Cold Blood - Part Four
The dread that had been building during this entire adventure seemed to reach a tipping point the moment Rory poked his head around the entryway. I quickly looked down at my shoes and began bouncing my leg to ease my nerves, and while it helped a little bit it didn't do enough.
"Here they are," the Doctor said. I looked up to see him eagerly wave everyone in. Rory and Thomas were the first to cross the threshold, followed shortly by Ambrose who Elliot quickly ran to greet. Thomas made a beeline for me the moment we made eye contact, and while I could tell he was relieved to see me, we both seemed to know better than to celebrate this reunion.
"I know," I said quietly, "I know you did everything you could."
He nodded slowly and turned to face the entryway as Tony brought up the rear, carrying something wrapped in an orange blanket. I took Thomas's hand and squeezed it tightly.
"Something's wrong," the Doctor said, any enthusiasm that was previously present was quickly fading.
"Doctor, what's he carrying?" Amy asked.
"No," he said quietly, "Don't do this. Tell me you didn't do this."
Tony continued to walk towards us before kneeling down and gently placing the orange blanket down on the floor. The Doctor marched up to the blanket before kneeling down and pulling part of it back to reveal the lifeless face of Alaya. I turned quickly and buried my head in Thomas's chest. I'd only ever seen a few dead people before, and even then they were great grandparents I hardly knew at open casket funerals. This was different. This was a murder victim concealed by guilt and an orange blanket, and I couldn't bare to look at her anymore.
"What did you do?" the Doctor asked in a dark tone.
"It was me," Ambrose confessed instantly, "I did it."
"Mum?" Elliot asked. I looked over and saw the boy take a few steps back from his mother.
"I just wanted you back," she pleaded, but her son kept walking away from her towards his dad. Ambrose stood alone, the family she committed this unspeakable act for didn't even want to be within an arm's reach of her and for a brief moment, I actually felt bad for her. The Doctor and I made brief eye contact as he hurried to Eldane, and the disappointment in his eyes was palpable.
"I'm sorry. I didn't know. You have to believe me, they're better than this," he frantically apologized. Eldane had no words; he just looked down at the floor and sighed.
"This is our planet!" Ambrose proclaimed shakily. Any pity I felt for the mother quickly turned to annoyance.
"We had a chance here," the Doctor said, but Ambrose chose not to acknowledge him, continuing to hurl anger towards Eldane.
"Leave us alone," she said.
"Ambrose, that's enough!" I exclaimed. Despite Thomas trying to hold me back I stormed up to confront Ambrose face to face, "We had a chance down here to start something incredible, y'know that? Humanity as a whole could've been sent centuries into the future and you're the reason none of that happened! And look, I get it y'know? You were worried for your family. But there had to be so many better paths to take. And yet you chose the darkest one." I didn't even wait for her to respond before throwing the tungsten keychain down at her feet, "By the way, you dropped this."
Just as I was starting to walk back to a now quite shocked looking friend group, several footsteps echoed throughout the courtroom. As I slowly spun around the number of Silurian warriors surrounding us seemed to grow, until none other than Restac entered the room.
"My sister," she began, but stopped the moment she laid eyes on the orange blanket. She slowly stepped forward, kneeling down and with a hesitant hand pulled the blanket back to once again reveal Alaya's deceased face. And as the military commander's wails of grief echoed off the stone walls, I once again reached for Thomas's hand.
"And you want us to trust these apes, Doctor?" Restac asked, covering her sister's face once again.
"One woman," the Doctor said, trying to save face, "She was scared for her family. She's not typical."
"I think she is," she responded, glaring daggers into Ambrose, who for some reason still seemed to have a bit of confidence in her stance.
"One person let us down, but there is a whole race of dazzling, peaceful humans up there," the Doctor began to let his frustration get the better of him, "You were building something here. Come on! An alliance could work!"
"It's too late for that, Doctor," Ambrose said, drawing a shaky breath, "Our drill is set to start burrowing again in," she paused for a moment to look down at a stopwatch in her hands, "fifteen minutes."
"What?" Nasreen asked incredulously.
"What choice did I have?" Tony asked in return, "They had Elliot."
"Every choice!" Thomas shouted, "You had every choice to make!"
Restac began to take slow, methodical steps towards Ambrose. There wasn't a hint of mercy present on her face.
"Let us go back. And you promise never to come to the surface again," Ambrose might've been the last person I wanted to defend in that moment but she sure had a lot of gall to still be making demands given her current position. "We'll walk away. Leave you alone!"
Restac stopped before giving one simple command.
"Execute her!"
The Silurian warriors quickly began firing in Ambrose's direction, but the Doctor ran forward to save her.
"Everybody, back to the lab. Run!" he shouted, hanging back to disarm some of the warriors with his screwdriver. Thomas and I led the charge hand in hand. With Eldane's direction we around corners and up stairwells all while checking occasionally to make sure no one was getting left behind. We stopped for a moment to catch our breath when the Doctor came running up with Restac and two soldiers following quickly behind him.
"Take everyone to the lab!" he said, holding his screwdriver up, "I'll cover you." I quickly fished my screwdriver out of Thomas's pocket and tossed it to the Time Lord.
"Maybe you should try dual-wielding," I said as he caught it, then ran to catch up to the rest of the group.
The lab was just a quick sprint away from where we stopped, and once I crossed through the doorway I leaned against an examination table.
"Too. Much. Uphill. Running," I said between gasps.
"You alright?" Thomas asked, placing a hand on my back. I stood upright and stretched my arms once I caught my breath, smiling up at him.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just had to catch my breath is all."
"Oh, good. Because I'm about to take it away again."
Before I even had time to react, Thomas pulled me in for a very unexpected kiss. His lips didn't linger long on mine, but given the suddenness of the act it certainly felt a lot longer. I'm sure my eyes were the size of planets as I looked up to his smiling face.
"You… you weren't acting that time," I stuttered, and he shook his head, "Cool. Nice. Um, other words for cool."
Thomas laughed and pulled me in for a far overdue hug, which I gladly returned.
"I was just really happy to see you, that's all," he said.
"I'm happy to see you too." I tightened my hold on him slightly before letting go.
When I heard something running towards the door I turned around ready to fight, but when I heard the Doctor's screwdriver locking the door we just came through I relaxed a bit. That proved to be a mistake though as I fumbled the catch when he tossed my screwdriver back to me.
"Ginny, lock the door on the far side of the lab. We don't want anyone ambushing us," the Doctor said. I gave a quick affirmative and Thomas followed me across the lab to a small alcove where the other door was open.
"So, when you were chewing out Ambrose," Thomas started to say as I locked the door.
"I was too harsh, wasn't I? I kinda started to regret it the moment Restac entered," I said, glancing over to her and Elliot.
"Well, I was actually gonna say it was kinda badass, but if you're regretting it I won't say anything."
"Oh!" I felt myself going red, "Um, thanks?"
He thinks I'm badass? I thought, I hope he doesn't expect that of me all the time.
I locked the door relatively quickly which turned out to be a blessing because I could see a modest size group of warriors on the monitor outside the door. There were maybe eight of them total, all with their weapons trained on the door.
"Doctor, shedload of those creatures coming our way!" Mo announced, looking at the opposite door's monitor.
"And a truckload over here, too! Not to alarm anyone, but we're kinda surrounded," I said.
"So, question is how do we stop the drill when we can't get there in time? Plus, also, how do we get out, given that we're surrounded?" the Doctor was brainstorming at ninety miles a minute, "Nasreen, how do you feel about an energy pulse channeled up through the tunnels to the base of the drill?"
Nasreen looked at the Doctor incredulously. "To destroy my life's work?" she asked.
"Yes. Sorry, no nice way of putting that."
"Right," Nasreen thought for a second, "Well, you're going to have to do it before the drill hits the city in, er…"
"Eleven minutes, forty seconds," Amy chimed in after checking the timer.
"Yes, squeaky bum time!" the Doctor exclaimed.
"Sorry, what?" I asked to myself, "Squeaky bum time, is that a thing?" Thomas shrugged looking just as lost as I was.
"But, the explosion is going to cave in all the surrounding tunnels, so we have to be out on the surface by then," Nasreen said.
"But we can't get past Restac's troops," Rory pointed out.
"I can help with that," Eldane spoke up, drawing our attention as he walked over from beside Tony, "Toxic Fumigation. An emergency failsafe meant to protect my species from infection. A warning signal to occupy cryo-chambers. After that, citywide fumigation by toxic gas. Then the city shuts down."
"You could end up killing your own people," Amy said grimly.
"Only those foolish enough to follow Restac."
"Eldane, are you sure about this?" the Doctor asked.
"My priority is my race's survival," Eldane sighed as he looked down at the lab's controls, "The Earth isn't ready for us to return yet."
"No," the Doctor said, followed by Amy letting him know there were ten minutes left, "But maybe it should be. So, here's the deal," he looked to address us all, "Everybody listening. Eldane, you activate shutdown. I'll amend the system, set your alarm for a thousand year's time. A thousand years to sort the planet out. To be ready. Pass it on. As legend, or prophesy, or religion, but somehow make it known. This planet is to be shared."
Elliot looked up at the Doctor and smiled. "Yeah," he said, "I get you."
With a snap of his fingers the Doctor turned his thoughts to the control panel behind him. According to Amy we only had roughly nine minutes to get back topside, so the Time Lord hurriedly typed in commands.
"Yes. Fluid controls, my favorite!" he mused as low-pitched beeps sounded from the panel, "Energy pulse timed, primed, and set."
I walked over to look at the various screens and took notice of one showing the surface with a dome spinning in place; the energy barricade. I quickly pointed my screwdriver at the screen displaying it and watched as the dome retracted.
"Canceled out the barricade, Doctor!" I announced, pocketing my screwdriver.
"Fumigation pre-launching," Eldane added, looking up from his screen. Rory and Thomas walked up to the control panel to stand next to Amy. Rory glanced briefly at Amy's stopwatch and looked back to us.
"There's not much time for us to get from here to the surface, Doctor," he said.
"Ah-ha, super squeaky bum time!" the Doctor said. Seriously, what does that mean? "Get ready to run for your lives."
"But the decontamination program on your friend hasn't started yet," Eldane protested, causing me to look over to Tony. He took a step down from the examination table and started shooing us out.
"Well, go!" he insisted, "All of you, go!"
"No, we're not leaving you here!" Ambrose said. Elliot quickly ran to his granddad, not wanting to leave him either. They spoke with one another, but from where I stood I couldn't fully hear what they were saying. I could tell from the way they looked at each other though that it was a goodbye of some kind, which concluded with Tony pulling Elliot in for a tight hug. Ambrose stepped forward and also said goodbye to her dad, the two of them hugging as well before Tony looked to the Doctor and nodded. Eldane held a hand up to the screen he'd been looking at, and within a few seconds the lights dimmed and were replaced with flashing green ones.
"TOXIC FUMIGATION INITIATED," the announcement started, accompanied by alarms, "RETURN TO CRYO-CHAMBERS."
I ran to the monitor on the door I locked and saw that the eight warriors outside were now turning around and walking back down the corridor. Once the last one rounded the corner, I turned and gave a thumbs up to the Doctor.
"All clear on this end!" I said.
"Over here too!" Amy said, looking at the other monitor, "We're clear!"
The Doctor quickly ran over to the door I locked and ushered everyone else over, too. "Okay, everyone follow Ginny and Nasreen. Look for a blue box!" he unlocked the door, "Get ready to run." Before any of us went to leave, the Doctor turned back to Eldane and apologized.
"I thought for a moment, our race and the humans," Eldane mused.
"Yeah, me too," the Doctor said.
"Doctor, we've got less than six minutes!" Amy said hurriedly. The Doctor turned to all of us and shooed us down the cavern.
"Go! Go! I'm right behind you!" he insisted.
Not exactly having time to argue, our group hurried down the winding passages back towards the citadel. I did my best to remember the way there, but I will admit that with the alarms blaring it was somewhat hard to focus. I hadn't realized how slowly we were going until we reached the pathway suspended over a sea of magma. We practically crawled to a halt as we took hesitant steps across the bridge I now realized had no guard rails. Our group was about halfway across when the Doctor and Amy blew past us at breakneck speed.
"Come on, then!" the Doctor called back to us, giving us the push we needed to catch up.
While we were running through the citadel Thomas and I somehow found ourselves bringing up the rear of the group, and while this wouldn't normally be a problem for us, we found ourselves utterly lost among all the similarly constructed buildings.
"Now what?" Thomas asked, looking up and around us. I looked over to my right and saw what I thought was Amy rounding a corner down a hallway, then I took his hand and we ran quickly to catch up with her.
"Hey Amy, wait for us!" I called to her, but as we rounded the same corner that she did, I realized I hadn't seen Amy at all. What I saw ended up being Restac, gun drawn as the toxic gas began to emit around her.
"Vile apes!" she cried, firing her gun just as Thomas pulled me out of her line of fire. Despite being poisoned, the military commander was hot on our trail from the moment we doubled back and up the stairwell towards the Tardis. I didn't dare look behind me as we snaked through the winding caverns. Thomas did though, and slowed his pace from a frantic sprint to a hurried run.
"Ha!" he exclaimed, "Looks like she tripped on something. Let's hurry!"
I turned my head slightly to see Restac lying face down just a foot from the stairs; her body getting smaller as we distanced ourselves. Ahead of us I was able to see what looked like the light from the Tardis shining against the cave walls. My pace quickened as I began to smile.
Nearly home free, I thought. But as I crossed the threshold my relief quickly turned to regret. I was only able to see the crack in the universe for a fraction of a second before I doubled over in unrelenting agony. Any momentum I had from running sent me skidding across the floor, clutching my pounding head desperately in my hands. This was nothing like what I'd experienced on the Byzantium; this was much, much worse. I didn't even have the willpower to scream. All of my energy was going into staying awake amidst the torturous burning. It was similar to how my hand felt when it was being cauterized; but while that was a small medical instrument grazing my palm, this was the white-hot fire at the end of the universe burning throughout my whole body. And it only kept getting hotter, and hotter, and even hotter until finally…
Nothing.
Any pain I felt seconds before had entirely vanished, as well as any other physical sensations. I was entirely numb to my now completely whited out surroundings. Colors at the far end of the void began to flash, and while I couldn't move myself to have a closer look, the colors seemed to be getting closer. And as they drew closer I began to notice that what I thought were just flashing colors were images flashing by in a specific order:
A wooden crib set against a wall, a black and white tile floor, and a wooden swing set hanging from a large oak tree. The pictures danced across my vision repeatedly, the pattern growing faster with each succession until it was once again just a flashing mess of colors. Even still, the more I looked into the bright colors the more I found myself strangely at peace. I began to feel myself being pulled closer in towards the colors, guided my something warm around my arm; but I didn't fight it.
This is nice, I began to think, This is really, really…
A sudden and forceful tug backwards brought me out of my trance; and all of the pain from before hit me again like a bus. The burning from before somehow managed to grow in intensity, but rather than coursing through my whole body it now localized itself in my head and left arm. My vision came back to me as the while light of the crack dispersed, and I found myself focusing on two hands hurriedly pulling strands of light away from my arm. But as the strands came loose, they began latching themselves around a flannel clad torso.
"Thomas?" I croaked, looking up to those pale blue eyes which remained focused on their work. My glance dropped down from his eyes to follow a tear as it fell past his clenched jaw.
Why is he crying? And why did he have his jaw clenched like he was in pain? I thought, then everything clicked into place; the tears, the pain, the light wrapping around his torso.
Oh, god.
"Thomas you can't do this!" I cried, pulling with what little strength I had against the time energy around him, "I can't let you be forgotten because of me. I can't do that!"
No response came from him as he continued to free my arm. I began to frantically pull at his sleeve, gripping the fabric as tight as I could in order to drag him towards the Tardis.
"You were supposed to teach me those card games. The ones that are easy to learn but hard to master, right?" I pleaded, tears blurring my vision. Still no response until my arm was free from the time energy. Now he was the one being pulled by the crack, and now I had to play tug-of-war with time itself.
"We were on the hill, remember? We were on the hill and we were playing that song. Thomas, we were playing it together!"
I let go of his sleeves to wrap my arms around his chest; but before I could get a grip on him Thomas took my face in his hands, tilting my chin up so that we were looking into each others eyes. Then before I even had time to register what happened, I was pulled in for a kiss; just as long as our first one in the lab, but somehow more passionate. When he pulled away a tear began to roll down my cheek, but he brushed it away with his thumb.
"Please, don't do this," I begged him as he pulled me in for one last hug.
"Don't forget about me Ginny, okay?" was all he said before pushing me back towards the Tardis. I crashed through the doors before my head slammed hard against the concrete floor. My vision soon blurred and began to spin, sending me further and further down into darkness with the last thing I heard being someone calling my name.