Stormhold Sweetie

Stupid

I hummed Sweet Dreams as everyone regathered themselves in the light and Melody explained how she knew the Doctor.

Anita turned to me as Melody walked away, "Why are you not jealous? Most women would be ripping their spouse a new one in this situation."

I simply shrugged, "I will always be second vest to the man, I do not mind as long and in the end she returns home with me."

"That's... Sickeningly sweet."

"Doctor, one day I'm going to be someone that you trust completely, but I can't wait for you to find that out. So I'm going to prove it to you. And I'm sorry. I'm really very sorry." She leaned in to whisper his name, leaving him in shock, "Are we good? Doctor, are we good?"

"Yeah, we're good." His voice left the opposite feeling his words were meant to give.

"Good." Melody takes back her screwdriver and leaves him.

"Know what's interesting about my screwdriver? Very hard to interfere with. Practically nothing's strong enough. Well, some hairdryers, but I'm working on that. So there is a very strong signal coming from somewhere, and it wasn't there before. So what's new? What's changed? Come on! What's new? What's different?"

"Dr. Moon."
 
"Good!" The Doctor exclaimed, "Tell me about the moon. What's there?"

"It's not real. It was built as part of the Library. It's just a Doctor Moon." He has been transmiting signals to me.

"What's a Doctor Moon?"

"A virus checker. It supports and maintains the main computer at the core of the planet." It looks after Cal. 

"Well, still active. It's signalling. Look. Someone somewhere in this library is alive and communicating with the moon. Or, possibly alive and drying their hair. No, the signal is definitely coming from the moon. I'm blocking it, but it's trying to break through."

An image of Donna appears.

"Doctor!"
"Donna!"
Haha, Dr. Donna... Too soon? Sorry. 
 
"That was her. That was your friend! Can you get her back? What was that?"

"Hold on, hold on, hold on." The sonic whirrs more aggressively, "I'm trying to find the wavelength. Argh, I'm being blocked."

"Professor? Doctor Wildes?"

"Yes?"
"Just a moment." I hit her arm and point to the shadows.

"I have two shadows."

"Okay. Helmets on, everyone. Anita, I'll get yours."

"It didn't do Proper Dave any good. It was all Dr. Wildes!" She was beginning to panic.

"Just keep it together, okay?"

"Keeping it together. I'm only crying. I'm about to die. It's not an overreaction." Melody puts the helmet on Anita.
"You will be fine Anita. It is perfectly normal to react like this, just focus in breathing and staying still." I lower to the ground.

"Why are you doing this?"

I zoned out the background noise and focus on the shadows, "We have lost so much, you will never relate to our pain. Look at our once beautiful, peaceful forests. All reduced to dust collector's."

"Do not blame us. We can get you new forest-"

"No! These are our trees! This is our home!"

"Then let us go and leave you in peace."

"Who is to say you will not return?"

"Down here."  They crouch down next to me. 

"What is it?"

"Look, you said there are six people still alive in this room."

"Yeah, so?"

"So, why are there seven?"

Skeletal zombie Lux has caught up to us, "Hey, who turned out the lights?" 

Don't go. Please don't go. I felt dizzy. CAL was gonna short circuit my memory.

I was gonna die running from my own shadow.

We stop running in a high level walkway to another library skyscraper, "Professor, go ahead. Find a safe spot."

"It's a carnivorous swarm in a suit. You can't reason with it."

"Dr. Wildes did, just five minutes."

"Other Dave, stay with him. Pull him out when he's too stupid to live. Two minutes, Doctor." Before she turned to leave she gave the Doctor a soft glare, "And for the record, the only reason my wife isn't torn to shreds, I because she is amazing." She pecked my cheek, knowing I would stay with him, before running off.

Zombie Lux barges through the doors, "Hey, who turned out the lights?"

"You hear that? Those words? That is the very last thought of the man who wore that suit before you climbed inside and stripped his flesh. That's a man's soul trapped inside a neural relay, going round and round forever." This man has seen so many horrors, and there are still so many to come. Yet he is a good man, "Now, if you don't have the decency to let him go, how about this? Use him. Talk to me. It's easy. Neural relay. Just point and think. Use him, talk to me."

"Hey, who turned out the lights?"

"The Vashta Nerada live on all the worlds in this system, but you hunt in forests. What are you doing in a library?"

"We should go, Doctor!" The sense of urgency filled me with dread, I was too curious to turn away from the Doctors scene.
 
"In a minute." He then focused on Zombie Lux, "You came to the library to hunt. Why? Just tell me why?"

"We did not-" 

"Oh, hello." The Doctor seemed proud, like a father listening to his sons first words. 

"We did not-"

"Take it easy, you'll get the hang of it. Did not what?" I urged, also fascinated.

"We did not come here."

"Well, of course you did. Of course you came here." The Doctor obviously didn't like the awnser. 

"We come from here."

"From here?"

"We hatched here."
 
"But you hatch from trees. From spores in trees." The Doctor specified.

"These are our forests." That's what they meant earlier, good to verify.

Their voice was monotone, "You're nowhere near a forest. Look around you."

"These are their forests... Books are made of paper." I hinted. He was rather slow.
 
"You're not in a forest, you're in a library. There are no trees in a-" as Mels would say, the penny drops "-library."
 
"We should go. Doctor!" His voice was monotone too.

"Books. You came in the books. Microspores in a million, million books-"
"We should go. Doctor!" I turned, and gasped before tugging viciously on the Doctor's sleeve.

"-Oh, look at that. The forests of the Vashta Nerada, pulped and printed and bound. A million, million books, hatching shadows." 
"We should go. Doctor!"

He gave in to the tugging, "Oh, Dave! Oh Dave, I'm so sorry."

Other Dave is also a skeleton now, and they were back to copying, "Hey, who turned out the lights?"
"We should go. Doctor!"

"Thing about me, I'm stupid. I talk too much. Always babbling on. This gob doesn't stop for anything. Want to know the only reason I'm still alive? Always stay near the door." The Doctor opens a trapdoor with his sonic screwdriver and drops.

He hangs on to a support strut and inches his way along, screwdriver clenched between his teeth, "If we survive, you are dead!" I shout gripping the support strut as well. He really is stupid.

***
I changed it... Not sorry!