Notes: Sorry for the delay... I've had too many other story ideas crowding my brain. But I think I've got my focus back here again for now. Sometimes I wish my brain would shut up. Anyway, please review, I love it when you do. Thank you all for reading this and a big thank you to TheDoctorMulder for her continued help as beta.
Chapter Twenty-One – The Hungry Earth: Part One
The TARDIS landed and the Doctor urged Amy and Rory out the door before them as he took hold of Rose's hand. Their bracelets clicked together and she could feel his swirling emotions. He was anxious, excited, worried and a little bit sad all at once. She knew he could feel similar emotions coming from her and they both worked to support each other in that moment.
"Behold, Rio!" he called as Amy and Rory exited the TARDIS.
"Nah," Amy sighed as she looked out over a cool, misty graveyard.
"Not really getting the sunshine carnival vibe," Rory pointed out as they stepped further out the door to allow the Doctor and Rose room to exit.
"No? Ooo, feel that, though. What's that?" the Doctor asked curiously and walked out further. He jumped up and down a few times as he looked around the area. "Ground feels strange. Do you feel that, love?" he wondered and looked back at the other three travellers.
Rose shrugged and shook her head.
"Just me, then. Wait... that's weird," the Doctor added and ran down further to examine some of the grass.
"Doctor, stop trying to distract us. We're in the wrong place. Doctor, it's freezing and I've dressed for Rio. We are not stopping here. Doctor, are you listening to me? It's a graveyard. You promised me a beach," Amy complained, but the Doctor and Rose were too wrapped up in whatever current mystery had drawn the TARDIS here.
"Blue grass," the Doctor whispered as he looked at a few blades he had plucked more closely.
"There are patches of it all around here. What do you suppose would cause that?" Rose wondered.
"Don't know. So, Earth, 2020-ish, ten years in your future. Wrong continent for Rio, I'll admit, but it's not a massive overshoot," the Doctor informed Amy and Rory.
"Really, for him, hitting the right century isn't bad most of the time," Rose teased and he playfully bumped shoulders with her.
"Why are those people waving at us?" Amy asked and the others followed her gaze across the valley.
"Can't be," the Doctor whispered and took a pair of binoculars out of his pocket. "It is. It's you two," the Doctor told them and handed the binoculars to Rose to have a look for herself. She gasped as she watched the other Rory and Amy waving at them.
"No, we're here. How can we be up there?" Rory denied.
"Ten years in your future. Come to relive past glories, I'd imagine. Humans, you're so nostalgic," the Doctor mused.
"We're still together in ten years?" Amy questioned.
"That is generally the idea when you plan to get married, Amy," Rose whispered to her.
"No need to sound so surprised," Rory complained insecurely.
"Hey! Let's go and talk to them. We can say hi to future us. How cool is that?" Amy said excitedly.
"Er, no, best not," the Doctor told her.
"Really, Amy, not a good idea. I met myself as a baby once, and it was really, not a good day," Rose informed her. The memory of Reapers flying in the air and the Doctor being eaten by one gave her shivers.
"Oh look... big mining thing. Oh, I love a big mining thing. See, way better than Rio. Rio doesn't have a big mining thing," the Doctor observed, half in genuine observation and half trying to distract them from paradoxical behaviours.
Towering over the nearby trees was a large, yellow tower. The building was indeed the kind built to house the large drills used in mining operations.
"We're not going to have a look, are we?" Amy asked the Doctor, hoping to get back in the TARDIS and try again for Rio.
Rose looked at Amy with a raised eyebrow while the Doctor pretended to not even have heard her as he said, "Let's go and have a look. Come on, let's see what they're doing."
The Doctor proceeded to pull Rose along with him. She was better at keeping up with him now. It had taken her a little while to get used to this incarnation's propensity for abruptly dragging her with him as he dashed off in some new direction. She was proud of herself for that and her shoulder was much happier as well, now that it stayed more firmly in its socket.
Amy caught up to them as they approached the fence that surrounded the mining area. "Rory is just putting something back in the TARDIS. He'll catch up in a few minutes," she told them.
"Restricted Access. No unauthorized personnel. Hmm," the Doctor read from the sign on the gate.
"Guess we know what that means," Rose said with a patented Rose Tyler grin and pulled out her sonic faster than he could to open the padlock.
The Doctor grinned at her and pulled her into a spinning hug. He kissed her quickly and when he set her back down again, told her, "You are getting far too good with that thing."
Amy gasped at them and scolded, "That is breaking and entering!"
"What did we break? Sonicking and entering. Totally different," the Doctor responded and Rose hummed happily in a manner she had picked up from the Doctor's previous incarnation.
They opened the gate with a harsh squeak and Amy's smile grew to match theirs.
"Come on, then," Amy told them and walked through.
"You're sure Rory'll catch us up?" the Doctor asked, looking back the way they came.
"Yeah, he's fine," she moaned impatiently.
They made their way into the mine and the Doctor led them briskly through the dim hallways.
"What about now? Can you feel it now?" the Doctor asked them.
"Maybe," Rose replied thoughtfully.
"Honestly, I've got no idea what you are on about," Amy complained and rolled her eyes.
"The ground doesn't feel like it should," he told her.
"A weird kind of vibration, yeah?" Rose asked him.
"It's ten years in the future. Maybe how this ground feels is how it always feels," Amy theorized.
"Good thought, but no, it doesn't. Hear that? Drill in start-up mode. After-waves of a recent seismological shift and blue grass," the Doctor listed as he put one of the blades of grass he had picked earlier into his mouth. After tasting it briefly, he pulled it back off of his tongue and made a face.
"Oh, please. Have you always been this disgusting?" Amy cringed.
"Yes," Rose replied.
At the same moment, he said, "No, that's recent." He glared at Rose, but there was no heat in it.
"What's in here? Hello," the Doctor called as he peeked his head into a large room. There was a woman working in there who looked at the group of them suspiciously.
"Who are you? What're you doing here? And what are you wearing?" she asked as she looked at Amy's short shorts.
"I dressed for Rio," Amy told her dismissively.
The Doctor pulled out his psychic paper as they approached and Rose put on her best official looking attitude. "Ministry of Drills, Earth and Science. New Ministry, quite big, just merged. It's a lot of responsibility on our shoulders. Don't like to talk about it. What are you doing?" the Doctor rambled as he looked at what she was working on.
"None of your business," she snapped at him.
He immediately looked at the screen she had been staring at when they came into the room. It looked like seismological data scrolling by. "Where are you getting these readings from?" the Doctor asked her worriedly.
His furrowed brow told Rose that something was terribly wrong with the readings and watched as the woman moved a large piece of equipment off of the dirt beneath a large hole in the floor. "Under the soil," the woman replied.
"The drill's up and running again," a man announced upon entering the room and looked at the newcomers in confusion. "What's going on? Who are these people?"
"I'm Rose, that's Amy, and this is the Doctor. We're from the ministry, just doing a routine inspection," Rose blustered, not remembering exactly what ministry the Doctor had said they were from.
The Doctor grabbed a fistful of dirt from the hole in the floor and examined it. "Why's there a big patch of earth in the middle of your floor?" he asked, not particularly worried about who these people thought they were, so long as they answered his questions.
"We don't know. It just appeared overnight," the woman answered, sensing his sudden worry over the situation, she walked back towards the screen.
"Good. Right. You all need to get out of here very fast," the Doctor announced and Rose felt a wave of panic rising in her husband.
"Why?" the woman asked.
"What's your name?" the Doctor queried.
"Nasreen Chaudhry," she replied.
"Look at the screens, Nasreen. Look at your readings. It's moving," the Doctor told her.
Rose and Amy both knelt by the hole in the floor to look at it more closely.
"Hey, that's specialized equipment. Get away from it," the man that had entered recently called to the Doctor accusingly.
"What is?" Nasreen questioned, ignoring the man's protest.
"Doctor, this steam, is that a good thing?" Amy interrupted.
"I sincerely doubt it," Rose mumbled.
"Shouldn't think so. It's shifting when it shouldn't be shifting," the Doctor told them.
"What shouldn't?" Nasreen insisted, unfamiliar with the Doctor's usual knack for not explaining his warnings entirely.
The ground suddenly shook and all of the lights flickered overhead. The Doctor snatched Rose's hand and pulled her close to his side as he looked over the floor worriedly.
"The ground, the soil, the earth, moving. But how? Why?" the Doctor rambled as he both explained and tried to work out the problem.
"Earthquake?" Amy suggested.
"What's going on?" the unidentified man asked.
"Doubt it, because it's only happening under this room," the Doctor said in reply to Amy's thought.
The ground shook again and several more holes appeared in the floor. Everyone stepped back from the holes that had appeared.
"It knows we're here. It's attacking. The ground's attacking us," the Doctor announced as he gripped his wife's hand even more tightly.
"No, no that's not possible," Nasreen argued.
"I've learned that not possible, is usually very much possible," Rose responded.
"Under the circumstances, I'd suggest... run!" the Doctor shouted and everyone darted towards the door.
They jumped over the holes in the floor as they went. The Doctor, Rose, and Nasreen had made it to the doorway and looked back towards Amy and the other man. He had landed on a once clear spot when a hole opened up beneath one of his feet. Amy moved to help him.
"Stay back, Amy. Stay away from the earth," the Doctor warned her.
She jumped over a hole to grasp the man's hand and she told him reassuringly, "It's ok."
Just then, another hole opened beneath Amy's feet and the Doctor and Rose began to panic.
"It's pulling me down," Amy cried.
"Amy!" the couple both shouted as they ran to pull her out.
Nasreen moved to help the other man at the same time, while they focussed on their friend.
"Doctor, the ground's got my legs," she shouted hysterically as she was pulled into the earth as deep as her waist.
"We've got you," Rose reassured her as they each took hold of one of her arms.
"Ok. Don't let go," Amy pleaded with them as Nasreen managed to pull the other man free and they backed away towards the door again.
"Never," the Doctor told her.
"Doctor, what is it, why is it doing this?" Amy asked shakily.
"Stay calm. Keep hold of our hands. Don't let go. Your drill, shut it down. Go. Now!" the Doctor shouted over his shoulder to the mining personnel that were standing frozen by the door. They ran out finally when they snapped out of it.
"Can you get me out?" Amy questioned as her breathing became even more rapid and she looked back and forth at their worried faces.
"Amy, try and stay calm. If you struggle, it'll make things worse. Keep hold of our hands. We are not going to let you go," the Doctor told her confidently.
She was suddenly pulled in deeper and wrenched from both of their grips. Rose and Amy both cried out in fear as they all scrambled to reestablish their grips on each other.
"Doctor, it's pulling me down. Something's pulling me," Amy shouted painfully.
"We've got you, Amy. We will not let you go," Rose told her, looking directly into her eyes.
"Hold on until they can just shut down the drill," the Doctor added reassuringly.
"I can't hold on," she cried as something pulled on her even harder. She was buried up to her shoulders as she asked, "What's pulling me? What is under the earth? I don't want to suffocate under there."
"Amy, concentrate. Don't you give up," he insisted.
"Tell Rory..." she began.
"No. Amy! You are going to tell him yourself!" Rose shouted at her and pulled as hard as she could with tears streaking down her cheeks.
"No! No! NO!" the Doctor shouted as Amy was pulled further and further into the soil.
They were both shouting even after her hands had slipped away from theirs and Rose clutched the Doctor's lapels as she sobbed into his shirt. He looked despairingly at the earth that had filled in behind where their friend had been lost and scanned it absently with his sonic. The Doctor rubbed Rose's back as she cried and just barely managed to keep his own tears from falling.
Nasreen and the other man ran back into the room and paused nearby at the scene.
"Where is she?" Nasreen asked them.
"She's gone. The ground took her," the Doctor answered quietly and Rose wrapped her arms around his waist as she tried to calm herself again.
"Is that what happened to Mo? Are they dead?" the man questioned as the Doctor released Rose and began to pace around the room.
Rose listened to everything and tried to process it all in case she could come up with something that the Doctor was missing. She wondered where Rory had wandered off to, but decided that they needed to focus on Amy first. If she was still alive, then she was in danger.
"It's not quicksand. She didn't just sink. Something pulled her in. It wanted her," the Doctor rambled in thought.
"The ground wanted her?" Nasreen commented incredulously.
"You said the ground was dormant. Just a patch of earth, when you first saw it this morning. And the drill had been stopped," the Doctor confirmed.
"That's right," the man agreed.
"And the tremors only started when he said the drill was going again," Rose realized.
"Yes, exactly. The ground fought back," the Doctor acknowledged.
"So, what? The ground wants to stop us drilling? Doctor, that is ridiculous," Nasreen told him derisively.
"I'm not saying that, and it's not ridiculous. I just don't think it's right," he replied and paced some more in thought. "Oh, of course! It's bio-programming!" he shouted suddenly and aimed his sonic at the patch of earth again. The soil trembled when he activated it, confirming his theory and he chuckled.
"What?" Nasreen asked, not understanding what this strange man was talking about.
"Bio-programming. Oh, clever. You use bio-signals to resonate the internal molecular structure of natural objects. It's mainly used in engineering and construction, mostly jungle planets, but that's way in the future and not here. What's it doing here?" the Doctor babbled as he worked through the problem and continued pacing.
"Who would have that kind of technology in this time, then?" Rose prompted.
"Sorry, did you just say jungle planets?" Nasreen interrupted.
"You're not making any sense, man," Nasreen's coworker admonished.
"What's your name?" Rose asked the man.
"Tony," he replied.
"Ok, Tony, from the first moment that you saw us, has the Doctor been wrong about anything? He warned you about the readings before the shaking even started, he obviously has knowledge about things beyond your understanding. Instead of shouting insults, how about you try being helpful?" Rose chastised him angrily.
"Thank you, love. Now, the earth, the ground beneath our feet, was bio-programmed to attack," the Doctor continued.
"Yeah, even if that were possible, which by the way, it's not. Why?" Nasreen interrupted with a glare at Rose, daring her to challenge her opinion on the impossibility of the situation as well.
"Stop you drilling. Ok, so we find whatever's doing the bio-programming, we can find Amy. We can get her back. Shush, shush, shush... Have I gone mad? I've gone mad," the Doctor suddenly interrupted himself and stared blankly as he appeared to be concentrating on something.
"Doctor," Nasreen complained.
"Shush, shush. Silence. Absolute silence," he told them as he apparently listened to something that the others couldn't hear. "You've stopped the drill right?"
"Yes," Nasreen told him as if that should be obvious.
"And you've only got the one drill?" the Doctor questioned.
Rose caught on to what he was implying and moved to put her ear to the ground. That's when she could hear it too.
"Yes," Nasreen replied again.
"You're sure about that?" he insisted.
"Yes," Tony told him, losing his patience with the ridiculous situation.
The Doctor joined Rose in listening to the ground as he laid down beside her. "So, if you shut the drill down, why can I still hear drilling? It's under the ground," he told them.
"I can hear it too, love. Who would be under the ground?" Rose wondered.
"That's not possible," Tony denied.
The Doctor sonicked all the nearby computer equipment as he quickly went to work on figuring out what was happening.
"Oh no, what... what are you doing?" Nasreen protested.
"Hacking into your records. Probe reports, samples, sensors. Good. Just unite the data, make it all one big conversation. Let's have a look. So, we are here and this is your drill hole. Twenty-one point zero zero nine kilometres. Well done," he praised.
"Thank you. It's taken us a long time," Nasreen replied proudly.
"What are you drilling for though? What are you trying to reach?" Rose asked her. The last time she had encountered this kind of situation, they had to face the devil on an impossible planet.
"We found patches of grass in this area, containing trace minerals unseen in this country for twenty million years," she told them.
"The blue grass? Oh, Nasreen. Those trace minerals weren't X marking the spot, saying dig here. They were a warning. Stay away. Because while you've been drilling down, someone else has been drilling up," the Doctor told her. He could understand their curiosity, it was something he admired in humans, but he knew in this case, it was going to be trouble.
The computer beeped as it completed its task and displayed the results of the deep sensor readings. There appeared to be dozens of tunnels surrounding their main one going down.
"Oh, beautiful. Network of tunnels all the way down," the Doctor observed.
"No, no, we've surveyed that area," Tony denied.
"You only saw what you went looking for," the Doctor responded.
"What are they?" Nasreen asked as a group of signals appeared in one of the tunnels and the computer beeped to notify them of their appearance.
"Heat signals. Wait, dual readings, hot and cold... doesn't make sense. And now they're moving. Fast. How many people live nearby?" the Doctor demanded.
"Just my daughter and her family. The rest of the staff travel in," Tony replied.
"Grab this equipment and follow me," the Doctor ordered as he closed the case of one of the computers and began to carry it towards the door. Rose followed after him, not sure what equipment if any there was for her to carry.
"Why? What're we doing?" Nasreen insisted, not sure if there was any reason to trust these strangers.
Noticing her hesitation in trusting his instructions, the Doctor moved back to Nasreen's side to convince her. "That noise isn't a drill, it's a transport. Three of them, thirty kilometres down. Rate of speed looks about a hundred and fifty kilometres an hour. Should be here in ooo, quite soon. Twelve minutes. Whatever bio-programmed the earth is on its way up... now," the Doctor told her.
They ran down the road towards the home of Tony's family in the hopes of warning them.
"How can something be coming up when there's only the Earth's crust down there?" Tony asked, slightly out of breath as he tried to keep up with the Doctor and Rose.
"You saw the readings," the Doctor countered, irritated that the man still refused to acknowledge the evidence in front of his own eyes.
"Who are you, anyway? How can you know all this?" Nasreen demanded.
Suddenly, there was a strange, red light in the sky. It looked almost like some kind of sustained lightning, crackling overhead.
"Whoa, did you see that?" Nasreen exclaimed.
"No, no, no," the Doctor moaned and pulled a slingshot out of his pocket.
"Is that a forcefield, love?" Rose asked, watching as he shot a rock into the sky. It hit the barrier and the whole sky lit up with a dim, red light. He began to scan it with his sonic.
"Energy signal originating from under the Earth. We're trapped," the Doctor informed them.
Rory came running towards them from around the side of the building nearby. "Doctor, something weird's going on here, the graves are eating people," he called to them.
Rose noticed that a young woman and a boy about Jamie's age followed him. She was hit by the fact that this boy was in terrible danger and wasn't nearly as equipped to handle it as their son would be, if he were there with them.
"Not now, Rory. Energy barricade, invisible to the naked eye. We can't get out and no one from the outside world can get in," the Doctor continued.
"What? Ok, what about the TARDIS?" Rory wondered.
"Er, no. Those energy patterns would play havoc with the circuits. With a bit of time, maybe, but we've only got nine and a half minutes," the Doctor replied.
"Nine and a half minutes to what?" Rory questioned.
"There's something on its way up from under the surface of the Earth. And it's going to be here very soon," Rose told him.
"Where's Amy?" Rory asked, looking around urgently for his fiancée.
"Get everyone inside the church," the Doctor ordered, avoiding Rory's question.
Rose moved to face Rory and placed her hands on his shoulders. "She was taken, Rory. Taken into the ground. But the Doctor and I will stop at nothing to get her back," Rose told him assuredly.
"Taken? How? Why didn't you stop it?" he roared furiously.
"I tried. I promise, I tried," the Doctor told him, not wanting the man to shout at Rose over this.
"Well, you should've tried harder!" he wailed.
"Rory, please. You know we did everything we could to keep her safe. From what we can tell, she's alive and we will get her back," Rose reassured him as calmly as she could manage in the face of his panic.
"I'll find Amy. I'll keep you all safe, I promise. Come on, please. I need you alongside me," the Doctor pleaded with him.
The Doctor and Rose followed the others into the church, bringing the last of the computer equipment with them. Rory stayed outside for the moment as he tried to calm down.
They joined the others inside the church and began to set up the computer systems again. Rose sat nearby while the Doctor, Tony and Nasreen took care of the equipment.
"So, we can't get out, we can't contact anyone, and something, the something that took my husband, is coming up through the Earth," the young mother shouted angrily.
"Yes. If we move quickly enough, we can be ready," the Doctor replied.
"No, stop. This has gone far enough. What is this?" she demanded.
"He's telling the truth, love," Tony assured her.
"Come on. It's not the first time we've had no mobile or phone signals. Reception's always rubbish," she denied.
"Look, Ambrose. We saw the Doctor and Rose's friend get taken, ok? You saw the lightning in the sky. I have seen the impossible today, and the only person who's made any sense of it for me, is the Doctor," Nasreen told her confidently.
"Ambrose, was it?" Rose asked and when the woman nodded, she continued, "I know you're worried about your husband. I would be too, but believe me when I tell you, that the Doctor and I will find him."
"Can you get my dad back?" the boy asked the Doctor directly.
"Yes. But I need you to trust me and do exactly as I say from this second onwards, because we are running out of time," the Doctor replied, addressing the young man eye to eye, just as he would his own son. He felt a pang for Jamie at that moment. Jamie would have taken this young man under his wing and the boys would have worked together on the tasks that needed doing. He met Ambrose's eyes, showing her the sincerity of his promise.
"So, tell us what to do," Ambrose responded, accepting her fate for the moment.
"Thank you. We have eight minutes to set up a line of defence. Bring me every phone, every camera, every piece of recording or transmitting equipment you can find," the Doctor ordered.
"Is there anything I can get you from the TARDIS, love?" Rose asked him.
"Nothing that you'd be able to find fast enough, it's all buried. We'll have to make due with what's close by," he replied and gave her a quick kiss as he pulled her with him to look for equipment.
They taped the lights, cameras, and heat sensors that they had found all over the area and the Doctor used his sonic to connect them all to the computers they were monitoring. When they got back to the church, they saw that the dots indicating whatever things were on the way, were getting closer.
"Right, guys, we need to be ready for whatever's coming up. I need a map of the village marking where the cameras are going," the Doctor told them with a pat to the young boy's shoulder. His name was Elliot and he was indeed about the same age as Jamie.
"I can't do the words. I'm dyslexic," Elliot told the Doctor.
Bending down to meet Elliot, face to face, the Doctor replied, "That's alright, I can't make a decent meringue. Draw like your life depends on it, Elliot."
At that, the boy ran to get some paper and pencils. Rose wanted to go and help him. Drawing with Jamie had been one of her favourite pastimes when he was growing up. But she felt the Doctor urging her to stay with them and give him a chance to prove to himself that he could help. She realized in that moment that maybe too often she had done just that kind of thing with Jamie and that was what had stifled his self-confidence.
"Six minutes forty," Tony called out and Rose snapped herself back to attention. This was no time to wallow in self-pity. There was work to be done.
They eventually had lights and cameras set up all over the area, all feeding into one of the computers in the church. The Doctor noticed a Meals on Wheels van outside and opened the door to check inside.
Ambrose came by, her arms filled with tools, rifles and even a cricket bat. "Oi! What're you doing?" she shouted to the Doctor.
"Resources. Every little helps. Meals on Wheels. What've you got here, then. Warmer in the front, refrigerated in the back," the Doctor called as he crawled into the back of the van.
Ambrose put the things from her arms onto the front seats and said, "Bit chilly for a hideout, mind."
"Why do you have all of those things, Ambrose?" Rose asked her. The Doctor came out from the back of the van and placed a hand on Rose's shoulder.
"Like you say, every little helps," she defended herself.
"No. No weapons. It's not the way we do things," the Doctor told her.
"You said we're supposed to be defending ourselves," she snapped at them.
"But Ambrose, it's far too easy for accidents to happen with weapons around. Think about Elliot. What if he were to get hurt?" Rose told her sincerely.
"You're better than this. I'm asking nicely. Put them away," the Doctor said and guided Rose back to the church. They were running out of time.
The Doctor set Rose to watch the camera feeds while he examined the other sensor readings of the things coming up the tunnels. Elliot ran in soon after with his map in hand.
"Look at that. Perfect! Dyslexia never stopped Da Vinci or Einstein. It's not stopping you," the Doctor praised as he examined the map.
"I don't understand what you're going to do," Elliot said curiously.
"Two phase plan. First, the sensors and cameras will tell us when something arrives. Second, if something does arrive, I use this to send a sonic pulse through that network of devices," he explained as he showed Elliot his sonic screwdriver. "A pulse which would temporarily incapacitate most things in the universe."
"Knock 'em out. Cool," Elliot responded with a smile.
"That's how we handle things," Rose added.
"Lovely place to grow up 'round here," the Doctor commented.
"Suppose. I want to live in a city one day. Soon as I'm old enough, I'll be off," Elliot told them.
"I was the same where I grew up," the Doctor replied.
"Did you get away?" Elliot asked eagerly.
"Yeah," he said quietly.
"Do you ever miss it?" the boy wondered.
The Doctor was silent then, for a moment. Images of snow topped mountains and fields of red grass blazed through his mind. He felt Rose's hand take his and feelings of love and understanding flowed through their bond.
"So much," the Doctor told Elliot.
"Is it monsters coming?" Elliot questioned. "Have you met monsters before?"
"Yeah. Yeah, we have," he told the frightened boy in front of them.
"You scared of them?"
"No, they're scared of us," Rose reassured him. "We know how to deal with monsters."
"Will you really get my dad back?" he needed to know how sure these people really were.
"No question," the Doctor stated.
"I left my headphones at home," Elliot said and ran off out the door.
Rose followed the Doctor to check on Rory when Tony and Nasreen came back to the church. Rory was setting up the last of the video cameras in the graveyard.
"How're you doing?" the Doctor asked him.
"It's getting darker. How can it be getting dark so quickly?" Rory asked, ignoring the question of how he was doing while his love was missing.
Above them, the barrier was turning a dark translucent colour, like sunglasses only darker.
"Shutting out light from within the barricade. Trying to isolate us in the dark," the Doctor contemplated.
"Are they nocturnal?" Rose wondered.
"Good question," the Doctor praised and they heard a rumbling noise. "It's here."