Back to the Doctor

Hit the Road Jack Part 6

"Kid hit the deck!" Rex yelled, then suddenly the men in the room opened fire and Marty fell to the ground.

As he covered his head with his arms his ears were suddenly bombarded by the sound of machinegun fire. For a moment he couldn't move, he was terrified that moving a centimetre would mean the difference between surviving and having a limb blown off. But he did move, it only took a second for him to remember Rex was with him, to turn his head and see Rex twitching in the air, bullet after bullet tearing through his skin, showering Marty with his blood.

Either the gunmen didn't see Marty lying prone on the ground outside, or they were just focusing on Rex. It didn't matter, they would notice Marty in a moment. Fear gripping his heart, Marty pushed himself to his feet, and as Rex hit the ground, dead, Marty starting running through the night, not conscious of where he was going or if he was being followed, he just ran.

He collided into someone, both of them falling to the ground. Marty felt himself scream as hands grabbed onto him.

"Who the fuck are you!" The figure yelled in a coarse voice. Marty was too frantic to think straight, the image of Rex being torn apart by bullets kept playing itself over and over in his head and he kept screaming until he felt the man's fist impact into his jaw and he fell to the ground silent.

He looked up at the man crawling to his feet. Marty could make out just enough to see the man pull out a gun and point it at him. He closed his eyes, not able to bear the thought of the barrel of a gun being the last thing he ever saw – and a gun fired and it was so loud Marty's ears rang.

How could his ears ring if he was dead?

"Marty!" A voice called out, a familiar voice, a British voice.

"Doc!" Marty opened his eyes and saw the Doctor fall to his knees before him, looking him over with concerned eyes. Jack stood behind him, his gun still in hand, the assailant lying on the ground, his beady eyes staring up at the sky, but seeing nothing.

"He's bleeding," Jack said hurriedly, looking around. "Where's Rex."

"I'm not- I'm not," Marty couldn't stop shaking.

They could hear voices – lots of voice – calling out to each other, coming towards them.

"We need to get out of here!" The Doctor grabbed Marty and pulled him to his feet before he could protest.

And suddenly they were running, and the farther away they got, the closer the light came, the more Marty felt himself regaining his composure. The image wouldn't go away, and Marty could smell nothing other than the blood on him, but finally he could remember that most wondrous of facts – Rex was immortal. So, he couldn't be dead, right? Of course, that didn't stop the fact that he was still back there in the hands of the enemy.

They reached the gate, a drowsy looking guard pulling himself to his feet. As they ran out of the gate the guard's eyes went wide and just as he was about to call out for help he felt Jack's fist a second time and fell back into the dust.

"This way!" The Doctor turned left and started leading them down the winding alleys. Marty followed him as closely as possible, Jack taking up the rear. Marty had completely lost track of how long they had been running for when the Doctor suddenly stopped and Marty ran right into him, nearly knocking the two over, but the Doctor held fast as he peered around the corner.

"Not good," the Doctor muttered to himself.

"What is it?" Jack poked his head around the corner to see the TARDIS, but it wasn't alone. Four of the Mexican guards, each one carrying a machine gun, were loading the blue time machine onto the back of a truck.

"Jennifer's in there!" Marty went to run towards the truck, but both the Doctor and Jack held him back.

"Running out there is suicide!" Jack tried to keep his voice as hushed as possible as they yanked the teen back around the corner.

"I can't let them take her!"

"Calm down. There's nothing we can do right now."

"But-"

"Well, this isn't the first time we've lost the TARDIS."

"She won't go far, and they can't get in there. Jennifer will be safe," the Doctor reassured him.

"How did they even find it?" Jack asked in frustration.

"They must have been looking for it. The Company knows we're onto them," the Doctor pulled back and he and Jack both looked at Marty, taking in the sight of the blood for the first time. "Are you all right?"

Marty looked down at himself, at the blood running down his arms and shirt and – he was certain – his face was probably just as bloody.

"It's not mine. It's-"

"Rex…" Jack looked back the way they came, a sincere look of concern on his face. "We need to go back for him."

"And we will," the Doctor said quickly, "but first we need to get off these streets. They're definitely looking for us now."

"We found a building," Marty took a deep breath, finally feeling some semblance of calm. "It seemed abandoned. We thought maybe there was an underground warehouse, but the place was filled with those banditos."

"Hardly bandits, more like mercenaries," the Doctor started walking and his two companions were quick to follow. "They were hired by Morton Robotics to guard something – something I'd say was important."

"You think this is where they're building the robots?"

"I'd say it's a good guess," the Doctor suddenly stopped. They stood before a large building. Unlike the other buildings around it, the lights in every room were on, each one with lacy curtains, and on the porch was single red light was lit. "In here."

The three men went up to the door, Jack knocked and after a moment the door cracked open, an older woman wearing a robe and holding a cigarette stared at them unimpressed. "Yes?" She sighed.

Jack pulled out a wad of hundred dollar bills. The woman's eyes went wide and a smile slowly crept over her face as she opened the door and reached out a hand covered in liver spots to grab the money.

"Have you pick misters," she muttered, waving them in, her eyes glued on the money.

"Hey, wait a minute, is this…?" Marty walked in and for the second time that night it felt like his heart had stopped. They found themselves in a lush living room, and lounging on the couches were a collection of young, barely dressed, women giggling and talking amongst each other.

"Well," Jack cleared his throat, smiling gaily at the young women, "we've already paid."

"Uh…" was all Marty managed.

"Focus – the both of you," the Doctor grabbed the two of them and pushed them past the women into a small kitchen at the back of the house, closing the door behind them. A few moans of disappointment were heard behind the closed door.

Marty walked over to the sink and immediately started cleaning his face and arms, but he couldn't seem to get the taste of blood out of his mouth.

"Do you have a plan?" Jack asked the Doctor.

"Does he ever?" Marty muttered.

"First we should wait until things calm down out there, then Marty can lead us to this building."

"You think Rex will still be there?"

"Either they think he's dead and they'll dump his body, or they'll realize he's immortal and try to get information out of him."

"You mean torture him?" Marty felt sick. He shouldn't have left him. It had been a cowardly thing to run like that. He had to sit and for a moment wondered if he didn't just make things worse the longer he stayed with the Doctor.

"Let's not jump to conclusions. We'll look for both Rex and the TARDIS and with any luck we'll find them intact."

Marty snorted back bitter laughter. "Right, because we're just rolling in luck right now."

"Sh," the Doctor suddenly went still.

"Did you just shush me?"

"Listen."

There wasn't a single sound. No talking, no giggling, no grunting.

Suddenly the kitchen door was kicked in and two men ran in, holding out their machine guns and firing widely.

To Be Continued…

(I suck. I know I suck. Three months is an awfully long time to wait for the last two chapters of an episode and I'm sorry. I won't even try to make excuses, I simply shouldn't have started posting this episode without it being finished. So you'll all be happy to know that as a special Christmas treat, tomorrow you will be getting the final chapter. Yay? I find it kind of strange, but I actually get annoyed by the whole TARDIS translates every language thing. I personally like having language barriers travellers need to overcome, and every time I went to write for one of the guards I was a little sad that I couldn't use Spanish.)