Warnings: Language. Angst. Fluff. Sexual Content.

The Dread of Tomorrow and Yesterday

Chapter 84

The Hungry Earth: Wayward Pines

When Rhea's eyes drifted open in the wake of morning, the room was darkly lit. The Doctor was sleeping beside her, an arm slung across her bare waist, underneath the blankets. She threaded their fingers together and turned in his half-embrace, so that she was now facing him. She trailed her eyes down his sleeping features, and for the first time in a very long time, she didn't feel like shaking off the arm of the person she was sleeping with.

She leaned in and kissed him, gently, on the mouth. She pulled away and licked her lower lip, and when she looked back, he was already awake.

"What was that for?" he asked, his voice rough with sleep.

Rhea shrugged as much as she could. "I just wanted to," she said, innocently.

She slung her arms around his neck and kissed him again, smiling when his mouth moved under hers, hungrily. She laughed when he tugged her close and twisted so that he was on top of her, winding his hands into her hair.

"S'kind of good that we're already naked," she purred, pressing kisses across his jawline and down his throat.

His arms held her tight against him, trailing her hands down her bare spine. He dipped his head down and kissed the curve of her shoulders and her collarbone, nuzzling between her breasts.

"Doctor," Rhea panted. "I don't need foreplay."

The Doctor frowned against her skin. "Are you sure?"

"Yes," Rhea said, impatiently, patting him on the shoulder-blade. "Get to it."

"So bossy," the Doctor huffed, affectionately.

Rhea rolled her eyes and slid her hand down between their bodies, until she was wrapping a deft hand around the base of his cock, half-hard, and fisted him purposefully. The Doctor's jaw tightened and Rhea shifted, spreading her legs and letting him settle between his thighs.

Rhea tipped her head back when he pressed inside her without any resistance. She was still wet and slick from the night before, and she parted for him like the sweetest peach, her nails digging into his shoulders.

"Doctor," she whined.

The Doctor hushed her, pressing his lips against the curve where her throat met her shoulder. His thrusts were firm and deliberate and it didn't take her long before she was crashing over that peak, as easy as a rainshower. It wasn't one of those orgasms which had her nerves sensitive for days after (although she had only ever experienced one of those either on her own, or with the Doctor), but it was one that left her more satisfied than she had felt in years. The Doctor followed her soon after, a few thrusts later, spilling inside her with a rough groan. She couldn't take her eyes off his face, watching as his own climax overcame him, jaw clenching, shoulders tensing, hands tightening into fists and his seed wetting her thighs.

Finally, the breath left her lungs and he collapsed next to her. She rubbed her thighs together and threw her hair back to splay across the pillow underneath her.

She turned on her side, sliding a hand down her own flank and settling against the curve of her hip. She couldn't help but smile, smugly, when she saw he couldn't take his eyes off her breasts, the dark-brown of her nipples tightening under his hot gaze. His hand reached out and curved around a single breast, thumbing her nipple in a wilful, possessive gesture.

"Now, that's one way to start a morning," she said, lightly.

Later that morning, once they had showered and come out into the console room, Rhea now clad in a full-sleeved navy-blue polka-dot maxi dress with a layered gold coin necklace, where Rose had been waiting for them, in the midst of a conversation, Rhea found herself clutching her head and stumbling back. The Doctor caught her before she tripped and fell onto her hands and knees, holding her close. He smoothed her hair down and hushed her gently, as she cringed, the headache spiralling grimly until she had the sudden urge to claw into her eyes.

She didn't even feel the world slip away from her until the ache subsided. Only then, did she notice that the arms around her were different and the light creeping into her vision was different as well. She looked up at the Doctor's worried eyes, where he had curled her up on his lap, on the ground, her hands fisted in his once-leather, now-tweed jacket.

She looked up and around, seeing Amy and Rory hovering over her, concerned. She blinked, furiously, until the spots faded from her vision and hefted herself to her feet, with the Doctor's assistance.

"Take it slow, Dimples," the Doctor advised, lowly.

Rhea nodded, wincing as she cracked her neck. "Fuck, that's one hell of an acid trip."

Rory raised an eyebrow. "And you'd know?"

Rhea waggled her eyebrows, weakly. "Oh, you wouldn't believe half the things I've done."

"Yeah, Rhea's a real wild child," Amy drawled.

Rhea smiled. "You got that right." She threaded her fingers into the Doctor's hand, which was still lying on her hip, as he held her close, lest she fall again, her legs still a little shaky. She looked around. "Are we going somewhere?"

"It's a surprise; we just landed," the Doctor told her. He took her hand and led her towards the TARDIS doors. "Behold…"

The door swung open.

"Rio!"

The sight that greeted them, instead, was a cemetery. Rhea watched in slight amusement as Amy and Rory's faces fell immediately.

"Nuh-uh." Amy shook her head.

"Not really getting the sunshine carnival vibe," Rory said, dryly.

"No." The Doctor grimaced, walking forwards, something catching his interest. "Ooh, feel that, though, what's that?" He bounced in his place. "Ground feels strange... Just me." He paused. "Wait... That's weird."

Rhea frowned. "What's wrong?"

Amy shook her head. "Doctor, stop trying to distract us. We're in the wrong place." She watched, as the Doctor ran around to the other side of the church. "Doctor, it's freezing and I've dressed for Rio. We are not stopping here." The Doctor plucked some grass straight out of the ground. "Doctor! You listening to me? It's a graveyard! You promised me a beach."

Rhea scowled at Amy. "Can you please stop acting like a brat?"

Amy turned red and opened her mouth to argue.

"Blue grass," the Doctor interrupted, before it could erupt into an argument between the two. "Patches of it all round the graveyard." Rhea joined him, accompanied by Amy and Rory. "So, Earth, 2020-ish, ten years in your future, wrong continent for Rio, I'll admit, but it's not a massive overshoot." He said, defensively.

"Yes, at least this time we didn't go halfway across the universe." Rhea rolled her eyes.

Amy broke away from the Doctor and Rhea, noticing two people on the other side of the valley they were standing upon, waving at them, making her frown.

"Why are those people waving at us?" she asked, confused.

The Doctor squinted and then, his eyes widened. "Can't be," he murmured.

Rhea furrowed her brow. "Can't be what?" She looked at him, curiously.

Rory began to wave back, but Amy shoved his arm down. The Doctor took out binoculars from his jacket pocket and peered into them.

"It is!" the Doctor exclaimed, shocked. "It's you two."

Rory furrowed his brow. "No, we're here. How can we be up there?!"

"Ten years in your future." The Doctor shrugged. "Come to relive past glories, I'd imagine. Humans, you're so nostalgic." He shook his head.

Amy's eyes widened. "We're still together in ten years?" she asked, disbelievingly.

Rory scowled. "No need to sound so surprised!" he said, pointedly.

Rhea narrowed her eyes. "Why exactly are you getting married if you're so afraid of commitment?"

"I'm not afraid of commitment," Amy said, defensively.

Rhea snorted. "Is that why you're so surprised that you and Rory are still together after ten years? Or is that why you ran away the night before your wedding – technically, although I'm not too happy with this distinction – with another guy?"

Amy floundered, looking at Rory desperately. "Look, can we not talk about this here?" she hissed, gripping at Rhea's arm.

Rhea's mouth thinned. "It's not fair to string him along, Amy. If you have no intention of marrying him, you should tell him that. It'll be better for you both in the long run."

Amy gritted her teeth. "I do want to marry him," she insisted.

"You sure don't sound like you do," Rhea said, matter-of-factly, ending the conversation and going to the Doctor's side, who looked at her with disapproval.

"Did you have to be so mean?" the Doctor asked.

Rhea rolled her eyes. "Look, you can play 'doting dad' all you'd like, but I'm not keep my mouth shut because I may hurt some feelings. You didn't see the way Rory's face died when she said that, and a girl that doesn't want to get married shouldn't be getting married. They'll both suffer in the long run," she said, harshly. "I'm sorry that offends her delicate sensibilities, but someone needed to call her out on her crap."

Amy avoided Rory's questioning, tense gaze, and cleared her throat. "Hey, let's go and talk to them! We can say hi to Future Us! How cool is that?" she took Rory by the arm, purposefully, almost as if she were proving something to herself and to Rhea, beginning to head off in that direction.

"No," the Doctor warned. "Best not, really best not. These things get complicated very quickly, and..." His attention was diverted by a giant metal structure inside the valley. "Oh, look! Big mining thing. Oh, I love a big mining thing." He grinned at them, excitedly. "See, way better than Rio! Rio doesn't have a big mining thing." He said, smugly.

Amy resisted the urge to smack her forehead. "We're not going to have a look, are we?"

The Doctor beamed. "Let's go and have a look!" He headed down into the valley, dragging Rhea along, despite her protests that she could walk on her own, damn it. "Come on, let's see what they're doing."

Rory looked at Amy, worriedly. "If he can't get us to Rio, how's he ever going to get us back home?"

Amy raised an eyebrow and gestured to the couple who had waved at her and Rory. "Did you not see, over there? It all works out fine." She nudged him in the side.

Rory frowned, something aching at him. "After everything we've seen, we just drop back into our old lives, the nurse and the kissogram?" he said, dubiously, knowing that it couldn't just be that easy.

Amy shrugged. "I guess. They're getting away." She snatched Rory by the arm.

"Hang on," Rory said, suddenly. "What are you doing with that?" He pointed at the engagement ring he had given her.

"Engagement ring! I thought you liked me wearing it." Amy pouted.

Rory raised an eyebrow. "Amy! You could lose it! Cost... a lot of money, that!" he said, pointedly.

Amy hummed in contemplation, before taking the ring off and handing it over to him. "Spoilsport," she huffed.

"Go on," Rory suggested. "I'll catch up with you three." He told her before heading back into the TARDIS.

He heard Amy call out the Doctor's name as she hurried towards him and Rhea (ignoring the treasonous pang in his heart at Amy instinctively reaching out for the other man instead of reaching out for him). He placed Amy's ring back into the velvet-lined box and left it lying on the console, before stepping back outside.

He came across an ordinary-looking human woman, accompanied by a little boy whom he could only assume was her son.

"Well, that was quick!" the woman beamed at him.

Rory's brow furrowed. "Was it?" he said, hesitantly.

"It's great that you came."

The boy peered at the police box behind Rory, curiously. "Bit retro. What is it, portable crime lab?" he asked, excitedly.

"Oh," Rory's eyes widened, shooting the TARDIS a nervous look. "Er, sort of," he hedged.

"Ambrose Northover." Ambrose shook Rory's hand. "I was the one who called. I run the meals on wheels for the whole valley. This is my son, Elliot."

Elliot looked at him, almost suspiciously. "Where's your uniform?"

Ambrose cuffed him, gently. "Don't be cheeky, Elliot, he's plain clothes. CID, is it? Anyway, it's over here."

She walked off with her son, and Rory, unsure of what to do now, followed him.

The Doctor, Rhea and Amy arrived at the drill site, only to come across a locked gate.

"Restricted access," the Doctor read the sign. "No unauthorised personnel. Mm." He directed the sonic screwdriver at the lock and it swung open.

"That is breaking and entering," Amy said, pointedly.

Rhea snorted. "Come on, Legs, you only live once."

The Doctor pouted. "What did I break?!" he waggled his eyebrows. "Sonicing and entering, totally different." He pushed the gate open.

Amy pushed past them. "Come on, then." She shot them a look over her shoulder.

Rhea looked at the Doctor, as if she were telling him I told you so, and he rolled his eyes, looking back the way they had come.

"You're sure Rory'll catch us up?" he called out, hesitantly.

Ambrose, Rory and Elliot were peering into an open grave.

"It's a family plot, see," Ambrose began to explain. "My aunt Gladys died six years ago. Her husband, Alun, died a few weeks back. He lived in the house two doors down. There's not many of us left up here now." She said, sadly.

Elliot rolled his eyes. "Mum, he doesn't care about that! He wants to know about the dead bodies," he insisted.

Ambrose shook her head. "Yes. Sorry. Well, they always wanted to be buried in the same plot, together. But when we went to bury Uncle Alun, Gladys wasn't there. Gone. Body, coffin, everything." Her voice was hushed.

Rory's eyes widened. "What?"

"The mad thing is, on the surface, the grave was untouched. No signs of it having been messed with."

"I'm sorry, I don't understand," Rory said, confused.

"Nobody has touched the grave since my aunt was buried," Ambrose said, urgently. "But when they dug it open, the body was gone. How is that possible?"

The Doctor, Rhea and Amy were walking through the halls of the drill monitoring station.

"What about now, can you feel it now?" the Doctor looked at Rhea, expectantly.

Rhea shook her head. "Honestly, I've got no idea what you're on about."

The Doctor practically stomped on his feet. "The ground doesn't feel like it should," he insisted.

Amy looked at him like he was foolish. "It's ten years in the future, maybe how this ground feels as how it always feels."

"Good thought!" the Doctor admitted. "But no. It doesn't." Suddenly, they could all hear a whirring sound beginning. "Hear that, drill in start-up mode. Afterwaves of a recent seismological shift and blue grass." He popped the blade of blue grass into his mouth and made a face of disgust as he pulled it from his tongue.

Amy grimaced. "Oh, please! Have you always been this disgusting?" she asked, her face screwing up.

"No, that's recent," the Doctor said, matter-of-factly.

Rhea's lip curled. "You are not kissing me until you've brushed your teeth…" she paused. "And your tongue."

The Doctor decided to take that as a challenge. He sauntered towards her, cockily. "Come here, Dimples."

Rhea took a step back and then another, avoiding his outstretched arms. "Stay away from me," she insisted, almost playfully.

Rhea cried out in surprise when he caught her by the waist and started pressing gentle kisses to her cheeks, her forehead, her eyelids, her jaw and then her lips. The second that he pressed his mouth to hers, she slackened and wrapped her arms around his neck, rocking forwards.

When he pulled away, he nudged her throat with the tip of his nose. "Still need me to brush my teeth?" he asked, gruffly, the heat in his eyes incongruous with his Mad Hatter fashion sense.

She swept a hand across his jaw, fondly, looking up at him through her eyelashes. "If I catch some incurable disease because of you, I'm taking you down with me."

"Okay," Amy interjected, impatiently, and if Rhea was accurate (and she usually was about things like this – call it woman's intuition, if not a psychologist's), she could even see a hint of green in her gaze, even if Amy was determined not to look at them while they embraced. "Can we skip the chatting up and move on?" she said, pointedly.

Rhea smiled at her like her jealousy didn't faze her (and it didn't, because she didn't need a soothsayer to come and tell her that the Doctor was hers, especially considering she was still a little sore between her legs from their double rounds of lovemaking the night before and this morning – for her, that is).

"Of course," she said, blithely, threading her fingers with the Doctor's just to mess with Amy (and the hardness in the redhead's face when she looked back did not disappoint).

The Doctor tugged Rhea along. "What's in..." he entered a room which was already occupied by a dark-skinned, middle-aged woman. "…here? Hello!" he beamed at the woman.

The woman's eyes widened. "Who are you? What're you doing here? And what're you wearing?" she demanded, eyeing Amy with confusion.

"I dressed for Rio!" Amy protested, crossing her arms over her chest.

The Doctor slipped his psychic paper out of his jacket pocket. "Ministry of Drills, Earth and Science! New Ministry, quite big, just merged, lot of responsibility on our shoulders, don't like to talk about it. What're you doing?"

The woman scowled. "None of your business."

The Doctor walked to the monitors. "Where are you getting these readings from?"

The woman removed the equipment from a hole in the ground. "Under the soil."

Another older man entered the room just then.

"The drill's up and running again," he addressed the woman, his eyes widening when he saw the Doctor, Rhea and Amy. "What's going on? Who are these people?"

The Doctor knelt by the hole and tested the soil, rubbing it between his fingers and letting it fall back to the ground.

"Rhea, Amy, the Doctor." Amy gestured to the three of them in turn. "We're not staying, are we, Doctor?!" she said, pointedly.

The Doctor ignored her. "Why's there a big patch of earth in the middle of your floor?"

The woman shrugged. "We don't know, it just appeared overnight," she explained.

Rhea approached the Doctor and knelt beside him, Amy joining her immediately, both women peering into the hole.

The Doctor stood, quickly. "Good, right, you all need to get out of here very fast." He went over to the monitor.

The woman frowned in confusion. "Why?" she asked, worriedly.

Rhea cocked her head. "What's your name?"

"Nasreen Chaudhry," Nasreen replied.

"Another Indian." Rhea grinned at the Doctor. "I always love meeting new Indians."

The Doctor shook his head, fondly, before straightening. "Look at the screens, Nasreen, your readings. It's moving."

Amy knelt by the hole again.

The man that had joined them later scowled and stormed towards the Doctor, Rhea and Nasreen. "Hey, that's specialised equipment! Get away from it," he protested.

"What is?" Nasreen asked, worriedly, somehow knowing he wasn't misleading them.

There was steam rising from the dirt in the hole, which made Amy frown.

"Doctor, this steam, is that a good thing?" she called out.

The Doctor looked over his shoulder, only half-listening. "Shouldn't think so." He walked over to her. "It's shifting when it shouldn't be shifting."

"What shouldn't?" Nasreen wondered out loud.

The ground began to shake underneath him.

"The ground, the soil, the earth, moving, but how?" the Doctor ran back to the monitor. "Why?"

"Earthquake?" Amy offered.

Rhea frowned. As a girl born and brought up in San Francisco and having completed her university education in Palo Alto, she was no stranger to earthquakes, and this didn't feel like any earthquake she was accustomed to.

"What's going on?" the older man asked, hurriedly.

"Doubt it," The Doctor replied, answering Amy's proposition. "'Cause it's only happening under this room," he explained.

More holes formed as the ground subsided underneath them.

"It knows we're here," the Doctor said, suddenly. "The ground's attacking us."

Nasreen shook her head. "No, that's not possible!" she protested.

"Under the circumstances, I suggest..." the Doctor took a deep breath. "Run!" He urged.

The Doctor grabbed Nasreen by the hand and they headed for the door. The older man followed them, but was suddenly trapped by a hole opening in the ground underneath him, causing Rhea and Amy to pause.

"Tony!" Nasreen shouted, concerned.

"Stay back, Rhea, Amy!" the Doctor barked in worry. "Stay away from the earth!"

Rhea leapt over and helped Tony. "It's okay."

Suddenly, the ground underneath Amy opened up and she was trapped by both feet.

"It's pulling me down!" Amy shouted, panicking.

"Shit," Rhea cursed and ran to her, following by the Doctor, who called out Amy's name.

"Doctor, Rhea, help me, something's got me!" Amy struggled.

The Doctor reached for her.

"Doctor, the ground's got my legs." Amy sunk straight to her waist.

Both the Doctor and Rhea grabbed onto Amy's hands and pulled.

"We've got you," Rhea said, consolingly.

Amy nodded, taking strength in Rhea's words. "Okay," she said, firmly, almost to convince herself.

Nasreen helped Tony out of the hole he had been caught in.

"Don't let go," Amy sobbed.

"Never," the Doctor said, sharply.

"Doctor, what is it, why is it doing this?" Amy asked, alarmed.

"Stay calm, keep hold of my hand, don't let go," the Doctor soothed. He turned to Nasreen and Tony. "Your drill, shut it down! Go! Now!" He snapped.

Nasreen and Tony, sensing the fear in the Doctor's voice run to the control room.

"Can you get me out?" Amy whispered.

"Amy," Rhea began, lowly, comfortingly. "You need to stay calm. If you struggle, it'll make things worse and it'll suck you in deeper. Just keep hold of our hands. You'll be fine, okay, Legs."

Amy's hands slipped from their grips and she sunk lower.

"Doctor, it's pulling me down, something's pulling me!" Amy cried out.

The Doctor tugged on her wrist with both hands. "Stay calm. Hold on, if they can just shut down the drill..."

"I can't hold on!" Amy protested.

All that was now showing of Amy was her head and her arms, the Doctor and Rhea straining to hold onto her.

"What's pulling me? What is under the earth? I don't want to suffocate under there," Amy whispered.

"Amy, concentrate," the Doctor said, sharply. "Don't you give up!"

"Tell Rory..." Amy swallowed hard, stopping in mid-sentence.

"Tell him yourself, Legs," Rhea huffed, ignoring the hollow pit in her stomach.

"No. Amy!" Amy sunk lower despite their efforts. "Amy, no!" Amy was swallowed by the earth. "No! No!"

Finally, the Doctor and Rhea resorted to digging through the dirt with their bare hands.

"No! No! No! No. No! No. No," the Doctor shouted.

"Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit," Rhea hissed, clawing at the ground with her bare nails, hoping to see a hint of Amy's familiar fire-red hair.

The Doctor, in one last desperate effort, slapped at the ground and jumped to his feet, pointing his sonic screwdriver at the ground.

Nasreen and Tony rushed back in, looking at the clean slate of ground, with no Amy trapped inside.

"Where is she?" Nasreen asked, worriedly.

Rhea bit her lip, looking at the Doctor's empty face, and answered for him, ignoring the nausea pulling at her belly (as the Doctor didn't deal well with loss; he needed her to be strong for him right now). "She's gone. Whatever's under there… it took her."

Rory, by this time, had leapt into the muddy grave, jumping up and down, and put his hand on the side of the hatch in the ground.

"Do you want sugar?" Elliot asked.

Rory's contemplation broke. "Sorry?" he wondered.

"In your tea," Elliot explained. "Mum's asking."

"No." Rory shook his head. "Just white, thanks."

"There's only one explanation, as far as I can see," Elliot said, solemnly.

Rory raised an eyebrow. "What's that, then?"

"The graves eat people. Devour them whole, leaving no trace," Elliot replied.

Rory paused. "Not sure about that," he said, incredulously.

"They didn't steal the body from above," Elliot retorted. "They couldn't have got in from the sides. Only other thing is, they get in from underneath."

"Not very likely, though."

"When you've eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." Elliot shrugged.

Rory frowned. "Sorry?"

"Sherlock Holmes. Got the audiobook. The graves round here eat people."

Elliot left, leaving Rory shuddering in the grave from the images invoked.

"Is that what happened to Mo? Are they dead?" Tony asked in a small voice.

The Doctor paced, only half-listening to him. "It's not quicksand. She didn't just sink – something pulled her in, it wanted her," he told Rhea, pointedly.

Nasreen frowned. "The ground wanted her?" she asked, dubiously.

Rhea turned to Nasreen and Tony. "You said the ground was dormant, just a patch of earth, when you first saw it this morning. And the drill had been stopped," she prompted.

"That's right." Tony nodded.

"But when you re-started the drill, the ground fought back," Rhea pushed.

"So what, the ground wants to stop us drilling?!" Nasreen said, incredulously. "That is ridiculous."

"Nature fights back," Rhea said, ominously. "You know, like in 12 Monkeys and Jurassic Park."

The Doctor used the sonic screwdriver on the hole through which Amy had been taken, and the ground began to vibrate.

"Oh! Of course! It's bio-programming!" he crowed.

"In English, Doctor!" Rhea said, sternly.

The Doctor jumped to his feet. "Bio-programming!" He clapped his hands. "Oh, clever. You use bio-signals to resonate the internal molecular structure of natural objects! It's mainly used in engineering and construction, mostly jungle planets, but that's way in the future, and not here. What's it doing here?"

Nasreen swallowed hard. "Sorry, did you just say jungle planets?"

"You're not making any sense, man!" Tony protested.

The Doctor scowled, impatiently. "'Scuse me, I'm making perfect sense, you're just not keeping up. The earth, the ground beneath our feet, was bio-programmed to attack."

"Yeah, even if that were possible, which, by the way, it's not, why?" Nasreen shot back.

"Stop your drilling!" the Doctor snapped. "We find what's doing the bio-programming, find Amy, get her back. Shh! Shh! Shh! Have I gone mad?! I've gone mad!" he muttered to himself.

"Yes," Rhea said, simply. "You have." There was concern in her eyes.

"Shh! Silence! Absolute silence!" the Doctor's eyes snapped to Nasreen and Tony. "You stopped the drill, right?"

"Yes!"

"And you've only got the one drill?"

"Yes!"

"You're sure about that?"

"Yes!"

The Doctor laid down on his stomach next to the hole, listening to a continuous whirring sound that could be heard.

"So, if you shut the drill down... why can I still hear drilling? It's under the ground," the Doctor told them.

Tony shook his head. "That's not possible."

The Doctor stood and rushed over to the machinery, using the sonic screwdriver on them.

Nasreen took a step forward, as if to pull him away. "Oh, no, what, what are you doing?"

"Hacking into your records. Reports, samples, sensors, good, just unite the data, make it all one big conversation, let's have a look." The Doctor paused, reading the data quickly. "So. We are here and this is your drill hole. 21.009 kilometres. Well done!"

Nasreen flushed. "Thank you. It's taken us a long time."

The Doctor turned back to her. "Why here, though? Why drill on this site?" he asked, curiously.

"We found patches of grass in this area, containing trace minerals unseen in this country for 20 million years," Nasreen explained.

The Doctor's eyes dawned with realisation. "The blue grass?" he closed his eyes in dread. "Oh, Nasreen, those trace minerals weren't X marking the spot, saying dig here. They were a warning. Stay away. Cos while you've been drilling down... somebody else has been drilling up," he informed them, grimly.

The Doctor pulled up a screen on one of the monitors, showing a vertical network of tunnels.

"Oh, beautiful. Network of tunnels all the way down," the Doctor muttered.

Tony shook his head. "No, no, we've surveyed that area."

"You only saw what you went looking for," the Doctor pointed out.

Nasreen pointed to the bottom of the screen where something was registering. "What are they?"

"Heat signals." The Doctor frowned, something catching his eye. "Wait, dual readings, hot and cold, doesn't make sense. And now they're moving. Fast. How many people live nearby?"

"Just my daughter and her family. The rest of the staff travel in," Tony told him.

"Grab this equipment and follow me," the Doctor instructed, heading for the door, Rhea following him in uncharacteristic silence (this was beyond her depth and it was better for her to simply observe, for now).

"Why? What're we doing?!" Nasreen called out after them.

The Doctor halted in his tracks and turned around, his features grim. "That noise isn't a drill. It's transport. Three of them, 30km down, rate of speed looks about 150km an hour. Should be here in... ooh, quite soon, 12 minutes." He picked up one of the computers. "Whatever bio-programmed the Earth is on its way up, now."

He and Rhea strode out of the door while Nasreen and Tony packed up the other computer.

The Doctor and Tony are carrying the computers while Nasreen and Rhea followed them pushing a wheelbarrow full of equipment.

"How can something be coming up when there's only the Earth's crust down there?" Tony asked, curiously.

"You saw the readings!" the Doctor said, pointedly.

Nasreen furrowed her brow. "Who are you, anyway?! How can you know all this?" she demanded.

There was a whirring sound and red lights streaked across the sky, much like a comet.

Nasreen recoiled. "Whoa, did you see that?" she asked, wonder in her voice.

"No, no, no!" the Doctor chanted, desperately, in realisation

The Doctor took out a slingshot from his jacket, picked up a rock and fired it at the sky. It hit a force-field, red lights streaking out from the impact. He then took out his sonic screwdriver, and aimed it at the sky, revealing the field surrounds the village and the drill site.

"Energy signal originating from under the Earth. We're trapped," the Doctor said, lowly, his shoulders slumped.

Suddenly, Rory ran up to them, followed by Elliot and Ambrose.

"Doctor! Something weird's going on here, the graves are eating people," Rory said, hurriedly, panting for breath.

"Not now, Rory!" the Doctor waved off. "Energy barricade. Invisible to the naked eye. We can't get out and no-one from the outside world can get in."

"And the TARDIS?" Rhea pushed, her hackles rising at the thought of being trapped in this village where something dangerous was climbing out of the earth itself.

Nasreen looked between the two. "The what?!"

The Doctor shook his head. "No, those energy patterns would play havoc with the circuits. With a bit of time, maybe, but we've only got nine and a half minutes," he explained.

"Nine and a half minutes until they break through the surface?" Rhea clarified, and when the Doctor nodded in agreement, she groaned. "Joy, this will be fun."

Rory looked around, just now registering the absence of a person very dear to him. "Where's Amy?"

"Get everyone inside the church!" the Doctor told Rhea, urgently, picking up the computer. He turned to Rory, his features a picture of grief and determination. "Rory, I'll get her back."

Rory tensed. "What d'you mean, get her back? Where's she gone?" he demanded.

Rhea saw the Doctor hesitate and decided to become the 'bad guy'. "She was taken. Into the Earth," she replied, impassively.

It was as if his heart was seized in a bear trap. "How?! Why didn't you stop it?!" Rory snapped.

Rhea approached Rory and placed a hand on his arm, despite her distaste for physical contact.

"We tried, Rory. I promise, we tried," she said, gently.

"Well, you should've tried harder!" Rory shrugged off her touch, angrily.

The Doctor gritted his teeth and stormed up to the nurse. "I'll find Amy. I'll keep you all safe. I promise. Come on, please. I need you alongside me." He picked up the case and the three headed for the church.

The church was in a severe state of disrepair and disuse with boxes, crates and junk everywhere, but the Doctor, Nasreen and Tony managed to set up the equipment.

"So we can't get out, we can't contact anyone. And something, the something that took my husband, is coming up through the Earth." Ambrose took a deep breath as her own, silly words registered.

The Doctor nodded. "Yes. If we move quickly enough, we can be ready."

Ambrose scowled. "No, stop. This has gone far enough. What is this?"

"He's telling the truth, love," Tony told his daughter, gently, knowing that the woman was still reeling from the loss of her husband.

"Come on!" Ambrose scoffed. "It's not the first time we've had no mobile or phone signals. Reception's always rubbish," she protested.

Nasreen sighed. "Look, Ambrose, we saw the Doctor's friend get taken, okay? You saw the lightning in the sky. I have seen the impossible today, and the only person who's made any sense of it, for me, is the Doctor."

Ambrose narrowed her eyes at the young man in a tweed jacket, plaid shirt and bow-tie, and couldn't seem to acknowledge how this man made sense of anything.

"Him?!" she huffed in disbelief.

"Me," the Doctor said, firmly, either disregarding her scepticism or not recognising it as such.

"Can you get my dad back?" Elliot asked, suddenly.

It was like time stopped and everyone looked at the Doctor, helplessly.

"Yes," the Doctor said, gently. "But I need you to trust me and do exactly as I say from this second onwards because we're running out of time."

Ambrose faltered when she saw nothing but resolution in the young man's eyes. She cleared her throat.

"So tell us what to do."

The Doctor's lips quirked up at the corners. "Thank you. We have eight minutes to set up a line of defence. Bring me every phone, camera, every piece of recording or transmitting equipment you can find."

A/N: So, there was the first chapter of The Hungry Earth, plus some sexy times with 9 and some flirting with 11. It wasn't super Rhea heavy again this chapter, but for the beginning, but hopefully the next chapter will have her saying and doing more, because the whole 'humans think they're better than everyone and screw everything up by being territorial' is a topic that really gets to her.

Anyway, I think that's all I wanted to say for this chapter, so I'll see you in the next one and don't forget to leave a review!

Reviews:

deathb4beauty: I absolutely love the Flashpoint storyline. I think it's amazing work of fiction, and really does show how time travel can go terribly wrong.

NicoleR85: Thank you!

Kore353: Thank you!

NetteBS: Thank you!

Katraj0908: Yeah, 'savage' is pretty much Rhea's go-to.

PrincessMagic: Thank you!

LookAliveSunshine03: Thank you!

Epicinsanity9: I would say that's a pretty fair assessment.