"Mark!" The woman gasps, running over to him. She picks up his wrist, checking for a pulse, then drops it. "He-he's dead."
The Doctor whips around, yanking on the chains on my wrists, causing me to momentarily lose my balance. "He said he saw something," the Doctor says.
"Excuse me, but I didn't hear myself asking for your advise," the woman glares.
"A man just died! If I were you, I'd be taking anyone's advice," Clara says.
"Well no offense, but I don't want anything from you, your dorky boyfriend, or the little girl you're babysitting."
"I'm sorry, time out," I say, losing my patience, "How old do you think I am?!"
"Obviously not old enough to know when to keep quiet!"
"Look, I don't know if you've realized, but we could all be in danger," The Doctor starts, "He said he saw something coming closer to us, and then within seconds he died. I know very few things that can do that, so, and you don't even have to listen to me, I suggest that if you want to live, we get out of this area." He stands there with his arms crossed (well, as well as you can while being chained to other people) tapping his foot.
She stares at him, then says, "Fine! We go back to the ship, then leave. Obviously, there's something here, and the distress callers are probably long gone." The woman starts marching forward, I assume leading us to her ship. We trail behind in silence.
~🌺~
After a few minutes, the ship comes into view. We're forced into a (I'm assuming) small containment cell and locked up. "Hey-hey wait a second, what was your name?" I ask the man who locked us up.
"Oh...well, Steve," he says.
"So, oh-well-Steve, why exactly did you guys come here?"
"Well, there was this distress call that we got, probably a few weeks back. All it said was 'please help us' and coordinates. A rescue party was sent out, but they never made it back. And, uh, they didn't send a message or anything. So they sent another rescue party, same thing happened. Then they sent us." He stutters.
"That's great. No, wait! That's not great. Where are you taking us?" I ask.
"I don't really know...all I do know is it's not good."
"But we didn't even do anything wrong!" I protest.
"Sorry, they're not my rules," he says, walking away. After I'm sure he's out of the room, I turn to the Doctor, "Are you sure you can't reach your sonic screwdriver? I'm sorta over this whole prisoner thing."
"Yeah, me too," Clara adds.
"Again, handcuffs!" The Doctor says, shaking his wrists.
"Can you at least knock it out of your pocket? I might be able to get it," I say.
"Maybe..." He jumps up and down a few times, and eventually the sonic falls out of his coat pocket and lands on the floor. I kneel down and manage to pick up the sonic screwdriver from behind my back. Alright, now I just need to unlock the handcuffs.
"You know how to use that right?"
"Of course I know how!" I say through clenched teeth. I rotate the screwdriver around (mind you, I'm doing this all behind my back) so that it's pointing at the handcuffs, and they open with a click. I quickly run over to the Doctor and Clara and unlock their handcuffs.
"So...what now?" I ask, tossing the sonic screwdriver back to the Doctor. "We can't exactly casually stroll out of here."
"We could use the element of surprise?" Clara says.
"Maybe, but it's three against five. No, it's three and a screwdriver against five with guns," I say, looking around for a different exit.
For a second, we're all absolutely quiet. All I hear is our breathing, and...ticking. Yes, there's a definite tic tic tic tic tic coming from somewhere. I put my ear to the ground.
"Doctor, they haven't taken off yet right?" I say, still on the floor.
"I don't think so," he replies.
"Okay, and I'm assuming that they don't keep clocks on their ship?"
"No..." he says, not understanding what I'm getting at.
"So what's ticking like that?" I ask. He puts his ear to the floor, stands up, and then sonics the surrounding area. "It's not just coming from the floor. It's coming from all around us."
"Are the people with guns as bad as the ticking?" Clara asks.
"Um..." The Doctor says, "Well...we need to get out. Now." He runs up to the door, sonics it, and it opens. We all run out, following the same path that we came in. We turn a corner, and are "greeted" by the troop.
"Hey!" The woman in charge yells.
"No time! We need to go!" The Doctor yells, grabbing her arm, and dragging her out the ship door. The rest of them follow him, slightly confused. We run as far away from the ship as we can. We all hit the ground. A few seconds pass, and the entire ship blows up in flames. I cover my head as shrapnel and debris fly over me.
~🌺~
After several minutes, debris stops flying, and we all slowly make our way farther away from the ship. "What-what happened?! Did you do this?" The woman asks the Doctor.
"What? No! Why would I blow us all up? I don't think any of of would do that...so who did?" The Doctor runs over to the pile of rubble that was once the ship. He sonics the perimeter of the ship, and then looks at his sonic screwdriver. "Regular explosive. Bombs. Do you really carry bombs?"
"Of course we do. But, not enough to do that!" The woman says, pointing at the flaming debris.
"Did the other rescue troops' ships ever get found?" I ask.
"You're still our prisoners, and I do not take orders from you," the woman snarls.
"See, that's where you're wrong," the Doctor says, walking back over to us,"We're not your prisoners. I don't know if you just don't know what you're doing or if you just got scared in the moment, but you did several things wrong. You didn't ask for our identification, we could leave right now and you would never know who we are. Also, concerning Bree here, which happens to be her name so please use it, you thought she was a child. She's not, but even of she was, you can't just arrest her. I don't know what law you're all working under, but you have to have some rule against arresting a child without major reasons. Especially if there's a chance she's a hostage."
"Is she a hostage?" The woman asks.
"No! That's not the point! Something just killed one of your crew, and they just blew up your ship. Now, I'm not one to jump to conclusions, but I think someone wants us dead. You clearly don't know what you're doing, so why don't you listen to us?" Clara asks.
"I think you know about as little as we do, so no." The woman says.
"Look, I have...a ship. It's not too far from here, I can take you all home. But you need to trust us!" The Doctor says.
The woman thinks for a moment, then says, "You know what? Fine. It's not like we have any other options." She looks at the smoking ship.
"Let's go then," The Doctor says, walking away. I jog up to him.
"Do you actually know where to go?"
"Not a clue!" The Doctor says confidently.
We wander around for what feels like hours, but finally the TARDIS comes into view. "Oh, finally!" I cheer. "But wait a second, whatever is here, it's not going to be a threat to the rest of the universe, right?" I ask.
"Probably n-" Suddenly I feel as if I've run into a glass wall. Glass wall, wait a second, that's a window. I feel as if I've run into a window, and clearly the Doctor has felt the same thing.
"What...is that?" I ask, running my fingers over the invisible blockage.
"Uh, a force field of sort?" The Doctor says.
"Oh no, Doctor the TARDIS! It's surrounding the TARDIS!" I look for weak spots in the force field that we could possibly use to get in. I find nothing.
Clara walks over to us, "What's going on?" she says.
"Well, we have a little, itty bitty...small problem," the Doctor says.
"No Doctor!" I say, "This is a big problem. We can't get to the TARDIS." Clara runs her fingers over the force field.
"What can you do about it? Can you sonic it?" She asks. The Doctor attempts to sonic the force field.
"It's deadlocked."
"How can a force field be deadlocked?" I ask.
"I don't know," The Doctor says, glancing around. I think we've officially run out of options.
"Something has the TARDIS, something wants the TARDIS, and something wants us," The Doctor think aloud.
"Hey, you! What was your name, the-the Doctor! Mindy just saw something," The woman in charge says, running over to us with Mindy.
"The-there's something out there!" Mindy cries, "It's coming to me!"
"Mindy, stay calm, I can help. You need to tell exactly what you saw," the Doctor calmly says.
"There was, this...thing! I don't know how to describe it. It was sort of prowling in that direction," she says, pointing, "Then once I saw it, it turned around and it's coming this way!"
"Okay...you saw it...it saw you...Mark saw it...and it came after him...but not until you both actually saw it. So...that means it can't see you until you see it," the Doctor says, suddenly quite alarmed, "It mirrors your senses. It gives you the one up, you have to see, hear, touch it before it can detect you. But once you see it..."
"It can kill you," I say, with little enthusiasm, "Doctor, there were no distress callers, they sent it in hopes of drawing us in...and now we have no way to leave."
"What's happening!" Oh-well-Steve screams from behind us.
"What do you mean?" Clara asks. But that's when we all feel it. The ground, sucking our feet under. "Is it quicksand?"
"No, it's too dry here. But, if there is a hollow area under us...we may have just broken the ceiling with our weight." The Doctor sonics the ground.
"Can you explain that better, please?" The woman yells.
"There's a hollow spot that's right below us. It be a meter under us or 100! If we break through the thin ceiling, it will suck us under!" The Doctor yells. Could this day get any worse? You know what, don't answer that. The sand is about up to my waist now (everyone else's thighs because they are, in fact taller).
"Is there any point fighting it?" Clara asks.
"Uh...no. Just hope that we don't get stuck." The Doctor sure knows how to make you feel better. Not.
Within a few more seconds it's past my chest coming up to my neck. "Doctor, what do I do?"
"Hold your breath." If I wasn't stuck neck-high in sand, I would slap him. Within just a few more seconds, I'm completely submerged in the sand.
I just hope I make it out alive.