Glad people liked that last chapter. Onwards and upwards we go!
(And sorry about the delay. This chapter refused to be written, so my humble apologies if it's not as good as some of the past ones. I don't think it is, personally…but you are my judges, not me)
Disclaimer: The Doctor? Oh, he's locked in my wardrobe…in my mind…sigh
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
"I'd say we're playing the invigorating game See Who Dies of Hunger Last in a Dungeon."
"Wow, Jack, how'd you guess?" Rose replied sarcastically. "Was it the stone walls? Or maybe the torches? Or maybe it was the bars on the door?"
Jack rolled her eyes at her, his face falling as the gun he was holding from the previous game faded to nothing in his hands. "Aw, that's just unfair!"
"Welcome to the Toymaker's world…" the Doctor announced to him with a twisted smile. "Sorry Jack – that's just how this place works."
Jack looked from the Doctor to Rose. "So what are we doing here?"
"Waiting for information. No point going ahead if we're not meant to, of if there's a maniac waiting for us. Or if maybe there is no room at all…what do you think is through the door?"
Rose and Jack thought for a moment. "Cybermen." Rose stated after a moment, but she was grinning.
"Slitheen!" Jack chimed in.
"Werewolf…"
"Daleks."
"Krillitanes?"
"No, I think it'll be Jackie Tyler…" The Doctor had hardly got the words out before Rose hit him. Jack was laughing too, but he was hit second. They were spared any more abuse at Rose's hands (although it was in fun, and they did deserve it…) when the computers chimed.
Rose read hers and exclaimed, "You're kidding! I haven't played in years…"
"Somehow, I don't think the Toymaker kids very much…but it is my favourite game!" But sure enough, there it was on screen.
Round seven: Snakes and Ladders. Use the dice and move the appropriate number or rooms. Ladders allow you to traverse floors; snakes mean your movement is downward.
"Dice?" asked Jack.
"Here…" Rose picked up three small cubes from the floor. "They're normal size. Somehow I thought they'd be bigger or something…how do they work?"
The Doctor and Jack glanced at one another, before saying in unison, "Rose, you throw them."
"Shut up, yeah? I meant they're so small, we could cheat."
"I guess we find that out when we begin. Speaking of which, I think we should. We have to sometime."
The door swung open without a sound. Jack went a head, walking solidly into a force field of some kind, which kept him from exiting. The Doctor immediately began to examine the doorframe, muttering to Jack about what could be keeping them in there, what year it was from, which technology it could be adapted from…
Rose watched them, thinking. Then, it clicked. She bent down, and rolled her dice. It was worth her silence to see the looks on Jack and the Doctor's faces as she passed them, walking simply and easily through door. They both tried and couldn't get through.
"How did you do that?"
"Oh, useful, aren't you? The simple answer is usually the best."
The Doctor was scrutinising her, but then his face broke into a grin and he held up the cube of crystal. "I'm right, aren't I?"
He rolled it and walked forward to join her, the force filed vanishing. Jack followed his example, but still couldn't get through. He tried again, getting increasingly annoyed. "Doc, what number did you roll?"
"One…" his lie was unconvincing.
"You're doing it on purpose! I can't go until you're moved!"
Pulling a childish face, the Doctor walked through to the next room, and the next, stopping at the fourth. "Your turn, Jack," he called back in a sing-song voice.
Jack stopped before reaching him, having rolled a three. So this was how it was to go. A straightforward game of snakes and ladders, although nether obstacle had been reached. It was on Jack's third roll that he passed the Doctor and Rose both and came to find a tail hanging in the corner of the room. It was reptilian, it was yellow and green, and it was swaying slightly, dropping through a hole in the ceiling.
"Hey, I found a tail!" he called back, to receive disbelieving noises from his fellow players, and a reply.
"Yes, snakes have tails, you know. They are part of our natural structure, human."
Jack did a double take. "Guys…the snakes can talk…"
"Really?" asked the Doctor, passing through on his roll. "That makes it interesting…oh, I found stairs to the next level. Rose, your roll."
Rose came and stood next to Jack, staring at the tail with mild curiosity, as he took his roll and groaned, having only to move to the next room and no further.
It was on the next level it began to get interesting. Now ladders were beginning to be passed, and the upper parts on snakes too – some perfectly willing to talk, others gave a polite nod as they passed. Rose was the first to get a ladder, though only to the next level, and the Doctor was the first to get a snake, sliding down the snake's body with a muttered curse.
ooooooooooooooooooooooooo
"So, what's it like?" asked Jack.
"Well, it's fine, mostly. Sometimes the snakes in the near rooms are willing to talk, other times it's really quiet so you just think. It's much more interesting now that you're here." The snake gave a sort-of shrug, smiling at Jack. He was a typical snake green, with small flecks of black and red.
"Jack," said the Doctor, passing through to the room beyond, "Jack, are you flirting with a snake?"
"I'm only talking to it!"
"Flirting for you, that is…anyway, if you're talking to it, then you can see the head, and doesn't that mean you should be slipping down?" He looked to the snake for an answer.
"Oh, I'm from up there, really," the snake replied, it's head indicating a hole in the roof. "But I was bored."
The Doctor shrugged, pulling a face. "All right…" He walked through to a room a few doors away, his face amused but unreadable beyond that.
Jack flicked his dice from his hands to the floor, grinning as he rolled a five. "I'll see you later. Maybe on the next level?" And with that he jogged through five rooms (passing the Doctor with a smirk), and up a ladder with a triumphant cry. Rose soon joined him, after ending in the same room and climbing up the ladder (she had had an unfortunate roll and landed on long snake just before).
"How you going?" She asked as son as she saw Jack, who was leaning against the wall casually, arms crossed and staring at the ceiling.
"Oh fine, avoiding snakes when I can. They're interesting to talk to, though."
"You've been talking to them?" Rose asked incredulously. "Trust you…"
"He's been flirting," said the Doctor as he walked in. "Hello, I rolled a six. And I caught him at it before."
"Oh, that was not flirting!" Jack cried in defence, as the Doctor nudged him, saying "Your turn, Jakie-boy."
Jack glared at him. "Don't call me that!" But he rolled none the less and walked ahead four rooms, before waving cheekily and climbing quickly up a ladder.
The Doctor and Rose watched him go. They grinned at one another, but Rose couldn't help dampening the atmosphere by asking, "Should we be worried? Or is this going to get harder?"
The Doctor shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe it is impossible to win; maybe there will be many more traps in the topmost few levels. Maybe there will be nothing."
Rose nodded, talking her roll and leaving his side. The game continued. Usually the three players were close enough to have short conversations, but all three were wary for any change in the game's environment. All that seemed to change was the number of snakes encountered; there were more of them. One corridor had a snake almost every room – only certain dice rolls would achieve safe passage.
The three of them spent a while slipping down the snakes, swearing and cursing when the initial carefree intention wore off. This was beginning to get idiotic – they had to get past to get up the staircase to the last corridor, and finish this game, finish all the games and get the TARDIS back. Jack was the first to get across properly, his cheer echoing down the corridor back to the other two, both heading back to the beginning of the corridor hoping to achieve the right numbers.
Rose was in between the rooms of snakes; all she needed was a two and she'd be safe. Any more and she might be slipping back down. Trusting to luck, she threw the dice, flinching as the crystal cube clattered into the corner. Three.
Damn. Rose avoided the last snake room, but the first of the next level had a smiling reptilian and Rose had no choice but to go back the room which she had just left. The Doctor didn't have much more luck, the roll of the dice stopping him the second room in and forcing him to fall back to the lower level.
There was a multitude of swearing, and Jack appeared in the same room as Rose, warning her of a higher level that had a snake that sent him down to the same room she got halted on, and forcing the player to go down two snakes, not one. Rose made a mental note to avoid that room at all costs.
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
"Honestly, how many more levels are there?" Rose asked the Doctor as she passed him a while later. "This is getting tedious…and my legs are aching."
"I know. We must be near the end; the Toymaker can't like to leave us here for so long…surely he must be getting bored, watching us do the same things. Or is there something ahead that we won't expect? Some other level, a major change or shock, like last time…the keys and then the concealment? Such a drastic change; we weren't expecting…"
"He might be doing the same, yeah?"
The Doctor pulled a face. "Could be. But back to the game at hand…is Jack ahead of you, or behind us?"
"Behind, if the string of curses can be used as evidence…he went down."
"Right. Well, on you go!" he gave a her shooing motion with his hands, and she shook her head at him, smiling, before disappearing out the door and up the flight of stars in the next room which led to the next level.
As she stopped, she looked ahead, down the doorways to the end of the corridor. For once, she was glad to see the door, no matter what might be on the other side. She called back out, hoping her voice would travel down the various gaps for snakes and ladders and back to the other two, telling them that the end was in sight – literally, for her.
There was a muffles cheer and comment of some kind (although the walls kept her from understanding what it was) and Rose heard footsteps behind her as the Doctor appeared, stopping in the room behind her.
"Jack?" Rose called in the direction of the stairwell. "Jack, where are you?"
"About to kill something," came the muffled reply. Oh, he was close then, close enough to hear her. Good. "I can see the stairs," he continued. "I'm three rooms away, with a snake in my path."
"I'm only doing my job!" came a snippy reply; a fourth voice. Rose and the Doctor exchanged a look, both figuring it must be the aforementioned snake. A conversation sprang up, Jack defending his statement and the snake trying to make a point.
"So I'm just 'a snake'? Do you have any idea how degrading that is?"
"Look, you can call me 'a human' if it would make you feel better about it." Jack's voice had a resigned tone.
"I have a name! You didn't even think about asking, did you?"
"Look, I hate to interrupt this little domestic spat," called the Doctor, "but can you make your move, Jack?"
There was a silence from the below floors. Jack soon appeared in the stairwell, leaning against the wall with an indifferent look his face, his roll stopping him from moving any further. "What?"
The Doctor and Rose glanced at one another, and then burst out in giggles. "Trouble in paradise?" asked Rose with a smile, to which Jack glared at her. She turned away, the childish smile still on her face and took her roll. It took her to the room before the end, skipping her over a snake. She only needed a one.
The Doctor managed to land on the snake, giving a particularly loud curse before vanishing down a level. Jack got to the end on his next roll, and he had a distinct smug skip in his step as he did so. Rose sat next to the doorway the offered her freedom and lazily skimmed the die, watching with mounting irritation as it refused to show the solitary dot she needed.
The boredom was broken (luckily) by Jack, who gave her company on his side of the doorway, and then by the Doctor, who reappeared, then vanished down the same snake with an even louder curse than before. Rose was still laughing when he appeared, irritation evident on his face. He finally got to the same position as Rose, stuck trying to roll a one.
The die rolls soon turned into a flicking-the-die-at-each other match, so it was a second before Rose noticed she had actually managed to roll a one, and could now pass through to the final room. The Doctor took only a few more rolls, threatening the die every time it failed, but soon fate yielded and he was finished.
They faced the door, waiting for something, anything to happen.
"You think there might be more of this game on the other side?" asked Rose as the thought hit her.
"There better not be," Jack replied simply. "Or I'll probably do something stupid."
"Oh, then that would be so different…" the Doctor muttered, but Jack's reply was cut off as the doors opened, revealing the next game.
Through the doors was only darkness.
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
So, what's next? What is the next torment for the valiant Team TARDIS? Tune in…sometime very soon…and find out!