Part Two – Darkness
"I have to find them!"
Rose was on her feet without remembering standing up. Her face flushed a little, but fear and panic made her forget her embarrassment.
The lady, Jane, sighed and stood. "I am truly sorry, Miss Tyler, but I cannot allow that. It is far too dangerous to go alone and there is nobody to accompany you. I will not order Dominic to, and I certainly shall not."
"I can go alone," Rose said defiantly. But she knew that it was impossible. She didn't have the first idea where to search. But that didn't do anything to dispel the cold fear at the pit of her stomach. Oh God, what if something's happened to them?
Jane smiled sadly at her. "You know it is not possible, The best thing for you to do is to stay here. Perhaps your friends will find their way here as you did."
"Maybe," Rose said, but it was half-heartedly said. They would have been here by now if they could have.
"Come into the parlour," Jane said, taking Rose by the arm and leading her gently out of the room. "We shall get you something to eat and see about somewhere to sleep. And I will take a look at that shoulder. Everything will seem much clearer in the morning."
With that fog out there? Rose thought to herself. I don't think so.
Falling of the side of a cliff was something Jack hadn't done much of before in his life. And as he hit the ground and pain shot up his side, he made a mental note not to do it again in a hurry.
He got to feet, wincing at the scrapes on his dark suede jacket. Brushing the gravel and stones from his trousers, he looked around him. Or tried to anyway. The fog was still too thick down here to see much.
From the mist came a muffled shout. "Rose? Rose? Jack?"
"Doctor! Over here!" Jack hollered back and a moment later was relieved when the Doctor stepped out of the murk. He appeared completely unscathed. Typical.
"You took your time," Jack drawled, but the Doctor wasn't really listening.
"Where's Rose?" he demanded, still frantically looking around. Without waiting for an answer, he shouted her name.
"I haven't seen her. Doctor! Hey Doctor! Calm down a second. We'll look for her, okay?"
The Doctor nodded and hastily strode off into the fog, leaving Jack to run after him.
Their search proved futile though. Jack didn't know how long they ran through the mist, shouting and stumbling, seeing nothing but endless whiteness and the grey of the stones underfoot. It was cold and monotonous and he was beginning to become worried about Rose.
Finally the Doctor paused, Jack almost running into him. He was panting and the Doctor was hardly out of breath.
"D'you see that?" the Doctor asked quietly, waving his hand to the right. Jack peered over in that direction, seeing little more than swirling whiteness.
"Er..."
The Doctor spun around and headed to where he had been pointing. Jack followed, and was surprised by the sight of a fence. It was made of wood, but it had long since rotted and it was a wonder that any of it was still standing. The Doctor stared at the fence for a moment then stepped over it, hurrying across the gravel. A grey stone wall materialised out of the gloom, which Jack quickly saw as being a building.
Pausing again, the Doctor took the sonic screwdriver out of his coat pocket. With a flick of his finger, it came to life adding a blue glow to the white mist around them. He waved it around the wall a little, a slight frown creasing his features.
"What is it?" Jack asked.
"There's no one inside." The Doctor was staring at the screwdriver in frustration. "It says there's several more buildings around here, looks like quite a village. But it can't pick up anybody anywhere."
"So it's deserted." Jack shivered, pulling his jacket tighter. "Can't blame them. This place gives me the creeps. The sooner we find Rose and get out of here, the better."
The Doctor nodded absentmindedly. "Yeah, so we'd better get finding her then." He started walking again, this time along the wall of the building, through the village.
The fog was a little thinner in the village. Jack caught glimpses of stone houses and more rotting fences. Now and then there were a few dead trees along the way, but apart from that, there was nothing. A ghost town.
"What do you think happened here?" Jack asked softly. He didn't like speaking too loudly, it would be like shouting in a graveyard.
Without slowing, the Doctor glanced over his shoulder at him. "You know, I haven't the faintest idea. I'm not even sure where we are. I was aiming for England, but are we here? Possibly. But it sure doesn't look like anywhere in England I've ever been."
"But where d'you think the people are? Run away? Is it always this foggy? It's a bit, I dunno, creepy."
"Quite possibly they've run away. Or maybe they were chased away. Or maybe they didn't 'ave a chance to run anywhere."
"Or maybe some of them are still here," came a soft voice from behind.
Jack and the Doctor spun around in alarm. Standing no more than a few metres behind them, stood a child. A boy, maybe ten or twelve years old. His clothes were ragged and torn, his face haggard. Jack shivered involuntarily at the bleak expression on his face.
The Doctor apparently had no such qualms. With a bright smile, he took a step closer to the boy. The fog seemed to have cleared a little, at least around them.
"Hey there." The Doctor said cheerfully. "And who are you?"
The child didn't answer. He just kept staring at them, his blue eyes hard against his pale features. The Doctor tried again. "We're not going to hurt you. We can help. If you'll – "
"Follow me." With that, the boy abruptly spun around and marched off. Exchanging a quick glance with Jack, the Doctor hurried after him.
"I thought the sonic screwdriver couldn't pick up anybody out here," Jack said in a low voice, carefully avoiding a rotting slat of wood on the ground.
With a slight glance at the device, the Doctor pocketed it. "It still doesn't really. It only registers the boy faintly."
"You reckon it's the fog?"
The Doctor frowned. "I do. At least for the moment, I do." He perked up. "Looks like we're here. Didn't take long! Maybe we'll get a cuppa. It's a bit chilly, this tramping around in the fog."
Jack squinted through the thinning gloom to see where 'here' was. Another stone building, a low squatting one, with a rotted door and decaying thatch, conveniently windowless.
The boy gave the door a push. He beckoned to the Doctor and Jack, stepping inside. They followed, into the dark.
The gloom in here was unsettling, the silence of the boy making it even more so. Flickering candles along the wall gave a hesitant glow to the small room, a somehow cold glow. Jack shrugged into his jacket.
Their guide stopped and faced them. "You're to go down and wait." Momentarily confused, Jack understood when the Doctor pointed at the trapdoor at the child's feet.
"Down there? Are the others down there?"
A slight stiff nod.
"C'mon, Jack, let's go." Suiting action to words, the Doctor lowered himself down the hole. Looking uneasily around him, Jack followed.
The ladder was rickety and difficult to grip. There wasn't far to go. Jack felt the ground beneath his boots after only a few minutes. In the pitch blackness down here, the jumping candlelight from above seemed absurdly bright.
"Now what?" Jack asked, standing beside the Doctor. "You'd think they'd stick on the light for visitors."
The Doctor peered around him. "We'll find them."
Jack looked up at the bright square that was possibly the only exit. "If you're sure." Suddenly the light seemed to be shrinking. "Hey! The trapdoor's closing!"
With a thud, the trapdoor slammed shut, leaving them in utter darkness.