Escape (ON HOLD)

Chapter Five

"Z... Zay... Zayta!! Zayta, can you hear me? Zayta, please, talk to me."

I groaned and attempted rolling over, but I wasn't laying down nor was I in any position to be rolling over or doing much of any movement. Everything around me was warm and wet. I opened my eyes but saw nothing but a bright orange light.

"Zayta!"

I could hear someone yelling my name and it sounded like Clara. I tried moving my hand, but it took quite a bit of effort to bring it around so I could see it. It was fine. And I was fine. Which didn't make any sense. Neither did not being able to move much or the bright orange light. Wait... could it...? No. Impossible. Very, very impossible. But then again, so was a time machine and aliens made out of rocks.

I looked around me, my movements rather slow. There was nothing around me but a bright orange glow. So maybe... I looked up and decided to give it a try. Reaching up with my hands and arms, I attempted movements one might make while swimming. And to my surprise it actually worked. I shot upwards until I broke the surface of... of... the lava...? Above me was the cliff and I could still make out the small figures of Clara and the Doctor.

"Zayta!" Clara waved at me excitedly. So it had been her who was yelling.

I lifted my hands up out of the glowing liquid, thoroughly shocked that there was not a single mark on them or my clothing. I was fine. Perfectly fine. And I didn't have the slightest clue as to how that was possible. So naturally I started freaking out, especially when several of the creatures started crawling down the sides of the volcano and several others trapped Clara and the Doctor. I swam over to the one side none of them were climbing down, and attempted climbing up. But there weren't any handholds for me to grab on to. I was trapped.

Then suddenly I hear a whirring noise and I immediately recognized the strange sound to be the Doctor's time machine, the Tardis. I grew hopeful for a moment until I looked up to see the Doctor and Clara running into it. And leaving. Without me. I couldn't help but wonder what I had did or what I had said to be left here at the mercy of these terrifying creatures. It hardly seemed fair or right. Maybe I had misjudged them both... Maybe this first little trip was really just made to get rid of me. As irritated and frustrated and upset as I was, there was a small part of me that couldn't blame them completely. Who would want to put up with me?

I dove back under the warm liquid when one of the creatures reached for me. I didn't know what they had planned and after what I had already been through, I didn't care to find out. So I moved deeper and deeper into the heart of the volcano and away from the creatures. As much as I hated the place I had been living in and the people who lived there, I was suddenly wishing for nothing more than to be back there, back in the realm of reality. I'd rather put up with abuse from people I knew for sure hated me than mixed vibes from people I had just met.

Then I suddenly thought of something. Didn't volcanoes have underground veins or something to that extent? I sure hoped so, because it was looking like my only way out.

Several hours and sore muscles later, after various other events I did not want to detail at all, I found myself back out in the open air and soaking up the rays of a sun as equally red as the landscape. I had managed to escape from the volcano underground. I dragged my weary body over to an enclosed, little area and collapsed onto the ground, thoroughly exhausted.

"Well it took you long enough."

"Doctor!" Someone ran over and knelt besides me. I turned to see Clara, but this time I wasn't as friendly or trusting. "Zayta, are you all right?"

I managed to push away from her. "I'm fine, no thanks to you two."

"Got out just fine on your own, didn't you?"

"Doctor, just shut up," Clara snapped. "I don't know what's going on with you, but this isn't like you. This isn't like you at all. So either tell me something useful so I can help her or just shut up."

The Doctor walked back into his Tardis with a huff.

"I am so sorry, Zayta. So, so sorry. I don't know what's gotten into him or what any of that was all about." She tried helping me up but I didn't let her. "Zayta, please."

"Please what? Trust you? Sorry, but I've had a rough enough life to figure out that you only give people one chance and I'm sorry, Clara, but you blew yours." She nodded sadly before walking into the Tardis as well. I was half tempted to not follow her, but I knew they were my only ride back home and I couldn't afford to miss it.

I stumbled in and sat down in the chair closest to the door and by my bag without a word. Clara and the Doctor were having a rather heated discussion on the other side of the console. I waited as patiently as I could for them to finish. Then the Doctor finally walked over.

"How'd you do it?"

I knew what he was talking about. "I don't know. Can we leave now?" He was about to ask another question, but something in my expression must have made it clear I wouldn't be answering any of his questions.

He nodded and walked off to do whatever it was that he did to make this box work and I hoped he was taking us back to Earth.