Chapter 14 The One in the Big Apple
I own nothing recognisable!
If not for the burning pain that encompassed her every bone, the fire that bled into the retinas of her eyes forcing them closed, Florence may have desired to write down some of the babbling noises that came out of the Doctor's mouth when she found herself in the void between jumping. Her ears caught various names and places that he had visited in the past, present and future (however that may work), and she wished she could make a mental note to ask him about some of the more outlandish ones. Instead, her breath was short, her fists clenched at her sides and her body seizing up in what felt like never-ending pain. That was, until she opened her eyes again.
Florence gasped and ran her hands along the metal grating beneath her, wrapping her fingers through the little holes and pushing herself up to a seated position with a groan, registering the shaking of the room and laughing of its occupants around her. It was one of her worst jumps, whether due to the fact that the TARDIS was clearly in flight as she travelled or merely because she was exhausted. She twisted around, holding onto the railings near her to keep her from tumbling about, and glared up at the grinning face of her lanky pinstriped Doctor being flung around the console,
"Florence!" He called to her, trying to stumble his way around as the second person poked her head around the central column, waving erratically at the young woman still glaring at the Doctor.
"Hello, Martha." She called to the other woman, leaning her head against the cool metal of the railing and groaning again. "Doctor," She paused as a particularly rough jolt caused her to smack her head against the previously delightfully soothing metal, rubbing her head with her free hand before throwing up a middle finger at the ensuing laughter, "when will this hell-flight be over?"
"Weeeell…" The Doctor drew out, reaching over to pull a final lever and letting the ship come to a jarring halt. "About now, I'd say." He strode over to her and helped her up with gentle hands, brushing some hair out of her eyes and giving her a beam. "How we doing, Florence?" She straightened his perpetually uneven tie and smiled lazily up at him.
"All the better for seeing you, dear…" She pushed past him and rushed to give the eager Martha Jones a tight hug, she had seen Rose and Amy a number of times now, and felt bad (though she knew it was out of her control) having not seen the first companion she had begun her crazy journey with for so long. "Martha! Long time, no see! Well, for me. Been a while since I've been on the motorway," She waved the Doctor away when he tried to scold her, it wasn't too obvious a clue, "dunno about you…" Martha laughed, shaking her head,
"No! Only a few hours!" Florence almost burst with enthusiasm,
"Really? Oh I've never been this chronological!" The Doctor rolled his eyes at the two of them playing catch up, rather put out that Florence's focus was not on him. It clearly had been a good amount of time since the near disaster that was her first jump less than a day ago - he could tell not only by her change of clothes but the slight release of tension she had in her shoulders being in the TARDIS, slight being the key word.
"What are we waiting for? Come on! Whole new adventure just beyond those doors!" He waggled his eyebrows at the women he so desperately sought to impress and flung his arm out in a grand gesture for Martha to go ahead and step out first. Florence nodded her agreement at the other woman to go ahead of her, with herself following close behind. A breeze hit them as they stepped out of the TARDIS onto luscious green grass where they had landed, she looked out at the almost familiar skyline in front of her, they were on Earth, that much was certain. Although, one could say they were merely on a planet similar to Earth, or that Earth was similar to another planet, or -
Martha thankfully pulled her out of her own headache inducing musings. "Where are we?" The Doctor sniffed dramatically and shoved his hands in his pockets, shouting into the cool air with the flourish only he could pull off.
"Ah, smell that Atlantic breeze. Nice and cold. Lovely." He winked at Florence and nodded behind them. "Martha, Florence, have you met my friend?" They both turned on cue and looked up, Florence's jaw dropping at the historic blue-green figure that flooded her vision.
"No way." Martha laughed slightly, standing next to her and looking up at the statue with the same gobsmacked expression,
"Oh my god, that's the Statue of Liberty!"
"Gateway to the New World." The Doctor recounted to them, turning on the dramatics that made Florence smile fondly. "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free."
Martha sighed happily, a content expression on her face as the three of them turned back to look at the now recognisable skyline opposite them. "That's so brilliant." She hummed. "I've always wanted to go to New York. I mean, the real New York," she added, hit by the realisation that she had in fact visited an alien version of the landmark city before the original, "not the new, new, new, new, new one."
"How are functioning only hours after that," Florence muttered to the Doctor, "I was tasting those fumes for days." The Doctor grinned and threw an arm around her shoulders,
"Think no more of fumes, my lovely little Florence! Instead, may I welcome you to the city so good, they named it twice!" He did his little head bob as he spoke which made Florence roll her eyes lightly. "Mind you, it was New Amsterdam originally. Harder to say twice. No wonder it didn't catch on, New Amsterdam, New Amsterdam." He laughed and she joined in.
"New Amsterdam, New Amsterdam." She repeated quickly, quicker than he managed, which made him narrow his eyes in competition.
"NewAmsterdam, NewAmsterdam." Florence opened her mouth to continue their little game, but Martha interrupted them with (what Florence considered unfortunate, as she was enjoying her childish tongue twister) a fair and valid comment.
"I wonder what year it is, because look," She pointed back towards the skyline, and both tongue twisters looked out with her, "the Empire State Building's not even finished yet."
"God yeah," Florence saw it in the difference, standing out even half finished amongst the much smaller buildings by it. "so weird seeing New York without skyscrapers!"
"Still got a couple floors to go… and if I know my history," The Doctor mused, and Florence looked up at him, curious to understand how he crammed all these dates in his head, "that makes the date somewhere around-"
"November 1st 1930." Martha interjected, and both Florence and the Doctor turned to congratulate her,
"You're getting good at this!" The Doctor told her before faltering at the sight of the newspaper in her hand, while Florence laughed,
"Cheat!" She pointed at Martha in accusation, who merely rolled her eyes at the brunette's childishness.
"Eighty years ago." She murmured. "It's funny, because you see all those old newsreels all in black and white like it's so far away, but here we are. It's real. It's now." She handed the paper to the Doctor, who looked at it curiously, and linked arms with Florence. "Come on then, you two. Where do you want to go first?" Florence shrugged and grinned,
"So much to see, so little time!" The both laughed at the irony of it, but the Doctor was quiet, eyes still on the newspaper. "Doctor?" She nudged him slightly, and he showed her the headline that had caught his attention. "'Hooverville Mystery Deepens.' Sounds ominous." The Doctor looked concerned and ushered them towards the dock, where a small ferry was preparing to leave, flashing his psychic paper at the driver and getting them on board with no trouble.
As concerned as the Doctor was about the goings on in 1930s New York, Martha was glad that he indulged her and Florence in a bit of sight seeing as they made their way to Central Park. While she felt moderately out of place, just as she did in the Middle Ages with Shakespeare (which was something that she was still coming to grips with - she, Martha Jones, was the inspiration for Shakespeare's Dark Lady? She was a little concerned by the antiquated terms but largely flattered), she found that following the Doctor's questionable advice of walking around like she owned the place helped her remain semi unnoticed. That, or New Yorkers were more concerned with their own lives rather than bothering with a group of people who were clearly tourists. Martha smiled when Florence dragged the Doctor and herself over to the window of various department stores and jewellery shops, commenting on the 'exchange rate' of the 1930s and whether she and Martha could buy a whole new wardrobe for the price of a pair of trainers in the 2000s. Martha could see herself enjoying the adventures with this younger Florence, just as she had in New New York, since the girl was just as new to the 'rules' the Doctor implemented to keep them both from being dodgy time travellers. While Martha could see the problem with filming Shakespeare's long lost play, yeah in fairness not her best first impression to get an alien to keep her on as a companion, she didn't quite see the harm in her and Florence buying a cute vintage hat or something small…
"Why draw attention to ourselves spending money in the time of a Great Depression when the TARDIS wardrobe provides all the clothes you need?" Okay, he had a point, neither girl was happy with it, but he had a point. They allowed him to drag them further from the shops and towards the entrance of the beautifully green park that Martha had dreamed of coming to since she was a child - although that dream included day drinking and seeing a broadway show in the evening. "Plus, that'll be nice! Turning up to Hooverville with bags of shopping!" Martha looked up at him at his mention of the elusive 'Hooverville' that she had little recollection of,
"What is that? 'Hooverville'?" She asked him, as he pulled them through the park in a direction only he seemed to know.
"Right, so, Herbert Hoover…" He began, before Florence cut in,
"Hoover Dam?" He clicked his fingers at her with a grin,
"Brilliant! Only you're a year early so try not to mention it." Florence put a finger to her lips and motioned him to continue. "Herbert Hoover was the thirty-first President of the USA, came to power a year ago. Up 'til then New York was a boom town, the Roaring Twenties! And then…"
"Wall Street Crash, yeah?" Martha asked, that was the lesson Mrs Pashwin caught her doing her biology work instead of the colour coded timeline she was meant to be filling in. "When was that, 1929?" She wrapped her arms around herself, her red leather jacket doing little to combat the cool autumn breeze, for the first time she was rather envious of the Doctor's ridiculous layered up ensemble.
"Yeah." He nodded, wrapping an arm sound Florence as she shivered a little, wrapping her green utility jacket tighter around her, making Martha smile at the way the brunette allowed herself to be pulled closer to him, a stark difference to the standoffish nature of the Florence she had seen only hours before. She was sad to see the younger Florence leave voluntarily, she wasn't expecting to have to deal with a rather put out and downtrodden Doctor when she had agreed to travel with the two of them what felt like weeks ago. The Doctor and Florence she had met at Royal Hope had been so sure of their places in each other's lives, so eager to spend every second with each other when they had gone to Shakespearean London, but the Florence that had accompanied them most recently was cold and scared, with very little to say to the Doctor, and very little interest in hanging around longer than she had to. It was a moment in Martha's life where she realised how much she had enjoyed gallivanting with two people almost attached at the hip, as much as she felt like a third wheel sometimes at least when the two were on good terms there was a lightness in the air. Yes, Martha decided, this Florence, as young as she still must have been, was a nice mix of the ones who had come before her. "Whole economy wiped out overnight." The Doctor continued, bringing Martha back to earth (metaphorically this time). "Thousands of people, unemployed. All of a sudden, the huddled masses doubled in number with nowhere to go. So," He nodded to them to head down a path to their left, "they ended up here in Central Park."
"What, they actually live in the park?" Martha asked, Hooverville, a name that brought to mind a small town, was in the park? The amount of people living there must have been huge! The Doctor gave her a look as if to say 'oh yes'. "In the middle of the city?" He turned off the path and headed through slightly deeper thickets of the park, until Martha could hear voices and fires crackling, catching sight of a multitude of hastily set up shabby looking tents.
The Doctor directed them through the self made town, past a wooden pole with planks showing which direction various parts of New York were, keeping his voice slightly low and nodding respectfully at the people they walked past who caught their eye, all looking wary of the newcomers, "Ordinary people lost their jobs. Couldn't pay rent and they lost everything. There are places like this all over America. No one's helping them." Martha suddenly felt very out of place, feeling almost disrespectful turning up here in her nice clothes and accessories having contemplated buying more of the sorts for a good exchange rate not long ago. "You only come to Hooverville when there's nowhere else to go."
A shout suddenly came from nearby, "You thieving lowlife!" The turned a joined the crowd of people who were watching a violent fight break out. "I waited in line all morning for a single loaf!" One of the men punched the other, who fell to the floor and protested his innocence,
"I didn't touch it!" Martha wondered if it was any of their places to get involved in what was going on, as much as she wanted to help she knew from past experiences that interrupting flying fists never ended up well for her.
"Somebody stole it!" The man went in for another hit when he was stopped by an older man in a threadbare overcoat and brown hat, who clearly had the authority to end the scuffle.
"Cut that out!" He yelled at the two. "Cut that out right now!" The man who started the fight attempted to plead his case, and Martha was reminded of when Trish would try to explain to their mum why she had deserved to slap Martha for going into her room when they were younger.
"He stole my bread!" But, similarly to Martha's mum, the older man wasn't having it,
"That's enough!" He still held the accused by the scruff of his jumper. "Did you take it?"
"I don't know what happened, he just went crazy!" His comment did nothing but stir up the man's anger once more, and they were pushed apart once more.
"That's enough! Now think real careful before you lie to me."
There was a pause, before the man turned his eyes from him in shame, "I'm starving, Solomon." The man in charge, Solomon, held his hand out, and the stolen loaf of bread in question was revealed.
"We're all starving." Solomon told them both, splitting the loaf in half and handing a half to each of men. "We all got families to feed." He patted the men on their shoulders gently. "No stealing and no fighting. You know the rules." He turned his attention to the crowd that had gathered. "Thirteen years ago I fought in the Great War. A lot of us did. And the only reason we got through was because we stuck together. No matter how bad things get, we still act like human beings. It's all we got." The crowd seemed to get the hint and disperse, but the Doctor nodded towards the lone Solomon standing by a barrel of fire. Florence walked up to him quickly, there was a glint in her eye,
"Solomon, right?" She held out her hand to the man, who shook it warily. "I loved that 'Judgement of Solomon' just then, better than cutting a baby in half though I guess…"
"Uh, thanks." Solomon seemed a tad confused by the girl's enthusiasm, which Martha couldn't blame him for. "And, er, who might you be?" Florence let go and motioned her two friends,
"I'm Florence, this is Martha and the Doctor." Martha waved at Solomon, who smiled back but looked at the Doctor with a bit of sadness,
"A doctor, huh? Well, we got stockbrokers, we got a lawyer, but you're our first doctor." Ah, Martha realised he'd fallen for the same trap everyone did, that the Doctor had chosen such a god forsaken occupational nickname for himself. "Neighbourhood gets classier by the day."
"How many people live here?" Martha asked Solomon, she was curious how the man kept an area like Hooverville in check, it was very noble of him to take the leader role, especially as a black man in the 1930s.
"At any one time, hundreds." Solomon estimated. "No place else to go. But I will say this about Hooverville. We are truly an equal society. Black, white, all the same." Martha smiled at him at that, but still looked warily around at the sheer number of people around them and how awful life had become in the span of a year. "All starving. So you're welcome, both of you. But tell me, Doctor, you're a man of learning, right?" The Doctor nodded, slightly confused, and Solomon turned and pointed to the imposing picture of the Empire State Building that poked out of the trees behind them. "Explain this to me. That there's going to be the tallest building in the world. How come they can do that, when we got people starving in the heart of Manhattan?" Florence scoffed and glared up at the building,
"That's how the rich stay rich, Mr Solomon." Solomon looked at the short, and decidedly angry, woman who glared at an inanimate object with such disdain, and nodded his head. Martha frowned at Florence's attitude, though she couldn't blame her, she too had never looked at the famous New York City skyline with such a bad taste in her mouth. The Doctor pulled them away from the uncomfortable silence and in the direction of investigation that Martha could see he was itching to get going,
"So, men going missing. This true?" He asked Solomon, who nodded slightly and walked away from them and towards the tent that she assumed was his own.
"It's true, all right." He murmured, holding open the flap of his tent and taking a seat on his camp bed while the three travellers lingered at the opening.
"But what does missing mean?" Martha was mildly amused and impressed at the Doctor's ability to be both interrogative and polite, and not burst into someone's lodgings unannounced. "Men must come and go here all the time. It's not like anyone's keeping a register."
Solomon motioned for the three of them to take a seat, "Come on in." He told them, and the three settled themselves into as comfortable, if slightly cramped, a position as they could. "This is different."
"In what way?" Martha asked him gently, wondering if there was such a sure sign of what was a kidnapping or just men growing sick of the living conditions they found themselves in.
"Someone takes them, at night." He explained. "We hear something, someone calls out for help. By the time we get there, they're gone like they vanished into thin air."
"And you're sure someone's taking them?"
"Doctor, when you got next to nothing, you hold on to the little you got. Your knife, blanket, you take it with you. You don't leave bread uneaten, fire still burning.
Florence sighed, resting her chin on the heel of her hand as she crossed her legs, "And the police? They want nothing to do with it, I presume?" Solomon nodded,
"Yeah, we tried them. Another deadbeat goes missing, big deal." His voice was laced with bitterness, and Martha's heart swelled for the man in front of her, who was clearly trying to stay strong and lead a group of destitutes, trying to keep them safe from the unknown.
"So the question is, who's taking them and what for?" The Doctor asked ominously, alway leading to the creepy, alien invasion (presumably) theory, Martha had to stop herself rolling her eyes. He didn't need to say 'It's an alien enemy', she could just tell, the glint in his eyes screamed 'split up and look for clues'.
"Solomon!" A young man shouted from outside, before poking his head into the tent. "Solomon, Mister Diagoras is here." And, judging by the way Solomon jumped out of his seat, the first clue had just arrived at Hooverville.
Florence looked up at the sharply dressed slimy man who stood before the residents of Hooverville with disbelief written across her face, she was amazed at how the man was a walking caricature of the villainous businessman one would see in gangster films. He looked down at them all with barely concealed disgust on his face, clearly wanting to get back to counting his money or getting his shoes polished.
"I need men." He told them plainly, once a sizable crowd had gathered. "Volunteers." Florence looked warily up at the Doctor, concerned about the advantage a man like Diagoras may be taking, and he looked like he was thinking something similar. "I've got a little work for you and you sure look like you can use the money."
"Yeah, and what's the money?" The young man who grabbed them from Solomon's tent asked.
"A dollar a day." Solomon looked slightly sceptical,
"What's the work?"
"A little trip down the sewers." Florence had to hold back from saying anything, that didn't sound foreboding at all. "Got a tunnel collapsed, needs clearing and fixing. Any takers?" Solomon shook his head and looked around at the men standing with him,
"A dollar a day? That's slave wage." He looked curiously up at Diagoras. "And men don't always come back up, do they." It wasn't a question, it wasn't exactly an accusation either, but there was definitely no question about it.
Diagoras was nonplussed by the statement, "Accidents happen."
"What do you mean?" The Doctor interjected, causing Diagoras to notice the three outsiders for the first time. "What sort of accidents?" Diagoras seemed to have had enough of the interruptions to his day,
"You don't need the work? That's fine. Anybody else?" The Doctor raised his hand, and Florence groaned at his incessant need to ask question after question. Diagoras clearly felt the same. "Enough with the questions."
"Oh no, no, no." The Doctor smiled up at him, hand still raised. "I'm volunteering. I'll go." Florence glared at him, raising her hand slowly,
"Headlong into trouble." Martha raised her hand from the other side of him,
"I'll kill you for this." Diagoras seemed pleased with his acquisition of three of them in one go,
"Anybody else?" There was a pause, and then Solomon and the young man who spoke before both raised their hands.
Florence was going to kill this man, this smarmy bastard in a suit who brought her to the sewers. With his stupid face, his stupid suit and his stupid hair. In all her years of living she didn't think that in her first visit to New York would be accompanying a bunch of stupid men (and the ever grateful presence of Martha Jones) to the dingy gross sewers. Oh yes, she was going to kill the Doctor for volunteering them. She wouldn't want to be mistaken, Diagoras was an arse for bringing people here in the first place, but what was the need for the Doctor to go exploring the sewers, what was the need?
"Turn left." Diagoras was telling the five of them, they all held torches while Solomon was given a shovel and the young man who had accompanied them (who Florence had found out was called Frank) held a bundle of rope over his shoulder. "Go about half a mile, follow tunnel two seven three. Fall's right ahead of you, can't miss it." Frank rearranged the rope on his shoulder,
"And when do we get our dollar?"
"When you come back up." The Doctor looked at the man darkly,
"And if we don't come back up?" Diagoras smirked,
"Then I got no one to pay." Florence wanted to smack him, so badly, muss up his slicked hair just to piss him off. But she held herself back, just about.
"Don't worry. We'll be back." Solomon reassured him, and Martha laughed nervously, clearly just as excited about being down in the sewers as Florence was,
"Let's hope so." The three optimists walked off, heading down the first tunnel as instructed, Florence was about to join them but fell back when she saw the Doctor still standing there, staring at Diagoras with a threatening look. She let him stare for a moment, and was ready to receive his touch as he moved to follow the others, grabbing on to her welcoming hand as he went past.
"I don't like him." Florence murmured to him, shining her torch ahead of them, catching the shadows of Martha, Frank and Solomon as they strolled ahead of them deep in conversation. "Do you think he's behind the disappearances?" The Doctor frowned slightly,
"I'm not sure, a middle man maybe?"
"A man in a skin suit?" Florence asked warily, catching his slight smirk at her words. "What? It's not out of the question after Cardiff?"
"Hmm, old Blon Fel-Fotch…" The Doctor hummed, clearly amused. "Nah, there's something else going on in New York, I mean… the disappearances? They weren't the volunteers… Although…" He trailed off ominously, and Florence looked up at him,
"I almost don't wanna ask… what is it?" The Doctor shrugged slightly,
"Just wondering how many precious dollars Diagoras has had to give out…" Florence pursed her lips slightly,
"Dunno about you but I value my life slightly more than a dollar right now…" The Doctor nodded,
"I do too." He gave her hand a reassuring squeeze and pulled her along slightly quicker, catching up with the others. "Sooo, this Diagoras bloke, who is he then?"
"A couple of months ago, he was just another foreman." Solomon told them. "Now, it seems like he's running most of Manhattan." Florence whistled,
"And how'd he manage that? Bribery?" Solomon smiled slightly at her,
"Not necessarily. These are strange times… A man can go from being King of the Hill to the lowest of the low overnight. It's just, for some folks it works the other way round." Florence was about to ask if anyone knew anything else about Diagoras (and if there was maybe a big green alien hiding inside his skin), when the Doctor suddenly let go of her hand and raced to the front of the group, crouching on the floor over something just out of her sight.
"Whoa!" He exclaimed as the group crowded around him, Florence saw what had grabbed his attention: an almost luminous green bundle of slime and muscle, quite similar to a jellyfish washed up on the beach.
"Ugh!" She gagged at the smell of it, as the Doctor put his glasses on to get a closer look. "What is that?"
Martha looked just as disgusted as Florence, "Is it radioactive or something? It's gone off, whatever it is!" Florence grimaced as the Doctor stretched his bare hands out and tried to hold the slimy mass in his hands. "Aaand you've got to pick it up." He sniffed it and pulled it around in his hands like playdoh, Martha shook her head at his childlike need to poke and prod the alien things, while Florence gagged again, but relented and crouched next to the two of them.
"Doctor!"
"Shine your torch through it, Martha." The Doctor told her, ignoring Florence for the moment. "Composite organic matter. Martha? Medical opinion?"
"It's not human." Florence looked at Martha at that, she suddenly realised that she had no idea what it was that Martha did before traveling with the Doctor, she assumed she'd find out when the women met for the first time (on Martha's part at least) but it was a strange thought. "I know that."
"I'd like to know," Florence cut in, "Where you're expecting to put that thing and how you're going to wash your hands." The Doctor smiled cheekily up at her at that,
"Extendable pockets, Florence." He stood suddenly, and Florence was forced to stand else she receive an alien jellyfish to the face. "And I'll tell you something else. We must be at least half a mile in. I don't see any sign of a collapse, do you?" Florence looked around, suddenly more worried than before. "So why did Mr Diagoras send us down here?" Martha looked at their surroundings confused,
"Where are we now? What's above us?"
"Well," the Doctor looked up, "we're right underneath Manhattan." He nodded for them to continue the way they were going. "Come on."
"So what do you think's down here?" Florence asked him, peering cautiously into any hidden corners. "Like, why here? If he's planning, what, an ambush? Why not ten metres back?" The Doctor shrugged, folding the matter he'd been handling into a napkin he had procured from god knows where and putting it in the pocket of his overcoat,
"I dunno, who said anything about an ambush?" Florence look at him with a raised eyebrow,
"Hmmm, could it be... everything about this situation?" Solomon stopped them at a junction,
"We're way beyond half a mile, there's no collapse, nothing."
"That Diagoras bloke, was he lying?" Martha asked, and the Doctor looked around the corners of the junction curiously,
"Looks like it…" He told them vaguely, and Frank shifted uncomfortably on his feet,
"So, why'd he want people to come down here?" Florence looked at the Doctor with her eyebrows raised and he sniffed,
"Solomon," he called to the older man, "I think it's time you took these three back. I'll be much quicker on my own." Before Florence could tell him exactly what she thought of that idea a loud shrill squeal echoed along the walls of the sewer, and she abandoned her task of berating the Doctor in favour of swinging her torch around to try and find the source of the noise.
"What the hell was that?" Solomon asked, panic clear on his face.
"Hello?" Frank called out, causing the two women to shush him quickly and Solomon to call his name in warning. "What if it's one of the folk gone missing? You'd be scared and half mad down here on your own!"
"Didn't sound like a man…" Florence murmured.
"Do you think they're still alive?" The Doctor asked, and Frank motioned around them,
"Heck, we ain't seen no bodies down here. Maybe they just got lost." More squeals echoed, and Florence wanted to get out of the sewer more than ever.
"He's right," Florence thought out loud, "if they got lost down here, and they're not alive, then where are the bodies?"
"I know I never heard nobody make a sound like that." The men began to work out which way the noise was coming from, but Florence noticed Martha's attention had been caught by something else, something huddled in a dark corner of the sewer.
"Doctor…" She called tentatively, and Florence shone her torch on the figure Martha had discovered,
"What the hell is that?"
"Who are you?" Solomon called out to the figure, from what Florence could see in the dim torchlight mixed with the even dimmer daylight from the manholes above them, the figure was wearing a dark pinkish brown boilersuit, and was largely bald with some wisps of hair on their head.
"Are you lost?" Frank yelled out to them. "Can you understand me? I've been thinking about folk lost down here…" The Doctor put a hand on Frank's shoulder and crept forward,
"It's alright, Frank. Just stay back." He moved past them towards the creature. "Let me have a look." He got closer and closer and directed his words to the figure. "He's got a point, though, my mate Frank. I'd hate to be stuck down here on my own. We know the way out…" He tempted them. "Daylight, if you come with us." He gets even closer, until he's crouch down in front of the huddled form.
"Doctor, be careful…" Florence warned, just as the head of whatever it was lifted, revealing the face of a pig, a pig head on a human body.
"Oh, but what are you?" The Doctor asked, speaking low and gently to the pig-man, Florence was still concerned by its lack of movement, there was hardly a shuffle to it even after sitting for that long.
"Is that, er, some kind of carnival mask?" Solomon asked, reminding Florence of the presence of two men who were not nearly as accustomed to seeing the oddity of their world, she mentally praised them for not running away screaming just yet.
"No, it's real." Florence told him, she could already tell. "It's always real." The Doctor examined the pigman as much as he could from a distance, still talking to it in a hushed tone,
"I'm sorry. Now listen to me, I promise I can help. Who did this to you?" Florence admired the Doctor's compassion and ability to see past the horror and try and help the person within, and at this point she would have been happy to step in and help, but unfortunately the appearance of at least half a dozen other pigmen lumbering around the corner and towards them stopped her in her tracks. Frank, she thought bitterly, I think we found the bodies...
"Doctor…" She called over to him, itching to reach out and grab his overcoat, but unwilling to make any sudden movements.
"I think you better get back here." Martha told him, trying to be calm in her voice but the way her torchlight shook slightly gave away her fear. The Doctor stood and backed up slowly, just as the first pigman stood themself,
"Actually, good point." The pigmen inched closer every step he took.
"They're following you." Martha pointed out, and the Doctor glared at her,
"Yeah, noticed that, thanks." He looked over his shoulder momentarily at the others, while Florence kept her unwavering gaze on the approaching pigmen. "Well then, Florence, Martha, Frank, Solomon."
"Yuh-huh?" Florence questioned, already preparing herself for his next sentence.
"Er, basically, RUN!" The five of them leapt into action, abandoning their position in the heart of the sewers and legging it down the first tunnel they came across, while Florence heard the heavy footfalls of the pigmen stumbling behind them, at a speed more concerning than she had hoped for .
"Where are we going?" Martha yelled, as the Doctor took the lead,
"This way!" He yelled, directionless as always, until Florence spotted something hanging doing the next tunnel and latched onto his sleeve, tugging him mid step and pointing to the ladder she now had in her sight,
"Come on!" The four followed on, and she let the Doctor barrel ahead as he whipped his screwdriver out as he climbed, unlocked the manhole cover above him and pushing it aside, pulling Florence up quickly behind him. She found herself in a cluttered room filled with what looked like costumes but turned her focus back to Martha who was emerging from the manhole, followed quickly by Solomon who was yelling down for Frank to hurry
"C'mon, Frank! Come on!" Florence watched as the Doctor and Solomon's reached down to help the young man up, only his hand appeared in Florence's field of vision, and she waited with bated breath for the rest of his body to follow. The two men above ground struggled and yelled as she saw their grips get weaker as the squeals from the pigmen became more and more aggressive.
One final tug from their enemies below and Florence watched as the fingerless gloved hands of Frank were lost to the sea of grotesque former humans.
"No!" The Doctor cried down, ready to climb back down, but after a moment of grief Solomon jumped into action, pushing the Doctor out of the way and shoving the heavy metal lid of the manhole shut over the hole, where Florence was sure the pigmen were not done trying to catch them.
"We can't go after him." Solomon told the Doctor resolutely, but the Doctor looked infuriated at the man's decision,
"We've got to go back down. We can't just leave him."
"No, I'm not losing anybody else." Solomon's tone left no room for argument, and Florence could see how he had come to lead Hooverville. "Those creatures were from Hell. From Hell itself! If we go after them, they'll take us all! There's nothing we can do. I'm sorry." A heavy silence fell over the four of them as they thought about poor Frank being dragged under, and how terrified he must have been. The silence didn't last for long, when a noise sounded from behind the racks of clothing and a beautiful young blonde woman appeared, holding a revolver pointed directly at the group.
"Alright, then. Put 'em up." She ordered, and Florence and Martha raised their arms slowly into the air, she was hopeful that the men behind them followed suit. "Hands in the air and no funny business. Now tell me, you schmucks, what have you done with Laszlo?"
Who the fuck is Laszlo?
So happy to write Martha's POV again! had a lot of 11 and quite a few Roses so it's nice to have ten and Martha again! Martha's gonna be a big part of Florence's experience because she was her first companion she met, and I really want their relationship to develop with that in mind! Anyway,hope you enjoyed the first part of a big two part episode… we'll be in New York for a few more chapters now!
See you for chapter 15! xo