Chapter 17
"That thing working, then?", the Doctor's sharp voice startles me and the laser screwdriver falls from my hand, landing loudly between the metal barrels.
I sigh. "I was afraid it switched off like the Tardis, but it's working just fine. Yours?".
"Perfectly. May I speak with you a minute?".
I've been unwillingly and half-willingly avoiding him since I dragged Curtis to the Tardis with me. I know he's not happy about me tour-guiding him there. I just wanted to get his trust. Something in Curtis' eyes and attitude reminded me of myself, and of the Doctor too.
I sigh and pick up the screwdriver from my feet, without looking at him.
"Anytime".
"What are you doing?".
"I'm welding the barrels together. I told them I could probably laser the first security gates open but Curtis needs the surprise. So the barrels, they're going to use them as a battering ram creating a tunnel straight from this car to the prison car, otherwise there's only four seconds to run through- wait a second, you were there when Edgar and Curtis explained it to us".
"Yeah. My question was more like, what are you doing, in general". He sighs and sits beside me, pulling his sonic screwdriver. He starts sonicking the screws on the other end of the barrel. "Helping them".
"Didn't we already have this conversation? The whole let's trust the outsiders as much as we trust those red little notes with hints that some mysterious helper is sending hidden in food part? Weren't you the one talking with Gilliam? I groan. "Real question is, why are you not into it? If I want to help them, if me, Donna and Martha want to help them, is because of you. We take after you, you know. You done there?" I ask, rolling the barrels so we can work on the other side. "What's wrong, Doctor? I don't see this as fixed".
"It's not. You barging in like an angel might really help them". He gives me one of those warning looks.
I groan, and look at him.
"But", he continues. "There's something wrong here. I can't put my finger on it yet, but there's something wrong. Something that doesn't add up", he repeats.
"I thought you talked to Gilliam. You were going through details with Edgar when Curtis and I came back from the Tardis".
"I did. Still, this isn't the first failed social system I've seen, you know". He takes a deep breath. "And sure not the first refugee camp gone wrong".
I close my eyes. "If you're talking about the Utopia rocket...", I shiver.
"No need to go that far. It's just... something isn't working the way they tell the story. I'm not sure I trust them".
"Curtis?".
"Naah, Curtis is playing the hero here. He's genuine. Pure at heart. Gilliam... the merciful Mr. Wilford. Something doesn't add up".
"The... Eternal Engine?" I ask. "Do you think that can be a danger for the Tardis?".
"Well, anyone trying to run an eternal engine to starve a population is better away from my ship". Yeah. And he's trying to make it as he's not thinking about Utopia.
"Is this why you agreed with the plan? You want to see how the engine works?".
"Aha. You should be the first to be thrilled about it. A self-sustaining train. An engine that never stops. Field day for someone I know".
I turn to look at him, returning his warning stare.
"Just... be careful, Zoe, ok?". He gently places a hand through my hair and pulls me close. He kisses my forehead, tenderly. "I don't want you to get hurt just because you feel you have to prove something to me".
The laser screwdriver falls to the ground and I roll my eyes to the ceiling, as the Doctor stands up. Why does he always have to be that patronizing? And, am I really doing this just to prove him wrong about my unreliability?
I'm screwing the last piece when Curtis and Gilliam catch up, discussing bullets. Thing is, what Minister Mason said, that useless gun, so now Curtis thinks the weapons aren't loaded.
"She meant she wasn't giving the order to shoot me", Gilliam says.
"No, I think the weapons are literally useless. They used up all their bullets four years ago, in the last revolt. Bullets are extinct", Curtis states.
"If you're wrong, we could be finished before we even start", Gilliam counters.
In a way, he's right. There's something strange in the way he says that, like he's really not sure of letting Curtis take action. The Doctor looks at me warily as if he too noticed something about him.
"It's a revolution. We have to be willing to pay the price. I'll die first, if I have to". Curtis says heavily.
"You might not have to", I cut in, following them. Before he can ask, Tanya, Timmy's mother, shows up with a sketch of her boy, shoving it into Curtis' face.
"You have to let me come with you, Curtis", she says. Martha is right behind her, following her around with bandages. The woman got a bad beating and Martha has been trying to patch her up for the last two hours, to no avail.
"It's too dangerous, Tanya. We've discussed this".
"I'm coming. I'll find my boy", she insists.
Martha shrugs. "Let me check your eye first, all right?", she offers.
Donna makes her way through the narrow corridor between the beds to show Curtis her findings. "Oi! This enough?", she offers.
Curtis looks inside the bag she's holding. There must be almost thirty jelly protein blocks, the only food these people have. "How did you-?", he asks, surprised.
"I have my tricks" she winks. I loll my head in synch with the Doctor.
"Donnaaa", he warns.
"I might have offered some of the food the Tardis stores in exchange", she admits. "What?", she insists, puzzled at the Doctor's wary look. "I've tasted those things and they're disgusting. The least I could do is trade them with some future food".
"Glad someone thinks this is going to end okay. And with the Tardis working", I stress while the Doctor shakes his head in disbelief. We all follow Curtis as he trades the protein bars with a junkie.
"There we are", he says, inspecting the contents of a package. There is a bunch of blue soft stones that smell really bad.
"Kronole?" the Doctor exclaimes. "What for?".
"What is Kronole?" Donna asks.
"It's a rudimental explosive", the Doctor and I reply in unison.
"It's a drug", Edgar corrects. "For the security expert", Curtis explains. "They use it to hallucinate".
"Oooh, like glue", Donna realizes.
"Industrial waste", Gilliam adds. "Highly flammable".
"So let me get things straight: the security expert the notes told us to break free is a drug addict?", Donna asks.
"Apparently. But we have no other choice", Curtis says. "And we're the ones breaking him out", he gestures to the group counting her out. "You're not coming with us", he warns her.
"Ha!" she giggles. "You don't know me, Mister. But what about...-" she gestures meaning our screwdrivers, but the Doctor shakes his head.
"Deadlocks. Not sure if they're going to work on the gates. This is a hell of a security system they have here", he replies. "Mr. Wilford sure doesn't want people flowing through his miracle train".
The bell rings. It's the signal to gather people in the distribution car, where we watched Andrew's torture show and now the protein blocks are about to be delivered.
The crowd gathers in lines as they always do, but hidden behind the first rows the giant battering ram is being carried by Curtis. He's by my side as I walk through the people, the Doctor and Gilliam just a step behind. Edgar is a couple of rows ahead with Tanya. We've been here less than twelve hours and our clothes are already as dirty as theirs, even if not destroyed and battered.
We're studying the guards. There's three of them. The cartridges are loaded in the rifles, so if there's no bullets, they're hiding it well.
"All in, right?", he whispers.
I softly brush his hand, fist tight, just beside my arm. He looks at me briefly. Despair, rage.
They start counting before the steel gates are open. Curtis's grip on the handle of the battering ram grows tenser.
"What do we do?", Edgar worries as the first two rows start sitting down.
If we sit now, there's no way to hide the battering ram. The gates are still closed. We're running out of time.
"Enough with this protein block bullshit!" Edgar screams. "We want real food!".
"Yeah, we want chicken!" Tanya follows him. Everybody start screaming and protesting, while the guards grab a man from the first row and hold him at gunpoint.
"Quiet! Be quiet!", the guards scream yanking the man forward. "Do you want him fucking dead? Quiet!" they warn.
"Still going for it, are we?" Gilliam whispers as Curtis hesitates.
"Come on, let's go", Edgar insists. "Let's do it".
"The rifles", Gilliam insists. Where's he going with this? Does he want this revolution to start or not?
"No, we can get them", Edgar is growing anxious. "We easily outnumber their bullets".
Curtis is still hesitating, though. I know what he's thinking. He can't be sure.
"This is it", Gilliam warns.
Silence.
The second steel gate slides open.
"Curtis, come on", Edgar invites. "We're out of time, we gotta do it now".
He can't be sure.
Yeah. But well, you know what Time Lords are good at?
The third gate opens. Time is up.
Curtis takes a deep breath and leaves the handle. I know what he's going for and I do it instead of him. I run as quickly as I can through the crowd until I'm in front of the guard, who doesn't have time to react. I toss the man he's holding aside and take his place under gunpoint. Hell, I point the gun to my forehead. The whole thing takes less than a second.
I slide my fingers on the trigger and I push.
Click.
"They have no bullets!" Edgar screams. "They have no bullets!".
I exhale, relieved I didn't just die right there at the beginning. And then, you know how this goes. I'm really making an effort not to kill anyone, thus I walked into this unarmed, apart from the laser screwdriver, while everyone else here is walking with pipes and blades and whatever.
The guards are easily dismissed. Curtis tosses the protein blocks cart aside and slides the battering ram on top, quickly sending it through the gates. He jumps on top of it, reaching his hand out to me.
I follow surfing on the ram, Edgar and Tanya right behind us.
"Close the gate! Shut it!", a guard screams in the next car.
I jump down and fight with him, but before I have the best of him I'm cut to an arm. I squeeze my shoulder and I laser the gate mechanism to lock it open.
I turn around, everybody is fighting. I spot Donna and Martha at the back of the battering ram, helping the thinnest people to get in and use it as a tunnel. Whoever gets out at the other end, it's a dirty fight.
The Doctor grabs my shoulder. "Zoe".
"Yeah", I reply, shaking my head. For an instant there, all that violence was overwhelming. I understand why the Doctor didn't want to go front row on this. I shrug and jump on the ram again, entering the prison car.
A prison guard gets hold of me and pushes me to the ground. I swerve quickly as he tries to club my head, and as he charges back, I see him being pulled back with a hit on his head. Curtis steals the club from him and offers his hand to help me up.
I smile briefly, but there's no time to relax as everybody stops fighting when a bulky giant bald man starts swinging a giant hammer around. My eyes dart the room searching for the Doctor and I spot him a little back. Our eyes meet. It's okay.
Grey starts walking towards us, on top of the battering ram. He tosses his coat, his body is covered in tattoos, all words. And he's hot. I mean, he's athletic. Fit. Exactly what we need now, not that I'm thinking about his body. But, still. He moves as quickly as a cat, getting faster as he approaches the end of the battering ram, then jumps into the air, kicking the walls, and basically, uhm, he levitates gracefully above the Giant's head who barely has time to look up before Grey's legs are wrapped around the his head. He's got one hand hanging from the piping over, his other hand quickly running a blade through the giant chest and then, gently, he snatches a set of keys before letting him drop to the ground.
He hangs there for a beat before jumping down to brush his trousers, like it's the most normal thing in the world. He tosses the keys to Edgar.
Martha arrives in the room with the sketch artist, she's helping injured people. Which are, in fact, a lot.
"Guess that other revolt four years ago wasn't that different", she says, nodding to the elder lot of amputee at the back of the car. "I gathered what was left in the emergency box from the Tardis", she says, looking at my arm.
"Thanks", I anticipate. "If that's the last of it, better save it for someone who needs it", I say, looking into her eyes.
She hesitates, then realizes. "Oh, right. Forgot for a second", she smiles.
I'm still smiling tiredly as she moves to cure someone else, and in my line of sight is Curtis, leaning on the prison gate, with my same tired smile. I close my eyes for a beat and exhale, then pull myself up and reach for the laser screwdriver again.