The Other Tyler - rewrite

Zombies or Ghosts?

Managing to fight past the swarm of people escaping the opera house like salmon swimming upstream, Mei stumbled at the sight of a blue ghost-like creature swooping through the air. She followed the nearly disappearing trail back to an old woman whom slumped down in her chair, looking as though she had fallen asleep.

"Fantastic," The Doctor exclaimed like a child as he neared the curly haired man on stage, "Did you see where it came from?"

"Ah. The wag reveals himself, does he? I trust you're satisfied, sir!" the man hissed, causing the Doctor to look taken aback.

Mei giggled, but jumped when her sister yelled, "Oi! Leave her alone!" She turned to see an older man with little hair and a young woman in a serving uniform making off with the old lady that the ghost thing had come from. "Mei, what do we do?"

"Stay with the Doctor, and be careful!" she replied, running after them.

"You be careful!" the Doctor yelled after Mei as she disappeared from sight, before offering a hand to Rose and helping her up onto stage. He then asked the man, "Did it say anything? Could it speak? I'm The Doctor, by the way."

"Doctor?" The man asked, "You look more like a navy."

Rose snickered as the Doctor looked down and asked, "What's wrong with this jumper?"

+

Mei followed the pair to a hearse and frowned when she saw them load the old lady into it. Waiting until the man was gone, she moved to the back and gave the serving woman a fright.

"What do you think you're doing to that old lady?" she demanded, her hands firmly on her hips.

"Oh, it's such a tragedy, miss," the serving woman explained softly, moving to try and block Mei's sight of the body behind her, "Don't worry yourself, me and the master will deal with it. The fact is, this poor lady's been taken with the brain fever and we have to get her to the infirmary."

"You're driving a hearse, don't think I'm stupid!" Mei huffed, shoving the woman out of the way. Immediately, she noticed the woman's grey skin and the lack of chest movement, "Oh my god," she pressed two fingers to the old lady's throat and felt her stomach drop, "She's dead, why the hell is she dead?!"

The serving woman's eyes widened, but before Mei could react, an arm wrapped around her waist, trapping her arms by her sides and another pressed a cloth across her nose and mouth. As she took a breath, she inhaled a sweet scent and started to panic, wriggling as best she could, screaming into the rag. 

The serving woman gave her a sympathetic look, before Mei's eyes rolled into the back of her head and she felt her body go limp. The last thing she remembered, was a hand creeping its way up her leg.

+

The Doctor's eyes widened as the blue ghost dived into one of the lamps, disappearing, "Gas! It's made of gas!"

"What, like in the pipes?" Rose asked, watching him climb up to a nearby lamp to get a look – much to the horror of the curly haired man. She expected Mei to come out with some sassy comment, but when she looked around, Rose realised her sister still hadn't returned. "Um, Doctor-"

"Not right now," he waved her off.

"But Doctor-"

"In a minute," he huffed.

Finally snapping, she yelled, "Doctor!" making him and the man jump.

"What do you want?" The Doctor asked, sounding irritated.

Glaring at him, Rose crossed her arms and said, "Mei's been gone a while now, or were you too busy playing with lamps to notice?!"

His expression changed from annoyance to worry in a split second, so fast that Rose nearly doubted he was ever annoyed at all. He jumped down and ran for the exit, her and the man following right behind him. As he reached the street, he caught sight of the serving woman pushing Mei into the hearse out of sight and closing the door.