Last Man Standing
(Author's Note: This is my first Doctor Who fic. Contains spoilers for 'The Parting of Ways'. Concrit is welcome and encouraged.)
He opened his eyes with surprise. This wasn't right. He was dead – he remembered being dead, and as far as he had always understood, once you were dead, you were dead. That was it. Final. But he was alive. He didn't know how, but he figured he might as well make the best of it.
Looking around, he realised that not only was he alive, he was alone. What had happened to the invasion? Something strange was definitely going on. Well, stranger than usual anyway. Kneeling down, he realised he wasn't truly alone. He picked up a handful of the greyish ash before him. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. That was what they used to say on Earth, wasn't it? He had to go up to Floor 500. If he was still there, there was a possibility that somehow the Doctor had succeeded. He damn sure hoped he had. He was the only one who'd have a hope of knowing what had happened, that much he was sure of.
Jack felt a slight tremble in his step as he made his way, wondering what he would see on 500 – whether all that would remain of the Doctor would be a pile of grey ashes and dust like that of the Daleks in front of him. He knew Rose was back at her home, safe, and keeping watch over the TARDIS, but the fate of the Doctor was another thing altogether. And whilst he didn't understand what was going on, he knew one thing – he didn't want to think that this had been his end.
And that was when he heard it. And that was when he ran. Somehow, some way, the TARDIS was there, Rose was there, if no one else. There was hope. He ran into the room, and as he saw it, his face fell. It was leaving without him.
There was nothing he could do to stop it leaving, he knew that. But the urge to call out after them rose in his throat, and the anxiety tore at him inside. He didn't call out, although he longed to. He didn't fall to his knees and break; though Lord knows he wanted to do that too. Whether the Doctor was with Rose, he couldn't tell for sure by way of fact, but in his heart Jack knew. He was with her. Somehow he was alone in the empty satellite, with nothing but piles of dust for company. And knowing that the Doctor didn't even know he was alive somehow made the whole situation even more desperate, even more lonely. Assessing the facts as he knew them, Jack realised there was no way out of this.
He'd named himself Last Man Standing not so very long ago. Now it was true. He was the Last Man Standing. And Jack didn't like it one little bit.
