Exams are finally over! This is going to get interesting!

Claudia continued walking whistling a happy tune. Well as happy as you can get when you are walking through hell that is. Truthfully that is not very happy, but she wanted to keep up appearances at least for a little while.

"Um Claude? Don't you think we should be heading to the city? As far as I can tell we are walking to the middle of no where," Pete said nervously. Being dumped into this fiery furnace was not particularly what he wanted, especially without a guardian Doctor to take them away from this if things got sticky. Thinking this it reminded him of a Biblical story from his childhood.

"Did you see that place? It looked trashed. No if I were one of the leaders I would be camping out in the middle of no where," Claude said, although now that he mentioned it she was slightly less confident.

"Well let's hope that the leader of the Time Lords is something like you," muttered Artie. He was not in a particularly good mood, and his feet had begun to ache.

But the farther away from the ruined city they got, the more their hopes sank. All around them was nothing but burned grasses. Ashes swirled around their feet, and their throats began to burn from the smoke in the distance, the smoke of the dying city.

"We should find shelter, it's beginning to get dark," Pete said nervously. He was right the twin suns had begin to fall over the horizon. Claudia looked around, suddenly she found what she was looking for.

"There!" she pointed. Halfway up a very large hill was a cave. "That should be perfect! If we are attacked we will have the high ground, and it looks pretty sheltered from the extremes."

The thought of being attacked allowed them to move much quicker up the hill than normally. Inside the cave it was actually quite nice...for a cave. It was only slightly damp, and there was plenty of moss to sit on. Unfortunately the moss itself was pretty damp and thus would not burn.

"I suppose I will have to go get some fire wood," Claudia said resignedly.

"Where?" Artie asked. "We just walked through a barren field, all the grass that had been there is already nothing but ash!"

"Don't worry Gramps," Claudia said, "there were plenty of trees on the top of the hill. Where there are trees there must be twigs, and fallen branches."

"But it's getting dark out," Pete said glancing outside.

"I'll take my chances," and with that she left.

Claudia climbed up the steep hill. To her surprise there was a well worn path leading to the top. Maybe dozens of people had the same idea I did, she thought. She continued to wander up until she reached a great forest. Between the trees it was quickly becoming as dark as pitch, she better hurry. She gathered anything flammable she could find, and methodically made her way deeper and deeper into the forest.

Too soon she could see nothing at all. Instead of becoming frightened she just firmed up her resolve and carried on. Soon enough she began to see a blue glowing light through the tree trunks. It was so odd, like seeing sunlight through the ocean. She made her way towards it and found herself in a large clearing.

On either side of a ring were torches, they hadn't burned for awhile. So what was giving off the light? Claudia wondered. She needn't wonder for long. Inside the ring itself was swirling indigo energy. Throughout the deep purple were streaks of the most electric blue. Suddenly in Claudia's mind was a sharp stabbing feel. Everything began to flow into her mind. First it was simple- all the digits in pi, and the meaning of life. Then more complicated realizations came- that time was not simply a straight line, that something done in the future could affect the past and not just vice versa, her mind began to fill with all the answers to the greatest complexities of the universe. And quite reasonably she passed out. Too late had she realized her mistake. She had led them south, to the Untempered Schism..something the Doctor had warned them not to do...it was too late now, now that she was passed out in the midst of a strange forest.

D.W.-13

Back in the cave Artie was passing nervously. "She should be back by now, the forest can't be that big. How long does it take to collect a couple of twigs anyways?"

Pete was beginning to feel dizzy from all the pacing. "Why don't you sit down. We can't search for her till it's light out anyways. Might as well get some rest."

For once the boy was talking sense, and this crazy realization (that Pete could make sense) was just enough to get Artie to sit down.

"I wonder what Myka is up to," Pete said worrying about his partner. They usually were together, and this separation was giving him anxiety and perhaps a bit of indigestion. It had always been hard to tell with him..and his stomach it was almost as if they were one entity, and not just a man and his stomach.

"She's in good hands," Artie said. And as much as he was just saying that to make Pete feel better he found that that was the truth. No matter how mad the Doctor seemed he still was taking care of them. Or at least he tried to. Artie wasn't sure this whole splitting up thing had been a good idea, after all what if the Doctor died and couldn't return for them? Or what if one of them died...could the Doctor go back to make sure that never happened? Did time travel work that way? Could time travel work that way? All these questions fluttered into Artie's mind and made it hard to fall asleep. There was also another problem that kept him from sleep. And that would be Pete's snoring.

As Pete began to doze off he wondered what the Doctor was doing that moment, and how he was faring with the Doll-licks, or whatever they were.

Cookies for anyone who can tell me what Biblical story this reminds you of..and if you are an atheist well I can't cover all my bases. Also just leave reviews. I am so happy for the continued support! I hope to be posting soon (the next chapter will be about the Doctor I think). TBA I luvs you all!