Here's the second part of the Beast below! Hope you enjoy, and please review!
The Beast below - Part Two.
"Welcome to London Market. You are being monitored." The sound of a loud Tannoy filled my ears. I looked up at the ceiling, then scanned around the room. It looked just like a London market! ...But on a space ship.
Amy started to walk towards The Doctor, spinning around as she did so. He watched in amusement. "I'm in the future. Like hundreds of years in the future. I've been dead for centuries!"
"Oh, lovely. You're a cheery one. Never mind dead, look at this place." He put an arm around Amy and guided her away. "Isn't it wrong?"
"What's wrong?" I asked as I quickly followed.
"Come on, use your eyes! Notice everything. What's wrong with this picture?" He quizzed.
A person drove past on a bike and I watched.
"Is it the bicycles?" Amy answered. "Bit unusual on a spaceship, bicycles."
"Says the girl in the nightie."
Amy looked down at her body, hers eyes widening as she did so. "Oh my God, I'm in my nightie!"
The Doctor chuckled and turned to me. "Now, come on, look around you." He put an arm around me, a strangle tingle rushing through my body as he did so. He pulled me closer to Amy. "Actually look."
"London Market is a crime-free zone." The Tannoy blared out.
Amy and I stared up at the ceiling, still not understanding what he meant.
"Life on a giant star-ship. Back to basics. Bicycles, washing lines, wind-up street lamps. But look closer. Secrets and shadows, lives led in fear. Society bent out of shape, on the brink of collapse. A police state. Excuse me." The Doctor walked over to a table and picked up a pint glass of water, he inspected it for a second, then placed it on the floor.
"What are you doing?" The man who was sat at the table questioned him.
The Doctor looked at it for a moment then returned it to the table. "Sorry. Checking all the water in this area. There's an escaped fish. Where was I?" He turned and walked back over to Amy and I.
"What was that?" I asked.
"Why did you just do that with the water?" Amy quizzed.
"Don't know. I think a lot. It's hard to keep track." The Doctor continued walking. "Now, police state. Do you see it yet?"
"Where?"
He clicked his fingers and pointed towards the same little girl that was crying. "There." He started to walk over to her, but paused and sat on the bench opposite. Amy and I sat either side of him.
"One little girl crying. So?"
"Crying silently. I mean, children cry because they want attention, because they're hurt or afraid. But when they cry silently, it's because they just can't stop. Any parent knows that."
I nodded.
"Are you a parent?"
He didn't answer Amy's question. "Hundreds of parents walking past who spot her and not one of them's asking her what's wrong, which means they already know, and it's something they don't talk about. Secrets. They're not helping her, so it's something they're afraid of. Shadows, whatever they're afraid of, it's nowhere to be seen, which means it's everywhere. Police state."
The lift 'dinged' and the girl stood up and got into it. My heart sunk a little at the fact that I couldn't help her.
"Where'd she go?"
"Deck two oh seven. Apple Sesame block, dwelling 54A. You're looking for Mandy Tanner." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a colorful wallet. "Oh, er, this fell out of her pocket when I accidentally bumped into her. Took me four goes. Ask her about those things. The smiling fellows in the booths. They're everywhere." He passed it to Amy.
I looked over at the creepy smiling things in the booth. "But they're just things..."
"They're clean." The Doctor stated, causing me to look at him confused. "Everything else here is all battered and filthy. Look at this place. But no one's laid a finger on those booths. Not a footprint within two feet of them. Look. Ask Mandy, why are people scared of the things in the booths?"
"No, hang on. What do I do? I don't know what I'm doing here and I'm not even dressed!" Amy cried.
"It's this or Leadworth. What do you think? Let's see. What will Amy Pond choose?" He chuckled and Amy glared at him. "Gotcha. Meet me back here in half an hour."
"What are you going to do?"
"What I always do. Stay out of trouble." He stood up. "Badly." He jumped over the back of the bench and I ran around it to watch him walk away.
Amy quickly stood up and called after him. "So is this how it works, Doctor?" He twisted to look at her. "You never interfere in the affairs of other peoples or planets, unless there's children crying?"
"Yes." He grinned, and Amy span around, a determined look on her face.
"Right, lets go!" She cried and we started to walk towards the lifts. I glanced over my shoulder to see that the doctor had disappeared into the crowds.
We walked down the corridor looking around for the place it said in the wallet.
We passed a bunch of rubbish bins, when a voice came from nowhere. "You're following me. Saw you watching me at the marketplace."
We both span around and found the little girl, Mandy, stood in front of us in her school uniform.
"You dropped this." I said and Amy held out the wallet.
Mandy took it and walked away. "Yeah, when your friend kept bumping into me."
Amy and I followed her, but stopped when she did, a building that had been cornered off in front of us.
"What's that?" Amy questioned.
"There's a hole. We have to go back." Mandy started to walk away, when Amy spoke again.
"A what? A hole?"
I looked at the large 'KEEP OUT' sign.. There was no way that I was going in there.
"Are you stupid? There's a hole in the road. We can't go that way. There's a travel pipe down by the airlocks, if you've got stamps." Amy walked towards it. "What are you doing?"
"Oh, don't mind me. Never could resist a keep out sign."
"Amy, you can't go in there!" I told her, then noticed that the little girl was staring worriedly at one of those creepy booths.
She ignored me and looked at Mandy. "What's through there? What's so scary about a hole? Something under the road?"
"Nobody knows. We're not supposed to talk about it." Mandy answered, looking back at Amy.
"About what?" I asked.
"Below."
"And because you're not supposed to, you don't? Watch and learn." Amy started to pick the lock with a hair clip.
"You sound Scottish." Mandy stated.
"She is."
"I am Scottish. What's wrong with that? Scotland's got to be here somewhere." Amy replied.
"No. They wanted their own ship."
"Hmm. Good for them. Nothing changes."
"And you're from London?"
I nodded. "But not this London... Past London, I think."
"So, how did you get here?"
"Oh, just passing through, you know, with a guy." Amy said, glancing up at me.
"Your boyfriend?" Mandy asked.
I shook my head.
"Yours?" Mandy looked at me.
"Nope... Just, a friend.."
"Oh." Amy gasped.
"What?" I looked at the redhead, as did Mandy.
"Nothing. It's just, I'm getting married. Funny how things slip your mind."
"Slip your mind?!" I cried.
"Married?"
"Yeah, shut up, married. Really, actually married. Almost definitely." Amy said.
"When?" Mandy asked.
"Well, it's kind of weird..."
I looked up at the thing in the booth and it was no longer smiling. Instead a freaky frown was on its face. When had that happened? I shuddered and looked back down at Amy.
"A long time ago tomorrow morning. I wonder what I did?" Amy mumbled, before kneeling down up excitedly. "Hey, hey. Result! Coming?"
I stepped through the barrier and looked into what Amy had just opened.
"No!" Mandy cried.
I looked at the thing in the booth again, and it was now scowling with its teeth on show. Well, there was no way on earth that I would be staying with that thing!
"Suit yourself." Amy shrugged and started to crawl into the building.
"Stop! You mustn't do that!"
I got down on my knees and crawled in after Amy. It was fairly dark inside, with a pulsing red light. We both stared at the light for a second, before Amy started fiddling with the things around her. I looked down and spotted a wind-up torch.
"Torch?" I picked it up and passed it to Amy.
"Thank you!" She stood up and twisted it to turn it on. I also clambered to my feet, slowly looking up at what was in front of us. There was a giant slimy thing, that looked a bit like a tentacle..
"Oh, my God. That's weird. That's-"
Suddenly, the tentacle lashed at Amy and I. Amy let out a scream and jumped backwards, as I stared at it in shock. It tried to lash at us again, but Amy dropped the torch, grabbed the back of my coat and dragged me out backwards.
The tentacle disappeared as I shuffled out backwards on my bum, the light of the outside far too bright for my eyes. I scrunched them shut, only to open them and see that Amy and I were surrounded by men in black cloaks, hoods over their heads.
"What is that?!" I cried. "Who are you?!"
One of the men lifted his hand and a load of gas emitted from his ring, right into Amy's face. As she inhaled it, her eyes started to close and she fell backwards.
"What did you do to her?!" I cried, then turned around to find a ring exactly the same just inches from my face.
I tried to hold my breath so that the gas couldn't knock me out, but that was unsuccessful, as just mere moments later I sucked in a breath of air, my eyes becoming heavy... slowly falling backwards to the floor. The last thing I saw before my mind was clouded in darkness, was the solemn faces of the men around us.
I slowly came to, my eye lids fluttering a little. I let out a gasp as the sight of one of those creepy booths developed in front of me. I quickly sat up and looked around. I was sat in a small room with four screens in front of me.
"Welcome to voting cubicle three thirty B." The computer made me jump as it started to speak. "Please leave this installation as you would wish to find it. The United Kingdom recognizes the right to know of all its citizens. A presentation concerning the history of Starship UK will begin shortly. Your identity is being verified on our electoral roll."
I stared up at the four screens as writing appeared on them, the computer speaking it too.
"Name: Unknown. Age: Unknown."
Suddenly, the screens started to blur and the computer switched off.
"What...?" I whispered to myself, more than confused. I looked to the side at the creepy thing in the booth again, and decided that I didn't want to stay in there any longer. I jumped up off of the chair and rushed over to the door, pushing on it. However it wouldn't open, and I could feel myself starting to panic. I banged my fists on it a few times before I started to yell. "Help! Someone let me out! Please help!"
Suddenly, the door burst open and I almost fell out of it. I gripped onto the frame and looked up to see the Doctor stood there with his screwdriver in hand.
I was so bloody relieved to see him, that I dived into him and flung my arms around his neck, ignoring that same tingling sensation from earlier. "Oh thank god you're here!"
The Doctor awkwardly patted my back and let out a little cough. I quickly pulled back and smiled at him, sort of embarrassed.
"Right, er, lets go and find Pond!" The Doctor said, grabbing my arm and pulling me along. We spotted Mandy sat on a red bench and rushed over. "Where's Amy?"
"In there!" She said, pointing at the door in front of her.
The Doctor walked over to the door and started pointing his screwdriver at it.
"Are you okay?" I asked Mandy.
She nodded. "I'm fine. Are you?"
"Yeah, it was just a bit strange..."
The door burst open, like mine had. Mandy jumped up off of the chair and looked into the door. I peered inside too, whereas the Doctor bounced in to look at a very distressed Amy.
There was a video of her playing on the screens in the background. "Listen to me. This isn't a trick. This is for real."
"Amy?" The Doctor tries to catch her attention.
"You've got to find the Doctor!" The Amy on screen cried.
Amy reached down and pressed a button, resulting in the video turning off.
"What have you done?" The Doctor asked.
Amy looked around wide-eyed.
The Doctor stepped closer to Amy and hopped up onto a chair, then started to scan a device in the ceiling. I stepped in and pulled Amy over to me, giving her a comforting hug.
"Yeah, your basic memory wipe job. Must have erased about twenty minutes."
"But why would I choose to forget?"
"Because everyone does." Mandy stated. I snapped my head around to look at her, I'd forgotten that she was there. "Everyone chooses the Forget button."
I didn't... I didn't see anything to forget.
The Doctor jumped down from the chair and walked towards the young girl. "Did you?"
"I'm not eligible to vote yet. I'm twelve. Any time after you're sixteen, you're allowed to the see the film and make your choice. And then once every five years."
"And once every five years, everyone chooses to forget what they've learned. Democracy in action." The Doctor span on his heel and walked back over to the computer.
"How do you not know about this? Are you Scottish too?" Mandy asked.
"Oh, I'm way worse than Scottish. I can't even see the movie. Won't play for me."
"It played for me." Amy spoke.
"The difference being the computer doesn't accept me as human."
"Why not? You look human." Amy wandered over to the Doctor's side.
I frowned.
"No, you look Time Lord. We came first."
"It didn't play for me..." I spoke up.
"It didn't pl-!" The Doctor span around to look at me. "It didn't what?!"
"It didn't play... I didn't choose anything."
The Doctor frowned and stared at me. Did he know why? Maybe he could figure out what I am?
"So there are other Time Lords, yeah?" Amy asked, bringing the Doctor out of his thoughts.
He turned back to the machine. "No. There were, but there aren't. Just me now. Long story. There was a bad day. Bad stuff happened. And you know what? I'd love to forget it all, every last bit of it, but I don't."
Amy frowned a little.
The Doctor stepped back. "Not ever. Because this is what I do, every time, every day, every second." He rubbed his hands together and grinned. "This. Hold tight. We're bringing down the government."
The Doctor smacked the Protest button and the door slammed shut, trapping us inside. I felt the panic starting to rise up inside of me again. I heard a grinding noise and snapped my head around to look as the creepy thing in the booth twisted around, the same freaky scowl appearing on its face. The Doctor quickly put an arm around my waist and yanked me backwards. The three of us huddled into the corner.
Suddenly, the floor creaked open to reveal a rather large hole.
"Say wheee!" The Doctor cried, grinning.
Amy started to scream, causing me to jump and grip hold of the two of them. The floor below us disappeared and I lost my grip on the pair of them as we fell into the deep hole. I could feel the contents of my stomach rising up into my mouth as we fell at speed. I squeezed my eyes shut, praying to reach the end.
I heard a splat and a groan as the Doctor hit the bottom of the pit. A few seconds later, I dropped to the floor too, however there was less of a 'splat' and more of a 'thump'. The floor was also incredibly hard.
I heard a sharp intake of breath. "Urgh, Laura." The Doctor grumbled.
I opened my eyes and gasped when I realised that I hadn't hit the floor. "Oh bloody hell, crap! I'm sorry!" I cried and rolled off of the Doctor's body, this time splatting into the gunk on the floor.
The Doctor quickly got to his feet, as Amy's scream became audible again and she landed with a splat.
I pushed up off of the ground and tried to hold back a gag. "Oh god, this place stinks!"
"Argh! High speed air cannon. Lousy way to travel." The Doctor stated, holding his screwdriver up to the ceiling.
"Where are we?" Amy questioned, lifting up some of the gunk whilst staring at it with a disgusted facial expression.
"Six hundred feet down, twenty miles laterally, puts us at the heart of the ship. I'd say Lancashire." The Doctor paused for a second. "What's this then, a cave? Can't be a cave. Looks like a cave."
"It's a rubbish dump, and it's minging!" Amy got to her feet and threw a lump of something at the Doctor.
He dodged it, then knelt down to sniff another lump of something. "Yes, but only food refuse. Organic, coming through feeder tubes from all over the ship."
Amy knelt down next to him. "The floor's all squidgy, like a water bed."
"But feeding what, though?" The Doctor mumbled.
"It's sort of rubbery, feel it." She reached out and yanked me down to the floor. I cringed as my hands and knees landed in the gunk. "Wet and slimy."
All of a sudden, there was a distant animal noise, and the Doctor jumped to his feet.
"Er, it's not a floor, it's a..."
My face fell and I clambered to my feet as I realised where we were..
"So." The Doctor tried to change the subject.
"It's a what?" Amy jumped up.
"The next word is kind of a scary word." He grabbed Amy's hands. "You probably want to take a moment, get yourself in a calm place. Go omm."
Amy dropped his hands and frowned as she said: "Omm."
"It's a tongue." The Doctor said. I knew it.
"A tongue?" Amy's face fell.
"A tongue. A great big tongue!" He grinned.
"This is a mouth. This whole place is a mouth? We're in a mouth?!" Amy cried.
"Yes, yes, yes. But on the plus side, roomy."
"Doctor!" I snapped, not impressed with his joke.
"How do we get out?"
The Doctor span around. "How big is this beastie? It's gorgeous. Blimey, if this is just the mouth, I'd love to see the stomach. Though not right now."
"Doctor, how do we get out?!"
The Doctor held up his screwdriver again. "Okay, it's being fed through surgically implanted feeder tubes, so the normal entrance is... closed for business."
I looked up to see what the Doctor was looking at, and it revealed a large set of teeth.
"Ergh.." I grumbled.
"We could try, though." Amy suggested.
Suddenly, the floor started to vibrate. "No, stop, don't move!"
I look at him, my eyes wide, wondering what the hell was happening!
"Too late. It's started!"
"What has?" Amy asked, in an incredibly high pitched voice as we were flung backwards.
"Swallow reflex!" The Doctor called out as he slipped and landed on his back. He quickly scrambled onto his knees as we were shaken about and pointed his screwdriver at one of the 'walls'.
"What are you doing?" Amy cried.
"I'm vibrating the chemo-receptors."
"Chemo-what?"
"The eject button."
"How does a mouth have an eject button?!" Amy was completely oblivious to the fact that we were about to be chucked up.
"Think about it!" The Doctor and I spoke at the same time.
The three of us paused as the sound of a gag filled our ears. A hug wave of vomit was flying right at us, and I felt like throwing up just at the sight of it!
"Right, then. This isn't going to be big on dignity..." The Doctor looked at me and smiled. "Geronimo!"
Amy started to scream again and I squeezed my eyes shut, waiting for the large wave of puke to hit us.
My eyes flickered open and a wave of nausea hit me. I rolled onto my side and held my nose, the awful stench not helping the tiniest bit.
I heard a splatter as Amy splashed about on the floor behind me.
"There's nothing broken, there's no sign of concussion and yes, you are covered in sick." The Doctor told us. I looked over to where he was standing in the corner, fiddling with his screwdriver again.
"Where are we?" Amy questioned.
"Overspill pipe, at a guess."
"Oh, God, it stinks."
I slowly sat up, certain that I wasn't about to repeat what that thing had just done, and stared at the two of them.
"Oh, that's not the pipe.." The Doctor mumbled.
Amy stood up. "Oh." She sniffed her arm and almost gagged. "Phew. Can we get out?"
"One door, one door switch, one condition. We forget everything we saw. Look familiar?"
Amy looked down at what he was pointing to. I slowly climbed to my feet, still feeling a little queasy.
"A forget button?" I couldn't see it, I was still trying to stand up.
"Yes!" The Doctor answered. Two lights switched on behind us, and I turned around to look at it. "That's the carrot. Ooo, here's the stick."
There was two of the booths behind me. The Doctor walked towards them. "There's a creature living in the heart of this ship. What's it doing there?"
It changed into a frown face.
"No, that's not going to work on me, so come on. Big old beast below decks, and everyone who protests gets shoved down its throat. That how it works?"
They changed to a scowl.
"Oh, stop it. I'm not leaving and I'm not forgetting, and what are you fellows going to do about it? Stick out your tongues, huh?"
Suddenly, the booths opened and the creepy things inside stepped out.
I gasped and watched from where I was stood as the Doctor and Amy backed up. "Doctor?"
The next thing I knew, the door behind me slammed shut and someone in a cloak stomped past me. Amy and the Doctor turned to look at her, before quickly moving out of the way. The woman in the cloak lifted up her hands, two gun shots echoed around the tiny room, and the creepy things fell to the floor, unmoving. The woman flipped the gun around her finger and shoved it in her pocket.
"What even are they?!" I asked.
"Smilers." The Doctor answered, then turned to the woman in the cloak. "Look who it is! You look a lot better without your mask."
The woman grinned at the Doctor, then turned to Amy. "You must be Amy. Liz. Liz Ten."
"Hi."Amy replied, as they shook hands.
"Yuck." The woman wiped her hand. "Lovely hair, Amy. Shame about the sick."
The woman turned to look at me. "And you're Laura."
I nodded.
"I'd shake your hand, but I don't want to get any more sick on me." She walked over to the door where Mandy appeared. She put her arm around her, then spoke again. "You know Mandy, yeah? She's very brave."
The Doctor, Amy and I followed along behind her.
"How did you find us?" The Doctor questioned.
"Stuck my gizmo on you." Liz threw some mechanical box at him and he caught it, then examined it. "Been listening in. Nice moves on the hurl escape. So, what's the big fella doing here?
"You're over sixteen, you've voted. Whatever this is, you've chosen to forget about it."
"No. Never forgot, never voted, not technically a British subject."
"Then who and what are you, and how do you know me?"
She smiled. "You're a bit hard to miss, love. Mysterious stranger, M O consistent with higher alien intelligence, hair of an idiot." The Doctor pointed at her and ran his hands through his hair. "I've been brought up on the stories. My whole family was."
"Your family?"
The Smilers started to jolt about, and I snapped my head to look at them.
"They're repairing. Doesn't take them long. Let's move." Liz stated.
The Doctor grabbed Amy and I and pulled us along behind Liz and Mandy. We walked into what looked like a basement, then Liz started talking again.
"The Doctor. Old drinking buddy of Henry Twelve. Tea and scones with Liz Two. Vicky was a bit on the fence about you, weren't she? Knighted and exiled you on the same day. And so much for the Virgin Queen, you bad, bad boy."
The Doctor's mouth fell open. "Liz Ten."
"Liz Ten, yeah. Elizabeth the Tenth... And down!" She shouted. We all ducked as she span around and shot behind us. I looked over my shoulder to see the Smilers being gunned down again. She giggled, then straightened her face as she looked down at the Doctor. "I'm the bloody Queen, mate. Basically, I rule."
The Doctor grinned, then stood up and yanked a door open. He hopped out and the rest of us followed, Liz last. She pulled the door shut behind us.
"There's a high-speed Vator through there." Liz stated.
The Doctor poked his head through some of the bars in the wall. I looked up to see one of those tentacles again, like when Amy and I snuck into that building.
"Oh, yeah. There's these things." Liz said, looking too. "Any ideas?"
"Doctor, we saw one of these up top. There was a hole in the road, like it had burst through like a root." Amy told him, as he waved his sonic screwdriver around.
"Exactly like a root. It's all one creature, the same one we were inside, reaching out. It must be growing through the mechanisms of the entire ship."
"What, like an infestation? Someone's helping it. Feeding it. Feeding my subjects to it." Liz had started to sound angry. "Come on. Got to keep moving."
Amy and I started to walk after them, but then noticed that the doctor hadn't moved an inch. He was still staring up at the thing inside the bars.
"Doctor?" Amy stopped and started walking back to him.
"Oh, Amy. We should never have come here." He spoke, his voice quiet.
He turned and walked towards me, Amy was frozen on the spot this time. The Doctor gently placed his hand on my back, leading me out of the corridor.