Child of the void (Doctor Who)

Part VI (II)

Movement disturbed the silence. The Master let go of me and shuffled around, grunting and cursing. Then, finally, he shoved something aside and faint light fell through a crack, illuminating the dust under our table. It seemed to have protected us from the worst.

Groaning of strained metal, creaking of crumbling stone.

A loud stomp on the table and I winced, wrapping my arms over my head.

Buried.

We were buried alive under tons and tons and tons-

"Lumin! Get up!"

I dared to look at the light, the silhouette of the Master. He stood upright, so maybe we weren't completely submerged. A rumble again, more stones falling and I managed to move at last, crawling out from under the cover and into the night. Dust clouded my sight, collecting on my glasses. A torch lay on a rock, not bright enough to show the complete destruction, but enough to let me guess it.

The destruction was complete. As far as I could tell not a single stone sat where it was supposed to be. Splinters of wood that once were solid beams stuck out from the rubble. The upper floor had completely vanished, no trace of the room we had just stayed in remained.

If I had slept a little longer...

"Vienna! For fuck's sake, don't you dare to be dead!" growled the Master. "I'm not done with you yet." He climbed over stone and wood, buried into the debris at various places, constantly cursing.

Dust snowed down from a few remains of structure. Where were the houses around us? Why couldn't I hear people? No one came running, no one screamed in panic, no one cried in pain or begged someone to stay alive.

Silence.

Silence and dust and debris.

I sat down right where I stood.

"I swear to the Vortex, Salvatori, if you don't pop up already-"

There. A muffled cry. The Master heard it too and hurried to a pile near the table, kicking and tossing away everything until he had created enough space to grab the assassin and drag her out. Vienna coughed and bent over, completely covered in dust, but otherwise seemingly unharmed.

The Master grunted. "How nice of you to be still breathing."

"Worried... old man?" Vienna brought out between coughs.

"I hired you to do a job, not to die without my approval." The Master crossed his arms, tapping a foot in the rhythm of four.

"As compassionate as ever."

"For you always. Can you move? We should get out of here before whatever blew up half the town comes back."

Half the town? I looked left and right. Silence, rubble. Yeah, of course. This building wasn't the only one that got destroyed. The ones around us too, hidden in the darkness. And the ones next to them. And the ones-

"Your prisoner doesn't look like it, though," said Vienna.

The Master turned toward me, raising a brow. What did she mean? He climbed in my direction and reached down to help me up, but I couldn't really take my eyes off the scenario around us. It reminded me of video games I had played and how much fun those had been. I remembered the tremors and the building collapsing, burned into my mind. Here there was no old music playing for melancholy, here I didn't have a weapon on me to fight monsters, here I wasn't strong and I didn't have cheat codes and the whole building had collapsed above my head and would have crushed me if the Master hadn't-

"Lumin, hey!" He shook me by the shoulders. "Look at me!" And I did, reluctantly. Fire and darkness in those eyes. He would burn me. I flinched away, tried to escape, hide, wait and– he let go of my shoulders and grabbed my face between his palms, gently tilting it upwards. "I know how strong and stubborn you can be. So be it now. Please."