Before the Dawn (Part 2)

The red-headed man tripped, staggered into Silver Street and tripped over the soaking cardboard box that had stuck to the ground like a paste. He fell to his knees and cried in agony, clutching his stomach. He then began coughing and when he brought his hands away from his mouth they were covered in blood.

"No. No," he cried to himself. "Not yet. Not yet!"

He looked up at a torn poster plastered to the wall. It read:




IT IS FORBIDDEN TO DUMP BODIES IN THE STREET.




Seeing the poster almost spurred the man to continue walking on. He clambered to his feet and made his way to the side door of the former department store he was standing beside. He hammered on the door.

After a few seconds the door opened a crack and a woman's face peered out. "Richard?"

"Let me in Chloe."

"You have the plague. I can't," said the woman, brushing her sort dark hair away from her sweaty forehead.

"You have to let me in. Please."

"The antidote hasn't reached this far yet. We can't risk the rest of us getting infected."

"Let me speak to Peter. He'll understand."

"Peter won't risk the rest of us," said Chloe. "I'm sorry, Richard."

She closed the door and Richard began hammering on it. "Please! Please! I don't want to die!"




Behind the door the woman, Chloe, leaned against it and closed her eyes. “Nobody wants to die,” she said quietly to herself.

She could hear - and feel - Richard pounding on the door behind her. She sobbed to herself, straightened herself up and then walked down the dark corridor towards the shop floor.

After a while the banging stopped. She felt guilty. She felt bad, but she had even worse things to fel bad about.

She emerged into a dimly lit, but rather grand looking, shop floor. Most of the rails of clothes were clear - the survivors had utilised them for themselves - and there were make shift beds all around.

"Who was it?" said a tanned-skinned woman.

"Richard," said Chloe solemnly.

"Is he-?"

"He's about ready to, yeah, Edith."

Edith forced back to the tears and took a sip from her plastic cup of tepid water.

Chloe leant against a pillar and breathed out. "Where's Peter?"

"Up top?"

Chloe nodded. “I need to speak to him.”

She made her way through the shop floor and towards the dead escalator. She climbed up them and up another set until she reached the top floor. She made her way through the underwear section until she reached a fire exit which led out to a brick corridor. Following that she climbed some stone steps until she emerged onto the roof.

Sat in a deckchair with a pair of binoculars was Peter White, looking out across the town.

"Hey, Peter," said Chloe.

Peter turned and smiled. "How's it going?"

"Bad," said Chloe. She crouched down on the floor next to him. "Richard's dying."

"Richard Sanderson?"

Chloe nodded.

Peter shook his head. "Why was he even out there?"

“He went out the other day. He was looking for more supplies from down the road.”

"We know everything has been cleaned out now," said Peter. "Sam and Winchester have been all over the town. There's nothing left."

“You know Richard. Never one to listen to anybody say ‘no’.”

“And now he’s gotten himself infected.” Peter sighed. “If Richard’s infected, then how long before it reaches us?”

"Maybe we need to move locations." She looked up at Peter. He didn't react. "Yarathorpe might be-"

"We're not going to Yarathorpe."

"It's a short drive-"

"It's a ten minute drive. Ten minutes that might result in us all being killed."

"We can move in small groups."

"Cars attract attention."

"Then we can walk-"

"It's a 45 minute walk."

"Then how about-"

"Enough Chloe!" said Peter, raising his voice slightly. "We can't risk it."

She folded her arms and got up. "Then we all die."

Peter sighed as she walked away. He closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. He was getting nowhere fast. Chloe was always a little hot headed, but he worried that if he didn't reign her in soon she might start tempting people to follow her.

They had been holed up in here for months now. At first it was fine; they had all the food they needed, but that soon ran out. When Peter had gotten to Thornsby with Molly and Sam it had been chaos. Meteorites had fallen everywhere. And then the news of the plague came, the destruction of New York, the occupation of London, and one by one people began to contract the disease and die.

And so they holed themselves away in a department store. Just a handful of them.




And then they came...




Peter was distracted by a sound coming from towards the church. He grabbed his binoculars to see, but buildings obscured the view. But it was a sound he had heard only a year ago...

The day Martha had died.

They day they had come to Earth.




The Doctor was standing outside of the TARDIS looking up at the structure that towered above them. Maxus and Tylaya emerged and both of them gazed up to what the Doctor was looking at.

"Amazing," said the Doctor, feeling the tiny sprinkling of raindrops fall onto his bald head.

"What is? It's a church, isn't it?"

"Yes," said the Doctor, "but the last time I was here the church had been blown to pieces. Hundreds of years of history just destroyed in seconds." He walked across the grass to the base of the church. It was clearly newer stone, but it had been rebuilt in almost exactly the same way. "It's strange to think that this is nearly 150 years old now."

The last time the Doctor was in Thornsby, he had been travelling with his companions, Danny and Caroline. The pair of them had opted to stay on Earth whilst he left and eventually ended up in Little Pebblesford, where he met Alice.

Alice…He felt sad again.

"So when were you last here?"

"2012." He looked around the area, sadness in his eyes. "That's the trouble with time travel; I suppose everyone I knew from back then are long gone."

"Sorry for interrupting, Doctor," said Maxus, "but we really do need to get out of the open. The Daleks could be just around the corner."

"And we need to move the TARDIS as well," said Tylaya.

"No," said the Doctor. "I've set it's perception filter to the highest level. I doubt whether it'd even register on their scanners."

"But they might see it," said Maxus.

"It's a perception filter," said the Doctor in a manner which made Maxus sound like an idiot. “They won’t even notice it. Nobody will unless she is specifically pointed out to them.”

"Alright, you two," she said. "Let's get moving. Do you have everything you need?"

The Doctor patted his heavy satchel, which was stuffed with equipment. "I removed the time drive from under the console. That's all I need to fix. Shouldn't take more than a few hours at the most."

"Good," said Tylaya.




They made their way around the corner and into the Old Market Place. The place was deserted, cardboard boxes and rubbish being blown around by the light breeze, the rain making some of them stick to the pavement in a soggy mush. They continued down Victoria street.

"So you heard about the invasion in your history books then?" said the Doctor.

"Yep," said Tylaya. "They first sent meteorites loaded with a plague in around 2157. After they'd wiped out half the population they began landing."

"They destroyed New York," said Maxus. "Took them nearly a century to rebuild it all."

"Hmmm," said the Doctor grimly.

"Nearly ten years they occupied us," said Maxus angrily. "Ten years! If it wasn't for the resistance we might not be here now."

"When did you hear about it?" said Tylaya to the Doctor.

"Oh, I was there," said the Doctor. "A long, long, long time ago. I was there at the end."

"So this must be pretty weird for you then?" said Tylaya, marvelling at the wonder of time travel.

"I suppose," said the Doctor, as they headed down East St. Mary's Gate and towards the entrance to the shopping mall.

"We could stop them now, you know?" said Maxus. "The Daleks."

"No," said the Doctor. "We can't change history."

"But you changed it just by being there 9 years from now."

"I didn't change it," said the Doctor. "I was always a part of it."

"And you're always a part of this here and now."

"Yes, to fix my TARDIS," said the Doctor, becoming exasperated, "not to change what I've already done and bring an early close to the invasion."

Maxus sighed and shook his head. "I'll never understand time travel."

"Don't try," said the Doctor under his breath.

They reached the former-automatic doors of the shopping centre and the Doctor and Maxus managed to force them open. The inside strangely didn't smell stale. Clearly people had been camping out here. It had been used quite recently.

They were about to head down the entrance mall when they heard a sound.

"Quick!" said the Doctor, as they ducked into a smashed shop window and clambered to the back to hide in the shadows.

A few seconds later the familiar site of a Dalek came gliding past. This one was silver from top to bottom, adorned with blue hemispheres around its skirt. Its base made it stand taller than most Daleks seen previously and on it's back was a small dish which collected and stored up power to allow the machine to move. A Dalek at its most primitive. But even at it’s most primitive was enough to kill anything in sight.

Tylaya remained as still as she could as it glided past. If it's head swivelled in their direction it's night vision in its eyestalk would surely spot them.

Thankfully it went on past, just squeezing through the doors they had opened on their way in.

"That was close," said the Doctor. "We need to stay out of sight."

"Is this the ideal place to be hiding then? Surely we could have just waited it out in the TARDIS?"

"What? In the dark?" said the Doctor to Maxus. "I told you I needed to shut down all systems and that means life support as well."

"But a full sized mall?"

"We'll find a smaller unit to work in. Somewhere further away from the entrance."

They clambered out of the shop front and made their way back along the mall entrance until they reached the turning the Dalek had come around.

The Doctor held out his hand to stop them going any further and they cautiously peered around the corner.

The coast was clear and so they continued through the main part of the mall, passing broken computer information screens, rubbish strewn across the floor and smashed glass and scorched walls.

“Looks like there was some sort of battle here,” said Tylaya.

“Bet you the Daleks won,” said Maxus ominously.

“Quinn…”

“If you don’t have anything constructive to say, Mr Maxus, then please don’t say anything at all.”

“Yes, sir!” said Maxus, giving a mock salute.

Tylaya rolled her eyes. Although the friction between him and the Doctor had eased quite a lot, Maxus still tried his best to not get on with the Doctor.

A sudden sound made the Doctor stop dead in his tracks, his arms outstretched to stop his two companions from going any further.

“Run?” suggest Tylaya.

“Where?” said the Doctor, realising that all the other shops in the vicinity were lit from the sun shining through the skylights that lined the roof of the shopping centre. They couldn’t hide in the shadows this time.

“Good point,” said Tylaya.

There was something shuffling at the bottom of the mall. A doorway was wrenched open, the bottom of it scraping against the floor. The three of hem braced themselves for the emerging Dalek…

And instead a young girl of about 5’1” with long dark hair, grey top and army-green combats emerged, blinking in the sunlight.

She turned to look at the Doctor, Maxus and Tylaya and then looked worried.

“Hello,” said the Doctor with a smile. “What’s your name?”

She didn’t answer.

“Don’t be afraid.”

“Are you…Robomen?” said the girl nervously. She was quite well spoken.

“Do we look like Robomen?” said the Doctor. “We aren’t wearing any head apparatus.”

“Right…” said the girl, nodding as if working it all out in her head.

“So what’s your name?” said the Doctor, this time edging forward a little.

“Do you have the plague?” said the girl, a little more confidently this time.

“We’re not sick,” said Tylaya with a smile. “We just arrived in town today.”

“Are you-?”

“For god sake!” said Maxus loudly. “We’re not Robomen. We don’t have the plague. We’renot murderers or assassins or child snatchers!”

The girl jumped, reached behind her back and drew a huge, futuristic looking gun.

The time travellers froze.

“My name’s Molly Hasthorpe,” she said confidently, “and you’re my prisoners.”




The Doctor and his team had been escorted by the teenager through a department store until they reached an area where a group of about fourteen people gathered. There was a man with black hair and a beard who immediately ran to Molly and guided her away. Then there was a woman in her late twenties with short black hair, dressed all in black, and the other prominent person was a slightly older man with white hair and a bit of stubble. He wore a blue shirt and tan coloured trousers and put a pair of wire-rimmed spectacles on.

The Doctor had explained to them that they had recently arrived in Thornsby and were looking for shelter until they moved on.

The man, Peter White, had accepted their story and had welcome them into their group.

“So, she’s your daughter, yeah?” said Tylaya, nodding at the man who had introduced himself as Sam Hasthorpe.

“That she is,” said Sam, giving her a hug, “although I’d quite like to know what she was doing outside the store.”

“I wanted to see the Dalek,” said Molly glumly.

“Why the hell would you wanna do that?” said Maxus, taking a sip of some lukewarm water he had been handed.

“Because she’s never seen one before,” said the woman, Chloe Carpenter, who came and sat beside them, putting her arm around Molly.

Molly shrugged her away.

“How is that even possible?” said Tylaya. “The town must be crawling with them.”

“It is,” said Sam, “but we haven’t left here for a year.”

“A whole year?” said Maxus.

“We saw what the Daleks were doing in the cities. There’s not as many here, but we knew we couldn’t risk being out there. Every now and then we’ll leave and gather supplies from nearby shops, but most have been looted now and we’re running out of places to look.”

“Molly just never went outside,” said Sam, suddenly remembering the need to answer Maxus’s question. “I wasn’t going to risk my daughter out there.”




The Doctor was fiddling with the time drive; a small device really. There was a glass, square core running through the centre with metal rivets running around its circumference every two centimetres.

“What’s that box of tricks?” said Peter as he came and sat beside the Doctor.

“Just a device to…defeat the Daleks,” lied the Doctor.

Peter laughed. “If the world government can’t fight the Daleks, then what hope do a couple of old men have?”

The Doctor smiled sadly. Peter was getting on and it’d be another nine years until the Daleks were defeated by himself, an old man, in his first incarnation. Peter might not even live to see that day. He hoped he did, of course.

“We have to have hope,” said the Doctor. “It’ll end one day.”

“It’s only just begun,” said Peter darkly.

The Doctor frowned. “You know there was a Dalek just out there?”

“They haven’t found us yet,” said Peter. “We’re building a community here.” He looked proud. “We have to try and survive somehow.”

The Doctor smiled. “You’re the ones that the world will need when this is all over.”

“Not me,” sighed Peter. “I don’t have much longer left. I don’t know if I want to be here for much longer.”

The Doctor frowned. That was a strange comment coming from someone who was supposed to be a leader.

Peter noticed the Doctor’s confusion. “My wife died in the meteorite attack. I’d rather be with her right now.”




Up on the roof, Chris Feathers was keeping watch. He thought he spotted something. Something metal gleaming between the alley ways. He frowned and took out his binoculars. By the time he had focused on his target it was too late

The last thing he saw was a bright white light flashing across his vision. He felt the world around him melt aware and all of his nerves burning one by one. And then nothing.

Chris Feathers was dead.




In the street below a dozen Daleks began to converge around the front of the department store. They had found the survivors.

Next time: A safe house is found, and the Doctor meets the resistance. Coming Saturday 16th August 2014.

Before the Dawn (Part 1)

"Before the Dawn" takes place after "The Trees of Cologne," a story that was written, but lost when my hard drive crashed. In the story some of the friction between the Doctor and Tylaya was eased a little. If I ever gain access to my drive again then I will publish that story as a one off special or “missing story“, but for now the series continues with "Before the Dawn" and will (hopefully) continue the overall story seamlessly.

2157


Peter White stepped out from his farmhouse onto the gravel that ran around the perimeter of the house. He sniffed the air. Cut grass. He always liked that smell. It was a cold and frosty morning and he had just gotten up from one of the longest sleeps he'd had in a long time. He put his hands in his pockets and walked across the gravel to the field.

The grass crunched under his feet and had a layer of frost on it. In the distance the line of trees that ran along the bottom of his field was obscured by a thin veil of mist.

He smiled to himself. It was peaceful here. Quiet and peaceful. His family had lived in this farm house for generations, and, although it wasn't a working farmhouse any longer, he wouldn't have moved anywhere else. He felt calm and content here.

"Peter!" came his wife’s voice from behind him.

He closed his eyes and tried to ignore it.

"Peter!" she called again, this time a little louder.

"What?" he called, his back still to her.

"We said we'd sort out the loft," said his wife.

"In a minute, Martha," he said.

"We haven't got all day," she said.

He turned to face her. She was part way in the house lugging a huge suitcase along the hallway. They had been married for forty years, but he was damned if he knew how they had lasted this long.

"We've got all the time in the world," said Peter. And he did. He had retired from his job at the valve company five years ago and Martha had retired three years before him. They had nothing else to do. He simply wanted to rest and enjoy his retirement.

"I need to get the dinner on," said Martha, finally coming to stop with the suitcase.

"It's 8:30 in the morning, woman," said Peter, checking his watch.

"You know how long gammon takes to cook," she said, breathlessly.

He turned back to the field one more time to see if he could spot the trees. They were even more obscured now. He smiled, closed his eyes again, and turned to head back to the farmhouse.

He was almost at the door when he thought he heard something up above. It sounded like one of those new proton-planes whizzing past. He frowned and gazed up into the sky.

Nothing.

"Peter," said Martha, exasperated, "will you come in and close the bloody door. You'll catch your death out there."

Peter looked at her lined face and her faded blue eyes. She still looked beautiful even now. They had spent a lifetime together, and then he remembered why he fell in love with her. It was her caring nature. He knew that she'd never let anything happen to him.

He smiled softly at her. "Sorry, love," he said.




And then the house exploded.




Peter was thrown through the air, landing about ten metres away from the burning building. He lay flat on his back staring up into the white, sunless sky as shapes and objects zoomed overhead with the same whizzing sound he had heard before. The objects were on fire and all around him he could hear explosions, some close by and some in the distance.

They were meteorites.

And then he remembered the house. Then he remembered Martha.

He quickly scrambled to his feet, almost fell over from going light-headed, and stared at the burning husk of what was once his old farmhouse.

He fell to his knees as the flames rose higher and higher into the sky. The heat coming from the house was that intense he had started to sweat.




Martha was gone.




Maxus awoke with a start. Tylaya was no longer next to him in the bed. He frowned and rubbed his forehead. He sat up in the bed and looked around the darkened room. There was a faint orange glow behind the roundels in their room and a gentle humming from the TARDIS machinery.

He got to his feet, put on his dressing gown and then, tying it up at the waist, made his way out of the room and down the corridor towards the console room.

When he got there Tylaya was already dressed and sat on the sofa with a cup of coffee. The Doctor was stood at the controls, his hand scratching his chin.

"What time is it?" said Maxus, yawning.

"It's a time machine," said Tylaya. "It's whatever time we want it to be."

"Funny," he said, flopping himself down on the sofa next to her.

"I couldn't sleep so I came to see what the Doctor was up to."

"Quiet," said the Doctor.

"Nothing then?" said Maxus.

"I said quiet," said the Doctor again.

"Give it a rest," said Maxus.

"The TARDIS is hovering," said the Doctor.

"What do you mean hovering?" said Maxus, crossing over to the controls.

"I had set the TARDIS to randomly take us somewhere in the vein hope it might help us out of this mess with Tylaya."

"You said in Cologne that you accepted that Alice was gone," said Tylaya.

"I said that I knew it wasn't your fault," said the Doctor, looking at her over his shoulder, "but that doesn't necessarily mean that I believe her to be gone."

Maxus suddenly felt uncomfortable at hearing Alice's name. Back in Cologne, after he'd been shot, he'd seen a vision of Tylaya of how she used to look. He felt guilty for that. He found himself wishing for her to be back to how he always remembered her. Sometimes Tylaya was now like a stranger to him.

"So what happened?" said Maxus, wanting to get off the subject quickly. "With the TARDIS I mean?"

"Well she won't let us land. We're just hovering over Earth."

"What year?" said Tylaya.

"That's just it, she won't even show me our space/time location. It's like she doesn't want me to know something."

"Can you get her moving?" said Maxus, suddenly feeling stupid for considering this weird time machine to be a living thing.

"I can," said the Doctor. "I can take us back into the vortex, but I don't want to go back."

"Why not?" said Tylaya.

"Because there's a mystery here." He grinned. "And I don't let the TARDIS keep things from me."

"But there's obviously a reason."

The TARDIS suddenly lurched violently and threw Tylaya across the console room where she landed back on the sofa.

"She's trying to take us back into the vortex," said the Doctor, frantically trying to regain control of the time machine.

"Let her," said Maxus as the TARDIS continue to rattle and rock aggressively.

"No you don't," said the Doctor.

And then the TARDIS lurched forward again. It felt different this time. The Doctor was thrown across the room where he hit the potted plants along the walkway leading from the door.

"Are you alright?" called Tylaya.

"Fine," said the Doctor, using his cane to drag himself up. The TARDIS lurched again. Something was hitting it from outside.

"What the hell?" said Maxus. "Don't tell me there's a space giant out then battering us to bits?"

The Doctor struggled to the console and switched on the scanner. His face went white. "It's a meteorite storm. I've never seen anything as violent as this though," he said as the TARDIS was struck again. "It's like it's being directed from somewhere on the other side of the solar system."

He frowned. There was a memory of something at the edge of his thoughts.

“Who the hell directs a meteorite storm?” said Tylaya.

"Now we can let the TARDIS get us out of here," said Maxus desperately.

The TARDIS lurched again and this time all the lights went out. The occupants suddenly felt a falling sensation as they clung onto anything they could get there hands on for dear life.

"What's happening?" yelled Tylaya as the TARDIS continued to fall.

"The anti-gravity as been knocked out!" yelled the Doctor. "The TARDIS is falling with the meteorites."




The TARDIS tumbled through the atmosphere, continuously hit by stray meteorites until it hit the grey expanse of cloud below it. It plunged through the clouds and then shot down to the Earth where he landed with a thump in a big green field, throwing piles up mud and grass from the crater it created.

The Doctor was the first to exit, coughing as he emerged from the smoke billowing from the TARDIS, followed by Tylaya and lastly Maxus.

The Doctor peered into the distance. On the far side of the field was a burning building and what looked like a man down on his knees.

All around there were smaller plumes of fire where the meteorites had hit. And they continued to streak on overhead.

"This is definitely Earth, yeah?" said Tylaya.

"Yes," said the Doctor.

"Well there hasn't been a meteorite storm like this since -"

"Since 2157," said Maxus.

"In your time, maybe," said the Doctor, "but we could be in the future, far from your time-" He stopped himself.

"What?" said Tylaya.

"2157," said the Doctor blankly.

"You remember it?" said Tylaya, a hint of worry in her voice.

"No wonder the TARDIS didn't want us to land here. Quick, back inside. The systems should have cooled off now."

"Is it true then?" said Tylaya. "Are we definitely in 2157"

"Get inside!" said the Doctor angrily. "We'll discuss it when we're far, far away."




Two minutes later the door was locked and the blue TARDIS disappeared from the field.




Peter White turned around at the sound. He had been aware of something larger crashing towards the back end of the field, but had been in too much shock to look, but the wheezing and groaning sound had sounded...unearthly. But there was nothing there now.

He then came to his senses. He scrambled to his feet and got as close as he could to the burning building. There was no sign of Martha. She had to have perished. He held back to tears. He needed to get away from here. He needed to get help. The meteorite storm was over now and it might be safe for him to move. He turned and headed towards his old pickup truck. It had remained largely intact, having been stowed away at the old outhouse garage and he clambered into it. He took one last look at his burning home. The home that had stood for over 550 years, and then put his foot down on the pedal, driving across the gravel and down the dirt track.




After passing through smoke and more mist he finally located the main road. He skidded onto it and drove even faster. He had to get to Thornsby. He had to get the fire brigade. He knew it was pointless because the house was gutted, but he couldn't leave his wife burning in there. He needed to at least get her body out.

He almost hit the car that emerged from the mist in front of him. He skidded to avoid hitting it and went off down the ditch on the right hand side of the road.

The car had been stationary, it's back end melted. He regained his composure and then quickly got out of the car.

Sitting at the side of the road was a man in his thirties with short black hair and black beard. His arm was cut badly and his other, uninjured arm, was around a young girl of about 13. Laying inside the car was an older woman, about the same age as the man.

And then Peter realised that the woman didn't have a head. She was partially melted to the back of the car.

The girl was sobbing and the man was trying his hardest to console her whilst fighting back his own tears.

"What happened?" said Peter, still in shock about Martha.

"She wasn't feeling well," said the man. "She went to sit in the back of the car. Molly came in the front." He started crying and the girl, Molly, began crying even more.

"There, there," said Peter, sitting beside the girl and putting his own arm around her. He suddenly had flashes back to looking after Alison, his own daughter, before her accident many years ago, "it wasn't your fault," said Peter.

"It was," said Molly. "I should have stayed in the back",

"She wanted to lay out," said the man. "It's not your fault, Molly."

"It is," sobbed the girl. "It is."

"The meteorite hit us," said the man. "It came out of nowhere."

"I know," said Peter, suddenly feeling like he had control of himself again. "My wife was...killed in the attack."

"I'm sorry," said the man, still trying to fight back to tears.

Peter didn't know why he had used the word "attack", but it felt right to him. This didn't feel like a natural occurrence. "We need to get to Thornsby. Someone there can help us."

"No," said Molly. "We can't leave Mum."

Peter looked at the man. "What's your name?" he said.

"Sam," said the man. "Sam Hasthorpe."

Peter nodded. "Good to meet you Sam. We need to leave."

"But my wife-"

"There's nothing we can do for her, Sam," said Peter. "We need to get you and your daughter to safety."

Sam looked back at his wife's body, still half melted to the car. He started crying again, but then regained his composure, nodding to Peter.

"No, Dad."

"Listen, Molly," said Sam, kneeling beside his daughter, "Mum wouldn't want us to be here now. She'd want us to find shelter. She'd want us to be safe."

Molly forced back her tears, brushing her dark hair from out her eyes.

"This kind man is going to take us into town where we'll find help."

"But we can't just leave her."

"We're not," said Sam. "We're going to send someone to help her. I promise."

With a sniff Molly nodded and clambered to her feet. "Thank you, Mr-"

"Peter. Just call me Peter."

And they made their way to the ditch and to the old truck.




In the TARDIS the Doctor was frantically playing at the controls, but the TARDIS was beeping back at him furiously.

"What's wrong?" said Tylaya.

"The TARDIS has been damaged. Now we can't get away. We're still in orbit around Earth."

Tylaya looked up at the scanner. All around the globe were trails of smoke and fire and the damage caused by the meteorites.

"We were right, weren’t we?" said Tylaya solemnly.

"Yes. Damn it!" said the Doctor as the TARDIS shook. The central rotor moved up and down once and then the engines came to a stop.

"What is it?" said Maxus.

"I managed to move us, but only a year into the future, to 2158. I'm going to have to do some major repair work on her."

"Then get on with it," said Maxus, growing impatient to get away. If this really was when they thought it was then they all knew what this particular decade held for the Human race.

"I can't," said the Doctor. "I need to shut down nearly all of her systems. I have to land."

"We can't," said Tylaya. "We can't go down there."

"We have no choice," said the Doctor. "There's a small town just near to where we landed before. I spent quite a bit of time there a while back. We can put down there, find some shelter and quietly repair this old girl."

"But you say we've come forward a year, yes?" said Tylaya.

"That's correct."

"But you-"

"I know exactly what it means," said the Doctor. "2158 is the year the Daleks invaded Earth."

Next time: The Doctor and co meet some of the survivors. Coming Saturday August 9th 2014.

Story 3.8: Before the Dawn

"Is it true then?" said Tylaya. "Are we definitely in 2157?"
"Get inside!" said the Doctor angrily. "We'll discuss it when we're far, far away."

It's Earth, 2157

Peter White is a normal man. Married for many years to his wife, Martha, and living in the old country farmhouse that has family have owned for generations.

Peter's life is turned upside down when a meteorite storm destroys his world forever.

One year later and Peter is the head of a group of survivors hiding in a department store in the middle of town. They're fighting to stay alive, fighting to save themselves from the plague, and fighting against an alien menace...

...an alien menace that the Doctor has fought time and time again...

The Dalek Invasion of Earth has begun!

 This five-part story will begin publication from Saturday August 2nd and will continue with a part every Saturday throughout the month.

Disaster! (Story Update)

Sigh...well, I gave myself a month off to get ahead with the writing. A few days after I completed the writing of the next story, "The Trees of Cologne", my five year old PC decided to stop working. As of yet I don't know whether I can recover the data which means that "Cologne" has now been lost.

I cannot bring myself to write the whole thing again, so instead I have quickly started writing "Before the Dawn" in it's place. The story was originally dropped due to the month long gap and me having to lose a story. Should I ever get hold of "Cologne" again, I'll publish the entire thing in one go as a "missing story" as, although the story doesn't have a massive impact on the ongoing narrative of series 3, it does have some nice moments with Tylaya trying to fix the problems with her and Maxus's relationship with the Doctor.

So, coming in August it will be "Before the Dawn" followed by, in September, "The Curse of Nosferatu".

Uncovering the Darkpaths Past

Darkpaths began life approximately 22 years ago when I was a young boy of 10.

The adventures began in the school playground. My friends and I were huge fans of Doctor Who and it was all we played in the playground, much to the amusement of our fellow pupils.

At the time the 7th Doctor was the latest incarnation and so I created an 8th incarnation to be played by Richard O'Brien. My friend, Matthew, was an 11th Doctor who had short, curly hair with a moustache, and Alex played the 13th Doctor - an older gentlemen with a blue cloak enblazoned with a golden question mark.

We got up to all sorts of adventures, but at the age of 11 we were all due to move on to new schools. The friendship was to be broken up. The adventures were at an end. The final adventure featured the coming together of all the Doctors and previous companions as the 13th Doctor faced his final battle. At the climax of the story the 13th Doctor was killed, but the Time Lords appeared and granted him a reprieve, giving him a while new set of regenerations.

And so the 14th Doctor was born.

The 14th Doctor was a woman. And the adventures ended.

Around 10 years later, in around 2002, is were the real basis for Darkpaths began in the form of a series of nine stories named the Ninth Doctor Adventures (NDAs).

In 2002 Doctor Who wasn't on the air and didn't show any signs of returning. It existed with Big Finish Audio dramas, BBC books and the comic strip in DWM. All three mediums presented stories for classic Doctors and for the current, 8th Doctor protrayed by Paul McGann.

I was always interested in writing for an unexplored, future incarnation and still hoped that one day Richard O'Brien would play the Doctor. I decided to bite the bullet and create a 9th Doctor, played by O'Brien.

The NDAs continued after the 8th Doctor BBC book "The City of the Dead" and ignored anything the BBC made after that (which would eventually lead to giving me a headache).

The Ghosts of Cologne

The series started with this story. The prologue contained the regeneration of the 8th Doctor into the 9th and then picked up two weeks later with the Doctor fighting ghostly apparitions in Cologne, 2005. There he met Cathy Parker (a girl with a mysterious past), and the German architect Daniel Markt.
The basic ideas of this story was eventually used in the Darkpath debut "The Ghosts of Winter", replacing Cathy with Caroline and Daniel with Danny (although a character called Cathy Parker - Caroline's adopted mother - did appear later in the series).
The setting of Cologne and many of the "moments" from this original story will feature in the next Darkpaths story, "The Trees of Cologne".

Children of the Universe

Like the previous story, "Children of the Universe" was stripped down and the basics used for the Darkpaths
story of the same name. However this time the story was a much more indepth, sprawling mess. It featured the return of the Master, UNIT, orphanges plucked out of time and killer dogs.

Eye of the Jungle

The Darkpaths version of this story is near enough word for word a copy of the
original. It has been edited a little and some of the characters altered. The main alteration, of course, was the removal of former 7th Doctor companion Bernice Summerfield, replacing her with new former companion Ivy Coldstone.

The Vanishing Man

Again, the basics of this was used for the Darkpath version, except the story was simplified. In this version
we discover what led to the 8th Doctor's regeneration and we also discover that during the regeneration his body was split into two. One human half became the 9th Doctor, whereas the Time Lord half became the bitter, twisted, violin-playing John Smith. Smith teamed up with the Master and at the end of the story the TARDIS was destroyed, forcing the Doctor and his friends to escape in another Time Lord - Wilson's - TARDIS whilst the Doctor faced an uncertain, Human future.

Lost In Time

The started of series 2. This bares no resemblance to the story of the same name in the Darkpaths series.
This story is actually a crossover with the time-travelling comedy "Goodnight Sweetheart". It is also our first real introduction to a mysterious group called the Temporal Guardians, who have taken over from the Time Lords after Gallifrey's destruction in the 8th Doctor story "The Ancestor Cell". They are led by a silvery, naked Jayna, who is later revealed to be a former wife of the Doctor.
This story also featured the return of the Meddling Monk.

The Fear Factor & Putty Love

Being more or less standalone, these stories were another two that were word for word turned into a
Darkpaths story with a few minor changes.

Faces


This was our big story where we discover that Cathy Parker was adopted. In this story we meet her real parents, Len and Tanya, who kidnap her and show her that she has time energy running through her. The ideas filtered through into Darkpaths.

The Nine Heads of Death

This was altered heavily and turned into "The First Eleven". In this version the Doctor
is persued by Death's Head (from the Marvel series of the same name) and is also heavily crossed over with Transformers and features Shockwave, Rumble and Ratchet.


And that's where it all ended. I began writing "Lockdown", but never finished it.

Doctor Who suddenly returned to the screens, my 9th Doctor was erased from existing and I got too tied up in BBC books continuity. I was sorry it didn't have an ending, but that's the way it all was.

Should the series have continued the Doctor would have continued to have become more and more human. There would have been stories featuring death and the afterlife, Cathy falling in love with a merman and a return to Cologne. The Apparites would have been revealed to be the dead souls of the Time Lords and eventually I planned to write the Doctor out of the series.

The series would have also changed from Ninth Doctor Adventures, to "Pathways".


Stories that would have been written would have been "Deadly Homecoming" (which eventually became "Village of the Daleks"), "The Sea of Change", "Death's Door", "Extinction" and "Call of the Spirits".

The series would have continued without the Doctor, headed by Cathy, Daniel and a number of other characters with special abilities, before seeing a brand new Doctor reborn after series 3.


And so that's how Darkpaths was born. Years later I'm much happier with the series I have now, but I still look back fondly on some of those stories I wrote when I was younger.

Darkpaths: The Story So Far...

For anyone who needs a refresher before we race into the second half of series 3, here it is!

The Doctor (Richard O'Brien)

The previous Doctor (Eddie Izzard) regenerated into this incarnation and suffered a great trauma. All the regenerating cells in his body were destroyed and as soon as he was born, this Doctor was already dying. For a time he fought against death, looking for new ways to survive, but after bidding his previous companions, Caroline and Danny goodbye, and meeting new friend Alice Stokes, he has decided to accept his fate and enjoy what remains of his life.

He can't go back to Gallifrey...but a mysterious apparition of a woman appeared to him twice, the second time telling him that if he wants to live he must find Mount Cassius where he will find somebody who needs his help...


Alice Stokes (Louise Brealey)

Alice was a schoolteacher from the small village of Little Pebbleford. She was eager and intrigued about life travelling with the Doctor, but she and the Doctor soon discovered a secret hidden inside her.

Six months prior to meeting the Doctor she was set up to be in a car crash. She was taken out of time where General Helix - leader of the now defunct Eyeglass - implanted an operative, Tylaya's, consciousness in her head. The General did this to divert Alice's path and plant her a midst the Doctor...




Tylaya and Quinn Maxus (Louise Brealey and Idris Elba)

When Alice slept, Tylaya would awaken and relay information back to Eyeglass.

However, Tylaya's original body, held in stasis, had died and Maxus - her fiance - took a risk and activated a device which burnt out Alice's mind, allowing Tylaya to remain forever in Alice's body.

Stricken with grief, the Doctor took Maxus and Tylaya with him in the TARDIS, keeping them beside him in case he ever found a way to bring Alice back.




The Master (Henry Ian Cusick)

The Master lives. Born into a new type of Time Lord body - a proto-form, used during the Time War as canon fodder. He lost his memory for some time and travelled with the Doctor, before finally realising who he was. He rescued the Doctor and then stole a TARDIS escape pod.

He has since located his TARDIS and now has the Doctor's old friend, Mark Dennington (whom the Doctor believes to be dead) in tow.

The Master has travelled to Mount Cassius where he has met with the Doctor's sister-in-law, Celestia. But why does he want to help the Doctor so much? He claims it is so he can personally kill the Doctor, but is there another reason...?

The Family of the Doctor (Carice van Houten, Terry O'Quinn and Harry Lloyd)


Little is known about the Doctor's family, their history has always been shrouded in
mystery.

At the end of "Number 17" we are introduced to Celestia, the wife of one of the Doctor's brothers - Reikon, who lives in a palace on Mount Cassius on the 3rd moon of Barrisk. They had a son as well, but Reikon and his son died before the Doctor originally left Gallifrey many, many years ago, and the Master believes that what killed Reikon can help the Doctor.



Gallifrey

Gallifrey's fate at the moment has not been revealed in Darkpaths. In the TV series, by the end of the 11th Doctor's reign, it was revealed that it was not destroyed in the Time War, but exists in a pocket universe.

The Time War has often been referenced in Darkpaths, but it's current state has not been revealed...yet.