Hello!

It's C.C. back again to bring you the third chapter of the Forest-Eyed Girl

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Chapter 3

The Escape

The room June woke up in was almost identical to the one in the spaceship. It only differed by the fact that it was much bigger and that the sight outside of the window was not Earth in space, but an ocean of mud. She was still on the alien planet, completely alone and without any of her things. She had no clue where the Doctor could be and he was her only way home. June was out of luck.

June wasn't going to let herself be hopeless. She would break out of the room, find her things, find the Doctor, and finally get home. Getting so close and being 'arrested' by the Silgols only seemed to make her more determined to get home.

She paced around the room and wondered about a way out. She knew that breaking the window would break a few of her fingers or her foot and she knew that she would need full function of her limbs to actually escape. When she went to inspect the door, there was no doorknob on the inside just like there hadn't been one on the spaceship.

June kicked the door and then wandered to the back of the room, grumbling to herself in frustration. She leaned against the window and stared at the door. If she was going to get out, she had to get that door open, and for that, she would have to go right to the source. "Let me out of here!" she shouted at the top of her lungs, hoping that an alien would hear her. She paused for a moment, but there was no reply. "Let me out, ya shitheads!" she yelled after a moment. She continued to yell, pause, and yell again until she heard hissing on the other side of the door.

The door slid open and a Silgol stood in the doorway, up on tall legs, legs not as tall as the towers the ones outside had grown. It only seemed to be a bit taller than her, about 5'10-5'11 to her 5'9. The way out was just behind it. "Human," it said. "Spaceship Delta one has arrived. You will be studied as planned. I will escort you to the ship."

June just had to get past it. "Not if I have anything to say about it." She lunged into a runner's stance, and then sprinted across the room. She used her whole body to ram into the alien and send it, flying, into the wall. Its tall legs sprang back into their normal tail form at the impact.

The alien cried in protest as June grabbed its stump arm and shoved it into her cell. Thankfully, there was a handle on the outside of the door and she was able to close it, trapping the alien inside. It hissed and wailed, but June ignored it. She took a second to catch her breath, and then cheered silently to herself. She wanted to give herself a pat on the back. She couldn't believe that she had just done that. People didn't usually get the chance to rush an alien and trap it in an alien jailcell.

Now, June had to focus on her next task: finding her stuff and the Doctor. He was her only way home and a bit more trustworthy now that she knew that the Silgols weren't fond of him either. So, she ran down the hallway of identical cell doors. She followed the hallways, taking turns and climbing up ramps, avoiding all the dead ends she turned into.

Eventually she stepped out into a large, empty room. A ramp angled upwards was the only way to go. The ramp wasn't as small as the ones she had been able to jump up and over. This ramp was huge, more like a hill than anything. June did the only thing she could, she ran for it. The ramp was slippery, but after a few minutes of struggling, June managed to scramble her way up it and onto another marble floor.

She stood in some sort of entrance hall. A large archway was cut into the front wall as a front door into the building. There were two small archways on either side of the hallway which seemingly led to even more hallways. And an identical archway like the one she had just passed under stood on the back wall next to her. However, in between her and it was a front desk. And pressed against the wall behind the front desk was a terrified Silgol.

June quickly realized: the Silgol was terrified of her. As much as it made her feel like a hypocrite, she knew that she could use this to her advantage. She rounded to the front of the desk and slammed her hands down on the marble countertop. The thud made the Silgol shutter. "Hey!" she pointed directly at it. The Silgol froze. "Where's my friend and where's my stuff!?" The Silgol didn't answer. It shivered and stared at her, wide eyed. It seemed like it wanted to shrink away. June understood the feeling. "I said, where's my stuff and where's my friend?!" It pointed to the front desk. June frowned and looked over the counter.

A tray sat on the desk below her. The tray held her broken phone, its several shards of glass, and her wallet. But also, the silver and blue device—the screwdriver—the Doctor had used, a bronze key, and several empty cans of Space Peaches. June grabbed everything, assuming that it was all either hers or the Doctor's stuff. She reluctantly left behind the cans of Space Peaches even though she thought that they would make a cool keepsake. She just couldn't carry them. She shoved everything else into her various jean pockets.

"Now," June looked back up at the Silgol. It quivered under her look. She felt a small pang of guilt in her stomach but forced herself to ignore it. She had to get home. "Where's the Doctor?" she demanded. "The man I was walking with, where is he?" The Silgol shakily pointed towards the archway, the one opposite yet identical to the one June had come from. June smiled at the alien. "Thanks, you've been a great help!" She bolted around the desk and towards the second archway.

She had to slide down another, large, hill-like ramp before she was let into a much larger, confusing, set of hallways. The first few hallways seemed to contain offices and such, but after a few smaller ramps and turns, she stumbled upon what looked like cells.

June stopped at the end of one hallway and shouted, "Doctor?" Hisses, growls, and even some thuds replied. June went from hallway to hallway, calling for the Doctor. She just kept getting hisses, thuds, screams, and scratches as answers.

She slid down another ramp and leaned against the opening to the next dead-end hallway. She didn't expect any answer when she called out, "Doctor?"

"June?" A familiar voice called back, muffled by a metal door.

June let out a sigh of relief and ran towards his cell. She would get home after all. Well, as long as she could break the Doctor out of his cell and they both managed to escape. She felt optimistic about it. "I'm getting you out!" she shouted to him. She pulled at the door handle, but the door wouldn't budge. "It's locked."

"Yeah, cell doors usually are," the Doctor said.

June breathed a little laugh at his sarcasm and tried to pull the door open again with no success. "How do I get you out?" she asked.

He was silent for a moment. "I don't know," he said. "I could get out if I had my Sonic Screwdriver, but they took it from me."

June stopped. The screwdriver thing. She gasped. "I have it!" she exclaimed, pulling it from her pocket.

"You do?" he asked.

"Mhm," she hummed, nodding. "They had all our stuff on a tray behind the front desk. Terrified Silgol didn't mind handing it over." She looked at the screwdriver thing. I still didn't look like a screwdriver and it sure didn't look like it could unlock a door. "So, how do I get you out?" she asked.

He quickly explained how to use the sonic screwdriver, which just boiled down to point and press the button. Simple enough for June to follow. She pointed the blue end at the handle, pressed the top most button on the silver handle, and the screwdriver buzzed. A click rang out from the door. June grinned and finally opened the door.

The Doctor stood in the doorway with a large grin on his face. "You did it," he said.

June shrugged. "Yeah, it was nothing." She laughed and handed over the odd screwdriver.

"How'd you get out in the first place?" the Doctor asked. "They told me they were going to put you back on that ship for examining and such."

"Oh, I just rushed the Silgol who came to get me and ran." She shrugged.

"You what?" he asked.

"Ran into him and pushed him over," she said.

"That's tackling."

"No, tackling is a bit different. Which is why I used 'rush' instead." June stopped. She shook her head. "Okay, but we shouldn't focus on that. You said you could take me home. So, take me home."

"They put the TARDIS into storage," the Doctor told her. "They have her somewhere in the basement. Said they have to process it or something. But they took my key. Nothing can get into the TARDIS without a key."

June dug in her pocket again. She pulled out the little bronze key that had been in the tray. "Is this it?" she asked.

The Doctor gaped at her for a moment, grinned, and then took it from her. "Fantastic."

"Is your ship really called the TARDIS?" June asked.

"Yeah," the Doctor nodded. "Why?"

"Weird name," June muttered.

"Oi! It's a great name!" the Doctor argued. "And it's the only ship that's going to help get you home, so don't insult it." June frowned at him. "Come on." He grabbed her hand and pulled her along.

After a few turns and climbs and a large trek up the large slippery ramp, they made it into the entrance hall again. The Silgol still stood terrified, quivering behind the front desk. The Doctor immediately turned towards the nearest archway. June just assumed he knew where he was going and followed. She didn't have much of a choice anyway.

The hallway they walked down was dark and had a bunch of rooms with locked doors. June tried to stay quiet as she walked down the hallway just in case anyone was in one of those rooms and could hear her. The Doctor walked on like he didn't care if anyone came out and attempted to arrest him again.

At the end of the hallway, the floor just dropped into another ramp, a railing on its right. June looked down over the railing and gasped. It was a spiral staircase, just made of ramps instead. She followed carefully after the Doctor, almost slipping on the first ramp down.

Then, a blaring alarm went off. June froze. Oh, now the Silgol behind the front desk had decided to do something. There was no other way the alarm could've gone off. The sound of hissing bounced off the walls above them. They were coming. The Doctor grabbed June and pulled her along before she could hesitate any longer.

June had run down ramps and hills before. They tilted you forward and if you ran too fast, you fell on your face. Most people leaned backwards while running down ramps so they wouldn't fall on their face. Well, June didn't have the option to because the Doctor was pulling her and she couldn't keep up. At the end of ever ramp, right at the small flat section, there was a wall or railing that June almost kept barreling into,

She kept being pulled down ramps without any hesitation. "Mind slowing down!?" she shouted at the Doctor.

"Do you want to be arrested again?" the Doctor asked, not even looking back at her.

"No!"

"Then hurry up!" he yelled.

They ran until the last ramp smoothed into concrete floor. They had reached the bottom of the 'rampcase.' Hissing and slithering could still be heard on the ramps above. A whole group of Silgols were slithering down to them.

June and the Doctor had stopped in what looked like a large parking garage. Except there were seemingly no exits, no parking spaces, and no amount of daylight could reach how far underground June assumed they were.

June scanned the area, looking for some sort of spaceship. There were piles of junk, very broken spaceships, and oddly enough a police box from 1950s—1960s England, but no working spaceship. She was about to ask where his spaceship was, but before she could, the Doctor pulled her across the concrete floor. The one thing that kept getting closer to them the obvious target, was the police box.

They stopped in front of the bright blue police box doors and the Doctor let go of June's hand so he could search around in his jacket pocket. June glanced between him and the box. "This is a police box," June said.

"Yeah?" the Doctor said.

"It's a police box, not a spaceship," June said.

"Stop, criminals!" June turned to see a group of Silgols at the bottom of the 'rampcase.' June gulped as they began to slither across the concrete floor.

"Of course, it's a spaceship," the Doctor argued. He pushed the bronze key inside the keyhole and turned it.

"It's a box," June insisted. "We don't have time to look inside the box! We're being chased!" she pointed at the advancing group of aliens.

The Doctor rolled his eyes. "June, I assure you, you're going to want to look inside the box." The Doctor opened the door and before June had time to protest, pulled her inside and slammed the door shut behind her.

June forgot what she had been saying. June forgot any argument and any doubt she had in her mind. The blue police box wasn't just a police box. Inside was a huge, circular room. The whole room was bathed in a bronze sort of light. The walls were curved and had odd circles pressed into them the floor was made from metal grates. A metal grate ramp led up to two other circular layers of floor which almost hid the complicated innerworkings of the machine. Wires hung from the ceiling and branch shaped pillars stood around the center of the room.

But what caught June's eye the most was the control panel. A circular control panel with a large sort of tube shooting out of the middle of it. She could even see a tattered chair on the opposite side of the room. June wondered how any of this could even be possible.

The Doctor was already at the control panel, running around it. The whole room became washed with green light and this—wheezing—filled the room. June still found herself frozen where she stood even as the floor underneath her shook. She couldn't begin to fathom anything around her.

The Doctor grinned at her. "Welcome to the TARDIS."

June nodded. "It's bigger on the inside." She felt a smile tug onto her face. She felt oddly safe in the large room.

"Ten out of ten for observation," he said.

June walked up to join him at the control panel. The metal was cold and wobbled under her feet. June could barely contain her surprised laughter. She looked over all the different buttons and switches and levers on the control panel. The wheezing had died and the green light had faded from the room.

June looked up at the Doctor, gaping at him. He wore a wide grin, one that said, look at my cool spaceship. "What's with the name?" she asked. "TARDIS."

The Doctor laughed. "TARDIS stands for Time and Relative Dimension in Space."

June gazed around the room, intent on soaking up every detail she could. She could never have another experience like this. "So, it's also a time machine, right?" she guessed. "That's the time bit, right?"

"Yep," the Doctor confirmed, nodding.

"Why does it look like a police box?" she asked.

"It got stuck that way," he told her. "It's supposed to blend in to its surroundings, but the Chameleon Circuit got stuck."

June leaned against the tattered old seat. She attempted to process everything. She knew that after this, nothing in the world would ever be the same again. Even though there had been proof of aliens for years, no one ever paid attention to the evidence. But this was something she couldn't ignore. June began to laugh. She clutched her stomach and laughed. "This is insane!" she exclaimed.

"Insane to you." The Doctor watched her with a smile. He had never seen anyone burst out into laughter after going through something like what she had gone through.

"Where's everyone else?" June asked.

The Doctor frowned. "What?"

June laughed a bit more. "This place is enormous!" She stretched her arms out wide, emphasizing all the space around her. "And this is just one room! There has to be more rooms, right? Where's everyone else?"

"There is no one else," the Doctor told her. "Just me."

"Must get lonely then," June said, gazing up at the ceiling. The room fell silent, but June hardly paid attention.

"It's infinite," the Doctor said after a moment. June furrowed her eyebrows at him. "The TARDIS. Go down that hallway," he pointed to a small hallway entrance at the other side of the room, "and the TARDIS goes on forever."

"Really?" she asked. The Doctor simply grinned, answering her question silently. She gazed at the hallway. "Ah, man, it must be so cool to travel in this thing." She ran a hand through her hair. Gunk. She ran into gunk. She quickly pulled her hand out of her bushy mess of hair and glanced down at her hand. Mud. She had lost herself for a moment. Sure, the Doctor's spaceship time machine was cool, but she had somewhere else to be. "Right, home."

"I just need an address, a date, and a time," the Doctor said. They exchanged smiles.

~*O*~

June stepped out of the TARDIS and onto her balcony. She recognized the broken and ruined pairs of flipflops that had been abandoned in the corner by she, Grace, and Logan after a day at the beach.

"Anaheim California, December 1st, 2017," the Doctor announced. He stood in the TARDIS doorway and smiled at her.

June glanced into her apartment through the sliding glass doors. Everything seemed to be right where she had left it. It was like she had never been gone at all. She turned to the Doctor. "Thank you." She grinned at him.

"No thanks necessary," he said.

June laughed. "You're getting one anyway. Thank you."

"You're welcome, June."

June pulled on the sliding glass door. Locked. She chucked awkwardly. "Can I ask for one last favor before you go?"

The Doctor smiled, pulled out the screwdriver thing again, and unlocked the sliding glass door. "Now, try not to get abducted again," he said.

"Well, tell your fellow aliens not to abduct me," June said. It felt weird calling him an alien. He didn't seem alien at all. Besides the spaceship time machine of course.

The Doctor stepped inside the tall blue box again. "Goodbye, June Harlow."

"Goodbye, Doctor."

The door shut and a moment later, the wheezing started up again. Wind whipped around the balcony, pushing June's hair away from her face and pulling at her torn clothes. The TARDIS disappeared and June laughed. It was all too insane to be a dream. June smiled at where the TARDIS had stood and then stepped inside her apartment.

That was the third chapter of the Forest-Eyed Girl!

Thanks so much for reading!

Reviews and follows are appreciated.

Until next time,

~ C.C.