-1925-
-Lost City of Z-
Calypso turned, not sure what she expected to see. At first, there was nothing. Aside from the occasional shaking bush, it looked exactly as she had seen it only moments before. But then it became clear. Shadows were snaking through the trees and brush, dark inky stains on the otherwise colorful jungle floor. She squinted and saw they weren't shadows, they were moving too quickly for that. They were hundreds, or thousands, of little black spots, sweeping over the ground like a oozing river. And they were closing the distance to where they stood quicker than she'd like.
"What is it?" She whispered, unable to tear her eyes from the onyx pool that was spreading toward them.
"Oh, nothing. Nothing at all. Just a bit of… an alien flesh-eating beetle horde. It's fine. Just in case it's not though, I suggest we run." The Doctor said as he grabbed her hand firmly in his own and started to sprint up the hill. "Run!" He repeated as the Colonel continued to stand there, fear momentarily rooting him to the spot. Jack and Raleigh both jumped to action immediately, and the Colonel followed soon after.
"I thought you said they'd bloody well be gone!" The Colonel barked over his shoulder, his moment of panic quickly being replaced with attitude. "There's even more of the sodding things now!"
"Yes, well…I was wrong, wasn't I?" The Doctor shouted, risking a glance back over his shoulder. "We can all have a laugh about that later, after we get out of here!"
Jack and Raleigh stumbled to a stop at the top of the hill, looking unsure as to what to do.
"Was I unclear before? Run!" The Doctor repeated.
"Where? Your ship is four miles back through them!" The Colonel shouted as he too reached the top. "There's nothing but jungle this way."
The Doctor and Calypso crested the hill and saw it was true, it was more of the same, save a large cleared patch maybe a few hundred meters away. "That way." The Doctor said, pointing toward the clearing.
"There's nothing out there, they'll get us even faster there!" Raleigh protested.
"That's not a clearing," the Doctor frowned at it suspiciously. "And there's a shallow river just before it. If we're lucky, that'll hold them off."
"What do you mean if-"
"Off we go!" The Doctor shouted, pulling Calypso down the far side of the hill. It was a relief since every moment she was fighting the urge to look behind her, hearing the monstrous chirping growing louder with each breath. Halfway down, a tree had fallen, its roots torn from the ground. The ensuing erosion had resulted in a sudden sharp drop where there had once been a gradual slope, but there was no chance to slow down. She pushed her legs faster, trying to keep up, but even a firm grip on the Doctor's hand couldn't keep her upright when her rate of falling finally exceeded the speed she could run. Her legs folded under her quite suddenly, sending her somersaulting down the hill in a tangle of limbs and dirt. The freshly turned ground was forgiving, and she only took on serious damage when her canteen whipped around and cracked against her skull. She finally came to a stop at the bottom, and other than her newly throbbing headache, she didn't feel much beyond exhausted.
"I've lost my hat." The Doctor was already looming above her, a disappointed look on his face as he held out a hand to help her up. There was enough dirt in his hair to guess that he too, had taken a spill. Possibly, because she had dragged him down with her. But unlike herself, he looked almost as if he'd enjoyed it.
"It really is like this all the time, isn't it?" She asked as he pulled her up and she brushed the worst of the dirt from her face before sprinting with the Doctor toward the river.
"Well," he flashed a grin over his shoulder. "I wouldn't want you to get bored." They reached the banks just as the Colonel was halfway across, Jack and Raleigh jumping in, both of them were covered in enough dirt that she guessed that at least one had taken a spill. She took that as a small comfort as she splashed in behind the Doctor, finding the water surprisingly cooler than the air. It was something she could appreciate, even while running for her life. The current was stronger than she expected, and it came up nearly to her chest by the time they reached the middle, but her stubborn determination, and the Doctor's firm grip on her hand got her to the other side unscathed.
The wet clothes made running more difficult, but they didn't have much further to go. They stopped at the edge of the empty field and the Doctor pulled out his sonic, aiming it at nothing that she could see while the Colonel watched beyond the river for their pursuers. She couldn't quite bring herself to look. She worried if she did, she might never look away. The sheer number of them alone terrified her, she didn't need to think about any of their other threatening qualities to be afraid.
"What are you doing?" She finally asked the Doctor, needing to focus her thoughts elsewhere.
"I, am doing a magic trick-Hah!" Quite suddenly, there was a temple ruin standing before them where there had been nothing. It towered above them, a giant even in this jungle of enormous trees. He looked at Calypso, waiting for her to be impressed. "Eh? Pretty neat." He tossed his sonic in the air and caught it.
"I don't…how?" She said weakly. She blinked several more times, wondering if the canteen had done more damage than she thought.
"Good lord man, how in the blazes did you do that?" The Colonel had turned around and was also staring at the temple, which meant Calypso couldn't be imagining it.
"It's a simple reflective perception field, rather easy to deactivate if you resonate the energy converter." He looked quite pleased with himself, but the Colonel just frowned at him.
"But," Calypso decided to forgo the explanation entirely. "How did you know anything was here?"
"Well, I didn't. But I am extraordinarily clever," he winked at her. "And we are looking for a vanished, seemingly impossible to find city, are we not? Had to be some reason no one's ever come across it before. On top of that, a clearing this big? For no apparent reason? That's just peculiar."
"Look!" Jack called out, he and Raleigh were both watching the river and Calypso spun around to see. Thousands of the beetles poured forth, having already overrun the hill she had fallen down. Now they spread like a thick fog toward them, smothering everything in their path. They reached the river and didn't slow, spilling down the banks and into the water. "They'll be washed away!" Jack laughed with relief and clapped Raleigh on the back.
"Rather a lucky breath there, eh Doctor?" The Colonel allowed himself a small smile and Calypso felt the crushing dread lift from her shoulders. They were going to make it. "A bit dodgier than you're used to, I bet." The Colonel smiled at her. She laughed politely, but decided against telling him he didn't even know the half of it.
"Um." The Doctor said. "Sorry, not to disappoint everyone, but I think our luck's run a bit dry this go round." The shared relief vanished in a moment and they all turned back to the river. The creatures continued to dump themselves into the water, but now there were sparkling black spots on the nearside of the banks. Wet and glittering, but very much alive. It was a slow but steady trickle emerging from the current, resuming the hunt.
"Up! Everyone up!" The Doctor ushered them all toward the temple.
"Hold on, where did that-"
"Shut up! Less talking, more running!" Jack shrugged and started up the stairs that were carved into the larger granite slabs, quickly followed by Raleigh and his father. Calypso mustered up the last of her strength and forced herself to run up the stairs, knowing what was behind her gave her just enough encouragement.
"Doctor," she said between gasps. "Is there more to the plan?" The river had failed, and other then counting on the bugs being unable to climb stairs, which she found unlikely, she didn't know what he hoped to accomplish.
"Absolutely," he said in a reassuring tone. "And just as soon as I've sorted it out, I'll let you know." She nearly stopped running then, but he still had a grip on her hand and dragged her along.
"Doctor, what do we do?" The Colonel barked in a commanding tone, realizing that there was nothing waiting at the top that promised a victory, or even survival. Jack circled the structure, looking for anything that might help.
"We have a machete," Raleigh offered, the Colonel shot him a rather scathing look and Raleigh returned to silence.
"The door," the Doctor said as he and Calypso reached the top. "Open the door."
"Hate to be a cad, but I'm afraid there is no door." The Colonel said gruffly. "Don't suppose you've got another of those fancy ships hidden up here?"
"No, unfortunately not," the Doctor frowned. "But there is a door. There's always a door." He pushed past the Colonel and began to scan the stone with his sonic. Calypso focused on catching her breath, her legs felt like jelly and if they had to run again, she wasn't sure she could do it. Even with the blood pounding in her ears, she could hear the chirping behind them growing louder, and it was more metallic now, the sound of thousands and thousands of little legs rubbing against each other as they climbed to the top.
"Well," the Doctor said, a little defeated. "There's nearly always a door." Instead of scanning, he spun the screwdriver around and started to knock it against various parts of the structure. It didn't inspire a lot of confidence in his 'plan'. Trying not to think about the beetles didn't stop her from seeing them from the corner of her eye, a black stain on their otherwise green surroundings. Her breath hitched in her throat as she looked down the temple, seeing for the first time that it was no longer just one long trail of them, they had spread out, blotting out any signs of life save their own. They surrounded the temple as far as she could tell, and they were starting to climb it. There was no way out.
"Calypso," the Doctor spoke behind her, but she couldn't look away. She wanted to scream, but she was afraid to even move. All she could do was stare at the black mass coming toward them. "Calypso, look at me." He was closer now, and she felt his hand against her cheek, pulling her gaze away from the creatures. She met his eyes and quite suddenly remembered that she needed to breathe, she gasped in a shuddering breath before she started to go dizzy. "It's going to be alright." He promised. She wondered how he could be so sure, when it seemed so clear to her that this would really be the last time they'd meet. She doubted they could come back from being devoured by a horde of flesh-eating alien creatures. Everyone had their limits.
"Do you believe me?" He asked, his green eyes carefully searching her own. She opened her mouth, but she couldn't speak. Instead, with a sad smile, she shook her head. He snorted softly and stroked his thumb against her cheek. "Fair enough. Do you trust me, at least?"
"Doctor?" The Colonel was, understandably, concerned that they were stopping to have a chat at what was a rather inconvenient time. But the Doctor ignored him, waiting for Calypso to respond.
Even despite their current certainty of doom, she knew the answer. She sighed. "Yes."
"Good." A wide grin spread across his face. "That's good. I need you to trust me when I say it's going to be alright."
"Okay." She took another deep breath, resisting the urge to check on the progress of the creatures that she was sure would arrive shortly to swallow them up. "I believe you."
"Excellent," he said with the same grin, dipping forward to kiss her gently on the lips. "That's exactly what I need. Come on," he pulled her over to the stone structure, away from the edge where she could see the bugs that had already made it halfway to the top. "Gentlemen, I present you with our way out." He pointed to what appeared to be solid stone with a flourish. "If we can get it open." He admitted. "And it's probably been a few millennia, so let's put our backs into it, shall we?" And with that, he leaned against the granite, throwing his weight into it. Calypso watched him for a moment, and then, if a little reluctantly, put her hands against it and started to push. "Come on then, not everyone all at once." The Doctor rolled his eyes at the rest of the group who were standing there, watching him with some disbelief.
"Doctor, that's not a door." Raleigh said with a frown.
"Yes, well. We can argue about that until our friends arrive, or you can come give us a push." The Doctor's feet started to slide out from under him as he continued to struggle with it. Jack shrugged and joined them, and soon was followed by Raleigh, and a reluctant Colonel, pressing arms, shoulders, and backs against the seemingly unmovable boulder. All while the symphony of the creatures below grew louder and louder, drowning out all other noises.
"Well, I could have sworn this was a d-" the rock shifted beneath them an inch and they all looked at each other, astonished. "Atta way!" The Doctor shouted. "Once more with fee-AHHH!" The slab moved again, but this time swinging clear on its axis. It threw them all forward into a black empty pit. They tumbled down through a sloped tunnel. Before she fell sideways, she glimpsed the stone door spinning back into place without their weight to hold it open, extinguishing the only source of light they had in the ancient tomb. She collided with someone else, or a few someone's, on the way down and finally landed with a dull thud at the bottom.
For a moment, she was afraid to move. Certain that if she did, she'd find that she'd seriously hurt herself this time. But as she flexed her limbs cautiously, nothing hurt sharply enough to suggest she had broken bone. That was a small relief. She had spent a lot of time on this little adventure falling down hills, and Calypso had to say, she wasn't particularly fond of it.
"Well then," the Doctor's voice was somewhere above her head. "That wasn't so terrible, was it?"
