Chapter 10

Of course Amy had chosen Rio. Of course Rose had dressed for Rio. Of course the Doctor got the coordinates wrong and they landed in the year 2020 in South Wales.

Of course.

Rose stepped out of the TARDIS. The moment he feet touched the ground she jumped backwards and hit the Doctor. "The ground feels weird." She observed.

The Doctor stepped out and bounced up and down. "It does."

Amy and Rory shook their heads. Someone waved at them from the distance.

"Who's that?" Amy asked.

"Oh! Future you!" The Doctor exclaimed. Amy started rambling about going to meet their future selves and the Doctor had to stop her from running over there.

Rose bent down and picked some blue grass off of the ground. "Blue grass."

The Doctor took it out of her hand. "Patches of it, all around the graveyard." He stuck in in his pocket.

Amy opened her mouth to speak.

"Oh! Big mining thing!" The Doctor said quickly. "Love a big mining thing."

The Doctor took Rose's hand and they ran forward.

Once they arrived at the gate the Doctor glanced at a sign. "Restricted access, no unauthorized personnel." He read, and then soniced the lock.

"That's breaking and entering!" Exclaimed Amy.

"What did I break?" Asked the Doctor, giving Amy an innocent look.

"Sonicing and entering." Rose said, grinning at Amy.

Rose yanked the Doctor forward and through the gate. Amy sighed and chased after them.

"Where's Rory?" Rose asked Amy.

"He went to put my engagement ring back in the TARDIS." Rose nodded and chased after the Doctor.

The trio walked down a hallway. The Doctor plopped the blue grass into his mouth the spit it out.

"Oh please, have you always been this disgusting?" Amy asked.

"No." The Doctor said.

"That's fairly new." Rose finished. The Doctor smiled at her.

"Oo! What's in" the Doctor poked his head around the corner "here."

Rose followed him into the room to find a lady demanding to know who they were.

"What are you wearing?" The lady asked Rose and Amy.

"We dressed for Rio." Answered Amy.

"But this one here" Rose jutted her thumb at the Doctor "never gets us to the right place!"

"Rude." The Doctor commented.

"And not ginger." Rose responded, giving him a cheeky grin that she knew would make the Doctor go light-headed. He smiled idiotically and let out a stupid giggle and then slammed his mouth shut, giving her a glare.

"Stop that." He told her.

"Stop what?" Rose asked innocently.

"That!" He waved his fingers in her face. "Distracting me."

Rose rolled her eyes and glanced at Amy and the woman, who were giving them strange looks.

The Doctor flashed his physic paper at the woman and proceeded to explain their reason for being there.

The Doctor glanced at the screen and Rose peered over his shoulder. "By the look on your face I can tell that those readings can't be good."

"Where are you getting these readings from?" The Doctor asked.

"Under the soil." The woman replied.

A man walked into the room. "The drill's up and running again. What's going on? Who are these people?" The man said.

"Amy, the Doctor, and Rose." Amy introduced. "And we're not staying, are we Doctor?"

"Why's there a big patch of earth in the middle of your floor?" Rose asked, examining the strange patch of dirt in the floor.

"We don't know, it just appeared overnight." The woman answered.

"Good. Right. You all need to get out of here very fast." The Doctor said, studying the patch of dirt along with Rose.

"Why?" The man asked.

"What's your name?" Rose asked.

"Nasreen Chaudhry, and my friend Tony Mack." The woman, now known as Narseen, said.

"Look at the screens, Nasreen. Look at your readings. It's moving." The Doctor told Narseen. He was standing by the computer and Amy had come to look at the dirt patch with Rose.

"Hey, that's specialized equipment. Get away from it." Tony said, running up and trying to get the Doctor away from the screen.

"What is?" Narseen asked. "What's moving?"

The Doctor shook Tony off of him.

The dirt patch began to steam. "Doctor, is it supposed to steam." Amy asked. Rose and the Doctor shared a worried glance.

"Why is it shifting? It shouldn't be shifting. The soil, it's shifting!" The Doctor exclaimed.

Rose stood up and felt the ground. It was shifting. She could feel it.

The ground started to shake and Rose fell into the Doctor's arms.

The readings on the computer were going everywhere. Rose stood up and rushed over to the dirt patch. "Rose! Back away from that!" The Doctor warned.

"Earthquake?" Amy yelled.

"Doubt it, because it's only happening under this room." The Doctor answered. "It knows we're here! The ground is attacking us! Under the circumstances I'd suggest… RUN!"

Two more holes appeared in the ground and then more and more. The group began to run. Tony slipped and his foot went into a hole. Amy rushed over and grabbed Tony's arm and tried to haul him back up.

"Tony!" Narseen yelled.

"Stay back Amy! Stay away!" The Doctor yelled at the red head. Amy ignored him and continued helping Tony.

Another hole appeared under Amy's foot and she slipped. "Amelia!" The Doctor yelled.

Rose jumped over a hole and grabbed Amy's arm. "Hold on Amy. Just hold on!"

"Rose!" The Doctor yelled, fear evident in his voice.

"Something's got me!" Amy screamed. "It's got my leg!"

Rose tugged on Amy's arm again. Suddenly she felt the ground give way under her and her leg went underground. "Rose!" The Doctor screamed. He began to run over to her.

"NO!" Rose yelled at him. "If you come over here it will get you too! I'm coming back!"

She glanced at Amy beside her. They were both sinking, and fast. "See you on the other side." Rose whispered.

Amy's voice shook as she said "Yeah, you too." And Rose felt the ground close over her head.

She was gone. They were gone. And he had just sat by helplessly and Rose and Amy were sucked down to who know where?

The Doctor put his face in his hands and let out a sob. He couldn't lose Rose again. Never again.

Narseen had gotten Tony out and they had gone to shut down the drill.

He looked up and ran over to the hole where Rose was sucked down. "No." He whispered. The Doctor picked up and handful of dirt and let it fall. "No! I'm not losing you again!" He yelled. The Doctor dug even though he knew it was hopeless. He had to try, had to try and get Rose back to him.

"No!" He yelled again. He felt tears well up in his eyes and he sat back. It was hopeless. But somehow he knew that there was something down there, that Rose hadn't just been dragged into the earth to suffocate and die. Something found a way up, so he could find a way down.

He whipped back around and scanned the ground with his sonic screwdriver. Slowly he let go of the button and the sonic stop buzzing. He couldn't get them back by scanning dirt.

Narseen and Tony ran back in. "Where are they?" Narseen asked.

"Gone." He whispered hopelessly. "The ground took them. But I swear, I swear, that I will do everything in my power to get them back."

"Is that what happened to Mo?" Tony asked. "Are they dead?"

"It's not quicksand." The Doctor said, choosing to ignore the man's question. "They didn't just sink. Something pulled them down. It wanted them."

Narseen gave him a strange look. "The ground wanted them?"

"You said the ground was dormant. The drill was off when you got here, but then you turned it on, and the ground fought back." The Doctor said.

"So the ground wants us to stop drilling?" Narseen asked. "Doctor, that is ridiculous."

He scanned the ground again the dirt shook. "I'm not saying that, and it's not ridiculous, I just don't think it's right." The Doctor said. Then an idea hit him. "Oh, of course. It's bio-programming."

"What?" Narseen asked.

"Bio-programming. Oh, it's clever." He clapped his hands together. "You use bio-signals to resonate the internal molecular structure of natural objects. It's mainly used in engineering and construction, mostly jungle planets, but that's way in the future and not here. What's it doing here?" What was it doing here. This was early 21st century. Bio programming didn't exist yet.

"I'm sorry did you just say jungle planets?" Narseen said. "I'm sorry Doctor, but you're not making any sense."

"Excuse me but I'm making perfect sense. You're just not keeping up." The Doctor shot back.

Narseen let out a questioning laugh and crossed her arms.

"The ground, the earth beneath out feet, was bio-programmed to attack." He concluded.

"Yeah, even if that were possible, which, by the way, it's not, why?" Narseen questioned him.

"Stop you drilling. Okay, so we find whatever's doing the bio-programming, we can find Amy and Rose. We can get them back." The Doctor said. He suddenly heard a rumbling beneath the ground. "Shush, shush, shush. Have I gone mad? I've gone mad."

"Doctor…" Narseen said suspiciously.

"Shush, shush. Silence. Absolute silence. You've stopped the drill, right?" The Doctor asked.

"Yes." Tony answered. The Doctor had forgotten he was there, he was so quiet.

"And you've only got the one drill?" The Doctor asked.

"Yes." Tony repeated.

"Then why can I still hear drilling?" The Doctor asked. That wasn't good. There was something down there, and he was thankful that Rose and Amy probably hadn't suffocated, but he didn't know if the things down there were friendly.

He soniced the computer. "What are you doing?" Narseen asked.

"Hacking into your records. Probe reports, samples, sensors. Good. Just unite the data, make it all one big conversation. Let's have a look. So, we are here and this is your drill hole. Twenty one point zero, zero nine kilometres. Well done." He said quickly. He was rambling. He needed to stop that.

"Thank you, it's taken us a long time." Narseen said, her voice filled with pride.

"Why here, though? Why'd you drill on this site?" The Doctor questioned her.

"We found patches of grass in this area, containing trace minerals unseen in this country for twenty million years." She said.

"The blue grass?" The Doctor said. "Oh, Nasreen. Those trace minerals weren't X marking the spot, saying dig here. They were a warning. Stay away. Because while you've been drilling down, somebody else has been drilling up."

Suddenly the screen changed. There were tunnels all under the ground. Tunnels that people, or aliens, could travel through.

He questioned Narseen and Tony about who lived here and what they had surveyed. Most of the people were just traveling in for a bit, very few lived nearby.

This was not good. Something was coming up, and fast, and he didn't know how to stop it.

Disclaimer

Thanks to all my bowties

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Over and Out ~Greek-Whovian