Shooting Star // Eternalian Chronicles Book 1

32) .The Secret Earth.

(Edited)

.The Hungry Earth.

~Catherine Wood~

I woke up to a dark musky place, warm air blowing on my bare legs. My skirt had come up from the fall. My muscles ached and I had no want to pull down my skirt, but the realization that some kind of creature could come upon me and find my legs appeasable for dinner made me think twice. I sat up quickly and covered myself with my dress. My fingers brushed against something soft and slightly fuzzy making me squeal. Thankfully, nothing moved, and so when I reached out again, I found it was an arm. Upon looking closer, I found it was Amelia, laying on the ground dramatically, and very unconscious. I pushed a couple strands of her hair out of her face before flipping her over. She didn't seem to have a scratch or a bruise anywhere on her body. My body seemed to match hers. I looked up and found that, even though my eyes were adjusting to the darkness, I couldn't see where we had come through. We must have fallen a great distance. So why was it that we weren't injured and how was I possibly going to get back up?

I decided it would be better to find a way out instead of waiting for someone or something to find me. I stood and gazed over Amelia's unmoving body. I couldn't possibly carry her everywhere I went. I guessed I could find an exit nearby then come back for her. That sounded like a good plan. I pushed Amelia's body against the wall to keep her from being trampled by some unsuspecting alien. Or maybe Homo sapien since they might have been here first when the earth formed.

I wandered through the tunnels, following the opposite direction of the flow of air. Hopefully that would get me somewhere.

*~~~~~*~~~~~*

~Third Person~

The Doctor paced back and forth in the room with the holes where both Amy and Catherine had disappeared. He had let them go. Why had he let them go? Now his two best friends were probably both dead. He trusted Catherine, he really did, but what she did was reckless. He only hoped she was still alive, somewhere in the depths of the earth, searching for a way to get back to hi-them. Them.

Tony looked at the Doctor in anxiousness. Had this really been his fault? Both the Doctor's friends, whatever their names were, Cassandra and Amy? They had gone after him to pull him out. Amy had fallen through and Cassandra went after her. Tony felt the guilt eat at him.

Nasreen stood unconsciously close to Tony, finding comfort in his stance. She was glad he was alive, but those poor girls, Catherine especially. She knew that they affected the Doctor. They were his dear friends, and now they were gone. She couldn't help but have hope. Perhaps they were somewhere beneath the ground, alive. That was all they could wish for.

"Is that what happened to Mo? Are they dead?" Tony asked aloud.

"It's not quicksand," the Doctor told them. "She didn't just sink. Something pulled her in. It wanted her. And Catherine had to go and follow."

Catherine, Tony noted. That was her name.

"The ground wanted her?" Nasreen clarified.

"You said the ground was dormant," The Doctor recalled from their previous conversation. "Just a patch of earth, when you first saw it this morning. And the drill had been stopped."

"That's right," Tony confirmed.

"But when you re-started the drill, the ground fought back."

"So what, the ground wants to stop us drilling?" Nasreen laughed. "Doctor, that is ridiculous."

The Doctor shook his head. "I'm not saying that, and it's not ridiculous, I just don't think it's right. Oh, of course. It's bio-programming."

Nasreen and Tony gave him a look.