As a part of my apology for the two month wait, I will try to update every couple of days. Hopefully, you'll have another couple chapters by July 30th. Im writing as fast as possible.
And thank you so much to the people who still followed this story through that long of a wait. If I were one of you guys I would have deleted this story from my alert list sooner or later. So thank you so much.
So here is Chapter 23, out of the frying pan and into the fire. Enjoy :)
"No way!" Martha exclaimed. "How can you be here?"
"I could ask you the same!" said the woman, sticking her silver stick into her pocket. "But I'll ask later. We've got to find a safe place."
"Who are you?" Amy asked. She didn't get an answer since Martha was too busy talking.
"Nothing about this place is safe," Martha said, returning to a hushed voice.
"Is the Doctor here?" the woman asked quietly.
"Who are y—" Amy started to ask.
"He just got taken out of his cell," Martha said. "I don't know where his is, and we've got no plan."
The woman smiled. "Good thing I've got one."
Martha's face split into a grin as she pushed her braids over her shoulder again.
"But first, we've got to find the Doctor."
"Who—"
"He and Mickey—"
"Mickey's here, too?" the woman asked.
"He's my husband now," Martha said and went on in a hushed voice. "He and Mickey went around the corner at the end of that corridor."
"Alright," the woman said. "We need to get the Doctor and Mickey out—"
"INTRUDERS!"
Martha, Amy, and the woman spun around. Amy bit her lip.
They were busted. Again.
There was silence as the group looked into the deep hole, or "the chamber", as the Doctor had guessed it was. It was sickening and dizzying to gaze into the pit, but for some reason, no one could take their eyes off it.
Rory finally broke the silence.
"So this is where Amy's supposed to be?" he asked.
"If this is the chamber, than yes."
"But she isn't here," Donna said.
"She must have gone down that," Clara added.
After a moment's silence, River said, "I could have gone down there, too." She finally tore her eyes away from the pit and said, "We can't stay here. Doctor, you need to open the door."
Clara's eyes widened. "Are you insane?"
"Yes," the Doctor muttered under his breath, but Clara didn't hear.
"Those freaky alien things are out there—"
"Actually they're not," the Doctor interrupted. Clara looked at him.
"What are you talking about? They're still out there."
"I know," said the Doctor. "I just meant that they're not aliens. They were the superior species before humans existed, but went into hibernation when they thought the world was ending when it was just the moon—"
Donna cleared her throat. The Doctor glanced at her. "Yes?"
"Is now really the time to act like an encyclopedia?" she asked. "OR IS IT TIME TO OPEN A BLOODY DOOR?!"
There was silence. After a moment, Clara had to stifle a giggle as the Doctor's mouth fell open. River tried and failed to bite back a smile, and Rory just looked as if he didn't know what to do.
After a moment, the Doctor said, "You're ruder than I remember." That's when, despite everything, everyone burst out laughing.
Clara saw a light out of the corner of her eye, and her laughter died. She turned and noticed a small screen displaying the face of a familiar Silurian.
"Doctor," she called, and suddenly, the Doctor was next to her, looking at Calcon's face.
"Video conference?" asked the Doctor. Calcon, with her lips pursed angrily and her eyes narrowed, stared back at them. The Doctor glanced from her image to the others and back again. "Can you hear us?"
"What is it going to take to kill you, Doctor?" Calcon demanded. Her nostrils flared as she spoke, every word shaking with rage. Clara didn't know why the Doctor wasn't cowering in fear. If someone was talking to her like that, she'd run home and hide under her bed (you know, once she is NOT at the center of the earth). But the Doctor also didn't seem like one to be scared by the strange and bizarre.
To be honest, he acted like this type of thing was his backyard.
The Doctor didn't respond. He just stood there motionlessly next to her, his jaw set and his eyes focused on Calcon's image.
Then he slowly said, "Nothing." Clara's eyes flickered back and forth between the Doctor and Calcon as he opened his mouth again. "You can't kill me."
Calcon gave him a glare of pure venomous hatred, and said, "We'll just test that theory, shall we?"
On the little video screen, the group saw Calcon's arm rise up. Her hand disappeared out of the side of the screen, and moving tendons on her wrist suggested her fingers were moving vigorously across some sort of pad.
There was a click from the door, and the Doctor whipped his Sonic out and scanned it.
"Deadlocked," he murmured, putting his eyes back on Calcon, and his screwdriver in his pocket. "What are you doing?"
"That pit in the middle of the chamber goes down further than anyone knows," Calcon explained, a cruel little smile on her face. "It might even reach the planet's core. No one is dumb enough to just jump in. You're standing on a thin catwalk that only stretches out a few feet."
Instinctively, everyone looked down at the grated floor. Through it, they could see only darkness, the deepness of the pit below them. Should the grated floor collapse, they'd fall right in. The group looked back at the screen as Calcon's voice sounded again.
"All I need to do is press this button," Calcon hissed, pointing a finger at the pad they could not see, "And you will be pushed in."
"And how do you expect that to happen?" Rory snapped. Calcon looked over the Doctor's shoulder and right at Rory. She gave him a sick little smile.
"You're wife would know." She let the words sink in, and Clara watched the rage building up on Rory's face. She could almost hear his heart pounding.
"I will kill you," he hissed angrily. Calcon didn't seem the least bit fearful.
"Tut tut," she said, waving a finger. "You'll be long dead before my life ends. And when that comes, we will have taken back our beloved planet from you filthy apes." She smiled once more. "Time to die." She pressed the button, and the screen faded to black.
And that was when the walls began to close in.
The Doctor enjoyed Rose's hug for a few moments before suddenly hearing the sliding door close again. Even through the ceiling, he could hear the whimpering of the unfortunate victim. He stood up (which caused Rose to fall off him and onto the floor; he muttered a quick apology) and turned to Jack.
"You need to open the floor again," he hissed. Jack nodded and pulled the switch; the floor opened, and a girl who couldn't be older that 25 fell through, a dark braid trailing down behind her. She landed on the floor with a thump.
Jack hissed at her to scream, and, too afraid to defy him, she did, continuing until Jack told her to stop. The ceiling closed again.
"Doctor, the Cybermen are going to notice," Jack said. "The Cybermen on the other side of the chamber."
The Doctor thought for a moment. "Do you have any weapons?" he asked finally.
Jack said, "The Cybermen confiscated my weapons the last time I died." He thought for a moment. "But I found your screwdriver." He pulled it out, and put it in the hands of the smiling Doctor.
"Died?" Rose repeated. "You died again? How many times have you died today?"
Jack shrugged. "Three." He smiled. "It's been a good day."
"An-y-way," the Doctor stressed. "We need a pulsar in order to fry all of them."
"We don't have—"
"But," the Doctor said, raising a finger. "We can make one. Meanwhile, keep taking the people from the upgrading chamber."
"But the Cybermen on the other side of the chamber will notice—"
"Which is why, when I'm done, you will go up and fry them all."
A grin slowly spread across Jack's face. "That could work."
"Of course it will," the Doctor agreed cockily. "Just keep taking people out of the chamber while I work."
Jack nodded right as he heard the machine whirr to life. He reached for the switch. Rose remembered the girl right as he did. She spun around and hurried to the girl who was still sitting on the floor. She reached for her hand.
"Come on," Rose prompted. "Unless you want to become a pancake."
The girl stumbled to the side with Rose's help right before another person, this time, a rather fat American man, fall through the ceiling.
The girl's facial expression was hard to read. Her lips were pursed as she scanned the scene with some sort of recognition. Then she muttered something that Rose didn't catch.
"What was that?" she asked. The girl looked up at her.
"What's your name?" she asked.
"My name's Rose," she replied. "Yours?"
"Maria," she responded distractedly. "Maria Jackson."
So there's the next chapter, as I promised (or was I just thinking it? Cuz I don't recall writing the promise on the previous chapter...). Just a few questions:
1) What do you think of the story so far?
2) Who do you think the mysterious person is? (Hint, chapter title)
3) Do you like the character SEC? (I know random, since she hasn't appeared in a while.)
I LIVE FOR REVIEWS!