CHAPTER 6, NEMASIS
Rose, Damian and the Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS and got their first looks at the planet Nemasis. To Rose, it greatly resembled Earth in the winter, but without the snow. The plant life was either naturally a dead brown color or it really was dead. It was silent like the dead of winter too. Not a single bird sang or a insect chirped.
"The rumors are true." Damian whispered. "They've been saying that Nemasis has been dead…wiped out by some unknown thing. The plants here that you call trees are usually a vibrant purple."
"Maybe along with finding fire we can find the cause of death," The Doctor suggested. "just as long as it doesn't kill us first."
"Where the heck would we even find fire?" Rose asked.
"Damian, any large stone structures around here?" The Doctor asked, taking out his Screwdriver from his pocket and waving it around in the air, trying to get a signal of some sort apparently.
"Not around here, no." Damian replied after a few seconds. "Most of the stone is in the deserts…and judging by where we landed, that's a good ways away."
The Doctor pulled the empty fire jar out of his pocket. "Well then. We'll just have to make some." Along with the jar, he pulled out two flint stones and small rock. He put the jar, the Screwdriver and the small rock on the ground and bent down next to them, striking the flint stones over the rock.
"Does it even work that easily?" Rose asked.
"No," The Doctor said. "I'm not even sure if this is how you do it."
He hit the stones together a few times, creating a few sparks but they didn't catch on the rock. "Nemasis' atmosphere is nearly identical to Earth's, and both are suitable to house the flames. Sadly, I have no idea how the flames get made or if we have to go halfway across this planet and retrieve it ourselves from some scorching desert somewhere."
"With our luck," Damian muttered. "probably option two."
The Doctor tried a few more times with the flint and then pocketed the two stones and stared at the one on the ground. He pulled a match out of his pocket and began striking it against the stone, only stopping when the thin piece of wood snapped. He pulled another match out of his pocket.
"What are you doing?" Rose asked.
"Testing a theory." The Doctor said simply, striking the match against the stone harder than intended and breaking it. He pulled a third match out of his pocket.
"Doctor that isn't going to get us anywhere."
"Yes it will. Shut up."
Rose rolled her eyes and wondered away from the group, trying to take in more of Nemasis' scenery, which all began to blend together after a while.
"AHA!"
Both Damian and Rose jumped and spun around to see a small flame burning on the small stone. The Doctor scooped handful after handful of it into the jar until the many tiny flames hardly had any room to float around in.
"How did you do that?" Damian asked in awe. "What was that magic stick you used?"
"It's called a match, and my theory was correct! To create the fire that consumes stone, you need some of its prey to start it; in this case, a pebble. It grows on the prey, learning to destroy it and only it alone." The Doctor quickly counted the flames in the jar. "Ten. Not bad, although they are a little small."
"But what about the match? Will it burn away at wood too?" Rose asked.
"That's a risk we'll have to take." The Doctor said after a hesitant pause. "Anyway, we've got what we came for."
"We can't just leave without figuring out what happened here!" Damian protested. "There still could be survivors!"
"But there could be no one." The Doctor countered.
"I'm staying." Damian said firmly. "You can leave me here. I'll do fine on my own."
"Doctor, we should at least look around." Rose added. "We could find something useful here. Nemasis and Xios could be linked; the disappearance of an entire race and the appearance of the Angels."
"All right. But for one night only." The Doctor sighed. "But we really need to go back to Xios."
"Nemasis doesn't have nights." Damian said sheepishly. "The sun stays up all the time, except in the winter months, when it's gone until next spring."
"What a weird planet." The Doctor muttered, heading into the woods. "Hello, anyone here?"
Rose headed in the opposite direction, hoping to at least see something other than the dead vegetation. Damian caught up with her.
"Nemasis can have some dangerous animals." He said softly. "But I don't think that they're going to be any trouble here..for now. It's like all the life was swept away…"
That statement made Rose shudder. That was impossible, wasn't it? All the life on a single planet couldn't just disappear…
"Can you think of anything else that could have happened?" Rose asked, stepping over a fallen, dead log.
"No. Nemasies are known for being bold and never hiding. So unless something terrible happened to them, I have no explanation."
They continued walking until they came to a small clearing in the middle of the forest. It looked like something had been there recently; flattened plants that were beginning to spring back up and strange footprints.
"Strange," Damian knelt down to look at one of the prints. It was about the size of a grown human's, but it had three long toes that dug into the dirt. "I don't know what could have made this." Damian muttered.
Rose tripped over something hidden partway in the ground. She crawled over to whatever she had tripped over and smoothed the dirt away.
She screamed and backed up as fast as she could. "Damian!"
"What?" Damian was by her side in an instant.
"An arm! A red stone arm!" Rose gasped. "The Angels have to be here too!"
Damian kicked the arm out of the dirt completely. The unusual bright red stone was smeared with dirt, and the hand was claw like and missing a thumb. Damian nudged it again with his foot and took a step backwards, completely pale.
"That's not stone," He whispered.
WITH THE DOCTOR…
So far he had found nothing, save a few rocks and blades of live grass. Taking that as a good sign, he continued through the forest, hoping to run into something alive at any point.
"All right…So you search Nemasis for any life, take the flames, and go back to Xios, where you destroy the Angels once and for all. Piece of cake. This is going to be easy." The Doctor planned out loud. Unfortunately, there was no one to hear him.
He kicked a small twig out of the way and continued on, glancing every now and then at the jar of flames he was holding. They didn't seem attracted to the trees, so stone was their only attraction.
"Do you know what happened to the people here?" he asked the flames, even though he knew that they wouldn't answer.
They swirled around the jar in a silent reply, bumping into each other and hitting the edges of the glass. The Doctor was about to put them in his pocket when they all clung to the left side, refusing to drift independently.
The Doctor spun around to find nothing but dead vegetation. "That was very not weird…" He muttered. He began walking the direction the flames were clinging to. Even when he turned the glass away from the direction, they were still attracted by an unknown force.
The Doctor turned around a tree and stopped dead in his tracks.
A weather damaged stone statue stood directly in front of him, its fingers an inch from his face. The Doctor stepped backwards hastily, uncapping the jar and throwing a flame as he went. The fire clung to the stone skin and began to burn away at it.
That wasn't an ordinary Angel.
Before the final features were burned away, the Doctor made out wide, blank eyes that were high on its face and a small nose over a mouth that barred pointed teeth. It had no wings, only stubs of rock behind its shoulders.
"This isn't good." The Doctor muttered, turning and running. "Rose! Damian! We need to get out of here! I think I know what happened to everyone of Nemasis!"
He tripped over a log in his haste and when he got up he saw two more Angels coming for him ahead. Uncapping the jar, he sent two small candle flames in their direction and hurried on.
WITH ROSE AND DAMIAN…
"Well, it's an arm all right…but who did it belong to?" Damian wondered out loud. "I mean…this is odd."
"That hardly covers it." Rose whispered. "Something tells me when we find out what happened to everyone here we're not gonna like it." She stopped talking as she heard a shout in the distance.
"Rose! Damian! We really need to get out of here! I'll explain on the way back to Xios!"
"I already don't like it." Damian took a few steps back. "come on! Back to the TARDIS!"
Rose cast one last look at the red arm and then turned and ran after her companion.
And that's the bonus chapter of Winter Vacation. I love vacation. Anyway, special thanks to my first reviewer, loonynerdxd9!
YOU RULE!
Until either Saturday or Sunday, Hasta la Vista!
Lordoftheghostking28