to go back down, we can't just leave him!" Rose cried to him, in frustration.
"No!" Solomon ordered. "I'm not losing anybody else."
"You don't have to lose him, we can still-" Rose cried hurriedly.
"Those creatures were from hell, from hell itself," Solomon interrupted angrily. "If we go after them? They'll take us all. There's nothing we can do. I'm sorry."
"What?" Rose turned to the Doctor, aghast. Surely, he would agree with her, and they would remove the manhole cover and go back for Frank. "What happened to keeping hold of what you've got left?"
The Doctor was still as he had fallen on the ground, his face a mask of terror, unmoving. He opened his mouth and started to scramble to his feet-
"All right then, put 'em up," a new voice commanded.
The Doctor turned, and Rose looked over his shoulder; there was a blonde woman standing there, pointing a gun at them.
Rose put her hands up. Solomon did the same. The Doctor just looked confused.
"Hands in the air and no funny business," the woman ordered in a thick New York accent. "Now tell me you shmucks. What have you done with Laszlo?"
Rose lowered her hands, confused at being snapped from the grief of losing Frank, to this. What had they landed in now?
"Who's Laszlo?"
Tallulah, 'three l's and an h', took them to her dressing room, explaining, desperately, waving the gun, that Laszlo was her boyfriend, and he'd disappeared two weeks earlier.
"No letter, no goodbye, no nothing," she moaned. "And I'm not stupid," she waved the point of the gun near her temple, "I know some guys are just pigs, but not my Laszlo," she pointed the gun back at them, as though she didn't realise she was still holding it. Rose and the Doctor startled back a little.
"I mean, what kind of guy asks you to meet his mom before he vamooses?" she asked desperately.
"Yeah, might, might just help if you put that down," the Doctor held his hand out, trying to urge her to let go of the gun.
"Huh?" Tallulah stared at it. "Oh, sure," she threw the gun into a pile of silk, nearly laughing.
The Doctor jumped again, his eyes swivelling to the fallen gun as though he was worried it would go off.
"Oh, c'mon, it's not real," Tallulah waved her hand at them. "It's just a prop. It was either that or a spear," she turned to her mirror dismissively.
The Doctor and Solomon had gone to find parts, parts to build something, to check out the weird alien green thing he'd been carrying in his pocket, he told Rose. He was certain that if he could know what it was made of, he'd know where it was from. Then he'd know what to do. Know what he was fighting.
Rose sat on a long seat in Tallulah's room, watching her get ready for the show. The initial fright of having this crazy blonde woman thrust a gun in their faces was wearing down. She was desperate, scared and confused. Rose could understand it.
"Laszlo," Tallulah reminisced, grinning in the mirror at Rose as she put on an earring. "He'd wait for me after the show. Walk me home like I was a lady," she smiled. "He'd leave a flower for me on my dressing table, every day just a single rose bud," she nodded to Rose.
"Haven't you reported him missing?" Rose smiled sadly.
"Sure," Tallulah laughed. "He's just a stagehand, who cares?" she shrugged. "The management certainly don't."
"Yeah, but…can't you kick up a fuss or something? You're the star of the show, they'd listen to you," Rose pointed out, moving over to the dressing table, picking up a sparkling tiara idly.
"Okay, so then they'd fire me," Tallulah smirked shrewdly, then sighed. "Oh honey, I got one song and a back street review and that's only because Heidi Chickaine broke her ankle, which had nothing to do with me whatever anybody says," she pointed out, to make it perfectly clear. "I can't afford to make a fuss," she turned back to her mirror, a little helplessly. "If I don't make this month's rent then before you know it, I'm in Hooverville."
Rose put the tiara back on the dresser. "But…why doesn't any one care?"
"It's the depression, sweetie," she shrugged. "Your heart might break but the show goes on because if it stops you starve," she stood, facing Rose. There were great big tears welling in her eyes. "Every night I have to go out there, sing, dance, keep going."
Rose enveloped Tallulah in a hug.
The girl sobbed a little, "Hoping he's going to come back."
"I'm sorry," Rose didn't know what to say.
"Hey, you're lucky though," Tallulah pulled away, smiling again but wiping her eyes. "You got yourself a forward thinking guy with that hot potato in the sharp suit," she raised her eyebrows.
Rose leaned against the wall, turning her head up. "We're not really...together, we're just-"
"Oh, sure you are. I've seen the way you two look at each other, it's obvious," Tallulah teased, walking over to a side table with more of her costume on it.
Rose smiled a bit at Tallulah. Was it obvious? Shakespeare had said as much to them, as well. "It's…complicated," Rose shrugged.
"Oh. I should have realised," Tallulah must have read something in Rose's look, sounding like she had figured it all out. "He's into musical theatre, huh? What a waste," she reached for a set of white feathery wings.
Rose shook her head to try explain, but Tallulah didn't stop for breath.
"Still. You gotta live in hope. It's the only thing that's kept me going," she grinned knowingly, stretching her arms through glittering bands to support the wings. "'Cause…well, look," she picked up a flower from her dresser. "On my dressing table, every day still," she handed it to Rose.
Rose regarded the perfect white bud with a frown. "Do you think it's Laszlo?"
"I don't know," Tallulah smiled, her brows crossed slightly. "If he's still around why's he being all secret, like he doesn't want me to see him?"
Rose handed the white rose bud back to the girl; she tucked it into the neckline of her costume, then held her hand out to Rose with a grin.
"C'mon honey, take a look," she motioned toward the exit. "Ever been on stage before?"
"Oh, a little bit. You know, Shakespeare," she smirked.
"How dull is that?" Tallulah laughed. "Come and see a real show," she grabbed Rose's hand and lead her out to the curtains.
Rose watched the show from stage right, smiling at Tallulah's performance. So many people watching her, probably just thinking she was some daft showgirl without a care in the world beyond hair colour. Nobody would look deeper than that, and see the scared, lonely girl beneath.
Tallulah wouldn't let them.
"You lured me in with your cold grey eyes," Tallulah sang. "Your simple smile you're bewitching lies. One and one and one is three. My bad, bad angel, the devil and me—ee," she swayed. There were calls from the crowd. "You put the devil in me," she repeated.
She was good, Rose thought, raising her eyebrows. She wondering if the Doctor was seeing this – Rose indulged a moment, as though there was nothing wrong, and they'd simply travelled to 1930's New York to catch a show.
Oh well! She was sure he was around here somewhere, in his element, figuring out what the green blob was.
She subconsciously scanned the crowd for him, but couldn't see anything, because of all the lights illuminating the stage. Her eyes drifted back to the stage – and then beyond.
Stage left. What was that? Another person, watching, just like she was. Not the Doctor, so-
Wait. Rose looked again. It was a pig man. Well, not a whole pig man, this one looked like he was only half pig in the face. Before she could stop herself, Rose was dashing across the stage to get to the other side.
"What are you doing?!" one of the red dancers called to her, as she ducked behind the girl's feathers – misjudged, and grabbed out for support as she began to fall.
The dancer fell on top of Rose, causing a racket and a thump.
"Ow!"
Tallulah and the other dancers looked over.
"What are you doing?" she was confused. "Get off the stage, you're spoiling it!"
"You're on my tail, get off my tail!" the dancer Rose had pulled over grated, tugging her devil tail out from under Rose's foot.
"But…look!" Rose pointed to the pig-man offstage, grabbing Tallulah's arm as she hauled herself to her feet.
Tallulah turned and screamed a blood curdling scream.
The pig-man startled, and dashed away. Rose raced after him.
"Wait!" she called, running backstage. "We can help you!"
The pig-man didn't stop running. He lead Rose into the room they'd entered the theatre from – the one that lead to the sewers. As Rose stopped in the doorway, she heard the manhole cover sliding shut. Rose shook her head sadly, turning to leave-
A pig-man, like the one they'd met in the tunnel before, leaped out of the shadows and grabbed Rose's arms.
She screamed and tried to fend him off. A second pig-man materialised out of nowhere and Rose was dragged struggling, kicking and screaming, into the sewers.
"Oof!"
They threw Rose against a wall. One of the pig-men drew closer to her face, grunting softly as though trying to talk to her.
Rose shuddered. "Please…please let me go," she pleaded in a small voice. "I can help you, me and my friend, we can help stop who did this to you…"
The pig-men didn't appear to understand Rose, and turned suddenly. Rose noticed movement in the tunnels. She stayed perfectly still on the wall, hoping they would forget about her and she'd get a chance to run.
What came around the corner was more pig men, but also real people. About twelve of them. One of them she recognised, widening her eyes.
"Rose!" Frank's eyes dodged to her as the queue stopped in the alleyway and a couple of pig-men conversed in their grunting language.
"You're alive!" Rose squeaked, as a pig-man pushed her forward to join the queue. Spurred on by momentum, Rose careened into Frank, hugging him tightly around the neck.
"Whoa…" Frank steadied Rose to keep them from toppling over.
"I thought we'd lost you!" Rose continued, as another pig-man pushed them to move. "Hey!" she barked indignantly, let go of Frank, then realised the queue had started moving again.
"Where are they taking us?" Frank whispered over her shoulder as they shuffled forward.
Rose found Frank's hand and squeezed it. "I don't know but I've got a feeling we can find out what's going on down here," she flicked a look back at him. "Stick with me, you'll be all right."
The pig-men seemed to know where they were going. They led the queue down alley after alleyway. Rose and Frank stayed close, hand in hand, Rose all the while keeping her eyes open for any chance of escape. Any signs of the Doctor coming after her. Where was he? Would he even know she was in trouble?
The pig-men stopped the queue after a moment and started grunting, in what could have been anything from fear to pleasure.
Frank's grip tightened on Rose's hand. "What are they doing? What's wrong? What's wrong?" he asked quickly in a hushed voice.
"I don't know!" Rose hissed back, the noises unnerving her even more so.
The pig-men turned to something beyond them, something that's shadow moved down the tunnel smoothly. Rose strained to see. The queue of people were fidgeting and muttering urgently to each other.
"Silence! Silence!" a metallic voice grated over the din.
Rose's heart stopped.
"You will form a line. Move! Move!" it droned, gliding past them to reinforce the movement. The pig-men started jostling the people into their queue again. Rose went slack, and she didn't notice a pig-man push her against the wall this time. Frank ducked down to convey a message to Rose, get her to make eye contact, but she barely noticed him.
Her eyes flickered toward the gliding creature as it passed her. "No…" she whispered, in horror. "No, no, no…" she closed her eyes, a shaky hand idly moving a stray piece of hair behind her ear.
"Report."
Rose's eyes snapped open. There was a second one in the sewers with them. They were conversing. What was going on?
Frank unconsciously took a step back from Rose as her face darkened. Her eyes stared, transfixed. "They survived?" she grated, little more than a whisper.
Frank looked nervously between the Daleks and Rose. "…You know them metal things? What are they?"
"These are strong specimens. They will help the Dalek cause," the first reported.
"It's called a Dalek," Rose didn't take her eyes off them, spitting the word. "And it's not just metal. It's alive."
"What is the status of the final experiment?" the first Dalek queried the second.
"What're they going to do with us?" Frank whispered urgently, a more fearful edge to his voice.
Rose shook her head. "They'll kill us," she huffed simply. "That's what they were born to do. Kill and hate and destroy anything that isn't a Dalek."
"The Dalekanium is in place, the energy conductor is now complete," the second Dalek replied.
"Why?" Frank sounded desperate. He shook Rose's arm a little when she didn't reply.
She couldn't take her eyes off the Daleks. How? How had they survived? She'd lost her mum, she'd lost everything. And they were here. Were there more?
"Then I will extract prisoners for completion," the first Dalek announced, gliding in front of one of the men in the queue. The man looked on fearfully, soundlessly as two pig-men held him and the Dalek's sucker extended toward his mouth. Rose was about to jump forward to stop them killing him, when the sucker attached and; "Intelligence scan - initiate," it said. "Reading brain waves. Low intelligence," after a moment.
"You calling me stupid?" his eyes widened in offence.
"Silence! This one will become a pig slave," the Dalek told the pig-men.
The pig-men-slaves – whatever they were – dragged the man away.
"No. Let go of me! I'm not becoming one of them!" he screamed down the tunnel.
Rose swallowed thickly. She had to come up with a plan. Had to. She'd faced them before, she could do it again.
Where was the Doctor?
"Intelligence scan - initiate," a Dalek suckered Frank, just next to Rose. "Superior intelligence," it reported almost immediately. Frank looked an odd mixture of scared and relieved.
"Intelligence scan, initiate," before Rose could react, there was a sucker over her mouth and nose. It smelled like rust, and plastic, and was awful. But it was only there a moment. The Dalek pulled away, as though it had been burned.
"What is this?" the Dalek glided back, swinging it's sucker in anger.
Rose stared, agog, for a moment, then; "You read my brain waves," she realised. Then laughed. "You know who I am, don't you, Dalek?"
"Hoooow-?" the Dalek started as the second Dalek moved next to it.
"Don't you dare ask me how you know me!" Rose shouted, pointing her finger at them. Rose noticed in the corner of her eye that Frank looked more fearful than before, more desperate. She quietened, resolved, gripping Frank's hand to try reassure him. "You know me, and you know who I bring with me," she raised her eyebrows. "And we know you," she nearly laughed.
"Rose, what are you talkin' about, I don't know these things," Frank hissed urgently.
The Daleks turned, a hydraulic moving noise the only sound in the silence.
"Whatever you're up to," Rose felt like her body was on fire as she grated, the words boiling out of her before she could think. "We're going to stop you."
There was ultimate silence in the sewer just for a moment. Rose stared into the first Dalek's blue eye, unblinking.
"Superior intelligence," the second Dalek broke the silence. "This one will become part of the final experiment."
Two of the pig-men grabbed Rose's arms and started dragging her in one direction. She hardly noticed them as she half-laughed, half screamed, "No, I won't! And if I don't stop you, he will!"
"Prisoners of high intelligence will be taken to the transgenic laboratory," the first Dalek ignored her, relaying to the second.
About half of the people were taken away by the pig-men. Rose, Frank and the others with 'superior intelligence' as pronounced by the Daleks, were jostled in the opposite direction. The Daleks lead the way.
Rose fumed, shaking off a pig-man, stepping into the queue, determination setting her jaw in a line. Frank put a hand on her shoulder and gave her a questioning look, and Rose frowned and shook her head. No time to explain.
The Doctor was beside her, suddenly. "Keep walking," he whispered into her ear.
Where did he come from? Rose's head turned back quickly to regard him with wide eyes, then did as he said, turned forward, and kept walking. Relief flooded through her; he had come. She wouldn't have to face the Daleks alone.
"I'm so glad to see you," she let out a shaky breath.
"You were doing so well without me, too," he murmured, again just over her shoulder.
"You call this doing well?" Rose motioned the queue, the Daleks. Her eyes flicked over her shoulder again to gauge his response; if he was being sarcastic, she was going to slap him.
There was no mistaking the pride, and the ultimate sadness, in his eyes as he beheld her.
Rose turned back, feeling as though she'd been doused with hot water, somewhat embarrassed under that intense gaze. She kept walking.
They were lead to the Empire State Building basement. It was huge. There were what looked like science experiments going on all around them, with fires, chemicals in beakers, acrid smells, the works. Rose didn't recognise anything in the room; apart from the four Daleks.
So, there were four of them. The same four that had released the genesis arc in Canary Wharf? She wasn't sure, and it didn't matter. A Dalek was still a Dalek.
The pig men flanked the prisoner's queue as the two Daleks that had escorted them glided forward.
Rose turned back to the Doctor and looked him up and down, her eyebrows raised. "They don't seem to have noticed you?"
"I don't exactly want to get noticed," he shrugged back, then nodded forward.
There was a black Dalek at the front of the room. Rose was certain she'd seen, she'd met this Dalek before. One of the only Daleks with a name; Sec. Dalek Sec was shaking, his pepper-pot casing smoking at the creases. Something was wrong.
"Report," one of their escort demanded.
"Dalek Sec is entering the final stage of evolution," the third Dalek announced.
"Scan him. Prepare for birth," the first intoned.
"Evolution?" the Doctor whispered in puzzlement behind her.
"What're they doing?" Rose hissed back at him.
"Ask them," he nodded forward.
Rose turned back and gave him a look. Was he kidding?
"They already know you're here, ask them what's going on," he nodded again, encouragingly.
Rose turned back to the Daleks, taking a step forward as she searched for the adrenalin that had earlier made her so bold in the tunnel. Her legs felt like jelly.
"Daleks!" Rose called out. Simply saying the word fired Rose up, making her more nervous, but the nerves, the adrenaline, made her sharper. The three Daleks turned back to her, the closest gliding a little nearer. "Yeah," Rose continued. "Me again. What's this final experiment?" she asked, loudly.
They didn't answer her immediately, and Rose glared at the hateful, twitching eye stalk of the Dalek nearest her. "You will tell me," she ordered in a low voice.
"You will bear witness," the Dalek told her.
Rose couldn't believe that had worked. "To what?" she fired.
"The dawn of a new age," the same Dalek swivelled a little on the spot, and if Rose didn't know better, she would have thought it was excited. This didn't make any sense.
"Explain!" Rose commanded. "Report! Now!"
"We are the only four Daleks in existence, so the species must evolve. A life outside the shell. The children of Skaro must walk again," it explained.
Rose wished she could clang it. Walk over and just give it a good whack, because it wasn't making any sense, but she knew that touching it would hurt her more than it would hurt it.
Before she could demand any more answers from it, Dalek Sec, at the back of the room, cracked open like an egg. Smoke poured out as the Dalek shell opened, and something hideous stepped out onto a pair of shiny black shoes, clothed in black pin stripe pants.
It wasn't human. It wasn't a Dalek, either. Rose unconsciously stepped back, and the Doctor took her shoulder tightly.
The monster unfolded in front of them, lifting it's head, sighing the air with it's first breath. "I am a human Dalek," it rasped. "I am your future."
…to be continued in Evolution of the Daleks…