The Doctor took out his pen again and held it on the palm of his hand, turning it slowly.
"It might be a remote transmitter but it's gotta be close by. I can trace it." He walks off quickly, it looked as if the pen was leading him around. "Stay there Lily!"
"What?" I exclaimed shuddering at the thought of being left with the corpses "No!" The Doctor didn't respond, I didn't know if he heard me or not but I followed anyway. I followed him down a corridor, Yvonne stopped two passing soldiers and they joined us, I caught up and the Doctor noticed.
"Lily I told you to stay behind!" I smiled huffing and puffing from running to catch up
"And I didn't listen!" I ran a little more so I was now walking alongside him "What kind of gentleman leaves a lady alone with the dead?" I said, I saw him smile slightly. We kept going for a few minutes longer until we reached a curtained area
"What's down there?" The Doctor asked.
"I don't... I dunno, I think it's building work. It's just renovations." Replied Yvonne, the Doctor was staring forward the whole time
"I think you should go back" he began "all of you" he looked over his shoulder at us, particularly at me.
"I didn't listen to you when you said not to follow you the FIRST time." I said smiling "What makes you think it's any different now?" I asked, Yvonne nodded
"Same here, I'm not going anywhere" She followed us gesturing the soldiers to do the same. The Doctor was pushing the curtains aside but paused when his pen began to beep, I thought once the whole thing was over I'd have to ask him exactly what that thing was. "What's down here?" Yvonne asked.
"Ear-pieces, ear-pods, this world is colliding with another. And I think I know which one." He said, his brow furrowed. I jumped when something caught my eye, shadows. They were all around us, I nudged the Doctor who looked up and noticed them too. There was no escape. He pulled me closer to him, I whispered
"What are they?"
"They came through first" he said not answering my question.
A series of robotic hands slit through the curtains, I jumped and grabbed the Doctors arm shrinking down behind him, terrified. He allowed me to do so.
"The advance guard" The robots stepped through the curtains and began marching towards us with ground breaking stomps, I held onto the Doctor tighter wanting to close my eyes and wake up. The Doctor looked at them all fearlessly as the five of us moved closer together as they closed in on us. He spoke darkly, without a hint of fear but anyone who wasn't scared of those things just had to be insane
"Cybermen". The soldiers began firing their bullets at the 'Cybermen' but all in vain, we tried to escape another way but we were surrounded. They'd outnumbered us, they lead us to the room in which the large white wall was with our hands behind our head, when we got through the door the Doctor barked orders
"Get away from the machines - do what they say, don't fight them!" The Cybermen revealed their weapons and shot a scientist down dead. I cringed and looked away whispering weakly
"What are you?"
"We are the Cybermen. The Ghost Shift will be increased to one hundred percent." The Cybermen responded, it pounded its fist on its chest causing a thunderous metallic 'thump' to echo through the room, the lever began moving on its own again and the computer echoed the word 'online' throughout the room and the Doctor whispered as the light brightened
"here come the ghosts" Instead, however, of ghosts rows and rows of Cybermen marched out, my heart sank and my palms turned sweaty. I was almost certain I'd die here, but funnily enough, I didn't want to. Not here, not because of this. Part of me... no every ounce of me, wanted to make it out of here.
"Achieving full transfer" boomed the Cyberman in his robotic voice.
"All of the ghost are Cybermen..." mumbled the Doctor as they continued to march from the light becoming more and more clear "Millions of them. Right across the world."
"They're invading the whole planet" said Yvonne. I looked at her then at the amount of the Cybermen stood before us.
"No..." I began "This is no invasion, look at them all. They've won" I said hanging my head ready to give up. Yvonne looked at the Doctor hoping he'd prove me wrong but he only nodded, the computer then began bleeping 'sphere activated' over and over, the Doctor looked at it with a furrowed brow. He then turned to a nearby Cyberman
"What I don't understand is Cybermen don't have the technology to build the Void Ship, that's WAY beyond you. How did you create that sphere?" he asked
"The sphere is not ours" responded the metal man. The Doctor was stunned
"What?"
"The sphere broke down the barriers between worlds. We only followed. Its origin is unknown." I listened to the robot as it spoke, great so something else is here too now.
"Then what's inside it?" asked the Doctor
"Doctor" Yvonne interrupted "Your friends are still down there" The Doctors face up with a sudden realisation
"What's down there?" I asked the Doctor, fidgeting wildly, tears welling up as I became scared, I kept telling myself not to cry but I couldn't stop. Yvonne put her hand on my shoulder and I continued to speak "What exactly are we up against here, Doctor because I'm getting extremely tired of this now!" As I neared the end of the sentence I began to shout.
"I don't know" was the Doctors only response as he leant against a wall. That did it. My anger quickly turned to fear and I began to cry, sliding to the floor as I did so. The Doctor knelt beside me and I continued to speak "Rose and Jackie and Rajesh... they're all down there Doctor!" He looked at me again and smiled
"Listen Lily, unfortunately you picked a bad day to join me, but it's going to be OK I'll get all of us out of here including you." I put my head in my hands and spoke quietly
"Doctor... you have to promise me something..." I asked weakly
"Of course"
"You have to promise me nobody else will die today" I asked looking up at him with red eyes, he sighed and hugged me
"I promise" he spoke gently and sincerely and I believed him. At this point a Cybermen approached Yvonne who was sat at her desk.
"You will talk to your central world authority and order global surrender." It demanded, she just looked up at him and glared showing no fear.
"Oh, do some research. We haven't GOTa central world authority."
"You have now. I will speak on all global wavelengths." The metal man responded ignoring her rudeness. The Doctor pulled out his 3D specs and puts them on. "This broadcast is for human kind" it continued "Cybermen will remove sex and class and colour and creed. You will become identical. You will become like us." We watched everything happening in the streets below from the windows on the top of the Torchwood tower. The humans were resisting.
"I ordered surrender!" barked the Cyberman, the Doctor glared at them
"They're not taking instructions. Don't you understand? You're on every street - you're in their homes. You've got their children." He glared and spoke angrily "Of course they're gonna fight."
"Scans detect unknown technology active within sphere chamber." Barked one of the Cybermen
"Cybermen will investigate." Came the voice of another. I sat on the floor with my knees pulled up to my chest, I rested my head uncomfortably on my knees, although I don't expect I would have been comfortable lying on the softest bed in the world in this situation. A Cyberman pushed two terrified members of staff in front of them "Units 10 65 and 10 66 will investigate sphere chamber." Another stated.
"We obey!" They all bellowed out, I watched intently as these strange machines carried out their tasks, it was almost as if I was watching a play, part of me was trying to pretend I was. I looked at the Doctor hoping there was anything on his face that would suggest a plan or something, he looked at me and slid down the wall to sit beside me, we were caught in a silence, using only glances to communicate. I don't think any of us knew what to say at first, I don't think any of us felt we should while under the watchful eye of these robotic monsters. I looked down at my feet as the Doctor sighed, breaking the silence.
"I'm sorry." He said quietly and sincerely. I looked at him but he had his eyes glued to the floor.
"For what?" I asked gently. I was surprised at the sound of my own voice, it was quiet and sounded exhausted, tired. Same as me.
"For getting you into this" he began in response "and for not having enough time to speak with you properly"
"That's OK" I sighed and looked back at the floor "really, if I wasn't up here with you I'd be down there with them" I stated nodding towards the people struggling with the Cybermen bellow us. "And I'm sure you can guess who I'd rather be with" I said smiling very lightly. He chuckled slightly, what else could he do?
"Units open visual link!" boomed the voice of one of the Cybermen taking us both by surprise. Yvonne's laptop screen changed to an image of the space occupied by two Cybermen stood in what appeared to be a corridor "Visual contact established!" it said to itself.
"Identify yourself!" Came another robotic voice from the screen, different to the Cybermen's, the Doctor quickly got to his feet staring at the screen. This couldn't be good.
"You identify first!" replied the Cyberman, I myself got to my feet and watched the interaction. There was two Cybermen and what looked like a single pimped out dustbin
"State your identity!" Came the voice again having received no answer.
"You will identify first!" The Cyberman repeated
"identify!" said the other robot again. I looked at the Doctor again, I whispered his name but he didn't hear... I wasn't surprised, it was mostly for my own comfort, reminding myself that he hadn't vanished just because he had fallen silent.
"... illogical, you will modify." Came the end of the Cyberman's sentence as I averted my attention back to the screen
"Daleks do not take orders" barked the dustbin robot in response
"You have identified as Dalek" clarified the Cyberman giving the robot dustbins a name
"Outline resembles the INFERIOR species known as 'Cybermen'" responded the Dalek. They were really laying into each other. The Doctor turned to me and spoke through gritted teeth
"Phone."
"What?" I responded taken aback by the sudden urgency of it
"I need to know if the people down there are alive" he explained "I need your phone!" I nodded in realisation and slipped him my phone without the Cybermen noticing. He dialled what I can only assume was Rose's number and held the phone to his ear, sick with worry. He looked down at me "she answered, she's alive". I sighed a breath of relief "Why haven't they killed her?" he asked himself quietly
"Just be pleased they haven't!" I responded in a whisper, he ignored me
"They must need her for something" I sighed and looked at the walls, no posters or anything to distract me. Maybe that was my problem, but then maybe I'm just doing what the Doctors told me. Whenever something seems scary or upsetting divert your attention and it won't scare you. Only problem was, those doctors never anticipated I'd be here with this Doctor, nobody could.
"Quarantine the Sphere Chamber. Start emergency upgrading. Begin with these personnel." I heard one of the Cybermen say, snapping me out of my thoughts.
"No, what?" I said looking desperately at the Doctor. The Cybermen grabbed Yvonne who struggled as they dragged her away
"No, you can't do this! We surrendered! We surrendered!" She screamed as they carried her off, I stared desperately at the Doctor.
"Doctor what are they talking about?" I stared him in the eye begging for an answer
"This one's increased adrenaline suggests he has vital Dalek information." One of them stated as it approached the Doctor. The Cyberman's cold hands clamped around me and began dragging me away kicking and screaming
"Doctor! No! Please, don't let them take me away!" I begged calling out to him trying to reach for him, he tried to get to me but another Cyberman held him back, I felt myself being lifted from the floor and realised I wouldn't get out of the Cyberman's iron grip "Remember your promise!" I screamed as I was being dragged out of the room. He struggled just as much as I did but it was all in vain, I very vaguely heard him call out
"Don't panic!"
