I follow the strange tracks carefully. I even take off my shoes, knowing that if I'm hunting something, the quieter the better. My feet squelch in the mud, but that's about all the sound I'm making. I force my breath to remain calm and low, knowing that both of our lives might hang in the balance here.
I will find you, Doctor. You don't get to just take me on one adventure and then die. Nope. I refuse, I-
My thoughts are sharply interrupted by an extremely unsettling noise, so unsettling that I practically leap behind the nearest tree. Muffled shouting, some kind of scurrying upon leaves, and something else I can't quite place. A noise so high pitched that I can hardly hear it. But it's there.
I wait a few moments before peeking out and looking around, my shoes and the sonic clutched to my chest. I see nothing in the forest. Just the typical green. I do notice that the number of odd, round tracks have increased exponentially, though. So much so that it's almost as if I've reached a place of frequency for whatever creature this is. A nest, if you will.
The scurrying again, more muffled shouting, only this time I can pinpoint it. My face crumples in fear, and I slowly lift my eyes to the canopy.
My mouth opens in a silent scream.
Web. There's spider web everywhere. Anywhere I look, there's spider web. And smack dab in the center of this nightmare, at least a hundred feet up, is a tall and lanky pod of web, squirming, shouting, struggling.
My terror gets the best of me, and my stealth is forgotten.
"Doctor?! Oh my God, Doctor, hold on!" I shout, looking around for a place to climb up, something to help get him down, but instead my eyes meet with a thousand others.
I scream louder than I've ever screamed in my entire life. My lungs struggle to keep up, my throat tries to contain the force of my terror.
Oh for fuck's sake, anything but this!
A gigantic spider, the height of a small house, is crouching down in front of me, its unblinking eyes reflecting my horrified image like little convex mirrors. Its legs are the thickness of my entire body, and they make round holes in the mud, like wooden poles nailed into the ground. Its body is green, covered in brown hairs the length on my own long hair.
Adrenaline immediately shoots through me, and I stumble back, landing on my butt with a plop in the mud. It observes me quietly, appraising its next meal, turning its head this way and that, and suddenly all of its eyes blink at once. I scream again, chucking one of my shoes at it.
The monster rears up a bit on its back four legs, blinking rapidly where my shoe hit its eyes. I take this as an opportunity to take a look at the sonic screwdriver.
"PLEASE BE FLAMETHROWER!" I screech, and press the biggest blue button on the side.
A little buzzing noise emits from the device. That's it. A cute little buzzing.
A string of curses leave my lips, and I prepare for the end, squeezing my eyes shut.
What I wouldn't give for a migraine right about now.
Yet…
Nothing happens. The buzzing continues, but nothing else happens. I open my eyes to see the spider shaking its head, all of its eyes shut. The high pitched noise reaches my ears again, more distinct this time, and I realize it's a sound that the spider makes.
Whatever the sonic is doing, it's hurting the spider.
I scramble up, my finger never leaving that big blue button, and I take a bold step towards the beast. It recoils, trying to avoid whatever it is that the sonic screwdriver is doing.
That's when it hits me, and my mind begins to fly.
Sonic. Duh.
It must be giving off sonic waves that are too intense for the heightened senses of the spider. Judging by the high pitch noise the spider communicates with, it must be attuned to much less intense frequencies. If I can just find a way to amplify the signal…
Still pointing it at the spider, I turn the sonic over, looking for a specific kind of module. Something that would allow an increase or decrease, a gradual slidey, a tiny lever, anything!
Finally, I find what I'm looking for, exactly at the perfect moment. The spider seems to get wise, figuring out that if it gets rid of me, it gets rid of the signal. It rushes at me, two dripping fangs emerging from its maw, just as my finger slides a wavy looking button up towards the blue top. The buzzing gets louder and seems to pulsate, irritating even my own ears. The spider begins to thrash about, knocking a tree down. I look up to see that the web has broken, and the Doctor's pod swings down a bit, knocking him against the side of a tree.
The spider suddenly whips around and scurries away, downing a few trees in its hurry to escape the sonic waves.
I continue to press the button, and still holding it all the while, start to climb up to where the Doctor hangs. His struggling has turned to a pathetic squirming, and worry clenches my stomach into knots.
"Doctor?" I say as I finally reach him, precariously perching myself on a slippery branch. I use my free hand to rip open the web, which happens to be incredibly strong, and thick. After quite a bit of struggling, I finally get his face free. He is drenched in sweat, and his skin looks sallow, a bit yellow even.
"Oh, that's no good," I breathe, steadying myself on the branch before I do anything.
How the hell am I going to get him down without dropping him fifty feet?
I glance around me, and notice a thick vine, winding its way up the girth of the tree. It's as thick as my wrist is wide, and is about my best bet at the time.
I yank it off the tree and tie a good strong knot around the Doctor's feet.
"I'm really sorry if this breaks your ankles, but I have to get you down." I say, and begin tugging at him as hard as I can without losing my balance. His pod of webbing yanks free after a while and begins to swing down, tightening suddenly about 5 or 6 feet from the forest floor. I wince and, still pressing the blue button, climb down to get him. The minute my bare feet hit the mud, I rush to him and begin to tear away at the web. It clings to him maddeningly, so I do the best I can, then begin to drag him with my free hand.
I've only just made it to the river by the time my muscles are screaming and my back is killing me.
"Doctor, can you hear me?" I say loudly, pausing in my haul back to the T.A.R.D.I.S to splash a bit of water on his gaunt face. I lift his eyelids to find his pupils are so small that his eye is nearly all gold iris. His gums are pale, and his odd four-beat pulse is racing.
"It bit you," I say grimly. "Well, don't you worry. I'm going to get you back to the T.A.R.D.I.S and she'll help me, won't she? She'll show me a room that can help you? Maybe I'll find an alien first aid kit, eh?"
I take a deep breath, brushing back his sweaty hair from his forehead. He doesn't stir.
"You're going to be fine." I grit out as I grab him again, and begin my trek again. The buzzing from the sonic keeps me going. Both a comfort, and a reminder of why this planet is not inhabited.
At last, I make it to the waterfall, but I am so exhausted that I can think of only one way down. I wade into the river, bringing the Doctor with me, doing my best to keep his head above the waterline.
That doesn't last long because before I know it, we are falling. It looks odd to me, how we are falling at the same rate as the water, and it shimmers all around us. Like crystal.
At least I'll have once nice thing to tell the Doctor when he wakes up.