Tenrose Short Stories

#13- The Zoo

Rose coughed and instinctively reached for her slightly swollen belly. Her head was aching and throbbing up a storm. She lifted her foggy head and squinted her eyes.

"Doctor?"

Silence.

"Doctor?"

Rose couldn't see anything. It was pitch black and a bad smell reached her nose. The last thing she remembered was visiting a museum on another planet with The Doctor who was pointing out all the discrepancies in historical facts. The Doctor had refused to take her anywhere too exciting because he didn't want her or the baby to be hurt, but she did manage to have him take her to a few safe places. But then there was that man in all black who took her away from the Doctor when he wasn't looking.... And that was all she could remember.

Realising she could be in big trouble, she curled protectively around her stomach. It'd been a little while since the Doctor and Rose found out about the big news and her stomach was progressively growing. It wasn't very large yet, but it wouldn't be long before it was. Rose smiled at the thought, then remembered her confusing situation and wished the Doctor were there to help her figure out what was going on and just to be there with her.

She reached for her mobile, but was disappointed to discover it was not in her pocket. She felt so lonely all of a sudden, all she wanted was to hold the hand of her husband and hear his reassuring voice. But she would not get that comfort.

A loud creaking sound of complaining metal rang out and light flooded the room. Well, it wasn't really a room, Rose discovered. It was more of a metal box. And one of the panels at the bottom of the box was opening.

Rose panicked and scrambled backwards until she felt the cold metal pressed against her back. Her arms wrapped protectively around her stomach. What was going on? Who was doing this?

The creaking stopped and a massive hole stood at the other end of the metal box. Rose squinted, trying to view past the bright light and see the outside. Slowly, her eyes adjusted and she saw a hallway with bright wallpaper leading away from the hole. It reminded her of any kind of home on Earth and she began to grow suspicious. Of course, it wasn't like her mum's flat, but it reminded her of any country home.

"Hello?" She called out. Normally, she would have left the box and gone to investigate. Normally, however, she was not pregnant. "Is anyone there?"

No one responded but Rose felt a nudge behind her. Rose looked back fearfully and saw the wall behind her was moving forward, pushing her toward the hall. She started to panic as she stood, getting away from the ever approaching wall. What to do? What to do? She couldn't stay here but she feared the hallway.

In a split second of decision she dashed into the foreign hall. The door behind her slammed closed and a wall that matched the wallpaper of the hall replaced it. She slammed her palm on it in frustration. She took a moment to collect herself and began to walk down the hall, arm wrapped around her stomach the whole way. She tried not to notice the camera in the corner.

-

The Doctor scrambled throughout the museum, panic spreading like a wildfire throughout his body. "Rose?!" He pushed past a group of people, disappointed when none of their faces was the one he was seeking. "Rose?!"

As he searched the museum for a third time and found nothing to even tell him where to look for her, helplessness told hold on him and he felt as if he were drowning.

The TARDIS murmured in his mind, beckoning. He entered the blue box, using all the tools he had to search for Rose. He felt his heart sinking at every negative until something on the map caught his attention.