The TARDIS's landing was harsh and it knocked the Doctor off his feet. He thought out an apology to her, aware that she was under some sort of assault as well. He got up and rubbed the point of his elbow which had connected first with the grating when he'd fallen backward. He rushed toward the door and threw it open. He fought through a wall of anxiety in order to step beyond the safety of his ship and found himself standing in some woods. He scanned the trees searching for anything or anyone that might be in trouble, but there was nothing. It looked peaceful and quite pretty, the sun was low in the sky, but there was still enough light. Birds were singing and he'd landed in a small clearing at the edge of a stream. If he found that he wasn't on Earth then he would have been surprised.

The Doctor closed his eyes and tried to connect to the fear. He rubbed his face with both hands and then raked his fingers through his hair. He couldn't connect and it left his head throbbing, but terror was coming at him in waves from downstream. It took everything he had not to run in the opposite direction, instead he ran toward the perceived source, along a forest path matching the track of the stream. He saw the black maw of a storm drain up ahead, as he approached a young man, probably human, leapt out of the end of it. Wearing a camouflage jacket he sprinted along the path.

"What's going on?" The Doctor tried to catch the teenager as he ran past him.

"There's something in there!" He pointed wildly back toward the drain.

"What?" The Doctor asked. "What's in there?"

"Don't go in there!" He commented pulling away from the Doctor and fell to the ground. He didn't stop trying to get away, kicking himself along the ground. "Fuck! They're dead! They're fucking dead!"

"Who's dead?" The Doctor asked calmly, crouching down to him.

"Don't go in there!" Camouflage jacket scrambled up and fell again, but then managed to regain his footing and sprinted away.

The Doctor watched him go for a second, the brief interaction doing nothing to help calm the fear that continually washed over him. The Doctor began to realise that the telepathic assault on his senses was likely unintentional. Something or someone with a powerful ability to connect was simply terrified. No human could have reached him in the vortex like that, there was something else in there, something fearing for its life. Could that be the same something that had driven a camouflage wearing, skin-headed, tattooed, foul-mouthed, liquor breathed teenager into a desperate, panicking retreat?

Fighting the continual urge to run for miles and miles in the opposite direction the Doctor ran to the entrance to the storm drain. It hadn't been well maintained. The natural light that was supposed to spill down into the tunnel was blocked making it particularly dark. The Doctor removed sonic from his inside jacket pocket and switched it on. It illuminated the tunnel a ghostly blue, twigs, branches and webs of fibrous roots hung down through jagged cracks in the cylindrical concrete tube. More burst up through the floor. It was large enough for him to stand without stooping, wide enough for two or three men to walk side by side. Big, long, and dark enough for something to be hiding down there in the depths.

The Doctor headed into the storm drain. His head was aching and his hearts were pounding. He had to be getting close. He reached a fork in the tunnel and shone sonic up toward a metal grate. There was nothing in the side shooting tunnel and the vegetation growing round and through the grate showed it hadn't been used in a long time. He continued past the second part of the tunnel and down further into the dark. The blue light of sonic picked up a shape. He saw a boy huddled up against the side of the tunnel, just a few metres ahead of him. He was dishevelled and dirty and had blood seeping from a cut above a large bump on his eye and more blood on his lip. He could see the rapid movement of his chest as he breathes and as he bathes him in blue light the boy looks at him. It's impossible to judge how old he is. Older than 12 but younger than 16?

"Hi." The Doctor crouched down in front of him and can see he's been crying. His complexion has taken a greyish hue and he's shaking. "What's your name?"

"J-Josh."

"Nice to meet you Josh." The Doctor gave him a smile. He went to touch him lightly on the shoulder but Josh shied away from him as if he could back into the concrete behind him. The Doctor raised his hands in apology. "It's okay," he assured him. "I'm not here to hurt you. Can you tell me what has happened?"

"Are you the cops or something?" Josh asked quietly.

"Do I look like a cop?" the Doctor asked him.

"You could be. Maybe you're under cover or in plain clothes."

"I'm not the police," the Doctor assured him. "Are you in trouble?"

"Something's down here." Josh kept his voice low. "I wanted my rucksack back. They took it, but something got them. They were screaming, but now they're not," Josh informed the Doctor.

"What kind of something?" the Doctor asked. "Did you see it?"

"It's too dark. I just saw a shape," Josh commented.

"What kind of shape?"

"I think it was an animal. It was big. Not elephant big."

"I'm not sure an elephant would fit down here," the Doctor suggested.

"It was dog big, a big dog, maybe bigger than a dog, some kind of mutant dog or a wolf. They released wolves back into Scotland."

"Are we in Scotland?" the Doctor asked.

"No," Josh informed him. How could he not know if he was in Scotland of not. "Yorkshire."

"Right, Yorkshire, North or West?"

"North.

"Nice county," the Doctor commented. "Maybe not a wolf then. I'll go and have a look see if I can find anything."

"It killed them."

"I just need to go and have a look. Maybe they're not dead. They might need help. Can you get up? Make your way out into the trees?" the Doctor asked him, but Josh shook his head. "I know you're scared, but there isn't anything between here and the exit. I won't let anything get past me," he assured him. "I'll just have a quick look and catch you up. Just make your way out, and, oh?" the Doctor commented and then dug into his pocket to find a small torch. He turned it on and it gave out a dim circle of light before it went off again. He shook it and banged it against his palm and it came back on again. "It's not great but it should see you to the exit," he offered the torch to the boy. When he didn't take it he put it on the floor just beside him. "Take the torch and make your way out."

"I can't."

"I know you must be scared, Josh but…" the Doctor paused as Josh picked up the torch and shone the light down onto his ankle. He'd not been able to see it himself in the dark, just knew it hurt him more than anything. When he saw his foot wasn't central to the end of his leg, but twisted round to the side he gasped.

"I can't," Josh repeated.

"Oh," the Doctor acknowledged the gruesome looking injury. "Blimey, that must be sore." Josh turned the light away from his foot and the Doctor saw fresh tears beginning to track down his cheeks. He reached out to comfort him, but Josh pulled away from him again, so he didn't push it.

"As luck would have it," the Doctor started as he once again fished in his pocket trying to find something. "I was just visiting my friend's sick mum, and, we didn't know what was wrong with her, so, I took these, and she didn't need them. She's just got flu, proper flu mind, not bird flu or swine flu or even man flu, but these?" He pulled out a small plastic bag with three bright blue pills in them. "These are brilliant. They're painkillers. How about you take one of these," he suggested. "Then, stay here, I need to go and check further down the tunnel. If there is an animal of some kind and it has taken people then I need to go and see if they're still alive and if they need help, and, there is something else in here that is so, so scared," he informed Josh. "I need to go and check, but I promise, I will come straight back for you and get you out."

Josh didn't respond and he didn't take the offered medication. "I promise," the Doctor stated. "I'll get you out, but swallow one of these. It will help."

"You think I'm going to take a pill you got out your pocket?" Josh asked him incredulously.

"You can't tell me that's not hurting."

"It hurt less in the dark," Josh informed him.

"The medicine will help."

"You don't fool me."

"Oh?"

"You just happen to turn up now? For all I know that dog thing is your pet and you're the one taking people. I'm not going to make it easy for you and drug myself."

"I'm not trying to drug you," the Doctor assured him, but then looked at the pills he was offering the boy. "Well, okay, yes, I am trying to drug you, but it's a good drug - it's a painkiller."

"In a little plastic bag in your pocket?" Josh queried. "I don't think so."

"They'd take too much room in my pocket if I left them in the box," the Doctor defended the presentation which he admitted may have seemed slightly suspicious. He was about to press the pills into Josh's hand, but they both heard an animalistic howl reverberate through the tunnel. The Doctor dropped the pills into Josh's lap as he slowly stood back up and took a step along the tunnel, instinctively placing himself between the source of the noise and the boy. Josh froze, squeezing his eyes closed, as if not being able to see anything meant it wasn't real. The Doctor shone sonic along the tunnel, but the tunnel curved off to the left and he couldn't see beyond the bend.

"Stay there, don't move," the Doctor told Josh in a harsh whisper. "Stay still and quiet."

"Don't go down there."

"I'll be back, I promise, I'm not going to leave you down here, but I need to see."