AN ~ hello again guys! In celebration of me finishing my maths homework (for now at least) and of my computer – which got a virus last week – returning my stuff to me! Phew, I thought I'd have to write this chap all over again, and it was hard enough as it is!
ps – I SWEAR to you that they're meeting soon! Cross my hearts.
Chapter Eleven ~ Consequences
"Under that table – now!" Jenny barked, snatching Ty's gun and cocking it. Her heart thudded, getting faster and faster, demanding that she run away from the danger. But there was nowhere left: the door was locked, the room tiny and the Dalek advancing, betrayed by its metal casing reflecting what little light there was. She was surprised she was even still alive. Her legs held strong, but her finger would not pull the trigger; it was as if her very joints were jammed with panic.
"What the hell is that?" Amber demanded, crouched under the table already and covering her head with her hands for good measure.
"It's a Dalek," Jenny explained. "They're aliens. They kill."
A laser burnt the concrete just beside Josh's foot as he tried to fit under the same table as Ty and Amber. In response, Jenny's finger twitched. A single shot flew at the Dalek – a laser-bullet that matched the white-purple light the gun was emitting. It went wide, skimming uselessly off the metal hull, but she now had its attention. Slowly, breaths shaking, she sidestepped away from her friends. The Dalek's singular eye slowly followed her, and when she stopped, in the corner, its body rotated too.
"You are scaaaared," it noted in its chilling voice. "You are not a waaarior."
Jenny agreed. She sprinted for the nearest hiding place - the hole in the wall - but stumbled over a loose brick and fell to the floor. Panicking, she scrambled backwards towards the the hole, trying at the same time to keep her gun aimed at the Dalek as it continued its slow, menacing approach.
Suddenly, there was a great crash! from the opposite side of the room.
Both Jenny and the Dalek turned their attention to the sound, where Ty, Josh and Amber had each grabbed a gun and tipped over the table to hide behind. Ty fired a shot directly at the Dalek's eye, and with a small crack it was torn off the hemispherical head and clattered to the floor.
"I am bliiiiind!" The Dalek wailed, both arms rotating randomly as if trying to guess where they were. "Exterminate! Exterminate!"
It began to fire randomly, its whole body spinning around, sending lasers flying left, right, high, low. The lasers left scorch marks wherever they touched the other three walls, but when they hit the wall opposite the door, brick dust and shrapnel exploded. Jenny shrieked and all but threw herself behind what was left of that brick wall in the hope of getting some time to think.
Jenny propped herself against the wall, panting hard. This room – or more accurately, this side of the room which had formerly been split by the brick wall – was much deeper than the one the Dalek was now in: easily the size of a warehouse. Around it were scattered more segments of walls, wooden barricades, and even a heap of sandbags. At the opposite end, Jenny could see a door with a tiny green light above the handle: it was unlocked.
""Yes!" she cheered. "Guys, get in here!"
"Can't!" Josh yelled back, firing a few desperate shots at the Dalek. Jenny peeked out of the makeshift doorway and saw that the Dalek had stopped firing randomly and was now seeking them out. The table behind which Josh, Ty and Amber were still hiding had a few scorch marks, and it was smouldering. Jenny gaped: one shot and all three of her friends would either be dead, or covered in molten plastic and metal, burnt beyond recovery.
Plan. I need a plan.
Nobody on the other side was shooting at all any more. Ty, Josh and Amber crouched behind the table, and the Dalek slowly crept towards them, using any sounds they did make to pinpoint their location.
"You will surrennnder," the Dalek ordered.
Daleks never ask for surrender.
Suddenly, Jenny's head was filled with Daleks. Bullets flew at them but never hit. Mines, lasers, particle guns...all had little or no effect. It took a heavy-duty gun or grenade at close range to take out a Dalek. The one they were fighting was covered in scorch marks from their lasers – a few of the hemispheres on the hull were even melting. So either Torchwood left new, extremely powerful guns lying around in what was apparently a very low-security area and the Daleks had changed tack, or this wasn't a real Dalek.
At the very least, it sure as hell didn't have a protective forcefield like usual, and that was all Jenny needed: one good zap and it would probably blow.
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She listened to her heart, almost thrumming in her chest, and felt the tingle of adrenalin right down to her fingertips. Her Time Lord mind raced, remembering everything, zooming in, highlighting, listening.
There was a gutter around her half of the room where the ceiling met the walls – come to think of it, it was probably in the other side too and she just hadn't noticed. She thought back: yes, it was. There was an unlocked door in front of her. There were two labs not far down the hall; she could get water there. If she timed it right...
"LOOKATMEI'MATARGET!" she yelled, sprinting back into the front half of the room. She fired several times at the Dalek, and then at the wall behind her, sending bricks flying. The Dalek lost track of its potential victims in the commotion and turned towards the sound. Jenny crawled over to the table.
"Holy crap. You so owe us icecream after this," Amber commented, panting. "Or bikes. Or mansions."
"I've got a plan. I'm going to knock over the other table when I get up. Amber, Josh - you guys use it or split up or whatever and cover me. Me and Ty are going to the lab to get buckets of water and chuck it on the Dalek. When we do that – the instant we're clear – I need you to blast those gutters and stick the cords in the water."
"We'll have to pull the cords from their brackets. They'll resist, so pull a hundred times stronger than you think you need to," Josh advised his sister.
"Right." Amber nodded.
"You ready for this?" Jenny briefly locked eyes with each of the faces surrounding her. "Three, two, one."
She and Ty leapt up, knocking the second table onto its side and tearing for whatever gap in the wall they could reach the fastest. The Dalek, preoccupied by Josh and Amber's fire, let them go. They tore through the second room, burst through the door, sprinted back around the corner to where they had first heard the footsteps, smashed through the door of Lab 1, filled up a huge bucket each and sprinted back as fast as they could, water sloshing all over the place.
In unspoken unity, they emptied the water onto the Dalek and leapt back. Josh and Amber, right on cue, ripped the cords out of the wall and tossed the ends into the centre of the room. Sparks flew and there were several very loud cracks and pops. And then silence.
The door they had initially entered made a tiny click, and then – too scarred to stay standing – fell off its hinges and collapsed into the room with a tinny, crackling thud. Jenny wasn't sure whether to be relieved or distressed even further when she read the room's label: Simulations.
She highly doubted tearing the electrics out of the wall was a valid Sim move, but at this point, it seemed a minor discrepancy. Unfortunately, she doubted Pete and Mickey would see it that way. She was so busted.
To make matters worse, her head was spinning after that last Time Lord trick and she desperately needed to tone it down before she fell over. She took a deep breath, trying to drain the adrenalin from her system.
"All right everyone?" Ty asked.
"Yeah," Amber replied, surprised by this. She rolled her shoulders, pumped. Jenny nodded, still waiting for the adrenalin to seep away.
"Guys, we're in trouble," Josh muttered from the doorway. He stepped back as a grim-faced Pete Tyler stepped in. Pete glanced over the room, studying the damage, and when his eyes fell on Jenny's face they darkened with disappointment.
"I'm sorry," she said, bravely keeping her chin held high though tears of shame glistened in her eyes. "It's not their fault, it's mine."
"All the power in this building has shut down," Pete said, as though there were consequences of this she had not already thought of. Jenny hesitated, confused but worried by his tone. What was going on?
"The Dimension project didn't restart when the backups came online. The blackout blew some of the circuitry."
Jenny struggled for words. Was he serious, or was this some kind of trick to make sure she'd learned her lesson? His face remained solemn despite her horror, and after a moment it sunk in that he was telling the truth. What had she done? What if she never saw her mother again? What if Rose was trapped forever?
"The emergency default should bring her back," Pete added, in no kinder a tone. "But she's going to want to talk to you. Follow me to the office – all of you. We'll deal with you once we've looked after Rose."
Passing a judging eye over all four teenagers, Pete Tyler turned and left the room.