THE HIDE AND SEEK COMPETITION
Chapter Four Rose gasped when she suddenly stopped moving and nearly tripped over a large rock. She quickly got her footing and Tarana grabbed her before she could fall backwards. She and her friend were standing at the bottom of a narrow rock canyon. Rose looked around but apart from a few boulders scattered around them there was no way up. The canyon walls were mostly smooth and there were no real footholds. "Oh great, now what?" Tarana said. "I s'pose we can teleport somewhere else?" Rose asked. "I don't see any good hiding places and it's too deep to climb out." "Let's walk along the canyon floor first and see what's here," Tarana said. Rose nodded and they walked off together. From what Rose could see, there was no hiding places and there was no trail going up to the surface. Vaguely she wondered where the Doctor would end up. She hoped he would pick 97 north just so she could have a laugh about how psychic he was but she had a feeling he wouldn't. She just hoped he and Cephos didn't end up inside volcanoes. "Rose, look." Rose was jarred from her thoughts when Tarana pointed out an opening in the rock wall about fifty feet away. The opening was about eight feet tall and four foot wide. "Cave?" Rose said. "Must be. Wanna explore it?" "Sure," Rose said, hoping they were making the right decision. The last thing she wanted was to stumble and fall in the dark and break her leg, far from the Doctor and any chance of real help. But when they reached the opening they noticed there were glo orbs inside, lighting up the interior. It shocked her for a moment until she remembered that the game area was built specifically for the competition and she figured any dark nook or cranny was probably lit by glo orbs. Feeling safer since she figured that they wouldn't light any area that was dangerous, she and Tarana stepped inside. The path they were on seemed to slope upward. "Maybe this is how you get out of the canyon," Tarana said, pointing to the path. Rose nodded, grateful that the coordinator gave them a way out. She and Tarana followed the glo orb lit path as it headed upwards. XOXOXOXOXOXO The Doctor stood beside Cephos on the game field while he examined the teleporter. From what he could deduce, it was a time agent's vortex manipulator but he suspected it had been modified so there was only the option of teleportation. At least he hoped so. He stared at the keypad, trying to guess what Rose might have picked. He wished fervently that his companion shared the ability to mind link and memory share like Time Lords did. Would have made it so much easier. He looked at Cephos when he tapped him on the shoulder. "Good luck, my friend," he said to him. "And you," the Doctor said. The Doctor noticed he inputted 57 south before he vanished from sight. Many others were disappearing around him now and he was trying to think of where Rose might have gone. He figured she might have chosen north since he figured most people would chose north but what number could she have picked? Most of the seekers were now gone so he thought fast. He decided to choose 100 since that was also a common number. He inputted 100 north and hit the enter button. He gasped and staggered a bit when he landed at the base of a large snowcapped mountain. He looked up at the mountain and estimated the apex to be about 12,000 feet. He looked around and saw a desert area behind him. He reached into his trench coat and pulled out a pair of mini binoculars. He scanned the desert and noticed a wide opening running across the desert about three miles away. Beyond that was what looked like a volcano with a forest around it. Off to his right in the distance was an icy tundra. "My, my, they've crammed many terrains in here, haven't they?" he muttered to himself. "All part of the game, make it more exciting. Well, I won't find Rose standing about and burning daylight. So…where are you, my hearts? I hope my calculations are correct and you're nearby." He pulled out his sonic screwdriver and adjusted it to pick up artron radiation in the hopes that Rose was near enough to register. He raised his screwdriver into the air and turned it on. He scanned the air for thirty seconds and then read the display. To his delight, there was an artron radiation reading besides his. "See, my pretty little ape, told ya it'd take all of ten minutes," he muttered. "So, you're slightly south but still near enough to pick up on the sonic. All I need to do is keep taking a reading until I find you and then we'll head back to the arena and claim our prize!" He took another reading to be sure and then headed south towards the canyon. XOXOXOXOXO Rose and Tarana stopped when they suddenly ran into a rock wall. They looked around but couldn't see any other openings. "So we get halfway up and there's a dead end," Rose said. "Lovely. Must be someone's idea of a joke." "Maybe there's a way to move this wall," Tarana said, feeling the walls on the right side of the corridor. Rose watched for a few seconds and did the same thing on the left side. She ran her hand over the slightly bumpy rock walls but couldn't find anything that might slide open the wall. "We're s'posed to be hiding, not exploring so maybe this is a place to hide," Rose said. "We hide here and hope no one sees the cave opening." "Yeah but this is rubbish, at least give us some rocks to hide behind instead of just crouching at the end of the corridor," Tarana said. "This is far too easy." "Wait a tic," Rose said when her hand found a small crevice in the wall. She reached into it and found a button with her fingers. She pushed it but instead of the wall opening, a hatch raised open in front of them. Glo orbs came on the moment the hatch stopped moving and they could see a metal ladder leading down. Rose and Tarana looked at each other. "Should we?" Tarana said. "Why not? Maybe this will continue on to the top," Rose said, shrugging. She decided to go first and she sat down on the ground and put her legs in the hole. She scooted over till her feet were on the rungs of the ladder and she started going down while Tarana watched. She looked around as she climbed down but to her dismay there was only a circular room with no way out. "No use coming down here, Tarana, there's no way out, it's just an empty room," she called as she looked up, unaware that a laser beam in front of her was scanning her body. By the time she looked down, the laser had stopped it's scan and was now gone. Rose looked around but the only thing in the room was four glo orbs spaced evenly around the walls. Rose shook her head. "Don't wanna hide here," she muttered. She was about to go back up when suddenly the wall opened like a door in front of her. Rose froze and her mouth dropped open when the Doctor stepped into the room. "Now wait just a moment, how the bloody hell did you find me so fast?" Rose said to him. "I know you, Rose. We are in sync with one another," the Doctor said, smiling warmly as he came towards her. "Our hearts beat as one." "Sure they do, you used the sonic, didn't ya? Some sort of fancy scanning device?" Rose said. "Rose, what's going on?" "The Doctor found me, Tarana!" "Already?" "Yup, he made good on his threat to find me within ten minutes," Rose said, looking up. "You might as well come…down," she said softly when the Doctor started to kiss the underside of her chin. She lowered her head and the Doctor moved his head and began kissing her cheek. Rose was stunned in addition to being turned on as the Doctor took her in his embrace and began kissing her entire face. "Doctor, are you alright?" Rose said, still in a state of shock. "You're acting strange." "I missed you," the Doctor breathed. "I missed you so much." "What the?" Tarana said when she climbed down enough to see the snogging. "Um…the Doctor missed me," Rose said as her face turned beet red. The Doctor ignored Tarana as he rained kisses down on her face. Tarana got off the ladder and stared at her friends, not quite knowing what to say. "Come with me, my Rose," the Doctor said softly when he came up for air. "Follow me. I will show you the way out." "Shouldn't we just input 0 into the teleporter?" Rose said. "No, come with me. I want to show you something," the Doctor said in a husky voice. "Well, what about Tarana, can she come as well?" Rose said, annoyed at the overt lust the Doctor was showing her. She gasped when the Doctor began to pull her roughly towards the opening. "Come with me, be with me…forever," the Doctor muttered as he pulled her. Rose sensed something was wrong and fear rose inside her as the Doctor made her go towards the opening. "Tarana, help me. The Doctor's been possessed or he's being controlled or something! "Come, my love, we will be alone at last," the Doctor said as he forced Rose towards the opening. He grunted when Tarana lunged forward and smacked him upside the head with her open palm. "She doesn't want to go with you," she growled. "Let go of her." Rose gasped when the Doctor backhanded her and quickly grabbed Rose again when she tried to run. Rose looked at the Doctor and her horror increased when the Doctor opened his mouth to reveal a pair of fangs where his canines should be. "Come, my beloved, we will be together for all eternity," he said to her as he continued to drag her towards the opening. He backhanded Tarana again when she tried to pull Rose away. This time Rose was able to get free and she headed back towards the ladder. The Doctor backhanded Tarana again to get her away from the ladder and then grabbed Rose as she tried to scramble up the ladder. Rose tried to fight him but the Doctor managed to get her in a tight hug. Rose gasped when she suddenly felt the Doctor's fangs in her neck. She twisted, trying to get free but the Doctor kept his fangs in her neck as he pulled her towards the opening. Rose felt her neck growing warm and then she suddenly felt sleepy. The last thing she saw before losing consciousness was the opening as the Doctor dragged her towards it.
Rose yelled.
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