A/N: This is a little graphic so watch yourself, though to be honest if you don't do graphic I'm surprised you've read this far XD

Chapter 27 - Into the Dark

They kept driving until they hit a town, where they abandoned the van. The Doctor and Jack's faces were everywhere – every screen they could see – so they stuck to the disused subway in an attempt to stay mostly out of sight. The subways were full of poverty-stricken citizens – including women and children – many, if not all of them, sick and crying, begging the group for food. The Doctor was angry, but he forced himself to walk straight past them, swearing he'd save them after he'd saved Rose.

They kept walking for hours, only stopping to eat around midday. They followed Seth's direction until the the subway ran out and they had to emerge back on the surface in the middle of a city as night drew in.

'We're in the Kizo'pa district,' Seth told them after a quick look around. 'We need to get to Braz Tor, five miles north.'

The Doctor nodded, ready to go, but noted that Seth looked exhausted. 'Okay, let's rest for the night. We'll finish this tomorrow.'

'I'm okay,' Seth insisted, but the Doctor shook his head.

'We'll find a place to sleep, get up at 3am and get there before daybreak,' the Doctor said, looking at Jack, who nodded.

The Time Lord took the lead, guiding the three through the city, sticking to the shadows and avoiding cameras. They finally found a partially-sheltered back alley behind a restaurant, and the Doctor stopped.

'Here,' he said, leading them to the end behind the bins. Seth collapsed onto the concrete, clearly more tired than he was letting on as Jack grabbed the teenagers backpack to disperse some food. After they'd eaten, the Doctor gave Seth his coat to use as protection against the cold and the human boy quickly dropped off to sleep. He still looked cold, so Jack discreetly covered him with his coat too.

Jack then looked at the Doctor. 'Get some sleep,' he told the Time Lord. 'I'll keep watch. Want me to say anything to Rose?'

'Yeah… Tell her we're nearly there. And that I love her.'

Jack nodded. 'Of course I will. How are your legs?'

'Fine.' The Doctor positioned himself on the concrete to lie down, hugging himself. 'Oh, and do me a favour?'

'What?'

'Don't tell her about the whole helicopter thing.'

Jack smirked. 'Sure. Night, Doctor.'

'Night.'

Jack sat by the Doctor and Seth, watching over them as the minutes trickled by. The city was quiet with a curfew in place, so he spent his time just gazing at the Time Lord, waiting for Rose to wake up. It took an hour until finally the Doctor seemed to get to sleep and his body moved as Rose came to consciousness.

'Jack?'

'Rose?' he asked.

'Yeah,' she replied, sitting up and blinking, looking around in a daze. 'Where are we?'

'On the run,' Jack answered shortly.

'They found us?'

'They chased us,' Jack replied. 'But we lost 'em. We're nearly at Geranda.'

'She'd better be worth this,' Rose muttered, checking herself over. She pulled up her trousers to check the Doctor's legs, both of which were still bruised.

'Does it tingle?' Jack asked.

Rose nodded.

'We've been walking all day. He said he was fine though.'

'He was lyin',' Rose asked seriously.

'Probably why he took forever to get to sleep,' Jack realised, moving to the bag to get the painkiller. He pulled out the needle gun and a single bottle of painkiller.

'No, give it to him when he wakes up,' Rose said, eyeing how little they had. 'If he tries to fight you, tell him to take it or I'll make sure he regrets it, yeah?'

Jack smiled. 'Yeah, I'll tell him,' he replied, putting the bag away.

Rose pushed down the Doctor's trousers again to cover her legs. She sighed. 'God, I hate this, Jack.'

Jack nodded. 'Me too. But he said to say we're nearly done and that he loves you.'

'Tell him I love him too. Also that I hate him.'

'I will,' Jack answered, grinning.

'Has he had anymore nosebleeds?'

'No.'

'Well that's somethin' I guess,' Rose muttered. 'How much longer until it's over?'

'We'll get to Geranda tomorrow,' Jack replied. 'We'll sort you out, then we'll get to the rendezvous. Zak's tracked us since we left New Shada so he knows where we are; he'll be in orbit by now. Then we pinch a ship, get to Zak and he can take us back to the Proclamation for Brax to pick up. Home before dinner tomorrow. Simple.'

'Simple,' Rose echoed, curling into the fetal position. 'Sure. God. I hope Leah and Alex are okay. I miss 'em.'

'Me too,' Jack replied, his thoughts immediately turning to Braxiatel. His lack of communication must have meant Alex was fine. Probably.

She looked at Seth, lying there asleep. 'Is Seth okay?'

'Scared as hell,' Jack replied.

'It'd be weird if he wasn't, cos I'm bloody petrified,' she mused, shifting over to Jack and hugging him. Jack obligingly returned the hug, until suddenly there was the sound of police sirens nearby. Jack sat up to attention with a hand poised over his gun, listening, but the sirens passed them by and echoed into the distance.

He checked the time. Five hours until they had to start again.

By 3:10am, they were on the move once more. The streets stayed quiet and utterly dead of life as the Doctor led them through the dark on Seth's directions, sticking to the back alleys and avoiding CCTV.

Eventually they reached another subway in order to pass under the motorway, but the Doctor hesitated before they entered.

'What's up?' Jack asked.

'Doesn't feel right,' the Doctor muttered, glimpsing inside.

'Well we can't go over,' Jack pointed out.

'This is the only covered access route to Braz Tor,' Seth said

The Doctor sighed. 'Okay. We have to go through. Stick closely to each other.'

They walked inside, the Doctor pulling out a torch. The subway was in the process of collapsing with large cracks up the walls, and moss, dirt and something that looked a lot like blood splattered at random intervals. It smelt of something very suspect. The air was thick with a feeling none of them liked – it was making the hairs on the back of their necks stand on end.

For a few minutes they walked in complete silence, until suddenly there was a muted scream that echoed through the tunnels. They tried not to listen too hard, but it was clearly a woman. The Doctor didn't break stride, keeping at a constant, fairly fast pace.

Another scream, along with sobbing. The Doctor quickly checked over his shoulder – Seth had moved closer to Jack, and the immortal himself had his gun in his hand. The Doctor didn't tell him to put it away.

He was so busy checking the others that the Time Lord nearly tripped over a body lying in the middle of the subway, having to stumble to avoid it. He swung his torch down to highlight a naked corpse of a humanoid covered in blood and chained by the hands and feet.

Jack swore. The Doctor pulled out a pair of gloves and dropped to the corpse, checking it.

'Cold to the touch; livor mortis fixed and green-brown. From that, estimate of about ten to twelve hours since death, from drugs or poisoning,' the Doctor told them, standing up again and whipping off the gloves. 'From the flexed position of the body it looks like he was dumped.'

'Let's get the hell out of here,' Jack muttered, looking up. The exit was visible.

Another muted scream. Jack ignored it, taking Seth's arm and leading him past the Doctor. After a few seconds, he realised the Time Lord wasn't moving.

'Doctor,' Jack prompted.

Another scream.

'That's her,' the Doctor muttered, looking at Jack with wide eyes.

'Who? C'mon!' Jack prompted.

'It's Gnola.'

That made Jack stop and listen. Another scream. Now he was listening properly, he recognised it. It was Gnola. He swore again, looking at the Doctor.

'We can't, wherever she is, she's–'

'Get Seth out, I'll catch up,' the Doctor interrupted, and started at a jog in the direction of the scream, the darkness quickly swallowing him before Jack could protest.

Jack looked at Seth. 'Reckon you can make it out by yourself?'

'Y-yeah,' the boy told him, staring in the direction the Time Lord had disappeared.

'Then get out of here,' Jack said, reaching into his coat and pulling out his gun, giving it to Seth. 'Use it if you need to.'

Then he ran.

The Doctor followed the muted cries through the darkness, the subway becoming more and more unstable until he finally reached a large metal door. The noise was coming from just beyond it.

'Gnola?' he hissed, trying the door. 'It's the Doctor!'

The cries suddenly stopped, and instead there was some muted shouts. He could tell she was gagged as he couldn't understand a word of it.

'I'm getting you out, okay?' The door wasn't budging, so he quickly checked his pockets and brought out the key he and Jack had taken from the female. He hadn't expected it to work, but to his complete astonishment, it did.

The door swung inwards and he leapt inside. It was dark and murky and stank of rotting flesh, with bodies strewn around of dead and dying people. It was clearly the place the female Va'A'gnorn kept her stock. Right in the middle of it all was Gnola, clearly badly abused, gagged, and with tears running down her face.

'Doc!' Jack shouted, and seconds later he entered the room. Jack swore loudly, looking around at the bodies.

'Check to see if anyone's alive,' the Doctor said, pulling off Gnola's gag.

'D-Doctor?' Gnola asked, clearly crying.

'I'm getting you out,' the Doctor told her, trying the key in the chains. It wasn't working.

'No,' she gasped. 'Doctor, r-run… please…'

'The exit's not far,' he told her quickly. 'We can get you out.'

'N-no, she's around here, the f-female Va'A'gnorn… she's angry…'

'No one knows we're here.'

Gnola ignored that. 'She w-wants to… to do things t-to you… don't l-let her… please, run, please… It's a tr-trick!'

There was the sound of something metal hitting concrete. The Doctor spun around, just in time to see the female Va'A'gnorn in the doorway holding a gun, and a stun grenade on the floor next to the Time Lord's feet.

He immediately kicked the grenade and it flew across the floor, straight between the female Va'A'gnorn's legs to the dilapidated tunnel beyond. He yelled at Jack to take cover, threw himself over Gnola and half a second later, it exploded.

Immediately a high-pitched, eardrum-piercing shriek shot through the Doctor's ears. He tried to look, but his vision was completely white. He blinked repeatedly, trying desperately to regain his senses...

'Doc? Are you hurt?' Jack's shout came from his right.

'Fine!' the Doctor called back, his vision finally returning to see the female Va'A'gnorn lying metres away from him, sprawled out on the floor, covered in blood and screaming. The explosion had taken away the bottom of her left leg, and her right was only hanging on by a thread. Above him the walls were beginning to cave in.

They had to get out, or they'd all be buried.

'It's gonna collapse!' the Doctor shouted, just as a shot flew just by his right leg and blasted into the wall. The female was awake and clearly in a severe amount of pain. She was already helpless and bleeding to death. She took another shot, but missed again.

'Die Ka Faraq Gatri!' she screamed through a mouthful of blood, and shot for a third time. It narrowly missed his head.

Some of the room collapsed in. Jack was staggering towards him, still disorientated by the blast, blindly reaching out to find the Time Lord.

'I can't see!' he shouted as the Doctor dived to the female Va'A'gnorn, just avoiding the fourth shot. He pulled the gun out of her hand and threw it away. It hit the wall and bounced back to the floor.

'Let me help you!' the Doctor yelled over the crashes of the subway collapsing around their heads.

'DIE YOU FULAKIN' KRESHKA!' she screamed, more blood pouring out of her mouth like water from a tap as she launched out her hands and gripped his throat. She squeezed, and he started choking.

He tried to hit her arms, but she was gripping so hard they were like tubes of titanium. Slowly he began to weaken, his vision blurring, and it was only when Jack arrived and kicked her that he got free, falling back onto the concrete, gasping for air.

'Gnola!' he told the now blurry shape of Jack. 'Get Gnola!'

'But…'

'DO IT!' the Doctor screamed, just as the female started dragging herself towards him, trailing a thick, wide blood river behind her. 'I can help you, I can save you!' he yelled desperately.

'DIE, DIE, DIE!' she screeched, her eyes on fire with anger and agony. As she advance he scrambled back, but then he realised she was going towards the gun he'd thrown away.

He forced himself upright, running to the gun but she got there first. She turned and fired another shot. It glanced him by and hit Gnola directly in the back.

She screamed and collapsed, instantly dead.

'Gnola!' the Doctor shouted, but knew it was too late. Jack grabbed his arm and pulled him away from the female Va'A'gnorn, pushing him out of the doorway.

'No!' the Doctor cried. 'The draconian!'

'She's fucking dead!' Jack swore. 'You can't save her!'

The room collapsed behind them as Jack dragged him forcibly by the arm up the tunnel, which was crumbling to pieces around them.

They kept going, kept running, until they reached the exit where Seth was, holding Jack's gun.

'Gnola?' he asked.

Jack shook his head, just as the last of the tunnel collapsed behind them. He looked at the Doctor, who was still trying to get his breath back from being strangled. 'How did she know? How did she know we were there?'

'Either she's a lucky guesser or someone told the Va'A'gnorns,' the Doctor replied, looking up. 'But if they knew we'd go through the tunnel then they'll know where we're headed. They've tried the single-person approach, but now two of the family have been killed they'll send in the army. Chances are they're not here yet.'

Jack nodded, straightening up. 'How long until we get there?' he asked Seth.

Seth pointed across the cityscape to a particularly tall, modern-looking building, looming over the rest. 'That one, top floor.'

'Ten minutes,' the Doctor estimated. 'Five if we run.'

'Run,' Jack concurred.