The TARDIS bleeped and flashed up two new results from the samples they had taken from the Doctor. "Is it the toxins?" Josh asked keen to find out if he was right or not.
"No, but we do have a specific bacteria type here causing the infection," she commented checking the results. "In fact we have two colonies of bacteria causing different infections. Clostridium Perfringens and your basic Staphylococcus aureus," Martha read out the results. "Both of them have caused the infection. I expected it to be something more exotic," she admitted. "He should have been able to deal with those before they'd got any kind of hold on him. I expect this means your theory about the damaged layer of cells is right."
"Can they be treated with antibiotics?" Josh checked.
"Yeah, I can give him vancomycin and metronidazole," Martha offered. "If they don't work then I can add penicillin but I'd rather avoid that if at all possible. He's not allergic to it, but it's not very friendly to time lords. I'll start giving him them straight away. We can give them to him through IV until he's awake and then he I'll sort him out a course of tablets for a week just in case anything gets a second wind," Martha offered.
"His body temperature is 19.9 degrees now," Josh commented.
"Well, that is much better," Martha confirmed. "It's still a fever so he'll still feel pretty rotten, but he's out of what I would consider the really poorly and into the poorly zone now." Martha sorted out the antibiotics and added a bolus of both into the Doctor's drip. She checked the dressings on his back and there was no further seepage of blood. She gently opened his eyes and had a look to see how out of it he remained. "We should be able to get rid of the ventilator now, but I still want him on 100% oxygen." Martha enlisted Jack's help to remove the ventilator and the Doctor gagged on the tube as it was pulled out of his throat. It showed he was coming round again. Martha caressed his head. She didn't attempt to wake him. "You're okay, Doctor, just rest."
"Are you going to let him come out of it naturally?" Jack checked with Martha. "Or are you going to give him something to speed it along?"
"We can let him wake up on his own," Martha offered. "He's got loads of drugs on board now, anything else is just going to make him more miserable. If he's drowsy on it for a while then he's more inclined to rest."
"And, we're leaving him on his front?"
"It's going to be too painful for him to lie on his back. If we put him on his side before he wakes up he might roll over and hurt himself. If he wants to lie on his side when he's awake we can give him a hand, but this is easiest for him and easier to check the wounds," Martha offered. Martha got a cool cloth and wiped the Doctor down so his skin was damp with the fans, it would help him cool down more quickly without it being as uncomfortable as having ice packs on him. Josh watched as Martha absently caressed the Doctor's head again. It was very clear that she cared about him deeply even if he didn't know who she was yet.
Mickey came into the sickbay with a plate stacked high with bacon and egg sandwiches. "I didn't even think to ask. You do like bacon don't you?"
"Doesn't everyone like bacon?" Josh asked and nodded. He'd not had bacon for months and the smell made him feel ravenous. The sandwiches had all been cut in half and he took one when Mickey offered him the plate. Martha got a bit of tissue and spread it out on his table and then took another three halves of sandwich and put them in front of him so he had two full sandwiches to eat.
"When any of these three are around and food is involved don't be polite," Martha warned Josh. "That stack is going to be crumbs in the blink of an eye whether you've had enough or not."
"Do we need to save some for the Doctor then?" Josh checked.
"He's probably not going to want to eat for a while after he's woken up. Hopefully he won't be physically sick, but he's probably going to be feeling nauseous with all the drugs. We can make sure he has something to eat later on. He'll probably just have tea for a while. I'm always surprised when we don't find he's got tea in his veins."
"I'm just going to check in with my team," Mickey stated. "Make sure there has been no changes." He gave Martha a kiss on the cheek and then left the TARDIS to get updated, conscious that he was still at work as well and didn't have the same carte-blanche to remain in the TARDIS as Martha did.
"What are UNIT dealing with out there?" Jack asked Martha "It looked like it was ramping up when I arrived."
"Do you want to fill Jack in while I keep an eye on the Doctor?" Martha asked Josh.
"You're getting the kid to update me?" Jack checked with the medic. He shrugged. "Okay, give it your best shot. Let's have a full briefing."
"I don't know how to give a briefing," Josh admitted and looked to Martha.
"Just tell Jack what we know," Martha suggested. "Like an overview of it all. You don't have to go into minute detail. If Jack wants to know anything else in details he can ask questions afterward."
"There is a population of genetically modified creatures living in a cave system connected to the storm drains in this area and under the woods," Josh started. He glanced at Martha and she nodded that he was on the right track and that he should continue. "They have been engineered using fragments of DNA from terrestrial animals but that DNA has been merged using advanced technologies that shouldn't be available on Earth yet. The DNA includes fragments from animals including Komodo dragons, hyena, and an as of yet unidentified annelid. The genetic code has not been fully analysed yet, but the TARDIS has a sample of it from an egg the Doctor retrieved so it can be. It is not known how many creatures there are, but there are at least 12 adults and a number of juveniles and eggs. The Doctor has located two main areas in the system where they are living. One which is food storage and the other is a nursery, but he suspects that there are other areas being used as well and that the population may be much larger than the 12 adults he has witnessed."
"When you say food storage?" Jack checked.
"The Doctor said that there were bodies in there and that it looked like some of them were there for a long time. The remains of three people who were killed yesterday were there as well as some other people. He said there were the remains of farm animals in there as well such as pigs, sheep, cows, and horses. The juveniles were all in the other area and there were adults in there guarding the eggs."
"Okay, what else?"
"One of the other storm drains that links into the tunnel goes up into an area behind a disused slaughterhouse. The Doctor witnessed a van and three men dropping off animal carcasses for the creatures so they would get disposed of that way, and, he heard them say that they were going to come back with pigs that were infected with swine flu today. I don't know if that has happened yet. The Doctor thinks the creatures have been introduced into the caves in order to dispose of that waste, but they have been breeding to the point where they have started to spread out and start to hunt people as well. I'm not sure if they are hunting people or if they have just attacked people that have entered the storm drains or the caves. I've lived in the woods for months and my shelter is not far from the storm drain. I've never seen or heard them before and if they were hunting people then I would have been an easy target like I was yesterday."
"Are you disputing the Doctor's theory?" Jack asked him and smiled.
"No, the Doctor isn't sure. He changed his theory a lot. I just think that it might be more to do with territory rather than hunting people for food. They ate them when they killed them, but only when people were in the drains. There isn't enough evidence to say whether it is one or another."
"How did he change his theory?"
"He got new evidence and found more out," Josh commented. "When he first went to look to see if the others were still alive he came back. He thought there were only 8 of them in one area of the cave system and he went back in to blow up the entrance and exit to that cave in order to trap them in there. That was in the larder cave. If they were running out of food then there wouldn't be so much food in there. They might be running out of space or running out of potential sites for breeding, but they are being fed at the slaughterhouse tunnel, so they might be more inclined to remain where they are rather than find new territories because they would lose that source of food. The Doctor went out to blow up the tunnels, but he came back and said that he had to change his plan because he found the nursery area and another lot of eggs. He brought an egg back so we could analyse the DNA. Then he set up a sonic beacon above ground which gives out a regular pulse of sonic energy and should keep them under ground. UNIT are now maintaining a perimeter and Mickey says they have guards on all the ways in and out of the storm drains and the linked caves."
"A sonic beacon," Jack commented.
"When we were attacked he used his screwdriver thing to give out a sonic pulse and the one that was attacking us ran away. That was when he was clawed. I didn't even know it had got him."
"What were you doing in the storm drain anyway?" Jack checked with Josh.
"Four older kids stole my rucksack and I chased them in there to get it back. One of them ran back out and got away, but I think he is the one that UNIT has found dead and want Martha to autopsy," Josh commented and Martha confirmed with a nod. "And, the other three were killed in the tunnels yesterday. One of the animals came right up into the storm drain and took them. I could hear it all happening, but it was too dark to really see what was going on."
"And you got your rucksack back?" Jack commented indicating to the bag that was beside his bed.
"The Doctor found it and brought it out. He got me and my bag out. He went down to see if he could save the others but they were already dead."
"It sound scary," Jack offered. "And, did you break your ankle when you were running out?"
"No, I broke it when I was chasing the others to get my bag back."
"You must have really wanted that bag to chase four older boys into the tunnels."
"It has my stuff in it," Josh commented. "The important stuff anyway. I have some other stuff in the shelter I built, but that is pretty well hidden so no one should find it."
"And you ran away seven months ago."
"I'm not sure how long ago it is exactly. It's about that. I'm staying with the Doctor for now."
"What does the Doctor say about that?" Jack asked him sounding doubtful. Having an injured 14 year old on board was going to cramp his style.
"He is okay with it. He said I can stay until my ankle is better, but if I stay here then I have to have lessons with him, and, then when my ankle is healed but I need to exercise it he says we can go to the Maldives to where they have the whale shark breeding programme and he will teach me how to SCUBA dive as part of my rehabilitation."
"He said all that?" Jack checked with Josh and the boy nodded.
The briefing and conversation between Josh and Jack was paused as the Doctor moaned on the bed. Martha immediately stood and caressed his head. "Doctor? Are you going to wake up now?" she asked him. He groaned and his eyes opened a crack, but closed again almost immediately. "You're going to be fine," she assured him as she gently rubbed his left shoulder staying well away from any of the dressings on his back. "How are you feeling?" She asked him as he struggled to open his eyes again. "It's Martha," she told him. "We met yesterday, remember?" He hummed. "Is that a yes, you remember meeting me yesterday, or is that a go away and leave me alone?"
"What you done?" He was slurring where he was still heavily medicated.
"You've had an anaesthetic, so you're going to be feeling strange. It's okay. I know what drugs you can and can't take remember? You don't need to worry. You just need to rest and allow yourself to come round."
"How do you know?"
"Well, I know because some of it I found out the hard way and some of it you've told me," Martha informed him "That is going to make your brain hurt right now. I know it's making mine hurt, so, I'm just going to ask you to trust me."
"S'cold."
"You've got a fever," Martha informed him. "There has been some infection in the cuts on your back. It's all cleaned up and we've isolated the bugs causing it and you're getting the right antibiotics. You're getting better now, but you need to rest," Martha assured him. The Doctor clumsily went to remove the oxygen mask. "I'd prefer it if you left that for now, Doctor," Martha told him. "I know you don't like it much, but it's helping. Now you're more awake would you be more comfortable staying on your front or lying on your side?"
"Side."
"Okay, I'll help you over," Martha suggested. The Doctor winced and then groaned as he rolled onto his side so he was facing the bed where Josh was sitting.
The Doctor looked across to Josh. His vision was a bit blurry with the drugs. "Sorry bout this."
"It's okay," Josh told him. "It's not your fault. You got infected because the claws have a toxin in it and"
"Josh," the Doctor breathed.
"I'll tell you later when you're feeling better," Josh decided. "You should go back to sleep. I'm monitoring your body temperature and stuff. You're getting better so you'll feel better soon as well. I think you might get better more quickly if you went back to sleep. You should go back to sleep."
"Yeah." The Doctor tried to rub his face, but he was uncoordinated and he didn't feel right. His head was aching, he was freezing, his back was hurting, he had all kinds of drugs polluting his blood stream but since he was waking up he supposed Martha hadn't given him anything that would kill him. There was still something else though. It wasn't the psychic link with Josh, it almost felt like the opposite it and he couldn't even begin to work it out. He didn't want to work it out. He wanted it to go away before he woke up properly and had to begin to think about it with any kind of clarity. He winced as shifted slightly on the bed and he saw there was someone else in there. "You?" The Doctor looked directly at him. "Jack?"
"Hello Doctor," Jack commented. "It's been a while. Fine mess you've got yourself into this time."
"Mine or Martha's?"
"Is that a proposition?" Jack teased him. "Hardly the time to be discussing backsides, there is a child in the room, Doctor, but you know it'd always be yours."
"Time lines," the Doctor groaned. "Whose?"
"Well, I think I've got a time line all of my own, don't I?" Jack commented. "But, so far as all of this goes, it's definitely Martha's." The Doctor sighed heavily but then just went back to sleep.