Checkmate (Doctor Who fanfiction)

Crossing the Line

This cover was probably my favorite so far. :)

"Where are we?" Amy asked, as The Doctor shut the Tardis doors. "I thought we were supposed to be in Mexico.

"I don't know, this could be Mexico," The Doctor reasoned.

"It's boiling," Rory said obviously.

I leave them to their bickering, and climb a hill, to stand and look out over the desert in which we've landed. My shoes crunch in the dirt.

"Hey, you really should come have a look at this," I called back to them.

They followed me up the Rocky hill. Before us, rolling, barren land, speckled with shrubs.

"Hey, what's that, then?" Rory asked, pointing off into the distance at a small dog heavily distorted by the heat.

"Let us," I said thoughtfully, "go and find out."

"I'm with the psychopath, here," The Doctor said. "Come on, team. Put on your hiking boots, we're going on a walk."

We walked for what felt like a hundred miles, but was probably only one. It didn't take long to recognize the dot as a town. We reached the town line. No, really. I was a literal line. It was made of dusty planks and rocks, all just sitting there and forming a thin line around the town.

"Ah, we've gone a bit Old West," I said, looking up at the tall sign.

"Mercy," The Doctor says. "Eighty one residents."

The residents sign originally said eighty residents, but someone had recently crossed it out in red paint, and written eighty one beside it.

"Look at this. It's a load of stones and lumps of wood," Amy said, looking down at the town line. For her peace of mind, he scanned it with his sonic screwdriver. "What is it?" She asked.

"A load of stones and lumps of wood," he replied.

"The sign does say Keep Out," Rory pointed out.

"I see Keep Out signs as suggestions more than actual orders," The Doctor informed us. "Like Dry Clean only."

I murmured in Amy's ear, "That explains so much."

She giggled, and we followed The Doctor over the town line, unaware of the domino effect we had just begun by doing so.

We walked down the main street, dust getting in out eyes if we were blessed with the slightest breeze. I hung onto The Doctors arm like we were at a fancy ball, but he didn't mind. People stared at us from balconies and inside window panes as we walked by. I could barely contain my excitement, and the adrenaline coarsing through my veins.

An electric street lamp outside small post office sparked, and The Doctor snapped his fingers, pointing at it.

"That's not right," he decided.

"It's a street lamp," Rory told him, not understanding what the big deal was.

"An electric street lamp about ten years too early," he said.

"It's only a few years out."

"That's what you said when you left your phone charger in Henry the Eighth's en-suite," he reminded the Roman. No one else found it funny, but I laughed, and didn't care when they all gave me a look for it.

"Doctor, er..." Amy spoke.

"Anachronistic electricity, Keep Out signs, aggressive stares. Has someone been peeking at my Christmas list?" He asked.

"Doctor," she tried again. bThe Doctor had started chew on a toothpick he had drawn from his jacket, and walked on. I stayed behind to walk with Amy.