In The Realms of the Unreal

Chapter 31

The Doctor's vision slowly began to clear. As it did so, he noticed several things.

The first was that he was tied down to a large metal grill over a flame. The second was that he was in a huge stone cavern. And finally. he could he the sounds of thousands of voices chanting in unison.

A few seconds later, he realised that the chanting belonged to hundreds of deformed cultists who were gathered all around the metal grill he was tied to. At the front was a tall man in black clothing who the Doctor guessed, must be the son of Topo.

"Hello!" he called out "You there!"
However, the son ignored him and continued chanting with the rest of the cultists.

It was then that the Doctor realised he wasn't alone. Tied around the grill with him were the rest of the group

"Everybody!" the Doctor hissed "Are you ok?"
Mcclane groaned and opened his eyes "Where the fuck are we?"
A second later, the rest of the group slowly came around.

"Welcome to the ceremony" The Doctor grinned in an attempt to lighten the mood.

Mulder tried to get free, but found the ropes were extremely tight

"Don't bother" the Doctor told him "They've tied us up really fine. You're not going to get yourself free with your bare hands"
"Then what are we supposed to do?" Scully asked "Excuse me for saying so, but I really don't want to become a sacrifice!"
"I'm afraid there's not much we can do" Blondie told her "Guess I should have seen this coming really, what with all the rumours that surround the Topo cult"
"Hang on a second" Emma looked around "Where's Jerry?"

Although none of the group knew it, Jerry had managed to hide behind one of the bookcases in the confusion that had sprung up when the gas bombs had been thrown into the room. Additionally, he'd only breathed in a small amount of the gas. Although he'd felt dizzy, Jerry had managed to find away to stay conscious and had watched from a hiding spot as the cult had carried away the unconscious group.

Now as he remained hidden, Jerry was absolutely terrified. For a second he'd considered running for it while the going was good. He'd quickly abandoned that idea for several reasons. First of all, even if he had managed to escape the caves without being captured by the cultists, he'd still have to find a way out of the canyon. And even if he did that, he had no way of flying the TARDIS back to his own time. Besides he'd never be able to live with himself if he left the group to die.

Jerry sniffed. The only option he really had was to somehow save the group from being turned into a sacrifice like the cult leader had said. But what could he do. There was only one of him and numerous members of the cult, all bloodthirsty and armed to the teeth.

He shrugged. If Jerry wanted to get out of here and back to his own time, he was just going to have to risk it.

Jerry peaked out of the room he'd been hiding in. No sign of the cultists which was a good start.

He then crept out of the room and as quietly as he could, Jerry snuck through the tunnels of the caves keeping his eyes peeled for any sign of deformed deranged bloodthirsty Topo cultists.

After sneaking around for a decent amount of time, Jerry heard what sounded like chanting. Immediately he was in two minds about this.

On one hand, this was almost certainly where the group were being held. However this also meant that the cultists were all gathered together and would almost certainly tear him to shreds the moment they saw him.

Against his better judgement, Jerry followed the source of the chanting. Eventually he came to a gap in the wall and decided to peer through.

On the other side of the wall was a colossal chamber with hundreds of cultists gathered around a large metal structure with a flame inside it. Tied to the structure were the rest of the group. To Jerry's relief they all appeared to be alive. Directly in front of them, the Son of Topo was leading the chants. Then Jerry noticed something.