It was River who noticed they were being followed. She was trailing behind the group now after growing bored of the awkward silence and uncomfortable glances she was getting walking up front with the Doctor.
River wasn't especially interested in witnessing firsthand a grown man unravel over a crisis of conscious. She wasn't unconfident enough to be offended by his ambivalence toward her. She was mostly just annoyed.
So she'd offered to take up the rear, ostensibly as a precautionary measure. Between considering the danger of their situation and inwardly rolling her eyes at the Doctor's uneasy reaction to her proximity, her mind was preoccupied when she first started to feel the hairs at the back of her neck standing on end.
River turned to look behind them in the eerie amber light of the maintenance shaft. Off in the distance, she could hear water dripping. What she couldn't hear was the familiar metallic clanking sound of androids in pursuit. She stood stock still, peering along the curve of the tunnel.
But she saw nothing. Heard nothing.
She fell back in step with them, still glancing behind from time to time. "Perhaps we should move a bit faster." she whispered to the three in front of her. They complied and she increased her own pace as well.
They were approaching a hard turn up ahead and the tunnel was growing noticeably darker as they progressed. The Doctor sounded uncertain.
"Turlough... are you quite sure that this will take us back to the TARDIS?" he asked over his shoulder, slowing once more.
"Positive." Haven asserted before Turlough could even answer. "This was the same way we came and found your cell."
River frowned at her words, glancing back for the umpteenth time.
Something is wrong.
It was more than paranoia or a nervous suspicion. She could feel it in her bones. Her hearts rate increased and she felt adrenaline flood her system.
"Doctor..." she whispered urgently. "I think we've made a mistake."
They had reached the turn and the Doctor didn't seem to hear her as he disappeared around the corner but Turlough looked back at her, a bit defensive. "I assure you. This is the right direction." he insisted.
Before she could reply, the Doctor's voice came from out of her sight line, sounding slightly incredulous, "Pitch black ahead. I wonder what's happened to the light here?"
Turlough and Haven exchanged a look. "This whole tunnel was well lit when we came through earlier." Haven murmured nervously. She reached into her pocket and fished out a torch, handing it forward to the Doctor as the rest of them turned the corner.
The Doctor hadn't been exaggerating. This part of the tunnel went from dim to inky blackness rather quickly.
The apprehension River had been experiencing was now devolving into dread. This wasn't right. They should turn back.
"Doctor..." she called again but this time she was drowned out by Turlough.
"The passage we climbed through is up ahead there on the right." he was saying as they crept through the darkness, guided only by the small flashlight Haven had brought along.
And that was when River actually heard something. Something in the tunnel behind them. It was a faint sound, somewhere between a rustle and a scrape. She turned, arguing with herself once more over whether to back track.
She was angry that she didn't have any sort of weapon on her person. If there was one thing River despised, it was feeling vulnerable. She inclined her head to the right, then to the left, popping her neck.
Decision made, she crept back toward the bend in the tunnel. Behind her, she heard her friends stop and begin to remove the maintenance panel that Turlough and Haven had crawled through earlier.
River inched forward, wishing she at least had the knife she'd taken from Lantieri's pack earlier. She imagined it was in the TARDIS with the rest of her things. She pressed her back to the wall of the tunnel, listening for whatever might be waiting just around the corner.
"This panel's stuck!" Turlough exclaimed suddenly. "It wasn't like this when we left it. It looks as though someone purposely jammed it up!"
She was aware of what was happening with the others, but felt detached from it, so intent was she on discovering if they were truly being pursued. River narrowed her eyes, ignoring the feeling of her hearts in her throat as she stepped around the corner.
She never knew what hit her. The makeshift club cracked down against her head and her limp body fell against the wall before sliding to the floor, making very little sound.
She came to some time later with one hell of a headache and pain shooting through her right shoulder. Her hand immediately went to the spot just right of center where forehead met hairline and came away covered in blood.
Her first reaction to the sight of blood wasn't fear. It was fury. Someone was messing with the absolute wrong person. She sat up, her anger battling with the woozy feeling that washed over her.
She looked around, groaning despite herself at the pain thrumming through her head, shoulder and neck. It was difficult to tell where she was. The space was small and cramped and dark. Much too small to be the cell she and the Doctor had shared earlier. Nor was it the tunnel.
River managed to get to her hands and knees and crawled around as best she could, trying to take some measure of her current location. It was a tiny rectangular room, roughly the size of a closet. Which made sense since there appeared to be various boxes and supplies stacked up against the back wall.
Still on her knees, she tried the door. The handle turned so it wasn't locked, but the door opened out and it seemed something heavy was blocking it, holding it stuck closed.
River leaned against the door feeling frustrated and very tired. She wasn't sure how much blood she'd lost but the edges of her vision were fuzzy and she felt nauseous. Whoever it was had definitely been determined to incapacitate her. She suspected her head injury was no minor thing.
The sudden thought of what might have happened to the others completely erased any worry she felt for herself. A trap had clearly been set. The lights had been tampered with along with the grated opening they'd been trying to access. And someone had been lying in wait for them to turn back. Her concern for her companions gave her a second wind and she climbed unsteadily to her feet, angrily rattling the door against whatever had been placed against it.
"When I get out of here..." River growled, violent thoughts filling her mind.
A wave of dizziness overcame her then and she had to lean all her weight against the door. She watched as blood continued to drip from the wound on her head.
She slid back down to the floor, drained of energy, thinking to herself, if I get out of here.
The Doctor wasn't paying attention to what was happening with the panel at first. Instead he was a few steps further ahead in the dark tunnel, shining the flashlight around on the ground. Shards of some type of broken material littered the ground. He squinted at the debris, then shone the torch upward to the ceiling of the tunnel.
The lights. Someone had broken out the lights here.
"This panel's stuck!" Turlough's panicked voice caused him to spin around. Both Turlough and Haven seemed to be trying to pull the mesh grating free with no success. "It wasn't like this when we left it. It looks as though someone purposely jammed it up!" Turlough gestured helplessly, looking up at the Doctor with disbelief.
The Doctor sighed and joined them where they were knelt before the access panel, dim light shining through from the other side. "It would seem that someone was laying a trap." he observed. The grating had been bent and warped, as if someone had hammered at it, bending it all out of shape. He felt around in his pockets for some sort of prying tool but came up with nothing. It appeared whoever had been responsible for capturing them earlier had relieved him of any such implements.
Turlough started to pound his fist against the stuck panel. Trying anything to knock it free.
"Wait." Haven said suddenly. "I have that knife!" She pulled a large pocket knife from her jeans pocket. She passed it to Turlough who unfolded it and began prying at the edges of the mesh panel. After a few moments, a corner finally popped inward. Turlough sighed in relief. "Looks like it's coming loose."
The Doctor suddenly became keenly aware of River's absence from the group. He had seen her right behind them only moments before. Now she was gone.
He stood slowly, his eyes narrowed. What sort of trouble was that woman causing now. "River." he whispered fiercely, hoping she was just around the corner, watching their backs.
Only silence answered.
He swallowed, a bad feeling coming over him. His mind raced trying to remember how long it had actually been since he'd seen River standing in this very spot. He crept toward the corner. "River!" he called, no longer caring about whispering.
Still no reply.
As he stepped around the corner, the first thing he saw was the puddle of blood on the floor, illuminated by the beam of his flashlight. Adrenaline coursed through him and he immediately feared the worst. It was quite a lot of blood.
And then, something on the wall directly to his right caught his eye.
He aimed the torch at it and gasped at what he saw.
A message, written with someone's finger dipped in the blood. "Come get her."
He looked up, further into the brightly lit tunnel they'd only just walked through. There wasn't a being in sight. But there was something else. Drag marks. All the way down the tunnel, leading away from them were bloody drag marks.
River was hurt, perhaps badly. And now someone had her.
The Doctor hadn't felt this sort of fear for another person in a long time. It nearly took his breath away. All he wanted to do was find her and make sure she was alright. Little else mattered aside from that.
He quickly made his way back to the others who were making slow but steady progress with the panel.
The Doctor cleared his throat, causing them both to look up. "Turlough, you and Haven keep working at that. I'm going back to find River."
Turlough looked alarmed at his tone and Haven's brown eyes widened. "What do you mean find River?"she demanded, climbing to her feet. "What's happened?" Turlough stood as well. They both looked terribly concerned.
The Doctor held up both hands in a halting gesture, in no mood to argue. "I need the two of you to go back to the TARDIS." He instructed, at the edge of his patience. "Don't argue. Just get that access panel open and go."
He turned to leave. "But what about Mercer?" Turlough demanded. "We still don't know if it's safe. She could be there waiting for us."
The Doctor turned back, his face grim. "Mercer is no longer in the TARDIS." he told them with a certainty he felt to the core of his being. "Mercer has River."
Haven gasped and clutched Turlough's arm anxiously. The Doctor pointed at the grating, his voice firm. "Open that and then go. River and I..." he trailed off as something icy stabbed at his hearts. "We'll be there soon."
And then he turned and headed back the way they'd come, following the trail of blood.
He had no plan in mind as he ran through the tunnel. He certainly didn't have a weapon on him, but then, he never did.
The blood trail went right past the point in the tunnel that they'd entered after escaping the prison. He frowned, remembering what had happened between River and himself back in the cell. He'd allowed his mind to get muddled after their little imbroglio and he hadn't been paying close enough attention. He drove his mind away from that line of thinking. Away from the guilt of being responsible.
The drag marks went to the very end of the tunnel, culminating at a hatch with a ladder that led down. He shone the light down the hatch and didn't see anyone around.
After a half second's hesitation, he began to climb down quickly.
At the bottom, he saw fresher looking blood and one of River's boots. His eyes narrowed. He suspected that River hadn't so much been carried down the ladder as thrown carelessly down the hatch, likely injuring her further.
He felt anger burning in him where only concern had lived before. Whoever had done this... they better hope she was still alive.
He was standing in a subterranean corridor and the drag marks led off to the left, right up to a closed door blocked with a sturdy shelf.
"River!" he shouted, not thinking straight. He headed over to pull the shelving away. He was so panicked that the thought hadn't occurred to him that the perpetrator might be right behind him. "I'm right here and I'm going to get you out."
Before he could move the obstacle, he felt a blade at his throat and heard a woman's voice over his right shoulder. "Silly Doctor." Mercer chuckled. "How do you think you're going to do that?"
Haven stood blinking, watching the Doctor run off back the way they'd just came. She was more scared now than she'd been since meeting up with the Doctor. And it wasn't because of wicked Guardians of Protection or murderous androids. It had been the look on the Doctor's face. He was nearly unhinged with worry and it was the first time Haven had seen such a look of hopeless dread in his eyes.
Haven swallowed, tears welling up. "Turlough..." she didn't have to finish the sentence.
He passed the knife to her. "Keep working." he commanded, heading after the Doctor.
Numbly, Haven fell back onto her knees and began prying at the grate again. After a few more pokes and prods with the blade, the panel finally popped loose, clattering noisily to the floor on the other side. That was the moment that Turlough returned.
His face was drained of color and he was chewing on his lip. He looked terrified.
Haven stood and rushed over to him. "What is it? What did you find?"
Turlough's voice was shaky when he finally answered. "Blood. Far too much blood... and a message."
Haven didn't even look back at their now open escape route. She grabbed Turlough's arm and tugged. "Come on."
Even with the warning, she was not prepared for the sight that greeted her around the corner. Just as he had said: Far too much blood.
And then there was the ominous message. Come get her.
Haven's whole body was trembling, her mind trying to assimilate this new information. It must have all happened so fast. River had been bringing up the rear of the group only minutes before. Now they were firmly ensconced in yet another nightmare.
Up ahead in that surreal amber light, she could see bloody drag marks all the way down the tunnel. The Doctor was nowhere in sight.
There was no question of going back to the TARDIS now. There were no words spoken at all in fact. They just ran, following the grisly trail as the Doctor must have done.
At the end of the tunnel, there was some sort of hatch with a ladder leading down into darkness.
Haven started to speak before Turlough shushed her with a silent gesture.
Voices drifted up through the hatch. It was the Doctor and a woman.
"Listen, I know who you are and I think I know what you want." the Doctor's voice was reasonable as ever. "But if River is injured, I must see her immediately. Just let me make sure she's alright and you can do whatever you'd like with me."
"My, how very chivalrous of you." the female voice purred. "But Professor Song is my only leverage at this point. I'm not going to just hand her back without getting something in return."
Turlough and Haven exchanged wild-eyed looks. "What do we do?" Haven hissed in a quiet but panicked voice.
Turlough's eyes narrowed, like he was thinking of a suitable solution. Below the exchange grew more heated.
"You already have a knife to my throat." the Doctor snapped, clearly finished being polite. "I'm not sure how much more leverage you need than that."
"A knife!" Haven gasped, now thoroughly freaked out. "She has a fucking knife!" She was overwhelmed now with panic, her fight or flight response quickly taking over.
"Just keep still and let me think." Turlough soothed. They were knelt down near the opening in the floor. He had one hand on her shoulder, offering a modicum of comfort but she continued to tremble.
"The key Doctor. I want the key to your ship along with simple instructions on how to fly it." the woman demanded in that same overly friendly manner.
"There's nothing simple about flying a TARDIS." the Doctor countered, still sounding calm but far more hateful than he'd sounded before. "I'll need to go with you. To show you. And I'm willing to do so as long as you leave my friends alone. Show me that River is alright and we can go right now."
The woman laughed. She actually laughed. It was a nice sounding laugh, infectious even. Like a good friend had just made a witty remark. "Oh Doctor. You aren't the one running this show. You don't get to make demands." She spoke to him almost flirtatiously. "Just one slip of the knife and I can slit your throat from ear to ear."
Haven could feel bile rising in her throat. The bitch sounded just crazy enough to do it too.
"But then you wouldn't know how to fly my ship." he responded sharply, not showing even a little bit of fear to his captor. "And all this will have been for nothing."
As her eyes acclimated to peering down through the hatch, Haven could just make out their shapes in the dimness below. The Doctor appeared to be on his knees with Mercer pressed against his back, holding the blade of an enormous knife to his throat.
Haven blinked, one corner of the mind numbing panic lifting for a split second. A knife.
She looked down at her hand and found that inexplicably, she'd made her way down the tunnel unknowingly still clutching the large blade in her hand.
"Well I have a fucking knife too." she murmured softly.
Turlough didn't seem to hear her. He just squeezed her shoulder comfortingly and continued to look down at the spectacle below.
"If I have to kill you, I will just have to find another way." Mercer was saying casually. "And quite frankly I've grown impatient. You know, my daddy always used to say that I was short-sighted. That I had a one track mind and when I became fixated on something, I thought only in the moment."
Suddenly the Doctor cried out in pain. "Oops. Slipped." Mercer cooed sweetly.
Haven's hand gripped the knife firmly. She could feel her heart beating in each fingertip.
"It's just a scratch this time." Mercer reassured him. "But if you continue trying to talk your way out of this..."
"Please." the Doctor pleaded, finally sounding properly scared. Perhaps finally realizing that he was dealing with an absolute crazy person. "Please just tell me if River is alright."
There was that friendly little laugh again. "No." she told him simply.
The woman's cruelty was mind blowing. She was unwilling to even let the Doctor know if River was alive or dead. It was clear she wanted complete control of the situation and seemed to be taking great pleasure in torturing him.
Haven thought back to her mother's scared voice on the digital chronicle. On the day she knew she was going to die. This bitch down below had been the reason for that. She had been responsible for the death of an entire generation of passengers. Had orphaned hundreds of children.
And now she had hurt two of Haven's friends. The friends that had watched out for her and saved her life on numerous occasions. That had put themselves in harm's way again and again.
Haven's eyes narrowed, her grip on the knife tightened.
Fight or flight. Fight or flight
"Your ship Doctor." Mercer prompted, coldness finally leaking in. "Tell me how to operate it and tell me now."
Haven felt sweat break out on her forehead as it finally dawned on her.
Mercer would kill him no matter what. It was why she wanted the information here. So she could dispatch with him and head back to the TARDIS unencumbered, unthreatened.
Turlough seemed to realize it at the same time. The look of horror in his eyes was what pushed Haven over the edge.
A haze seemed to cover the world around her for just a moment and her mother's last words echoed in her mind.
I must find someone to believe me. Because I'm frightened.
Fight or flight. Fight or flight.
And with that, Haven jumped down into the hatch, bypassing the ladder entirely. She landed right on top of Anaïs Mercer, knocking her away from the Doctor. A knife clattered to the floor.