"We have to get to the TARDIS!" the stranger shouted, hurrying back along the tracks in the opposite direction to the train. Amy stood there dumbfounded.
"How do you know about the TARDIS?" she said.
"What do you mean, how do I know about the TARDIS? It's my TARDIS!" the stranger called back over his shoulder. Amy hesitated a moment, then hurried after him. Rory hurried after Amy.
"Who... are... you?" she puffed, struggling to catch up to him.
"I could ask you the same thing," he said.
"What... how... where..." The Doctor spluttered.
"We're in the town," Zat'zul said.
"Well I see that... but... how... what... why?" The Doctor looked wildly around.
They were just outside the large stone town-hall, in a sort of shoddy town square, a patch of paved earth in the dust. The stone pavers felt hot under the Doctor's feet. Behind them was a disused train station, slowly falling apart.
"Why? Why?" Zat'zul thought for a moment. Then he shrugged. "I forget."
-
Rory, Amy and the stranger reached a low cliff, and the stranger rushed in. Rory and Amy stopped at the mouth of the cave, looking on in astonishment. The walls of the cave were lined with amazing drawings, like a strange mix of prehistoric cave drawings on Earth, and crop circles. Smack bang in the middle of the cave was a TARDIS. It was exactly the same as the Doctor's, and yet... it was smaller, and a slightly different colour.
"How...?" Rory said.
The stranger, meanwhile, was digging around inside all his pockets, looking for a tiny silver key.
Amy looked at her watch, worried. "Won't the train have hit the town yet? It was going really fast."
"Don't worry." the stranger said, producing the elusive key in triumph. "It's an Elongated Time Field. Look behind you."
Amy looked around. "The town looks so close, and yet it took us forever to walk here. That train is going a million miles an hour and yet only inching along."
The stranger unlocked the door and disappeared into the TARDIS. "Are you coming or not?"
-
A whirring began to sound. "That's... that's my TARDIS..." The Doctor resumed looking around wildly. "She sounds young."
The distinctive blue box slowly materialised, and spilling out of the doors came Amy and Rory. "Doctor!"
A third figure followed. "Yes?" he said.
"You!" The Doctor cried, startled.
"Me?"
"Me!"
"You!"
"You-"
The Doctor was cut short by an loud rumbling, crunching, moving noise. Everyone looked around, to see the huge door of the town-hall slowly grinding open.
Ominous footsteps sounded, coming steadily, steadily closer...building to a climax...everyone was quivering with nervous anticipation... and then... the lady from the toy shop appeared, smoking and filing her nails disinterestedly. "Do you have an appointment?" she said.
"A what?" said at least three different voices.
"An appointment. If you have an appointment, you'll have a ticket. Do you have a ticket?"
"Oh, wait-" The stranger began to rummage wildly through his pockets again.
After a moment, he pulled out a battered card and held it in the air. The card was a playing card, an ugly, leering, joker.
"Right here."