A beige clad figure moved silently over the sand, past the restless gray horses toward his master. Meridian stood by the water's edge watching it's surface move in the light breeze.
"This is the area where the augment was detected" the man in beige said when he reached Meridians side, "but there's no sign of the sphere."
"I am aware of the discrepancy." Meridian continued to gaze at the water. "I've sent our latest recruit to handle it."
"Is that wise? She's only recently joined us."
"We grow in power with our numbers." Meridian replied "She has made contact with us, she knows what's at stake." He raised his eyes heavenward. "When we began converting the shield sensors there was no way of knowing just how fast we would grow in number. Now we are a legion of chosen ones, and when the time comes we will ascend from this miserable planet, it will be only a memory in the collective mind."
"I see it too," the man responded "will it be much longer?"
Meridian closed his eyes. "Not long now."
Rose sat on the kurb and let her back relax into a gentle slump. The Doctor had stepped away to ask a merchant four booths down about the price of cow's milk. It seemed to Rose an unlikely venture in this area, but then again she'd already been surprised by the fact that they'd had candyfloss, and as the Doctor had said the people here were very resourceful. She stretched out her legs and examined her sandals. "Wonder if anyone here does a good pedicure" she muttered. She reached forward to brush some remaining sand from her toes when she felt an awkward hand brush clumsily against her head.
"Hey!" Rose jumped.
"Oh, sorry miss."
Rose looked up to see a young red haired woman standing beside her.
"I don't supposed you can help me" the young woman began, her eyes never looking at Rose as she spoke but focusing down the street instead." ...I'm looking for a house, about two streets down from here I think..." her eyes wandered aimlessly "I seem to have gotten myself lost."
Quickly realizing that the girl was blind, Rose stood and took her arm. "Have you been through this area before?"
"I'm somewhat familiar with it yes, but with today being a market day I seem to have gotten myself turned around."
Rose glanced over at the Doctor. He was absorbed in a rather one-sided conversation he was having with a very confused merchant. "One minute ok, I can help, but I've got to let my friend know where I'm going..."
"Oh please," the girl looked panicked "could you help me now? I was supposed to meet someone there twenty minutes ago."
Rose looked back at the girl. Her desperation seemed genuine enough. She glanced back at the Doctor once more. It seemed like whatever point he was trying to make he was going to be at it for some time. "All right, I can take you now. Two streets down you said?"
"Yes I believe so. Thank you. Thank you so much."
"What's your name?"
"Jenna."
Rose nodded and took the girl's arm once again. "All right..." she said as they began to move forward "there's a kurb here" and slowly they moved past the rows of booths and down the street.
The Doctor had abandoned his search for milk and began scanning a booth littered with chromothiographs. "Oh I can't believe they're trying to bring these back. Rose!" he called out to her "Come and have a look at this." He waited for the sound of her footsteps, but they never came. He looked to where he had last seen her sitting.
Gone.
He exhaled deeply, nodded to the salesman behind the booth, and began to walk down the line of abandoned houses, looking for a sign of his companion.