The silence is deafening for a moment while that sinks in. He had plenty of nigtmares while he slept, he didn't like the thought they would be part of his days as well. "Well, that killed the mood." He runs his hands down his face. "How did you get here?" He asked finally.
"I don't know. I'd just started my shift. I must have passed out, because suddenly I was here." Rita says
"I was blogging. Next thing, this." Howie tells him.
"Oh, I was at work. I'm in Town Planning. We're lining all the highways with trees so invading forces can march in the shade." Gibbis says.
"Ah." He says and looks over at Rose. She rolls her eyes and mouths to him "He can't be serious." He just raises his eyebrow at her.
"Which is nice for them." Gibbis continues.
"So, what have we got. People snatched from their lives and dropped into an endless, shifting maze that looks like a 1980s hotel with Nightmares in the bedrooms. Well, apart from anything else, that's just rude." He scoops up Kiam and starts to run up the stairs, determined to get everyone out of the hotel. "We'll pop back to the Tardis, I'll do a planet-wide diagnostic sweep, and then we'll have a sing song."
"Where's the Tardis? You parked it there, didn't you?" Rose asks him.
"What's a Tardis?" Howie ask
"Our way out. And it's gone." Jack says.
To make matters worse at that moment the music starts up again, as though the hotel is taunting them. "Okay, this is bad. At the moment, I don't know how bad and I really don't like not knowing. Are there any more of you?"
"Joe. But he's tied up right now." Rita says.
"Doing what?" He ask her.
"No, I mean he's tied up right now." She replies.
They head back down the stairs and Rita leads them to a set of double doors. Not knowing what he will find he sets Kiam down by Rose and watches as she takes his hand. He pulls out the sonice and opens one of the doors. The first thing he notices that all the tables have ventiloquist's dummies sit at them laughing. It goes silent as he goes inside and notices the man sitting in the middle of them tied to the chair. He heads over to the man with the others following behind him.
"Hello. I'm the Doctor."
"We're going to die here." Joe says.
"Well, they certainly didn't mention that in the brochure. Is Joe there? Can I have a word."
"Oh, it's still me, Doctor, but I've seen the light. I lived a blasphemous life, but he has forgiven my inconstancy, and soon he shall feast."
"Well, you've been here two days. What's he waiting for?"
"We weren't ready. We were still raw."
"But now you're what, cooked?" He looks at Joe carefully and notices he has a horseshoe tie clip and dice cufflinks. Realizing he is still holding the sonic he puts it back in his pocket.
"If you like. Soon you will be, too. Be patient. First, find your room."
"My room."
"There's a room here for everyone, Doctor. Even you."
"You said you'd seen the light now."
"Nothing else matters anymore. Only him. It's like these things. I used to hate them. They make me laugh now. Gottle o' geer. Gottle o' geer." The room fills with laughter again. "You should go. He'll be here soon."
Determined not to leave the man he looks around and sees a luggage trolly. He gestures at it and watches as Jack sees it and then brings it to him. "I think you should come with me." He takes Joe out of the room with them.
"Why you four? That's what I don't understand."
"What does it matter? Sooner or later, someone will come along and rescue us. Or enslave us." Gibbis says.
"First, we find the Tardis. Quick thing before we go. If you feel drawn to a particular room, do not go in, and make sure someone else can see you at all times. Rose you and Kiam stay close to me."
Rose takes his hand. "Did that even need saying." She asks him. He turns to her and smiles and picks up Kiam again in his free arm.
"Joe said, he will feast. Is there something here with us?"
"Something to add, Joe?" He says.
"Here comes a candle to light you to bed. Here comes a chopper to chop off your head. Chop, chop, chop, chop." Joe says.
"Can we do something about him?" Howie asks.
Jack finds some tape at the reception desk and he tries half heartedly from taping the man's mouth shut but he didn't want to hear it anymore either. They set off down the corridor.
"Personally, I think you've got the right idea. Times like this, I think of my old school motto. Resistance Is Exhausting." Gibbis says.
"I've worked out where we are." Howie says. "Norway."
"Norway?" Jack says sounding surprised.
"You see, the US government has entire cities hidden in the Norwegian mountains. You see, Earth is on a collision course with this other planet, and this is where they're going to send all the rich people when it kicks off."
"Amazing." Jack tells him.
"It's all there on the internet." Howie sounds proud.
"RORY: No, it's amazing you've come up with a theory even more insane than what's actually happening." Jack says.
As they are walking a door opens and a man in shorts steps out with a whistle around his neck. He looks at the group and says. "Have you forgotten your PE kit again? Right, that's it, you're doing it in your pants!" Before returning to the room and closing the door.
Further down he sees Howie staring at a door. As Howie reaches for the door handle he calls out to him "Don't!" and rushes over but it is too late. Howie opens the door to reveal the room is full of girls.
"Oh, look, girls, it's H-H-H-Howie!"
"What's loser in K-K-K-Klingon?"
"Shut the d, d, d, the door. This is just some m, m, messed up CIA stuff, I'm, I'm, I'm telling you." Howie says frozen in the doorway.
He releases Rose's hand and grabs the doorhandle pulling the door closed tightly. "You're right. Keep telling yourself that. It's a CIA thing, nothing more."
They continue walking. Something roars in the distance.
"Okay, whatever that is, it's not real, yeah?" Rose says.
"No. No, I'm sure it isn't, but just in case, let's hide anyway. In here." He pulls her into a room with him as Howie follows.
"No, this way! I've found a..." Jack cuts off and then stands there.
"Jack, come on!"
"There was a..." But he interupts him "Come on!"
He closes the door behind them as Jack enters the room and turns around to see three Weeping Angels standing in front of them. He stops mid stride as Rose says. "Don't blink."
"What?" Howie asks as the lights flicker. When they come back on the Angels have moved closer.
"Rose, get back." The lights flicker again. "Why haven't they got us yet?" He says confused. He steps forward and taking a deep breath tries to touch the angel, surprised when his hand goes right through it.
"Rose, they're not real."
"What?" She asks confused.
"They should have got us by now. Rose, look at me. Focus on me. It's your bad dream, that's all." He tells her.
"I don't even think they're for us." Jack says.
He hears stomping going down the corridor and heads back to the door, leaning over to look through the peep hole in the door. He sees a large creature with horns and fur walking in front of the door.
"Oh, look at you. Oh, you are beautiful." He sees Joe exit from the door across the hall. "I think it's going after Joe."
"Come on, come to me. Come to me. Argh!" Joe yells.
He goes out into the corridor and sees a shadow turning the corner at the end, "Leave him alone." He takes off running. The corridors are all the same. "Joe" He calls out and keeps running. Finally he comes across the man slumped against the wall. He pulls out the sonic ans scans him and confirms he is dead. "What happened." he says softly.
-DW-
They were in the kitchen of the hotel. Jack had laid Joe's body on the table and he was scanning him again to see if he could find something new. Something to tell him how Joe died.
"What exactly happened to him?" Rita says coming up behind him.
"He died."
"You are a medical doctor, aren't you? You haven't just got a degree in cheese-making or something." Rita asks.
"No! Well, yes, both, actually." He pauses for a second and then continues. "But there is no cause. All his vital organs simply stopped, as if the simple spark of life, his loves and hates, his faiths and fears were just taken," He takes the cup she hands him and looks at it. "And this is a cup of tea."
"Of course, I'm British, it's how we cope with trauma. That and tutting."
"But how did you make it?" He smells it and then takes a sip, happy to find out it is real tea.
"All hotels should have a well stocked kitchen, even alien fake ones. I heard you talking when you arrived. Look, it's no more ridiculous than Howie's CIA theory, or mine."
"Which is?"
"This is Jahannam." She says simply.
"You're a Muslim. Ha! You think this is Hell."
"The whole '80s hotel thing took me by surprise, though." She says jokingly.
"And all these fears and phobias wandering about, most are completely unconnected to us, so why are they still here?" He wonders aloud.
"Maybe the cleaners have gone on strike." She says.
"Ha! I like you. But this isn't Hell, Rita" He looks over at Rose and Kiam sitting at a nearby table with Jack. Some how she had found crisps and the three of them were eating them laughing. He smiles. He couldn't be in Hell as long as they were here.
"You don't understand. I say that without fear. Jahannam will play its tricks, and there'll be times when I want to run and scream, but I've tried to live a good life, and that knowledge keeps me sane, despite the monsters and the bonkers rooms. Gibbis is an alien, isn't he?"
"Yeah. Sorry."
"Okay. I'm going to file that under Freak Out About Later." Rita says.
"Doctor, look at this. I found it in a corridor, I completely forgot I had it." Rose comes over and hands him a sheet of paper. He puts on his glasses and reads aloud.
"My name is Lucy Hayward and I'm the last one left. It took Luke first. It got him on his first day, almost as soon as we arrived. It's funny. You don't know what's going to be in your room until you see it, then you realise it could never have been anything else. I just saw mine. It was a gorilla from a book I'd read as a kid. My God, that thing used to terrify me. The gaps between my worships are getting shorter, like contractions. This is what happened to the others, and how lucky they were. It's all so clear now. I'm so happy. Praise him.
Praise him." He lowers the paper.
"Praise him." Howie says.
"What did you just say?"
"Nothing. Praise him!" Howie says again.
"This is what happened to Joe!" Gibbis says backing away.
"God, it's going to come for me now." Howie says.
"You'll lead it right here." Gibbis tells him.
"I won't leave you. I promise you. You have my word on that." He tells Howie.
"I don't want to get eaten." Howie says sadly.
"He's going to lead the creature right here!" Gibbis says.
"Hold it!" He sets his sonic to chime loudly. The room falls silent. "Thank You."
"Don't you see? He'll lead it right here. Look, whatever it is out there, it's obviously chosen Howard as its next course. Now, tragic though that is, this is no time for sentiment. I'm saying if it were to find him, it may be satisfied and let the rest of us go. All I want to do is go home and be conquered and oppressed. Is that too much to ask?!" Gibbis asks.
"It's okay. I'll stay with Howie. You take the others and go." Rita says to him.
"No. We stay together." He tells them and then heads over to Gibbis. "Your civilization is one of the oldest in the galaxy. Now I see why. Your cowardice isn't quaint, it's sly, aggressive. It's how that gene of gutlessness has survived while so many others have perished. Well, not today. No one else dies today. Right? Brilliant. Howie, any second, it's going to possess you again. When it does, I'm going to ask you some questions. Please try to answer them."
"I hope my mum's all right, she's going to be w, worried." The man's face goes blank and then he smiles."
"Howie? Howie. Howie, you're next. We're all dead jealous. So, tell us. How do we get a piece of the action? Why isn't he possessing all of us?"
"You guys have got all these distractions, all these obstacles. It'd be so much easier if you just let it go, you know? Clear the path."
"You want it to find you even though you know what it's going to do?" Rose asks him surprised.
"Are you kidding? He's going to kill us all. How cool is that?" Howie sounds estatic.
He turns and walks away from Howie leading the rest of them away. He wraps his arm around Rose and kisses her on the head.
"It's as I thought. It feeds on fear. Everything, the rooms, Lucy's note, even the pictures in reception, has been put here to frighten us. So we have to resist it. Do whatever you have to. Cross your fingers, say a prayer, think of a basket of kittens, but do not give in to the fear." He tells them
"Okay, but what are we actually going to do?" Rose asks him.
"We're going to catch ourselves a monster." He says.