Testing: Clara Oswald

Chapter Eight

         Enjoy this next chapter! The next time I update might be in about two weeks cause I'm going away for a bit. See you's. 

 Chapter Eight

Now that the pair had escaped the haunted house behind them they had to start coming up with their next plan. There was still a barren desert around them, nothing but this house was in view.

"Where should we go?" Clara asked the Doctor as she pushed off of the wooden door she had been leaning on. Sweat covered her brow and she was continually heating up in the sun. She decided to take off her leather jacket that was covering her arms. She tied it around her waist, securing it, making sure that it wouldn't fall, especially if she had to do more running, which she always did. Her bare arms were left to roast in the hot sun, the rest of her covered by her navy blue dress.

The Doctor was on the ground, leaning against the house that they had just come out of. His breaths were slowing down, which was a good sign. He looked up at Clara, watching her as she tied her jacket around her. "I don't know." He licked his lip before he continued. "I suppose we'll just keep walking."

Clara turned at once at this news. "What do you mean 'keep walking'? We've walked for hours and all we've found is this house! There's nothing else out there, we haven't seen anything."

The Doctor squinted his eyes as he tried to read her expression. "Maybe there are more of these out there." He tried. Clara puffed out air in disbelief. "I doubt it, Doctor." She told him quietly.

She turned back around, facing the desert again. There really wasn't anything else out there, just sand, mountains of it. But then she remembered their task; find the town and you're free, that was the game. So there had to be some town out there, they just had to find it.

"Get up." Clara said harshly, offering the Doctor her hand. He took it with question and she pulled him up. When he was taller than her once again he gave her a look, scrunching up his face. "What's changed your mind?" He asked her. Clara's eyes met his own and they glistened, she had let her mind reopen. "There's a town out there somewhere that has the TARDIS. We have to find it." She told him. This lit up the Doctor's face. "Glad you've come to your senses." He said.

The two of them started walking again, leaving the house behind. Both of their minds had reopened to see the possibilities that there were.

The walk was long and gruesome just like it had been before they had stopped. The two of them walked beside each other, paying close attention to each other's footsteps. Clara liked this; it took her mind off of what was happening. She tried as hard as she could to keep her shorter strides in line with his longer ones. It proved to be difficult.

Other than this little game the two were silent, the both of them, once again, not knowing what to say to the other. But I do think that they found it comfortable, easier to cope with. It was enjoyable, well, as enjoyable as it could be.

The thing that troubled Clara was that once they had been walking for about two hours, she thought that she could again make out something in the distance. She didn't want to get her hopes up, especially since the last time hadn't done her that well, but she could feel that wonderful feeling bubbling under her surface. Hope.

The Doctor too noticed whatever it was ahead of them. It was big, very big, but he didn't know what it was.

"Do you think it's a building?" Clara piped up from beside him. The Doctor raised his hand and held it over his face to shield the sun as he took a better look. He had to strain his eyes to do this. "No... I don't think it's a building. It's too big to be that." He told her. Clara took a glance at the Doctor, the corner of her lip turning up in a very small grin. "Well, buildings can be big." She stated. This time he turned to look at her. "Clara, it's not a building... I think its trees."

Clara's eyebrows came together at her center in confusion but also with surprise. "A forest? Out here?" She asked him. He nodded as he reached into his jacket for his glasses. He put them on carefully, squinting again. Clara shifted in her stance. She felt as if the forest was staring at her, sizing her up. She didn't like it. "Is this a good thing or a bad thing that we've found this?" She asked the Doctor. He gulped in response as he thought about it, the way to say what he had to without scaring her too much. "Well, we have to go through if we want to find the TARDIS." He stated. "I think that we should go with what we've got and if this is what we have, well, we should go with it." He mumbled.

And with that, the two travelers continued on towards the big, deep forest. Both of their heads were held high, faking confidence, making them look bigger than they really were. It was their motivation to keep going, it was their armor.

As it came closer, Clara noticed how big the trees were. They towered over them, massive blocks in the road.

She turned her head to both sides, checking out the area. The forest was long and deep. It formed a straight line right across the desert, there was only one way past and that was to go through.

The two of them stopped once they were on the outskirts of the forest, both of them shifting with their weight, both of them mentally preparing themselves for the task at hand.