тнє ℓαѕт qυєєи // тнє ∂σ¢тσя

Daleks In Manhatten

A shanty town overlooked by Manhattan skyscrapers. "Ordinary people lost their jobs. Couldn't pay the rent and they lost everything. There are places like this all over America. No one's helping them. You only come to Hooverville when there's nowhere else to go." Theta spoke sadly, his eyes moving down towards me as we both felt a little of their pain. "You thieving lowlife!" A fight breaks out, "for a single loaf!" He yelled angrily. "I didn't touch it!"

"Somebody stole it.!" A black man comes out of a tent, "Cut that out! Cut that out right now!" He breaks up the fight. "He stole my bread!" The other man argued as he pointed at the kid, "That's enough! Did you take it?"

"I don't know what happened. He just went crazy."

"That's enough! Now, think real careful before you lie to me."

"I'm starving, Solomon." Soloman holds out his hand, and the white man takes the bread out from inside his coat. "We all starving. We all got families somewhere." He does the judgment of Soloman and gives each man half of the loaf. "No stealing and no fighting. You know the rules. Thirteen years ago I fought in the Great War. A lot of us did. And the only reason we got through was because we stuck together. No matter how bad things get, we still act like human beings. It's all we got." The two fighters walk away.

"Come on." Theta leads us over to Solomon, "I suppose that makes you the boss around here." I spoke up with a small smile as he turned to us, "And, er, who might you be?" He asked placing his hands on his hips, "He's the Doctor, that's Kate. I'm Martha." Martha points along as she speaks, "A doctor. Huh. Well, we got stockbrokers, we got a lawyer, but you're the first doctor. Neighbourhood gets classier by the day."

"How many people live here?" Martha asks as she looks around with a sad look, "At any one time, hundreds. No place else to go. But I will say this about Hooverville. We are a truly equal society. Black, white, all the same. All starving. So you're welcome, both of you. But tell me. Doctor, you're a man of learning, right? Explain this to me. That there's going to be the tallest building in the world. How come they can do that, when we got people starving in the heart of Manhattan?"

"So, men are going missing. Is this true?" Theta asks as Solomon leads us through the crowd of people with no homes. "It's true all right." He nods as we enter a tent, he was taking it hard it seemed. "But what does missing mean? Men must come and go here all the time. It's not like anyone's keeping a register." I told him with a frown, "Come on in. This is different." He speaks as he takes off his hat an sits down. "In what way?"

"Someone takes them, at night. We hear something, someone calls out for help. By the time we get there, they're gone like they vanished into thin air."

"And you're sure someone's taking them?"

"Doctor, when you got next to nothing, you hold on to the little you got. Your knife, blanket, you take it with you. You don't leave bread uneaten, fire still burning."

"Have you been to the police?" Martha asked, "Yeah, we tried that. Another deadbeat goes missing, big deal." The man glared, not at us but at the thought of the care that seemed to be nonexistent in this time. "So the question is, who's taking them and what for?" I grunted as I crossed my arms, "ugh, can't we just have one easy adventure?" I wasn't trying to complain, but we couldn't even go to the lost city of Atlantis without problems. Now that's a story for another time, "Solomon!" A boy shouts as he rushes into the tent causing me to frown, why does he look familiar? "Solomon, Mister Diagoras is here."

"I need men. Volunteers. I've got a little work for you and you sure look like you can use the money." The man announced as we crowded around in the center of the park. "Yeah. What is the money?" The boy who had come to get us called out, "A dollar a day." I raised an eyebrow making eye contact with Theta who look back at me with the same look. "What's the work?" Solomon asked, "A little trip down the sewers. Got a tunnel collapsed needs clearing and fixing. Any takers?" I glared at the man, "Why do you go down yourself?" I asked causing people to look towards me but he just glared back.