Chapter 17: World War Three
Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who, it belongs to BBC
Dear Doubt- Michael Schulte
Oh my God the walls are closing in,
The pressure's on, the floor is caving in,
So better just leave and run,
Through the fire, I will just run,
Over fences I will jump,
Cut the wires to the wild,
Oh I will run.
Kit had heard people saying that sometimes time just stops. She never experienced it until this moment. Everything seemed to slow to a stop when the future Slitheen pulled his blaster from behind his back and pointed it at the Doctor. Her head pounded as she tried to figure out what to do. She stood there frozen for a moment.
Do something! Her mind screamed at her.
Do something? Sure but what? She had no plan and no idea how to stop something like this.
I never have a plan! Her Doctors words rang in her head. Just go with your gut.
And so she did. She kicked open the door and jumped on the future Siltheens back. She covered its eyes as it thrashed about.
"Get off me!" It yelled as it tried to shake her off.
Kit could see the Doctor watching in bemusement. "Don't just stand there!" She yelled at the Doctor. "Go deal with the other two!"
This seemed to pull the Doctor out of his daze. She only managed to see the Doctor take one of the ID cards off someone before the future Siltheen ran backwards into a wall causing her back to smash against it. It knocked the wind out of her. It did it again and again, each time making her feel dizzier. The pain was becoming too much and she finally let go. She slid down the wall and landed on her butt.
The Slitheen turned around to face her, his face showed pure furry. "You, pestilent child!" It roared, pointing its gun at her.
Kit shut her eyes tight, waiting for the pain from the gun. Instead of hearing the gun go off, she heard screaming. She opened her eyes to see the future Slitheen enveloped in electricity like the other people. She looked behind the future Slitheen to see the other two in the same state. On the revealed Slitheen, an ID card was attached to his collar.
The Doctor ran over to her and helped her up. "That's not going to hold them forever."
"So, run?"
He nodded and gave her a mad smile. "Run!"
He took her hand and they dashed out of the room. They ran down the corridors but stopped when they came face-to-face with a group of armed police.
"Oi! If you want aliens, you've got them. They're inside Downing Street. Come on!" The Doctor instructed.
They ran back to where they came from with the armed police following close behind. They burst through the door but the revealed Slitheen was back in his skin.
They straightened. "Where have you been?" One of the Slitheen demanded. "I called for help. I sounded the alarm. There was this lightening, this kind of, er, electricity, and they all collapsed."
Kit bit the inside of her cheek as the police checked the bodies. She looked up at the Doctor. They both had the same expression that said, this doesn't look good for us.
"I think they're all dead," one of the officers stated.
"We know!" The future Slitheen snapped. "It was that man and that child," he sneered and pointed at them. The police turned to them with their guns up.
"Wait, wait, wait!" Kit shouted. "Before you shoot us, what if I told you that the Prime Minister was actually an alien in disguise."
"We would say your lying… badly," one of the officers said.
Kit shoulders slumped. "Yeah, that's what I thought you would say."
The Doctor took her hand. "I think this might be a good time to run again."
"Yeah, running sound good."
They took off running with the armed police casing after them. They ran down a corridor but were stopped by another group of armed police. They circled them, backing them against the wall.
They raised their hands up. "This seems to be happening to us a lot today," Kit muttered.
The future Slitheen pushed through the police. "No, no! Don't back them up against that wall!"
"Why not, sir?" One of the officers asked.
"Well," the Doctor piped in with a grin, "because you just backed us up right against the lift."
The lift door dinged open. The Doctor and Kit took a step backwards and entered the elevator. Before the police could follow them in, the Doctor soniced the doors closed.
Kit let herself relax a bit. She knew she couldn't for long though. She had to figure out a way to get rid of the future Slitheen.
The lift finally came to a stop and the doors opened. Behind the doors was a Slitheen. It roared at them, ready to attack.
"Hello," the Doctor grinned.
"Sorry but this lift is full. You're going to have to wait for the next one," Kit added.
The Doctor soniced the doors closed and then started up again. The lift stopped and opened. They looked around making sure no Slitheen were around this time. They left the lift and Kit followed the Doctor down the hall. Kit wasn't exactly sure where the Doctor was going or what his plan was but she knew there was a determination in his step.
They ran down a set of stairs and went down another hall. Kit had no idea where she was anymore, all the halls were starting to look the same. They stopped suddenly when they heard the lift ding. The Doctor pulled Kit behind a wall.
Three Slitheen walked out of the lift and made their way towards them. Kit held her breath and hoped the Slitheen wouldn't spot them.
"If it wasn't for that stupid girl the Doctor would be dead already!" One of the Slitheen, which she assumed was the future one, sneered. This caused Kit to frown.
"But the Doctor isn't dead, so what do we do next?" A different Slitheen asked.
"I have a plan. Trust me."
"That's what you said last time and look how well that went!" The other Slitheen argued.
"Don't worry! We just need to lure the Doctor into…" But Kit couldn't hear the rest as they were too far for her to hear.
Kit knew she need to separate the future Slitheen from the rest of the group before they found out too much about the future. If she could kill the future Slitheen then maybe everything would play out like it was suppose to.
"You really seemed to have pissed one of them off," the Doctor teased.
"Me? You're the one they want to kill so badly," Kit argued.
"Fair point. I'm just not sure why they want to kill me. I don't think did anything to them."
Not yet, Kit thought to herself.
Kit looked down the hall where the Slitheen went. "Where do you think they're going?"
"Nowhere good, I'm sure," the Doctor replied. "Come on, let's find out." They started down the hall but the Doctor stopped. He pulled a fire extinguisher off the wall. Kit gave him a questioning look. "Just in case."
They ran down the corridor until they heard screaming coming from one of the rooms. It didn't take a genius to know the Slitheen were probably in there. They burst through the door to see Rose and a different woman being cornered by the three Slitheen. The Doctor used the fire extinguisher to blind the Slitheen.
"Out, with me!" The Doctor ordered.
Rose then pulled the curtains down over one of the Slitheen and ran up beside Kit and the Doctor. The other woman in the room also ran to stand with them. Kit looked the woman up and down, and realized that it was the woman from early.
"You're the woman from before," Kit paused. "Who exactly are you?"
"Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North," she replied.
"Having a good time?"
"I've had better."
The Doctor sprayed the Siltheen with the CO2 again. The four of them then took off running out of the room. They ran down the hallway as fast as they could. Kit could hear they Siltheens roaring in anger.
"We need to head to the Cabinet Room," the Doctor told them as they ran.
"The Emergency Protocols are in there. They give instructions for aliens," Harriet Jones added.
"Harriet Jones, I like you."
"And I like you too."
They kept running but Kit had a sneaking suspicion that the Cabinet Room was where the future Slitheen wanted them to go. Kit stopped abruptly. She needed to get the future Slitheen away from the other Slitheens and the Doctor. She wasn't going to be able to do that inside the Cabinet Room. If the future Slitheen wanted them there then she needed to keep it as far away from that room as possible.
"Kit, come one!" The Doctor urged her.
Kit bit her lip. "I'm going to distract them."
The Doctors jaw dropped. "What? Don't be stupid. We'll be safe in the Cabinet Room. Now, let's go." He stuck out his hand for her to take.
Kit backed away and shook her head. She knew she couldn't explain to him why she needed to do this but she had to convince him somehow.
"We won't make it if all four are after us. If I can distract them all longer enough or even stop one of them, then you might have a chance."
"They'll kill you!"
"Then that's on me not you."
"Kittredge, I'm not—"
They suddenly heard the Slitheen roar even closer.
"We have no time to argue about this! Go!"
His face looked defeated. "Fine but be careful and don't get killed."
She smiled. "I'll try. Now, go!"
The Doctor nodded solemnly and took off running. Kit turned around and headed towards the Slitheen. She stood in the hallway as the Slitheen ran towards her. She gulped thinking that maybe this was a bad idea. They stopped in front of her and glared.
"And who is this?" The female Slitheen asked.
"The human child that's with the Doctor," the future Slitheen replied. "She has become quite the annoyance. I can't wait to rip her limb from limb."
"And that sounds great but before you do, I have to know something. Why go back in time to kill the Doctor? How is that going to help you?" She tried to stall.
"How do you know that?!"
"The question you should be asking is how come you haven't been able to kill the Doctor yet?"
The future Slitheen sneered. "Because of you!"
"Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner! You see, me and you, were a lot alike at the moment."
"You're also from the future," it concluded.
"Bingo! But unlike you I'm here to save the Doctor."
The future Slitheen glared at her. "Then I'm going to have to kill you first." It turned to the other Slitheens. "Go find the Doctor. I'll be with you once I take care of this brat." The other Slitheens ran past her. "Make this easy on the both of us and give up now."
Kit grinned. "Sure, yeah, I'll give up… if you can catch me!"
She took of running down a hallway, no real destination in mind. In fact, she really didn't have a plan or a way to kill this thing. She was starting to regret telling the Slitheen that she was from the future but at least she got the Slitheen away from the Doctor and the other Slitheens.
She looked behind her to see the Slitheen catching up with her. She had to think! Kit remembered seeing a picture of the Slitheen before but she couldn't remember what the Doctor said about them. It had been such a long time ago.
Seven-year-old Kittredge wondered the halls of the Tardis looking for the Doctor. She'd been looking for hours now but had come up with nothing. She knew the Tardis was big but she never knew it was this big. Usually the Tardis made sure everything was close by for her but today the Tardis was feeling playful and, therefore, making it hard for her to find the Doctor.
"It's not funny anymore!" She whined to the Tardis. "Where's the Doctor?"
The Tardis groaned like she was saying: Oh don't be a party-pooper.
Kittredge crossed her arms and stomped her foot. "I am not being a party-pooper! You-you're a party-pooper!"
The Tardis groaned again, saying: Really? Is that the best you can do?
Kittredge frowned. "Oh, shut it! I just want to go on another adventure. I'll play with you after." She didn't hear anything from the Tardis. "Don't you want to go on another adventure?"
There was a pause and then a groan. Maybe.
"Then show me where he is!" She didn't hear anything and then a door appeared beside her. "Thank you."
Kittredge opened the door but instead of seeing the Doctor, she saw a giant wave of water coming towards her. It landed against some rocks that were close to the door. The back splash, though, hit her and drenched her. She slammed the door shut before more water could hit her. Kittredge could hear the Tardis laughing.
"That wasn't funny!" She fumed, squeezing the water out of her shirt.
It was funny for me, the Tardis laughed.
"I'm going to get you back!"
I'd like to see you try.
Kittredge huffed. "Can you just show me where he is?"
She heard the Tardis sigh. A door appeared in front of her. She went over to it and turned the handle cautiously. She opened it a crack and looked inside. It was a small room with books scattered around it in piles. At the very back was a large desk with papers on it and behind the desk was the Doctor. Kittredge smiled and opened the door fully. She walked in, her shoes squeaking from the water. The Doctor looked up at her with a smile but then frowned.
"Kittredge, why are you all wet?" He asked.
"The Tardis," she grumbled. "I was trying to find you but she kept playing tricks!"
He shook his head and beckoned her to come. "Oh sweetie, you know she doesn't mean any harm."
"I know but it wasn't very nice."
"No, I suppose it wasn't," he smiled. "Why are you looking for me anyways?"
"I was bored and wanted to go on another adventure."
"Of course. Let me just finish this up," he told her and went back to the small blue book in front of him.
She nodded and waited around as he wrote in the book. She looked across the desk. All over it were drawings of different creatures. One drawing caught her attention above the rest. It was a drawing a weird green thing. It had big black eyes and a hunch.
"What's that?" Kittredge asked, pointing at the picture.
He looked up and then down at what she was pointing at. "A Slitheen."
"A what?"
"Slitheen," he said slowly. "You don't have to worry. They're not that scary."
She gave him a skeptical look. "They look pretty scary."
"If you're really worried about them, I can tell you their weakness?" Kittredge nodded enthusiastically. "Vinegar"
"Vinegar? Just vinegar?"
"Yep, not so scary anymore, huh?" He smiled then closed his book. "Now, where would you like to go?"
Kittredge had a sneaky smile. "I was thinking somewhere underwater."
She heard the Tardis groan. Don't you dare!
"Underwater?" The Doctor questioned then smiled. "Brilliant plan! I know just the place. What would you say about seeing the Lost City of Atlantis?"
Kit snapped herself out of her memory. Vinegar! She thought. But where the hell am I going to find vinegar here?
She knew she could find vinegar in a kitchen but she had no idea if this place had a kitchen or where it would be. Kit made the mistake of looking behind her. The Slitheen was almost catching up with her. She needed to think of something fast or she was going to die at age twelve.
Kit turned a corner and noticed a door at the end of the hallway that said 'Storage Closet'. An idea came to mind. She said a small prayer to the universe that people here used vinegar to clean and then made a mad dash to the closet. She took out her sonic screwdriver and unlocked the door as she ran towards it. When she finally reached the door, she flung it open and entered the storage closet. She closed it as fast as she could and locked it with her sonic.
She let out a sigh of relief but it was short lived when she heard the Slitheen banging on the door.
"You can't hide in there forever!" It roared. "If you come out now, I'll make your death painless."
"Man, that's a tempting offer but I think I'll pass."
The Slitheen growled. "Your death will be most satisfying." It then went back to trying to break down the door.
Kit's heart was beating rapidly in her chest. She looked around the small closet. There was a broom, a mop and a shelf that held different cleaning supplies but she couldn't see any vinegar. Kit started to panic. If there was not vinegar in the closet, then she was basically just a sitting duck. She went over to the shelf, looking over each bottle that could be vinegar or have vinegar in it. There was nothing.
She heard a loud bang and turned to see the Slitheen trying breaking down the door. Her breath was coming out quick and her heart felt like it was going to beat out of her chest. She kept looking around the closet for vinegar but her hope was slowly dwindling down.
"I can smell you fear, child, it's invigorating," the Slitheen taunted.
"Shut up, shut up, shut up," Kit muttered as she moved a broom out of the way.
Was this really how she was going to go? Dying in a storage closet by the less-then-jolly green giant? She had a hard time believing it.
She looked up at the ceiling. "Please, universe, help me out one last time," she begged.
Suddenly something caught her eyes. On the very top shelf, at the very back, was a bottle with clear liquid in it. Her heart started beating faster with hope. She climbed up the first two bottom shelves and reached back to get the bottle. When she had it in her hands, she jumped down from the shelf. She looked the bottle over and then smiled. On a white label, the word vinegar was written. She didn't know if she wanted to laugh or cry in relief. She didn't get a chance to decide because the door suddenly fell apart. Kit moved the vinegar behind her back.
"Finally!" It exclaimed as it made its way closer to her. "You have caused me quite the headache."
Kit moved back until her back hit the wall. "Look, I'm going to give you a chance because I know that's what the Doctor would do. One chance to turn around and go back to your time."
The Slitheen laughed. "Go back?! Now why would I do that? Once I kill you and the Doctor, I'll have everything I've every wanted. My family will finally get what they deserve after so many decades of being looked at as nothing! We'll finally be as rich as we always hoped. Our name will be famous! We won't be rotting in the gutters for any longer." As it was talking, Kit started to open the bottle of vinegar.
"Right, good story, but in what chapter do you shut the hell up?" She teased one last time.
The Slitheen sneered. "I really am going to enjoy killing you."
The green alien lunged towards her but it didn't get too far. Kit managed to uncap the bottle of vinegar and toss the liquid at the Slitheen. Nothing happened for a couple of seconds and Kit was struck was a sudden fear that it didn't work but then the Slitheen started to cry it pain. Before Kit knew what was happening, the future Slitheen exploded. Green goop went everywhere and all over her.
Kit looked down at herself. "Oh, that's disgusting! I'm going to smell like guts for weeks!" She couldn't really complain too much. She was still alive after all.
Kit stood in the closet for a while. Her head had finally stopped hurting and she was finally able to let herself relax. She hoped things would go back to how they were suppose to happen. Though, she wasn't sure how the Doctor would solve this problem.
After some deep breaths, she decided it was time to find the Doctor and Rose. She left the closet and made her way to the Cabinet Room. She stopped suddenly when she saw two Slitheens that were back it their skin. Kit ducked behind a wall, out of sight.
They looked around like they were making sure no one was around to hear them.
"Do you feel it?" The one in the military general skin asked.
"Yes," the other one grumbled. "He's dead. The fool!"
"What are we suppose to do now? We have no way of knowing if what we're doing will work. He never even told us what went wrong!"
"That self-righteous idiot!" It fumed. "We'll do what we had planned before."
"But we don't know if that'll work."
"Like he's plan was going to work any better. His first one went so well," it rolled its eyes.
"But he said it wouldn't work!" The other one stressed.
"Well, if you have a better plan then by all means, tell me!" It snapped. The Slitheen took a deep breath in and out. "We'll go up the Prime Ministers office and get the codes. It'll work out. I know it will! What could the Doctor possibly do in the Cabinet Room?"
The other Slitheen didn't look too happy. "You better be right about this."
"We'll find out, I suppose."
They left and Kit let out a sigh of relief. She was lucky that the Slitheens weren't all that smart. She was getting no new headache, so everything was going to be alright. At least, this time would be okay.