There are places in the universe that are meant to be full and busy. The very air of those places seems to call for activity. New New York was one of those places and without the hustle and bustle, it felt dead.
Harry glanced behind him every few feet, expecting to find, well, anything. All four travelers did. And all were greeted only with nothing but more quiet and empty streets. After a while they stopped expecting to find anything but that didn't stop them from looking.
"This isn't right," the Doctor said again. "The last time I was here this place was full of life."
"Are you sure you got the time right?" Martha asked.
"Yes I'm sure I got the time right!" The Doctor's voice rose higher as he answered. "I didn't want to come right after the last time I was here but I also didn't want to go too far forward from that either. There's still a successful living breathing society here years after this!"
"So where are they now?" Harry asked.
"Exactly," The Doctor responded.
They walked further into the city. Skyscrapers and motorways stretched into the air, both completely abandoned.
"Let's take a look in here," The Doctor walked up to the door of a skyscraper. He tried to pull it open and upon finding it locked, pulled out the sonic.
The device let out a soft whir and the lock clicked open.
The Doctor took a step inside without holding the door, expecting the others to follow him.
Harry caught the door before it closed, unsure whether it would stay unlocked, and held it until Sirius and Martha were through.
They walked into a large room lit only by the sunlight that came through the dusty windows. Harry assumed the room was the lobby of the building and it was probably once very nice. Harry could imagine it before it fell into disarray. It likely had shiny, tall, sloping ceilings, rounded grey chairs, and a large front desk. Harry could imagine a decorative plant on that desk and receptionists sitting behind it looking either annoyed at life or overly happy. Now though, all the metallic surfaces were dull, the chairs were scuffed and torn, and a good portion of the desk had a thick layer of dust on it. Needless to say, there were no receptionists in sight.
"I need you all to stay close," the Doctor said. "This is probably dangerous so I won't have any of you wandering off. And I mean it. I refuse to lose track of a single one of you."
"Do you lose track of people a lot?" Sirius asked.
"More often than I'd like," the Doctor responded.
The four people walked past one group of the torn up chairs. The Doctor took a second to glance at them as they walked by but didn't stop. The four travelers entered a hallway just past the chairs. It only took them a few feet to come across a door.
The Doctor once again pulled out his sonic and unlocked the door. He grasped the small groove that acted as a handle and slid it open.
His eyebrows slightly rose and the corners of his mouth fell as he shook his head a miniscule amount and let out a slight, "Oh,".
"What is it?" Harry went to move around the Doctor to get a look into the room only to be stopped by the Doctor putting his arm out to block his path.
"Don't go in there," The Doctor warned.
While The Doctor cautioned Harry, Martha got a view of what had made the Doctor pause.
"Oh my god," she exclaimed, her mouth falling open. "What happened to them?"
"I don't know," the Doctor said. "But it would be best for you to avoid contact with them until we know if it's something contagious."
Harry managed to peak around the Doctors arm only to get a glimpse of the most macabre sight he had ever laid eyes on. There, in the room, were skeletons. Many of them were humanoid in shape. Harry did a quick count. Twenty one. There were twenty one skeletons. Two of them were the size of children.
"It should be completely fine now to examine them," Martha argued. "They look like they've been there for ages bacteria doesn't stick around that long. We owe it to them to at least discover what killed them."
"Are you training to be a detective now as well as a doctor?" The Doctor asked. Before she could answer he stepped out of the way to let her in and said, "Well then, go on in."
Martha looked at the Doctor for a second before doing what he said.
Sirius went into the room after her with a comment about being trained as an auror.
Harry, without thinking another moment about it, went in after Sirius.
The Doctor entered last.
"Well, that's weird," Martha commented as she stared at something on one of the skeleton's neck. "Doctor, come look at this."
The Doctor walked over from his spot near the door and squatted down. Harry came close too to see what Martha had found.
The was a small plastic looking patch on the skeleton. It was about three centimeters long and didn't appear to be thick at all.
The Doctor pulled it off of the skeleton and examined it.
"Go see if there's one of these on any others of them," He instructed.
Sirius and Martha both moved to look, but Harry stayed next to the Doctor.
"What is it?" Harry asked.
"Bliss," the Doctor said. "At least, that's what it says on it. I'd say it's like some sort of drug. Put it on and you can change how you feel."
A patch that could change how you feel. Harry could think of many times in his life where that could come in useful, especially one to calm down anger. Then again, there were probably potions that could accomplish the same thing.
"There's four over here with them on," Sirius called over.
"I've counted seven on this side," Martha said from the other side of the room.
Half of the room.
"What do they say on them?" The Doctor asked.
"Bliss," Sirius answered.
"Same here," Martha said. "Except for one. One said 'Happy'."
The Doctor nodded and stood up.
"Come on," the Doctor said, walking back out into the hallway.
Casting one last look back at the skeletons, Harry followed him out of the room.
"Now what?" Harry asked once all four of them had left the room.
"There's something wrong here," The Doctor said.
"If I had to guess, I'd say it's the fact that all of those people were dead," Sirius helpfully supplied.
Harry took that moment to really look at Sirius. His godfather looked fine. He was wearing his leather jacket and dark pants and looked every part the rebellious white sheep of the black family he was, but Sirius always had a look in his eyes now that he didn't have in pictures. His grey irises looked like thin winter ice, just a wayward step away from cracking. And then there were the comments like Sirius had just made. He seemed to be hyper concerned and emotionally invested in some things but seperated from things that he should find concerning.
Maybe Sirius could have his mental state evaluated when Harry had his health checked. He wouldn't want to, of course, but Harry had a plan about how to convince him.
"We need to find a computer system," The Doctor's voice pulled Harry out of his thoughts. "See what the last news story was before whatever it was that happened happened."
"That would probably be back out in the lobby, wouldn't it?" Harry asked.
"Good thinking," The Doctor said. "Of course, there are probably plenty of computers that will have what we need in this building."
"Why's that?" Martha asked.
"Because if this is the right building, and I'm pretty sure it is, then this is the headquarters for the main news station in New New York," the Doctor started back towards the lobby. "Come on."
The Doctor and Harry sat behind a computer behind the reception desk. Harry was surprised it still worked with all of the other power in the building off but the Doctor had pulled a spare battery out of his pocket and somehow hooked it to the computer. Sirius and Martha had been given instructions to look for anything suspicious in the lobby, with the strict additional warning of "and don't wander off" while the Doctor and Harry checked the computer.
Whether the Doctor wanted to keep Harry close to him because he was concerned about the literal child travelling with him or if he had Harry at the computer with him because Harry was useful before when dealing with the hospital computer, Harry didn't know. Nevertheless, Harry was trying to be as useful as he could.
It took less time to get into the New New York computers than it did to get into the hospital ones, which would be shocking if one didn't know anything about the almost complete thoroughness of the Judoon.
"There it is," the Doctor said. "The last universal broadcast sent out."
The Doctor opened it and played it and what they discovered answered one question.
Two holographic reporters sat behind a desk, talking about the emotion market. Apparently the newest in the line of emotions was to be released to the above ground New New York that day. They either didn't know or refuse to say what it was but they did say it would be the best yet. At the end of their segment they put up a list of emotions currently on the market and it was obvious which one was missing. Bliss.
They watched the rest of the news, but nothing else stood out.
"So everyone died right after Bliss came out?" Harry asked. "Do you think it's related?"
Before the Doctor could answer, the doors of the building were thrown open. A man sauntered through.
"I don't think you all are supposed to be here," was all that he said before he pulled a gun and pointed it towards Sirius, who was standing the closest to the door. "You all are going to tell me how you got here," he said. "Or I'll shoot him. I'd start talking if I were you."
Author's Note: Yes, I know I'm a horrible person for leaving it on a cliffhanger, but look, a chapter! So, it's been a little while, I have been trying to write this chapter for a while but GOSH it did not want to be written at all. I feel like I could have done better with it which might have been why it took me so long to write.
Anyway, what do you all think of the chapter? Am I doing a good enough job not just copying canon but still sticking with the general progression of things? Is everyone in character? Are you all concerned about Sirius? Do you all just want me to get to the freaking reveal all ready?
For those of you that answered yes to the last one, not to worry! One to two more chapters depending on how long the next one is. But let me just say, you all are lucky. In my initial planning of this story the reveal wasn't going to be until the end of the Series 3 Arc. But I just didn't feel like that would work so it got put where it is going to be now.
Anyway, don't forget to review because I live for those, well, maybe not live, but I definitely write faster for them. And don't forget to click bellow to subscribe to the official Doctor Who YouTube channel. Or, you know, just favorite and/or follow this story to get alerts when I finally come out of hibernation and update!
Have a good day/night!
-Aniala (catz4444)
6/2/19