I run out to see for myself, and find Jack lying motionless on the ground. I kneel at his side and listen for a heartbeat. Nothing. I press down on his chest twice and start giving him mouth to mouth, trying to revive him.
"Stop," the Doctor says.
"I have to try to save him!" I exclaim, continuing CPR.
"No. Really. Stop." he insists. I stare up at him aghast. Did he really want me to just leave his friend here to die? I jump as Jack inhales sharply, suddenly coming back to life.
"Was someone kissing me?" he asks, sitting up. I stare at him in shock. "Oh, right. You don't know."
"He sort of- can't die," the Doctor says.
"How? What is he? Another Time Lord?"
"Human. One of my past companions, Rose, looked into the Heart of the TARDIS and it granted her enormous power. One of the things she did was resurrect him."
"Can't seem to stay dead ever since," Jack shrugs casually.
"So you're not supposed to exist," I grin, "me either."
"I was hoping I could catch a lift to Kegron Pluva on the TARDIS," Jack suggests hopefully.
"I don't take hitchhikers. Especially ones that crash into my TARDIS!" the Doctor protests.
"You sure you two are friends?" I raise a brow. They weren't acting like it.
"Yes," Jack says just as the Doctor says "no."
"Right, well, I'll be in the TARDIS. Feel free to join me once you two are done squabbling!" I wave passively and go back into the TARDIS. After a minute or two they enter, laughing. As we take off, the Doctor grows concerned at a disturbance affecting the TARDIS. He said it was a "dirty rip engine" and landed us back in the 21st century, a time the TARDIS always favored. The Doctor and Jack try to figure out the source of the disturbance while I head to find a coffee shop.
"Peppermint mocha with dark chocolate, please," I say when I reach the barista behind the counter. I'd always loved dark chocolate and mint as a combination.
"Coming right up," she says, grabbing a cup and preparing the drink. "It's been such a strange morning," she says as she pumps some mint flavor into the bottom of the cup, "drove past the hospital on the way to work and had to take a detour. The army has the whole area sectioned off."
"The army? Is there a quarantine or something?" I ask, wondering what could be so horrible, "or someone important is ill?"
"Dunno, but i'll bet anything it's the caveman from the Ravens club."
"Sorry, did you say caveman?" I say, leaning closer and trying to filter her voice out from the coffee machine.
"Yeah, word is that there was a fight last night and one of the guys was a caveman," she says and hands me my coffee, "enjoy!"
"Thanks," I say absently and head back for the TARDIS. It didn't sound like a hoax or gossip to me. Couldn't be if the army was here. Could be something covert with the government, but based on my track record, it's something alien. We head for the hospital and, thanks to the Doctor's psychic paper, pass without any trouble. When we get in, the Doctor asks a nurse why the place is blocked off.
"There was a patient brought in last night with the Ebola virus," she says, "can't chance a pandemic."
"Right, of course," the Doctor turns to me. "Don't touch anything or anyone, got it?" I nod. "I'm serious. The Ebola virus is highly contagious and spreads through physical contact."
"I'll be careful, Doctor," I assure him.
"And you- no kissing!" the Doctor points at Jack, who smirks in amusement.
We find the room of interest, as it is the only room that has a Neanderthal for a patient. "Who are you?" a nurse asks as we enter the room. She doesn't wait for our reply before ushering us to put on masks and gloves. We all do, even though I am the only one who can die. Comforting, isn't it?
"I'm the Doctor," he says, flipping open his psychic paper, "expert on Ebola fever. These are my interns. We're here to talk with the patient."
"Good luck getting anything out of him, he doesn't speak a lick of English!" she says.
"Don't worry, i'm a linguist," I press my lips together and approach the curtain, drawing it back. The Neanderthal sat there in the bed, staring wide-eyed at the television. "Hi there," I smile warmly, "I'm here to help you."
"I... I understand you," he says, surprised, and puts down the remote. Thanks to the TARDIS, we were able to communicate, but I didn't tell him that- it'd be too much for a caveman already out of his time.
"I'm the Doctor," he introduces, "and who might you be?"
"Das," he replied curtly.
"You're quite far from home, Das," the Doctor says, scanning him with the sonic.
"I was hunting in the jungle when these strange travelers came. Before I knew it, I was in a dark room with loud noise, pouncing on a man instead of my prey."
"Thank you," the Doctor says, "that's enough. You can sleep, now." The Doctor shuts the curtain and we begin to leave. As I shut the door, I see that the curtain is glowing green from an intense light.
"What's happening to him?" I ask. Surely that wasn't from the Ebola virus.
"The original trip polluted his cell structure," the Doctor says, "there's nothing I could do." Once we're outside, the Doctor hands Jack a psychic credit card, "find a nice hotel. We'll be back in a month."
"Pleasure meeting you, Jack," I say warmly.
"The pleasure is all mine, Lady Luck," he says and kisses my hand.
"Oi," the Doctor warns.
"I'm only saying goodbye," Jack said, a mischievous glint in his eye.
The TARDIS shudders and screeches, but the Doctor manages to pull us back in time to when Das was taken. 28,158 BC. We land on a plain and head for a nearby forest. The Doctor stops suddenly, spotting something up ahead. It's a strikingly good-looking young man sitting on a rock, biting into a sandwich.
"Where'd he get that?" I mumble suspiciously. He must be one of those travelers Das spoke of.
"Excuse me, mind if we join you for lunch?" the Doctor asks, sauntering into the clearing, but the man runs off. The Doctor darts after him into the darkness and I get a sudden flash from the last time I was in the forest, being chased by carnivorous shadows and daleks. I run after the Doctor, but find myself lost and clumsy in the dark. There's a cry of terror and my heart stops, thinking it is the Doctor. It couldn't be, though. The Doctor wouldn't scream in the face of danger, he would saunter up to it and have a good chat. A low growl sounds from my left and I press my back against a tree. My foot snaps a twig and I freeze. A hand clasps over my mouth and I am about to scream when I realize the hand is the Doctor's. I relax and he releases me, a finger pressed to his lips. He points down and I see that it is not a twig I snapped, but a bone from the remains of a large animal. I come to realize that whatever is out there, it's looking for seconds.
Suddenly, loud screeching music blasts all around us and my hands fly to my ears. The predator, which was closer than I anticipated, runs away and we are safe, except from a headache. The noise came from two more time travelers, who don't seem surprised to see us. The two men were also quite handsome, but their emotionless expressions made them seem carved out of stone. They lead us out of the forest and to a huge cave containing a wooden city called Osterberg.
I noticed that everyone in Osterberg had movie star good looks, except one man who looked normal, aside from a broad-rimmed hat and cape. He is talking to a tall and unbelievably gorgeous woman named Chantal, who had the most luxurious coco colored skin I have ever seen. The funny looking man, Quilley, was complaining about an experiment that was being prolonged when it was only meant to last two months. Chantal suggests he use combo 662 to stop working, but he says he doesn't want it. It is then that they notice us.
"I'm Mr. Smith and this is my wife, Mrs. Smith!"
Chantal seems to be the leader of this establishment and has us shown around. While a woman named Lena gives us a tour, I slip away and do a little investigating of my own. I wanted to know why all of these futuristic people with inhumanly good looks here here and why they got rid of Das. "Quilley!" I spot the oddly dressed man and wave at him.
"Mrs. Smith," he nods, "how can I help you?"
"I..." I pause, trying to phrase it in a harmless manner, "was wondering if you could tell me about Osterberg's history."
"I could get in trouble for telling you," he says lowly.
"Something tells me you will anyway," I reply. We stare at each other for a moment before he gives in.
"Follow me, it's not safe out here," he says and leads me through a few alleys to his home. "The Osterbergers come from hundreds of thousand of years in the future. A massive space battle caused Earth to be hit with an electromagnetic wave of sorts, knocking out all of our electronics. Without then, humanity was forced to focus on nonelectric fields of science, namely, biology. Eventually, we advanced enough to fully map out the human body."
"So you're like mechanics, piecing the human body around like a bunch of legos," I explain and he nods.
"We have these badges that block out any 'wrong feelings'."
"But you don't wear one," I finish, "you don't want to be controlled."
"I'm a Refuser," he nods, "the only one left."
"So how did you get here?" I ask. "Can you show me?" He nods. "First, we've got to find my friend. He'll want to see this." It doesn't take long to find the Doctor. He's the only one that spoke or moved with any real emotion.
"You'll never guess what I found out!"
"Surely it can't top what i've found out!" I exclaim. "I ran into Quilley-"
"-stalked, more like it-" Quilley interjected, but I continued.
"-and he told me all about Osterberg and he says he can show us the time machine!"
"Brilliant! I'll go with Quilley. You should go find out more about the beast from the forest," the Doctor suggests.
"Why do I always get stuck with the dangerous tasks?" I whined.
"Because I'm the one who understands alien technology and can sort things out. You're the one who is good at surviving in dangerous conditions."
"Uh, no. You're the one who's 900 years old, you clearly top me."
"But I also died 9 times," he retorts.
"Fine, i'll be the brave one," I say, pretending I had valiantly volunteered. "You go play with your screwdriver." I mumble to myself as I wander out into the woods, pushing back branches and trudging through leaves and twigs. At least this area of the forest had more light and was free of creepy shadows and, so far, monsters.