Timeless [Doctor Who/11th Doctor]

9. Fires of London

CHAPTER NINE

The doors swung open, revealing the busy streets of London. I could guess it was around my time from the huge posters of a movie star spread across red buses, and the crowds of people taking snapshots on their smartphones. It was a slightly disappointing sight after time travel and the promise of space, but then again, it was also pretty unbelievable to see modernity thriving in every corner after our journey to the 20th century just hours previous.

Wasting no time, the Doctor took my hand and dragged me through everyone, towards the Tower of London. I had only been to the capital city once, on a school trip when I was eight or nine. Our sightseeing got cut short by torrential rain-storms, so we sat in an overtly expensive café for the majority of the trip. Even then, I had marveled at the way London was filled to the brim with so many different people, such art and culture painting the streets.
I didn't have much time to marvel at such things this time.

Instead of following the tourist paths, the Doctor swiftly led us down a spiralling staircase into some sort of private base. At just the sight of him, the army-looking guards opened the door to us.
Inside, computer screens filled the archaic walls where hard working minds sat. I gawked at it all in amazement - it was like a super secret spy head-quarters.

"Doctor, you made it," a blonde lady greeted us. Her eyes shifted down to where our hands were still intertwined with a slight puzzled look, which she soon shook off and replaced with a smile.
The Doctor cleared his throat as he let go of my hand, and folded his arms. It was awkward as hell, but kind of adorable. God, I did not just think that.

"Kate," he addressed her with a nod. "This is my, uh..." stumped for words, he gestured at me for a moment before landing on: "This is Charlotte."
I smiled warmly at her as she shook my hand.

"The fire department have had a significant increase in calls, beginning Friday, November 1st," Kate marched across the room, her heels echoing against the concrete. With a click of the mouse, she began to play logged calls from the computer. Horrible clips of people begging for help over the telephone, all saying the same thing. More or less 'please help' followed by 'I don't know where the fire came from' and then static.
Sitting down in shock, I winced at each message as the Doctor furrowed his brow, mind clearly racing at a thousand miles an hour.
"Officials are blaming the cases on Guy Fawkes' night," she told him.
I realised then that we were in the future - granted, only by a couple of months, but the actual future where I was somewhere on the other side of the country, and also in London. That was pretty crazy.

"There's a lack of CCTV footage, a lot of fires in back-alleys and inside homes," Kate informed us.
"And what makes you so sure they aren't just ordinary fires?" the Doctor asked. I could tell he already knew they weren't, but he couldn't wait for the evidence to be laid out in front of us and spell 'danger'.
Up on Kate's screen, pictures of assumed victims began to pop up. "Look away if you're squeemish," she muttered a little too late.
Grotesque imagery filled the pixels; blood and guts captured with a camera just a little too high definition. The shape wasn't even eligible, just a mash of intestines and... beyond that, something glowing green on the insides. Despite being utterly disgusted, I leaned across the desk to study the photographs.

The Doctor clapped his hands together, making me jump from my concentration. I shot him a glare, but he ignored it with all his excitement.
"What do you say we go visit some crime scenes, Lottie?"
He pulled on the back of the chair I had sat on, its wheels skidding across the floor as I squeeled and span around. Steadying my dizziness, he grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the seat as we headed to the exit.
He had a nickname for me now?

"Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, call if any new cases pop up."
Placing the chair back in its place, she sighed. "How exactly are we supposed to call you?"
"Ah, yes! Good point," he realised, holding his hand out to her. She frowned at it, utterly confused. "Phone."
"Oh," she mouthed, pulling her mobile from her pocket. The Doctor handed it over to me, so I tapped my number into her contacts, and handed it back. "Call me," I winked at her. I could just feel the Doctor shake his head in despair beside me.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Freezing autumn breeze whipped my hair around as I pulled my arms around myself. If I had known it was going to be so bloody cold, I would have grabbed one of the many coats the TARDIS had placed in my new spaceship room.
After rushing through the winds, we reached a singed house, the walls crumbling amongst ashes, and police cars parked around outside.
"Y- you can't go in there," a young man in uniform shouted after us, panicked, as we marched up towards the remnants of the building. The Doctor just flashed the psychic paper at him, not stopping walking for a second.
"Right, sir, sorry, sir."

Inside the remaining walls, I ripped down a yellow strip of crime tape and stepped through the door frame into where one of the fires had happened. I crouched down at the pile of guts and green gloop. It was even more revolting in real life.
"Sonic?"
The Doctor scoffed as he walked in behind me. "I do the sonic-ing here."
"So much for teamwork," I rolled my eyes at him, watching him crouch beside me and point the screwdriver at the mystery matter.
He stared at it like he always did, studying something totally invisible to me. "But that's not possible..." he whispered, voice laced with worry.
"What? What's not possible?"
He leaped to his feet, and I slowly followed.
"It's not... human..."
We both stared down at the guts - the non-human guts - then back to eachother. Of course it wasn't human. He was here.
"Not just the... the green stuff, all of it. The intestines, the blood - it's all alien."
Leaning against the door frame, my eyes followed him as he paced back and forth across the room, feet barely missing the alien corpse.
"How can it be alien? Who made the phone call?"
He stopped abruptly and looked at me in confusion. "Aliens can make phone calls... hello!"
"Right but... an alien calling 999?"
He just shrugged. It was feasible, I guess, but something didn't add up.

Not a second later, my phone began to vibrate in my pocket. I quickly answered it to hear Kate's voice on the other line. Skipping greetings, she jumped straight into action. "There's been another fire reported just now. 44 Abbeycombe Drive. About a 5 minute walk from your current location."
"Okay, thanks, we'll check it out."
The Doctor looked at me expectantly as I hung up.
"New fire," I told him, rushing out of the room and past the police officers. As I speed-walked, I entered the address into Google maps and jogged to follow the route.

We made it in just over 2 minutes, which I was pretty proud of (and also very out of breath from). Sirens wailed in the distance, so I was guessing we'd arrived before even the fire engine could. The fire was so close that the burning tangled in the air and into my nose, the smoke surrounding us like a fog. It sent me a little dizzy.

I stumbled towards the building, the Doctor grabbing my arm as he tried to pull me back. "What are you doing?" he hissed.
"We need to save them..."
"With what, Charlotte?"
He was angry; I could tell from the way he pronounced my name through gritted teeth, the nickname long disappeared.
"I don't know, can't your sonic stick do something?"
"Screwdriver," he muttered under his breath. His grip on my arm tightened the more I pulled away from him. I was dragging us closer to the fire with no plan whatsoever.
As a last resort, he wrapped his arm around my waist and carried me over to the other side of the street. I tried to fight against it, but everything was becoming so hazy. My body becoming too weak to struggle from his grip. In the background, the sirens grew louder and louder and the last thing I saw was a haze of bright blue flashing lights.