Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.
-Neale Donald Walsch
This was not supposed to happen.
The Doctor was only about to take us to the future to watch my brother, Leo, and his wife at the inauguration ball, but that's before the Doctor announced that there was an emergency.
"What is the emergency?" Rose asked and the Doctor frantically pushed buttons and pulled levers on the console and the entire TARDIS shook as it flew through space...or time...or both.
"It's mauve." The Doctor informed us and I shared a look on confusion with Rose.
"Mauve?" Rose asked.
"Universally recognized color for danger."
"What happened to red?" Rose asked and I quickly grabbed hold of the railing as the TARDIS shook violently.
"That's just humans." Rose and I both went to the Doctor who was watching the object we were following, a big metal cylindrical object, on a small screen. "By everyone else's standards, red's camp."
"But mauve, the lightest of purples, totally means danger." I mocked and grabbed onto Rose's arm as the TARDIS shook again. "Who taught you how to drive?" I asked.
"It's the object." The Doctor defended. "It's got a very basic flight computer so I've hacked in, slaved the TARDIS. Wherever it goes, we go."
"And what if it goes into a volcano?" I asked getting closer to him. "Or crashes in the prehistoric era and hits a Stegosaurus?"
The Doctor looked at me. "Are you always this positive?" I gave him a look as he moved away. "It's totally safe." As if taking that as a challenge, the TARDIS console sparked and the Doctor threw his hands up to shield his eyes while Rose and I looked away. "Okay, reasonably." He corrected. "Reasonably safe."
On the screen the object got surrounded by bluish purple hues that looked like the stuff the Daedalus, from Stargate: Atlantis, used to go through. "Doctor?" I asked, calling for his attention. "What's it doing?" The Doctor looked at the screen and his eyes widened as he pushed me out of the way. "Watch it!"
"No, no!" He groaned. "It's jumping time tracks, getting away from us." No idea what that meant, but decided it was a question for later.
"What is it?" I asked the Doctor shook his head.
"No idea." That was comforting.
"Then why are we chasing it?" Rose asked asked as the Doctor began to press keys on his board.
"It's mauve and dangerous and about thirty seconds from the center of London." He reminded us and I blew out of breath.
"And I thought these kinds of things only happened in America." I sighed shaking my head.
THE EMPTY CHILD
After stupidly following Rose, Linnie ends up stranded in 1941 and hanging from a barrage balloon. That wouldn't be too bad if it weren't for the fact that she landed on the roof of a hospital filled top to bottom with gas mask wearing patients calling out for their mummies. To add insult to injury, the TARDIS refuses to let her sleep.
After a very bumpy landing, the TARDIS stopped shaking the Doctor calmly walked away from the center console and to the doors. Rose followed him and I followed him.
"Do you know how long you can knock around space without having to bump into Earth?" The Doctor asked exiting the Tardis. Rose left next and I closed the door after myself.
"Five days?" Rose asked. "Or is that just when we're out of milk?" The Doctor shook his head in disbelief, meanwhile I had no idea what they were talking about.
"Of all the species in all the universe and it has to come out of a cow." I looked around and noticed that we were standing in the middle of an alleyway. There were clotheslines hanging from one building to a wall separating it from another above us and we were right next to a dumpster.
"When are we?" I asked, finding absolutely nothing that could identify the time.
"No idea." The Doctor said as we began to walk. "But that object must've come down somewhere close. Within a mile, I'd say. And it can't have been more than a few weeks ago. Maybe a month."
"We were right behind it." I reminded him.
Rose agreed with me. "She's right. How could it've dropped a month ago if we were right behind it?" The Doctor looked from her to me.
"It was jumping time tracks all over the place." He reminded us. "We're bound to be a little bit out." He looked at Rose as we went around the wall separating us from the other building's alleyway. "Do you want to drive?" He asked sarcastically.
"Yeah."
I raised my hand. "I second that." The Doctor looked down at me and I shrugged. "You need to work on your landings." And his driving. I was sure I had permanent brain damage from being thrown around so much.
"Nine hundred years I've been flying the TARDIS and the girl who's been in it twice is giving me driving advice?" I scoffed.
"The girl who's been in it twice knows how to drive everything from a Smart car to a school bus." I informed him.
"You're seventeen, when did you drive a bus?"
"I'm nineteen and things happen; some of those things just so happen to be the bus driver passing out behind the wheel when you're sixteen." I looked around again. "You said we're a little bit out. How much is a little?"
"A bit." I glowered at him.
"Is that exactly a bit?" Rose asked and the Doctor looked at her.
"-Ish."
"Your stupidly vague answers aren't helping the situation." I reminded him. "What's the plan?"
"Yeah," Rose piped in from the Doctor's other side. "You going to do a scan for alien tech or something?" Then she looked over at me. "What's a Smart car?" But I just shook my head.
"Rose, it hit the middle of London with a very loud bang." He said. "I'm going to ask." He took out what looked to be one of those credential holders the FBI use and flipped it open to show a blank piece of paper.
"It's blank." I said holding it. Who the hell did he think he was going to fool with it?
"Let me see." I went around the Doctor to stand on Rose's other side before handing it to her. "Dr. Stupid Doctor of the Idiot Doctor Society." Excuse me?
"What?!" I snatched it back, but it didn't say that. "It's a stamp card for frozen yogurt." I shook my head and looked at the Doctor. "I'm confused."
"It's psychic paper." He said taking it back. "It tells you what whatever you want it to. Can't let your mind wander when you're usin' it though." I looked over at Rose as we stopped at the end of the alley, which led to a door with a dim lamp hanging over it.
"You were thinking about frozen yogurt when we don't even know what decade we're in?" I asked giving her a disbelieving look and she shrugged. "You are unbelievable."
The Doctor put his ear to the door. "Door, music, people." He looked at us. "What do you think?"
"I think you should do a scan for alien tech." Rose said as the Doctor took out his sonic screwdriver as he knelt next to the keyhole. "Give me some Spock, for once. Would it kill you?"
I crossed my arms. "She's right." I said. "That's no fun." The Doctor looked at us and his eyes found their way to Rose's British flag T-shirt.
"Are you sure about that T-shirt?" She looked down at it.
"Too early to say." She said brushing her long blonde hair away. "I'm taking it out for a spin."
I shrugged. I was wearing a black dress with butterflies on it under a gray hoodie and a pair of gray boots. I hadn't been able to get any of my old clothes when I left home, so I made do with the ridiculous amount of clothing the Doctor had in the TARDIS. I won't tell you how many times I got lost in the span of an hour.
"Come on if you're coming." The Doctor said once the door was open. "It won't take a minute." The Doctor went inside and I went to follow him, but stopped when I noticed Rose wasn't.
"Rose." I said walking over to her and saw that she was staring up at the top of a building. "Rose." She didn't respond and I was about to call her again when she gasped.
"Doctor!" She yelled. "Doctor, there's a kid up there!" I looked up to where she was looking, but didn't see anyone.
"Rose, there's no one up th-" But stopped when I looked over at Rose, but she wasn't next to me. She had already begun running down the alley. "Rose!" I yelled, but she didn't stop. "Rose!" She had now disappeared around the wall separating me from the Tardis and I groaned. "I'm totally going to regret this."
I ran after her and when I finally spotted her, I saw that she had already run past the Tardis and up the stairs on the side of the building that would take her to the roof. "Rose!" I yelled again as I raced after here. I internally thanked my mother while running up the stairs, now grateful that she had made me try out for track and soccer.
When I got up to the roof, Rose was already in the center talking up to where a small figure stood on top of what I could only guess, from behind, was a giant metal box. A few steps closer and I realized that the small figure was a child with a something on his face.
"Mummy." He called as I stepped up next to Rose.
"Don't move!" She ordered and looked around for something that would help her climb up to the child when she spotted me. "When'd you get here?"
I lifted an eyebrow. "I was yelling your name nonstop." I reminded her. "Did you not hear me?" She shook her head and opened her mouth, most likely to update me on what was going on, but stopped when she saw something swinging in front of us and caught it. It was a rope.
"I've got to get him." She said looking up to where the boy stood. She went to climb up the rope, but I stopped her.
"Let me go first." I said grabbing the rope. "I've had to climb a rope every week at school. The gym teacher said it'd help me later in life." I looked at Rose. "I never believed her." With a deep breath, I grabbed the rope with both hands before putting myself up it. I was able to keep it steady and wrapped the end of the rope around my foot when I got high enough. It wasn't until Rose began climbing up after me that I realized it might've been a bad idea.
"Mummy." The boy called again and I yelped when suddenly the rope was pulled away from the box the boy was on. "Balloon." The boy said and I looked up to see that the rope hadn't been connected to the box, at all, but to a large gray barrage balloon in the sky. Alarms began to sound and I screwed my eyes shut.
"You have got to be kidding me!" Of course we would've landed during the London air raids.
Rose screamed as the balloon began flying us away from the box and away from the building. I, regrettably, looked down to see that the nearest thing to land on was the ground which was about a two hundred foot drop.
"Rose, don't look down!" I ordered and my eyes shit in annoyance when I heard her scream. "I said don't look down!"
"Of course I'm gonna look down when you tell me not to!" Rose yelled. "Have you seen any movie ever?"
"Do not yell at me!" I yelled back. "You're the one who didn't check what the rope was connected to!"
"And you're the one who climbed up it!" She screamed and I looked down at her. I noticed that that ground was getting further and further away. Rose looked up and her eyes furrowed. "Are you wearing Spongebob knickers?"
"Really Rose?" I demanded. "We're hundreds of feet in the air, dangling from a barrage balloon in the middle of an air raid and you're asking me about my underwear?!"
"Just trying to lighten the mood." I glared at her.
"We are dangling in the middle of the air!" I reminded her and with once look down she remembered and screwed her eyes shut.
"This is bad!" Rose yelled as if I didn't already know and I took a deep breath. "This is really, really bad!"
"Maybe this isn't the best time to be wearing a patriotic flag." I joked and she glared at me.
"Really?" I shrugged as best I could.
"Just trying to lighten the mood." I mocked, but screamed when I heard a bomb go off fairly close to us.
After ten more minutes of rope burn and bombs going off underneath us, Rose and I were pretty exhausted, scared and I was a few minutes from pissing myself.
"Ah!" Rose screamed as a plane flew right underneath us. I looked down and saw that she had slid down even further down the rope.
"Hold on, Rose!" I yelled.
"I'll never let go!" I couldn't help the bark of laughter that left my mouth.
"We're back to the jokes?" I asked, but we were brought back to reality when a plane came straight at us. Luckily, neither Rose or I were hit, the the edge of its wing did hit the rope above me and the rope swung violently. Rose screamed as she slid down further down the rope and I knew it wouldn't be long before she fell.
With my foot still wrapped around the rope, I managed to slide down the rope slowly, but with another scream, Rose let go of the rope. I was one step ahead of her.
I slid all the way down and quickly grabbed her hand. "I got you!" She clutched onto my arm with her other hand as I tried to ignore the my rope burned hand. "Try and wrap your arms around my waist." I instructed, feeling my hand and thighs slip down the rope. Rose did as I said and once her arms were around my waist I took hold of the rope with both hands.
"We're gonna die." Rose whimpered and looked down at her.
"No!" I said and she looked up at me. "We are not going to die! Not here, not now! Not before I see my baby brother dance with his wife. You understand?!" She nodded and I did too, happy that she had believed me. "Good."
'Why did I lie to her?' I thought. 'There is literally no scenario in which we get out of this alive.' Eventually my hands would cramp up and I would have to let go of the rope. Hopefully we'd find a roof to land on first. I remembered what the Doctor had told me when I woke up in the hospital; I couldn't die while my brothers life force was inside of my body, but he didn't say I couldn't get hurt.
Rose and I both screamed when a bomb went off maybe ten or twenty feet away from us and Rose let go of my waist, but I was prepared for that. I released my foot from where it was wrapped around the rope and quickly wrapped my legs around Rose's upper body, under her arms. We were both uncomfortable, but she was alive.
The triumphant feeling didn't last for long though. My hands began slipping and both Rose and I noticed it. "You have to let me go!" I shook my head. "If you don't, we're both gonna fall!"
"I'm not going to kill you!" I grunted as I tried to wrap the rope around my forearm, I was going to have a very serious case of rope burn later.
"Let me go!" Rose yelled.
"No!" I yelled back. Rose didn't appreciate that answer because she began to wiggle, trying to get out of my grasp. "Stop!" I yelled, but she didn't. "Rose, stop trying to kill yourself!" I ordered and she looked up at me.
"I'm not tryin' to kill myself." She said. "I'm trying to save you."
"That's not fair!" I reminded her. "I'm not going to let you go! I'm not going to let you die!"
Rose shook her head. "You don't have a choice." She said and took the small window of opportunity she had before pinching my inner thigh. I yelled in pain and my legs instinctively unwrapped themselves.
Rose screamed as she fell through the air and I looked up so I wouldn't have to watch her fall, but, suddenly, she stopped screaming. Looking back down, I let out a gasp when I saw that she was floating in mid-air, having been caught by some strange- most likely alien- beam.
"Rose?!" I called to her, but my attention was diverted back to the rope that I was holding onto for dear life when an explosion nearby pushed the balloon further away- not to mention the ringing that was sounding in my ears.
Another hour of hanging from a barrage balloon rope left my hands cramped and were thoroughly rope burned by how many times I had to pull myself back up when I started to slip. Thankfully, by the time the barrage balloon neared a building high enough for me to land on, the air raid was over.
As soon as I lowered myself to the end of the rope and took the ten foot drop that landed me on the roof, I began crying. I tried to tell myself that Rose was okay- that she had been caught and saved by the strange beam, but it didn't stop me from crying. Maybe it was shock.
After wiping away my tears, I took a deep breath before looking around for the door to take me to the top floor of whatever building I was in. Once I found it, I went down the stairwell and somehow immediately knew I was in a hospital, most likely an abandoned one. Not many places used a combination of tile floors and florescent lights and had numbered rooms. The only other place like that I could think of was a school.
I hated the fact that it was a hospital. Scary movies took places and hospitals and the lone sound of thick wooden heel of my boots clicking on the floor only made me more scared and paranoid. I was too much of a baby to look into any rooms so I just kept walking until I found a stairwell an followed it all the way down to the first floor before I heard voices.
"Hello?!" A voice called, but I didn't recognize it. It was a man, most likely someone who worked here. There had to be someone keeping the lights on.
I decided against calling back, but the thought was out of my mind as soon as I heard a second voice. A female one that I knew very well. "Hello?!" I sprinted down the rest of the steps and through the doors separating the stairwell from the first floor. When I got into the hallway I saw the back of Rose and a guy who was definitely not the Doctor as they walked down the hall.
"Rose?" She whirled around, as did the guy, and a grin went over her face when she saw me.
"Linnie." I ran to her and she didn't protest when I threw my arms around her. "Miss me?"
"I thought you got abducted by aliens!" I practically yelled as I squeezed her to death before I remembered what she did. I quickly pushed her away from me before slapping her across the face as hard as I could. The man winced and stepped away as Rose held her cheek. "What the hell is wrong with you?!" I demanded. "You made me drop you! I thought you got kidnapped by some weird green alien-"
"No offense taken," The man said.
"Did you even think about what would happen if I returned to the Doctor and had to tell him that you let yourself drop from a barrage balloon so that I could live?!" I shook my head as I pulled her into a hug. "I hate you so much right now."
"First of all," Rose began when I pulled back. "Ow!" I was unapologetic. "Second of all; I didn't die. Jack caught me." I turned to the guy she had been walking with and he held his hand out of me.
"Captain Jack Harkness." He introduced flirtatiously when I took it. I had to admit that he was kind of handsome; black hair that was parted to the side, square jaw and dimples that went deep into his face. He wore a long gray jacket and what I could only guess was a British government uniform.
"Linnie." I introduced. "So what?" I asked crossing my arms. "You were just taking a stroll through a German air raid in and caught a girl who fell from a thousand feet in the air with your magic alien light beam?"
"I'm an ex-Time Agent." He said. "Now I'm just a freelancer. I saw Rose falling and couldn't resist saving such a beautiful damsel in distress" I quirked an eyebrow before looking back to Rose. I opened my mouth, but didn't get a chance to ask anything because suddenly the doors at the end of the hall opened and the Doctor came walking towards us. I expected Jack knew who he was because he pushed right past me before taking the Doctor's hand. "Good evening." He said. "Hope we're not interrupting."
"This is Jack Harkness." I introduced.
"I've been hearing all about you on the way over." The Doctor looked over at me an I pointed to Rose.
"He knows." She said quickly and the Doctor looked confused. I was too. "I had to tell him about us being Time Agents." The Doctor nodded, but I was confused. What the hell was a Time Agent? It had been said twice now and yet no one felt the need to explain- although, I guess asking would probably tip Jack off that we weren't actually Time Agents.
"It's a real pleasure to meet you Mr. Spock." Jack said slapping the Doctor on the back before walking past him. I resisted the urge to snort.
"Mr. Spock?" The Doctor asked quizzically.
"What was I supposed to say?" She asked. "You don't have a name. Don't you ever get tired of Doctor?" She asked. "Doctor who?"
"Nine centuries in, I'm coping." He said.
"We could call him Doctor Who." I suggested. "I think that'll catch on."
"Where were you two?" The Doctor asked looking between us, but his eyes landed on Rose's face. "Why is your cheek red?" I crossed my arms and turned to face Rose.
"Yeah, Rose." I said with narrowed eyes. "Tell him why your face is red." I'm pretty sure he'd be more pissed at her for letting go than at me for hitting her for letting go.
Rose seemed to think that too."Never mind that." She said and began walking after Jack. The Doctor and I followed. "What's a Chula warship?"
The Doctor stopped, but Rose and I didn't. We went through the doors the Doctor had exited through and saw two rows of bed, one against each wall. They were all filled with people in gas masks. Some where under the blankets, but others weren't.
"This just isn't possible." Jack said after he was finished scanning one with the bang on his wrist. I had decided as soon as I came into the room not to go near any of them. "How did this happen?"
"What kind of Chula ship landed here?" The Doctor asked with crossed arms.
"What?" Jack asked.
"He said it was a warship." Rose filled in. "He stole it, parked it somewhere out there. Somewhere a bomb's gonna fall on it. Unless we make him an offer." He sounded more like a con man rather than a freelancer.
"What kind of warship?" The Doctor asked as Jack walked around the room.
"Does it matter?" Jack asked. "It had nothing to do with this."
I raised my hand a bit. "If TV has taught me anything, it's that everything matters. Don't you think it's strange that an alien warship crashes in the middle of London and then a bunch of people start getting sick or..." I waved my hand at them. "Whatever this is?"
"She's right." The Doctor said walking toward Jack. I went to stand next to Rose. She linked her arm with mine so I assumed that I was forgiven for slapping her. "This started at the bomb site. It's got everything to do with it. What kind of warship?"
"An ambulance." Jack confessed before stepping closer to the Doctor and pressing a few buttons on his wrist band thing. Rose and I got closer so we could see. "Look," He said as a hologram of the cylinder thing we had followed lifted from his band. "This is what you chased through the time vortex. It's space junk, I just wanted to kid you it was valuable." He admitted lowering his wrist. "It's empty. I'm sure of it, nothing but a shell."
"How do you know that?" Rose asked with a shake of her head.
"Because I threw it at you." Jack replied. "Saw your time travel vehicle- love the retro look by the way, nice panels-"
" So not the time." I reminded him as I looked around at the people in the beds. They were giving me a bad feeling
"I threw you the bait-"
"Bait?" Rose asked.
"I wanted to sell it to you." Jack continued. "Then destroy it before you found out it was junk."
"You said it was a warship." I reminded him and he gave me a slightly condescending look.
"They have ambulances in wars." He said slowly as if I were four and walked a few feet past us. "It's a con." He admitted as we turned around to face him and he turned around to face us. "I was conning you. That's what I am, I'm a con man. I thought you were Time Agents. You're not, are you?"
"Nope." I said popping the P. "Just three more freelancers." I finished in the same condescending tone he had used on me.
"Oh! Should've know." He said. "The way you guys were blending in with the local color. I mean, flag girl was bad enough, but U-boat Captain?" He looked at me. "But I hear it in your voice. You're not from around here are you?"
"America." I replied. "From about...seventy...seventy-seven years in the future?" I looked at the Doctor who nodded.
Jack shook his head. "Anyway," He said. "Whatever's happening here has got nothing to do with that ship."
"What is happening here, Doctor?" Rose asked looking around at the people in the beds.
He looked at her. "Human DNA is being rewritten...by an idiot."
"What do you mean?" I asked. "Are you talking about the gas masks?"
He nodded. "It's some kind of virus." He explained. "It's converting humans into these things."
"Why would anyone want to do that?" I asked with a shrug. "What would be the point?"
The Doctor shook his head. "I have no idea." He confessed before going to look at one of the patients. Jack and Rose did the same, but I just sat on the edge of the small desk in the center of the room. The last thing I wanted was to be near one of those things when they popped up and I knew they would. They always did. That didn't stop me from jumping in fright when they did.
"What's happenin'?" Rose asked jumping away from the patient she had been near when he, along with all the others, sat up. They all began calling out 'Mummy'.
"I don't know." The Doctor admitted as the patients began getting out of bed. 'Great,' I thought. 'Now they're walking.'
"Does anyone else think we should be running?" I asked, but I was once again ignored.
"Don't let them touch you." The Doctor warned as the patients began advancing and began backing us against the wall. I was absolutely certain that we were gonna die.
"What happens if they do?" Rose asked.
"I'm assuming whatever happened to them." I said. They all continued to call for their mummies as they advanced on us and I felt Rose lace her fingers with mine as Jack and the Doctor stood in front of us.
Yep...we were absolutely about to die...again.
Next Chapter:
The Doctor Dances
Linnie, Jack, Rose and the Doctor must find a way to get themselves out of their current mess; surrounded by infected patients who want their mummies. What happens when they all finally come face to face with Patient Zero? What secrets is Nancy, a girl who makes it her mission to care for the street children of London, hiding? And why is Linnie suddenly not feeling so hot? And why the hell won't the TARDIS let her sleep?