The Doctor Of War ³

In The Forest Of The Dead pt.2

"Gifted and talented? Really?" the Doctor asks as we walk through the forest, we pass a stranded taxi.

"Furious, fearful, tongue-tied. They're all superpowers if you use them properly. Are they going to be all right?" Clara asks the nearby traffic lights go out. Presumably, the growing tree roots are disrupting the cables.

"They're in the Tardis, the safest place on the planet" I say, another rumble, and we look up to see Horatio falling towards them. We throw themselves forward and the statue just misses.

"If this is an invasion" the Doctor starts.

"What?"

"It's over. They're here, they've won. What do they want?" The children come out of the TARDIS, coughing in the stone dust.

"I'm not just going to stand here and let her die," Ruby says.

"Who?" Danny asks.

"Miss, you let her go off with some randomers into the forest. You're supposed to be madly in love with her."

"I'm? Who said that?"

"Everyone."

"She's probably dead now anyway. Crushed by Nelson."

"What if the trees collapse on her, and kill her?" Ruby says.

"You're worrying too much" Danny replies.

"Yeah, but what if the wild animals come out and eat her?"

"Ruby, you're letting your imagination run away with you."

"I'm not, though, am I, because I haven't got an imagination. You can ask Miss Oswald."

"Ok, then. Come on, team, let's do this."

"We will if you stop calling us a team." As the Doctor, Clara and I walk through the forest, Clara looks back.

"Seer? Doctor? Look behind us. The path we just walked down. It's overgrown already" Clara says as I pick up a pink phone.

"Clara!" I say, Clara, walks over.

"Why would she put her phone down?"

"Doesn't want to be followed? Lost a hold of it in a struggle? Left it as a clue, so we would know where she was going? Trail of breadcrumbs. Hansel and Gretel" I say, looking forward and into the forest.

"I'm actually frightened. I never get frightened. Why am I frightened?" Clara asks.

"You just lost a little girl" I say then mumble something and looking down shaking my head.

"Yes, that is a worry, but I know you'll both find her. No, no, no. This is not a worry, this is a dread. Maebh!"

"You're pursuing a little-lost girl through a mysterious forest. The path has disappeared. You find yourself with a strangely compelling masculine figure. Maebh!" I shout.

"Any minute now we're going to find a gingerbread cottage with a cannibal witch inside. Maebh!"

"Exactly. The forest. It's in all the stories that kept you awake at night. The forest is mankind's nightmare" the Doctor says. Deeper in the forest, Maebh is running and waving her hands to waft away the invisible midges. She stops to put her bright red school pencil case on the ground then runs on until she sees a group of people in hazmat suits at an Underground station. She runs away, waving her hands in the air again, pausing only to put down her pink lunch box.

"Clara. Is it hers?" I ask it's the pencil case in which Clara picks up.

"Yes. Clever girl" Clara strides past a bus stop, pushes aside a branch and is confronted by a man hazmat suit.