The tension the box had creating had snapped and with that, the lights in the Torchwood Hub went out. The could only mean one thing. The box had become the Hub.
"Jack?" I whispered, afraid of stirring anything that might be lurking in the darkness. There was a dim red light high above, but it was impossible to tell the source of it. The light did nothing to help my normal vision, so I switched over to thermal to find Jack. He looked to be standing in the same spot where he had been before, only now he had his Webley drawn.
"I'm over here," he whispered back, beckoning me with one bright red outstretched arm. I went over to him and took his arm, afraid to lose him. I kept my vision on and looked around. I hadn't seen Jack's office with my thermal vision before, but I assumed that this wasn't what it had looked like. It was hard to make out details of anything, everything was coated in the off-orange color. "You know, those creepy eyes of yours aren't helping this situation. Do you see anything?"
I shook my head, then realized he probably couldn't see me doing that. "No, everything is that off-orange color."
"Well I had an ear piece and gun to give you. They were on my desk, but for some reason, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore. Is everyone alright?" he spoke into his ear piece. "Hello? Owen? Tosh? Ianto? Gwen? Damn. Looks like our communications were cut."
"Well if this is some kind of hallucination or vision, they wouldn't work, would they? Wait, how do I know you're real?" I stepped back. Could I be hurt in a hallucination?
"If I was fake, would I show up on your thermal vision? You said everything else was coated in that orange color." He had a point. "Now assuming this is some kind of shared vision or whatever, how do we get out of it? It's probably taken over the whole Hub, so it's probably safe to assume the rest of the team is in here as well. Can you see enough to get us around?"
"Yeah I can see details in the immediate area, like outlines of things. It looks like there are just a bunch of boxes or something in here, but I can't see through them." I looked around the room a bit, not letting go of Jack's arm. The room looked to be the size of Jack's office, but the contents were definitely different. I couldn't see any plants or desks or chairs. There seemed to be a door in the direction I came from.
"There's a door over there. Did Toshiko say anything about what this thing is or how to stop it?" I asked, leading us over to the door.
"No, she was going to give her report this morning. That's how Toshiko is, she likes to surprise us all with her genius. I could use some of that genius right now. Our goal is going to be to find the others."
"And if we can't find them?" The door was closed, I reached out to open it, Jack brought his gun up, ready to fire. He didn't answer my question, I could imagine him giving me a look that said, 'let's hope that doesn't happen'.
My palms were sweaty as I opened the door. I was expecting something to jump out at us, like in some kind of horror video game. 1,2,3- I wrenched open the door. There were no signs of life forms on the other side. There were, however light bulbs, I could see the heat from them radiating as points on the ceiling. The color of them was still off. Instead of being bright red, they were more of a rusty red color. It reminded me slightly of blood.
I switched off my thermal vision. The door led to a long hallway with what looked like a few opening periodically. The lightbulbs lit the way dimly, some of them kept blinking on and off. All in all, it really did seem like a bad horror game or movie.
As we stepped out the door, I looked back into the room we came out of, it was a black pit. The poor lighting of the hallway didn't reach it at all. At least we'll be able to see anything coming at us.
We crept down the hallway and stopped right before the first opening. Jack motioned for me to get behind him. I switched back on my thermal vision. Nothing. I couldn't see through these walls at all. I switched it back off. The fear of the unknown was starting to get to me. I could feel my heart pounding as Jack steeled himself to look around the corner. He did it quickly, gun aimed and ready to fire. Apparently it was all clear because he motioned for me to follow him.
As we moved down this hallway, I kept an eye behind us, I really didnt want anything sneaking up behind us, "Any idea where you're going?" I whispered.
"Nope," he half smiled. There it was again, that spark, the look of excitement at the face of danger. I might be able to feel that excitement, if I had any idea of what was going on. If this was a hallucination, how were we supposed to beat it? Every time before, it was only one person and we had to separate them from the object in order for it to stop. If the whole Hub was now the object, did that mean we had to get out of the Hub? What if it spread to the entire city or world before that happened? I could feel the panic rising in me. Calm down, Lucy, I'm sure the team deals with stuff like this all the time and panicking is not going to help anything. It was hard, though, to calm down when literally anything could pop around the corner any second. If this thing played off our fears then-
I had just check behind us again, down at the end of the hall, it was running towards us. I couldn't tell what is was because of the poor lighting, but it definitely wasn't one of the team members. This thing had a human like shape, but it looked like it was dragging a malformed left leg behind it. Despite that, it was able to run at us very quickly, arms flailing, scraping the sides on the stained concrete walls.
"Jack!" I exclaimed as soon as I saw the thing. He immediately turned around, aiming his Webley.
"Stop! I'm warning you, I'm armed!" The thing didn't stop coming at us, it just groaned a horrible sound. As it passed under the light, I could see this thing definitely was not human. It wasn't a Weevil either. This thing looked straight out of Silent Hill. It had pink scarred flesh and cut off jean shorts. The face was a mound of burned skin, one eye unblinking and rolling in its socket. I didn't have much more of a chance to look at it before Jack shot. He hit it square in the chest and it just kept coming. He put two more bullets in it, one in the head and one in the leg. The thing just kept coming. "Run!" he told me, like I needed much more telling.
We raced down the hallway and passed more openings. I glanced down each to make sure there were no more monsters. Jack took us right and then left down some more hallways. This race was sickeningly starting to remind me of the time I had spent aboard the alien ship with the Doctor.
As we passed another hallway, I saw a door and shouted at Jack. The monster was still pursuing us, just a little bit closer everytime I looked back. We turned around and ran for the door. We were running so fast, we both collided with the door as we reached it, both scrambling to get it open.
"It's locked!" I yelled, looking back down the hallway, hoping the monster would pass this opening. There was no such luck, it came clambering towards us.
"Stand back!" I did so a bit, not wanting to close the gap between the monster and myself. Jack started kicking the door, right above the nob. The door wouldn't budge. It looked like a heavy steel door. I thought the chances of him breaking the lock were next to none. Time was running out, he shot the lock, the bullet just ricocheted off it.
The monster was closer now. I could hear its laboring breath. "If this is a hallucination, can it really hurt us?" I asked, flattening myself against the wall. Jack was silent for a second, then his eyes got wide.
"Oh Lucy, you're a genius! If this is a hallucination, that means everything is coming from our minds, which means, " he turned the door handle, it opened effortlessly, "the door isn't really locked."
We rushed to the other side of the door and locked it behind us, not even checking what was in the next room. We could hear the monster outside banging to get in. I locked the door as Jack held it shut. "So does that mean, if we think about it hard enough, we can just imagine ourselves out of this place?"
"I don't think it'll work like that. Whatever it is, it plays off our fears and emotions. What were you thinking as we were trying to get through the door?"
"I was thinking that this is how we're going to die. As we were running up to the door, I kept wishing that it would be unlocked..."
"And what would be the worst possible outcome of that situation? The door being locked. Alright, I know it's going to be hard, but from now on, we're going to have to be careful what we think. I just wish I could get in touch with the others,..."
"Jack," I said, he really needed to take his own advice. The worst possible outcome of a situation for him as a leader, not being able to get in touch with his team. I raised an eyebrow at him.
"What? Oh damn- " he slapped his forehead with his palm, catching on. He took a deep breath and concentrated. He pressed the button to reactivate his ear piece. "Hello? Anyone there?" Suddenly his face split into a smile and he gave me a thumbs up.
I surveyed the room we were in as Jack spoke to the others. It was a large room. I could tell because the perimeter of the walls were lined in the same kind of red lighting that was in the first room we were in. The lighting was dull, so it didn't reach the center of the room. I turned on my thermal vision, even though at this point I knew it was probably fruitless. Like in the first room, everything was the off orange color, but I could vaguely see the outlines of things in the room. a little off the center of the room was a figure. I moved forward a bit to see if I could get a better look, not too far from Jack though, he had the only weapon. That weapon was useless against that last monster. No, I couldn't think that way. I had to guard my thoughts.
As I took a few more steps forward, a spotlight suddenly shone where the outline of the figure I saw had been. It was a man in a top hat and a purple tail coat. He was holding a cane. It took me a second to realize he was the ring leader in a carnival. There was a sinister smile on his face.
I looked back at where Jack had been a second ago, but there was only darkness. I was alone. Just like the time the Doctor left me on the space ship. No, I can't think that way. I'm stronger now anyway. If this guy attacks me, I can just run away or kick him. I needed to find Jack. No matter what way I looked at it, we were stronger together than apart.
"Come here little girl and see what treats I have in store for you today," the ring leader beckoned to me with one hand, the other hand leading to the center of the room. He wasn't scary so much as creepy.
"What did you do with Jack?" I called. Creepy or not, I didn't want to get any closer to him.
"You're alone now. All alone," he drawled, in a mock sympathetic tone. He disappeared and with him the spot light. Suddenly, the spot light shone on me.
"Why don't you join the circus with us. We're holding auditions now." The voice came from behind me, I spun around and suddenly I was balancing on a very narrow beam high up in the air. I had to be at least 200 feet off the ground. My stomach dropped and my knees started shaking.
I heard a crowd of people below. Before where there were just concrete walls were now stands, full of the monsters that had chased Jack and I here. They were hushed at the ring leader spoke from below, a separate spotlight now on him, "Come witness the performance of Lucy Schwart! 75 meters off the ground on a beam only 10 centimeters wide!" His voiced was booming through the whole room so even I could hear him clearly up here. "Now I'm sure this is a spectacle you've all seen before, so let's make it a bit more interesting." He pointed to the tower supporting the beam opposite of me. Suddenly, Jack was lowered onto it in a cage.
"Jack!" I yelled. This was simple all I had to do was jump to the other side.
"Not so fast there Lucy, " the ring leader said, like he was reading my thoughts, "No special powers or I drop that cage into this vat of fluoroantimonic acid." He gestured to a pool that had appeared beside him. "And everytime you falter, I'll drop that cage closer. Three strike and you're, or should I say Captain Jack, is out."
Jack had a cocky smile on his face, i couldn't imagine why, he was facing death. I didn't have time to think about that, I had to cross this plank. To be honest, it seemed almost too easy. Yeah I was afraid of heights and looking down made me queasy, but this was nothing compared to my first vision, when we found the box in the intersection. That vision shook me down to the core, this was simply surface stuff. I could face this and Jack knew that.
I started walking towards him. This was just a vision, I could change it. There was a net below me, I imagined it. Jack wouldn't be so lucky if I fell though.I imagined the net extending to below him. The next time I looked down, there was a net about five feet below me.
When I was about halfway across, the ring leader appeared next to Jack's cage. "What do you say we make things even more interesting?" The ring leader stroked his goatee and still had his sinister smile on. The net caught on fire. I could feel its hot flames licking at the soles of my feet. I was afraid to check if it was real, the ring leader said he'd kill Jack if I used my device.
Best to just treat it like it's real. I started hurrying across beam, the flames were getting hotter. I hoped my clothes wouldn't catch on fire. Stop Lucy, just concentrate on Jack. I looked behind me, the beam had caught on fire. Oh shit. If that caught on fire the whole integrity of the beam would fail, I doubled my pace, Jack was egging me on.
None of this is real. It's all just a hallucination. I am not afraid. Jack is going to be ok. The wood was starting to blacken just as I reached the other platform where Jack was. The cage he was in didn't appear to have any door to open it. I looked at the ring leader who was just standing there with his malicious smile.
"Open it," I said in the sternest voice I could muster. If I had a gun, I would've pointed it at him. The ring leader just started laughing and in a flash, he was gone and the fire started blazing out of control. Great. I couldn't let this phase me, I needed to keep a cool head. "Jack, what do I do?"
"I need you to get out of here and find the others, specifically Toshiko. She thinks she's come up with a way to disarm it and she needs you to help her with it."
"But what about you? You're going to roast alive in here!" I took hold of the bars on his cage and tried to pry them open. Now would be a really good time to discover I had Hulk arms or something.
"I'll be fine. Find Toshiko, here take my ear piece. This place is a maze, but maybe we'll luck out. And remember, keep your thoughts clear." The fire was getting ridiculously hot, I tried not to think about it or how Jack was possibly going to get out of it. The only thing I could do to help him at this point was to find Toshiko like he said.
"I'll find her."
"I know you will." And with that, I fitted the ear piece on and jumped from the tower. My device let me land safely. How I didn't break my ankles was a mystery to me. The landing wasn't uncomfortable and only a little jarring.
"Toshiko?" I said into the earpiece. "Are you there?"
"Lucy? I'm here. What happened to Jack?"
I couldn't tell her I left him for dead. I jogged over to a door on the opposite wall and wrenched it open. "He sent me ahead to find you. Can you tell me what's going on?"
"I'll brief you after we find you. I've got a lock on your signal. The problem with this is my scanner is still showing that we're in the Hub, the original Hub, not this crazy Wonderland. So basically, I can tell you which way to go, but it's up to you to find a path."
"Are you safe? Are any of the others with you?"
"Ianto is with me. Good thing too after his espresso machine decided to attack me." I could imagine her giving a grateful smile to him,"With the direction you're going now, if you head northeast, you should run into us. I'll update you if anything changes. or you go too far in one direction."
"Thanks Toshiko. Hopefully I'll see you soon."
So it looked like this was going to be one big game of hot and cold. I ran down some hallways, conscious to make sure I kept heading the original direction Toshiko had told me. Everything was eerily quiet, my foot steps the only thing echoing off the walls.
The only time I ever had to stop was when I hit a dead end. I called on Toshiko occasionally as well to make sure I was heading in the right direction. After a while, it started to seem like I was heading in circles. The third time I stopped, my heart leapt, I could've swore I heard something behind me. Like another footstep that stopped just a half second after I did. Don't pay attention to it Lucy. That'll only give it power.
I thought about Jack. Had he gotten out or burned alive? I couldn't even go check on him if I wanted. I had stopped keeping track of the number of twists and turns I took after a while. What was that old trick for how to get out of a maze? Keep your right hand on the right wall and eventually you'll get to the exit. This place could be infinitely large though, it might take me forever with that method.
I stopped for a second again and weighed my options. There it was again, the step just a little bit behind mine. "Jack?" I called out. Maybe he was tracking me, thinking I was a monster. There was no answer. "Toshiko, am I any closer?" I asked her.
"No, you're the same distance as last time, a little more east, but also a little more south. Have you seen anything? Doors? More of the monsters Jack had talked about?"
"Nothing. I think something is tracking me though. I keep hearing this foot step that's just a half second behind me. I haven't seen any doors either. It's just an endless labyrinth of hallways. I think I might try that thing where you keep your right hand on the wall and follow that."
"Alright, I'll let you know if you make any progress. Keep your eyes peeled. I don't like the sound of something tracking you."
"Thanks. Any word from Owen or Gwen?"
"None. I did get a little static about fifteen minutes ago, but nothing intelligible."
That sent shivers up my spine. Half the team was missing. Everyone was more than capable of handling themselves, but what if they were unconscious. Or burning alive like Jack? I couldn't think about that, but the guilt was catching up with me. Jack probably would've found Toshiko by now. I should've been the one in the cage, not him.
Stop it Lucy, you're just giving this thing more fuel. And there it was again, the half second step behind mine. There was a feeling of eyes staring at me. I kept going, keeping my right hand along the wall. At least with this method, I could run faster.
The faster I went, the more mismatched the steps were with mine. I didn't know if I should confront whatever it was or if I should just let it follow me. If I let it follow me, I'd be leading it straight to Toshiko and Ianto. I stopped, the other footsteps stopped as well. "Toshiko, there's definitely something following me. I'm going to see if I can figure out what it is."
"I don't think that's such a good idea. What if you can't fight it?"
"What if you guys can't either? I'm leading it straight to you."
"Just be careful. We haven't even put you in the system yet. I don't want your start date and end date to be the same day." I smiled sadly. I wouldn't let that happen. Wait, if Toshiko could see me, could she see Jack on there as well?
"Toshiko, can you see Jack on your scanner?"
"No, my scanner is just picking up the signal of your ear piece. If I had access to my computer, I could pinpoint everyone in here. Ianto and I don't want to lose where we are though. We're by the water tower, or at least I think we are, and if my plan is going to work, that's exactly where we need to be."
This day just kept getting better. I wonder if Toshiko would have rather it had been Jack on the other end of this ear piece instead of me. It doesn't matter at this point. I'm here, Jack isn't let's figure this out and keep moving.
"I know you're there, you can come out now." I called behind me and turned around. Behind me, the hallway ended in another hallway that was perpendicular to it. Whatever was following me was probably just around the corner. I heard some shuffling, but nothing came out. "Jack?" I asked taking a few step back towards whatever it was. "Gwen? Owen? It's ok, it's Lucy."
"Luuuucccyyyyyy," came a gutteral voice. "Luuucccyyy," it sounded like it was choking on something. I backed up a few steps, ready to run. This definitely wasn't one of the Torchwood members.
From around the corner in the direction I had come from, he stepped out. His clothes were burned and melted to his skin, but it was definitely Jack, there was no mistaking those suspenders. His skin was twisted and bubbling, one of his eyes had melted down his face.
"Jack? You made it out? We need to get you to Owen!" But I didn't step forward. This felt wrong, Jack wouldn't stalk me like that.
"You left me Lucy, to burn. Could you hear my screams? Did they echo through the halls?"
"You told me to leave." I turned on my thermal vision. Bingo, no heat signature, I smiled. "That's a nice impression, but you're not Jack," I said.
The monster's head exploded. "You're right, I'm much more handsome than that." The real Jack (he had a heat signature) was standing behind the monster, Webley in hand. Jack ran towards me. As he did, the monster behind him started to morph. It turned back into the ring leader.
"And it's going to take much more than that to get rid of me," the ring leader said. Jack was standing in front of me now, Webley aimed.
"Get to Toshiko, leave this clown to me," Jack said over his shoulder. I turned to go, but in a flash, the ring leader was in front of me.
"I don't think so. This one has so much fear, buried so deep. I will break you, I break everyone," I could see his yellow and black teeth through his sinister smile. He looked at Jack now, "And I have something that might be of interest to you Captain Jack Harkness." He waved his cane in front of us and out of sparks came a hologram of Gwen. She was in the center of a room, a spot light on her. She was looking around frantically. I could faintly hear the sound of dogs growling.
"Gwen!" Jack yelled, "You let her go!" his voice was rightfully angry. Gwen looked up to where we were looking at her.
"Jack! I can here you! Jack, don't worry about me, get to Toshiko! She knows how to ge-" The hologram was cut off, the ring leader still smiling, but there was an annoyed look to it now.
"If you think my team members are going to beg for their lives, you're wrong. We will get out of here and we will take you now." Jack had his hand on my shoulder now. "And now, if you don't mind," he brought up his Webley and shot the ring leader square in the forehead. As he did so, he pushed my shoulder and yelled at me to go, knowing I could outrun him.
I did as he said, leaving him with the danger again. I looked back and he was shooting over his shoulder, the ring leader unphased. "Go!" Jack yelled at me again.
I raced through the hallways, making sure to follow the right hand rule I had started before. "Toshiko, I found Jack! We're finding you as fast as I can!" She replied something back, but I wasn't paying attention, a giant spider web had appeared a little ways down the hall from me, a giant spider in the center. Wrong move ring leader. I was only afraid of the smaller spiders, the ones that you'd find unsuspectingly in your clothes that you could feel crawling all over you.
I jumped and slid through the bottom part of the web, breaking it. The spider hissed and gave chase. I turned right down a hallway and met a dead end. Shit. I doubled back around, now running towards the spider. The body itself was about the size of a basketball. I vaulted over it. As I did, it shot something (I'm going to assume venom) at me. I managed to get my arms in front of my face before it hit me. The cloth of my hoodie sizzled as the venom touched it. I just kept running. I'd have to be mindful of the turns I took from now on.
Five more minutes of running and I hit a door. I went through it, not bothering to think if it might be locked or what may be on the other side. I slammed the door shut behind me and I heard the spider hit on the other side. Good thing spiders don't have thumbs.
When I turned around to see where I was, the first thing I saw was Owen standing in the center of the room, balancing on a very small pole. He had his fingers up to his lip, signalling me to be quiet. I gave him a questioning look. He pointed downwards. In the pit around the pole he was standing on were sleeping Weevils. They were snoring and groaning softly. The pit wasn't very deep, maybe about six feet. If the pole was larger, I could've just jumped over and brought us back,
I turned on my thermal vision. What I saw confused me. Some of the Weevils had heat signatures while the others didn't. The ones without must just be manifestations of the nightmare box, but what about the others?
I stood on the edge of the pit and looked for a path where I could cross to Owen. All I had to do was get to him, then he could get on my back and I could jump us out of there. I looked past Owen to the other side of the room, there was a door.
When Owen saw what I was planning he started shaking his head and signalling me not to. He almost lost his balance and promptly stopped. I jumped as quietly as I could into the pit, the smell was overwhelming. I froze for a few seconds as some of the Weevils turned in their sleep. I tip toed the best I could across the Weevils, stopping a few times to let them settle. One time when I stopped, a Weevils latched its arm around my leg, pulling it close it, like a human might do to a teddy bear. It took a few minutes to wiggle my leg back out.
When I finally reached Owen, I went around to the opposite side of the pole. I signalled him to jump on my back. He gave me a disbelieving look, but I just rolled my eyes. He slid down the pole like a fireman's pole and climbed onto my back. He was heavy, very heavy. I really hoped I could jump with the both of us. I bent my knees a few times, testing his weight. Maybe it would be better for us both to pick a path to the other side and climb up the wall. A few stirring Weevils convinced me otherwise.
I jumped, Owen on my back. It was definitely a lot harder with another person on my back. I hit the wall, body half in the pit, half on the floor above. Owen scrambled off my back and helped me the rest of the way up. We went through the door on the other side, which led to another set of hallways.
"Do me a favor and don't tell anyone you gave me a piggy back ride," Owen pointed and threatened me. My face cracked into a smile.
"Wouldn't dream of it."
"I'm serious," he said as we started jogging. "Now where are the others and do you have any idea of where you're going?"
"Not a clue," I said, echoing mine and Jack's earlier conversation. "I've got Toshiko on the earpiece though, she said she needs me to help bring this thing down. This place is a maze, I only found you cause I've been using that old right hand on the wall trick."
"Oh, the one where if you follow the right wall you'll eventually hit the exit? That could take forever."
"Got a better plan?" I raised an eyebrow at him.
"Oh look at you Miss first day on the job, coming up with plans and saving the other team members. Helluva lot better than Gwen's first day, she released a sex alien into Cardiff." I would've asked, but my spider friend was back. Apparently it knew a way around. We stopped and Owen pulled a gun out of his belt.
"Friend of yours?" He asked as he shot it. I was expecting an explosion of green slime, but instead there were now millions of tiny spiders running towards us.
"Oh fan-fucking-tastic Owen!" I screamed, trying to stomp on as many spiders as I could. They were running up our legs. This was horrible. I could practically feel them crawling on my soul. I switched on my thermal vision for a second, all tiny pricks of red light.
"How was I supposed to know that was going to happen!" I was dancing in circles now, trying to brush them off. My heart was racing. This may not have been a life threatening situation, but it was scary enough for me. I hated spiders as much as I hated needles. No, definitely don't think about that.
I started running from where the spider swarm was, "Come on!" I yelled at Owen who was still trying to get as many spiders off himself as well.
"I'm going to be finding spiders on me for weeks now," he shivered.
"Toshiko, I've got Owen!" I said into my earpiece.
"Great! Where's Jack?" Owen heard the same thing over his ear piece and looked at me for an answer.
"He told me to run ahead again. We were being chased by this circus, carnival leader monster and Jack was the one with the gun. I think that monster might have something to do with all of this. Jack and I saw him before..." I trailed off.
"And you just left him there?" Owen yelled at me.
"What was I supposed to do? I don't have a weapon. The best thing I can do to help right now is get to Toshiko and help her stop this thing!" Owen was silent at that. I knew if me or any of the other members of Torchwood were in trouble, he wouldn't abandon them like I did with Jack. It was the only way you could help. "Toshiko, how are we location wise?" I asked.
"You're almost directly south of us now. The next time you can start going north, do so."
Owen and I started took the next hallway north, then started following the right hand rule again. He kept his gun drawn. "Do you know where Gwen is?" he asked.
"The ring leader showed us a hologram and she was on it," I didn't elaborate any further. I wanted to run ahead, get to Toshiko as fast as I could so this nightmare would be over. I could only run on adrenaline for so long.
The next hallway we turned down didn't have any turn offs coming off it. There was simply a door at the end. Owen and I stopped. "Think that's where she is?" I asked.
"She's got to be. All it needs is a neon sign saying enter here."
"It's like they're leading us to this though. Before I got to your room, I felt like I was running around those hallways for hours. Why lead us here to quickly?"
"Because this hallway is obviously a trap." He cocked his gun, ready to shoot. We walked slowly towards the door, ready for floors falling out or darts shooting out of the walls. I kept an eye behind us again while Owen faced forward. We had been creeping forward for about a minute when Owen said my name. I turned around expecting the door to be in front of my face. Instead we were only half way down the hallway. How could that be? We should've been so much farther than that.
"Noticed it too?" he asked.
"I'd ask what's going on, but I'm pretty sure I already know the answer."
"Shh-" he said. I stopped and listened. I heard what he had stopped me for. There was a roaring sound. What? That sounds like the ocean. And there was the scent as well. Brine. I looked behind us again. A stream of water was starting to run down the side of the hallway.
"Owen, I think we better get to that door." We started running towards the door, still making no progress. The stream was widening now, it was starting to reach our feet. "Clear your mind Owen! This thing feeds on fear, the more afraid you are, the worse it'll get!"
"You think I don't know that?" He rebuttled.
"Toshiko, I think you had better open that door to your room. And get ready to close it again!" I was shouting over the ear piece now. The roaring was ridiculously loud now.
"What's that noise?" Toshiko asked.
"If I had to guess, I'd say the ocean." I looked behind us again, suddenly a rush of white water was coming towards us. As I looked ahead of us, Ianto was opening the door. We were finally able to make progress towards the door.
By the time we were inside, the water pressure was so great, Ianto and Owen were struggling to push the door shut. I took a few steps back, the water was rushing through the part of the door that was open. "We could use some help!" Owen yelled, getting drenched.
"Get out of the way!" I took more steps back so I could get a running start. Owen realized what I was doing just as I started running back towards them. Ianto held the door shut as much as he could, the salt water ruining is nice three-piece. I leapt on the door, feet first, the force of me jumping into it with my alien device causing the door to effectively slam shut.
I fell on my back in a puddle of water. Well hopefully that crushed any spiders hiding back there. Ianto and Owen wrenched me up, arms under my armpits.
"Well I guess that's one way to do it." Ianto remarked, "You have a spider in your hair."
Spoke to soon I guess. I ran my fingers though my hair and pulled out two of the eight legged beasts. "Alright Toshiko, now that we're done running the gauntlet, what have you got for me?"
"I need you to take this scanner, plant it up there, and the program I've put on it." I looked to where she was pointing. Where the water tower used to be was now the most enormous tree I've ever seen. It was so tall I couldn't see the top of it. It was as wide as a house. As I looked closer, the trunk seemed to be made of slightly moving, darkly colored vines. No, no, no- Toshiko was still talking, probably explaining what the thing did, but I wasn't paying attention. These were the same vines that held me to the operating table. They were covering the trees. I could feel myself shaking. This isn't the same Lucy. It's just pulling things out of my head. I was too afraid to check if the tree was real. It couldn't be right? That's where the water tower should be. It was just the water tower.
Toshiko handed me her device. I took a deep breath and looked at everyone. Don't think about it Lucy. I reminded myself again. I forced myself to smile at them. "Do you make all your new recruits run this obstacle course?" I asked.
"Only the ones we don't like," Owen responded.
I scowled at him. "Toshiko, I know my physical abilities are enhanced, but I don't think I can jump that high."
"I know, but you'll be able to get to the top a lot faster than any of us can. We don't have any safety equipment, so be careful. I've had this theory about you that I'd rather not test. I think when you fall, you won't take any damage so far as the height you've fallen from doesn't exceed the maximum height you can jump. Like I said, I'd rather not test that, so keep it in mind."
I walked up to the base of the tree, scanner now tucked in the belly pocket of my hoodie. The height was daunting. Well, here goes nothing. I bent my knees and jumped up as high as I could and latched onto some small protruding branches, thankful they didn't break under my weight. Looking down, I'd say I made it about half way up the trunk. Half way more up, the branched thickened, I couldn't see past them. i started climbing.
I had to take frequent breaks. I might have superhuman physical abilities, but looking down, the height was literally breath taking. As I reached the branched, I looked back down and saw that Jack and Gwen were joining the group. A voice came over my ear piece. It was Jack,
"How's the view up there?" I smiled. "Listen, I was able to get away from the ring leader, but I don't know where he went. I'd bet my vortex manipulator he's going to be waiting at the top for you, so be careful." He emphasised the last two words. "As soon as you get up there, start that program and you shouldn't even have to worry about him, but that's easier said than done. Good luck."
Going up through the branches was easy, I could use my jumping ability again. The height I had to climb up for the branches wasn't nearly as much as the height of the trunk. As I reached what I assumed was the apex, I saw a cluster of flat, intertwined branches. It looked like they formed a platform. Perfect.
I jumped towards it and grabbed onto it. As I was hoisting myself ontop of the platform, one of my sweaty palms slipped so I was hanging on by one hand. Another hand suddenly appeared from the top of the platform, grabbing my wrist and hoisting me onto the platform.
It was the Doctor, his blue box behind him.
"Ah good timing Lucy," he smiled. "I was getting strange readings from this area and decided to check it out."
It was a good impression, but it wouldn't fool me. Not after everything that happened today. I flicked on my thermal vision just to make sure. Off-orange, just as I suspected.
He must've seen my eyes go red. The Doctor morphed into something that had been haunting my nightmares recently. It was a Lorian. It looked exactly like the one that got me here in the first place.
"Oh, I don't think so sweetheart." I was fed up with this. I had spiders in my hair, holes in my hoodie and my entire backside was crusty with dried sea water. I pulled out the scanner from my pocket, the fake Lorian stared and then started charging at me, he knew what was coming.
I pressed the button Toshiko had shown me. A blinding flash of light appeared and a tornado of wind with me at the eye whipped around. I crouched down out of fear of being accidentally pushed off the platform.
When I opened my eyes a few seconds later, the light hadn't disappeared. The device wasn't the source of it though, it was the sun. I looked around. I was on top of the water tower, the nightmare gone. There was no tension in the air, it was truly gone. Toshiko really was a genius.
I fell back onto my butt, sitting on top of the water tower, taking in the sun that I hadn't seen in so long, exhaustion catching up with me.
Jack's voice came over my earpiece again. "congratulations," I could practically hear him smiling, "you saved us, now where are you?"
"On top of the water tower, I think I'm going to need some help getting down." I grinned, not being able to help myself. I was exhausted, battered and bruised, but what a rush it was. The sense of accomplishment I felt was overwhelming. I had a feeling I would love working for Torchwood...