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And Doncha Come Back Part 5
Jack dove for the opening as the blast door came down just behind Marty, but he was too slow, and a moment later he felt his skull impact with hard steel. He crumpled to the ground in pain, holding his head as a headache exploded in his senses. He could hear the Doctor angrily muttering to him, or maybe to the door, as he scanned it with his sonic screwdriver.
The Doctor gave up a second later, knowing it was utterly futile. He crouched down next to Jack and helped him sit up.
“Are you all right?”
Jack rested his head against the cold wall. “I’ll live,” he tried blinking black spots away from his eyes. “I guess you’re not going to get that door open any time soon?”
“I think our best bet is to wait.”
“Wait?” Jack didn’t understand.
“Someone’s going to show up sooner or later to collect us.”
“And then what?”
The Doctor grinned. “And then we’ll figure out a better plan.”
Jack laughed, then winced in pain. It didn’t take long for someone to show up, and by then the pain in Jack’s head was beginning to disappear. Two machinegun-clad guards entered the small hallway.
“Get up,” one of the snarled and Jack and the Doctor followed the order as the second guard began to search them for weapons, finding Jack’s gun and pocketing it.
“Move,” the guards kept their prisoners in front, pushing them into a new hallways with the gun’s nuzzle.
Jack looked at the Doctor, but the Time Lord was looking ahead, still thinking of a way out of this. Jack, however, already knew what he had to do, and he knew that if he went too far the Doctor wouldn’t forgive him. Surely the Doctor knew Jack had killed people before, but Jack knew that taking a life in front of him would cross a line he might not be able to cross back over.
“Keep your head down,” Jack whispered. He swiveled around on his heel.
The guard Jack turned to meet gave a look of surprise and brought up his machinegun, but not fast enough. Jack grabbed the barrel, pushing it aside. The metal became hot and seared his skin as bullets flew out of it, impacting with the second guard and sending him sprawling to the ground.
Just an arm injury, Jack had time to note, before grabbing the machine gun in both hands and wrenching it from the guard’s hands. Jack fought the urge to turn it around and shoot both guards and instead rammed the butt of the machinegun into the guards nose. He turned to the other guard and with a swift kick to his face sent him into dreamland.
Jack crouched down and searched the guard, finding his weapon and putting it back in his holster. He turned and smiled up at the Doctor, who gave him a disapproving look, but Jack couldn’t help but think he saw a slight glint of amusement in his eyes.
“Come on,” the Doctor took off running. The alarms hadn’t gone off yet, but neither of them thought they had long before their escape was known.
They didn’t go far before the Doctor slid to a stop, spotting a computer terminal with a locked panel covering it.
“Jack,” the Doctor motioned to the panel. There was no point in being discreet and waste time picking the lock. Jack pulled out his pistol, aiming it at the lock and pulled the trigger. Sparks flew as the panel slid open. A few of the circuits were damaged, but that didn’t get in the Doctor’s way. He scanned the computer, his face remaining tense, but finally his expression softened.
“Rex,” he whispered.
“You found him?” Jack leaned over his shoulder to read the screen, but it was a jumble of indiscernible numbers. He wasn’t sure how the Doctor could make out anything on it.
“And a route to him. Come on,” he took off running down the hall again and Jack followed closely.
“Here,” the Doctor came to a stop in front of a locked door. “Maintenance closet,” he said, and this time the sonic screwdriver managed to unlock it. “Nobody ever bothers to keep the mops safe.”
“What do we want in here?” Jack looked around at the dead end.
“The air-vents,” the Doctor replied calmly. He pressed a few buttons on a panel by the door, and then in a corner of the ceiling a panel leading into a small, dark tunnel opened.
Jack sighed. “I just had my jacket dry cleaned.”
They squeezed into the air-vent. The metal sides hugged Jack so tightly for a brief second he worried that he’d get stuck, but he could make his way through – albeit slowly. The Doctor, who didn’t have such wide shoulders, wasn’t having as hard a time making his way along, but he went slowly, stopping at every vent to read off the numbers and check where they were.
Maybe twenty minutes passed, maybe thirty, every minute making Jack feel more and more claustrophobic. He felt like the vents were getting narrower. He was having a harder time pulling himself along, having a harder time keeping up with the Doctor. But finally the Doctor called back: “This is it.”
The Doctor took out his sonic screwdriver, and much to Jack’s amusement he actually started using it to unscrew the bolts holding up the vent. Once the bolts fell away he weaved his fingers between the grate and pulled it up until the opening was large enough to squeeze through.
“I don’t think I’ll be able to get through there,” Jack didn’t like the idea of getting separated.
“Just stay here,” the Doctor said over his shoulder. “I’ll be right back.”
“Right,” Jack rolled his eyes. “It’s not like those words have ever come back to haunt us.”
The Doctor went out feet first, lowering himself slowly to the ground. He found himself in a small white room, a bed in the middle of the room, and on the bed lay Rex. Rex was unconscious, his wrists and ankles locked in metal straps.
“Can you get him out?” Jack called down, looking through the vent opening.
“I-“ the Doctor only took a single step before he felt the ground shift beneath him. At first Jack didn’t know what was happening, the Doctor looked like he had tripped over nothing, and began to fall – then kept falling. Jack finally realized a trap door had opened beneath the Doctor, and just as Jack called out to him, the door closed and the Doctor disappeared.
To Be Continued…
(I always get a little annoyed by just how roomy vents are in movies, so I wanted mine to be slightly claustrophobic, even though in real life no man would actually be able to fit into vent. Artistic license! Also, I’ve always loved the sonic screwdriver actually being used as a screwdriver.)
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