"You know, I really hate it when people stick guns in my face," the Doctor said calmly. "You had your chance. No you've just lost it." He turned the flashlight in his hand on, and it glowed with a bright, white light. Tom screamed when it touched the skin on his face, blisters, angry and red, welling up on his cheek. His skin crackled and peeled back, while the Doctor looked on impassively. Brittany shielded her eyes and looked away, unable to bear the sight of the guide charring to death. Tom fired the gun in desperation, but the Doctor ignored the shot, redirecting the beam of the flashlight to the guide's hand. He howled and dropped the revolver, clutching at his burning hand.
"Please," he breathed, his voice cracking. "Please stop this. Please have mercy."
"You had one chance," the Doctor growled, not relenting his assault. "You refused to listen. There are no second chances. You had one warning, and you ignored it." The guide roared with agony as more burns sprang up all over his body, searing through his clothing. The Doctor glanced over his shoulder to see Lora and Pierre averting their eyes from the howling man. He turned back to Tom, and watched as he fell into a pile of ashes on the cavern floor, which disintegrated within a few seconds. He let the light from the torch die down, before turning around. Brittany was watching him, a concerned look on her face. Lora and Pierre turned around, giving him looks of pure terror. Lora got a grip on herself, and stood up to confront the Time Lord.
"You killed him!" she shouted, striding up to the Doctor.
"It had to be done," he replied, pocketing the flashlight.
"Did it? That's just … just murder!" Lora yelled, pounding on the Doctor's chest with her fists. He put his hands on her shoulders.
"There was no other way. He would have killed you all," he explained carefully, as Lora dropped her arms down by her side. "That wasn't Tom. It was one of those creatures, controlling him."
"But Freda! You changed her back! You couldn't do it for Tom?" Lora was sobbing now.
"Freda was fighting against it but Tom…Tom was blinded by hate and anger and mistrust and…and I couldn't help him. He wouldn't listen. He wouldn't fight back against the creature. He let it control him and … and… Oh, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I really am." The Doctor wrapped his arms around Lora. "It'll be okay. I'll get us out of this, I promise. Okay?" He looked into the young guide's eyes. "Okay?" She nodded, and wiped her nose. He looked at her one last time before running over to Jack, who still lay on the ground, motionless.
"Is he alright?" Brittany asked, crouching down beside him. The Doctor pulled the greatcoat open and grimaced.
"Three bullets to the chest? Yeah, he should be fine," he said with a shrug. Turning around, he shouted, "Lora! You have medical training don't you?" She nodded slowly. "Well, we could use your help over here." She hesitated for a second, but saw the Doctor's insistent grin, and walked over to him after a moment's deliberation. Pierre, not wanting to be left alone, followed her. Lora crouched down next to Jack, and took his wrist. She searched around for a pulse, before looking at the Doctor with a shake of her head.
"I'm sorry," she said sadly. "But he's dead." Much to her surprise, the Doctor gave an indifferent shrug. "I think we should go now," she muttered, glancing at where Freda laid, eyes closed, seemingly asleep. She continued, louder. "We should continue with our plan. The least we can do is to prevent more deaths."
"Should, should, should," the Doctor grumbled. "We should do this; we should do that. There is a difference between what we should do and, what we actually do." Lora stared at him.
"So you're just going to sit here and do nothing?" she asked, her voice laden with disbelief.
"Not nothing," the Doctor replied harshly. "I'm never doing nothing. I'm waiting."
It was Brittany's turn to stare at him. "For what?" Jack suddenly sat bolt upright with a loud intake of breath. His hands clawed upright, and the Doctor let Brittany and Lora fuss over him. He was content to watch their expressions of surprise when the captain came back to life.
"Waiting for that," he muttered, watching as Jack blinked and looked around the room with unfocused eyes for a few seconds.
"Whoa!" Jack exclaimed, dragging himself to his feet with help from Lora. He rubbed his head and tried to keep his balance. "I wish people would stop doing that." He looked at the Doctor with a smile. "Guns, hey?" he said, grinning.
The Doctor raised an eyebrow. "Your gun, if I might add," he pointed out. Jack rolled his eyes, and retrieved his revolver, tucking it back inside his coat. The Doctor watched the captain with a look of disbelief as he absently rubbed at an itch just above his left hip. He felt something odd, and glanced down. There was a small, circular hole in his coat. Holding it up to his eye, he stuck his finger through the hole and waggled it around a bit.
"Oh, look at that!" he grumbled sadly. "I'm going to have to get that fixed now."
"Doctor!" The Time Lord turned around and gave Brittany an irritated look, annoyed with her outburst.
"What?" he shot back at her.
She pointed at his itch. "You're bleeding!"
"Hmm?" He pulled his coat out of the way, and looked at the small wound in his side. "Oh no! I'll have to fix that too." He fingered the hole in his suit with a frown. "This is why I hate guns! They just ruin your best clothing." He gave the wound a little prod. "I suppose that is kind of bad too."
Brittany stared at him, mouth open. "You're not even worried?" she burst out. "You've been shot, and you're not even worried?"
The Doctor shrugged indifferently. "I've been shot before. It's not that bad," he said in an unhurried tone. "Besides, it only just clipped me. Put more of a hole in my coat. That coat is one-of-a-kind," he muttered to himself. Turning his back to the astonished Brittany, he waved to Jack, and called out, "Captain! You still up for that run."
Jack gave an extravagant salute. "Yes sir!" he answered with a smile. "I'm doing it for that coffee though."
"Sure you are," the Doctor laughed. "I know you'll enjoy it though." Brittany rolled her eyes.
"You two done?" she asked haughtily. Jack and the Doctor both nodded and mumbled unintelligible noises of apology. "Are we ever going to use this plan that you've meticulously thought out? Or should we just sit here?" Just as she finished speaking, Pierre backed into her. She spun around to tell him off, but gasped and jumped backwards as one of the creatures swiped at her.
"Well there goes that plan," Jack muttered to the Doctor.
The Time Lord reached into his pocket. "Not yet." He withdrew his flashlight. "Jack, grab Pierre and run." The captain started to protest, but the Doctor held up a hand. "Don't argue, go!" He shouted the last word, and pushed past Jack and started to give Brittany instructions. The captain hesitated for the fraction of a second, before sprinting across the room towards Pierre. The man was cowering in front of an advancing creature, not able to move out of sheer terror. Jack grabbed his shoulder, and hauled him out of the way.
"Run!" he shouted as he dragged Pierre towards the passage that would lead back to the chamber with the glow bugs in it.
The Doctor watched with satisfaction as most of the shadow creatures turned to follow Jack and Pierre. He hadn't been expecting his plan to work. This creature was showing itself to be more intelligent than he had initially thought, but yet it was still chasing after the bait. He glanced across the room at Brittany, and she gave him a little nod when she noticed his attention. She mouthed two words to him. I'm ready. The Doctor turned away from her, and immediately ducked as a creature lashed out with a clawed hand.
"Brittany, do it now!" he shouted desperately, flicking his torch on. The creature in front of him shrieked and retreated as the light tore a hole through its arm. There was a bright orange flare to his right, and Brittany ran into his field of vision, flames leaping out from the aerosol can in her hand.
"It's running out!" she shouted, the monsters leaping away from the flames.
The Doctor shone the light over her head, catching a monster that was lunging towards her in the face. It roared with pain, and ran down the closest exit; the passage that Jack and Pierre were running down. "Almost there!" the Time Lord shouted, using his flashlight to drive the creatures towards the tunnel mouth. When it was apparent they had nowhere else to go, the remaining monsters turned and disappeared down the dark passage. Brittany laughed and gave the Doctor a hi-five.
"Good team Brittany!" he shouted happily, jamming his hands in his coat pockets. He glanced around at Lora, who was standing in the middle of the room, seemingly forgotten. The guide folded her arms and bit her lip.
"We should probably follow them," she suggested with a sigh. Pushing past the Doctor, she began heading down the passage the monsters had taken. The Time Lord shrugged.
"I'm fine with that," he said, clapping Brittany on the shoulder and starting after the guide. "Lead on," he called out cheerfully. "Allons y!"
Jack pounded down the passageway, his feet beating out a dull rhythm. His hand was latched around Pierre's wrist, the curly-haired man being dragged behind him. Trust the Doctor to think of a hair-brained scheme like this. The tunnel seemed longer than he originally thought it was. Finally, there was a glow of light ahead. "Almost there," he panted. Pierre grunted in reply. Jack ducked under a stalactite, and burst out into the brightly lit chamber. He let go of Pierre, who instantly collapsed to the floor, and leaned against the wall, trying to get his breath back. There was no sign of the creatures when he glanced over at the tunnel entrance. The only thing he could do now was wait for the Doctor to finish the second part of the plan. He walked over to where Pierre sat, and threw himself to the ground next to the dark-skinned man.
"You alright?" he asked with a friendly smile.
Pierre nodded slowly. "I think so," he said. Then he grinned widely. "I've never run so much in my life." Jack grinned right back at him. Pierre sighed and looked at the ceiling. "That was … well, amazing," he said after a long silence. "If someone had told me to run that much a few hours ago, I would have told them to get lost. But now? I'm ready to do it again." Jack stood up, and quickly checked around the room.
"That's just adrenaline," he chuckled, sticking one of his hands in a pocket. "It'll wear off after a while. Then you'll wish you hadn't run that much." He frowned, and dug a couple of coins out of his coat. "Tell you what, after we get out of here, how about you go buy yourself a pizza." He flicked the coins to Pierre, who deftly caught them, and counted the money.
"This is forty credits!" he exclaimed, looking at Jack dumbfounded. He checked the coins again. "And in hard currency as well. I haven't seen a coin in years." Jack frowned.
"Really?" he said, pulling a few more coins out of his pocket and inspecting them closely. "Oh. Well, all I have is coins, so you'll have to make do. And don't argue. It's only forty credits, plenty more where – hold on, can you hear that?" He stuck the rest of the coins back in his pocket, and looked down the passage. There was now a faint glow coming from it, as if there were two people carrying flashlights. And one person carrying a flamethrower.
"Get back!" Jack shouted, and Pierre scrambled to his feet. The two backed away from the tunnel as a mass of dark creatures thundered towards them. "This is the moment when I wish the Doctor's plan hadn't worked," the captain muttered. "That light better kill them, or I will strangle the Doctor personally."