"Sweetie!" River calls down from the cliff where she's perched alongside Jack, "Just start climbing!"
They'd been travelling in the same fashion all day. Walking along a trail, finding a cliff, scaling a rock face, and repeat. It had given them a lot of altitude with the same amount of physical exertion. Anyone else would have had to be running full speed to be where they were in less than a day. However, the wall they currently face is so overgrown with strange blue vines that it is impossible to see the stone underneath. In the dimming light, it is even harder to see. Despite this, River and Jack had both immediately scaled the wall. The Doctor, however, turns out to be a bit more hesitant. He now finds himself stuck halfway up the rock face.
"My foot seems to be caught in the vines!" He shakes his leg, trying to free himself.
"Don't worry, River," Jack says, sliding off the cliff back into the vines, "I'll get him."
Shimmying down through the vines, Jack gets to the Doctor in no time.
"Actually," Eleven says, as Jack approaches him, "My foot's fine now. I must have gotten it—"
The Doctor's speech s immediately cut off. Jack looks down to see why. A blue vine has somehow gotten tangled along in Eleven's mouth. Jack almost laughs; until he sees the veins move. Another Dalek invention: Living vines. And the vines don't stop. The swirl around the Doctor's arms and legs, burying him in the cliff before Jack's eyes. Without stopping to think, he plunges into the swarm of blue vines.
"Jack? Doctor?" River calls from the cliff. A knot of the vines has formed, right where the Doctor and Jack had been moments before, and the entire wall resembles a gloomy ocean of snakes.
After a few tantalizing moments of silence, Jack's labored speech makes it up to River, as he fights his way through the vines. "Riv… Elp… Sho… An… Now…!"
"What?" she calls out. "I can't hear you!"
Jack's head momentarily breaks out of the vines. "Shoot it!" he orders, before he is swallowed again by the vicious plants.
Taking her blaster out of her holster, she aims it down alongside the cliff. She swallows hard, trying to aim. Every second, however, the Doctor's arm or Jack's back or some other obscure body part will break through the wrath of vines. River can't be sure not to hit either one of them. Taking a deep breath, she shuts her eyes and fires the gun blindly into the fray.
She steps away from the cliff, as the sound of a high pitched squealing pierces the air. The vines recoil from the blast, and, a moment later, an arm appears, followed by the rest of Jack, lugging Eleven up behind him.
"Doctor!" River rushes forward and helps Eleven the rest of the way, as Jack stands up.
Once he regains his composure, Eleven turns to Jack and puts a hand on his shoulder. "Jack… What can I say? Thank you."
"Hey, it's no problem," Jack replies, "Saving your life twice in one day? What more could I ask for?"
"Perhaps some clothing," River offers. Jack looks down, to see his shirt had been ripped clean off in the tangle with the living vines.
"Aw man," he whines comically, "I liked that shirt." He winks playfully at River. "It was sexy." He shrugs, and leads the way on up the mountain. River and Eleven follow behind him.
Adrenaline wearing off, Jack begins to notice just how cold it is on top of that mountain. River had a good-sized, if not scratchy blanket, and is currently managing to travel and climb with it wrapped around her. The Doctor has a heat-trapping jacket, his most recent gift from his mentor. But Jack has himself left, exposed to the frigid air. He'd be fine, though, if only there was something to distract him from the biting chill. Finally, he finds that distraction. On the ground, he squints through the dying of the light to see little red spots. In fact, they were all over, and, upon inspection, he finds they lead further up the mountain. River and Eleven join him in inspecting the discovery.
"Blood," Jack declares.
"The question is," says a man's voice mysteriously coming out of the shadows, "Whose blood is it?"
Eleven, Jack, and River turn to face the direction of the voice, which came down the trail a bit. And, as they stare into the gloomy twilight, they can make out two shapes coming towards them. As they get closer, Jack recognizes Ten. And then Eleven recognizes his companion.
"Amy!" He runs forward, and she meets him, happy to be back with her friend.
"Eleven—Er, Doctor!" She greets him, throwing her arms around him.
After a moment of hugging and re-uniting, Eleven says, "I'm glad to see you're alright."
"You, too," She replies with a smile.
"Now," Eleven directly addresses Ten. "You and I might need to talk about something, but there's no—"
"I agree," Ten says, cutting his future self off. "No time for sentimentality."
In the training center, the Daleks had strict rules on socialization. Anyone who might affect the timeline of another must not interact with that person. The Daleks had broken time enough already, they didn't want to chance a greater fracture. This meant that Amy and Rory couldn't talk with River, Chantho couldn't speak to the Master, and, most importantly, the three Doctors couldn't see each other. But they were in the arena, now. The perfect time to sort things out.
But that's a conversation for another time, and both Doctors know that. So, after a moment of discussion and planning, they regroup, and follow the little trail of blood. They have just begun to travel, when the Dalek symbol appears in the sky, signaling the end of the day. However, with the lack of deaths, the little group only uses the light to travel up the mountain by. They continue walking, even after the light is all gone and they're travelling entirely by torch-light, all of them dreading what they might find at the end of the trail of blood.
~LOS JUEGOS DE MEDICO~
Yes, I did just roughly translate "The Doctor Games" into Spanish. It's just what I do.
Anyway, this story is about wrapping up. Tragic, I know. Be prepared for the next chapter, and a lot more creative ways to die! Enjoy the pain and torment! :D
Oh, and don't forget to give me lots of reviews.