The party made their way through the tall grass, Laura and The Doctor trading glances with each other to insure that the other was still okay and to see if the other would panic and try and run or something else reckless. The young hunter's spear was still pressed worryingly close to their backs.
"So it's a lovely day isn't it?" The Doctor said, with a plastic looking smile on his face.
"Quiet, theif!" The female hunter shouted, her cold vision still focused on the path ahead of her.
"Okay..." The Doctor said, his smile fading. He looked around him for a moment or two before breaking the silence again. "Where are we going?"
"Quiet!" The young hunter shouted, moving his spear closer to The Doctor.
"Fine...Laura and I will just walk in silence..."
The Doctor began to whistle.
"Doctor, are you trying to annoy them into killing us?" Laura whispered, her concern plastered on her face. The Doctor winked at her and continued his whistling. His whistles grew louder and louder until the woman couldn't stand it and turned around and shouted in frustration: "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"
"I'm whistling the Gilligan's Island Theme."
"Why?! Why are you whistling?!"
"I don't know, just felt like we could do for some music. Do you like music?..."
"Music? I don't need music! I need silence and for us to make it back home before it gets dark!"
"Oh... That's understandable. Too dangerous to stick around out in the open in the dark."
"You would know..." The woman said, turning back around. "Let's go!" They began marching again.
"What does that mean?" The Doctor raised an eyebrow in confusion.
" You're obviously too strange to not be dangerous. Dangerous things kill. You're wrapped up in death. You and your strange companion...Death lives in the dark..."
" I assure you, Laura and I only want to help."
"I'll believe that after you've proven yourself to be a healer. And if, you don't we will kill you and your companion. I promise you that."
Laura looked up at The Doctor and into his eyes.
"Why don't you just kill us? Why bother taking the risk?"
"If you can help then it would be foolish not to at least try..."
"What's going on?..." The Doctor's expression had grown soft and his voice, caring.
"Some of us are dying...Back at the shelter. They're dying..."
They walked in silence again, with the only noise being their feet crushing the grass.
"Can I know you what you're called?"
The woman waits for a moment and finally says "I am called Nal."
"Nal. I promise you I will do whatever I can..."
They reached a cave mouth in the side of a mountain at the edge of the valley. Inside burned a fire with a few other adults, an elderly woman and a few children, crowded around it. The walls were cluttered with drawings depicting hunts and people. Laura looked at those drawings with awe. She was looking at art in its earliest form. She wanted to reach out and touch it. But, of course she had other things to deal with.
To one side of the fire laid a woman and a man. The woman was in obvious pain. Nal sat her spear down and quickly made her way to the woman and knelt beside her. "San, how are you?"
The woman raised her head as much as she could. "Nal. You've returned. How was your hunt?'
"It went well. We'll eat."
"That's good." San said with a weak smile. "You need to eat. Promise me you'll eat."
Nal placed her hand on San's cheek lovingly. "As long you eat first." San nodded. Nal turned to those still carrying the beasts' carcass. "Let us cook the kill as quickly as we can. The wounded need to eat!" The men took the animal to the back corner of the cave and began to prepare it for the fire.
The young man took The Doctor by the shoulder and pushed him toward the dying man, who laid unconscious. He was pale and thin, and draped in animal skin ."Heal him thief! You said you were a healer! Heal him!"
"I'll do what I can!" The Doctor said, as the young man pushed him to his knees. The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver and ran it along the man, the thing humming and glowing as usual. With a quick flick the Doctor began to read the device's readings. Concern was all over his face as he pulled the animal pelt back and looked the man over. The Doctor looked up to the young man. "What happened? Were they attacked?"
"...Yes..."
The Doctor slowly got to his feet. He placed his hand on the young man's shoulder. "I don't know how to say this..."
All the eyes in the cave were fixed on The Doctor.
"What is it theif?" Asked Nal.
"His insides are wrong."
"What?! What do you mean his insides?!" Shouted the young man.
"His intestines are gone and so is one of his lungs, his heart is in the wrong place and so are his kidneys...It doesn't make any sense...I don't know how he's alive...There's no wounds...he should be dead. It's just a jumble inside him."
Laura stepped next to The Doctor. "His insides are jumbled? But how is that possible? Who would do that? What can do that?"
The Doctor turned to Laura. "I don't know...but I'm starting to understand why Nal said death lived in the dark..."
The wind howled outside the mouth of the cave as the last ray of sunshine fled behind the edge of the mountain.