THE ADVENTURES OF THE DOCTOR'S AMAZING HAND

Chapter Thirty Five

Rose looked from one dog to the other as she tried to strategize. Both Rottweilers were large and both of them would be on her in a heartbeat. She could only hit one of them at a time and while she was knocking one in the head, the other would have her in its jaws. Not to mention John would be torn to pieces and devoured. She figured John knew that since he hadn't moved from her shoulder. She yelled as loudly as she could for Martha and Ianto hoping one of them would hear her. One of the dogs came close to her and she swung the prybar at it catching the dog on the snout. The dog yipped in pain and stopped but it only shook its head and then growled at her some more while Rose tried desperately to think of a way out of her situation. Then just when the dogs were about to spring, she heard a gunshot and saw the flash as a bullet went out of a gun up towards the ceiling.

"Get away from her!" a man yelled.

He fired again and the dogs ran off. A grizzled looking man emerged from the shadows. He had a full beard and dirty sandy blonde hair. His clothes were rumbled and dirty. Rose held the prybar protectively across her body and the man held up his hand.

"Easy, lady, I just saved your life. I don't mean ya any harm," he said. "I'm James Smithson."

"Rose Tyler," Rose said, lowering the prybar slightly. "You're not French."

"No, Ma'am, I'm from Texas. My wife and son were with me on vacation here in Paris when those ball things attacked us. My wife and son were killed."

"I'm sorry," Rose said, taking his hand when she saw the anguished look on his face.

"Thanks. I managed to escape and I've been hiding from those things and trying to survive. I found this place a couple of weeks ago and I've set up camp here. But, you really need to be careful here, ma'am. I don't know if you know this but a lot of animals have gone wild, especially after eating the corpses. They have a taste for human meat and they tend to roam at night."

"I see that now. We've been traveling from London and this is the first time I've ever came across wild dogs like that."

"Most animals that were left behind have turned feral, ma'am. It's not safe to be out after dark where they can smell ya. Why are ya travelin' though? That's not safe either or I would have left long ago."

"It's a long story but there's three others besides me. Why don't you come and spend the night with us for protection. We're in the break room."

"That's kind of ya, ma'am."

"Rose."

"Rose. I like that, it fits a pretty gal like ya," James said.

"Thank you," Rose said.

James frowned when he finally saw John on her shoulder.

"Um…Rose, you have a body part on your shoulder, let me get that off of ya," he said, reaching for John.

"Uh, no, actually he's with me," Rose said, backing up.

"With you? What is it, like a lucky charm?"

"No, he's…alive."

"Beg pardon?"

He was stunned when John jumped down off of Rose's shoulder and he skittered back when John came towards him.

"Shit! What the hell is that thing?" James said.

"It's okay, I know it sounds bizarre but this is John and he's alive," Rose said.

James froze and stared at John when he flipped onto his wrist and waved to him.

"How…" James said, trailing off when he couldn't finish his thought.

"I'm not sure how. He used to belong to a friend of mine and he got his hand cut off and somehow the hand came to life and it can think and move and it can talk using sign language. It was odd at first but you get used to him."

"Damn, now I've seen everything," James said. "First those flying ball things and now a living hand. World has become bizarre that's for damn sure."

"Well, come with us, we'll go back to the break room and I'll introduce you to Ianto."

James nodded and followed her. They used their torches, shining them all around in case there were any more wild dogs. They reached the break room and entered. Ianto was sitting on his sleeping bag.

"Couldn't break into it," Ianto said with a shrug. "But like I said, it was more out of boredom than anything else that I did it. Who's he?"

Rose introduced James and explained what happened. Ianto rose and shook James's hand.

"You're welcome to stay here with us. We don't have much but we have some food and I think I have a fresh set of clothes that might fit you."

"Thank ya kindly, Ianto," James said.

"I also have a spare razor if you want to shave," Ianto said.

"That would be great, thanks," James said.

Ianto rummaged through his rucksack and found a clean shirt, trousers and a razor for James. He thanked them and started to head back out the door.

"Wait, will you be alright?" Rose said, taking his arm.

"Yeah, I know how to move through this building. Besides, I need to go get my stuff and bring it back. I'll be alright. See you in a bit."

Rose let go and he turned his torch back on and went back out into the warehouse. Rose sat John down on the floor and sank onto her sleeping bag while Ianto pulled out a few bags of crisps and some pop for James.

"Have you heard from Martha?" Rose said to him.

"No, I was hoping you had. She's been gone for hours, I hope she's alright," Ianto said.

"Maybe she found someone and had to talk about the Doctor in exchange for a ride," Rose said. "Speaking of, what about James. Should we take him with us? He's lost his family and there's nothing tying him here. He could help us."

"We'd have to explain to him about the Doctor," Ianto said.

"Yeah but he can help protect everyone and we can protect him. That and forage, he could do that rather than talk to people but he seems nice and I don't wanna leave him here."

"We'd have to explain about the Doctor being an alien," Ianto said.

"I just got through explaining about John being a living hand, I think he might be willing to accept anything after that," Rose said.

"We also need some guns if there are wild dogs roaming the streets. I don't fancy the idea of being mauled by a Chihuahua," Ianto said.

Rose settled back on her sleeping bag. John came up to her head and she chuckled.

"We forgot the porn," she said to him and he shook with silent laughter.

"Porn?" Ianto said.

"We found porn DVDs. I think that's what they store here, at least they store DVDs," Rose said.

"Porn DVDs would be more entertaining than the constant alerts about it. I check the TV and they're still running," Ianto said. "The only thing that wasn't a terror alert was some speech by the Master saying how benevolent he was and how we should all fall to our knees and kiss his ass in thanks for his mercy or some rubbish like that."

"Did he show the Doctor?" Rose said.

"No, it was him sitting in his office," Ianto said. "No sign of anyone else. I s'pose he gets bored from time to time and just films these little sanctimonious speeches as if he's some benevolent ruler and we're his ungrateful subjects who don't recognize his greatness."

"Well, he won't be thinking that when we get back up there and stop him for good," Rose said, rubbing John's back while he lay beside her.

Ianto looked at the door when James came back in. He had discarded his dirty clothes and had shaved and put the clean ones on. He was carrying a battered red sleeping bag and a small rucksack.

"Thanks for letting me sleep with ya'll," he said to them as he came over towards Rose and laid his sleeping bag down a few feet away.

"You're welcome," Rose said, sitting up. "We were just talking and we wanted to know if you want to come with us when we leave."

"Go where?" James said, glancing at her as he straightened out his sleeping bag.

"We're trying to go around the world," Rose said.

James froze and slowly turned his head to look at her in disbelief.

"Why?" he said.

"Just go ahead and get settled in," Ianto said. "And we'll explain everything when you're finished."

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