"Open fire!"
Rose and Zana squeezed their eyes closed as Jefferson and his guard immediately began shooting at the possessed Ood. Zana felt as though her eardrums were going to burst, but what else was new? This whole day had wreaked havoc on her, physically and mentally. Those bloody Cybermen that seemed to haunt her dreams whenever that voice chose not to seemed so small in comparison. One would think that she would decide right then and there that the traveling wasn't worth it, but the only thing she decided at that moment was that the Doctor and Rose were, and that was irrevocable.
"We're stabilizing!" The teen could faintly hear Zach cry over the comm as the shots eventually died down. "We've got orbit!"
Rose quickly looked over Zana before hurrying towards the comm, desperate to check on the Doctor as well, "Doctor? Doctor, can you hear me? Doctor, Ida, are you there?"
"Open door 25."
Zana gasped and quickly rushed behind Jefferson as that damned automated voice filled her ears. The two security guards instantly took aim as the door flew open, only to reveal Danny.
"It's me!" Danny breathed, holding his hands up. "But they're coming!"
"Close door 25."
"It's the Ood," he gulped. "They've gone mad!"
"How many of them?" Jefferson asked quickly.
"All of them! All fifty!"
Jefferson stepped forward, shoving Danny out of the way of the door, "Danny, out of the way. Out of the way!"
"But they're armed!" The frightened man tried to explain. "It's the interface device. I don't know how, but they're using it as a weapon!"
"Open door 25."
Jefferson ignored him and Zana instinctively stepped behind Danny as the Ood came into sight. The leading Ood wasted no time pressing its interface device to the poor guard's forehead, sending her to the floor with a horrifying scream.
"No..." Zana's voice cracked as more gunfire rang out, this time Jefferson being the lone gunman. Once the sound of bullets dissipated, she closed her eyes and sighed. What a day.
"Seal door 24!" Jefferson called. "Seal door 23!"
"Jefferson, what's happening there?" Zach's voice made Zana jump.
"I've got very little ammunition, sir. How about you?"
There was a short pause, "All I've got is a bolt gun. With er, all of one bolt. I could take out a grand total of one Ood. Fat lot of good that is!"
"Given the emergency, I recommend strategy nine," Jefferson's voice was filled with nothing but professionalism, which worried the teen. Obviously, this 'strategy nine' was quite serious, and that could mean one of two things. One, they leave the planet, or two, they exterminate the base. Zana didn't really fancy the latter.
"Strategy Nine," Zach repeated in slight disbelief before letting out a sigh. "Agreed. Right, we need to get everyone together. Zana? Rose? What about Ida and the Doctor? Any word?"
"I can't get a reply. Just nothing..." Rose's voice nearly broke. Zana moved towards her and laid a hand on her shoulder in an admittedly bad way to comfort her. "I keep trying, but it's-"
As if on cue, static filled the comm as the Doctor could be heard, "No, sorry, I'm fine! Still here!"
Rose visibly breathed an annoyed breath, "You could've said, you stupid-"
"Oi," Zana muttered as feedback interrupted her.
"Whoa! Careful!" The Doctor exclaimed. "Anyway, it's both of us. Me and Ida. Hello! But the seal opened up. It's gone...All we've got left is this chasm."
"How deep is it?" Zach asked.
"Can't tell. It looks like it goes down forever."
"The pit is open," Zana murmured, the demented voice still ringing in her ears. "That's what that voice said, Doctor..."
"But there's nothing," Zach frowned. "I mean there's nothing coming out?"
"No, no," the Doctor informed. "No sign of the Beast."
"It said Satan," Rose's voice was unusually quiet.
"Come on, Rose. Keep it together," the Doctor tried encouragingly.
"Is there no such thing?" When the Doctor didn't reply, Zana starting chewing on her bottom lip. "Doctor. Doctor, tell me there's no such thing."
"Ida?" Zach eventually spoke up. "I recommend that you withdraw. Immediately.
"But, we've come all this way!" Ida protested loudly. Zana flinched at the sudden cry.
"Okay, that was an order. Withdraw. When that thing opened, the whole planet's shifted. One more inch and we fall into the black hole! So this thing stops right now!"
"But it's not much better up there with the Ood," she argued.
"I'm initiating strategy nine, so I need the two of you back up top immediately, no ar-" There was a loud click, signaling that she had turned her comm off. "Ida. Ida!"
"Just bloody fantastic," Zana sat her hands on top of her head, trying to control her breathing. The last thing she needed was to slip into a panic attack, but the circumstances weren't helping her at all. She was still surprised she somehow managed to stay calm this long. "Rose."
"What is it?" Rose rested her hand on her friend's elbow. "Zan? You alright?"
"Did you know that the human brain is perfectly flawed?" Zana let out a soft laugh as she met Rose's gaze. "It can quite literally make or break a person. So why is mine being so bloody indecisive? It's given me the ability to study and read and absorb knowledge like no tomorrow, yet it's burdened me with...with..."
"Zana..." Rose spoke softly as she reached up and took her hand. She understood better than anyone just what Zana meant. "Hey, everything is going to be okay, I promise. I'm right here. Deep breaths, there you go..."
Zana inhaled deeply and closed her eyes for a moment. She thought of the things that she usually turned to. Her favorite books, her family, her favorite song...but everything was being overshadowed by one person. And guess who it was?
But it worked. Well, it worked enough for her to open her eyes and even out her breathing again, and her chest didn't feel like it was going to explode. So that definitely a plus.
"Better?" Rose asked softly, an assuring smile on her lips.
"A little," Zana nodded, though she couldn't meet her eyes. She felt like she was betraying her friend just thinking about the Time Lord like that. "Thank you, Rose."
"What are friends for?"
Zana laughed softly, albeit a bit nervously as she turned towards the comm.
"Rose, Zana, we're coming back," the Doctor turned his comm back on in that instant, making Rose and Zana look at each other in surprise. A wide smile broke out on both of their faces.
"Best news we've heard all day," Rose replied happily, but her happiness disappeared the moment she noticed the gun aimed at Toby's head. The poor man was sitting on the ground, obviously terrified. "What're you doing?"
"He's infected," Jefferson glared at Toby. "He brought that thing on board. You saw it!
"Are you going to start shooting your own people now, is that what you're going to do?" Rose stepped towards him. "Is it?"
Jefferson eyed her, "If necessary."
Zana stepped forward, her earlier anxieties seemingly gone. She felt back to normal, which she couldn't be more grateful for, and now that she was indeed her usual self, there was no way she was going to keep standing back and letting things just...happen. She needed to get involved.
"Jefferson, you can't shoot him. And if you do happen to attempt to hurt him, you'll have to shoot Rose and me as well," Zana watched as Rose crouched down and wrapped her arm around Toby. "Look at him...whatever had taken over him is gone, you saw it go into the Ood as well as I did."
The security guard sighed, "Any sign of trouble, I'll shoot him."
Zana refused to break eye contact with the man as he walked past her, but once he was out of sight she turned back to Rose, who was trying to comfort the man.
"Are you all right?" She asked softly.
"Yeah," he nodded, visibly shaken, and not too different than how Zana had looked mere moments earlier. "I don't know."
"Can you remember anything?"
"Just, it was so angry. It was fury and rage and death. It was him...It was the devil."
"Come here..." Rose pulled Toby into a tight embrace.
Zana smiled adoringly as she watched her friend calm the obviously terrified man, and she knew that the blonde definitely had a knack for watching out for people. She knew, at that moment, that she was extremely grateful to have a friend like Rose, because no one, and she meant no one, not even Emily, had attempted to calm her down during one of her attacks like that. In Rose, she had found the one thing she had been lacking for oh so long...a friend. A best friend.
She had found a best friend in Rose Tyler. Who knew?
"Okay, we're in," Ida's voice made Zana turn towards the comm. She made her way over, followed by Rose. "Bring us up."
Jefferson nodded, "Ascension in three, two, one-"
Just as Zana was expecting to hear the sounds of the capsule being pulled up, the entire room went dark. Jefferson immediately gripped his gun, ready to fire at a moment's notice.
"This can't be good..." Zana murmured as she looked around, and just to confirm her statement, the voice, that demented voice from earlier filled the air.
"This is the darkness. This is my domain," the monitor above the comm flashed on to reveal multiple Ood. "You little things that live in the light, clinging to your feeble suns which die in the-"
"That's not the Ood," Zach breathed. "Something's talking through them..."
"...only the darkness remains..."
"This is Captain Zachary Cross Flane of Sanctuary Base Six, representing the Torchwood archive," Zach stated, his tone having gone from worried to authoritative in an instant. "You will identify yourself."
"You know my name."
"What do you want?"
"You will die here. All of you. This planet is your grave."
"It's him. It's him. It's him," Toby murmured to himself. Zana glanced at him for a second, wondering if she should go to him, but then the Doctor started to speak, completely ridding her mind of any idea that meant leaving the comms.
"If you are the Beast, then answer me this. Which one, hmm?" Zana could almost see him raising an eyebrow as he asked the question. "Cos the universe has been busy since you've been gone. There's more religions than there are planets in the sky. The Archiphets, Orkology, Christianity, Pash Pash, New Judaism, San Klah, Church of the Tin Vagabond. Which devil are you?"
"All of them," the voice replied simply.
"What, then you're the truth behind the myth?"
"This one knows me as I know him. The killer of his own kind."
Zana's eyes widened slightly. She knew how that would have hit the Doctor.
"How did you end up on this rock?" He asked, seemingly without a care in the world.
"The Disciples of the Light rose up against me and chained me in the pit for all eternity."
"When was this?"
"Before time."
The Doctor scoffed, "What does that mean?"
"Before time."
"What does before time mean?"
"Before light and time and space and matter. Before the cataclysm. Before this universe was created."
"That's impossible. No life could have existed back then."
"Is that your religion?"
"It's a belief."
"You know nothing. All of you, so small. The Captain, so scared of command," Zana instantly thought of Zach. "The soldier, haunted by the eyes of his wife," then Jefferson. "The scientist, still running from Daddy," her mind flashed to Ida. "The little boy who lied," she glanced at Danny, who looked down guiltily. "The virgin," Toby looked down. "The lost girl, so far away from home," the teen looked over at Rose, who looked just as confused as she did. "The valiant child, who will die in battle so very soon, and the girl whose heart will never be the same afterwards."
"Doctor, what does that mean?" Rose asked instantly.
"Rose, don't listen," the Doctor told her quickly, a bit too quickly for Zana's liking.
"What does it mean?" She repeated.
"You will die and I will live!" The image of the Ood suddenly flashed to show what Zana could only describe as...the devil. It looked exactly like he was portrayed in religious texts, in textbooks, in any sort of painting or drawing of the fallen angel. She gulped, but she stayed surprisingly calm, despite the commotion around her.
"What the hell was that?" Danny demanded.
"I had that thing inside my head!" Toby exclaimed.
"Doctor, what did it mean?" Rose breathed, obviously trying to keep calm.
Danny turned to the security guard, "What do we do? Jefferson?"
"Captain?" Jefferson spoke into his communicator. "What's the situation on strategy nine?"
"Zach, what do we do?"
"The planet, the orbit, the black hole..." Toby murmured. "Everything's true."
"Captain, report!" Jefferson demanded.
"We've lost pictures, Mr. Jefferson," Zach informed.
Rose gulped, "Doctor, how did it know all of-"
"Did anyone get an analy-" Ida tried, only to be cut off by Zach.
"Jefferson-"
The Doctor sighed, "Stop-"
"What did it mean?" Rose demanded.
"Rose, don't worry-" Zana took Rose's free hand, but she was worried about what the beast had said as well. Die in battle? How would that ever happen to Rose?
The loud, shrill sound of feedback filled the air, effectively silencing everyone, much to Zana's relief.
"Everyone just stop!" The Doctor shouted. "You want voices in the dark, then listen to mine. That thing is playing on very basic fears. Darkness, childhood nightmares, all that stuff."
"But that's how the devil works," Danny countered.
"Or a very good psychologist," Zana remarked offhandedly.
Ida huffed, "Yeah, but how did it know about my father?"
"Okay, but what makes his version of the truth any better than mine, hmm?" The Doctor asked. "Cos I'll tell you what I can see. Humans. Brilliant humans. Humans who travel all the way across space, flying in a tiny little rocket right into the orbit of a black hole, just for the sake of discovery!" Zana smiled softly as she glanced at Danny, Jefferson, and Toby. "That's amazing! Do you hear me? Amazing, all of you. The Captain, his Officer, his elders, his juniors, his friends. All with one advantage...The Beast is alone. We are not. If we can use that to fight against him-"
Everyone jumped in surprise at the sound of the cables to the capsule snapping in half. No one even had time to react as the cables plummeted towards the center of the planet.
"Doctor, we lost the cable!" Rose exclaimed into the comm. "Doctor, are you all right? Doctor!"
"Comms are down," Zach sighed.
Of course, that didn't stop Rose. "Doctor? Doctor, can you hear me?"
"I've still got life signs, but we've lost the capsule..."
"Say something. Are you there?"
Zach gulped, "There's no way out...They're stuck down there..."
"But we've got to bring them back!" Rose looked down the dark mineshaft as if she could see the Doctor and Ida staring back up at her.
"They're ten miles down," Jefferson informed softly, his eyes glued as well. "We haven't got another ten miles of cable."
A loud banging emitted from the door, making everyone jump.
"As if things couldn't get worse," Zana murmured.
Jefferson pressed down on his comm immediately, "Captain? Situation report."
Zana started chewing on her bottom lip, waiting on Zach's reply, which took a few moments. "It's the Ood. They're cutting through the door bolts. They're breaking in.
"Yeah, it's the same on door 25," Jefferson murmured, stepping back from the door.
"How long do you think it will take for them to finish the job, Jefferson?" Zana questioned, her eyes locked on the door.
"Well, it's only a basic frame, it should take ten minutes," he paused when another bolt was cut. "Eight."
"I've got a security frame," Zach informed. "It might last a bit longer, but that doesn't help you."
"Are there any other ways out?" Zana murmured. "Because we either get out, or we stop the Ood."
"Or both," Rose added, making Zana nod in approval.
"I'll take both, yeah?" Danny replied, exasperated. "But how?"
"You heard the Doctor. Why do you think that thing cut him off? Cos he was making sense!" Rose exclaimed to Danny, ignoring the banging in the background. "He was telling you to think your way out of this!"
"We can't really do anything if we can't see," Zana interrupted, seeing that her friend was growing irritated. "There must be some sort of generator, something that can fix the power. Jefferson? Zach?"
"There's nothing I can do," Zach's voice was filled with frustration. "Some Captain, stuck in here, pressing buttons."
"Zach," Zana gave him a warm smile despite the fact that he had no way of seeing it. "I think that's what the Doctor was saying. All it takes is the right buttons."
"They've gutted the generators!" He exclaimed, seemingly defeated. "But the rocket's got an independent supply...If I could reroute that. Mr. Jefferson? Open the bypass conduits! Override the safety!"
"Opening bypass conduits, sir."
"Channeling rocket feed in three, two, one. Power!"
And just like that, the lights whirred to life, making Zana laugh out of excitement.
"There we go!" Rose clapped, beaming at the brunette.
"Let there be light!" Danny added cheerfully.
The blond turned to Jefferson, pulling on her bottom lip. Despite the small success of the lights turning on, she was still worried. And rightfully so, Zana thought. "Now what about that strategy nine thing?"
"Not enough power," Jefferson informed. "It needs a hundred percent."
"All right, we need a way out. Zach, Mr. Jefferson, you start working on that," she turned and looked over at Toby, who had been silent during the whole fiasco. "Toby, what about you?
"I'm not a soldier," Toby stood and stepped away from her. "I can't do anything!"
"No, you're the archaeologist," Rose countered, making him turn around. "What do you know about the pit?"
"Well, nothing! We can't even translate the language!"
"Right," she waved him off and turned to go back to the others.
Toby paused, "Hold on...Maybe."
Zana frowned and stepped forward as well, "What is it, Toby?"
"Since that thing was inside my head, it's like the letters made more sense."
"Well, get to work. Anything you can translate, just anything," she nodded and stepped past Zana, over to Danny. "As for you, Danny boy. You're in charge of the Ood. Any way of stopping them?"
"Well," he started but huffed."I don't know."
"Then find out!" Rose offered encouragingly, pulling him in front of the monitor. "The sooner we get control of the Base, the sooner we can get the Doctor out. Shift."
"Spoken like a true leader," Zana commented as she leaned against the railing. Rose soon joined her, sparing a quick glance in her direction before staring down the mineshaft again. "Is that a side effect of the Doctor? The authoritarian vibe?"
"Not really authoritarian, I would say," Rose nudged her with her hip before turning to make her way back to the others. Zana noticed her flinch as another bolt was cut on the door and sighed.
"Open junctions five, six, seven," Jefferson was saying as she made her way over as well. "Reroute filters sixteen to twenty-four. Go."
"There's all sorts of viruses that could stop the Ood," Danny informed the brunette, annoyed. "Trouble is, we haven't got them on board."
"Well, that's handy, listing all the things we haven't got," Rose replied, having overheard. "We haven't got a swimming pool either. Or a Tesco's!"
Zana chuckled as the screen before then flashed 'AFFIRMATIVE'.
"Oh, my God. It says yes! I can do it!" Danny laughed, turning to face Zana completely now. "Hypothetically, if you flip the monitor, broadcast a flare, it can disrupt the telepathy. Brainstorm!"
Zana smiled at him, "What happens to the Ood?"
"It'll tank them spark out!"
"There we are, then," Rose nodded. "Do it!"
Danny's excitement faded, "No, but I'd have to transmit from the central monitor. We need to go to Ood Habitation."
Another loud bang rang out as the Ood cut the next bolt on the door. Rose simply patted Danny on the back. "That's what we'll do, then." She stepped past him, "Mr. Jefferson, sir. Any way out?"
"Just about," he murmured, busy at work. "There's a network of maintenance tunnels running underneath the base. We should be able to gain access from here."
Rose grinned, "Ventilation shafts."
"Yeah, I appreciate the reference, but there's no ventilation. No air, in fact, at all. They were designed for machines, not life forms."
And yet another bolt.
"But," Zach's voice called. "I can manipulate the oxygen field from here. Create discrete pockets of atmosphere. If I control it manually, I can follow you through the network."
"Right, so we go down, and you make the air follow us...by hand," Rose sounded unsure.
"You wanted me pressing buttons," he replied simply.
"Yeah, I asked for it," she nodded. "Okay, we need to get to Ood Habitation. Work out a route."
Jefferson nodded and quickly made work of opening the grated floor. Sparks erupted from the door as another bolt was cut, which jolted everyone into action. Zana, Toby, and Rose instantly rushed over to the security guard's side, ready to get the hell out of that place.
"Danny! Come on!" Zana exclaimed, beckoning the man over quickly. "We've got to go!"
"Hold on! Just conforming!" He waved her off and continued with his work on the computer.
"Dan, we got to go now!" Jefferson shouted louder than Zana had. "Come on!"
"Yeah!" Danny yanked an orange chip from the computer with a large grin on his face. "Put that in the monitor and it's a bad time to be an Ood."
"We're coming back. Have you got that?" Rose looked at everyone one by one. "We're coming back to this room and we're getting the Doctor out!"
"Okay," Jefferson nodded quickly, shoving Danny towards the tunnels. "Danny, you go first, then you, Miss Tyler, followed by Miss Kline, then Toby. I'll go last in defensive position. Now, come on, quick as you can!"
Danny and Rose made quick work jumping down, and Zana was definitely close behind. She hesitantly looked around the moment she was inside and gulped. Claustrophobia has always been something that she's had, so she had a feeling that this wasn't going to be as fun as it looked in the movies.
"God, it stinks," Rose muttered before glancing at Danny, who Zana noticed looked extremely nervous. Not that she blamed him, so was she. "You all right?"
"Yeah, I'm laughing," he answered sarcastically before speaking into his communicator. "Which way do we go?"
"Just go straight ahead. Keep going till I say so," Zach replied.
With that, Danny started crawling. After only a few feet in, Zana's knees started to ache, and to top it off, her fear of small spaces definitely started kicking in, so she did the only thing she could, really. She planted her eyes on the floor below. If she at least pretended that she wasn't in a not-so-ventilated ventilation shaft and wasn't running from the devil himself and that the Doctor wasn't ten miles beneath this impossible planet's surface, then maybe she could stay in the calm state she was in at the moment.
"Not your best angle, Danny," Rose murmured, and of course Zana couldn't help but chuckle, even though she couldn't see anything but the silver floor below her.
"Oi, stop it!" Danny grumbled.
"I don't know, it could be worse," Zana heard Toby say from behind her and her eyes widened slightly.
"Eyes front, Toby," she murmured, her cheeks having gone a soft shade of pink.
"Straight on until you find junction seven point one. Keep breathing. I'm feeding you air," Zach reminded softly. "I've got you."
Zana could have sworn that they had been crawling for miles but thought it wise not to complain. After all, they were in a life and death situation, and she was scared of crawling through a tunnel. Not the most pressing matter at hand, is it? She certainly didn't think so. Once they eventually came to the
"We're at seven point one, sir."
"Okay, I've got you," Zach murmured. "I'm just aerating the next section."
"Getting kind of cramped, sir," Danny told the captain impatiently. "Can't you hurry up?"
"I'm working on half power, here," he informed with a hint of annoyance.
"Stop complaining!" Jefferson huffed, leaning against the tunnel wall as he tried to catch his breath, which was admittedly hard to do with a low oxygen supply.
Rose turned to the annoyed Danny. "Mr. Jefferson says stop complaining."
Danny gave her a look, "I heard."
Zana decided to join, "Hey, he heard, Rose."
"Oh, alright," she nodded and looked at Jefferson. "He heard."
"But the air's getting a bit thin," Toby murmured into his communicator.
"He's complaining now," Rose turned to the security guard.
Jefferson just closed his eyes, "I heard."
Zana and Rose gave each other a quick, amused smile, but something else caught the blonde's attention.
"Danny, is that you?" Rose turned her head and sniffed before crinkling her nose
"I'm not exactly happy," Danny defended weakly.
"I'm just moving the air," Zach defended himself. "I've got to oxygenate the next section. Now, keep calm or it's going to feel worse."
Zana went to tell him that everything was okay, but a loud bang! made her, and everyone else, jump. They instantly looked down the way they had just crawled, looking for the source of the noise as lights started to flash, but found absolutely nothing. Jefferson cocked his gun and aimed it towards the empty tunnel in front of him, ready to shoot.
"What was that?" Danny demanded.
Rose gulped, "Mr. Jefferson, what was that?"
"What's that noise?" Toby breathed.
Jefferson frowned, "Captain, what was that?"
"The junction in Habitation Five's been opened," Zana could hear the worry in Zach's voice. "It must be the Ood. They're in the tunnels!"
"Well, open the gate!" Danny declared like it was obvious.
"I've got to get the air in!"
"Just open it, sir!" He cried.
"Are they nearby, Zach?" Zana asked hurriedly.
"I don't know. I can't tell. I can't see them," Zach's response was just as quick as the Ood became almost unbearably loud. "The computer doesn't register Ood as proper life forms!"
"Who was the idiot that came up with that?" She practically yelled, her voice shaking. "Zach!"
"Open the gate!" Danny screamed and Zana squeezed her eyes shut, dreading the second that the Ood would appear before them. They had gotten so far! They were so close to fixing everything! All of that, just to die, here, in a bloody tunnel by possessed aliens! How unlucky can Zana Kline get? But as if someone had heard her thoughts and wanted to prove her wrong, the gate flew open. Danny was quick to lead everyone through it, much to the teen's delight.
"Danny, turn left," Zach instructed. "Immediate left!"
"The Ood, sir!" Jefferson shouted. "Can't you trap them? Cut off the air?"
"Not without cutting off yours," Zach replied simply. "Danny, turn right. Go right! Go fast, Dan. They're going to catch up!"
Suddenly, Jefferson stopped as the others rushed as fast as they could.
"I'll maintain defensive position!" Jefferson informed.
"You can't just stop!" Zana exclaimed, trying to look back at him, but it was no use, Between the crawling and Toby, he was out of her range of sight.
"Miss Kline, that's my job. You've got your task, now see to it!" He held his gun up high.
"You heard what he said, now shift!" Toby yelled at the brunette.
Zana gulped but picked up the pace as the sound of gunfire overwhelmed her. She didn't want to leave him alone...
"Eight point two," Danny informed as they came to a halt at the next gate. "Open eight point two. Zach! Open eight point two!"
"I've got to aerate it!" Zach snapped.
"Open it now!" He practically screamed as the gunshots appeared to get louder.
"I'm trying!"
Danny growled and started banging his fist against the gate angrily.
"Danny, stop it," Rose scolded. "That's not helping!"
"Zach, get it open!" Toby demanded. Zana sent a sideways glance in his direction, but did nothing, What could she do anyway? Scold him as Rose did to Danny?
"Jefferson, I've got to open eight-point two by closing eight point one. You've got to get past the junction! Now move!" Zach ordered, but no reply came, and Zana certainly didn't hear the sound of Jefferson moving towards them "That's an order, now move! I'm going to lose oxygen, Jefferson, I can't stop for your dramatics!"
"That's it! Come on!" Danny practically cheered as the gate opened. A few seconds later, the sound of Jefferson close behind eased Zana somewhat as they crawled through the next gate.
"Danny, turn left and head for nine point two. That's the last one," Zach told the group and Zana was so relieved to hear it, though her hands still shook. "Jefferson, you've got to move faster. John, move!"
Zana turned to head to look back at Jefferson, who was considerably behind the group. Her heart constricted in her chest at the sight, and she so desperately wanted to go back and help him. "Come on, Jefferson! Hurry!"
"Keep going!" Toby exclaimed and shoved her forward, but all Zana could see was the gate closing.
With Jefferson on the wrong side.
A/N: Hey! Hi! Hello! :) How is everyone? Good, I hope!