"Liza, remember,"

"Setting 56B, I know." The buzz of the screwdriver was heard from the other end of the line. I took a deep breath. The sooner she got the bloody scans, the better.

Luna muttered something on the other end, but I couldn't hear what it was exactly. "What's wrong?"

"Doc, you're-" Her voice was breaking. That wasn't possible, she has signal everywhere in all of time and space, and I clearly remembered confiscating Jack's phone to sonic it. Bloody idiot threw a tantrum before I could, though. Stupid ape.

"Liza, I can't hear you,"

She said something in response, but it was cut off by white noise. No. No. How could- My sonic was very thorough when it came to zapping phones with universal signal. Unless-

"There seems to be some sort of interference," Thelma glanced over my shoulder.

I ignored her as I dialled Liza's number again, but was only met with white noise. I hit the phone in frustration and tried calling her again, but was met with the same result as last time.

"Doctor, an interference is something that-"

"I am aware of what an interference is, Thelma, thank you," I snapped, dialling in Liza's number again.

"Then why are you-"

Doctor!" Rose screamed, and my head snapped up from Jack's phone. She was pointing outside. A whooshing sound was heard, and my eyes widened. "Liza!"

I jumped up from where I was and rushed toward the door. There was a storm forming, right where the three of them were. Another one formed right behind them. The sand was rising slowly. No. I wasn't gonna let this happen. I wasn't-

Someone grabbed my shoulders from behind. I tried shaking off their grip, but they were strong. "No!" More storms started forming around them, and started to encircle them.

"No!" I could vaguely hear Rose yelling. I was pulled further back as the storms started spinning faster around Liza and the others. I struggled to get out of their grip as the door started closing in front of me.

Things got worse from then. Valen yelled something about the door's lever being jammed, and the door itself was closed halfway through. I felt Thelma let go of me. I was about to run toward the door and go outside, but before I could do anything, the whooshing grew louder.

I bent down to see what was happening, and stood up immediately. I turned to Rose, who's eyes were wide. "Doctor, what's happening?"

I reached into my pocket to pull out my screwdriv- oh. It was with Liza. I swallowed, turning to Thelma. "We'll have to run." It wasn't the time to mourn. I had to make sure everyone who was alive stayed that way. That's what she would've wanted.

"Run where?"

"There's a storm forming right below the stairs, we need to get as far away from here as possible."

"But the door-"

"Just shut up and listen, will you?!" Rose yelled, and Thelma looked at her, her eyes wide. I turned toward her and forced a smile. Thelma turned to me. "Your trainee is very-"

"Just run!" I rolled my eyes, taking Rose's hand and running down the corridor. Stupid apes. I had to keep these idiots alive while Liza was- no. Stop thinking about it. Focus on one thing at a time.

I could hear the others' footsteps not far behind me. "Turn left!" Lucas yelled from behind me as we neared the intersection.

We ran for a bit before we reached a messy room full of sleeping bags and food. There were textbooks everywhere. I caught the title of one of them as I turned around, running toward the door and helping Thelma close it after everyone else ran inside. I bolted the door and turned around, surveying the room properly.

There were many archaeology textbooks- fifty second century ones, to be precise. All inaccurate, that too. Claimed that anything attributed to me came through "unknown causes" when every bloody idiot who had written the textbook had seen me and been with me while recording the things that had happened. How apes managed to be in the list of the top 100 intelligent species in all of time and space, I will never understand.

"That'll keep them out for a bit," I said.

"A bit? How long is a bit?" Valen went to sit on one of the sleeping bags, starting to make a fort out of the books.

I shrugged. "Depends on how fast the sand is. Anyway, it doesn't matter how long the door can hold because one way or another, the sand will catch up to us."

"Way to be optimistic," Lucas muttered.

"Thank you, Lucas," I said, and turned to Thelma, "Now, we need to get out of here, and you're in charge of these people and seem to know the most, so we need to get to a safe place. A place with no sand."

"Doctor, we're in a desert." Rose deadpanned, and I rolled my eyes. "Really, Rose? I thought we were in the middle of a rainforest,"

"I don't think sarcasm would really help the situation we're in." Lucas said, gritting his teeth.

"I'm sorry, I don't remember asking for your opinion," I turned back to Thelma, who was frowning at all of us. "Will you all stop acting like children and listen? Our only alternative now is to make the distress call. There's three people who have died. But, judging by the fact that our equipment is in a different room, we'll have to wait."

"Who said they were dead?" Rose piped up, raising an eyebrow. I turned toward her, frowning. She shrugged. "I mean, Liza did tell us that Jack's definitely alive and that he has to be alive or else two thirds of the universe would get destroyed or something. And if Jack survived the- whatever that was supposed to be, there's a high chance Liza and Luna did too."

"Well, that's just absurd. Last I remember, they were sucked into the sand by a bunch of storms. The chances of them being alive are close to zero."

"Yeah, thanks, Thelma, we all definitely needed that reminder." I gritted my teeth, folding my hands tightly. Rose rolled her eyes. "Well, Liza's said a lot of stuff before, and all of them turned out to be true. And there's no way I'm believing that my best friends are dead for one second."

I nodded slowly. She did have a point, most of the things Liza said turned out to be true- and she did mention that Jack had plot armour, so he was safe for the time being. But how could he be safe if he was buried in the sand? Maybe by safe, Liza actually meant alive. "They could be buried in the sand." I said, and a realisation hit me. "They could be buried in the sand! Alive!"

Lucas's eyes widened. "We need to get to them!" He was about to run toward the door, but Thelma caught him. "What if we get buried in the sand too?"

"My sister's in there! She could be dying!" He protested, and Thelma shook her head. "And so would you if you go outside. Do you really think that'll help anyone here?"

"Luc, I don't think they're buried," Valen was sitting on a sleeping bag, flipping through one of his textbooks. "I remember reading something about this planet having underground chambers that lead to the eternal-"

"Valen, have you paid any attention to what I've said in class?" Thelma said, and Valen's head snapped up as she turned to me. "That's all just a legend. Superstitious nonsense."

"But-"

"Valen, this isn't the time for us to ponder the legends of the planet. The more productive thing to do will be to find a way to get out of here."

I shrugged. "Well, suit yourself, but I'm not leaving here without Liza." She raised an eyebrow. "And Jack," I quickly said, "I'm not leaving without my friends, and I would advise you to do the same."

"That's the most illogical decision I've ever heard."

I was about to answer, but Valen interrupted the two of us. "Whatever we decide to do, we can do that later, but isn't our biggest priority right now to go to a safe place?" He turned to me. "You did say that they'll get to us eventually, didn't you?"

I nodded, turning to Thelma. "We need to find a place that's safe from the sand, and we need to find it quickly. I don't fancy running into those things again."

I seemed to have terrible timing, or I jinxed everything (or as Liza would say, I was a danger magnet- well, almost getting her killed about 70 times a week despite her denying it and maybe actually killing her this time probably proves that point), because at that moment, a loud whooshing sound was heard outside the door.

"Well, looks like they fancy running into you," Rose muttered, and turned to me. "What do we do now?"

A bang was heard at the door and the whooshing turned into a really high pitched whistle as the sand started shooting inside through small gaps in the door. I pulled Rose behind me, reaching into my pockets for- oh yeah. I'd given it to Liza. Note to self: from now on, always carry an extra sonic screwdriver. Well, if a 'from now on' was even possible-

Everyone was screaming something or the other as the bangs started becoming louder and more sand started shooting in. "Everybody lean against a wall that's far away from the door!" Terrible idea, but in my defense, we were cornered and I didn't have a plan. Yet. I will have a plan, that's what always happens. Trust me to always come up with a deus ex machina- or a Doctor ex machina, if you may.

"How's that supposed to even help?!" Lucas yelled, and I shrugged. "It'll buy time for me to think of something!"

"You'll think of something twenty seconds before we're practically gonna get killed?"

I shrugged. "That's what usually happens, just do as you're told!"

Everyone actually listened to me for once- dunno why, I was practically useless despite pretending otherwise, and we all leaned against the wall farthest from the door. More and more sand started coming in, and was slowly rising to form humanoids. "Are you sure you'll think of something?!" Rose yelled from beside me, and I could barely hear her.

Well, turns out the universe was on my side after all. Actually no, I'm taking that back, saying it will just jinx it and land me into a planet full of Dalek-Cyberman Cerebruses or carnivorous pears or Auntie Bushy Blonde or whatever the hell I was supposed to face. Like I was saying, a Doctor ex machina happened. Just as the door burst open and the sand creatures started forming, the ground started shaking.

This obviously made everyone stumble or fall (not me though, I'm a tough Time Lord. Alright, maybe I fell down but at least I didn't fall on my face like Lucas did), but it also made all the sand lose its sentience. If whatever the sand was even counted as sentience.

I turned to Rose, who was slowly getting up, and pulled her up roughly. The look on her face showed that she didn't appreciate it, but we were about to die. Impressing a girl really wouldn't matter if she died in twenty seconds. "The earthquake's disabling the sand somehow. We have to get out of here."

I pulled her along with me, looking behind to see Thelma dragging Lucas and Valen with her. We ran out of the room with great difficulty as the earthquake threw us around here and there, but at least the sand was inactive. One less thing to worry about. Probably.

We ran through the corridors (although, staggered would be a better word) until we reached another room. The earthquake had stopped a few minutes before we did, but Thelma and I insisted that we still run in case the sand gained its ability to turn into killer storms or humanoids or whatever else it could do.

Thelma and Rose helped me seal the doors as Lucas started talking. "You seriously brought your textbook here with you? What the hell, Valen?"

I turned around, walking toward him and snatching said textbook. "Alright, which chapter had information about this planet?"

"Page 394," Valen said immediately. "But there's really no need, I've already analyzed the chapter about a million times since we got here."

I looked up from the book, "Was there anything about the sand and it's properties?"

"Yes, but all that's based on legend." Thelma said. "It would really suit everyone better if we just made a distress call using that device of yours."

"With the interference? Impossible. And anyway, we'll have to figure out what's going on if we even have a chance to get away from here."

"And looks like this legend's got something that could help us." Rose said, and turned to Valen. "Can you tell it to us?"

"Well, this planet's uninhabited because of a war that took place here about four thousand years ago. There were some weapons that affected the planet's stability, which was why it was evacuated. Legend says that the reason the war even took place was because the rulers of this planet possessed a powerful gemstone called the eternal crystal, which had the ability to give life to anything. My theory is that the stone is doing something to the sand. Maybe revenge, maybe self defense, I have no idea."

Thelma scoffed. "Pure superstition."

"The part about revenge, maybe, but I think we have a lead here. The stone could be what's causing all this."

"But do we know that for sure?" Rose asked.

I shrugged. "I dunno, but there's only one way to find out. We'll have to go outside and face the sand."

"We could get pulled inside!"

"That's what I'm counting on."