"The Virus" (Wild Animal entry)

[matimae03.livejournal.com]

Title: The Virus
Characters: the 10th Doctor, Donna, OC
Warnings: Character death
Episode setting: Season 4, before 'Turn Left'
Word count: 1,361
Summary: The Doctor and Donna find themselves in a mystery, all surrounding a virus.

The Doctor flung open the TARDIS doors, only to be greeted by a very smoke filled city. He coughed as fumes filled his lungs, he squinted through the smoke to see the roads littered with trash.

“What’s this supposed to be?” asked Donna, seeing the sight.

“Well, it was supposed to be a nice view of a city, but you lot don’t be seeming to be takin’ car of it.” the Doctor replied, stepping out of the TARDIS into the darkenedstreet.

“So, all of time and space and you bring me here? Yeah, I don’t think so. Lets go to a planet or something, I have already had my fill of horrible cities on Earth.” Donna told him plainly.

“That sounds good but,” the Doctor pauses, hearing a low growl. “I think we have company...” he pulls out his sonic screwdriver to scan the area.
“Here, I’m just gonna have a look around. I think something is out there,” the Doctor says heading of into the distance.

“Of coarse there is something out there! This is a city!” Donna cries out, but follows him anyway. The Doctor, lighting up his way with his screwdriver stops in his tracks.

“Hello? Who are you? I’m the Doctor,” he says into the distance, still unsure on what exactly he is talking too. The Doctor, closely followed by Donna, goes into a building. It is tall with cement walls, and a hard metal roof.

“Hello?” the Doctor calls out again, certain the creature was nearby.

“Doctor, are you even sure something is there?” whispers Donna.

“I don’t know,” he says walking into another room. Donna sighs and follows him, someone had to keep him out of trouble. They entered a room that was poorly lit, it must have been an old science lab, for there were science equipment everywhere, but there was nobody in sight.

“Doctor, why are there no people here?” asks Donna.

“Well, it looks like they all left in a rush maybe-” But before the Doctor could finish a dark figure out of nowhere swoops in and tackles him to the ground. Donna goes in to rescue the Doctor, but she feels a hand on her arm, pulling her back, and out of the room.

“Doctor!” she hollers, but his body is motionless on the floor from the attacker. Donna whipped herself around to see the face of an aged scientist, who was dragging her out of the room. “Get your hands off me!” she screamed, releasing herself from his grasp.

“Don’t worry you’re safe,” was all the scientist said.

“What do you mean I’m safe? Safe from what?” she questioned.

“The last threat has been captured. We are all safe now.” the scientist said with a sigh of relief.

Fury burned inside of Donna, “What do you mean we’re all safe?! The Doctor has just been attacked! I need to go get him!” she rushes to the door which leads to the Doctor, but feels a tug on her jacket.

“No Miss! You mustn't go in there! It isquarantined now! I’m sorry but your friend is gone.” the scientist told her.

But Donna refuses to give up that easily, she rushes to the window that leads to the room, she placed her hands against the glass to get a better view of the room. She sees the attacker, it looks human, but now he lays still on the ground, unmoving.

“They only last about an hour,” the scientist said, approaching Donna.

“What only last an hour?”

The scientist took a moment before replying. “The infected. It started out harmless. We just wanted to make something to make us stronger, but it didn’t work. I told them that it wasn’t ready, but they insisted on trying it. It turned my co-workers all, into- wild animals. Soon after the virus spread, once you are in contact with someone who has been infected, then, well… You get thepicture. But that was the last one, and I am truly sorry about your friend.”

Confusion covered Donna’s face, “Where is the Doctor? I don’t see him,” she peered through the window into the room he last was, but she saw nothing.

“Doctor?” she called out. “You don’t want to see him like this. You shouldprobably leave now.” the scientist warned.

“No. I will never leave the Doctor, ever.” Donna placed her face now close to the widow to get a better look, only to see theincoming hand of the Doctor, he scratched at the window, leaving behind marks. Donna leaped back in horror, the Doctor started prancing around the room like a madman. Every once and a while he would jump and the window, and would scratch. The Doctor made circles around the room he was confined in, lumbering about, a complete animal. Donna closed her eyes and turned away, she couldn’t take it anymore.

“Tell me. Where is the cure. My patience has worn thin and I will not stand to see him like this any longer.” Donna harshly told the scientist.

“Th-there is no cure. In less then an hour the virus will kill him. I-I’m sorry,” he stammered.

“Are you telling me that after all the lives this virus had taken, you have been doing nothing?!” rage boiled inside of Donna as she watched the Doctor turn into a monster and the scientist did nothing.

“I have been trying! I want to stop it! But-but the only thing that turned them back from beast to human, ended up killing them minutes later. A more peaceful death, but they still wouldn’t live."
Donna pounded angrily on the glass, she couldn’t just let this happen. She took a deep breath and tried to clear her mind, but was interrupted by the sigh of the scientist.

“It’s begun. Faster this time. I’m sorry,”

Donna looked into the room to see what has begun, only to find the doctorwithering in pain on the floor. His muscles tensed, as pain rushed through him.

“What’s happening?” Donna asked, now shouting.

“It will be like this, until… until his heart stops.” the scientist looked away, he couldn’t bear to see another person die.

“Where is the cure?” Donna demanded.

“I told you, it wasn’t a cure!” he protested. “Where is it?!”

“Okay, okay!” the scientist rushed into a drawer and pulled out a syringe filled with greenliquid. Donna grabbed it and rushed into the room, the Doctor moaned in pain, he was dying.

“Nobody can survive that! You’re sealing his fate!” the scientist warned.

“While the Doctor isn’t just anybody,” she said as she stabbed the syringe into his chest. “he is a Time Lord.” she injected the liquid into his blood stream then took a step back.

“Doctor?” she called out softly. He shaking stopped, and his body became still. Frantically Dona tried to find a pulse, but to no avail. His spiky hair was matted down with sweat, and his normally energetic self was now lying motionless.

“Doctor?” Donna called out weakly, afraid she had lost him. But them something inside of Donna snapped. No. This was not how it was going to end. She was not going to let him die this way, no she was not.

“Doctor wake up!” she hollered, then slapped him across the face, hoping to wake him.

“Doctor!” she hollered, frantically giving him CPR. She tried everything she could think, but time was running out. Finally in a last attempt to save him she doused him with a bucket a water, she heard him gasp for breath. His eyes fluttered open, and he took some long deep breaths.

“Donna!” he said, a smile spreading across his face.

“Oh don’t you ‘Donna’ me! You almost died! You don’t ever do that again mister!” she said, but then embraced him with a hug. “Don’t ever do that again,” she repeated, but this time softer.

Weakly the Doctor made his way to his feet, and together they made their way back to the TARDIS. “No more sight seeing for today, okay?” Donna turned towards the Doctor. Hesitantly he replied, “Yeah. But you know there is this planet that is so beautiful...”