A/N: Sorry if this chapter seems a bit short but, I promise a lot more will be coming soon if you just wait a little bit and I wanted to end this chapter on a suspenseful cliffhanger, so enjoy...
"Oh, I'm so sorry..." River gasped.
"What?" Proper Dave asked. His eyes studied River's worried expression.
"Proper Dave... you've got two shadows..." River replied with a serious tone.
Proper Dave quickly turned his head to the floor by his feet. It was true, he had two shadows: one from the North-West of his body and the other from the North-East.
Anita grabbed something from the floor by her bag and handed Proper Dave his helmet and she tinted the visor with the press of a button. She frowned as she handed it to him, she didn't want any more deaths.
Proper Dave placed the helmet on his head and exhaled a shaky breath of fear.
"Whoa... hey, who turned out the lights?" Proper Dave joked as he tried to look through the darkened visor of his helmet. He wanted to lighten the mood before he died, always leave them laughing he often said.
The other's smiled. "I wish we could help..." Anita sighed as her smile fell, she was feeling useless. She crossed her arms and looked at the floor to Proper Dave's second shadow.
"Go..." Proper Dave said sternly.
"What?" River thought she had misheard.
"I said go. Leave me here; I don't want you all to die because of me... Get to the data core and stop the infestation and find the missing people, just leave me." Proper Dave heroically declared. Although, he regretted it so much but he couldn't stand letting his colleagues no, his friends die along with him.
River paused for a moment she shook her head.
"...Please..." Proper Dave begged.
"...Okay..." she finally spoke after a long silence and regretted saying it.
"But... Professor Song, we can't just leave him here!" Other Dave argued.
"I know we shouldn't... but we don't have any other choice." She snapped. "I'm sorry Dave." She whispered with a smile of good-bye.
"I know... But, the more of you who leave now, the more of you that are likely to go home alive. Oh, I would like to be buried next to Miss Evangelista's body if it's not too much trouble..."
River turned and walked out of the room with the other's following closely behind. She felt guilty but even more determined to solve the mystery of the Library in order to avenge her friends' deaths and save those who remain with her.
"We could've helped him..." Anita sighed as she followed River's brisk walking down a long corridor of bookshelves.
"No, we couldn't... the Vashta Nerada latch on to their prey and wait for the right moment before they feast... there's no way we could save him." River sounded serious. "...Now then, let's get to the data core."
"But what's the plan when we get there?" Mr Lux questioned.
River strode up to him and stood right in front of his face. "Listen here Mr Lux; I know that you think you can do a better job than me here but, if you keep quizzing me and testing my every move then we're more likely to die because I'd be too focussed on answering your ridiculous questions than trying to save us... None of my other colleagues question my every move like you do when ever you doubt my methods and as I don't try to put you off with constant questions at least do me the favour of shutting up from now on! Okay?" she snapped.
Mr Lux nodded his head silently looking intimidated by River's snapping.
"Oh, and to answer your final question, if we can use the data core to download the Vashta Nerada to the hard drive of the Library's system then, we reset the hard drive and the Vashta Nerada will be no more. Their existence would have been erased." River replied. She turned around and tried to conceal her doubt of her plan.
A painful and blood-curdling scream violently hit the eardrums of the team of explorers as it echoed through the eerie halls of the Library.
"I think that was Proper Dave..." Other Dave mumbled miserably.
"...Sounds like the Vashta Nerada got to him." River frowned. "Let's keep moving." She exhaled heavily at the thought of losing another friend.
Mr Lux froze and he tried to listen carefully. His eye glanced to River, who had to stopped walking. Anita and Other Dave stopped walking, they following Mr Lux's example whether it was smart or stupid. "Can anyone else hear that thumping?" Mr Lux questioned, he was unable to identify the sound.
River then looked at the others; she had one finger pressed to her lips. "Sshhh..." she whispered. The corridor fell silent apart from the shallow breathing of the archaeologists and the thumping noise.
"...Footsteps... They sound like footsteps." Other Dave concluded.
"Right..." River agreed. "...But, what's making them?"
Anita widened her eyes in shock and realisation. Other Dave glanced at Mr Lux, then to River, then to each other. None of them were moving, let alone walking.
A muffled sound started to collide with the pounding of footsteps on the wooden floor. It grew louder and clearer...
"Hey, who turned out the lights?..."