The Hungry Earth Pt 1
Amy and I look at each other in excitement as the Doctor stands before the door.
"Behold…" he says as he opens the door and steps out, "Rio!" We step outside to find ourselves in a cemetery.
"Nuh-uh," Amy says looking around.
"Not really getting the sunshine carnival vibe," Rory comments.
"No!" the Doctor says frustratingly. "Ooh, feel that, though, what's that?" the Doctor starts jumping up and down. "The ground feels strange…" he turns to look at us and stops jumping. "Just me. Wait…That's weird."
"What's weird?" I ask.
"Doctor, stop trying to distract us," Amy says with annoyance in her voice. "We're in the wrong place." The Doctor ignores her and takes off around the side of the church. "Doctor, it is freezing and we've dressed for Rio. We are not stopping here." He kneels down next to a patch of grass. "Doctor! Are you listening to me? It's a graveyard! You promised us a beach."
"Blue grass. Patches of it all around the graveyard." The Doctor takes some of the grass and places it in his coat. "So, Earth, 2020-ish, ten years in your future, wrong continent for Rio, I'll admit, but it's not a massive overshoot."
"Why are those people waving at us?" We follow Amy's line of sight and see three people on a hill nearby.
"Can't be," the Doctor comments pulling binoculars out of his pocket and looks through them. "It is! It's you three."
"No. We're here. How can we be up there?!" Rory asks not understanding anything about time travel.
"Ten years in your future. Come to relive past glories, I'd imagine. Humans, you're so nostalgic."
"We're still together in ten years?" Amy comments in shock.
"No need to sound so surprised!" Rory interjects. "I see Jaz is still tagging along."
"I don't tag along," I reply curtly. "Maybe I just came along for the nostalgia."
"Hey, let's go and talk to them! We can say hi to Future Us! How cool is that?" Amy says before the Doctor steps in front of her.
"Uh, no, best not, really best not. These things get complicated very quickly, and…" the Doctor looks for a way to change the subject and sees a something in the distance. "Oh, look! Big mining thing. Oh, I love a big mining thing. See, way better than Rio! Rio doesn't have a big mining thing."
"We're not going to have a look, are we?" Amy questions futilely.
"Let's go and have a look!" He takes off down the hill. "Come on you three let's see what they're doing."
"If he can't get us to Rio, how's he ever going to get us back home?"
"Did you not see, over there? It all works out fine."
"After everything we've seen, we just drop back into our old lives, the nurse and the kissogram?"
"I guess. He's getting away." Amy grabs Rory's hand and heads off after the Doctor.
"Hang on," Rory says pulling her back. I turn around and give him a look. "What are you doing with that?"
"Engagement ring! I thought you liked me wearing it."
"Amy! You could lose it! Cost…" Rory pauses deciding not to go there, "a lot of money, that!"
"Hm. Spoilsport," Amy replies taking it off and giving it back to him.
"Go on. I'll catch you all up." This time she grabs me by the hand and drags me along.
"Doctor!"
DWDWDWDWDWDW
We catch up to the Doctor at the entrance gate.
"'Restricted access. No unauthorized personnel'. Hm." The Doctor pulls out his sonic and points it at the lock. It unlocks.
"That is breaking and entering," Amy accuses.
"What did I break?!" He smiles as he opens the lock. "Sonicing and entering, totally different." He opens the gate and motions us through.
"Come on, then," Amy states as we head off.
DWDWDWDWDWDW
Inside the building, we walk down a long hallway.
"What about now, can you feel it now?" he asks us.
"Honestly, we've got no idea what you're on about," I reply. He pauses before walking again.
"The ground doesn't feel like it should."
"It's ten years in the future, maybe how this ground feels is how it always feels now." As Ay finishes, an alarm starts blaring in the distance.
"Good thought, but no. It doesn't." He pulls his sonic out as the blaring becomes louder. "Hear that? Drill in start-up mode. After waves of a recent seismological shift and blue grass." He puts the sonic back and puts the grass in his mouth before spitting it out.
"Oh, please! Have you always been this disgusting?"
"No, that's recent." He heads for a corner. "What's in…here? Hello!" We walk in to a large room.
"Who are you? What are you doing here?" A woman questions while she notes what Amy and I are wearing. "And what are you wearing?"
"We dressed for Rio!" I comment. The Doctor pulls out his psychic paper.
"Ministry of Drills, Earth and Science. New Ministry, quite big, just merged, it's a lot of responsibility on our shoulders, don't like to talk about it. What are you doing?" He looks over at the monitors.
"None of your business," she retorts.
"Where are you getting these readings from?" Amy and I head over to the forklift and let the Doctor do his thing.
"Under the soil." A man enters the room.
"The drill's up and running again. What's going on? Who are these people?"
"Amy, Jaz, the Doctor," Amy comments as she points to us. "We're not staying, are we, Doctor?!"
"Why is there a big patch of earth in the middle of your floor?"
"We don't know, it just appeared overnight." The Doctor stands up quickly from his place on the floor.
"Good, right, you all need to get out of here very fast." He heads over to the computers.
"Why?" The woman asks as Amy and I look at the patch of earth.
"What's your name?"
"Nasreen Chaudhry."
"Look at the screens, Nasreen, look at your readings. It's moving." Amy crouches next to the hole.
"Hey, that's specialized equipment! Get away from it." The man walks over in a huff.
"What is?" Nasreen questions as she ignores the other man. Steam starts to come out of the ground
"Doctor, this steam, is that a good thing?" Amy questions.
"Shouldn't think so. It's shifting when it shouldn't be shifting."
"What shouldn't?" I ask wanting to understand what is happening. The ground starts shaking as everyone moves away from the patch of earth.
"The ground, the soil, the earth, moving, but how? Why?"
"Earthquake?" Amy guesses as the Doctor looks at the monitors.
"What's going on?" the man questions.
"Doubt it. Cos it's only happening under this room." We all jump backward as more patches appear in the floor. "It knows we're here. The ground's attacking us."
"That…that's not possible!" Nasreen states as the ground continues to shake.
"Under the circumstances, I'd suggest…run!" Nasreen, the Doctor, and I make it safely across the room. We look back to see the man stuck in a hole with Amy standing next to him.
"Tony!" Nasreen cries out.
"Stay back, Amy! Stay away from the earth!" the Doctor warns. Amy ignores him and jumps over to help.
"It's ok." She starts pulling him up before the ground opens beneath her and she starts to sink. "It's pulling me down!"
"Amy!" The Doctor and I cry out as he runs over to her.
"Doctor, help me, something's got me!"
"Take my hand!" Nasreen runs over to Tony.
"Doctor, the ground's got my legs." Amy continues to sink as the Doctor finally grabs hold of her hand.
"I've got you."
"Ok." Nasreen pulls Tony free as I decide to run over to help. I dive on the ground and take Amy's other hand.
"Jaz, no stay back," Amy cries and I shake my head. She looks back to the Doctor. "Don't let go."
"Never," the Doctor promises.
"Doctor, what is it? Why is it doing this?"
"Stay calm, keep hold of our hands, don't let go." He turns back to Nasreen and Tony.
Your drill shut it down! Go! Now!"
"Can you get me out?" Her voice shakes and I can see the fear in her eyes.
"Amy, try and stay calm. If you struggle, it'll make things worse. Keep hold of our hands. We're not going to let you go." The ground continues to shake as we wait for the others to get the drill shut down. The Doctor loses his grip and fall backward. Amy starts sinking again.
"Doctor, it's pulling me down, something's pulling me!" The Doctor gets his hold on Amy's hand again.
"Stay calm. Hold on, if they can just shut down the drill…"
"I can't hold on!" Amy cries hysterically. She takes a few breaths trying to calm herself down.
"What's pulling me? What is under the earth? I don't want to suffocate under there." Amy's head and shoulders are the only thing still above the ground.
"Amy, concentrate."
"Don't you give up!" I say as I see the defeat in her eyes. She looks over to me.
"Tell Rory…" she starts but does not finish.
"No. Amy!" The tears start falling as her head slowly slips under. "Amy!"
"Amy, no! No!" The Doctor yells as we lose hold of her hands. We start digging through the loose dirt. "No! No. No."
I sit back on my feet as the Doctor takes the sonic out and points it at the dirt. He stops sonicing and turns to look at me sadly. I sigh deeply and hang my head. Nasreen and Tony run back in to the room.
"Where is she?" Nasreen asks looking from me to the Doctor.
"She's gone. The ground took her," the Doctor replies sadly. Nasreen puts a hand on my shoulder as the Doctor starts pacing.
DWDWDWDWDWDW
I have taken my spot against the forklift again as the Doctor continues to pace and Nasreen looks at the monitors.
"Is that what happened to Mo?" Tony questions. "Are they dead?" The Doctor looks at me before ignoring the question.
"It's not quicksand. She didn't just sink-something pulled her in, it wanted her."
"The ground wanted her?" Nasreen questions in unbelief.
"You said the ground was dormant, just a patch of earth, when you first saw it this morning. And the drill had been stopped." The Doctor finally stops his pacing.
"That's right," Tony affirms.
"But when you restarted the drill, the ground fought back."
"So, what, the ground wants to stop us drilling?! Doctor, that is ridiculous," Nasreen comments as the Doctor sonics the ground again.
"I'm not saying that, and it's not ridiculous, I just don't think it's right. Oh! Of course! Ha! It's bio-programming!"
"What?!"
"Bio-programming! Oh, clever. You use bio-signals to resonate the internal molecular structure of natural objects. It's mainly used in engineering and construction, mostly jungle planets, but that's way in the future, and not here." As the Doctor does his normal rambling, Tony and Nasreen look at him like he's gone crazy. "What's it doing here?"
"Sorry, did you just say 'jungle planets'?" Nasreen turns to look at me. "Jungle planets," she mouths and I just shrug my shoulders.
"You're not making any sense, man!" Tony exclaims.
''Scuse me, I'm making perfect sense, you're just not keeping up." Nasreen and Tony huff as they look offended. "The earth, the ground beneath our feet, was bio-programmed to attack."
"Yeah, even if that were possible, which, by the way, it's not, why?" Nasreen questions as she crosses her arms over her chest.
"Stop you drilling," I answer like it's obvious. The Doctor smiles and points at me.
"She's right. Ok, so we find whatever is doing the bio-programming, we can find Amy, we can get her back. Ssh, ssh, ssh! Have I gone mad? I've gone mad!"
"Doctor…" Nasreen starts but the Doctor interrupts her.
"Ssh, ssh! Silence! Absolute silence!" The Doctor steps over to them. "You stopped the drill, right?"
"Yes," Nasreen answers.
"And you've only got the one drill?"
"Yes."
"You're sure about that?"
"Yes!" Tony replies as he is noticeably annoyed by the line of questioning. The Doctor lies down and puts his ear to the floor.
"So, if you shut the drill down…why can I still hear drilling?" Nasreen and Tony lean down and listen. "It's under the ground." The Doctor pops up and I follow him over to the monitors.
"That's not possible."
"Oh, no, what are you doing?!" Tony demands as he and Nasreen make their way over to us.
"Hacking into your records. Probe reports, samples, sensors, good, just unite the data, make it all one big conversation, let's have a look. So. We are here and this is your drill hole. 21.009 kilometers. Well done!"
"Thank you. It's taken us a long time," Nasreen says with pride.
"Why here, though? Why did you drill on this site?"
"We found patches of grass in this area, containing trace minerals unseen in this country for…20 million years."
"The blue grass? Oh, Nasreen, those trace minerals weren't X marking the spot, saying 'dig here'. They were a warning. 'Stay away.' Cos while you've been drilling down…
the Doctor pauses for dramatic effect, "somebody else has been drilling up. Oh…beautiful." We all look at the screen as an image pops up on the screen. "Network of tunnels all the way down."
"No, no, we've surveyed that area," Tony states pointing at the screen.
"You only saw what you went looking for."
"Oh…what…what are they?" I point to three dots as the computer beeps.
"Heat signals. Wait. Dual readings, hot and cold, doesn't make sense. And now they're moving. Fast. How many people live nearby?"
"Just my daughter and her family. The rest of the staff travel in," Tony informs.
"Grab this equipment and follow me," the Doctor states before moving to walk away.
"Why? What are we doing?" I question him.
"That noise isn't a drill." The Doctor turns around and walks back to us. "It's transport. Three of them, 30 km down, rate of speed looks about 150km an hour. Should be here in…" The Doctor closes the computer, "ooh, quite soon…12 minutes. Whatever bio-programmed the earth is on its way up. Now."
DWDWDWDWDWDW
As Nasreen and I push a wheel barrow full of equipment, the Doctor and Tony jog ahead of us each of them lugging a computer monitor.
"How can something be coming up when there's only the Earth's crust down there?" Tony questions breathlessly.
"You saw the readings!"
"Who are is he, anyway? How can he know all this?" Nasreen questions me as we run. We pause as a crackling noise is heard. We look up to see energy pulsing across the sky.
"Whoa! Did you see that?" I question as the others pause as well.
"No, no, no!" The Doctor pulls out a sling shot and shoots a rock in to the air. It hits a barrier and is fried. He pulls out his sonic. "Energy signal originating from under the earth. We're trapped." Rory steps out of a house followed by two other people.
"Doctor, something weird's going on here, the graves are eating people," he mentions as he approaches.
"Not now, Rory! Energy barricade. Invisible to the naked eye. We can't get out and no one from the outside world can get in."
"What? Ok, what about the TARDIS?" Rory questions.
"The what?" Nasreen questions as she takes her gaze from the sky.
"Er, no, those energy patterns would play havoc with the circuits. With a bit of time, maybe," the Doctor puts turns off the sonic and the barrier disappears. He looks at his watch, "but we've only got nine and a half minutes."
"Nine and a half minutes to what?" Rory asks as he looks at his own watch.
"We're trapped. And something's burrowing towards the surface," I explain as Rory looks around.
"Where's Amy?" he questions finally noticing that she is not with us.
"Get everyone inside the church," the Doctor directs as he grabs some of the equipment. We walk up to Rory. "Rory, I'll get her back."
"What do you mean, 'get her back'? Where's she gone?"
"She was taken. Into the earth," I reply avoiding his gaze.
"How?" he questions looking at me. "Why didn't you stop it?" he demands of the Doctor.
"I tried. I promise, we tried," he says motioning to me.
"Well, you should've tried harder!" Rory yells angrily.
"I'll find Amy. I'll keep you all safe. I promise. Come on, please. I need you alongside me." With that, the Doctor picks up the equipment and heads off in to the church.