On the morning of the next day, Amy is awoken by a considerable amount of noise coming from the end of the Cornucopia. She blinks her eyes open, to find that the Tenth Doctor is busy messing with their hoard of supplies, foods, and weapons. He seems to be rearranging them, sorting them.
"Doc—Ten," she says, groggily, forgetting his in-game pseudonym for a moment, "Did you not wake me for my watch?" She was supposed to get up to take her watch position around midnight, but she could see the sun beginning to rise in the distance.
"Yeah," he replies, "Must have slipped my mind; it's only sleep." He continued to work over the supplies.
"But what are you doing?" Amy asks, standing up to inspect what the Doctor is doing.
"I," he announces, "am packing. Packing supplies."
"What…" says Amy, horrified at this prospect, "What? You're not leaving! You promised!"
The Doctor sighs briefly, and replies, "I know, but—"
She interrupts him. "You promised we'd stick together, Doctor!"
"Just listen, Amy!"
Amy opens her mouth to yell again, but closes it, wanting to hear the Doctor out. She leans back, hand on one hip, looking expectantly to her companion.
He explains, "I'm packing, but not for me to leave you. It's for us to leave here. Together."
She is confused. "But, I thought we'd stay here?"
"Amy," says the Doctor, "How can we? There's people dying and killing out there." He lowers his voice, and moves in closer to Amy. "Innocent people have died. And I'll have no more of it."
Amy, taking in the idea, rolling it around inside her brain, whispers, "But what do you propose we do, then?"
The Doctor, arms full of miscellaneous supplies, does his best to put a hand on Amy's shoulder, as he replies, "We stop the games. An alliance of every tribute, refusing to kill... The Daleks won't be able to force us to kill each other if we simply choose not to."
Amy looks at him as though he's lost his mind. And, in a way, he has! Stop the games? Defy the Daleks? That's crazy! But, in the last couple weeks, Amy has grown to trust the Doctor with her life, and, though this idea might cause even more trouble, she trusts him enough to help him.
~The Doctor Games~
Later that morning, Lorna Bucket finds herself tramping north, along a mountain-stream. The stream, she knows, will flow south and east, joining with the icy river. She'd already been around the river, stayed there for a couple days, but has since decided to travel further north, to the mountain that she could see looming in the distance.
Walking, yet stumbling with weariness, Lorna decided to sit for a break, however, this idea is deterred, as a rock the size of a cat flies by her head. She ducks just in time, and hears the rock smash on the solid ground behind her. Heart racing, she looks wildly around her, when the instinct to flee takes over. She tears away, streaking further up the mountain.
Behind her, she hears rapid footsteps, belonging to a seemingly tireless pursuer. After only moment of the chase, Lorna feels a hand grasp around her shoulder, and her attacker pulls her down. She is crushed onto the ground, a knee jabbing her in her stomach, hands grabbing at her neck. They make contact just as she sees her pursuer's face: it's Lady Christina.
In a fit of adrenaline, she kicks wildly at Christina, her foot colliding with her side, knee jabbing her in the cheek. It's not a hard kick, due to Lorna's present position, but is enough to cause for Christina's grip on Lorna's throat to weaken. She takes the chance, and throws Christina off her body. Not waiting around, Lorna scrambles to her feet, and takes off again, those same footsteps following right behind her.
~The Doctor Games~
On the eastern side of that same mountain, River and the Doctor find themselves running, as well, from a different foe: a snow wolf. Its massive jaws covered in blood (It had briefly grabbed a hold of the Doctor's arm before the initial chase), and its eyes glowing a fierce red that stood out against its pure-white pelt.
The Daleks must have created it, or their slave-scientists. More and more ways to kill were being thought of every day. And the most recent idea? A wolf so great it was feared by every creature, so stealthy that it could be completely still and silent if need be, and so white that one might think it to be a bank of show, and attempt to "relieve oneself" upon it.
Ironically, that is precisely what had happened to the Doctor that very morning.
By noon, the Doctor and River, having run over rock and stream, find themselves at a head end, where the mountain path is cut off by a rock-fall, and the sides are covered in thorn bushes, tangled in the trees, making escape a messy business.
"Doctor, what do we do!" shouts River, hearing the snow wolf's approach around the corner.
The Doctor sputters his words, as he replies, "I—I—Well, I don't know, we… We're trapped!" He despairingly looks to the path, where, any second now, the wolf will come through, and rip them both to shreds.
"Sweetie?" River says, quietly, contemplating their eminent doom.
"Yes?" he replies, equally as somber.
She looks him in the eye. "I just thought you should know… Before we die…"
However, she doesn't get to reply, for, at that moment, a great and beautiful beast rounds the corner, but, instead of howling a white wolf's wrath, he just smiles his gorgeous, smug smile.
"Wow. Did you see the size of that puppy-dog?" Captain Jack says as he comes to meet his two frightened friends. (They had gotten to know each other during the week of training.)
"Jack!" the Doctor exclaims, as he greets his friend with a warm hug.
"Captain…" River says, amazed, joining the embrace, "Did you kill the snow wolf?"
"Not quite; I stuck a sword up in his side; that'll give the brute a nasty bellyache. Last I saw, he was running away, tail between his legs." They give a small laugh.
"Jack," says the Doctor, earnestly, "Thank you."
"Don't sweat it," Jack says, withdrawing. "Now, are we going to stay here all day? Or are we going to head for higher ground? I think there's a storm coming in."
At that, the three friends backtrack along the trail, until they come to a separate path that leads further up the mountain. Looking into the sky, the Doctor realizes Jack is right; the usually white-blue sky has turned a dull grey. Either snow or rain is to come, and, when it does, they had better find a shelter.
~The Doctor Games~
By noon, Sally Sparrow sits in a shallow cave on the inside of the volcano wall. Before her stretches yards of a stone floor, leading to a sharp drop off into the pit of fire below. She had thought to venture out to the edge, and look in at the lava, but, each time she'd get close to the edge, and she felt the heat on her face, she'd turn and scurry back, as if the lava were coming up to grab her and take her in.
So, there she sits, in a cave that was nothing more than a dip in the wall, far away from the lava, waiting for her companion and friend to return to her. The previous night, Sally had awoken from her half-dead state for longer than a few moments. When she did not sink back under, a package with a silver parachute dropped out of the sky, containing a bow and some arrows.
Nine had taken it as a message; Sally would be fine on her own, and that he should go hunting. He'd been gone for hours, and Sally has begun to get restless, worrying that he'd slipped and fallen, and was dying somewhere. Her only hope was the fact that she'd not heard a cannon blast yet.
At long last, Sally hears footsteps on the stone passageway into the little lair.
"Nine? Nine is that you?" she calls.
"Yup! It's me. And I've brought food." Nine walks down into view. He is dragging a large white beast, splattered with red. "Found him walking along a cliff, and thought 'there's a meal right there.' He was already wounded, and an arrow to the skull finished him right off."
"Nine, that's amazing!" Sally exclaims. "But do you even know how to… how to properly prepare that thing to eat?"
Nine shrugs. "Can't be too difficult; I'll figure it out."
It turns out to be a bit more difficult than Nine suspected, but, after a couple hours, there is a nice fire going with a few slabs of meat set to roast above it.
"What are we going to do, Nine?" Sally asks, as they sit and watch the meat cook.
"What do you mean?" he responds.
"I mean, about the games. How do we win? How to we keep from killing each other in the end? What happens now?"
Nine sighs, and replies, "I don't know. We could split up after this. Tomorrow I could wrap up some supplies and head off back down the mountain."
"After we've come this far?" when Nine doesn't reply she continues, "There isn't a safer place in the arena than right here, in this volcano. Except for, perhaps the Cornucopia, but… the journey back down there could take a day, maybe two. And there are real killers out there. It'd be too dangerous to leave here."
"Sally," he says, after a moment's thought. "I'm not going to kill you. And you're not going to kill me. But if we stay together, it might come down to that."
"I know, but… I'm scared," she admits. She leans forward on her knees, propping her head on them.
"Good," Nine replies, as he checks on the food cooking before them, "Scared keeps you fast. Scared keeps you alive." He looks back at her, and says, "You're going to be just fine."
Sally smiles, and thinks, I hope so.
~THE FREAKING DOCTOR GAMES FTW~
This chapter doesn't end at the end of the day. Just to shake things up, it ends in the early afternoon! :O
Sorry I haven't updated for a couple weeks. I've been busy with school and such. But now my schedule's freer and I can write more! :D
I hope you enjoyed it!