Clara, Francis and Kodey sat in silence as the pod continued apace along the edge of the warehouse for ten minutes until they reached a wall and a small doorway. Francis quickly slowed the pod to a halt, skidding it to the right side to stop inches before the end, as if he had not noticed it in time. All three of them were hauled roughly forward and then to the left, exhaling heavily .
"Where did you learn to drive?" Clara asked rhetorically, unimpressed, half winded by the sudden stop.
Francis pressed the button in the middle of the steering wheel and the side panels rose up gently. The white seatbelts released with a loud clank. "And this is where we get out," said Francis, smiling widely. He jumped down to the ground, tucking in his shirt where it had come out at the back.
Clara looked to her left, seeing a gap of four inches. "Who do you think I am? Kate Moss?" she said, laughing.
"Who's Kate Moss?" asked Kodey as he prepared to get out.
"Oh, never mind," she said, resigned, "I'm still trying to be funny, but it's clearly lost of you both, so just ignore me."
Kodey stepped down, picking up the crowbar off the bottom of the pod with a loud scraping clink. He threaded it through his belt loop again and reached back inside to grab Francis' jacket, throwing it roughly towards him.
Clara passed out the shotgun, contorting herself ungracefully around the seats to get out, hopping to the concrete floor with a sharp scrape, subconsciously pulling her dress down. She felt a little unsteady on her feet for a few seconds, propping herself up on the side of the pod as the dizziness subsided. She picked up the shotgun and slung it over her right shoulder again.
"This is a very big warehouse," said Clara as she checked her pockets to make sure she had everything. "We were walking for a good hour, then running and then in this thing for twenty minutes or so, weren't we?"
"Each one of them is one hundred miles long," said Francis, putting on his ripped jacket.
Kodey blew out a low whistle, pulling up the sleeves of his red jumper.
"One hundred miles?" said Clara, making her way to the small door. It was six foot wide. "We would have been walking for days if you'd not found the transporter!" Clara smiled at him. "Everything about this place is just... big, isn't it?"
Francis laughed behind her. "If you say so... isn't bigger always better?"
"Where does this door go then?" said Clara whilst rolling her eyes, changing the subject, pointing towards the grey windowless shutter door.
"Probably more service corridors," said Francis, laughing at her, "and the next warehouse, probably."
"The next warehouse?" said Clara, unsure why she was surprised, "please don't tell me we have to go through all of this… again?"
"Hopefully there will be a transmitter or a pod for us to go in," said Francis, looking at his silver watch. "You've only got forty five minutes until they throw Sheila out."
"I am so going to start calling her that name," Clara smiled. "But I'm not worried about her."
"Why not?" said Kodey, "if that were my friend I'd be doing everything I could to get her back. You keep saying 'she'll be fine' but not making any attempt to help her. Why?"
Clara put a finger to her lips, pausing before responding. "I'm not worried about her, because... she can't die."
"What?" said Francis, incredulous, hands on his hips. "She can't die? Good one."
"Correct," said Clara, looking for the slot to put her hand into near the door.
"Everyone dies," said Francis, stopping her moving by her shoulder, "what do you mean, she can't die?"
"If they shoot her, her body heals," she sighed. "Yesterday she was shot a handful of times, she fell sixty stories off a crane and she impaled herself on some railings. She's also been knocking around for quite a while, so yes, forgive me for not worrying about her."
"What is she?" asked Kodey. "We've been working on body repair tech in the lab."
"She's... immortal," said Clara. "She just does not die."
"Immortal," snorted Kodey, "yeah right. Immortality is a myth, a fairy story."
"Trust me, it's not, she's immortal," said Clara, beginning to regret telling them, "but we have more pressing things to worry about."
"How is she immortal?" asked Kodey, still making fun of her.
"That... that is a very long story," Clara said, "which I will be more than happy to tell you tomorrow once we're all sat comfortably in the pub laughing and reminiscing about the fact we were almost killed in a zombie apocalypse yesterday, OK?"
"Are you immortal?" Francis asked, raising an eyebrow.
"No, I'm not," said Clara, sighing loudly, "I'm sort of perpetually dead, and again, that, I think, is something we can cover tomorrow." Clara reached for the skin graft in her left pocket, pulling it out, preparing to scan it when Kodey stopped her.
"Is that a good idea?"
Clara looked down at her hand. "It's the only thing that worked on the last couple of doors?" she said perplexed.
"They sent the drones after us, so they must know we're here, you said it yourself," he paused for breath, "they didn't know your name, so they must not have got into the mainframe yet."
"Good point," said Clara, nodding in agreement. "I wonder how they got Ashildr's credentials and no-one else's?"
"Let me try," said Francis, pushing past, "I should have clearance for all of the warehouse levels, I was in one on the other side earlier." He flashed a perfect smile at her. "Nothing unusual about that, is there?"
"Not at all, go ahead," said Clara, stepping away from the door.
Francis scanned his hand and the shutter began to open.
"Nice," said Clara smiling, "looks like you're a good person to know. We need to be ready to go, OK? Like last time, in case they stop the door." She looked at them, waiting for them to acknowledge.
Francis and Kodey both nodded back at her as they all waited for the door to lift high enough. It got to head height and they all ducked under it successfully. They were in a pitch black area, illuminated only by the light from the door opening. Clara made to get her phone out of her pocket again to use as a torch, but stopped when the lights above suddenly blinked to life.
They were in a large room full of disused equipment. Clara saw what appeared to be parts of metal shelving units, discarded video screens and many white fridge sized boxes. All of the items were covered in a thin layer of dust. Several large white marble statues were in the middle of the space, appearing to be depicting a small man in various powerful poses.
"What is this place?" said Clara as the door began to close behind them.
"Broken or unused equipment by the looks of it," Francis said. "Do you have your map?"
Clara fished into her pocket and threw him over the red square. He caught it easily and put it on top of one of the white boxes, opening it up.
"Who are those statues of?" Clara asked, heading in their direction.
"Oh, that's the bloke that built this place," Francis replied, inspecting the hologram coming out of the map. "Charles Dalstram II."
"That's him? He looks like a child!" she reflected looking at the large statues. "Saying that, maybe that would explain why everything is so big in this place," she said wryly, laughing to herself, "maybe he's overcompensating for some-"
There was a loud clatter of metal towards Clara's left side that caused them all to turn around. Clara looked back to Francis and Kodey cautiously, taking the shotgun off her shoulder to hold it in her hands.
A heavy object rattled onto the jagged concrete floor in front of her. She searched for something to associate the noise with but couldn't see anything moving. Clara tentatively moved a few paces forward, right index finger resting near the trigger. She heard a small yelp as she progressed further. Kodey and Francis stayed where they were, the holographic projection from the map spinning around gently in front of them.
Another crash accompanied a shelving unit falling down which Clara caught out of the corner of her right eye. She aimed herself in the direction of the noise, glancing nervously back, as she began moving between large pieces of metal and video screens.
Clara heard a small sniffling noise as she approached the area she had seen the falling unit. She felt something grab both of her legs, immediately pulling away in shock and pointing the gun in front of her. She gazed down and saw a young child sat on the floor wiping their nose, crying heavily, half shaded by the shadows cast by tall equipment all around.
"Hello?" said Clara softly, instinctively lowering the gun and putting it on the ground as she crouched down. The concrete scratched her right leg roughly due to the ripped tights.
"I- I- I-," sobbed the child, "can't f- f- find my mummy and daddy."
"Where did you last see them?" asked Clara, sitting up on her knees. Her eyes adjusted to the low light. She could make out the blonde child was wearing baby pink dungarees, a white jacket and black shoes. Her hair was tied up in loose pigtails. She looked about four years old, her face was red, glistening in the light due to crying. She couldn't discern any purple mottling on her skin, presuming she hadn't been infected.
"I-I-I don't know," the child faltered. "Big purple man took them away."
"Oh, it's OK, come here," said Clara, feeling her instincts kicking in, holding out her arms. The child walked over to Clara and hugged her, sobbing heavily. "What's your name?"
"Sky," she sniffled lightly into Clara's left shoulder.
"That's a very pretty name," said Clara, smiling, "and how old are you?"
"F-f-f-five," Sky stammered.
"You're five?" said Clara, pulling away to look at her, holding an arm reassuringly in each of her hands. "And you've lost your mummy and daddy?"
Sky nodded in front of her.
"Well we need to find them, then, don't we?" she said, brushing Sky's hair from the left hand side of her face, out of her eyes. "I'm Clara," she said, looking directly at Sky.
"C-C-C-Claaara?" asked Sky, her chin wobbling gently.
"That's right, Clara," Clara smiled warmly at her.
"What's happening?" whispered Francis, appearing behind her.
"It's OK," said Clara, turning her head to look behind and speak to him. "Nothing to worry about, Sky here has lost her parents and we're going to help find them, aren't we?"
Sky grabbed hold of her tightly, hiding out of Francis' eye line, beginning to cry loudly.
"Hey, hey," said Clara, turning back to Sky, "it's OK, we're going to look after you." She rubbed Sky's left shoulder.
Francis moved to stand next to her. "What are we going to do with her?" he whispered.
Clara stood up, holding out her right hand towards Sky who gripped on to it tightly. "Right now," Clara said in a loud whisper, "we are going to help her find her parents." She looked at him with raised eyebrows, willing him to play along, "because a big purple man has taken them away."
Francis nodded back at her. "Oh," he said quietly. Kodey began walking towards them.
"Sky," she said, looking down slightly, "this is my friend Francis," she pointed at him.
"Hello nipper," he said with concern now, crouching down. Sky hid herself behind Clara's legs, still holding her hand. Francis stood back up.
"Not very friendly, is she?" he said quietly to Clara, joking.
Clara hit him on the chest lightly. "Shut up, she's five, she's lost her parents in the universe's biggest shopping centre on the busiest day of the year," she whispered quietly, "we couldn't leave her here in normal circumstances, let alone with what the hell is going on outside, OK?"
"OK, point taken," nodded Francis after a slight pause.
"What are you two doing?" said Kodey, pacing over.
"We now appear to have gained a lost child," said Francis to him, sideways.
Kodey immediately moved to look at Sky, a brief glimmer of hope passing across his face, then resigned as he realised he didn't recognise her. He nodded silently to himself, running his left hand over his head, gazing up to the ceiling. "Don't be so stupid, Kodey," he muttered, leaning against the nearest white box.
Sky hid behind Clara's legs, letting go of her right hand and reaching for her left.
"Sky," said Clara, crouching down to look her. "This is my other friend Kodey," she pointed.
Sky let out a small whimper, backing off into the shadows.
"It's OK, Sky," Clara reassured her, "I'm- we're going to look after you."
Sky nodded, tightening her grip on Clara's left hand.
A very loud guttural groan echoed around the space, accompanied by a sound of shuffling footsteps on the rough concrete floor very close to them.
Kodey and Francis both immediately crouched down next to Clara. The three of them looked between each other, mouthing silent words. Clara picked up the shotgun with her right hand as quietly as possible, backing off from the noise, away from the direction they had just come from.