4: The Search

Amy and Rory lost track of how long they trailed after the Doctor down a long nearly deserted highway. When they finally walked into a roadside diner miles later, they were both panting, while the Doctor himself looked completely fine.

"Okay," Amy breathed, glaring at him. "I need food."

The Doctor did not protest as Amy and Rory sank into seats at one of the old ratty booths and pulled out menus, but rather he wandered off to speak to a table of truck drivers. Neither Amy nor Rory could hear what he was saying, but they watched as the truckers glanced at each other and snickered when he first started speaking. Then all at once, the smiles dropped off their faces to be replaced with grave stares. They started nodding. One said something to the Doctor, whose brow was furrowed in concern. He nodded back at them, taking in what they were saying. Then he thanked them and left, moving onto the next table.

"So do you think we're going to find out what that cloud was soon?" Rory asked, barely masking the exasperation in his voice.

"I'm hoping that's what he's doing. Because if he's just dragging us around on some wild goose chase I'm heading straight back to that TARDIS and not coming back out until we've landed somewhere else."

A waitress with a kindly wrinkled face and a slight southern drawl to her American accent came by to take Amy and Rory's orders, and finally the Doctor came back.

"I've asked them to turn on the television for us."

Sure enough, a television hanging from the ceiling above flickered to life, but all it showed was a man dressed in a red and white uniform holding a bat and waiting for another man to throw a ball toward him to hit. It was like everyone at the tables came to life, their faces turning up to the screen. When the man swung the bat and failed to connect it with the ball, everyone groaned.

"Oh no, no, this isn't right…" the Doctor muttered. He swooped away again, said a few more inaudible words to the waitress, who at first looked resistant but then walked over to change the channel. Everyone groaned.

"Hey turn the game back on!" one of the truckers yelled.

"Sorry, everyone, this will just take a moment! I need to see if…"

But the Doctor's voice trailed off as a commercial ended and electric guitar action music announced the return of the news. They were just in time. A blonde woman sitting behind the news desk and wearing too much make-up started speaking.

"Multiple sources are reporting sightings of an unusual black cloud traveling quickly in the sky today. Although it has some of the appearances of a storm cloud, its movements do not appear to be of the usual kind. We take you now live to Chip Barney for more on the story."

The picture switched to a smartly dressed man standing in the middle of a field that could have been anywhere, looking relatively calm.

"Thanks Cindy, I'm here in a field just outside of St. Louis that is expected to be the next location where the cloud might be spotted, according to scientists who are attempting to track the strange phenomenon. One of those scientists is here with me now. Mr. Clark, can you tell us what your research team has discovered so far about the cloud?"

Mr. Clark was a stocky man with a rumpled, stained shirt and thick-rimmed glasses tipping precariously on the edge of his nose.

"Yes Chip. We haven't been able to gather much on it yet because it's such a new phenomenon, but part of this has to do with the fact that it truly seems to have popped out of no where! Sightings go back to this morning in Carthage, so that is the assumed epicenter, although this can't be confirmed for sure, it's mostly just theorizing. We're going almost entirely off of sightings at this point, but we think we're starting to be able to chart its movements. It appears to be heading east."

Suddenly, Mr. Clark fell silent.

"Do you hear that?" he asked Chip Barney. Chip nodded. But whatever it was they were hearing was lost through the television screen. Amy and Rory exchanged a glance. Then the camera panned up and there it was again: the very same black cloud that had crackled above their own heads not too long before. It had already moved halfway across the state.

"Our instruments are going off the charts!"

The cloud got closer and closer, and the yelling of the reporter and scientists became overtaken by the roaring noise that could finally be heard even through the camera. Then just as the entire scene reached a deafening pitch, the camera feed was cut and with a fizzling noise the screen went to black. They could hear the voice of the first reporter now. "Chip? Chip? We seem to have lost his feed…"

Everyone in the diner was now muttering to each other nervously. The Doctor wrung his hands, pacing back and forth.

"Carthage. Amy, Rory, we need to go to Carthage."

Just then, their food came. The Doctor looked pained.

"Ohhh can't you take it to go please?"

"Don't you have a time machine?"

"We can't back to the TARDIS just yet, me must go straight to Carthage."

Amy sighed. "Fine." With a pointed look at Rory she left money on the table, stood up, and grabbed the cheeseburger off the plate. Rory looked extremely hesitant but finally rolled his eyes and stood up as well, grabbing his food.

"Excellent! Now we just need a ride…"

Before Amy could utter another exasperated word, one of the truck drivers the Doctor had befriended at the other table walked by, overhearing the final sentence.

"Where to?" he asked, walking over to them.

"Carthage."

"I can take y'all over to Carthage. Does this have to do with that cloud?"

"Yes. Although it's really best if we don't go into too much detail on it."

The man fixed him with a serious look. "'Kay then. Name's Bob. I'll get you there in about an hour."

The ride to Carthage, Missouri in the back of a flatbed truck was far less than comfortable. The Doctor, Amy, and Rory were forced to take seats amidst piles of boxed dried food goods and hold on the best they could for the occasional bumps in the road that shook the entire vehicle.

"Well?" Amy asked, when they seemed to have finally hit a smooth patch of road.

"Well what?" The Doctor's eyes were darting around, as though he were afraid to look back at Amy's or Rory's.

"Are you going to let us know what we're chasing finally?"

"We're chasing the black cloud! I thought that was obvious, Amy."

"No, Doctor, you know what I mean. What is that cloud?"

The Doctor sighed, and finally met Amy's eyes with a grave look.

"You're not going to like it?"

"Well I don't like a lot of things we wind up dealing with, but it's still important to know what they are, at least."

"This time is slightly different."

"How so?"

The Doctor hesitated for one more second, trying to shield them from the truth for as long as he could. But finally, the moment had come.

"I've fought the source of them before. They have been on earth just as long as humans have, if not longer. They don't really have a name other than the one humans have given them."

"Which is…?"

"Demons."

The Doctor paused after this dramatic statement, as though expecting an equally dramatic reaction. Amy blinked.

"Okay."

"Okay? That's all you have to say? Okay?"

"Vampires in Venice? A siren on a pirate ship? We're used to it by now, Doctor."

"Oh… well… very good. I suppose." He looked disgruntled but pulled himself back together. "At any rate, we need to get to Carthage and look for anything that looks like it might be a clue as to where the source of the activity might be located. If we find the source, we also might figure out how best to go about sending them back to it."

Another hour and a few more painful speed bumps later and the Doctor, Amy, and Rory were all dropped off in Carthage.

"Thank you, Bob! You're a very kind person!"

"No problem Doc. Give 'em hell!" Bob called back as he drove away. The Doctor waved.

"What nice sentiments. Lovely person, that Bob"

"Okay Doctor, so what are we looking for?" Rory was already looking around, taking in the town: of which there really wasn't much. There was a big courthouse rising above every other building, many of which looked more well-worn. Past Main Street, rows of houses could be seen branching off. As far as small Midwestern towns go, it wasn't anything different.

"We need to keep our eyes out for anything… unusual. Anything… demon-y."

"Well that's all nice and specific isn't it?" Amy rolled her eyes.

"Maybe it would be best to figure out where to start?" Rory suggested.

"Yes, yes, brilliant thinking Rory! Let's stick around downtown at first. We need to be someplace where people might be talking. I want you both to have your eyes and ears on full blast. Listen for anyone who might be saying anything or doing anything related to this whole business…"

"Like them?"

Amy had noticed that a group of three men walking in the opposite direction in front of them, about to cross their paths. The tall one was handing the man in the middle an odd, pentagram-like pendant on a chain and telling him to put it around his neck.

As the men passed Amy, Rory, and the Doctor without looking up at them, they heard him say, "Wear this. It will protect you from any more demon attacks. Dean and I are going to give you some money too, so you can make it home…"

The trio exchanged shocked glances and, perfectly in sync, turned to keep their eyes on the men as they passed them, walking away. Amy and Rory looked at the Doctor for orders.

"Geronimo," said the Doctor with a nod, and at once they were off down the street following the men.

All went smoothly for a while. Amy, Rory, and the Doctor managed to keep their distance yet keep the men in sight, but once one man had dropped one off at the bus stop, the other two headed straight for an old car: a black Chevy Impala. From the 1960s. After exchanging panicked glances, the Doctor motioned his companions over to a motor scooter someone had left on the side of the road.

"We are not stealing that!" Rory shouted. But Amy was already crawling on behind the Doctor. He clicked the sonic screwdriver and the vehicle buzzed to life.

"Ohhh…. Fine…" Rory groaned, rolled his eyes, and jumped on it behind Amy as well.

"Don't worry Rory, we have a time machine, remember? We'll return it!"

They pulled out onto the road a respectable distance behind the Impala and followed it as it left Carthage and got onto the highway. The occupants of the car didn't seem to notice the little scooter trailing them despite the fact that the highway was rather on the small side and there weren't many other vehicles accompanying it with them. The Doctor seemed to be keeping just the right distance between them to avoid suspicion. Finally, after a relatively short time on the highway, the black car pulled off again, into the parking lot of a small roadside motel. By the time the Doctor, Amy, and Rory pulled in, they just saw the door to one of the rooms closing as one of the men disappeared into it.

"They went in that one!" Amy pointed out, not about to let the door slip from her memory. "Let's go!"

"We can't just go barging in there, they'll think we're mental!"

"Rory has a good point. We need to gather our thoughts out here first. Decide exactly how we want to go about this. So… how do we want to go about this?"

"Well they know about demons, apparently. Seems like we can't say much more that would shock them," Rory stated with a shrug.

"True."

"But do we tell them about you Doctor? Do we mention the whole… you know… alien thing?"

"Well it might be for the best to leave that fact out of it right at the beginning. Although it will probably have to come up at some point. After all, if they know about demons… I'm not sure how much else they know…"

They took awhile longer to prepare themselves. They agreed that it might make the mysterious men less abrasive of them if they'd had a bit to settle in before the time-travelers burst in on them. But finally, the Doctor sprang to his feet from the dirty old bench he's been sitting on.

"The moment is now! Come along Ponds!"

Together, the three of them approached the dingy door and the Doctor raised a fist to knock sharply.

They waited.