Chapter 23 - An Almost Flawless Escape

The lorry hit five miles, and the Doctor finally got up.

He gestured for Jack to join him and pointed up at at the roof of the moving lorry where a strip of metal was slightly broken off of the structure.

'Think you can get that off?' he asked the immortal.

Jack nodded, and accepted a lift up from the Time Lord. He grabbed the edge of the metal and carefully began to yank it. Centimetre by centimetre it came away, the sharp edge cutting slightly into his fingers, not that he particularly cared. After a few minutes of tugging the small sheet came away and he dropped to the ground, his bloody hands already healed. He handed the metal to the Doctor, who carefully slid it between the doors of the lorry and began to jiggle it slightly. Jack just watched, until eventually the Doctor pulled back the sheet and dropped it to the floor. He then reached up and tapped the back door. It opened.

There was a united gasp from all of the slaves, and excited chattering. The Doctor peeked his head out of the open door slightly, before looking back at Jack and the slaves. 'Okay, when I give the signal, we run. Seth, make sure you're at the front with Jack.'

The boy obliged, moving to stand next to Jack. He was shaking slightly, Jack noticed.

'The most important thing is don't panic,' the Doctor continued, utterly serious. 'If they start shooting at us, don't scatter. Keep following Jack and Seth. I will deal with anyone following us. If you panic and scatter, it will be easier for them to pick us off. Just keep running as fast as you can without hurting your necks, and help each other all you can. Don't step on each other trying to get away. It won't happen any faster.'

The slaves gave a series of affirmations.

'Okay,' the Doctor muttered, and looked at Jack. 'Ready?'

Jack nodded. 'Let's do it.'

The Doctor looked at Seth and gestured out at the landscape. 'Orientate yourself. Know where you are?'

'Y-yeah,' Seth said after a moment.

The lorry stopped, obviously hovering at a junction. The Doctor stepped back, and gestured. Jack took Seth's arm, and together they jumped out the back of the lorry.

The Doctor pressed himself against the wall, gesturing for everyone to follow Jack and Seth. They did, as orderly and patiently as he'd told them to be, helping each other descend to the ground. Soon it was only a handful of the weaker ones left.

'C'mon, with me,' the Doctor encouraged them, holding out his arms. They all held onto him, looking petrified as he moved them towards the door and carefully got down, helping them all he could. Some were older and frailer, some had been badly abused by the guards, and some were disabled. But he wasn't going to leave anyone behind.

Then they were moving across the road. It was dead at 3am, but the urgency of having to get out of sight was making the Doctor step a little faster. Though it quickly became apparent that some of them could barely walk, let alone run. So he kept a slow but constant pace, repeatedly encouraging and reassuring them.

They reached the woods without a hitch, fifty metres behind the back end of the other departing slaves. The Doctor knew it was too good to be true when he suddenly heard a shout of alarm from the road.

'They're all out!'

'Shoot 'em! Just shoot 'em!' It was the slavers and the driver.

The Doctor kept calm. 'C'mon, keep going, that's it, nice and steady,' he told his group.

'No, I can't,' one of the aliens said, almost in tears. He was one of the ones who'd been thoroughly abused by the guards, lacerations and blood over his body. He could barely walk.

'Of course you can, Elso,' the Doctor said quickly, smiling at him. 'Don't worry about them, just keep going.'

'No,' an older lady said, clearly struggling badly. 'Run, Doctor, leave me, you have to escape.'

'Me too, leave me here,' another one said - one who was leaning on the Doctor heavily who had no right leg.

'I'm not leaving anyone,' the Doctor replied firmly. 'We're all getting out of this, I promise you. Geropa, Tc'bai, listen to me. We're going to escape, all of us. Just keep going.'

There were running footsteps now. As the crowd of the slaves in front of them filtered away, the Doctor realised that despite his apparently positivity, they were going to be caught. He checked over his shoulder - the slavers were still on the road but moving in fast, struggling to see through the trees in the darkness.

Hide. Just hide! There are some bushes there!

Good idea, the Doctor concurred with Rose. He stopped and turned.

'Let's hide, this way,' he said calmly and moved into the thicket. He helped them all to stoop down in amongst the foliage. 'Now don't move, don't make a noise,' he whispered.

They all obeyed, though they were utterly paralysed by fear anyway. The Doctor kept checking them as he watched the slavers run towards them, constantly searching the thicket. They were going to find them, and they were going to find the large group up ahead. He needed a distraction.

He looked around the ground, trying to find something he could use. They were next to the alien equivalent of a pine tree, and there were loads of alien pine nuts scattered all over the floor.

The slavers finally reached where they were hiding, constantly scanning the thicket. The Doctor took a heavy alien pine nut in hand, its feelers immediately creeping out it to feel his hand and to attach itself. He quickly weighed it up, making a calculation before pulling back his arm, and throwing it over the slaver's head to the opposite pine tree before it could latch to his hand. The clunk was loud, making the slavers spin around to the source of the noise.

'Come out!' one of slavers screamed. He was clearly panicking. That was good. They were more likely to make mistakes.

He threw another one, this time for the slaver's hood. The alien pine nut almost immediately launched out its feelers, and seconds later latched onto the back of the slaver's head. The slaver shrieked and started waving his arms as the feelers continued to grow bigger, clinging itself to his face.

'Get it off, get it off!' the slaver cried.

He threw another one, this time ricocheting off of the far tree and smacking one of them in the arm.

'What the… Come out, now!' the slaver screamed, pointing his gun in all manner of directions.

Rose was laughing in his head. He could hear the slaves around him sniggering slightly. He threw another. It ended out on the floor next to another slaver's feet, and attached itself to his ankle.

'What the hell is going on!?' one of the slavers shouted, alarmed. All but one of them were preoccupied now, so the Doctor threw a last alien pine nut to ensnare him. It worked. Soon all of the slavers were flailing around, panicking.

The Doctor quickly got up, helping the rest of the group up as they started off in the opposite direction. He kept glancing behind him to check for the slavers, but they were still distracted. Quite soon the darkness obscured them, and the Doctor relaxed slightly.

He stopped walking again. Everyone stopped with him.

'You all go on, I need to make sure they're not going to follow,' the Doctor told them.

'But…' one began.

'No buts,' the Doctor interrupted firmly. 'I'll be absolutely fine. Now go. Help each other. Go that way.' He pointed across the landscape where he could see lots of foliage had been trampled. He then turned and left back in the opposite direction towards the slavers, using cover.

The slavers were only just recovering from their pine nut assault, and were starting to look in the direction the massive crowd had gone. He moved around the perimeter to be in a false position, before purposely making himself visible. He caught the eye of one of them, who shrieked and pointed. The Doctor looked suitably scared, shouting, 'wait for me!' to his imaginary crowd, and ran.

He must have looked somewhat comical, traipsing through the dirt in a fast shuffle, trying desperately not to take too much of stride or catch the chain of his manacles on a rock, which would no doubt bring him falling flat to his face. His pursuers were catching up to him even faster than they thought they would…

Someone took a shot. Rose shrieked in alarm. He wasn't sure what plan he'd been trying to implement when he'd started this, but getting shot at was definitely not part of it. Several shots glanced him by as another few slavers joined in the fray.

He kept going, struggling across terrain that would baffle the most active of trekkers. He could hear the crash of water so he went straight towards it, a vague notion forming in his head to use the noise in order to make an escape. Quite soon he came into view of a large set of continuing waterfalls, and he found as another shot was fired that he could do nothing but head straight into the water. He couldn't run, but he had enough give in his manacles to just about swim.

No, don't, the water's…

Highly viscous, the Doctor mentally completed as suddenly the water smashed into his legs with a brutal and astonishing amount of force. They were swept out from beneath him and he crashed in the water sideways in yell of surprise.

You idiot!

Then he being thrown around; underwater, then out of it, then back under, then out of it. In the brief seconds he was above the surface he could hear shots, but that hardly matter as he was being dragged down stream, to the next waterfall drop that awaited him.

Find something to hold!

He desperately tried to find something to hold onto, but the rocks under the water passed him by. He reached the top of the fall, and was promptly washed over.

No!

He didn't quite know how he managed to stay conscious as he hit the bottom, plunging far enough to smack into water bottom. He rose to the surface again, then under, and then above, still struggling. Shots were still being fired but he was moving too fast for them to be at all accurate. Pretty soon he reached the next drop, and was washed right over.

He hit the water bottom again, Rose screaming inside his head. He finally found a rock to cling onto, but the water was so ferocious and his grip so useless that he was almost immediately swept away again. As the next drop came into view, he realised that the sheer height of it meant that he wasn't going to survive this.

He came up above the surface again, then below, then above once more, flailing desperately. He tried a last ditch attempt to gain some sort of purchase on something, anything. But as the edge of the thirty-foot fall loomed large he already knew it was too late.

'Rose!' he gasped out loud. 'I'm sorry!'

I love you!

He was swept over the edge.

Jack and the slaves had finally reached the entrance to the underground - a trapdoor secreted near a derelict farmhouse. Jack got everyone inside, directing Seth to take them to the clinic. He counted heads as they entered. Forty-one. The were missing six, including the Doctor.

Jack took the arm of one of the last slaves entering the underground. 'Tell Seth I'm going to get the last people,' he explained, and ran across the road and straight back into the forest. He met a group of the last slaves heading out, all supporting each other.

'Jack!' one cried, pointing behind them. 'The Doctor!'

'Where is he!?'

'He went to distract them, there were shots!'

Jack nodded furiously and pointed to the derelict building. 'Over there, go!' he ordered, pulling out his gun as he made back into the forest. He could hear the slavers in the distance, and he did his best to stay quiet but move quickly, back to where the lorry was. But the voices were coming from a different direction. He followed them, through more forest until he found himself bottom at a set of beautiful waterfalls. The slavers were standing on the edge of the pool, looking down into it.

'Is it dead?' one of the slavers asked.

'Looks like it,' another one responded.

'Who cares, it ain't even got a choker on!' a third one pointed out. 'We've gotta find the others!'

They ran off, back into the forest. Jack shrank back to avoid being seen, and then waited ten seconds until he dared to move out and go straight to the pool.

There was a figure face down in the water being pushed towards the bank, utterly motionless.

By the time Jack figured out what was going on, the body had reached the edge. The hair and clothes gave it away.

Jack swore and jumped over the side, grabbing the Doctor under the arms. He struggled with the weight of him with added water, but eventually managed to get him onto the bank. He was soaked through, bloody, and slightly tinged gold.

'No, no, no, don't you dare!' Jack cried, checking his airway. He wasn't breathing. He checked his pulse next, just in case his bypass was on. Nothing. Then his hearts to be sure. Still nothing. The golden light was intensifying…

Jack immediately started rescue breaths, forcing air into the Time Lord's lungs five times before starting chest compressions. He kept going for a good minute, then tried the rescue breaths again.

'C'mon!' Jack yelled at him, compressing again until finally the Doctor moved, took in a gasp of air and began to cough up half of the Thames. Jack turned him to hold him on his front, pure relief flooding him as he held him carefully.

'I c-can't…' the Doctor choked out.

'You nearly died!' Jack said quickly, brushing back his best friends wet hair from his face. 'Do you freakin' fall off that cliff or something?'

'J-Jack,' the Doctor stammered, staring up at him with wide, terrified eyes.

'What?' Jack asked, confused.

'I'm… Where is he!?' the Doctor cried out, his eyes watering.

'What?'

'He's gone!' the Doctor told him.

Jack frowned. 'What are you…'

'Where did he go!?' the Doctor begged to know.

'Where did who go?'

'The Doctor!' the Doctor shouted.

'What?'

'I'm talking outta his mouth! I can move him!' the Doctor's body told him desperately.

Jack realised almost immediately, and his jaw dropped. '... Rose?'

'Yeah!' the Doctor's body replied, in tears now. 'Where did he go? He's gone! We've gotta do somethin', Jack!'

The Doctor's body attempted to get up, but it caused a shriek of pain.

'Okay, hold on, relax!' Jack said quickly, checking the perimeter in case of slavers, but they were alone. 'The Doctor's body's been hurt, We need to get to safety. I'll run with you to the underground and we'll sort this out then, okay?'

'But Jack he-'

'Okay!?' Jack interrupted.

The Doctor's body - or was it Rose now? - seemed to stop itself from panicking, taking deep breaths.

'Okay,' she said.

Perhaps it was too late, Jack thought. Rose had - somehow - become the dominant psyche in the Doctor's body.

He tried not to think about it as he nodded, scooped up the body carefully, and began to run.

A/N: Review reply? I feel like that's not been a thing for a while! :o