"Okay, we're here," the Doctor announced, lacking his usual enthusiasm. He was looking down at the indicator, back up at the monitor, and then down at a notebook he'd grabbed.

"Okay… so are we going then?" asked Rose.

"No, don't go outside yet. Just take a look out the window. The school should be right in front of us."

"Yep," Rose affirmed.

"Really?" the Doctor said hopefully.

"You mean you weren't expecting that? I thought you had the coordinates."

She looked upset with him and he felt a mix of apologetic and defensive. He wasn't sure which he should feel more. "I wasn't able to take radiation samples from the soil. I had to take readings from the air. They're good, very good readings, but I had to do a lot of extra calculations to try and get us to the right time."

"And if we got the wrong time? What? We'd go back empty-handed?" she asked irritably.

"No, of course not. We'd just keep trying until we got it right."

"We can't do that. Crossing our own timelines. Not good," she reminded him.

"Of course I know it's not good. Where did you learn it's not good? From me. So you know I know it's not good. We can't just let hundreds of kids die though. If I'm careful, I can manage to cross my own timeline okay sometimes. This would have be one of those times, but hopefully we won't have to play with that. Now let me have a look…" The Doctor had been looking at the view screen while he talked and finally saw what he wanted. "Looks like I've got pretty good timing, too. Hundreds of healthy human hearts in that building. Let's go have a look."

The Doctor walked over to meet her at the door but she stopped him before they went out. She stroked his cheek and gave him a quick kiss. Things were likely to get stressful so she couldn't let them walk into it on bad terms. All the frustration between them was lost and they headed out of the TARDIS toward the two-story brick school building.

It looked like the school miraculously found a clearing to land in. They were located in a forest, but the trees looked nicely spaced apart in that area. Rose's eyes widened when she looked off to her left. There was an enormous creature with shaggy fur pulling large amounts of leaves off of one of the trees.

"Is that…? What is that?" Rose asked the Doctor.

"Oh come on, how many times have we visited natural history museums? You tell me what it is," the Doctor challenged.

"We go to natural history museums on other planets, too. You can't expect me to remember everything," she argued.

"Well, have a look at it and take a guess."

"It's… a sloth? I mean, is that what it's called? A ground sloth? Or was that on New Earth? Borremi?"

The Doctor laughed. "No, you got it right the first time. Ground sloth. About 11 feet tall and 750lbs, I'd say."

They arrived at the door and the Doctor knocked politely.

"They're glass doors and it's a public building. You walk right in, love." Rose chuckled and opened the door for him.

They walked in and they saw a small gathering of students and a few staff members sitting in the main hallway, leaning up against the built-in lockers.

"Hello!" the Doctor greeted. "Help has arrived. Well, we have arrived and intend to help. That's the same thing, isn't it?"

"Who are you?" asked one of the students. Everyone that had been sitting were getting to their feet, surprised to see new people.

"I'm Rose and this is the Doctor. We had a look at your empty school yard and thought we'd pay you a visit. We hope to help you get home."

"Are you serious?" another student asked hopefully. "We could actually get home?"

"Yes, that's the plan," the Doctor affirmed. "I'm not saying that I can figure it out in a day; it'll take a little time, but yes, we'll definitely get you home. But first, we need to figure out how things are going here. How long have you been here?"

"Six days," answered one of the girls.

"Six days?" Rose frowned and looked over at the Doctor. "We're later than you thought, aren't we?"

"Yes, we definitely are…" The Doctor looked concerned when he asked his next question. "How's health? Are there any that are very ill or weak? Or worse… have there been any fatalities?"

"I think a lot of people are having stomach aches and we're really thirsty, but I don't think anyone's close to dying yet or anything."

Rose sighed in relief. "So how many are here?"

"Not a clue," one student said with a shrug of his shoulders. "I don't think anyone knows."

"Okay, time for a meeting then. How many are outside the school right now?" the Doctor inquired.

Everyone looked at one another and shook their heads.

"You're sitting at the front door and have no idea how many went out?" he asked.

They shook their heads again and the Doctor sighed.

"Rose, would you mind calling a meeting?"

"Sure. How far should I spread it?"

"Erm… I don't think they'd even dare to go a kilometer, but set it for one and a half kilometers just in case."

Rose left the school and the Doctor was about to exit, too, but one of the staff members called out to him.

"Wait, where are you going?!"

"I'm having a look outside for a minute. It'll take a couple minutes for the adventurers to return. The meeting starts when they get back." The Doctor went outside and pulled out his sonic screwdriver. Just a minute later, he stopped scanning to listen to Rose's announcement.

"Attention Glen Henry High School. Please report to the school gymnasium at this time. I repeat, please report to the school gymnasium at this time. Thank you."

Rose raced up to him just a minute later with a wide grin. "Bet I scared them half to death."

"I bet the adventurers aren't just coming back. They're likely running back," he replied, sharing a smile of his own.

"All good adventurers need a bit of running."

Just a few minutes later, a pack of students came running around the corner, but stopped suddenly when they caught sight of the Doctor and Rose.

"The adventurers!" the Doctor said excitedly. "You are already my favorites. Now, we called a meeting, but we don't actually know where the gymnasium is. Think you could lead the way?"

"Who are you?" asked the man in the group. He looked to be in about his early 40s.

"I'd like to ask you the same. And I'm not just saying that," said the Doctor, "but we've got a meeting to attend. We didn't want to start without you, but I'm sure people in there are already getting impatient."

When they got to the gym, the Doctor and Rose stopped in the doorway to have a look around. It was rather small compared to some gyms. There was just enough room to accommodate the basketball court and bleachers. The bleachers were interesting in setup. The seating appeared like stairs, as with all bleachers, but when they were not in use, they could be pushed against the wall, bench on top of bench. Two of the four sets were not in use, folded in a stack against the walls, which worried the Doctor. He then turned his attention to the stage across from him. Apparently, this room was also used for concerts and theater. The two open bleachers were across from each other and near the stage rather than the door. He then assumed that's where they wanted him.

The Doctor and Rose made their way to center stage and looked around at everyone.

"Rose, how many students did I say attend this school?" the Doctor quietly asked her.

"About 400," Rose answered, sharing the Doctor's concern. "There's nowhere near 400 here."

"Yes, I see that…" The Doctor turned his attention to the crowd and talked loudly so that everyone could hear him. "Hello! I guess I should start by saying that we're here to help. Can everyone hear me alright?"

The Doctor paused and got the idea from the looks on some of their faces that he was not heard clearly.

"Okay, now?" he spoke louder. "Okay, can everyone hear me well?"

Rose had been nudging the Doctor in the side and a more insistent one finally grabbed his attention. The Doctor looked down to see that Rose was offering him a handheld device.

"Om-Com! Look at you being all clever," he praised. He adjusted the settings and held it up to his mouth. When he spoke, his voice came out through the school's loud speakers. "There, I'm sure everyone can hear me now."

Everyone looked around at the speakers in surprise. They'd been without electricity for days.

"So, I'm sure you've got many questions, but I have a few vital ones myself so those come first. I'd like about four or five of you to act as representatives and come on up to the stage, please."

Everyone looked around but no one moved except one man at the bottom front of the bleachers. He adjusted his oxford shirt and walked up the stairs to the stage.

"I'm Principal Robert Long, I represent this school," he introduced himself.

"Oh, good. Good. First question, a question that has me quite terrified: where is everyone? There should be over 400 people here. Where are they?"

"No, not 400. The freshman and sophomore classes were on a field trip," the principal explained.

"Oh thank god," Rose sighed in relief.

"Better. That's much, much better," the Doctor agreed. "Okay, not 400, how many people are here then?"

"An exact number?" the principal asked. "I'm really not sure."

"Not sure?" the Doctor said in stunned disbelief. "You've been here for days and never thought to take a count? How do you know that no one's missing then? How do you handle rations? How-? Never mind. Hold on. Secretary! Is the school secretary here? Wherever you are, please stand up."

A woman in the crowd stood up and the Doctor quickly asked her the same thing. "How many people here? What was the attendance and how many staff are here?"

She shook her head to show she didn't know either.

"Fine, we'll figure that out in a bit," the Doctor said in frustration. "Okay, Mr. Long, how about rations? What do your supplies look like? How much packaged food? How much dried food? How much water?"

"I'm really not sure at this point. I never actually took inventory myself. I was-"

"Strike two," said the Doctor. "What about the terrain? What do things look like out there? I'm assuming you found water. What kind of water source is it?"

"I'm not sure exactly. I think they said it was a lake. They usually go off in that direction." The principal pointed in the direction of the outside wall.

"Strike three. You're out," he said crossly. He pointed at the open space on the bleachers, directing the principal there.

"What is that supposed to mean?" the principal asked heatedly.

"It means you no longer represent this school. You're supposed to be the leader and you're utterly failing. You have no idea what's going on and are not keeping any order here. You have officially been relieved of duty."

"Are you trying to fire me?"

"Not trying. I just did. And actually, you're not principal yet anyway. You're not hired until three million years from now. Just go sit down. Everyone else! I need representatives. Four or five, please."

Rose beckoned for the Om-Com, and the Doctor handed it over.

"Here we go," she said. "Who here works in the kitchen? Where are the dinner ladies? Look, when I call out, stand up and raise your hand. And wait, I want the dinner lady in charge of ordering food deliveries."

One woman stood up and Rose motioned for her to come up to the stage.

"Okay, now the adventurers! Anyone who has ventured outside to explore please stand up."

Two men, six boys, and one girl stood up and they were all grouped together on the bleachers.

"You're brilliant, all of you. I truly admire each of you, but if you could, do you think you can point out someone you think of as a leader? Who among you are the ones you absolutely could not do without?"

"Troy!" one of the boys in the group called out. A couple in the group started nudging one boy forward. He looked a bit unsure about going up, but still made his way to the stage.

"Okay, there's one. What about you Mr. Teacher that we met outside? Think you could help us out a bit?"

The man walked down from his spot. The boy called Troy stepped up on the stage and the Doctor went over to him.

"Alright. You are now officially the leading representative of this school. Your first task is to pick one more person from the adventurers. Who has explored the most or has special skills that can be used for survival?" the Doctor asked him.

"We really stick together when we go out. I don't think anyone knows more than the rest. Jake's a hunter. We don't have any weapons, but if we did, I'd say him."

The Doctor turned to Rose and gave her the name. Rose called out for Jake and told everyone else that they could sit back down. When everyone was on the stage, the private meeting began.

"First and foremost," started the Doctor, "food and drink. Ms. Dinner Lady, what do things look like?"

"Not good." She shook her head sadly. "It was delivery day and the truck didn't arrive before we ended up here. We were already lower on food than we'd like. Now that we're here… I tried to portion things. I really did, but people were scared and got aggressive. Some kids broke into the kitchen and snack counter and started taking stuff."

"And no one stopped them?" Rose asked angrily.

"We tried," said Jake. "Actually, I think too many people tried to stop them. It was so crowded that it was hard to figure out which ones were taking things and which ones were stopping people. Then, when those people looked around and saw how much food had been taken, they started taking some themselves so that they could manage their own conservation. They didn't want to starve faster because things weren't fairly divided."

"And they took all the wrong things," the cook said in dismay. "They took all the nonperishables – the sealed bags of cookies, chips, pudding cups, and things like that. In the raid, they smashed all the fresh fruit we had. I wanted to use that first so it didn't go bad. The refrigerators and freezers don't work, so I thought we'd go through frozen vegetables next. We have lots of meat and fried potatoes, but nothing to cook them with so I wouldn't dream of using them now. We've now gone through most of the canned fruits and vegetables. We've run out very quickly."

"You've done wonderfully," the teacher told her. "We haven't gotten much to eat, but enough to get by so far. You've done a good job."

"What about water? How's that been working?" asked the Doctor.

"After the raid, I locked all the water in my classroom," the teacher explained. "Instead of milk, the children are offered the ability to buy bottled water with their lunch. It costs a lot more so few ever do. Still, we have stocks of it. Had stocks of it. I portioned it out for two small cups a day. We've only had two tiny meals a day and they would come to my room after that and I'd measure the water out. We ran out. We didn't have any bottled water yesterday or today."

"You didn't tell him the worst part yet," Troy remarked. "Several people around here have warned others not to drink pop, but they broke into the vending machine and started taking it anyway."

"Pop? People are drinking that right now?!" the Doctor said in outrage. He took the Om-Com from Rose and turned to the crowd. "Who here have got fizzy drinks?! Who's got carbonated beverages?! Do not drink them! In fact, right now, I want you to take any bottle you have with you and put it in the center of the room! No pop! You're at risk of death by dehydration and you're drinking pop! Your body is already struggling with the other complex sugars you're taking in and you're adding more. Sugars don't break down without water. Then there's the caffeine! It's a diuretic! It increases heart rate and cardiac output. An increased cardiac output sends more blood to the kidneys, causing an increased amount of urine excretion, leading to the dehydration. It's hurting you, not helping you!"

The Doctor turned back to his small group.

"You know, that's kind of an interesting question," said Rose. "Urine excretion. Where do you… go?"

"Some of the trees behind the school," answered Troy. "Not much privacy, but we've gotten used to that already."

"Okay, bathroom outside, out of water, nearly out of food," the Doctor reviewed.

"You can just say 'out of food,'" the cook said quietly. "I haven't told anyone yet, but we only have a can of peaches left. It's a huge can, but I still estimate only half a slice for everyone."

"But that's what we're working on," said Troy. "We were bringing back a thing of water when you called for us. We thought we'd boil some for drinking, then bring back some more so she could cook some pasta or something."

"We're trying to figure out how to get more food, too," said Jake. "Troy's found some plants we can eat and we're trying to figure out how to trap some animals. The problem here is that they're so big, we don't know what to trap and how to go about it."

"Plants?" asked Rose. "Are you sure they're edible? Sure they're not poisonous?"

"Oh, boy scout here found some things we can eat," Jake said as he nudged Troy.

"Oh, a boy scout!" the Doctor said excitedly. "A camper. I saw your fire pit design outside. Very good. Very, very good. Perfect for cooking over. And you're familiar with edible plants, too?"

"Some. My dad's an Eagle Scout and is always taking me camping. When we're out, he tries showing me all sorts of survival stuff. I was pretty sick of it. I wanted to drop out of scouts years ago, but I knew how disappointed he'd be," Troy explained.

"I was one of those people that poked fun at boy scouts," Jake admitted. "You'll never catch me doing that again."

"Okay, looks like we've got all the big questions asked, so where do we start, Doctor?" asked Rose.

"Okay, we start with assignments. Jake and Troy, do you think your group can finish bringing up the water without Mr. Teacher? By the way, what are you carrying the water in?"

"Well… We didn't really have anything the size we were looking for, so we used the janitor's mop bucket. It sounds gross, but we rinsed it out well and we boil the water," said Jake. "And, yeah, we can still carry it up."

"Good. That's fine. Use what you've got. You can go about that now. Ms. Dinner Lady, if you could ready some pots for when the adventurers come back, I'd like it if you could cook some pasta or rice."

The cook nodded and went off with her assignment, too.

"And, Mr. Teacher, if-"

"Donovan," the teacher corrected.

"Mr. Donovan or just Donovan?" asked the Doctor.

"Just Donovan."

"Okay, Donovan, I'm hoping you'll accept the job of registering everyone here. Everyone means students and staff. I'd like a list with everyone's first and last name and once their name is written down, they get a name tag. Think you can do that for me?"

"Yes, I'll go get what I need now. First though… who are you two?"

"I'm Rose and he's the Doctor," Rose introduced them.

"Yes, but where are you from? Who sent you?" Donovan continued.

"No one sent us. We saw your disappearance in the news, had a look about, and thought we could help," she answered. "Anyway, Doctor, want to make your announcement?"

"Yes, and then you can select a couple people for yourself because you've got your own assignment."

"I figured that."

The Doctor addressed the crowd again and explained how they were going to be registered. He gave them the additional warning that if they didn't have a name tag, they didn't get food. Things were going to change. There would be order and participation.

Thank you so much for your supportive reviews!