EATER OF SOULS
Chapter Thirteen After seeing Ahmose to the entrance and making sure he got out safely, The Doctor and Rose turned and headed back towards the sound of the screams. As they walked along, Rose walked behind the Doctor and stared at his back. He still hadn’t found any clothes to put on, and she winced, as she stared at the whip marks and dried blood marring his back. She wondered if the Doctor really was telling the truth when he said it didn’t bother him. She knew that he often lied about such things to her and to others. She chalked it up to his ego and his wanting to be the macho and stoic Time Lord who could take any punishment meted out to him and come through it unscathed. Personally, Rose thought it was ridiculous for him to act that way. She loved him with all her heart. In her eyes, he wasn’t any less of a man if he showed some weakness. She didn’t expect anyone she knew to go through life acting like nothing fazed them and that included the Doctor. But she knew that this was the way he was and nothing she could do or say would change him. She only hoped that he really was okay. She hated to think that his wounds might become infected. She made a mental note to get his back cleaned up as soon as she could. She stopped when the Doctor raised his hand. “We need to be as quiet as we can from here on out,” he whispered. “I’m pretty sure we’re getting close, and I want to be very careful in case Amenemhet or any of the soldiers are about. I don’t want to go back to that cell any time soon.” Rose nodded in agreement. They both crept along keeping their eyes and ears open for any sound or movement that was out of the ordinary. They neared a corner. The Doctor held up his hand and Rose stopped. She watched while he tentatively stuck his head around the corner to check for any soldiers. The Doctor brought his head back around the corner and looked at Rose. “Are there any soldiers?” she asked. “Yup.” Rose’s eyes widened. “So we run?” “Nope.” Rose frowned. “Why not?” “Because they’re dead.” Rose raised her eyebrows. “They…are?” she asked. The Doctor nodded and motioned her to follow him. Rose followed him around the corner and gasped at what she saw. Several soldiers lay silently on the floor of a corridor; their faces frozen in an expression of terror, and to Rose’s disgust, a gaping hole in each of their chests. She backed up feeling like she was about to puke, as the Doctor knelt down beside the nearest soldier and calmly, impassively studied him. He looked up at Rose. “His heart is gone,” he said. Rose edged closer to the Doctor. “It is?” she asked. He nodded. “Yes, and judging from the wounds it looks like some sort of animal did this.” He bent down closer to the wound and studied it. “Teeth marks…yes, definitely an animal,” he muttered. “What kind do ya think?” Rose asked, coming up beside him. The Doctor unconsciously tried to reach into his jacket for his reading glasses. He cursed in Gallifreyan when he remembered he was still naked. “Damn him. Pair of glasses aren’t cheap,” he muttered. He looked up at Rose. “You didn’t happen to see my clothes when you were out?” he asked, hopefully. Rose shook her head. The Doctor let out another Gallifreyan curse and shook his head. “Good thing I have some spares,” he said. He glanced down at the soldier’s loincloth and looked at his face. “Well, mate, I guess you won’t be needing this anymore, so if you don’t mind I’ll take it from you as soon, as I’m done examining you,” he said. He let out a grumble, as he bent down next to the wound. Rose crouched down beside him, as he studied it briefly and leaned back up on his knees. “Crocodile.” Rose stared at him. “I’m sorry?” she asked. “Crocodile. The teeth marks look like they were made by a crocodile,” the Doctor explained. Rose’s eyes widened, and she glanced around for any sign of a crocodile. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw none in sight. The Doctor noticed her anxiety. “I wouldn’t worry. Crocodiles rarely come this far inland,” he said. “They usually stay in the water or on the banks beside it.” Rose frowned. “Then how come this soldier has crocodile teeth marks on his chest?” she asked. “Not sure,” the Doctor said, scratching his chin thoughtfully. “I could be mistaken. I’m not an expert on crocodiles, so I can’t be certain. But that’s what it looks like to me.” “Well, could it be something else?” Rose asked. The Doctor thought. “Well, the only other thing I could think of is a jackal, but they’re scavengers,” he said. “No, I’m pretty sure these teeth marks were made by a crocodile, but why this far inland and why is only the heart disturbed? Why didn’t the crocodile eat the rest of the body, or drag it away to the Nile?” He glanced back at the other soldiers. Rising, he walked among each of them checking their wounds. Nodding, he looked back at Rose. “All identical. The crocodile, if that’s what it was, took only the heart. Very peculiar.” He rubbed his ear as he muttered, “Very peculiar indeed.” Rose watched the Doctor, as he stared down at one of the soldiers. Looking down at the soldier beside her, she gently rolled him over and took off his loincloth. She grunted, as she pulled it completely off his body. “Doctor, here’s his loincloth for you,” she said. She looked up and frowned when she noticed the Doctor was nowhere in sight. “Doctor?” she asked, glancing around. “In here.” Rose looked back down the corridor when she heard the Doctor’s voice coming from a room halfway down the hall. Tucking the loincloth under her arm, she weaved her way through the dead bodies towards the room. Reaching the room, she stood in the doorway and saw the Doctor standing with her back to her staring at something. “Doctor?” “Rose…come here.” Rose frowned, as she came further into the room. She walked up to the Doctor’s side and let out a gasp when she noticed Amenemhet’s dead body sprawled out on the floor in front of them with the same look of horror and gaping wound that the other soldiers had. She stared at his body and then glanced up at the Doctor. She noticed he was staring at Amenemhet’s body with a satisfied smirk on his face. “Got what you deserved, you bastard.” Rose’s eyes widened. The Doctor had muttered that quietly under his breath. She guessed he was saying that only to himself, but she had heard it too. She stared at the gloating look on the Doctor’s face and felt her blood run cold. She loved him so much, but there were some things about his personality that disturbed her. She had seen how vengeful her old Doctor had been towards his enemies. She remembered how shocked she had felt when he had wanted to blow away the Dalek in Van Statten’s compound even though by the time he had caught up to them, it was no longer a threat. When he regenerated, he had let go of a lot of the darkness he had once possessed, but there was still a little bit left that came out from time to time. She understood that he had been through a lot in his ten lifetimes, and she couldn’t even begin to know how he felt without trading places with him, but, just the same, his cold heartedness and lack of mercy towards his enemies was unnerving to her. She was so glad she was on the same side as he was. The more time she spent with him, the more she understood why the Daleks feared him so. The boyish baby face he possessed belied the fact that he would give no quarter to anyone who dared screw with him, or the ones closest to him. She snuggled closer to him and felt him put his arm on her back. “He can’t hurt you now,” he said softly. She looked up at him and saw the gloating look in his eyes was replaced by the familiar, loving look he always gave her. As she stared at his warm brown eyes, she felt love swell in her heart. He was thinking of her. He always put her first in everything, and it made her heart skip a beat knowing that someone cared about her that much. She smiled, as the Doctor wrapped his arm protectively around her and kissed the top of her head. “Do you think he was the one we heard screaming?” Rose asked. “Probably,” the Doctor said, the smirk returning to his face. As Rose stared at the smirk, she imagined him thinking, “Bastard screamed like a little girl.” in his head. He stared at him quietly for a few minutes and then he looked down at Rose. “Well, I think we better get going before someone discovers these bodies and alerts more soldiers.” He pulled her closer and rubbed her side. “Besides, I’m exhausted, and I bet you are too. I think Ahmose’s house sounds pretty good right about now, eh?” Rose nodded. She handed him the loincloth. The Doctor held it up and looked at it. “Not my first choice of clothing,” he said, staring at it. “Still, I guess it’s better than being naked. And it’ll be a lot cooler than my suit in the desert heat.” He stared at Rose’s clothes. “And when we get to Ahmose’s place, you are going to ask his wife if she has something suitable. We already stand out with our white complexions without you walking around in jeans and a hoodie.” Rose nodded. She watched, as the Doctor started to wrap the loincloth around his body. “Wait,” she said. The Doctor looked at her. Rose bit her lip. “We…we have to get this cleaned up,” she said, pointing at his back. “Rose, we don’t have time. We don’t know if there are any more soldiers in the area. We have to seize this opportunity and leave now before we end up back in that dungeon.” Rose swallowed hard. “But…it could get infected.” The Doctor’s face melted. He embraced Rose and held her close. “It’ll be alright, angel,” he said, kissing her cheek. “It can wait until we get to Ahmose’s, then I’ll get it cleaned up, I promise.” He smiled at her, as Rose took the loincloth and helped him get it on. “There,” he said, as he finished tying it around his body. “That’s better. Now let’s get out of here before anything else happens.”
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