Winter Rose, Book 1

Traumatized

"A Dalek's a genius." The Doctor snapped. "It can calculate a thousand billion combinations in one second flat!" A faint whimper was heard and the Doctor's gaze along with Rose's snapped to Win who was nearly tearing her hair out with her one free hand. Eyes squeezed shut and tears began to roll down her cheeks. The Doctor's heart clenched again and he swallowed hard.

There was a buzz and the sealed cage door began to open.

"It's out! Open fire!" A guard yelled as every armed person in the vicinity raised their weapons to do just that.

"Don't shoot it, I want it unharmed!" Van Statten demanded through the speakers, though the guards for once didn't listen to him. The sound of gunfire and laser death rays broke out and Win screamed.

"Rose, get her out of there!" The Doctor yelled. But Rose froze, both in fear of the Dalek and of Win's pained screaming. One of the guards in charge huffed, turning to a female guard next to him.

"De Maggio, take the civilians and get them out alive. That's your job, got that!" He ordered. De Maggio nodded firmly, grabbing Rose and Adam and pushing them into action.

"You three, with me!" Leading them out of sight, the Doctor's jaw clenched. He couldn't keep an eye on Win, he needed to focus as much as he could on destroying the Dalek before it claimed too many lives. They were only able to watch as the Dalek breaks the camera, leaving them to hear the soldiers announce the abandonment of the cage.

"We're losing power!" Goddard announced as she stared wide eyed at the screen in front of her. The lights began to flicker. "It's draining the base. Oh my god, it's draining the entire power supplies for the whole of Utah!"

"It's downloading." The Doctor huffed, knowing the Dalek had also used the energy to completely restore itself.

"Downloading what?" Van Statten questioned.

"Sir, the entire west coast has gone down." Goddard whispered in horror.

"It's not just energy. That Dalek just absorbed the whole internet, it knows everything." The Doctor sighed angrily. Frustrated that there wasn't more he could do.

"The cameras in the vault have gone down." Goddard continued to report, sounding nervous.

"We've only got emergency power, it's eaten everything else." The Doctor scowled looking at the screen over Goddard's shoulder. "You've got to kill it now!"

"All guards converge on the Metaltron cage immediately!" Goddard called through her earpiece without even waiting for her boss's orders.

~

"Civilians, let them through!" De Maggio called as she dragged Wintriah around the corridor corner, the other two hot on her heels. She'd taken Win off Rose's hands as she was stronger, and therefore it was easier for her to drag the white haired woman with her. De Maggio didn't want to know what she'd seen that caused her to react this way to that monster behind them. Whatever it was, it had been horrible, so there was no way she was going to leave the writer behind.

The barricade of guards parted and the group of four ran through. Calls to prepare for fire echoing behind them as Win began to mutter. "No more. No more. No more." Over and over. Adam blinked at Win with wide eyes.

"Why's she quoting Man of Many Sorrows?" He asked and Rose grit her teeth.

"Congratulations' Adam, you just got to meet the antagonist of your favorite book!" She hissed out, her lungs already aching and burning with exhaustion she couldn't afford to succumb to.

"You can't be serious!" Adam shouted over the screaming that broke out behind them.

~

"Tell them to stop shooting at it!" Van Statten demanded of Goddard who turned to look at him in horror.