THE SACRIFICIAL LAMB
Chapter Seven "Rory?" Rory's eye snapped open and he saw the Doctor standing over him. The Doctor smiled at him. "They're ringing a bell, calling everyone to supper, feel like going?" he asked him. "Yeah," Rory said. The Doctor stepped back while Rory got up. He straightened his robe and followed the Doctor to the door. They opened it and saw River and Amy standing in front of their door. Rory smiled warmly at Amy and was about to go to her but froze when Amy gave him a look that could freeze the sun and walked towards him. "So, thought you were done with this sort of thing," Amy said, getting in his face. "Thought youwere goin' back to Leadworth so you didn't have to deal with monsters and crazy stuff anymore." "Amy, listen," Rory said, holding up his hands. "No, you listen to me. I don't appreciate my husband walking out on me with the excuse that he can't stomach being one of the Doctor's assistants, only to show up later claiming that he came to investigate whatever's goin' on here. So if you hate dealing with monsters and nutters, why are you here? Huh?" "Pond," the Doctor said, stepping over to her. "I just wanna know why he's here when he said he needed to have a rest and get away from this sort of life," Amy said to him. "Because I want to know what's going on here because I'm concerned about you," Rory said to her. "Okay, that's another thing that's getting on my last nerve," Amy said to Rory. "This constant need you have to protect me. I'm not a helpless waif, Rory. I can look after myself, yeah? You don't have to rush to my side at the first sign of danger and…" "Amy," the Doctor said, stepping between her and Rory. "I understand you're angry and trust me, this will get sorted out later but for now, we need to concentrate on sussing out what's going on here. Now I've called a truce with Rory, so the two of us can work together without fighting and I suggest you do the same. There are more important things to worry about right now, yeah?" Amy nodded. "Yeah," she said. "Not only that," River said softly, stepping up behind Amy, "but Rory didn't come here with us so we're not even supposed to know him and it'll look a bit suspicious if you're arguing with him when you're not even supposed to be married. So I agree, leave it for now and concentrate on the situation at hand." Amy nodded and everyone breathed a sigh of relief. The Doctor suggested they all go to supper and they followed him to the dining room that Amber pointed out earlier. Most of the other people had gone by the time they got out the door and as they passed by the open doors, the Doctor glanced inside, wondering if he'd catch a glimpse of the clone but all the rooms were empty. They walked downstairs and turned right, going through a couple of rooms before they reached the dining room. Inside the room were two small tables. Above the table on the right side was an elegant crystal chandelier that provided the lighting for the room. The floor was made of wood and the walls were covered with blood red wallpaper but there were no pictures or ornamentation of any kind. The Doctor paused and stared at the people sitting at the tables that had plates, silverware and glasses on them. Besides Amber, there were four other women and two men, none of them older than thirty. The men were sitting at the table on the left while the women were sitting at the table on the right so the Doctor deduced before Amber spoke up that the men and women sat at separate tables. He looked at Rory and they went to sit with the other men while Amy and River sat down beside Amber. While they sat down, Rory looked around at the other people. "Is this it?" Rory asked. "Eleven people? Where are the others?" "This is everyone," Amber said. "We only have eleven members at the moment, twelve if you count Astra." Rory looked across the table at the two men, one was a black man in his late twenties and the other was a Caucasian man with sandy blonde hair that looked like he was nearing thirty. Rory leaned in to the Doctor's ear. "Either one of these men that clone you mentioned?" he whispered to the Doctor. The Doctor shook his head. "He's not here," he whispered back. "And Amber just said that everyone is here except Rose so either my clone didn't come with her or he's somewhere else." Amber got up from her seat and the two men did the same thing. They told everyone they were going to bring the food in and they'd be back in a moment. Amy and River chatted with the four women across from them. There was a black woman with long black hair that looked like she was barely out of her teens, another Caucasian woman in her teens and two women in their twenties. One of the Caucasian women was chubby and had pasty skin and shoulder length red hair. Another woman, the other teenager, was petite with brown hair in a pixie hair cut, a baby face and green eyes. The third had jet black hair that went down to the small of her back, a thin face and brown eyes the glimmered in the light. To the Doctor, she seemed like a Goth except she wasn't wearing any dark makeup. But just the same, she reminded him of one. From listening to River and Amy, he found out the chubby one's name was Victoria, the black woman's name was Shakira, the petit woman's name was Judith and the Goth woman's name was Cheryl. The Doctor waited with Rory, listening to the women's conversation while he kept looking behind to see if Rose was going to come and eat with them. Ten minutes later, Amber came back inside with the two men. They brought in a plate of bangers and a bowl of mash and set them on the women's table. They went back and forth bringing in a second plate of bangers and bowl of mash for the men. They also brought in coffee and tea for everyone and once they were done, everyone helped themselves. The Doctor speared a couple of bangers and put them on his plate and spooned some mash onto it. He glanced at the men. "I'm James," the Doctor said to them. "I'm Rory," Rory added as he poured some tea into a mug. "I'm David," the black man said with an American accent. "Frank," the other man said with a nod. "Where are you from?" the Doctor asked as he poured some tea into his mug. "Detroit," David said. "Weston-Super-Mare," Frank said. "How about you?" "London," the Doctor said. "Same," Rory replied. "Nice to meet ya," David said. "And you," the Doctor said. "You've come a long way just to join this lot." "Yeah, someone showed me the group's website and I started doing some research on this Doctor guy. I thought it was a bunch of bullshit at first but then after reading about him and seeing photos and drawings of him throughout time, I started to believe that maybe the Doctor could save us. There is that rumor that he was the one that saved us a couple of years ago when the Earth was moved and those Dalek things invaded the Earth. If he could get rid of those things and move the Earth back to its original orbit, I figure he'll be able to save us from the end times. They're nearly here, you know. Just like it says in the Bible." The Doctor nodded at that, not wanting to comment on Earth religions. He never put much stock in any of them, especially not in the whole notion of end times and apocalyptic battles. There were plenty of apocalyptic battles waiting in Earth's future that had nothing to do with the Biblical Revelation. They spoke to Frank, asking his reasons for joining the group. Frank swallowed a mouthful of mash before speaking. "Because I agree with David, after all I've seen in the past couple of years, I think the world is in danger and it seems to me that this Doctor bloke is the one who might save us. As for those tin robots a few years back, I lost a couple of mates to them. One of them was shot during the initial invasion. The other was taken for "testing", never saw him again after that." The Doctor winced, remembering the humans disintegrating into nothing while he stood there helpless and watched. He wished he could tell Frank what probably happened to his friend but then he thought maybe it would be better if he didn't know the truth since it was horrifying even to him. David and Frank asked them about themselves and the Doctor stuck to his being homeless story while Rory told them a modified version of the truth, that he lived in Leadworth, saw the group being profiled on the news and became interested in them. All the time they were chatting, the Doctor kept turning his head, seeing if Rose was coming. Finally, he asked the two men about her. David shook his head. "Astra never eats with us," he said while Frank nodded in agreement. "We don't really see her that much, truth be told. She keeps to herself except for the nightly meetings." The Doctor noticed Frank looking around and leaning in. He and Rory leaned in and Frank began to whisper to them. "Me and David room together and sometimes we hear a man's voice coming from the room," he whispered. "Until you lot came, we were the only men here. Whoever it is tries to be quiet but the voice carries. We tried to ask Astra about it and she wouldn't tell us anything, said it was none of our business. She's weird, that one. If she wasn't our leader, I wouldn't have anything to do with her. Something about her is just strange, otherworldly even." The Doctor nodded. He wondered if he could arrange it so he and Rose were alone so he could speak with her. He was still debating on whether he should reveal himself to her but at the very least, he wanted to question her and find out what the real purpose was behind this cult. He also wondered if this mysterious man was his clone and if so, where was he now? He made a mental note to investigate with his friends whenever he got the chance. After supper, everyone helped clear the tables and clean up. Once the tables were wiped down and the dishes were washed, everyone went back up to their rooms. The Doctor and his friends hung back and waited until the others went to their rooms. Then they went upstairs and headed towards Rose's room. The Doctor and Rory had told the women about the man's voice coming from her room. He didn't tell the women about the clone since they would have asked what his clone was doing with Astra and that would have led to him telling them about Rose and he wasn't ready to tell them about her yet. When they reached the second floor, they looked around but everyone was in their rooms with the door closed. They could hear some of them laughing and talking behind their doors. They quietly walked to Rose's room and when they reached it, they stopped and listened but couldn't hear anyone. They waited a couple of minutes before the Doctor reached down and began to pull up his robe. "What are you doing?" River hissed at him. "I'm going to see if anyone's in the room," the Doctor hissed back. "If Astra's in there, I'll tell her I have a question. I just want to see if this mystery man's in the room with her." He took his screwdriver out of his pocket figuring the door might be locked. He tried the doorknob and his suspicions were confirmed. He looked around and River came up beside him. "Go ahead," she whispered to him. "We'll keep a look out for the others." The Doctor nodded and unlocked the door with the screwdriver. He slowly turned the knob and everyone gathered around him, keeping watch on the other doors while the Doctor opened the door wide enough so he could slip inside. Once inside, he looked around while he silently closed the door but the bedroom was empty. He slowly walked to the bathroom door and looked in but no one was there. He relaxed a bit and held his screwdriver in his right hand while he looked around the room. His eyes fell on the table and the pile of papers there and he walked over to it. He sat down in the chair, going through them. Most of them were order forms for supplies or schedules but halfway through the pile, he froze when he came upon a photograph. He picked it up and stared at it. It was a photo of Rose and his clone since the man that resembled his tenth self was wearing a grey jumper that the Doctor had never seen before. They were standing together, his clone's arm around Rose while they smiled for the camera. At first glance it looked like a photo of a loving couple until the Doctor noticed the Rose's smile seemed forced while the clone had a smug look on his face. The Doctor held the photo closer to his face and stared at Rose's cheek. He could see the hint of a bruise there. He looked at the forced smile his lover had and then his clone's smug look and anger slowly began to burn in his mind when he began to get a thought about who might have given her that bruise. "I swear, if you've hurt her…" the Doctor growled through clenched teeth while he stared at the photo. "If you've been abusing her all this time, I'll hunt you down and make you sorry you were ever born." He glanced around, pulled up his robe and put the photo in his trouser pocket. He put the papers back the way he found them, making sure they didn't look out of place. Then, he hurried to the door and quickly left the room.
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