A cry of agony echoed across the Library and penetrated the thick, wooden doors that River and Anita fled through just moments ago.
River felt a sharp and stabbing pain through her heart as yet another of her close friends was sent to their death. The guilt was overpowering. A tear began to form in her bright green eyes and she tried to blink it away, but it just rolled down her cheek. She continued running down the dark corridor filled with books and surrounded by wooden furniture and with each footstep the guilt that loomed over her grew stronger and the pressure more intense.
'...Core Self-Destruct in 16:00 minutes.' The voice counted down further and its tone rang in River's ears as she tried to come up with a quick and efficient way of getting to the core.
"How do we know where the entrance to the core is?" Anita panted as she tried to keep up with River, who was a very fast runner.
"It's somewhere near the main registration office and the shop, but on a lower level." River replied. She turned her head to look around and try to familiarise herself with the hallway they were running in. "If we keep going this way, we should eventually reach the gravity platform that leads to the core." She added.
"...Should?" Anita repeated.
"Well... You see, I'm... not entirely sure which way we're supposed to be going." River gave Anita an awkward smile.
"So we're just running for our lives right now?" Anita started to lose hope.
"...Um... yeah." River replied bluntly.
Their echoing footsteps followed them down a maze of bookcases as time was slowly running out. The almost silence of the Library was broken by the faint sound of yet another agonising scream. The Vashta Nerada had got to Other Dave and devoured his flesh and River dreaded to think how he managed two screams when the Vashta Nerada usually devour their prey whole, within seconds.
River winced at the thought of the pain, that each of them must've felt knowing that they were going to die and then being eaten alive moments later. It's a sickening thought that made her feel nauseous.
Up ahead was darkness... no lights were switched on, no windows, just darkness- a large shadow... or swarm. River froze instantly and Anita quickly reacted to River's halt.
"The swarm, it's right there." River pointed to the darkness. She shone the flashlight that she had kept hold of in front of her and in the light were millions of fuzzy dots floating around.
"Now what? We can't get to the core if there's Vashta Nerada everywhere." Anita sighed, about to give up hope. She glanced back down the corridor as she heard very faint footsteps belonging to two different pairs of feet. "...River, I think we're being followed." she whispered.
"All we need more company!" River sarcastically replied.
"There's no way we can do this!" Anita had lost virtually all faith in herself.
River sighed and she looked around; she was trying to remember where they would be on the map of the Library to determine how close they were to the core. She breathed heavily, the pressure was on and she was getting nervous, she began to doubt whether anyone would survive the infestation of the Vashta Nerada.
She thought for a moment as an idea struck. "Oh, there's a way, Anita. There's always a way... it's just a matter of finding it." She grinned as she reached for her squareness gun in the holster around her leg. She tried to conceal her nerves as she grabbed hold of the weapon.
She aimed the gun to the wooden wall structure next to her and she pulled the trigger. The blue square-shaped beam blasted out and cut a hole straight through the wood. The corridor was illuminated by the bright blue blast.
"That'll work..." Anita grinned. "But, are we any closer to the core?" she questioned.
"...Should be." River shrugged her shoulders, completely unafraid. She looked through the hole and she checked to make sure there were no obscure shadows in the room, and luckily there weren't.
She shone a flashlight inside the room, it was small and circular with a few bookcases around the outside and some tables and chairs dispersed around the room. In the centre was a large pattern on the floor, and nothing on top of it. It remained untouched.
River crouched down and stepped through the hole, one leg at a time. She walked over to the centre and studied the pattern in the middle of the floor. Anita followed behind River and she stopped to take a look around the room.
River walked over to the computer and checked the map. A 3-D layout of the Library came up on the screen. "...Ah-ha! It's just below us, we need to activate the gravity platform and take the ride down there." River grinned, sounding hopeful. "I'm so glad that I fired at the right wall, I mean I only studied the map briefly..." River was pleased with herself.
"Good." Anita smiled as she leaned her shoulder against the wall. "That sounds simple enough..." Anita stood in silence so she wouldn't distract River.
River typed on the keyboard and the floor in the centre of the room opened up with a platform in the middle and a blue light around the outside. "There's the gravity platform. Let's go Anita!" River called over her shoulder. She took several steps closer to the gravity platform and looked at its structure shrouded with a mystical blue light.
She turned around at the unexpected silence. "Anita?" she questioned. Her facial expression was clueless as she pivoted. River's eyes widened in shock as she looked at her sight in front of her...
"Anita... oh no, not you too." she sighed with great sadness. Tears gradually built up in River's eyes, every one of her fellow explorers was dead, she felt so alone and vulnerable. She ran and knelt down beside the skeletal form of her best friend.
The skeleton lay on the floor surrounded by the shredded remains of the white space suit. The ghosting bar on the side of the helmet was already nearly gone, just one light flickering. Anita's ghosting was so quick and sudden that River didn't even have a chance to say good-bye to her spirit, nor did Anita have time to relay her last thoughts.
Out from underneath the suit a large dark shadow expanded and started to spread across the floor. River backed away from the skeleton, her hands were trembling and her feet were numb.
A faint sound started to grow slightly clearer. River's heart was pounding so hard against her chest that it was almost painful for it to beat.
"Hey, who turned out the lights?"
"You both should go now!"
The ghosting voices of her other colleagues who had met their untimely deaths repeated and the swarms of spores were nearing her position as well as the shadow on the floor creeping closer to her feet.
The fate of the Library depended on the actions of the lone Professor River Song, she was the only one left...