Here we are. Because of the way Zuri lives out this adventure, Silence in the Library and Forest of the Dead are actually one chapter. You'll see why.

When Zuri jumped, she knew something was wrong.

It was dark and quiet. Too quiet.

She appeared to be in a large space, although with the lights out it was hard to tell. "Hello?" Lights flipped on, blinding her for a moment.

People emerged from doorways, and as her eyes adjusted, Zuri could see she was in a large library. "Oh no."

Rushing for a computer, she frantically searched for an office. Somewhere she could trigger the alarm. But before she could find it, a voice echoed through the speakers above her.

"Run! For god's sake, run! Nowhere is safe, the Library has sealed itself! We can't- Oh, they're here! Argh!"

Zuri's eyes widened at the horrible sound of the librarian dying, almost instantly. And then the world went sideways.

Zuri washed her hands, a normal part of work as a nurse. She had been working with Doctor Moon for over two years now if you can believe it. She met the man in the hallway, heading to visit one of their long term patients. A red-headed woman, Donna.

"Who are you?" Donna asked.

"I'm Dr. Moon, I've been treating you for two years now. This is Zuri, your nurse?"

"Oh! Doctor Moon! I'm so sorry, what's wrong with me? I didn't know you for a moment."

"And then you remembered. Shall we go for a walk?"

"No more dreams then?" Suddenly they were out on the hospital lawn. "The Doctor, the blue box, time and space?"

Donna glanced around. "How did we get here?"

"We came down the stairs, out the front door; we passed Mrs. Ali on the way out."

She glanced backward, the way they evidently came from. Another patient walked with a nurse past the front sign; reading: CAL.

"Yeah. Yeah, we did, I forgot that."

"And then you remembered. Shall we go down to the river?"

They stood beside the river, Zuri tossing bread to the ducks. She offered some to Donna, who glanced around in shock.

"You said river, and now we're suddenly feeding ducks."

"Dr. Moon!" A voice hollered.

"Morning."

"Donna Noble, Lee McAvoy." The doctor introduced.

"Hello, Lee."

"Hello, D-d-"

"Ooh, you've got a bit of a stammer there." She turned to the doctor, "Bless."

"D-d-" Lee kept trying.

"Oh, skip to a vowel. They're easier."

Zuri felt thrilled the day Donna was fully integrated. She felt a certain warmth towards the woman she didn't feel with her other patients, though it didn't stop her from providing the best care she could, and it made her glad to see the woman better.

Seven years, a marriage and two kids. Donna was doing well.

If only Zuri herself could say the same. She remained so caught up in work, in helping people, that she didn't have time for socializing.

Zuri went home from work that night and flopped down on her sofa. She had just gotten comfy when there was a knock on the door.

"I'm coming!" She hollered and suddenly was at the front door. There was no one there, just a note at her feet.

Dear Zuri, meet me at the play park, Donna.

"Alright, I'm here." Zuri found herself sitting down on the bench and surprised to see a woman in a dark dress, with a veil. "What's wrong?"

"The world. The world is wrong you said. I got your note last night." Donna spoke to the other woman. "What's that mean?"

"No, you didn't."

"I'm sorry?" Zuri was confused.

"You didn't get my note last night, you got it a few seconds ago. Having decided to come, you found yourself here. That is how time progresses here, in the manner of a dream. You've suspected that before, haven't you, Donna Noble, Zuri?"

"How do you know me? Know us?" Donna asked, confused.

"We met before, Donna. In the Library. You were kind to me, I hope to return that kindness. You mentioned Zuri, I figured she must be a friend of yours. You and the Doctor, and Professor Song."

Zuri felt like she'd been smashed between the eyes with a brick. River! The Library!

"Your voice... I recognize it." Donna realized.

"Miss Evangelista, I'm so sorry." Zuri began. "I always thought... Well, I thought when this adventure came I'd be on the outside."

Donna drew in a sharp breath. "But you were! You were... but not you. A future you."

Zuri's head shot up. "I have to live this twice?!" The panic in her voice obvious.

Zuri's mind flew to River Song, and the knowledge of the future that had been repressed in this simulation flew to the front once again. River was going to die, and Zuri would have to live through this day twice.

Donna, Miss Evangelista, and Zuri walked the perimeter of the park. "I suggested we meet here because a playground's the easiest place to see it- to see the lie."

"What lie?" Donna asked.

"The children, look at the children."

"Why do you wear that veil? If I had a face like yours I wouldn't hide it." Donna was curious.

"You remember my face then. The memories are still there, the Doctor, the Library, me. You've just been programmed not to look."

"She's dead, Donna." Zuri looked down in shame. "She died, and future me failed to stop it. We are all dead, in a way."

"Well, what about the children, they aren't dead? My children aren't dead."

"Oh, Donna. They were never alive." With her memories returned, Zuri felt awful knowing the heartbreak the woman was about to endure.

"Don't say that, don't you dare say that about my children!"

Evangelista sighed. "Look at your children. Look at all of them, really look. They're not real, do you see it now? They're all the same."

All the children running around the park looked identical, right down to the clothes. The same boy, the same girl.

"Stop it, why are you doing this? Why are you wearing that veil?" Donna reached out and yanked the veil off, revealing the once lovely face of Miss Evangelista, now distorted and warped. Like someone photo-shopped it. Donna screamed.

The three women walked in the park some more. "What happened to your face?" Donna asked quietly.

"Transcription errors. Destroyed my face, did wonders for my intellect. I'm a very poor copy of myself."

Zuri sighed. "Donna, it's a computer simulation. Of sorts. Your physical self is being stored in the Library as an energy signature. It can be called up and your body restored any time the Library computer systems needs it. The Doctor and Ri- Professor Song will get us all out, but it will take time." She scrubbed her face with her hand. "It's a virtual reality."

"So why does she look like that? I mean, sorry." Donna apologized.

"I had no choice. You were sent in the teleport systems, you're a perfect reproduction. I was just a data ghost, caught in the wi-fi and automatically uploaded."

"And it made you clever?"

"We're only strings of numbers in here. I think a decimal point may have shifted in my IQ but my face has been the bigger advantage. I have the two brilliant qualities you require to see the absolute truth. I am brilliant... and unloved."

"If this is all a dream...whose dream is it?"

Zuri opened her mouth to answer but thought briefly about her life as a nurse, how even in a dream she was spending her whole existence helping a Doctor. And suddenly she was at work, dressed in scrubs with a patient's chart in hand. "NO!"

Zuri was back in the Library. Surrounded by people, but her focus locked in on, "Donna!"

"Zuri! You're... different. When I saw you last, you were... Older."

Zuri frowned. She could have just said future Zuri, why did it sound like something was going to change about herself? "I'd been with a much younger Doctor before he met you, and then I popped up here. I showed up right before the hatching cycle of the Vashta Nerada. But if future me was with you and the Doctor, then that means I live today twice. Not looking forward to it. Let's find the time dunce."

The women linked arms, Donna saddened at not seeing Lee anywhere and hunted for the Doctor.

"Any luck?" The Doctor asked as Donna slid down the wall to sit beside him on the floor. Another woman sat on his other side.

She had dark long hair and wore a skirt and blouse.

"Wasn't even anyone called Lee in the Library that day. Suppose he could have a different name out here, but let's be honest, he wasn't real, was he?" Donna sighed.

The woman shook her head, but before she could speak she vanished in a flash of light.

The Doctor sighed, sad, staring at the space she left, but answered the question. "Maybe not."

He glanced over at Zuri, who was heading out to a balcony.

She leaned on the rail and hardly seemed to notice when Donna and the Doctor appeared beside her.

"Your friend... Professor Song. She knew you in the future but she didn't know me. What happens to me? Because when she heard my name, the way she looked at me..."

Zuri shook off the silence. "Donna Noble, super temp, she looked at you that way because she knew how much you mean to us. As for the future... Spoilers."

"She said that though, she said spoilers." The Doctor pointed out. "She knew... Donna, this is her diary. My future- OUR future. I could look you up. What do you think, shall we peek at the end?"

"Spoilers, right?" Donna shook her head with a glance at Zuri.

"Right." The Doctor lay down the book, and place a sonic screwdriver on top.

"Doctor!" Zuri gasped. "Her screwdriver! Quick, we have to get to the computer core!"

She could see the gears whirring in his mind even as they ran, him taking the lead to show her the way. She had to fight to run, only just then realizing she was still in her gown from the adventures at Torchwood Estate.

"Aha! Saved her! Stay with me. You can do it! One last run!"

The two of them dove onto the gravity platform in the floor, the Doctor sonicking it to drop. He took the screwdriver and slammed it into a port, grinning like mad.

The Doctor led the two girls back to the TARDIS, pausing before the doors. He glanced at Zuri, who gave an encouraging smile and held up her hand. He held up his own, and snapped his fingers. The door swung open with a slight creak, and the three stepped inside.

Zuri was quick to announce she was going to change, but that she would return to the console room shortly. Donna offered to help her out of the gown, but she insisted she needed the time to collect her thoughts.

Re-emerging in a pair of grey joggers and a Supernatural t-shirt, she flopped onto the jump-seat. "Alright. I'm here."

"Zuri... You were at Torchwood Estate, weren't you?" She glanced at her hands and nodded.

"Yeah. Jump number five I guess. I've only been to your future once. Donna said I was here when you landed in the Library. Where am I now? And why did it sound like somethings gonna change about me?" Looking around, she realized Donna must have gone to her room.

"Are you... Alright? I know that when you popped off you were... upset." The Doctor stared with those brown eyes of his, the stare that made you want to assure him you were fine, just to get the concern to go away.

"I'm... coping. The time spent in the computer was long enough for some of the severity of the emotion to fade before I dealt with it I think. But River-"

"You were here. Older you. She knocked us both out, handcuffed us both to the pole. There was nothing we could do. She made her choice, and it was clear she loved you."

At that Zuri sobbed, the exhaustion of the day too much. "I haven't actually met her either yet. But I know her. My trip through the vortex. I know her. And she will be so important to you one day."

The Doctor reached over and pulled Zuri into a hug. She was still so young.

"Think though, this means you still have all of that to come. I know it hurts, but she's safely uploaded, and she's got some friends to keep her company."

Zuri nodded into his shoulder. "Do you want to do anything? Take a nap, watch a movie? Help get your mind off it for a while?" He asked.

"Yeah, can we watch a movie? I'm kind of afraid to sleep right now, spent long enough in a dream."

And the pair meandered down to the movie room, to see that the TARDIS had set it all up for them.

Okay. As you can see, Zuri will be returning to the Library alongside Donna and the Doctor, but not for a while yet. Is the chapter length okay? Any episodes you want to see? Up next... The Long Game