Hi guys! Here's another chapter for you all … sorry for the delay, once again.

I'm not sure how many of you guys know about the crazy weather from the last week or so, but we had a pretty serious tornado outbreak. We were spared here in Pulaski County, Ky., thank goodness, but the same storm that passed over us spawned a tornado one county over and … it was bad. These tornadoes affected Indiana as well … the same area where my story is based. My two sisters and their families are located there and they barely escaped. It was a very scary situation. I am continuing the story because I know what it's like to be affected by these storms, and I have the utmost respect for these families affected. I'm thinking of all the victims.

Anyway, I don't own Doctor Who … of course.

Chapter 10

Armed with the sonic screwdriver and three strapping men, Amy Pond arrived at the gaping hole near the Ohio River where everything had started. The four regarded the deep blackness of that hole for a few moments, and she couldn't help but reach a hand up to feel the small wound that the plasmavores had left when they'd fed off her. It felt like ages ago.

The group had left the TARDIS waiting patiently in Masonville — Amy had hoped no one would take notice of the bright blue box standing proudly among the ruins — and trekked through the fields to the river. John and Dennis, their eyes glazed over from mental overload, had wondered aloud why they couldn't take the TARDIS for a spin, but Amy's answer had quieted them. She'd told them that only the Doctor could really operate the TARDIS, and an attempt to move a mile outside the city could land them anywhere and anytime.

Now, after a 20 minute, brisk walk, they considered their options.

"They're down there?" John asked, as he gulped.

Amy nodded. "They have to be. It's where those things live."

Beside her, Rory shivered. "I am not looking forward to going back down there."

"Yeah, but luckily, we've got the sonic screwdriver and torches this time around."

But unfortunately, they didn't have the Doctor, who was possibly the best weapon anyone could have. A very small part of Amy wondered if she would see her best friend again. But she brushed the worry aside almost as soon as the thought flashed through her tired mind. He was the Doctor. He always found his way back to them.

John pulled a face as he looked at his torch. "Torch? Don't you mean a flashlight?"

Amy didn't look at him as she kneeled down and shined a beam of light down into the darkness. The light was strong, and it reached all the way to the dirt floor. She could still see her and Rory's footprints from their earlier foray into the caverns.

"We call it a torch," Rory said.

"Huh," John answered. But he remained silent. They had far more serious things to worry about than what to call a torch — or a flashlight.

"Well, we have to jump, I guess," Amy said as she looked behind her and upward to the three men. "It's not too far of a drop."

With that, she lowered herself over the lip of the hole and fell the remaining several feet to the floor. Her ankles and feet sent pinpricks of pain up her legs at the landing, but nothing more. The others followed quickly after that. Two tunnels stared at them, their entrances wide and dark.

"Well," she said. "Any ideas boys?"

"I don't think we have much choice except to just pick one," Rory said. "Surely they all end up at the same place."

Amy nodded. "I think you're right."

A sudden, pain-filled scream echoed from the tunnel furthest to the right, and Amy's heart nearly stopped. "Oh God. That sounded like the Doctor."

Rory rushed forward then, taking the lead, and she followed her husband as he sprinted into the darkness, his torch held at the ready to light the way. She heard Dennis and John behind her keeping up admirably, considering the Doctor's companions developed superior running skills due to always being in danger. The group hit several twists and turns, but they didn't slow until the tunnel forked before them. She could hear what sounded like running, but the sound seemed to float from both tunnels. She couldn't figure out which one to enter.

"Which one?" John asked.

She was at a loss. The sounds were beginning to fade, and Amy feared that the Doctor and Emily were moving deeper into the tunnels. "I don't know."

"We have to split up," Dennis said.

"No. No way," Rory said. "We're vulnerable if we split up. There's no telling where those things are."

Dennis frowned. "We have to. My little girl could be in either tunnel, and we're just wasting time standing here debating this."

Amy started to reply, but she realized he was right. "Okay. I'll go with you. Rory, you go with John."

"No, I can't leave John," Dennis answered.

"Dad, I'll be okay," the teenager said. The father regarded his son for a moment, then enveloped him in a hug. John's face suggested to Amy that Dennis wasn't one to dish out hugs that often.

She could see Rory's face, and she tried to smile. She didn't like splitting up from her husband either, but she knew the two farmers wouldn't stand a chance if they came up against a plasmavore. At least Amy and Rory had survived the first two run-ins with them. "Rory, it's okay. I'll be fine."

With that, she turned to Dennis. "We'll take the right one. You guys take the left. Try to keep up with where you're going, and we'll meet back here once we get Emily and the Doctor."

"It's too bad there aren't any cell towers built yet," she said. "We could sure use some cell phones."

"Huh?" John asked.

"Never mind," she responded, as she and Dennis moved toward the right tunnel. "Let's go. And don't get killed."

"Rory, take care of him," Dennis said.

The nurse nodded, then turned to Amy. "Come back alive."

"Always do."

Rory watched as the beam of light from his torch bounced with each step he took through the tunnel. He and John had taken to a quick jogging pace through the tunnel, and neither spoke as they moved. Rory strained to hear any sound ahead of them, but his own loud breathing and their footsteps effectively drowned out any possible evidence that they were going in the right direction.

They came to a sharp turn in the tunnel, and Rory slowed just enough to avoid slamming into the wall. It was then that he looked down, and his light caught the spots of dark blood. "John, wait."

The teenager backtracked and stood beside him. Rory leaned down to get a better look at the substance. An image of the Doctor sticking his finger in everything and either smelling or tasting it flashed through his mind, and he couldn't help but grimace. He'd told him time and time again that there was no way to know where everything had been.

"Is it Emily's you think?" John asked, his voice tense.

Rory could only shrug. "I don't know. You said the Doctor was injured badly?"

"Yeah, but he wasn't bleeding as much when we brought him into town."

Rory stood up. "Well, either way, someone's been here. We need to keep going this way."

The two began to jog again, heading deeper and deeper into the maze of underground caverns and tunnels that wound their way beneath the rolling fields of Indiana.

••••••••••

"Do you, ah, do you need me to go ahead?"

Dennis' question was not harsh. And Amy was unsurprised by it. She had found herself in 1974, after all.

But it aggravated her, nonetheless. "I think I've got it, thanks."

She swung her flashlight around to Dennis' face, and he squinted in the sudden glare. "I just thought that maybe ...," He saw her face, and he looked at the ground. "I didn't mean anything by it."

She smiled. "I know. But I can handle it, really. If you knew some of the things we've come across with the Doctor ..."

"You mean you've seen crazier things than these ... plasmavore things? Or that time-traveling box?"

"The box is a she, actually," Amy said. Dennis and John had accepted the fact that the TARDIS was much, much larger than it appeared, and their brief explanation of just what it did had been met with no more than a few nods and "huh"s. Apparently, they'd already had their fill of the unexplained through their run-in with Jeffrey, Miriam and the Doctor. Their eyes had long before been glazed over with a sort of mental shock.

"Oh," Dennis said, though he didn't sound convinced. Then, he chuckled drily. "If you were about 20 years older, you'd be a spitting image of my wife. Well she didn't have red hair, but she acted a lot like you. I always told her she was born about 25 years too early."

Amy slowed her walk and turned to the farmer. Dennis' wife sounded like her kind of woman. "How did you meet?"

Dennis sucked in a breath, and Amy wondered if she'd stepped over the line, but her fears were quelled when he began to speak. "Oh, we always knew each other. The blessing and curse of a small town. We weren't too close ... her parents lived in town while my family lived on the homestead. I guess I'd always noticed her. She was so pretty. You should've seen her. That long, brown hair. Always so curly."

Amy shone her torch ahead of them as she listened.

Dennis continued. "We started dating in high school ... but I wasn't the one to ask. I was too afraid, I guess. She marched right up to me one day and said she wouldn't mind a date."

Amy smiled. Yep, this woman was right on her level.

"I said yes, of course, and we never looked back," Dennis said. "I still can't believe it, even today. She was so pretty and kind ... and independent. I think that's what I loved about her the most. She was so strong-willed."

Dennis paused. "Of course, that meant when we had our arguments, we had it out. I think we're both about as stubborn as mules. I worry sometimes that John and Emily will be as stubborn as their old folks."

Dennis' voice faded, and Amy knew he was lost to another world, his memories of his wife swirling in his head. "How - how did she die, Dennis?"

The man's voice cracked. "Cancer. She died of cancer."

Amy's heart broke for him. It was 1974. Cancer was nearly a death sentence in these times, no matter the kind. If Dennis and his family had been around in 2010 ... things may have been different.

"I'm - I'm sorry," she said.

"She was so frail, and so gray, when she died," he said. "Her hair had fallen out, and she was so sick all the time ... but my God, that woman was still gorgeous to me. That smile could light a firecracker."

Amy brushed away a stray tear.

"I loved that woman more than life itself," Dennis' voice was hushed now. "I dare say I would've followed her if not for our children. I see her in them every moment. I'm so thankful for that."

Dennis stopped, and then he sighed. "I'm sorry, Miss Amy. I didn't mean to unload on you. I don't have many chances to talk, you see."

He cleared his throat, and the moment was gone. Amy knew he'd retreated back into his shell.

"Keep going this way?" he asked.

"Yeah, let's — ," as she turned, her beam met the visage of Miriam.

Amy shrieked and nearly dropped her torch. The creature bared her teeth with a growl, and lunged at Amy without further ado. Amy fell backward with the weight of the plasmavore, and she hissed as she hit the ground hard.

"I'll feed on you tonight, girl," Miriam said as she snapped her teeth hungrily. "Your blood was so delicious the first time around. You've had time to replenish, I'm sure."

"Oi! Don't touch me!" She bit back as she struggled to wriggle free from Miriam's grip. She heard Dennis move around them, and with a grunt, the man had pulled Miriam off of the Scot with a heave. Spittle flew from Miriam's mouth as she was thrown backward.

Amy was on her feet in a flash. "Dennis, look out!"

The farmer met Miriam's claws with his own hands, and the two struggled mightily as Miriam tried to overtake him. "I'll have you first, male."

Amy grabbed for the sonic, and she shone her torch to the settings as the two continued to fight for dominance. "Come on, come on," she said as she studied the various buttons and switches on the instrument. She'd become adept at the basic settings of the sonic, and she had a feeling there was one that would be of some use. "Ah, there we go."

With a flourish, she held the screwdriver up high and switched the noise setting to the maximum. The sonic released a high pitched, screeching tone that caused her to grimace. The noise was slaughtering
her ear drums, but she didn't waver. In front of her, Dennis and Miriam parted, and the farmer covered his ears as he stumbled away from the creature. Miriam screamed, her hands clamped over her ears. It appeared as if the noise was affecting the plasmavore much more than the two humans, which Amy was depending on.

She turned the setting up a notch, and the plasmavore's scream became even more desperate. Dennis' torch shone on the creature, and Amy sucked in a breath when she saw the blood seeping out between the thing's long, clawed fingers. She could kill her. She could do it so easily. Amy could just ... not turn the sonic off, and the world would be rid of a nasty, heartless creature.

Amy's head and heart fought as Miriam slid to the floor of the tunnel, her screams beginning to weaken and die in her throat. Amy's hands shook, and she couldn't bring herself to turn the sonic off as she thought about the countless people they'd fed off of in such a short time. These things were no more than bloodthirsty animals. If they were left alive, then they'd do more damage if they weren't captured.

"Keep going!" Dennis said, yelling to be heard over the sound. "Just a few more seconds!"

Amy saw his face then. His eyes were wide and glazed with the possibility of Miriam's death, and his mouth was fixed into a strange, satisfied smirk as he watched Miriam writhe below him. Dennis was loving her pain. Every second of it.

Amy switched the sonic off. The creature slumped over, unconscious.

"Why did you stop?" Dennis asked, mystified. "It's not dead."

Amy nodded. "I know. I can't do it."

"But-but why?" The man was truly at a loss for words.

"The Doctor has taught us lots of things during our time with him," Amy answered. "One of them is to take every possible avenue before killing another creature."

"But that thing isn't anything but a killer," Dennis sputtered, his eyes confused and angry. "She may have already killed your Doctor and Emily! She shouldn't live."

Amy watched for any signs of movement from the plasmavore. "I can't do it," she answered. Then, she turned to watch him, her emerald eyes shining in the glare of his torch. "But believe me, I want to."

Amy kneeled down and tentatively reached a finger out to touch one of Miriam's pale arms. The creature didn't even stir. "That'll put her out of commission for a while. We have to go."

Dennis' mouth was agape, and she could feel his disbelief as he took to following her. But the blood thirst was fading, and it was being replaced by dark anger. "If that thing comes back and hurts my son or daughter, then it's on you," he said.

Amy didn't turn to look at him. "I'll take that chance."

"Emily, please ... stop," the Doctor gasped. The little girl slowed, and watched him with wide blue eyes. The Doctor nearly fell face-first into the nearest wall of the cavern, and his arms shook tremendously as he braced himself against a small ledge of outlying rock. He fought to keep his body upright.

"What's wrong Mister Doctor?"

The Doctor turned his head and coughed. The action shook his body from head to toe, and as he pulled away, he saw the blood on his coat sleeve in the low light. He had to get to the TARDIS, and soon. The problem was, he'd realized during their flight from Jeffrey that they'd moved deeper into the tunnels and not toward the surface.

"Just ... just need a rest," he tried to smile at her, but he could only grimace. "No worries, Emily. I'm perfectly okay. I'm the King of Okay, I always say. Just a moment ...,"

Then, his head shot up, and he ignored his swimming vision as his face broke out into a wide smile. "Emily, my girl, do you hear that?"

She listened for a moment, then shook her head.

"Ah, well, not to worry. Human senses aren't much to shake a stick at, I'm afraid. It's just the slightest ... There!"

It was his sonic!

The Doctor frowned. Someone had turned it to its highest setting, and he didn't envy whatever was at the other end of it. He could only assume it to be Miriam, as Jeffrey had most certainly given chase after the Doctor and Emily.

Just then, the Doctor thought he heard the faintest growl, and he spun to face the little girl, rejuvenated by the apparent arrival of Amy and Rory. "Come along, Emily! We must run. Can you do it?"

She only nodded, and he grabbed her hand again with his right hand, and they moved further away from the approaching plasmavore. The Doctor couldn't help but cough again as they turned a corner. Even if they'd tried to hide, it would've been useless. The plasmavores would be able to track them for miles. Their only hope was to keep running.

"I can hear you, and I can smell you, Doctor," Jeffrey's voice echoed at them as they moved. The Doctor had long lost sense of where he was going. He didn't care, though. He just wanted to keep Emily safe. Perhaps he'd run into Amy and Rory eventually ...

"Keep running, Doctor," Jeffrey continued, as the Doctor's breathing became labored. Blimey, he was having trouble breathing! "Though don't run too far. It smells like you may not have any blood left by the time I get to you."

The Doctor felt Emily's eyes staring at him as they moved. She was terrified.

"I'm coming for you ...," Jeffrey's voice was closer. He was toying with them again. The Doctor led Emily around another corner, but his boot caught on something, and he went down, unable to catch himself.

"Mister Doctor!"

"Emily," he looked up at her as she clutched at his outstretched hand. "Run. You have to leave me."

She shook her head.

"Emily, please. I can try to stop him. You HAVE to run."

But Jeffrey was there before she'd even begun to turn. Emily screamed and flattened herself against the wall of the tunnel as Jeffrey pounced, and he turned the Doctor over onto his back triumphantly. The Doctor's body flopped like a ragdoll on the hard stone, and he found himself staring into the eyes of the plasmavore.

"I don't suppose you've a straw with you to make this a smidge less messy?" the Doctor asked, his voice weak. He felt very nearly resigned to the fact that he was about to die, and the only regret he truly had was not being able to protect Emily.

Jeffrey, enamored by the smell of the Time Lord's blood, only hissed animalistically.

"I guess that means no," he answered.

The Doctor closed his eyes tightly, not wishing to see the plasmavore ripping into him, but a sudden yell made him crack open an eye hopefully.

"Hey!"

Rory?

Jeffrey turned, but not quickly enough. Rory's torch came down with a crack against the plasmavore's head, and Jeffrey slumped to the ground beside the Doctor, completely out.

"Rory the Roman," the Doctor croaked, in the ensuing silence. "Am I glad to see you."

Rory was beside him in an instant. "Good God, Doctor. What's happened to you?"

"Oh, you know, tangled with a twister, and all that," the Doctor's eyes began to drift closed as he talked, his words slurred and soft. He could sleep now, since Rory and Amy were here.

"No! Doctor, stay awake!"

He clawed for purchase in the blackness that had crept into his mind. "Isss okay ... I'm up."

But he really wasn't. The Doctor's body completely gave out then, and he retreated into sublime unconsciousness gladly.