Halfway Out Of The Dark || The Doctor

Rose

"You pulled his arm off!" Rose stared.

"Yep, plastic." the man said nonchalantly, tossing the arm to Rose, who caught it and looked at it closely. It was solid plastic.

"Very clever, nice trick." Rose remarked, "Who were they then, students? Is this a student thing or what?"

"Why would they be students?" the woman quizzed. Unlike the man, she had a Mancunian accent.

"I dunno." Rose shrugged.

"Well, you said it." the man said, "Why students?"

"Cos' to get that many people dressed up and being silly... they gotta be students." Rose reasoned.

"That makes sense, well done." the man said in a patronising tone.

"Thanks." Rose retorted, matching his tone.

"They're not students." the man said darkly.

"Whoever they are, when Wilson finds 'em, he's gonna phone the police."

"Who's Wilson?" the man asked.

"Chief electrician."

"Wilson's dead." the man said matter-of-factually as the lift doors opened and he stepped out. The woman gave Rose an apologetic look and followed him.

"That's just not funny, that's sick!" Rose burst out as she followed them.

Once they were all out of the lift, the woman reached into her pocket and pulled out a small silver metal cylindrical object with a blue light on the end and aimed it at the lift controls. "Stand back." she warned Rose and switched the device on, causing it to light up and emit a buzzing noise.

"I've had enough of this now." Rose grumbled, then yelped and flinched as sparks flew out of the lift controls. "Who're you two, then?" she questioned as the man and woman walked off down the corridor. "Who's that lot down there?" Rose insisted as she followed them, "I said; who are they?!"

"They're made of plastic." the man explained, "Living plastic creatures. They're being controlled by a relay device up on the roof. Which would be a great big problem if I didn't have this." He reached into his pocket and produced two blocks of C4 with a mobile phone strapped to it. "So..." he continued as they reached a fire exit and opened it, "We're gonna go upstairs and blow it up. And we might well die in the process. But don't worry about us, no. Go home. Go and have yer lovely beans on toast."

"Don't tell anyone about this." the woman warned Rose as they ushered her out, "Cos' if ya do, you'll put 'em in danger."

The doors were slammed shut and Rose was left staring in bemusement. Suddenly the doors opened again to reveal the two strangers. "I'm the Doctor, by the way." the man introduced, "And this is the Artist." He gestured to the woman, who waved slightly. "What's yer name?"

"Rose." the blonde replied.

"Nice to meet yer, Rose. Run for yer life." the Doctor grinned manically, waggling his homemade bomb, then he and the Artist shut the doors again.

Rose promptly ran down the alleyway and onto the main road, then she ran over to the other side, nearly getting ran over by a black cab in the process. Rose ran until she was a safe distance and looked back just in time to see Henriks explode in an enormous fireball. All the windows were blown out and flames tore through the structure of the building. Rose stared at the burning building for a moment before turning and running off towards the bus stop to go home.

In her shock, she didn't realise that she was still holding the plastic arm, nor did she notice a blue police public call box from the 1960's tucked away in an alcove between two buildings.