Bad World - Chapter 2

Bad World
Chapter 2

Pete leant against a small stone wall that divided the farmyard driveway from the green wilderness that lay beyond. He quite liked the farmyard. No one else did, but it was the perfect place: a pretty spot, out of the way of danger, and nice and quiet.

Well… sometimes it was.

‘A BOOK?!?’

Pete suppressed as sigh as he watched Jackie march up and down and berate their only daughter. It was a sadly familiar sight. Of course, he wasn’t going to kid himself into believing that she didn’t deserve it, she’d been missing for nearly two days and had given no warning about her sudden departure, but… it was still hard not to feel sorry for anyone who ended up on the wrong end of Jackie Tyler.

‘A tiny, pointless, stupid, useless book?!’ Rose clutched the black, leather bound object to her and gazed sullenly at her mother. ‘What was the point of running off just for a bleedin book?!’ Jackie ranted. ‘You could have died! I’ve been going spare, Rose, do you hear me? Spare! Been pulling my hair out over you and all!’

She made a snatch for the book and opened a page at random. ‘I mean look at this! It doesn’t even make any sense!’ She stared aggressively at the strange symbols on the page, ‘what are all these then? No, don’t bother to answer! Honestly, I was so worried; I thought you were dead for sure! But no, you were just out bookhunting!’

Rose snatched the book back and stuffed it into her pocket. ‘It’s important,’ she stated, ‘I’m not stupid mum, I wouldn’t wander off-’

‘Well it bleedin looked that way to me! I dunno what you thought you were playing at-’ and then she was off on another rant again.

Beside Pete, Mickey shifted uncomfortably and Jake folded his arms, watching the argument sullenly. They weren’t enjoying this any more than he was. Sometimes Pete wondered how he had ever ended up in this situation... hiding away in this little farmyard hovel with the most volatile woman on the face of the Earth, not to mention Rose – who had an annoying habit of not listening to him.

‘Where’d you say she was?’ he murmured out of the corner of his mouth.

Mickey leaned closer and whispered back, not taking his eyes off Rose: ‘she was in that brick camp about five hours away, the same one where we found the Dalek shell and the body ages ago.’

Pete let out a hiss of air from between his teeth, it was pretty far and he was impressed. He’d never admit it of course. ‘Why the book?’ he wondered to himself, and glanced at Mickey, searching for an explanation. But Mickey only shrugged.

‘She told me she was lookin for something, but all she had was that book,’ he said, and wondered if he should mention the mystery inside Rose’s pocket. However, his mind was quickly changed when Rose suddenly began a furious counter attack against her mother. She was so desperate to hide whatever it was… he couldn’t possibly give her away.

All three of them suddenly became aware of the squat shape of Selby approaching. He awkwardly sidled up to the opposite side of Pete and settled back against the wall, watching the scene curiously.

‘She’s back then,’ Selby commented to Pete. Pete nodded, not taking his eyes off the shouting couple. Poor Selby, he thought, this is only his seventh day here and he’s already experienced three Tyler sized rows.

‘Look,’ he said, ‘this might go on for a while, and it’ll definitely turn out ugly, you might wanna creep off for a bit, try and steer clear of it.’

Selby gave one shoulder a half hearted shrug of dismissal. ‘Hello Mickey, Jake,’ he said, accompanying each of their names with a sharp nod of his round head. Jake nodded back, but Mickey seemed to ignore him, still staring at Rose. There was something in his face that made Pete wonder if there was more to Rose’s expedition… why all that way for a book?

‘You gonna try and stop it?’ Selby’s voice interrupted his thoughts.

Pete straightened up from the wall and licked his lips: ‘I’m gonna go and stick my neck right into it,’ he decided.

Selby shrugged again. ‘Your funeral,’ he said to Pete’s back, clearly thinking of the last time there had been a Jackie-sided row.

Pete drew closer to the shouting couple, and stopped behind Jackie, wondering where to begin. It was hard to get a word in edgeways, but Pete was quite good at getting involved; where he went from there though… his problem seemed to be the actual part of the argument where you are supposed to argue, or rather, stop the arguing. That was the part where he tended to fail.

‘I don’t have to explain anything to you!’

‘Yes you do! I’m your mother! And if you think-’

‘Jacks!’ Pete said. Jackie spun around to face him, her mouth still hanging open from her mid-rant. ‘I think she’s got the idea,’ said Pete soothingly.

‘Oh, don’t you start,’ Jackie snapped, now rounding her fury over to him, ‘always cracking hair brained plans to scout the land and look for scrap for your stupid guns! You’re the one that sends them out there in the first place! You’re putting ideas into their heads, Pete Tyler. Letting them all go wandering off,’ she waved behind her at Rose and nodded her head vehemently at Mickey and Jake. ‘No wonder I’ve got these bags under my eyes, it’s worrying about them all the time, ‘cos lord knows you don’t!’

‘You know that’s not true, Jacks’ Pete said pleadingly, ‘we do need the scrap… and we have to get food somewhere, and it is useful to know the lay of the land-’

‘You’re sending them to their deaths with your stupid reconnaissance missions!’

‘Mum,’ Rose interjected, ‘what are we supposed to do? Just sit around waiting for everything to fix itself? We go out there for a reason! And yes, it’s dangerous, but the information and supplies we come back with is helping us to survive. We need to survive, don’t you see?’

‘You can’t talk missy, you nearly killed yourself over a stupid book!’

And then Rose did something completely unexpected. She turned and walked away. No hateful shouting, no callous remark, not even a sneering glance at them. It was so sudden and so unlike Rose that there was a stunned moment of silence as the others watched her retreating back.

And then the moment was broken by Jackie’s echoing voice.

‘Don’t you dare leave while I’m talking to you, Rose!’

Rose spun round. ‘I’ll do what I like!’ she hissed.

‘Come back here!’ Jackie shrieked to her retreating back, but Rose took no notice of her.

‘Rose!’ Jackie shouted.

‘Rose!’ she added, incase the message hadn’t got across.

There was the distinctive slamming of several doors in the wake of Rose’s temper, and then a silence settled itself smugly over the driveway.

‘Well…’ said Pete, trying to break the monotonous quiet, ‘that went well.’

Jackie turned to look at him. ‘And you can shut up and all,’ she said scathingly.

*****************

Rose sat on her bed and bit her lip. Sometimes she hated her mother, wanted to scream at her! Well, that’s actually what she usually did do. But something had felt different about today. Something had pushed Rose far beyond her normal limits and she just couldn’t take anymore.

Was it going to be like this for the rest of her life? It couldn’t be… She tried to convince herself that something would change, but she had enough sense to be realistic about things, how could it possibly get better? It wasn’t as if there was a man in shining armor that would come flying in to save the day.

So why did she feel that there should be?

Rose pulled the book out of her pocket again and opened a page at random. Her eyes met with line upon line of strange circles, with tiny intricate patterns nestled in each one. They were alien; she was sure of that… there was no doubt that aliens were out there, the Daleks were the blatant proof of that. But she didn’t think that the book was Dalek.

There was something beautiful about the shapes, and Daleks couldn’t do beauty. The Daleks were just hunks of metal with slimy things inside: Inhuman, inhumane, and utterly horrific.

There was a light knock on the door and Rose looked up, flinging the book to one side. The knock came again, and she noted the slight pattern of pauses and taps before she pulled herself up and strode to the door. Once there, she flung it open and found Jake standing in front of her. She wasn’t surprised to see him, but it was one fewer person than she had expected.

‘Where’s Mickey?’ she demanded.

‘Feeding the chickens,’ said Jake. He looked at her, still in her filthy clothes. ‘Are yers gonna let me in, or what?’

Rose blinked, and then shuffled backwards into the room inviting Jake to follow her in with a look. Once he was in, she shut the door behind him and flopped onto the bed again. ‘I thought chickens was mum’s job,’ she said.

Jake shrugged. ‘Pete thought she’d be too upset to do anything.’

Rose groaned and rolled her eyes. ‘She hasn’t fed the chickens a day since we got them! And she says we don’t help around the house!’

Jake grinned briefly. ‘Remember when that speckled one chased her round the yard?’

Rose let out a sudden laugh. ‘Oh god, she was screaming the house down!’ she lay backwards on the bed and clutched her stomach as she laughed. It felt extraordinarily good. Rose was sure she didn’t do it often enough. But then a sudden thought hit her and she sat up again.

‘You didn’t say anything to Pete did you?’ she said quickly.

Jake’s smile faded from his face. ‘About the mystery of Rose Tyler’s pocket?’ he asked, and then shook his head. ‘No.’ Rose’s face flooded with relief. ‘I didn’t mention it… whatever it is,’ he added, looking pointedly at her jacket.

Rose took in his gaze and nodded in understanding. ‘Wait till Mickey gets here,’ she said, and bit her lip again. Jake nodded, and settled back against the wall, staring into nothingness.

The silence of the room deepened.

‘Jake,’ said Rose eventually. ‘Can I ask you something?’ He turned to look at her, eyebrows raised in anticipation. Rose took a deep breath and her words came out in a rush. ‘Have you ever heard the word… Gallifreyan?’

It felt like almost a relief to say it, as if it had been pressing in on her chest, almost suffocating her. How could one word do that? Rose briefly wondered. But she was more intent on searching Jake’s face for some hint of recognition.

Jake frowned. ‘You what?’

‘Gallifreyan,’ said Rose again, and as Jake stared at her blankly, she gave the smallest of shudders and licked her lips.

‘What is it?’ asked Jake. Rose looked up at him. ‘Say it again.’

‘Gallifreyan,’ her voice was so quiet, it was almost a whisper.

‘What’s it mean?’

‘You dunno what it is?’

‘No,’ Jake frowned again and leant back against the wall. ‘What is it?’ he repeated.

Rose suddenly sighed, unable to hide the disappointment from her face. ‘Nothing,’ she gave a half hearted wave of her hand. ‘I’ve… it’s familiar, that’s all.’

‘Well, I’ve never heard of it,’ Jake said, watching Rose carefully. ‘It sounds like nonsense to me, gibberish. There isn’t a word like it.’ He paused, still considering Rose ‘Why,’ he finally said, ‘where’ve you heard it before?’

Rose sighed and picked up the book from beside her. Its small, boring cover gave nothing away as to the incomprehensible scrawlings inside, but it felt oddly comforting and… Rose blinked… oddly warm.

*********************

Selby sat in the kitchen and thumbed unhappily through the book he was reading. It was Watership Down and he hated it. In a lifetime that was as bleak as his, the last thing he wanted to hear about was the trials and tribulations of a bunch of fluffy bunnies.

He sighed. But… since there were only five things to read in the farm and one was half missing and another was a women’s beauty magazine about the hair styles of the new millennium… Selby had thought that the bunny book would probably be his best bet.

From some nearby room of the farmhouse that he had learned was Jackie and Pete’s bedroom, Selby could make out the shrieking voice of Jackie. Selby had decided that he didn’t like Jackie. He would never tell anyone this, but in his opinion she was the prime example of how to make a bad situation ten times worse, and who honestly wanted that?

After trying for a full ten minutes to immerse himself into a chapter that explored deeply into the rabbits extensive belief system, Selby gave up and slid the book across the table, just as Pete came in.

‘Watership Down,’ he noted, sitting opposite Selby. ‘Good choice,’

‘Only choice,’ said Selby. ‘You read it?’

Pete shrugged. ‘Must be about nine times already,’ he said, and Selby noted with grim satisfaction that Pete didn’t seem too happy about this. He decided not to ask about Jackie, and besides, he didn’t really want to hear about it, so instead he said: ‘Where’d you find chickens anyway?’

Pete rubbed his chin. ‘Jake brought a hen and a cock with him when he turned up here. Rest is history.’

Selby frowned. ‘When he turned up? When was that?’

‘A year ago I suppose.’

‘A year?’ Again, Selby frowned and looked at Pete incredulously. ‘How long has you little family of rebels been here?’

‘Two years,’ came the prompt reply. ‘Two years last August.’

Selby shook his head. ‘But the Daleks arrived here three years ago, so you were slaves or something right? Before you escaped and came here?’

‘No,’ said Pete. He seemed almost edgy about Selby’s constant questioning, what more did the man want to know? What did it matter? He moved his hand and rubbed the back of his neck. ‘We were never slaves to the Daleks, they never caught us. We hid from them for a year, always on the move, never staying anywhere for more than two days and then we found this place.’

‘Wait,’ said Selby, ‘you can’t have just hidden from the Daleks, that’s stupid. Maybe you can now since loads have gone off in their big spaceships and there aren’t as many, but during the first invasion… they were everywhere. You couldn’t have hidden from them.’

‘We did,’ said Pete.

‘How?’

And then Pete said exactly what Selby had expected him to. ‘Rose.’ He sighed, and mimicked Pete by rubbing his neck. ‘Go on then,’ he said. ‘What is it with your daughter? What’s so different about her? And there is something different isn’t there? I can tell. It’s the way she looks at you, like she doesn’t quite believe that you’re there.’

Pete nodded. Selby had hit the nail on the head there… sometimes he wondered if Rose even believed that she was really here at all. There was definitely something different about Rose Tyler, and from the persistent look on Selby’s face, Pete knew he was going to have to tell him everything.

Bad World - Chapter 1

Bad World
Chapter 1

‘Rose!’

The sound of her name ripped through the night, and she blinked in the white light, as though the voice had partially jolted her back to her senses. Slowly, she raised a shaking hand to cover her eyes from the brightness, and squinted, making out a dark, rectangular shape. A shape that was to her very unlikely, very familiar, and most definitely not a Dalek.

‘Rose!’ her name echoed out again.

And then everything crystallized. Rose could feel the freezing air and stinging rain whip round her face. She could see past the blinding light and make out the image of a battered white van. She could hear her own name being called out across the enclosure…

And it was Mickey’s voice.

‘Rose, stop standing there like a lemming and get over here!’

There was a grinding sound, and the van shifted in the wet soil. The headlights suddenly sucked off of Rose, and spilled over the rest of the gravel yard. The beam illuminated the crates that she had hid behind, and the squat building beyond… from where a Dalek was slowly emerging.

Pausing in the doorway, it twitched its eyestalk as it took in the scene before it. But before the Dalek could act, a violent torrent of mottled light hit it in the face. The creature inside bellowed out its pain as what looked like tendrils of electricity flickered all over its casing. Then the hollow blue glow of its eye died away, and all that was left was the pitted and lifeless shell.

Rose turned slowly to look at the van. Through the dusty front window she could see Jake, grim faced and clutching at the wheel. The seat next to him was empty, but the window was open and as Rose’s gaze traveled upwards she saw Mickey, kneeling on the roof of the van. He was gripping a heavy looking gun on his shoulder and, as she watched, he lowered it and shouted at her again.

‘You coming, or what!?’ he pulled on a lever to reload the gun. ‘How many more are there?’

Glancing behind her at the two lifeless Daleks, Rose shook her head and called back to him. ‘I think they’re all dead! I only saw three to start with!’

Mickey shaded his eyes from the rain. ‘Where’s the other one, then?!’

Rose’s reply was lost in the wind, but he saw her point to the building behind and nodded. She must have taken care of it earlier, and if there were only three then the building was probably a low security storage area rather than a high security camp; they shouldn’t have any more trouble. Then again… there could be twenty more on the way right now.

He pulled a face and slid down the side of the van. Pausing at the open window, he passed the heavy gun to Jake and leaned in.

‘See, I told you we’d find her,’ he said.

Jake rolled his eyes and handed Mickey a pair of wire cutters from the glove box. Mickey flashed him a grin, though both knew that he had been nearly hysterical with worry for Rose, and made his way over to the wire mesh of the fence.

From within the enclosure, Rose had moved towards the first Dalek, the one that had died in a ball of flame, the one she had killed. Heedless to Mickey’s shouts behind her, she stared down at it and tried to make herself feel… something. Before, it had been so easy to feel fear, or hate, or even sympathy towards them, but now she only felt a cold emptiness as she looked at the lifeless object.

Mickey appeared at her shoulder and followed her gaze.

‘Nice,’ he said bleakly. He pocketed the wire cutters, gave Rose a curious glance, and turned back to the fence, feigning nonchalance. ‘You coming then?’

Rose mentally shook herself and tore her gaze away from the creature. It was then that she realized she was still clutching the object in her breast pocket, and she quickly lowered her hand. She wasn’t sure if Mickey had noticed… he probably hadn’t, she tried to reassure herself.

Sighing, she shifted her grip on the black canvas bag and followed Mickey through the hole in the fence. It wasn’t long before the chocking sound of the van started up again as it turned around and headed away from the now deserted encampment.

**************

Rose sat silently opposite Mickey in the back of the jolting van as it wound and picked its way over the makeshift road.

If you could even call it a road.

Which, in Rose’s opinion, you could not.

The path of flattened and beaten down soil was only created for the transportation of slaves, and only maintained because of the thousands of feet that trampled it down everyday. Rose hated the road, its whole singular purpose was so that the ‘Supreme Ones’ could watch over their little human pets.

It had been named ‘Long Road’ by Pete since it stretched all the way from Cardiff to Edinburgh. Jackie, on the other hand, had named it ‘A bloody stupid place to go snooping about at, especially since its swarming with bleedin Daleks, and I don’t care if you manage to save a few slaves, you’re still risking your own neck and I don’t know what I’d do if you never came home.’ But of course, Jackie’s version was a bit long to remember, let alone say.

Rose stared out at it. Four hundred and four miles of slave trodden earth, stretching on for what seemed like forever and littered every one in a while with a small detention centre where the slaves were kept for the night during traveling. It was disgraceful. But at least at this time of the night it would be rare to run into more than a couple of Daleks on patrol. And the weapons that Mickey and Jake had with them could easily take care of a few Daleks.

Still… they shouldn’t even be here.

The giant metal gun that Mickey had hauled up onto the roof of the van was designed from the remains of a Dalek. It had made sense when Pete had dragged the scrap metal and bits of fizzing wiring into the house; after all, only a Dalek would have the power to stop a Dalek.

So they had fashioned guns, and once they had the knowledge, weapons were built in all sizes. The small slender tube that Rose carried with her was her own design, and she was quite attached to it.

As the van continued its staggered path along Long Road, Mickey watched Rose’s blank and passive face. She was barely lit in the gloom of the van so he could make out only the outline of her features and dark eyes staring blankly past him… or through him.

‘You gonna thank us then?’

There was no response other than the purring of the van.

‘I mean, we came all this way…’ he ventured again.

Silence.

Mickey sighed and lent forwards towards Rose, his arms on his knees. ‘You could have died you know,’ he said, accusingly.

Rose raised her eyes to meet his.

‘I knew what I was doing,’ she said.

‘Yeah.’

‘I did,’ she retorted, almost savagely, her eyes picking him out in the gloom. ‘You didn't have to come running after me.’

Mickey blinked, surprised. ‘What you talking about?’ he said. Now it was Rose’s turn to sigh as she surveyed the figure in front of her.

‘What was the point of following me?’ she asked. ‘I didn’t ask you to, in fact that’s the reason why I didn’t tell anyone where I was going, so why did you?’

‘You’re joking right?’

Rose said nothing more. Flashing him a scowl, she shifted herself on the hard seat and stared out of the window of the van. Mickey followed her gaze, wondering what on earth she could actually hope to see in the darkness. Then he realized she wasn’t really interested at what lay beyond the window, she just didn’t want to talk to him.

He clenched his jaw and sighed inwardly. Of all the times for Rose to turn as stubborn as her mother! She’d always been a bit intractable, always been able to silence Mickey with just a look, but now it was becoming almost impossible to have a decent conversation with her. Ever since the Daleks had come she’d become more reclusive and less willing to be one of the ‘family’. Jackie thought it was because she was hiding something, but then Jackie was probably the most mistrustful person in the universe.

‘Rose,’ Mickey tried again, ‘you were joking? I mean, asking why we came after you…?’

Rose didn’t turn to face him but drew her knees into her chest and hugged them tightly. From that position she looked vulnerable and naive, an image that was completely shattered by the following tone of voice and stinging words.

‘For god’s sake Mickey, no I wasn’t joking. I didn’t want you coming after me; I didn’t want anyone coming after me. I knew what I was doing and I was fine doing it, happy now?’

Mickey opened and shut his mouth; it was funny to think how much she had changed yet hadn’t really changed at all... Well, he wasn’t having any of that! One thing that Rose Tyler always forgot was that he had changed as well.

‘Firstly,’ he retorted, counting off on his fingers, ‘no, I’m not happy. Secondly, I never said you didn’t know what you were doin’. It’s obvious you knew what you were doin’, otherwise you wouldn’t have been doin’ it! And thirdly, don’t be such an idiot!’ Rose looked sharply at him, like she had been stung. ‘There’s seven of us, Rose,’ he continued, ‘seven, against a whole world! Just us, that’s it, there’s no one else… of course we’re gonna come running after you! Your part of the family ain’t you? You might not act it, but you are!’

‘I didn’t ask you to come!’ Rose snapped at him

‘I’m not the one in the wrong here!’ Mickey shot back. ‘You’re the one that wandered off without telling us!’ His brow furrowed in anxiety and he lowered his voice, ‘you could have said something, Jackie’s been going spare…’

Rose stared at him. For a brief moment, she wondered when Mickey had learned to argue like that. The things he said made sense to her in an intellectual way, but it wasn’t going to change her mind. She had her own private reasons for going to the camp alone, and more than anything she hadn’t wanted the family to get involved. If they did, it would just mean more shouting, arguments, tears, and fall outs. Not something that would help matters.

‘You’re the idiot, Mickey,’ she said, her voice softening under his worried gaze. ‘I didn’t want anyone to come ‘cause I knew how dangerous it would be… I didn’t want anyone to get hurt.’

It didn’t matter now anyway. Every one back home clearly knew she’d gone ‘wandering off somewhere’ as Pete would put it. They’d all be up in arms, and Jackie would probably be shrieking the house down. But Rose was glad that it at least was Mickey who had come to find her, rather than anyone else.

‘What were you trying to do?’

She shifted. ‘There was something I wanted…’ she let her voice drift off, hoping, pointlessly, that no more questions would be asked.

Mickey looked at her. ‘And?’

‘And… it was in the encampment so–’

‘So you went off on your own and nearly got yourself killed trying to get it,’ Mickey finished for her. Rose shut her mouth and clenched her jaw, as though frustrated that he couldn’t understand her point of view. Afraid that she might suddenly loose her temper again, Mickey hurriedly changed the subject.

‘So it looks like you got what you wanted then,’ he indicated the black bag at her feet, ‘what is it?’

Rose stared at the bag for a confused moment, and then shrugged and kicked it over to him. As the van bumped and grinded its way along, Mickey picked up the bag and peered inside.

The bag was mostly filled by a heavy blanket (Rose obviously thought she would be away for a few days), and included the metal cylinder that was her weapon. But underneath, nestled between the folds of the cloth, was a small, battered book.

Furrowing his brow, Mickey opened the book and thumbed through the pages. They were full of unidentifiable marks and scribbles that arced their way over each page and seemed to follow no ascertainable pattern. Mickey flicked his way through the entire book to make sure he hadn’t missed anything, and then looked up at Rose again, confusion etched onto his face.

‘You know what it is?’

For a second time, she shrugged, ‘I’ve seen something like it before.’

Mickey opened his mouth to ask where, but he suddenly realized that Rose was subconsciously clutching at her coat again. While she was leaning forward and seemingly taking an interest in the book, her right hand was gripping the breast pocket with such force that her knuckles were turning white.

Taking a deep breath, Mickey shut the book and stuffed it back in the bag. ‘What were you really looking for?’ he asked, leaning back and surveying her.

Rose looked up at him and, for a second, seemed about to feign ignorance. But then she caught the serious look in his eyes and let her poker face drop, heaving a deep sigh.

‘You can’t tell anyone,’ she said.

‘That depends,’ said Mickey, ‘what it is?’

Rose shook her head and looked up at him, her eyes pleading. It was staggering how quickly her whole face could change from a harsh coldness, to something almost childlike.

‘Fine,’ Mickey said.

‘Promise,’ Rose demanded.

‘Alright! I promise,’ he said, and realized that he meant it.

Rose reached up and unzipped the pocket. But before she could produce the treasure nestled within, the van pulled to a halt and a hollering woman’s voice shot through the open window.

‘Rose Tyler! You get your sweet behind out here, right now!

Bad World - Prologue

Prologue

Rose pressed her back into the hard, wooden crate and screwed her eyes shut, trying desperately to control her heavy breathing. They were coming… she knew they were. But whether they would find her in the storm, or just wander straight past… how could she know?

The wind was picking up again, sending a shiver up the woman’s spine. Rose took a shuddered gulp of icy air and tried to push her sodden hair out of her face. But the freezing rain being pummeled into the side of her head sent her blond hair whipping back into her eyes. Rose gritted her teeth against the cold and wondered if she should take a risk and peek over the top of the crates. She couldn’t hear them, but even now, after all this time, she was still unsure of how sharp their hearing was... what if they knew exactly where she was? And if they caught her…

Thunder rolled across empty, black skies, screaming out to the grey world cowering beneath its wrath. For a split second, Rose’s world was alive with searing white lines, and her eyes flew open as the oil bins and crates seemed to twitch and jump in the light. Then she was plummeted into darkness once more.

Above the gale of wind and onslaught of rain, the rapid pounding of Rose’s heart seemed to drown out her senses. She tried to shuffle further back into the crates as fear threatened to take over. If anyone had been watching, they would have seen a bedraggled creature, bambi eyed and pale, almost swallowed up by the shadows that surrounded her. They would have seen her press herself back against the crates as the lighting roared above, as though longing for them to swallow her up in her fear. But, they would have also seen her raise a trembling hand to her chest and squeeze it around the breast pocket of her coat… they would have seen her eyes grow cold, and fierce, and her jaw clench in steely determination.

They would have seen Rose Tyler in all her fortitude, in all her power… just as the Doctor had always seen her.

The lightning crackled again, but this time Rose did not blink. Pulling her hair once more from her face, she shifted her stiff body onto her knees, and cautiously peered over the crates. She squinted, but saw only blackness. Using her numb hand to shelter her face, she sniffed and stared into the gloom, trying to pick out something… anything that could send her a ray of hope, a chance of escape.

But even as she stared, a cold, sickening feeling began sliding itself over her. She could see something nestled within the dark of the night. Once she had cleared her eyes of the rain, she became aware of a small, but incredibly bright blue light hovering in the blackness. Watching her.

‘Oh… god.’

A giant booming sound erupted above Rose’s head and a thin slice of lighting cut its way powerfully through the rain. Once again, the scene in front of her was illuminated with a blinding radiance, and the demonic, hulking shape of a Dalek seared its way into her vision.

And for a split second, as the world was lit around them, Rose looked into the eyes of an oppressor and it looked back…

‘EXTERMIN–!’

Rose twisted around and flung herself sideways as the crate she had been hiding behind exploded in a whirlwind of wooden shards. She landed heavily; the breath knocked out of her, and scrabbled within the large black bag that had previously nestled by her side. From the other side of the crates came the unmistakable noise of the Dalek as it glided serenely towards her, never slowing, never faltering, and drawing painstakingly closer.

With her hand buried in the bag, Rose struggled to her feet and let out a gasping sob in fear and frustration. Trying desperately to stay calm, Rose took a heaving breath just as her searching fingers located the cold lump of elongated metal from within the bag’s folds. Her shaking fingers gripped it, and with a new grim look etched into her face, she flailed her body round in the mud so that she lay on her back, blinking in the onslaught of rain that ravished her face.

Even above the constant drumming of raindrops, the sound of the approaching Dalek pounded into Rose’s eardrums. It jarred to a stop above her, blotting out the rain and spotlighting her face with its glowing blue elevation pads. For a perfect moment, everything was still in the world.

Rose snarled.

Just as the bulky shape above began to bare down upon her, she brought her arms around, forcing the muzzle of the metal weapon up. The heavy golden colour glinted in the luminous blue light of the Dalek, looking briefly pretty and out of place. But Rose’s deadened fingers had already found the underbelly of the device, and with a final wrench of her hand, she thrust her finger hard against the switch and send a torrent of white light shooting upwards.

The beam screamed through the frozen air and cannoned into the underside of the Dalek. Sparks leaped off the impaired casing and the monster let out a lurching, bellowing noise as the power of the weapon sliced through it.

Rose hugged the golden cylinder to her chest and rolled sideways as the creature above began to smoke and wail. With hardly a pause to catch her breath, Rose rolled again, skidding over the icy gravel in an attempt to distance herself from the burning Dalek. The blue light at the end of its eye stalk fizzed, and was extinguished as power was lost, and with a sickening crunch, the creature fell through the air and smacked against the hard ground.

Grabbing the black bag and staggering to her feet, Rose collapsed against the wire mesh of the fence that was keeping her prisoner, and watched as the Dalek was cooked alive in its own metal casing, screaming its death cry into the night.

She took several steadying breaths as the noises died away, and wondered how many others had heard their sentry boil and wail. From a two second estimate, Rose figured no less than seven… Not even her gun, let alone herself, would outlast that many Daleks. Once again, her hand involuntarily moved to clutch at her breast pocket, as though this simple movement gave her strength.

Then she was blinded by a scolding white light.