PERILS
Chapter Two
The Doctor was annoyed at having to leave his TARDIS behind but found being led at the end of a short rope quite a distance through the wilds of New Jersey oddly amusing, especially as his legs were longer (and his lungs sounder) than the Master's and the latter was grunting and wheezing long before they reached their destination: a Gothic arched stone portal. Behind the portal lay a cave, not immediately recognizable as manmade, carved into serpentinite, which the Doctor would have stroked appreciatively had his hands been free. He did have a chance to lay his cheek briefly against a wall of the slippery gray-green stuff as the two Time Lords entered the cavern. "Where are we?" he asked, fairly sure the Master wouldn't tell him, but to his surprise, the Master answered,
"Hoboken."
"New Jersey?"
"Do you know another Hoboken?"
"Actually, there is a Hoboken on Xymrovna and a Hobroken, not quite the same thing, on Melizna."
This sufficiently irritated the Master that he pulled the Doctor forward rather roughly before regaining his composure and silkily advising him, "You won't be impressing anyone with that information in future. You may impress explorers some time when they find your skeleton here. Of course, they'll determine that your corpse is a fraud when they find eight cardiac chambers."
"You intend that I should die here. Why is this not even remotely surprising? But there must be more to it or I'd be dead already."
"Oh, yes." The two of them stopped as they unexpectedly came upon a small cafe table and two and a half chairs. "You seemed averse to lying down. Perhaps you would care to sit?"
"Yes, I believe I shall," said the Doctor, sitting awkwardly, as he was still rope-enwound from shoulder to wrist. "That was quite a long…." He was unable to finish his sentence as the Master tipped the chair backwards against the serpentinite wall so that the Doctor was further immobilized, virtually helpless. Using the portion of rope with which he'd led the Doctor on their trek, the Master bound the Doctor's ankles and tied him to both the chair and the little cafe table.
"And don't think for a moment, my dear Doctor, that it would be worth your time to wriggle free, even if you could, since after I have rested from our overlong constitutional, I shall seal you in here, and I shall devote hours to the rapture of imagining you dying here of thirst, and when that gets old, though I can't imagine it will, I can obtain joy just as ecstatic by picturing you in the agony of your suffocation. Oh, the pleasure the thought of your slow, lonely death will afford me!"
"Simple pleasures."
"No!" roared the offended Master. "Not simple! Clever! You always underestimate me, Doctor!"
"Sorry." In his position it was all he could do to keep the Master within view, but he tried to do just that. He saw the Master disappear in among a quartet of columns and heard him exclaim,
"Oh, well, if you did manage a modicum of mobility, I suppose you wouldn't die of thirst unless this spring is impure, or limited." After a moment, he said, "Magnesium. Not bad." He emerged from among the columns. "You would die of hunger, more slowly but just as surely, if you didn't suffocate first. We're still good." A small brown bat swooped past him and he jumped, ever so slightly, checking his shoes. "Oh, yes, watch out for the guano, Doctor."
"You'd seal up the bats, condemning them to their deaths too?" The Doctor was genuinely alarmed.
"Collateral damage, Doctor. Collateral damage." He placed a velvet-gloved hand on the Doctor's cheek. The Doctor forced himself not to flinch. "Goodbye, Doctor. It's been fun, hasn't it?" He turned to leave, but something caught his attention. What was it? – a small movement at the entrance to the cave, a slight sound from above? As it turns out, both happened at once: a few rocks tumbled down, bouncing and rolling from the entrance to the columns, followed by a lot more than a few, making a racket, toppling two columns and blocking the entrance entirely. "No!" whispered the Master, and then he howled it: "No!"
"You're on your own," said the Doctor, conversationally, not trying to tip himself and his chair forward. "I am somewhat indisposed."
"I was trying to dispose of you," grumbled the Master.
"What will you do now?"
"Don't worry. I have backup plans for my backup plans. I won't be forced into killing you quickly. That would be no fun at all. None at all."
"You could always try to get out all by yourself and leave me behind."
"You know well enough that even with four hands we may be doomed. I shall be compelled to free you so that we can work together to get out of this suddenly unpromising place."
"And what if I don't want to help you?"
"You're intolerably good, Doctor. You're not stupid."
The Doctor was by now profoundly uncomfortable but he managed a smile, so the Master rocked him back down to a normal sitting position and then began to untie the chair and the table. He paused, frowned and unwound the rope from around the Doctor, who grimaced as he stretched. "Thank you," he said, rising. The Master backed away, keeping the rope out of the Doctor's reach. "Don't be silly. I need your help as much as you need mine." The Master acknowledged the truth of this with a nod, then wound the rope around his middle so the Doctor couldn't requisition it.
The two of them began to move stones and bits of rock from the front of the cave to the back, making a neat pile there that fell apart when they started bringing the larger stones, the ones that required two pairs of hands. Those they piled up, wedging the smaller ones between them, building a wall of sorts. From time to time one or the other of them drank from the little spring, then turned back to the task at hand. The columns were surprisingly easy, being made of plaster. Clearing the entrance took a long time and both men were exhausted when they finally felt the fresh air that gusted in.
They didn't bother to clear the last couple of rocks; instead, they sat on them and breathed, silently, even companionably.
The Master rose first and began to unwind the rope from his waist. It had been in his way as he worked but he'd had no choice but to wear it if he wanted to keep it out of the Doctor's hands. The Doctor stood up and the Master moved back, out of reach, but not for long; the Doctor was able to push him face-down on the floor of the cave and use the unwound portion of the rope to tie the Master's hands behind his back. The Master groaned in frustration. "Too tight?" asked the Doctor, and the Master groaned again. "Too bad," said the Doctor, not vindictively, even a little regretfully. "At least you won't be sealed in." He drew the Master to his feet and tied him to one of the remaining pillars. "You will be able to free yourself quite easily. But watch out for the guano!" This bit of advice was, of course, offered too late, as both men were already covered with the stuff.
"Come back!" cried the Master, trying to work his hands loose.
"Sorry," said the Doctor, cheerfully. "Must dash!"