The Teaspoon crowd responded very...excitedly to this particular chapter. This should be interesting, I think.
"These humans will become like me."
If Rose had to pick the way she wanted to die, death by Dalek was not the way she would've chosen. Especially not death so her body could be one half of a Dalek hybrid. That ranked somewhere between death by Ood and being Upgraded. If she could choose the manner of her departure, she would definitely want to die burning from having the Vortex running through her head, because if that ever happened again it would probably mean she was saving her Doctor and the rest of the universe.
Yeah, that'd be the way to go.
"Prepare them for hybridization." Dalek Sec ordered in the hoarse, accented voice he'd stolen.
When the pigs closed in on them, Rose realized that the Doctor had left her side. Which meant he was coming up with some way to save them because he wouldn't just leave them like this. So if it meant giving him a few more seconds to do whatever he was trying to do, then she would reveal herself. She ducked under the arm of the pig reaching for her and whistled loudly to get their attention.
"Oi! You lot!" she shouted. "Remember me?"
The Daleks turned their eyestalks towards her and the only question was which one of them would recognize her first.
"YOU! YOU WERE THERE WITH THE CYBERMEN." the one on the right screamed.
"Glad you remember me." She stuffed her hands in the pockets of her jacket. Behind her, the pigmen stopped trying to move the humans. "How's it been?"
"YOU ARE AN ASSOCIATE OF THE DOCTOR."
"An associate? Is that what I am?"
"You murdered the Emperor." Dalek Sec accused.
"Your powers of perception amaze." Any time now would be great, Doctor.
"YOU ARE AN ENEMY OF THE DALEKS!"
A vintage song started playing somewhere and Rose smirked. That would be the Doctor, then. No one else would make that kind of entrance.
"What is that sound?" Sec demanded.
The Doctor peeked out from behind one of the machines with a radio in his hand. "Ah, well, now, that would be me." He shut it off, setting it on the table, and walked casually towards Dalek Sec. "Hello. Surprise! Boo! Et cetera."
"Doctor."
"THE ENEMY OF THE DALEKS!"
"EXTERMINATE!"
"Wait!" Dalek Sec threw out his arms and the Daleks looked at him in disbelief, but obeyed.
Rose wished she could see the Doctor's face so she would know how he was taking this. She herself was surprised that the hybrid had stopped his pure comrades from killing the Doctor. That might have just very well been a good sign. Maybe.
A girl could hope.
"Well, then, a new form of Dalek." The Doctor strolled forward with his hands in his pockets. Dalek Sec's tentacles twitched erratically as he approached. "Fascinating. And very clever."
"The Cult of Skaro escaped your slaughter," Dalek Sec growled.
"How did you end up in 1930?"
"Emergency Temporal Shift."
"Oh, oh!" the Doctor laughed. "That must've roasted up your power cells, yeah?" He turned around, tugging on his earlobe, and slowly walked back towards the would-be test subjects. He caught Rose's eye for a moment and she could tell he wanted her to move. She took one step backwards, then another.
Laszlo, as if reading the Doctor's mind, pulled her back and Frank shifted so she was mostly hidden behind him. With Rose safe (as safe as she cold be in a room full of Daleks, anyway), he continued on talking. "Time was, four Daleks could've conquered the world. But instead you're skulking away, hidden in the dark, experimenting." He looked Sec up and down. "All of which results…in you."
Dalek Sec took a step forward. "I am Dalek in human form!"
"But what does it feel like?" he asked quietly. "You can talk to me, Dalek Sec—it is 'Dalek Sec,' isn't it? That's your name. You've got a name and a mind of your own—tell me what you're thinking right now."
Dalek Sec's eye narrowed. "I…feel…humanity." He turned away, as if ashamed by this realization.
"Good. That's good."
"I…feel…everything we wanted from mankind, which is…ambition…hatred…aggression…and war! Such…a genius for war!"
"No," the Doctor shook his head. "That's not what humanity means."
"I think it does! Your female murdered the Emperor. She feels…pride in it. The way a Dalek would feel pride in destroying an enemy." Dalek Sec actually smiled then at the cold fury that had entered the Doctor's eyes. "At heart, this species is so very…Dalek."
Frank felt Rose flinch at the monster's words and he resisted the urge to look at her since he was supposed to be hiding her. Personally he wanted to thump her on the back and tell her job well done. Though she didn't much like being compared to one of those things. Neither did he, actually. He didn't go 'round turning people into pigs.
"Alright!" the Doctor turned again and moved closer to the people. The Daleks automatically got out of his way. "So what have you achieved, then, with this Final Experiment, eh? Nothing! Because I can show you what you're missing." He pointed at the radio. "With this thing—simple little radio." He patted it.
"WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THAT DEVICE?" one of the Daleks demanded.
"Well, exactly—it plays music. What's the point of that? Oh, with music, you can dance to it, sing with it—" he looked into the eyestalk of the nearest Dalek "—fall in love to it.
"Unless you're a Dalek of course. Then it's all just noise." He wrenched his hand from out of his pocket and pointed his sonic screwdriver at the radio. A high-pitched tone blared out from the speakers. Dalek Sec yelped, doubling over, and holding his head. The other Daleks rolled away.
It seemed to affect the pigmen too. All of them, even Laszlo, released their hostages and held their ears.
"RUN!" the Doctor bellowed.
"PROTECT THE HYBRID!"
"PROTECT! PROTECT!"
The humans fled through the tunnels with Rose at the lead. She had no idea where she was going but anywhere was better than that base. The farther away they got from the Daleks and their newest monstrosity the better. Probably the newest in a long line of experiments since they'd first arrived. That thing the Doctor had found earlier in the sewer—now that she knew what they were dealing with, she thought that it did look remarkably like a Dalek's true form. She'd seen one once, years ago.
So what had that thing been, then? A baby Dalek left to rot?
Rose slowed, searching wildly for a ladder. They needed to get up top.
"Come on!" the Doctor thundered as he overtook them. He grabbed her by the hand and pulled her along. "Move, move, move, move, move!"
Ahead they spotted Tallulah standing at a juncture, wide-eyed and lost. If they hadn't come this way she might've very well been captured. "And you, Tallulah, run!"
Rose gave her a push as she ran past, urging her to move. "What's happened to Laszlo?!" she wailed when she saw he wasn't among them.
"He had to stay behind!" Rose shouted. "He'll be fine!"
"But he—" she protested as she was pulled along by one of the men.
"MOVE!" the Doctor called over his shoulder.
The Doctor led them through the twists and turns with ease, and no one would've been surprised if he'd managed to map out the entire sewer system already. They ran flat-out for the entire way. One of them men tried to stop for breath, but Martha grabbed him firmly by the arm and hauled him on. When they reached the ladder underneath the revue, the Doctor urged them all up quickly and only ascended himself when they were all safely aboveground. Then with the help of two of the men, he pushed the manhole back into place and ran the sonic along the circumference, sealing it shut.
"There, they'll have a hard time following us." he said and straightened up. "At least this way."
"What…were those things?" one of the other men demanded.
"They're called Daleks," the Doctor told him flatly. "Imagine the most horrible monster you've ever heard of, multiply that by about a thousand and you've got a Dalek. If any of you aren't from Hooverville, you go home as fast as you can. Stick to the main roads, keep out of the shadows, and don't be alone. But don't go to the police, you'll only get them killed."
"How do you know so much about them?"
The Doctor fixed the man with a look so full anger and sadness that the man automatically stepped away from him. "Just run."
One of the men did end up going his own way, but the rest followed the Doctor back to Hooverville to warn everyone. Tallulah came too, she had nowhere else to go that would feel safe and she wasn't going to wait around backstage for more pigmen to come up. Plus, sticking with them was her best chance of finding Laszlo again.
As soon as they were out of the revue, Rose slipped her hand into the Doctor's and rested her head against his shoulder. "That was reckless, what you did back there." he murmured. "They would've killed you."
"I'd rather die human than live as a Dalek."
The Doctor's eyes widened. She had just unknowingly echoed his statement from the Gamestation. The choice he'd had to make for every living creature when he constructed the Delta wave. But she'd been gone, long gone by the time he'd said those words to Jack.
He squeezed her hand tighter. "I'd prefer if you did neither, to be perfectly honest."
Rose smiled.
The walk back to Hooverville was filled with mostly silence and furtive looks around, over shoulders, expecting pigmen or Daleks to appear at any moment. They tried to keep on the busiest streets, the ones illuminated by lampposts and the most moonlight. The Doctor kept Martha close to him and Rose even closer. When they entered the park, one of the residents of Hooverville took point, guiding them through lit trails towards the shantytown. When they got near enough, a sentry emerged from the shadows and found himself staring cross-eyed at the Doctor's sonic screwdriver.
"Easy, there!" the man said. "I ain't gonna hurt ya! …Marco? Elroy? Frank! You're alive! Solomon said you got taken."
"I did," Frank confirmed. "But we got away. Where's Solomon?"
"Follow me." He picked up a shotgun from the ground and led them the last few yards of the trail, on into Hooverville.
The entire place seemed to be on mauve alert. People were awake and stationed throughout the community, armed with guns, torches, and sticks. Like any of that would do any good against a Dalek but they were human and if there was one thing you could count on humans to do, it was to defend their own with whatever they had, even if the situation seemed hopeless. The sentry led them straight to Solomon who embraced Frank with the air of a father greeting his lost son, then sent the sentry back out to his post.
"Sit down, get warm," he told the women, gesturing to the fire. "And you, Doctor, can tell me what exactly happened down there."
He did, recounting everything from identifying the DNA type as being from the planet Skaro, to finding Laszlo, to what the Daleks were, to escaping back here. Solomon listened the whole time, asking only a few questions, with a gun clenched firmly in his hand. Rose, Tallulah, and Martha sat by the fire to keep warm. Tallulah had her feet propped up near the flames and Rose rested her head on Martha's shoulder.
"These…Daleks. They sound like the stuff out of nightmares." Solomon said when the Doctor was done. "And they want to breed?"
And that's one mental image I did not need. Rose scowled.
"They're splicing themselves onto human bodies. And if I'm right, they've got a farm of breeding stock right here in Hooverville." the Doctor looked around at the denizens. "You've got to get everyone out."
"Hooverville's the lowest place a man can fall. There's nowhere else to go."
"I'm sorry, Solomon. You've got to scatter," the Doctor told him urgently. "Go, anywhere—get onto the railroads, travel across state, just get out of New York!"
"There's got to be a way to reason with these things."
Rose laughed scornfully and Martha scoffed. "Not a chance."
"You ain't seen 'em, boss." Frank agreed, rising to his feet.
"Neither have you, not really." Rose pointed out. "You haven't seen what they do. Have done."
"Daleks are bad enough at any time, but right now, they're vulnerable." the Doctor said. "That makes them more dangerous than ever."
"You've got to listen to us, Solomon. I showed a Dalek pity once, a long time ago, and I got over two hundred people killed. Do you want that?"
Solomon looked down at her with a thousand questions written across his face, wanting to know who she really was, who they were, how they knew so much, and what sort of life did they live? Who were they, the man and women who crouched around a shapeless thing in the sewers as if it wasn't unordinary, who spoke of other planets and aliens as if they were undeniable facts? Who was she, the young girl with wisdom beyond her years and eyes that occasionally seemed to reflect time itself?
He opened his mouth to say something to her but he never got the chance to speak because the night air was suddenly pierced by the shrill blast of a whistle, again and again, and a young man's voice raised in alarm. People looked around wildly. Rose jumped to her feet.
"Sentry," Solomon said, shifting the gun in his arms. "Must have seen something."
Around them other whistles began to blare as other sentries spotted things approaching. The black man who'd had his bread stolen earlier ran through the shacks and tents, hollering for his life. "They're here! They're here! I've seen them! Monsters! They're monsters!"
Whistles blared, voices cried out, and people emerged from their homes, grabbed weapons and ran towards the fires, while others ducked inside for safety.
The Doctor's expression was grim. "It's starting."
"WE'RE UNDER ATTACK!" Solomon bellowed. "EVERYONE TO ARMS!"
"Yeah, I'm ready boss! But all of you find a weapon! Use anything!" Frank shouted.
Men passed out guns. Pistols were procured from tents. Knives and switchblades were pulled from pockets and shoes. Tallulah and Martha grabbed sticks. Rose grabbed a poker from near a cauldron. Some people didn't even consider fighting and simply ran screaming for their lives.
"Come back!" Solomon called. "We've got to stick together! It's not safe out there! COME BACK!"
Between bodies moving every which way, the shouts of humans, and the squeals of the pigmen, it was complete and utter chaos. Calls of help went go up as the pigs began taking people. It was all Rose could do to make it back over to the Doctor's side, poker in one hand, and he latched onto her other hand.
The Doctor was strong, even if he didn't look it, superior Time Lord physiology and all that, plus he had the sonic. Rose could do plenty of damage with a poker. With that thick stick, she knew Martha would be able to brain any pig that tried to grab her, but Tallulah probably wouldn't even land a shot, or run fast enough in those heels. Okay, so her they would definitely have to worry about. What about the others? All these people with guns, they were more likely to kill each other than the pigs if things got too hectic, and it was way too cramped here.
The same thought seemed to occur to Martha. She grabbed the Doctor's arm. "We've got to get out of the park."
"We can't, they're on all sides," the Doctor said through his teeth. "They're driving everyone back towards us."
"We're trapped!" Tallulah cried, close to tears.
Solomon cocked his gun. "Then we stand together! Gather around! EVERYBODY, COME TO ME! You there, Jethro, Harry, Seamus, stay together! They can't take all of us!"
Everyone left that wasn't hiding was pressed into a tight group in the middle of the camp with the pigmen closing in on all sides. With a self-righteous yell, someone fired at a pigman. His aim was true and the mutant fell with a final squeal. The others started firing. Pigs fell, squealing their last, but where one fell another took its place. They just kept coming.
"If we can just hold them off till daylight," Martha reasoned. "Then other people will be in the park, like police; they can help."
The Doctor wasn't looking at her. He was looking over their heads at something in the sky. "Oh, Martha, they're just the foot soldiers."
Rose followed his gaze and gasped. A single Dalek approached them from above, flying down from the sky like the demon of space it was. People heard the humming, or perhaps saw it in their peripheral vision, and they looked up in horror at their approaching doom.
"Oh my God!" Martha's voice shook.
The Dalek hovered just a few yards above their heads and looked down at them through its blue-lit eyestalk.
"What in this world?" Solomon exclaimed.
"It's the devil! A devil in the sky! God save us all! It's damnation!"
"Oh yeah? We'll see about that." Frank aimed his gun and fired straight at the Dalek. The bullet hit home but rebounded off the Dalek's armor harmlessly.
Letting go of Rose's hand, the Doctor lunged forward. "That's not gonna work!" he grated and pushed Frank's gun down before the Dalek could figure out who'd fired.
Another Dalek appeared in the sky and drifted down towards the first. Martha felt the need to quietly point it out in case they hadn't noticed. The Daleks were still for a moment, then the one on the right fired and they dived down. They circled back around, each flying the opposite way, firing shot after shot at the people below. Everywhere they hit blew up, again and again, and people screamed as they tried to run, only to be blasted away. The people in the center ducked or just dropped to the ground, hoping to avoid getting hit, Rose included, and she felt Martha grip her arm so tightly that she knew she would have a bruise.
The TARDIS screamed, her song thundering in Rose's ears, and her anger and rage rising up from the place they were linked, melding with Rose's own emotions, coursing through her veins like fire. If the TARDIS weren't so far away, she would run straight in and look into her Heart. In theory she could probably summon the TARDIS to her with the huon energy they shared, but she wasn't sure to do it on her own and definitely not with so little time.
Though she had to wonder why they hadn't actually killed anyone. She knew Daleks had remarkable aim; a fleeing human was no harder to hit than the broad side of a barn. Yet they simply blew things up, sent people flying. Only scaring them, not killing.
"LEAVE THEM ALONE!" the Doctor roared. "THE'VE DONE NOTHING TO YOU!"
The one above them lowered its eyestalk to the Doctor and all at once, the Daleks halted their assault.
Of course, Rose realized. They were trying to draw him out.
People slowly rose and straightened up, sensing the reprieve. Around them were the cries of the wounded, and the terrified whimpering of the unharmed. Adjusting his grip on the gun, Solomon started forward with his eyes on the demon in the sky.
"No!" the Doctor grabbed him by the arm. "Solomon, stay back!"
Solomon ignored him. "I'm told that…I'm addressing the Daleks, is that right?"
The other Dalek joined the first one, floating over their heads. They looked down at him but didn't respond. Perhaps they were intrigued or perhaps they just were waiting for an opportune moment to strike him down. Maybe they had yet to actually attack anyone directly was because they wanted the first kill to be that of the leader.
"From what I hear, you're outcasts, too."
"Solomon, don't!"
"Doctor, this is my township. You will respect my authority. Just let me try," he added more quietly, pushing the Doctor away. The Time Lord shook his head as he backed away, knowing what was going to happen and praying that it didn't.
Solomon took a few steps forward, spreading out his arms in surrender—or welcome? "Daleks…ain't we the same? Underneath, ain't we all kin?" He lowered his gun to the ground and straightened up.
"Because, you see, I've just discovered this past day God's universe is a thousand times the size I thought it was. And that scares me. Oh, yeah, terrifies me. Right down to the bone." The Daleks honestly seemed to be listening to him, though the chances they were suddenly having an epiphany were slim to none.
"But surely, it's got to give me hope. Hope that, maybe together, we can make a better tomorrow. So I beg you now—if you have any compassion in your hearts, then you'll meet with us and stop this fight."
The Daleks looked at each other and everyone else looked at the Daleks, and all of them waiting.
"Well? What do you say?"
"EXTERMINATE!" was the reply and the Dalek fired at Solomon.
For a moment his body was illuminated in the greenish-blue light and they saw his entire skeleton. He cried out in agony and fell to his knees and even though she'd known it was coming, Rose screamed right along with everyone else as Solomon collapsed to the ground.
"NO! Solomon!" Frank cried, rushing towards the elder's body.
Next thing she knew, the Doctor was standing in front of Solomon's body with his arms spread wide and screaming at the Daleks. "Enough! If it'll stop you attacking them, then take me instead!"
Rose and Martha gasped and the crowd behind them fell silent.
"I WILL BE THE DESTROYER OF OUR GREATEST ENEMY!" If Daleks could feel excitement, that one would probably be doing backflips.
"NO!" Rose screamed and before Martha or anyone could reach out to stop her, she threw herself in front of the Doctor, her arms wide, and wishing she was taller so her body could shield his the way he could shield her. Her entire body felt hot and her eyes glowed. It was like someone had flipped a switch in her mind and she knew what to do and how to do it. Because it was the Daleks and the Bad Wolf only existed in the first place to protect her Doctor from them.
"Rose, what are you—" the Doctor seized her arms to push her out of the way—
"EXTERMINATE!"
—and she was just a microsecond second from pulling the TARDIS to her when the Dalek spoke again.
"I DO NOT UNDERSTAND. IT IS THE DOCTOR!"
The Dalek paused, listening to something none of them could hear. The Doctor's grip did not loosen, but he had stopped trying to move her.
"AND THE FEMALE? …BUT SHE DESTROYED THE EMPEROR."
Upon hearing those words, the Doctor shoved Rose behind him firmly.
"THE URGE TO KILL IS TOO STRONG."
She struggled against his hold on her. His arm was twisted behind him at an awkward angle and she probably would've gotten free, but the Dalek spoke again.
"I…OBEY."
"What's going on?!" the Doctor demanded.
"…THE DOCTOR WILL FOLLOW!"
"NO!" Rose shouted again, grabbing onto his coat. More quietly, "You can't go. You can't."
He turned around, adjusting his grip so he was holding her forearms. He looked into her eyes—he hadn't seen them this bright this since he'd turned on the particles in the lab. The energy within her was awake and his sensed the power of Time teeming beneath the surface. Whatever link remained to the Bad Wolf was alive and he had the horrible suspicion that if things didn't calm down immediately, the Daleks would soon be evaporating into golden dust. Not that he was opposed to the idea, but it also meant that Rose would be the Bad Wolf once more. Which meant he had to get them away from her before she got herself killed.
He spoke softly, urgently, "I've got to go. The Daleks just changed their minds. They never do that."
"Yes, they do," she whispered.
"Not pure Daleks, but Daleks who are being influenced by something human can. There might still be a chance for me to save these people."
Rose shook her head, tears in her eyes. "You don't have to." She gripped his arm with her free hand just as he gripped hers. "I can bring the TARDIS here. We're ready. We can stop them."
"No," he said firmly. "You are not dying for me, Rose Tyler. Stay here and calm down before you end up killing yourself."
She bit back a sob. "And what's to stop them from killin' us the moment you're gone?"
The Doctor swallowed then glanced up at the terrified people of Hooverville, at Tallulah, at Martha, then back Rose again for a moment longer. He turned his body and shouted up at the Daleks. "One condition! If I come with you, you spare the lives of everyone here! DO YOU HEAR ME?!"
"…HUMANS WILL BE SPARED. DOCTOR…FOLLOW."
Rose blinked the tears away and squared her shoulders. "I'm coming with you."
"No, Rose," he said resolutely. "They won't kill you if you're here. Stay here, calm down, and help Martha. These people are injured and they'll need help. I'll come back."
"And what if you don't?" With the Daleks she really had to consider the possibility that he might not come up with a clever way to save the day and come back to them. Come back to her.
"Then you get out of here, you get back to the TARDIS, and you go back with Martha. There're protocols that will automatically activate if I die." Not that he had any plans of things coming to that. He had to go but he would come back. Though, just in case he didn't…
Before she could object again, the Doctor leaned forward and kissed her. His lips were tender on hers, but they trembled, and there was an underlying urgency in the kiss that betrayed his fear. With the hand that wasn't firmly clutching at the poker, she gripped the back of his head and pulled him even closer, returning his kiss fiercely. If he was going to die then, dammit, she was going to make this count.
"DOCTOR. FOLLOW."
The Dalek's harsh words caused them to break apart and they were both breathing heavier than normal. She moved her hand to his cheek and swallowed. The words were right on the tip of her tongue, because if he was going to die, he had to know. "I…Doctor, I—"
His hand slipped from her neck and covered her lips before she could say the words. "Don't," he said, his eyes dark and reflecting the emotions she knew were in her own.
He slid his hand to her shoulder, and down her empty hand. He grasped it in both of hers and she felt something press into her palm. With a wink, he stepped away from her. Their eyes lingered on each other for a moment more then he turned and followed the Daleks out of Hooverville. The urge to scream, to run after him, or to go through with it and call the TARDIS to her, was almost unbearable. She resisted. Somehow.
When he was out of sight and the hum of the Dalek's machinery faded, Rose finally looked down at what he'd given her. It was the psychic paper. She opened it, half expecting to see a message, maybe some sort of hint to his plan, but it was completely blank. What was it then? Something to remember him by like that kiss?
Useless, completely useless, she whimpered. The poker slipped from her fingers, hitting the ground near Solomon's body with a thud, and she let out a sob. She had to let it out or she was going to self-combust. She clutched the psychic paper to her chest and pressed a fist to her mouth to avoid screaming her frustration to the universe.
She should've just called the TARDIS when she had the chance. The fire in her blood was already dying and while the ship still hummed angrily in her mind, the song was fading away fast. Even she was respecting the Doctor's wishes and letting him go by pulling back from Rose.
She felt a hand on her shoulder and Martha stepped into view. She pulled Rose into a hug and patted her back. "It'll be okay," she whispered.
Another sob bubbled up past Rose's lips then she took a deep, shuddering breath and forced herself to calm down. She couldn't go to pieces—she would save that for later if things went pear-shaped. Right now she was standing in front of most of the survivors of the attack, next to Solomon's dead body, and one of the only people who had any idea of what was really going on here. With another deep breath, Rose stepped out of Martha's hug.
"People are hurt. We gotta help them." Rose's voice was surprisingly level and steely. "That's what he said to do."
"Um, maybe you ought to just sit down for a bit." Martha suggested.
"I'm fine."
"No, I mean, if you try to help people right now you'll probably scare them half to death." She tapped the spot just under her eye and lifted her eyebrows pointedly.
"Oh. Still?"
"Yeah, just a bit."
Rose thought about it for a tick and then shook her head. "It was different this time. I don't know how long it's gonna take for everything to cool down and 'm not just gonna sit around and wait. They can get over it."
She tucked the psychic paper in her pocket and turned to the crowd. "Right! Everyone listen up! The Doctor's bought us some time, but don't think for a second that we're out of this yet. I don't expect the Daleks to honor their words. Solomon tried to trust them and you saw what happened to him. Now, there's people hurt, and trapped, and there's probably more dead here besides Solomon. Everyone who isn't hurt should help! We need to get these fires put out, look for survivors, and someone needs to take care of any bodies we find."
"I'm a doctor!" Martha spoke up. "If anyone's hurt, come to me. Does any one have any medical supplies? A place I can work?"
The people got to it. Sentries went back to their posts and scouts went out in pairs, each armed with loaded guns, to look for any survivors outside of the town. The pigs that hadn't fled due to injuries were put down and Martha had ushered Tallulah away when the blonde woman looked like she was about to sick up. A gunshot split through the night air and, fearing attack, everyone had rushed to arms, until a scout group returned hauling the carcass of a pigman they'd found dying not far outside of camp.
They carried away Solomon's body to deal with later and soon the bodies of four others who hadn't survived the assault joined his. They sorted through the ruins of the shacks and tents, pulling out people that had been trapped beneath. The survivors were taken to Martha.
She had been given a tent to work under near the fire, plus an oil lamp for light. Several shirts were donated that were then cut into strips and one woman had some actual bandages she gave Martha, along with some penicillin, a man supplied some rags and a bar of soap for cleaning wounds, a child ran up with some pain medicine her mum had told her to bring, and another woman gave her a needle and some thread in case anyone needed stitches. It was beyond crude, but all these people were poor and hopeless, it wasn't like they had spare packs of suture. If anyone needed stitches it would have to do, though she would wash the thread in boiling water first. Tallulah was told to see to getting water boiled.
Since her eyes were still amber, Rose remained in the tent with Martha. Tallulah brought them boiled water in whatever she could find—kettles and pots mostly. She used up an entire pot just to wash off the rags they would use to clean the cuts. She stepped out once the line got to be long and started screening people. She realized almost immediately that some of the people in line hadn't been injured, but rather were there about older injuries or ailments, taking advantage of the free medical services being offered.
The ones with the most severe wounds were sent to the head of the line to be dealt with first. The others she told to start a new line and she would take care of them. She cleaned cuts and once or twice asked Martha whether or not they needed stitches—thankfully they didn't and she was able to just send them along with a wrap. Rose held off on treating the next person when one man was set down in the chair and the wound on his leg was deemed severe enough for stitches. So she scalded the spool of thread and Martha gave him pain medicine, then she held his hand as Martha stitched his leg shut.
Once the worst wounds were dealt with, Martha started working from Rose's line. Near the end of the group, Rose ended up treating a little girl of about seven with messy red pigtails and a burn on her right hand. There was nothing they could do except clean it. Tallulah brought her another kettle of water and Rose talked to her while they waited for it to cool.
"What's your name, then?"
"Clara Mercy O'Caroll," she replied promptly with just a hint of a southern accent. "Who are you? I ain't never seen you before."
"My name's Rose Tyler, and we're just passin' through."
"You talk funny."
"Do I?" Rose arched her eyebrow.
"Yeah. You say words wrong."
"Well, to me, you say the words wrong." She smiled and the little girl giggled.
"Your eyes are funny, too."
"Yeah, s'pose they are," Rose murmured and touched just below her eye.
"How come?"
"The Daleks—those metal things in the sky—I've dealt with 'em before. This is because of that."
Clara blinked at her. "What happened?"
"Did you see the man that left with them? They hate him and they were trying to kill him. So I stopped them."
"But why did they attack us? Did we do something wrong?"
"No, sweetheart, no," Rose said. She touched the little girl's good hand. "It's no one's fault. That's just what they do. But you don't have to worry, 'cos the Doctor's gonna stop them. He's not gonna let them hurt you and neither am I. I promise."
The little girl nodded. Rose wasn't sure if she believed her (she didn't completely believe herself) but it was all she could do. She tested the water and decided it was cool enough and told the little girl to put her burned hand in.
Clara looked down at her hand and seemed to be considering something. "Them…Daleks—" she glanced up to make sure she got the word right "—they came from the sky. Is that where they live?"
Well, there was no point in terrifying the girl of the sewers for the rest of her life. "Yes. Far, far out in the sky, beyond the stars you see. There's only four left alive anywhere and they're all here in New York. As soon as they're gone, there won't be any left, and you never will have to be afraid of them again."
"Is there lots of bad things in the sky?"
"Yes, but also lots of good things, too, and trust me, the good things outweigh the bad. Now, come on, let's get your hand wrapped so you can go find your mum." She pulled the burned hand out of the water and gently patted it dry, then wrapped it in a bandage.
"Sweetheart," Martha said. "Tell your mum to treat that as she would any other burn, alright? Then you're good to go. Try and not use it so much for a week."
"Okay," Clara said, hopping out of the chair. "You gonna get them Daleks, right?"
"Yeah, we'll get 'em." Rose smiled tightly. "Now get on back to your mum—and remember, don't tell anyone what I told you."
She nodded and scurried out of the tent, around the fire pit, and on her way.
When the last patient was seen to and gone, Rose slumped forward onto the table, feeling utterly exhausted. Tallulah brought in another pot of water and seemed almost surprised that the line of people had all gone. Martha thanked her.
Tallulah folded her arms and leaned against the wall. "So what about us? What do we do now?"
"I don't know. I honestly have no idea. Rose, did he say anything?"
Rose stared at the wood in front of her and licked her lips. "No."
"Great. So then we're just supposed to sit here and—"
"But he did give me this." Rose pulled the psychic paper from her pocket and held it up for them to see.
Martha bit her lip thoughtfully. "Well, he must've had a reason."
"Yeah, s'pose he did, but what? Where are we supposed to go? I've got nothing."
"What's that for?" Tallulah nodded to the paper.
Rose opened the psychic paper and held it out. Tallulah looked down at it with interest.
"'Dame Rose Tyler of the Powell Estate'," she read. "Well, ain't that fancy."
"It basically means I'm a knight. Now read what it says."
"'Free admission to—' Hang on! It's changed! How'd you do that?"
"The paper's slightly psychic," Rose explained. "It shows the reader whatever the user wants it to. Or whatever you expect to see. We use it for gettin' into places, gettin' people to trust us."
Tallulah's eyebrows shot towards her hairline and her voice went up an octave. "Are you from the government or something?"
Rose and Martha laughed but their mirth didn't last long. "No." Martha shook her head. "But the Doctor—he knows we won't just sit around and if he gave you that, then he must want us to go somewhere, but beyond that, I…" she exhaled sharply. "Rose?"
"I don't know," she said quietly and put her face in her hands.
Oh, hai Bad Wolf.
Y'all should review. Y'know, because you just got a chapter 3 days ago and here's another.