May 2018: re-edited since its original posting.
Chapter 2 - Snatched
Rose found it hard to believe that this was the same New Earth she'd visited with the Doctor. She'd watched in disbelief as a woman bought herself some "forget", instantly going from depressed and downcast to serene and indifferent.
When the Doctor had tried to question her about the parents she'd just mentioned beforehand - gone to the motorway, she'd said - she couldn't care in the least. "That's nice," she'd told him.
Rose watched now, as that very woman walked back down the street, off into her own little world.
"So that's the human race five billion years in the future," Martha observed. "Off their heads on chemicals."
"An' after savin' all those people from the hospital," Rose observed, "not much of an improvement, goin' from forced guinea pig to voluntary zombie."
A sudden shriek pulled her attention away from the woman, and Rose turned to see the barrel of a gun. Another woman was pointing the weapon between her and the Doctor, while a kicking and screaming Martha was being dragged down the street by a man who had his arm around her neck.
"I'm sorry," the man shouted to them. "I'm really, really sorry. We just need three, that's all."
"Three?" repeated Rose. "No, just let 'er go!" she called as she and the Doctor slowly followed after them, cautious in the face of the woman who still had the gun trained on them as she backed away with her accomplice.
"Let her go!" ordered the Doctor. "I'm warning you, let her go! Whatever you want, we can help. All of us, we can help. But first you've got to LET HER GO!"
"I'm sorry," echoed the woman, as the man and Martha disappeared around a corner. "I'm really, sorry. Sorry." She continued backing away, seeming on the verge of tears, until she, too, ducked around the corner and vanished.
Rose and the Doctor immediately ran after them. The Doctor sonic'ed his way through a locked door, but the kidnappers were already lost to sight.
Still, they ran, not seeing any obvious turn-offs from the corridor they were in. They finally came out onto what looked to Rose like a fire escape, just in time to see a flying car rising into the air.
"Martha!" the Doctor yelled, as the vehicle sped off down a small alleyway and out of sight.
He spun back to Rose, hands pulling at his hair in frustration. "Back we go," he said, reaching down for her hand, and led her back the way they'd come until they were once again in the alley with the street vendors.
"Used to be thriving in this place," bemoaned one of the chemical vendors when the Doctor questioned them. "You couldn't move. But they all go to the motorway in the end."
Rose piped up. "He kept sayin' 'three', 'we need three'," she said, looking between the vendors and the Doctor. "What'd he mean, 'three'?"
"It's the car-sharing policy, to save fuel," answered the first. "You get special access if you're carrying three adults."
"This motorway," the Doctor asked, "how do we get there?"
"Straight down the alley, keep going to the end. You can't miss it." Rose and the Doctor didn't waste a second, turning and leaving the vendors behind them, despite the calls of, "Tell you what - how 'bout some happy 'Happy'? Then you'll be smiling, my love!"
The Doctor made to turn back, but Rose kept a firm grip on his hand as she kept moving. "Martha first, yeah?" she said. "Then we can come back an' sort this lot."
The Doctor grumbled something under his breath, but picked up his pace until they were running towards the motorway.
Martha groggily came to, finding herself on a shelf or bed in what she assumed was the car she'd been dragged to. Her kidnappers were chatting away, sitting behind the dashboard, oblivious to her.
She reached up, peeling away the sticker they'd placed on her neck. "Sleep", it said. She threw it to the floor in disgust. Looking around the interior, she spotted the woman's gun sitting atop a computer monitor. She snatched it up, and pointed it at the kidnappers.
"Take me back," she demanded. "Whoever you are, just take me back to my friends. That's all I want. I won't cause any trouble. Just take me back!"
The kidnappers didn't exactly seem concerned. "I'm sorry," said the woman. They seemed to like saying that, thought Martha. "That's not a real gun."
"Yeah, well, you would say that," Martha replied, keeping the gun steady.
"Where do you get a gun from, these days?" the woman asked. "I wouldn't even know how to fire."
Martha looked at the gun again, realizing that, fake or not, she wouldn't either. "No, nor me," she said, lowering the weapon. "Okay."
"What's your name?" the woman asked, in a surprisingly friendly tone considering the situation.
"Martha. Martha Jones," she answered, moving to join them at the front of the car.
"Well, I'm Cheen, and this is Milo," the woman told her. "And I swear, we're sorry. We're really, really sorry. We just needed access to the fast line, but I promise, as soon as we arrive, we'll drop you off and you can go back and find your friends."
Sounded simple enough. "Seriously?" Martha asked.
"I swear! Look -" Cheen pulled back her hair to show Martha the sticker on her own neck. "Honesty patch," she said.
"All the same, that's still kidnapping," Martha argued, but found herself liking the woman. "Where are we, anyway?" she asked.
They told her about the motorway, and how they were leaving Pharmacy Town for Brooklyn, because they were expecting. She was surprised when they said it's only ten miles away, and even more astonished when they told her it was going to take six years.
"Nope. Sorry, hold on," Martha said. "Six years? Ten miles in six years? How come?"
To be continued...