"How can something be coming up when there's only the Earth's crust down there?" growled Mac as he and Nasreen raced down a hill, trailing behind The Doctor and Rose. Everyone was carrying a laptop, encased in what looked like a suitcase.

"Oh, you saw the readings, didn't you?" Rose said irritably as they rounded a corner.

"Who are you two, anyway? How do you know all this?" Nasreen stopped suddenly as a grid of red sparks blazed across the sky. "Whoa, did you see that?'

"No, no, no!" The Doctor grabbed a rock from the ground ands flung it upwards in a slingshot. Once again, red lightning blossomed across the gray sky. Rose took out her sonic pen and aimed it at the sky. "Energy signal originating from under the Earth. We're trapped," she said. "Give me a minute." She thrust her pen upon the Doctor's chest, then stalked off into the distance.

"Oi, can't we at least talk about this?" called The Doctor. No response.

Rory, Ambrose, and Elliot walked up. "Doctor, something weird is going on here, the graves are eating people!" Rory spoke in a bored fashion.

"Not now, Rory!" The Doctor was surveying things with his screwdriver. "Energy barricade, invisible to the naked eye. We can't get out, and no one from the outside world can get in."

"What?" Rory was now puzzled, but he received no explanation form the preoccupied Doctor. "Okay, what about the TARDIS?"

Nasreen cocked her head a bit. "The what?"

"Uh, no the energy patterns would play havoc with the circuits," The Doctor explained dismissively. He put paused for a moment, then looked at his gold watch. "Little bit of time, maybe, but we've only got nine and a half minutes."

"Nine and a half minutes to what?" Rory asked.

"We're trapped, and something's burrowing towards the surface," Nasreen explained bitterly, one hand on her hip.

"Where's Rose? Where's Amy, for that matter!?" Rory asked, getting worked up.

"Get everyone inside the church," The Doctor ordered, and everyone grabbed their equipment. "Rory, I'll get Amy back."

"What do you mean, get her back? Where's she gone?" Rory chased after The Doctor.

The Doctor spun around to face him as everyone else ran off. "She was taken… into the Earth."

"How? Why didn't you stop it?"

"Rory, I promise, I tried-"

"WELL, YOU SHOULD'VE TRIED HARDER!" Rory spat.

"I'll find Amy, I'll keep you all safe, I promise. Come on, please… I need you alongside me," The Doctor begged, then walked away. "Seems like everyone's mad at me today," The Doctor mumbled under his breath.

Scanning ready. A woman. Eyes closed. Breathing. Clothing tarnished.

As Nasreen and Mac took their equipment to the church door, Ambrose and Elliot chased after them. "Where's Mo?" she asked. "Is he with you?"

"Flaming door, always sticking. I thought the were having it fixed," Mo grumbled as he tried to unlock the entrance.

"DAD!" Ambrose shouted, exasperated.

"Something's happened to him, hasn't it?" Elliot accused.

Mac had a deer-in-the-headlights look.

Rose ran. Running running running can't do this anymore ohmygod, she thought frantically. Her feet slapped the ground so much they went numb, but she forced herself to keep going to keep her mind off him. Him.

Suddenly, she felt as though she had hit a wall. Her knees buckled, and she heard a scream from off in the distance. The last thing she saw was a grid of red form in front of her.

"So, we can't get out, we can't contact anyone, and something, the something that took my husband, is coming up through the Earth," Ambrose summarized.

"Yes," The Doctor confirmed. "If we move quickly enough, we can be ready."

"No, stop, this has gone far enough," Ambrose replied, pointing a finger at The Doctor. "What is this?"

"He's telling the truth, though," Mac countered.

"Come on, it's not the first time we've had no mobile or phone signals! Reception's always rubbish!"

"Look, Ambrose, we saw The Doctor's friend get taken, and, hey, you saw the lightning in the sky! I have seen the impossible today, and the only person who makes any sense of it, for me, is The Doctor!"

"Him?" Ambrose asked.

"Me!" The Doctor popped up from behind a machine.

"Can you get my dad back?" Elliot asked.

Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at Elliot. "Yes, but I need you to trust me and do exactly as I say from this second onwards, because we are running out of time!" The Doctor said, walking to Ambrose

"So tell us what to do," she whispered resolutely.

"Thank you. We have eight minutes to set up a line of defense. Bring me every phone, every camera, every piece of recording or transmitting equipment you can find."

The Doctor ran outside, where Rory was scouring. "Every burglar alarm, every movement sensor, every security light! I want the whole area covered with sensors!" he yelled as everyone set up a makeshift security system.

He came into the warehouse. "Right, guys, we need to be ready for whatever's coming up." The Doctor came to Elliot and clapped a hand on his shoulder. "I need a map of the village, marking where the cameras are going," he ordered.

"I can't do the words, I'm dyslexic," Elliot protested.

"Oh, that's alright, I can't make a decent meringue. Draw like your life depends on it, Elliot."

Elliot ran off smiling.

Six minutes and forty seconds. Rory set up a camcorder.

Five minutes and one second. Mac was surveying a digital map, with The Doctor peeking over his shoulder. "Works in quadrants. Every movement sensor and trip light we've got. If anything moves, we'll know."

Four minutes and eight seconds. The Doctor was checking Ambrose's Meals on Wheels van.

"Oi! What are you doing?" Ambrrose ran out, tools in her arms.

"Resources! Every little helps! Meals on Wheels… What've you got here then? Warmer in the front, refrigerated in the back." The Doctor ran to the back as Ambrose put the tools in the passenger seat. "Bit chilly for a hideout, mind," she said.

"What are those?" The Doctor said, finally noticing the tools.

"Like you say, every little helps."

"No! No weapons. It's not the way I do things."

"Well, you said we were supposed to be defending ourselves."

"Oh, Ambrose, you're better than this. I'm asking nicely. Put them away." He ran off.

Three minutes, twenty-two seconds. Elliot gave a finished map to The Doctor.

"Look at that! Perfect! Dyslexia never stopped Da Vinci or Einstein. It's not stopping you," The Doctor praised.

"I don't understand what you're going to do," Elliot said.

"Two-phase plan. First, the sensors and the cameras will let us know when something arrives. Second, if something does arrive, I use this-" he took out his screwdriver- "to send a sonic pulse through this network of devices, a pulse which would temporarily incapacitate most things in the universe."

"Knock 'em out- cool!" Elliot said with enthusiasm.

As The Doctor checked the digital map, he decided to make small talk. "Lovely place to grow up 'round here," he said.

"Suppose," Elliot said. "I want to live in a city one day. Soon as I'm old enough, I'll be off."

"I was the same way where I grew up," The Doctor said, smiling.

"Did you get away?"

"Yeah."

"Do you ever miss it?"

"So much," he said, eyes slightly downcast.

"Is it monsters coming?" Elliot asked. "Have you met monsters before?"

"Yeah," the Doctor answered matter-of-factly.

"You scared of them?" Elliot asked.

"No, they're scared of me." The conversation about home seemed to have put a damper on The Doctor's mood.

"Will you really get my dad back?"

"No question."

"I left my headphones at home," Elliot said, and The Doctor confirmed that he could go back and get them. Elliot ran off.

The Doctor looked at the screens once more. One minute left. The dots were rapidly going upwards.

The Doctor checked in with Rory, who was still positioning the cameras. "How are you doing?" he asked.

"It's getting darker," Rory said, staring in wonder at the black clouds forming and spreading like ink blots across the grey sky. "How is it getting dark so quickly?"

"Shutting out light from within the barricade. Trying to isolate us in the dark, which means…" The ground rumbled as if on cue. "…it's here."

Line break

In the warehouse, Mac and Nasreen looked at the screens. "They're getting close to the surface now," Nasreen said. Mac suddenly kissed her. "Tony!"

"Like you didn't know," he said, and they kissed again.

So, longest chapter I've done, and hopefully a longer one next! Sorry about so little Rose, i just have plans for her in the next couple chapters… Hee Hee! Stay tuned,

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