The Doctor hurtled through the trees, intent simply on putting as much distance between him & the Daleks as he could. After 15 minutes of nonstop running, he relented in his flight. Stopping beneath a large, thickly branched tree, he leaned against the trunk & cursed himself silently.
"Should have gotten more out of them." he thought. "But I didn't want to push my luck."
Shaking the thought away, he wandered around the immediate area, searching for the largest tree &, upon finding it, began to climb. Arriving at the top, the Doctor marvelled at the vista that confronted him. The forest stretched out for miles in every direction & judging by the uniformity of the treetops, the terrain seemed to be largely flat. Occasionally low climbing hills poked out from the conglomeration of trees, mist hanging gently about the tops like ethereal halos, but what interested the Doctor was two-fold.
"First let's get our bearings straight shall we, Doctor." he said out loud.
Fishing gingerly into his pockets, one arm wrapped tightly around a branch, the Doctor pulled out a small, plastic compass & examined it.
"North & south don't look promising, trees, trees, hills & trees. Can't go east because of Daleks, but west..."
Replacing the compass in his pocket, the Doctor pulled out an ornate but scuffed spyglass, extended it & looked out westward. Coming into view, he saw what appeared to be a large, roughly circular break in the trees & a solitary plume of grey smoke rising up, beyond that, the trees seemed to thin.
"Habitation perhaps, maybe a hermit woodcutter or even the witch of the woods." he said idly. "Could also be the edge of the woods too."
Compressing the spyglass, the Doctor replaced it in his pocket & carefully made his way back to terra firma. Back on the forest floor, he pointed himself west & stopped for a moment, lost in thought.
The Daleks were formidable trackers. On the one hand, their shells had technology capable of tracking micro-density changes in the air, infrared vision, even detection systems capable of discerning particle dispersal like a trail in the air. On the other hand, the Dalek mutant, especially command types like the Supreme & Red Dalek, were individually capable of tracking like a huntsman, examining disruption in their surroundings, footprints, broken branches. It would be difficult to keep them off his scent.
"Then I'll just have to be equally difficult." he muttered.
The journey to what he hoped would be habitation, was a tiring one. In an effort to make the Daleks attempts to track him as difficult as possible, the Doctor did all he could think of. Circuitous routes through dense woodland despite easier avenues to his destination, doubling back on himself, even at one point attempting to walk from tree to tree, the trunks & branches being packed tightly together, to remove the problem of footprints, the Doctor's path was as meandering & confusing as he could make at a large wall, he was briefly dismayed to think it was one of the low climbing hills he had seen. Thankfully, it proved to be a climbable, if somewhat daunting, rock face. Climbing it, he stopped for a moment at the top, sat cross-legged on the ground & made a quick check of the compass. He briefly considered descending & climbing back up farther along the rock face to confuse his pursuers, but dismissed it. He was tiring and it would be foolish to attempt another climb in such a state. Putting away the compass, the Doctor lay his hands on his knees & let his head loll.
"A quick rest, then back to it." he muttered, resting his face in his hands.
It was during this rest that it hit him, he had missed one thing when he was taking stock of his situation when he arrived on the planet.
"No sound." he said aloud.
From the moment he arrived to now, the only sound had been the rustling of trees by the wind. Indeed, as he cogitated, a gust of wind passed over him, the cold wind smacking him in the face like a splash of cold water. But no birdsong, no chirping & chittering of insects in the brush, he hadn't even met whatever passed for woodland creatures in his flight & meandering trail through the woods. He was pondering this oddity when the crack of a falling branch broke the silence, the sudden sound amplified to a thunderous echo as it made it's descent.
Snapping his head in it's direction, the Doctor watched & waited. The Daleks couldn't have caught up to him so quickly. Moments passed & the silence resumed. Another, gentler breeze passed over the Doctor. The trees rustled. Nothing.
"Just the wind." he said. "Shaking loose a branch"
But the sound, coupled with his previous realisation, left him wary & tense. Now, he imagined hundreds of eyes watching him from every camouflaged placed in the trees & bushes. Standing up the Doctor brushed himself & with a last wary look at the forest below, he passed into the forest above & continued his westward journey.
Some time later, the Doctor came across a weak stream. The water bubbled gently as it passed by & he sat near it. The Timelord cut a dishevelled figure now. His boots & trousers were caked sporadically with dry & wet patches of mud. A fine coating of dust now covered his frock coat, giving it a faded look. Even his scarf had not escaped unscathed, with stray strands of wool pulled loose in sporadic intervals. His hands, covered in scratches & dirt, ached from his previous climb. Unbeknownst to the Doctor, his face, like his coat, had a layer of dust & dirt such that he now resembled a chimney sweep. Reaching into the inside pocket of his frock coat, the Doctor pulled out a simple, gold pocket watch, unclasped the intricately designed cover, & checked the time. He preferred to keep this particular watch close to one of his hearts. On the inside of the cover was an engraving.
"To Grandfather
Love
Susan
London, 1963"
A brief smile passed over his thin lips, before his face became unreadable. He had briefly checked the watch in his initial flight from the Daleks & now found that 5 hours had passed since then. Re-clasping the watch, he pocketed it & lent back for a moment. Looking upwards, he could just make out the sky, filtering through the thick canopy of trees. The light that did break through was weak.
"Curious" he thought. "The light was fading when I ran, gloomy almost, but now the light's brighter. What was it the Supreme said? The scientists of this planet devised a solution, hadn't they? Perhaps it is fading."
Tilting his head back down, the Doctor rubbed his face with both hands before passing one through his mop of curly hair. A wave of weariness had washed over him & found himself tempted to lay back & rest. Ignoring this, he crawled closer to the little stream & cupped his hands in the water. The stream was by no means clean nor particularly cool, but it was better than nothing. Splashing himself, he dried his face with a piece of his scarf & stood up, stepping over the stream as he did, and disappeared into the bushes beyond.
Mere minutes later, a figure shambled into view & crossed the stream...
A further hour later, the Doctor found a well worn dirt path. Cutting through the woods, it had clearly been used a great deal. Though he had an inkling of what lay at the western end, he was unsure what lay in the opposite direction.
"Path to a well or a woodcutters path?" he mused.
Walking on, he found the path gentle only occasionally obstructed by overgrown bushes, desperately trying to reach back on to the man-made path, or felled trees. After 10 minutes of following the dirt track, the forest on the Doctor's left gave way to a large field. Cornstalks lined the field as far as he could see, bordered by a simple stone wall & the forest beyond it. The stalks barely reached the Doctor's shoulder, but still it was enough to cover whatever lay beyond the field from view.
Standing on top of the stone wall, the Doctor peered over & could see thatched roofs in the distance. Yet, a grave sense of foreboding overtook him. There was something off about this field.
"Stupid." he muttered
Suddenly, the silence was broken by a hissing sound, like the quick intake of breath through clenched teeth. It was near, directly in front of the Doctor & without a moment to lose, he jumped behind the nearest tree.
In the quiet, he could hear the brush of the cornstalks as something moved among them. A soft gurgling sound could be heard too, accompanied by the sound of chattering teeth. Taking a deep breath, the Doctor slowly peered around the tree.
It stood some 10 feet away, parts of it's body covered by large strands of the corn, but it's face was visible in the weak light. Human or humanoid, whatever it was now looked miserable. Large chunks of flesh hung loosely from the things face, though the skin was unbroken. It appeared as if areas of it's face had swollen & stretched outwards with gravity taking effect, causing the lumps to hang limp from things face. The eyes had long since atrophied, now only darkened, charred sockets remained. The things lips, blackish-blue in colour, had shrunken to such a degree that it looked as if it was in a permanent state of anger. The teeth were normal, but yellowed & missing in places. Occasionally, the teeth would gnash violently, producing the sound the Doctor had heard, before ceasing.
Occasionally, it's head snapped from left to right & vice versa, the wads of flesh jiggling sickeningly as it did, as if listening for something. The effect reminded the Doctor of a bird, watching it's surroundings as it ate. The head movement was accompanied by a loud, wet sounding sniff from the thing.
"It's blind." thought the Doctor. "But it can hear & smell."
Terror raced through the Doctors mind, it was only a matter of time before the creature likely smelled him out. Looking around, his eyes fell on a large stone, just out of reach. Slowly, he knelt & reached over as silently as he could, fearful even the rustle of his clothes could give him away. Grasping the rock in his hands, the Doctor raised his arm & threw it as far into the cornfield as he could. The stone clattered among the bushes, but the creature did not move. The Doctor sat watching it, morbid curiosity & fear vying for supremacy in his mind. The thing continued to snap it's head to & fro.
"It's not stupid." the Doctor reasoned. "It's waiting in case something makes a move."
The thing stood motionless for a time, it's head tilted slightly to the right. The cornfield rustled, but no wind currently blew. Something else was in the field, moving from multiple directions.
Slowly, the thing turned & disappeared back into the cornstalks. The Doctor waited a few seconds before slowly creeping away, following the boundary of the field. The village was likely a dangerous waste of time, but he had to know what happened, maybe even look for a survivor.
"Curiosity always was a failing of mine." he whispered
Following the boundary of the field added another 20 minutes onto the Doctor's walking time, but he soon found himself on the outskirts of a village. Rudimentary wooden huts for the most part, but 3 stone-built, thatched roof houses populated the farthest edge of the town, along with a large ramshackle barn & another wooden hut adjacent it. The village seemed deserted, however. The silence that had followed him throughout the forest, followed the Doctor into the small village. The rustling in the cornfield had ceased, but he was on edge regardless. He did not want to stay for too long in this place
The Doctor crept into the nearest hut & began his search. For the most part, the huts gave the impression of medieval peasantry. Beds, cooking pots & shelves stacked with various cutlery & food, but little in the way of anything useful presented itself. Curiously, the state of the huts were as if the residents had simply up & left. Nothing disturbed at all in some, food on tables half eaten in others.
Treading softly, the Doctor made his way across the overgrown grass towards the stone houses. Entering the first, the Doctor was surprised to find a much better standard of living. In many ways, it reminded him of a crofter's house, but with two-stories. The cosy feel he associated with such houses was not in evidence, however. Here, only horror had visited.
Entering what appeared to be a sitting room, the Doctor was dismayed to find it in tatters. Simple chairs lay in pieces on the floor, huge gouges had been taken out of the stone walls & blood spattered the walls, floor & ceiling. What appeared to be the desiccated remains of a hand & fingers lay scattered about the room, as if the extremity had been blown apart. The kitchen & pantry shared the same devastation.
Ascending the wooden stairs slowly, the Doctor entered the first of two rooms, the master bedroom. Little of use could be found, though it was relatively untouched. The bed was made, a fine layer of dust covering the simple blanket & straw pillows. Clothes lay strewn about the floor, but nothing else was of interest. Before entering the other room, the Doctor stopped at the top of the stairs. Something had caught his attention, a sound or a rustle from outside. The silence remained deafening, such that all he could hear was the blood rushing in his ears & double pulse of his hearts.
Entering the room, the Doctor found it to be largely similar to the other, though with only a single bed. Above it, however, was perched a shelf. Various books lined it & the Doctor examined the titles.
""The Time Machine", "The Hobbit", "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes"" he whispered. "Earth books, ergo an earth colony...probably."
One book did catch his attention, "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight". Whoever had been reading the story of knightly valour had been using a small pamphlet as a bookmark. Pulling the book out, the Doctor took the pamphlet & read the heavily faded front page.
"Keep Medway Sovereign!
Our snivelling government would see every man, woman & child of this proud colony, go crawling back to Earth Gov on their hands & knees.
This colony was founded in 2843 & for a thousand years we have lived as a self-sustaining & thriving colony."
The Doctor, closing the pamphlet, placed it back in the Arthurian book & absentmindedly pocketed it. Curling a finger against his lips, he became lost in thought.
"So the earliest it could be is 3843." he thought. "This pamphlet is badly discoloured though, could be several years since it was brand new."
Slightly happier to have learned something, the Doctor made his way to the entrance of the stone house & peered carefully out. The light had faded again, casting another gloomy pall over the tiny hamlet. The cornfield exuded an ominous, ill-feeling in the thundering silence.
The other two stone houses proved unhelpful, though they too carried the awful scars of violence & horror. The last of the stone houses held the most gruesome & disgusting. Someone had been dismembered & left to rot in the kitchen & the rooms upstairs were covered in various coloured substances, pungent in smell & degenerative in nature, the stone walls blackening & quilts & rugs rotting at their touch. The Doctor's final hope for info or survivors lay in the barn & the hut attached to it. From a distance, the small hut presented an unnerving picture. Unlike the other huts & houses, this hut's door had been smashed off it's hinges & lay lodged in the front wall of the hut adjacent the door. Creeping inside, the Doctor found the interior spartan. A small room in the entrance way held the bed & a chest of drawers, clothes were once more strewn about the floor, & through a doorway to the right was a large, empty room, save for a 4 foot high pile of discoloured, greyish rags. Blood splattered various parts of the rags & a rotten smell emanated forth. A cooking stove, evidently the cause of the rising smoke he had seen, smouldered & cracked, but no sign of the person who had lit it revealed themselves. Ignoring this, the Doctor searched the entryway-cum-bedroom, pulling drawers out gingerly, afraid to make too much noise. Inside the bottom drawer he found more earth books, though these were more macabre titles & writers. The Doctor suppressed a snarl of frustration at the lack of anything useful & turned to leave. Stopping suddenly in the doorway, the Doctor turned & examined the bed. Dried blood, a jug of some mixture & a pillow. Striding over, the Doctor fished his hand underneath the pillow & let loose a toothy grin.
"A journal." he said.
