Escape- Round 2
Owen lay flat on his back on the concrete floor, arms and legs splayed, staring blankly at the ceiling. He had recently discovered a new talent for story telling, or rather story living. At the moment, he was sprinting through a hail of bullets behind Timothy Dalton, laughing wildly.
Together the dashing spies skidded to a halt behind an over-turned car to take shelter while reloading their guns.
"We'll never get past all six guards," said Bond, not even short of breath. "We'll have to go round back." He looked critically at Owen. "All or nothing, Harper."
Owen nodded.
Clank! Thump-clank!
"Everyone, wake up! Hey!" There was a sharp jabbing sensation in his side and Owen's vision was filled with dull grey. He became aware that he was lying on his back, and, upon realizing this, sat up. His stiff muscles cramped in protest and he groaned.
"Wha's goin' on?" he asked blearily. The Doctor, who stood above him, pressed a finger to his lips and nodded to the cell door. It swung inward.
It took Owen a full second to register the face of the man who now stood before them. He was unhealthily this. His cheeks were unshaven and deep purple shadows were sunk under his eyes. It was Harold Saxon.
"Come with me, quickly!" he said with more emotion than they'd ever heard from him.
"What are you doing?" said the Doctor suspiciously.
"Saving the planet," said Saxon. "Jones is a mad man, and from what I've heard, you people are the only ones who can stop him." He held something out to the Doctor, a thin silver tube. His sonic screwdriver. "I've cut the security, but it'll boot back up in five minutes. You have to go now."
The Doctor accepted it and tucked it in his inside pocket. To Saxon, he said, "If Ianto realizes you helped us, he'll kill you."
Saxon laughed grimly. "What more can that man do to me?"
The Doctor nodded, then motioned to the others to follow him. "Allons-y," he said, with nothing even remotely resembling any of his old fervor.
oOo
As Saxon had promised, they encountered no security while they sneaked through the labyrinthine tunnels, but that did not lessen the tension, which remained with them until they had gotten a good three streets away from Downing Street.
It felt wonderfully liberating to have their lungs full of fresh, clean air flushing out the last traces of the Deterrent Gas. Already the Doctor felt lighter, more confident. He was free, and he had his screwdriver. Two points for the Doctor.
"Where is everyone?" asked Tosh, looking around. She had become shockingly thin over the elapsed months, but now as the Doctor saw her through clear, decidedly more optimistic eyes, he could tell she was vivified by their turn of good fortune, and by the release from their depressing environment…and straight into another one. The four of them had been so engrossed in escaping that they had not noticed until now that the streets were completely deserted, devoid of both people and Toclafane.
Without a word, the Doctor sprinted off down the street, noticing with significant distress that his legs were in much poorer shape for the months he'd spent almost entirely stationary. Still, he did not stop until he reached the Torchwood 1 warehouse, and didn't wait for the others, panting and sweating, to catch up with him before bursting inside.
"Martha? Martha, where are you?" Only silence met his words.
Owen reached him first, followed at a distance by Tosh and Gwen, both of whom were red in the face. They held back from the Doctor, who stood in the middle of the room, turning on the spot. Owen moved off to the side, to the table where, months ago, they had sat planning their infiltration of 10 Downing Street. It was empty now of anything but dust. Owen dragged his finger across the surface and it came away covered in grey.
"No one's been here in months," he said softly. "Martha's not here." This was quickly confirmed, but the Doctor refused to concede defeat until he had personally checked every single square inch of the building. He raked a hand through his wilting hair.
"She wouldn't have just gone, not without leaving some sort of message."
"Maybe she was taken by surprised, maybe she didn't have time," suggested Gwen. The silence stretched between them as they contemplated such a situation.
"Hey, it looks like lots of people are missing," said Tosh hopefully. "Maybe they're all in the same place."
"Well," said the Doctor, "let's find them then."
Back on the street, all was utter silence save the occasional cawing of a crow, or the scratch of a rat scurrying into a gutter. Their own voices, when one of the four posed a question or commented, sounded overly loud and echoic.
"I am really not liking this," said Owen.
"Oi!" came a shout form somewhere ahead. Four figures in black combat attire and carrying automatic weapons leapt into the middle of the street. "Get your hands where I can see 'em and don't move!"
The Doctor, Owen, Gwen and Tosh all raised their hands above their heads, completely bewildered but in no mood to get shot.
"Hey! Hey!" cried the Doctor. "Don't shoot! We come in peace."
They were facing four people, a woman, two men, and a slim, fair haired boy who couldn't have been older than 16. He stood a little behind the others, holding a plastic contraption which, after a moment of observation, the Doctor realized was a Nintendo DS. The boy's dark brown eyes watched it intently, as though he hadn't noticed the newcomers at all. They approached the Doctor and company cautiously, guns still aimed and ready.
"Check them," the woman ordered. The two men nodded and proceeded to do thorough pat downs of the Torchwood agents and the Doctor, coming up with nothing but-
"Hey, that's mine!" cried the Doctor as one of the men handed the woman his sonic screwdriver.
"Is it a weapon?" she asked, inspecting it.
"It's a screwdriver." The woman raised her eyebrows at the Doctor and pocketed it. The Doctor scowled, but didn't argue. She was, after all, the one with the gun.
"How did you get here?" she demanded.
"Um, sorry," said the Doctor, "could you lower your gun?"
"Not until you tell me who you are, and how the hell are you still alive?"
"Well," said the Doctor, more than a little puzzled, "I'm the Doctor. This is Owen, Gwen and Toshiko…"
"What do you mean, still alive?" asked Gwen.
With the air of one speaking to someone very slow, the woman clarified, "How have you survived all the massacres?"
"Massacres?" repeated the Doctor. "What massacres?"
The woman exchanged a bemused glance with the three men. To the Doctor she said, "Blimey, mate, where've you been for the past six months?"
"Six months!" shrilled Gwen. "But we've only-"
"We've been underground," the Doctor interrupted. "Well, sort of. Well, actually literally underground. Why, what's happened? Why is everyone gone?"
"The ones that were left were picked off one by one." The woman holstered her gun and relaxed her stance a little, but the two men kept their own weapons on the Doctor and the others.. "The only ones still alive now are the ones who wised up and got to shelter in time."
"Ma'am," interjected the DS boy, speaking for the first time. His voice took the Doctor by surprise. It was deeper than he'd expected, and shockingly grim and hollow. Now that the boy's face was turned up, the Doctor recognized the expression he'd seen many a time in soldiers just returned from war. He could read in the boy's face the desolation he felt, the way he'd lost faith in humanity. But as hollow as it was, the boy's voice was also clipped, urgent. He held up the DS.
"Another swarm is headed our way, we should get underground."
The woman nodded, making no explanatory comments as to the nature of the DS, only said, "Right then, you lot. We'll finish the story inside. I'm Juliette, by the way. Juliette Reve. Patron saint of the Survivors." And with that she spun on her heel and marched away down the street.
Here's the thing. As they were my 50th reviewer, I let Chasing choose any fandom character to insert into a chapter. Well, technically he's getting three, and it's the blonde kid. Cookies for anyone who figures out who he is, before I tell you in the next chapter.