As We Keep Running

The Fall

I screamed, the sound whipped away by the wind, as we fell, clinging onto that thin old rope for dear life. At one point in the what-seemed-like-forever fall, I looked over towards the Doctor and saw him laughing.

Had I really boarded a big blue box with this madman just this morning?

Just then, with a sickening crack, the bell landed in the thick glass that was this planet's ground. Somehow, the bell's impact slowed down the movement of the rope, which was just behind the bell. Even then, I hit the ground pretty hard.

The Doctor was up in seconds, but I lay there for a minute or so, hearing the entire tower fall, seeing the glass shaking and cracking under me. I was in pain- experiencing that pain made everything so much more real than I'd considered before. This is what I'd been thinking when I realized that the Doctor was leaning down next to me, shaking me gently.

"Savannah... Savannah, we've got to get a move on." His voice was distant, and the world was slipping into a gray fuzz.

I was hardly conscious when the Doctor picked me up, began carrying me. He was running, and I can't quite say that it was the smoothest ride of my life. I could just hardly see as we ran through the green mist. I felt us falling as the glass shattered, and I felt as we hit the ground, which had emerged as well as buildings and people and everything else that had been under the glass.

What I didn't feel was the Doctor bringing me into the home of someone kind enough to let us in. I didn't feel him set me down gently in the bed of a quiet room, as he pulled the blankets up around me and brushed the hair out of my face, or bandaged up my left arm and right ankle, which were bleeding badly, and probably broken. In fact, the only way that I knew that any of this had happened was because when I woke up, the Doctor was sitting in a chair by the bed, leaning over me.

"I'm so sorry."

I shut my eyes tightly, and then opened them again, trying to get my vision focused. "What happened?"

He smiled just in the slightest way, but it was a smile that I could tell was not genuine, only there to make me feel better. "We won. The glass broke, and everything returned. Turns out that the green mist wasn't a gas, or an enemy, it was exhaust from the arrival of the tower. It worked as a teleport, and quite literally turned the world upside-down, putting the people and buildings in the ground, under the glass."

My mind wasn't quite ready for this level of information. "What do you mean, arrival of the tower?"

He had stood and started pacing just a little along the side of the bed. "Towers don't just appear in random places, do they? This wasn't just a tower, it was kind of a... Spaceship. With a bell as a self-destruct button. And-" He stopped pacing and looked at me. "We pressed it." He began pacing again. "The spaceship needed to refill on gas, so it set a trap of glass, encasing the planet. Anyone who tried hitting the glass, breaking it, was gas for the ship. The names in the building were those of travelers, who had attempted at climbing the tower. Then boom, self-destruct, everything bad gone, good returned. Any questions?"

I was slipping back into subconsciousness, hardly able to hold onto life anymore. My limbs were burning, but I had to know. "What... What happens to me... That's so bad?"

As my eyes shut, the last thing I saw was the Doctor, his eyes sad. My eyes closed, but my ears didn't. "It happens,,, When we get home. There's an invasion. Because of me. Always, always because of me. You're forced to do things... To your family. Things that cause them to.... To die."

I whispered, barely awake. "If I stay here, will they live?"

"I can't leave you here."

"Will they? You've got to tell me. These.... These people are the ones I care for most."

"Yes."

I used the last of my breath to slip in the two words that ended everything. "Leave me."