To Be Forgotten

Chapter 5 - The Hungry Earth

The Hungry Earth, part 1 -

The Oracle came into the console room, wearing a loose hanger dress and vans, expecting the Doctor to have taken them to where Amy had wanted to go. The other three were already standing at the door as the Doctor announced.

"Behold", he opened the door, "Rio!"

"Nah", Amy walked out, "Nuh-uh."

"Not really getting the sunshine carnival vibe", Rory agreed.

The Oracle looked at the scanner and followed them, "South Wales, 2020. You're getting better, Doctor."

"No? Ooo, feel that, though. What's that?", he jumped up and down on the graveyard, "Ground feels strange", he looked back for confirmation, "Just me. Wait. That's weird."

"You jumping up and down in a graveyard. Yeah, darling, that's weird", the Oracle told him, "Amy wanted Rio."

"What's weird?", Rory asked.

"Doctor, stop trying to distract us. We're in the wrong place", Amy tried to get his attention, he ran off and they followed, "Doctor, it's freezing and I've dressed for Rio. We are not stopping here. Doctor. You listening to me? It's a graveyard. You promised me a beach."

"Shall we just go to Rio for a bit and pick you up in an hour, love? Do you have lunch and your sonic?", the Oracle mocked him slightly.

"Blue grass", he kneeled down and plucked some of it, "Patches of it all around the graveyard. So, Earth, 2020-ish, ten years in our future, wrong continent for Rio, I'll admit, but it's not a massive overshoot."

"I don't think you've heard anything I said in the past seven hundred years", the Oracle muttered, more to herself.

"Why are those people waving at us?", Amy asked pointing across the valley.

"Can't be", the Doctor breathed out.

Rory waved back and Amy grabbed his arm to pull it down, "Don't."

The Doctor used a pair of binoculars to look at the figures, "It is. It's you two."

"No, we're here. How can we be up there?", Rory asked.

"Ten years in your future. You're still alive. You've come to see yourselves, I'd imagine. Humans are so nostalgic", the Oracle frowned.

"We're still together in ten years?", Amy asked.

"You were about to get married", the Oracle shook her head in disbelief.

"Yeah. No need to sound so surprised", Rory agreed.

"Hey, let's go and talk to them. We can say hi to future us", Amy grabbed Rory's wrist, "How cool is that?"

"Er, no", the Doctor stopped her, "Best not, really, best not. These things get complicated very quickly", he turned his gaze, "And oh, look, big mining thing. Oh, I love a big mining thing. See, way better than Rio. Rio doesn't have a big mining thing."

"How do you know? You haven't been to 2020 Rio", the Oracle put her hands on her hips.

"We're not going to have a look, are we?", Amy complained.

"Let's go and have a look", he led the way, "Come on, you three, let's see what they're doing."

"Is the 'you take us two Rio and we come pick him up in an hour'-option still available?", Rory called after the Oracle who had followed her husband, then he turned back to Amy, "If he can't take us to Rio, how's he ever going to get us back home?"

"Did you not see us over there? It all works out fine", Amy said, "The Oracle's got this."

"After everything we've seen, we just drop back into our old lives, the nurse and the kissogram?"