River of the Universe- Chapter 7

The sound of birds welcoming the dawn awoke Martha. For a few seconds she imagined she was in her own bed, except her bedroom didn’t have a waterfall outside and reality returned.

With a yawn she winced and stretched trying to work the kinks out of her back.

She quickly washed her face and set out, they had probably realised she had escaped by now, so she had to make the most of her advantage.

The climb down wasn’t her idea of a morning stroll but she gritted her teeth and scrambled sown the rocky slope.

This wasn’t the Amazon but it might lead to the river, so she followed the river bank as close as she could.

She hoped that somewhere along the way she might find some kind of civilisation, and if she was extremely jammy the Doctor might just pop up like the proverbial penny, not a bad penny though.

She smiled at the thought of that, but the smile froze on her face when she heard rustling behind.

Slowly she turned and came face to face with the painted face of man.

With a small yelp she stepped back and caught her foot on a tree root landing hard on her rear.

The figure stared at her for a few seconds before speaking in decidedly university English.

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“Are you alright, you wouldn’t happen to be Martha Jones would you?

Martha looked at the figure in disbelief, was she hearing things or did he call her by her name.

For a few seconds she looked at the figure before it sank in, there was only one way he would know her name.

“You wouldn’t happen to know a tall skinny bloke in a pinstripe suit would you?” she asked cautiously.

The figure smiled and she could see the amused glint in his eye. “Definitely Martha Jones, my name is Nguwe and the tall skinny bloke, that would be the Doctor.”

He offered his hand to Martha and pulled her up. “Sorry if I scared you, but we’ve had a lot of strangers through here recently, the strangest being your friend.”

“That’s alright, but how did the Doctor get to you?” Martha asked as she followed Nguwe on what seemed to be an invisible path.

“Actually, we sort of found each other, we were hunting when we heard what sounded like a plane in trouble. We followed the fire trail as far as we could before it disappeared. It took us several hours to reach the crash site, by then the Doctor was out of the wreckage.”

“Was he hurt?” Martha voice rose in concern.

“He was a bit out of it when we found him, so we made a make-shift stretcher, he wanted to walk but I insisted. According to the aid doctor we sent for he was very lucky, he has a few cracked ribs but it’s mostly bumps and bruises. We had to almost tie him down to stop him joining our search party, luckily you were spotted leaving the land owned by Invo-Tech last night so we knew where to look.”

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The Doctor looked up as the laughter of children heralded the return of the search party, he grinned broadly as he saw a familiar figure.

His ribs protested as he jumped up and hurried over and threw his arms around Martha in a relieved hug.

“Martha!” he shouted delightedly.

Martha returned the hug with equal relief; she removed herself and ran a critical gaze over the Doctor.

She could see several already healing cuts and scrapes and was surprised when he didn’t protest at her attention.

With a satisfied smile she quickly checked his eyes for any signs of delayed shock, apart from looking slightly tired and the hint of dark circles around his eyes he seemed fine.

The Doctor pulled away when he felt she had fussed enough over him. “I see you escaped then, saves me the trouble of saving you then, however we need to talk.”

He gestured towards a quiet spot away from the children who were fascinated by the beading in Martha’s’ hair.

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Martha sat in stunned silence, it wasn’t fair.

She refused to believe that after only just being reunited there was the possibility that he would be ripped away from her, permanently.

She was angry with herself,because the Doctor had said that the only way to stop his death and there was nothing she could do to help and with her captors because they had put her friend in mortal danger.

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The Doctor looked up as he heard Martha approaching, he had left her alone for a while.

He knew that telling her would be difficult, but it had to be done.

He could see no point in sugar coating the problem. He was never one for giving false hope, not even if the truth hurt.

He had thought that now they were near the power source he could get inside and stop it for good.

However, one of Nguwe hunting party had reported that there was a lot of activity in and around the Invo-Tech base.

No doubt, he surmised that Martha’s’ escape had prompted the move and a quick scan with the sonic had confirmed what he feared, the signal was moving away and getting fainter.

Nguwe had mentioned that they had another so called reserve over the border at least a hundred miles from here.

He also said that it was dangerous territory in between, with fighting between rival militia groups, treacherous swamps and the ever present threat of the unknown Amazon.

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Nguwe had been surprised at the reaction of this extraordinary fellow, most people would have run a mile but this one seemed to relish the thought of it.

He had been to see the shaman who had said that this man was of the other realm, he had looked into his eyes and had seen an ancient spirit and that Nguwe should follow this spirit wherever it took him.

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Martha sat next to the Doctor, she could feel the heat of the fire and the sounds of the drums were infectious.

The Doctor looked at here as she sat down, the firelight reflecting of his face. He smiled that smile that lit up his whole face and his eyes were like dark pools.

“Isn’t this fantastic, the tribe are holding a ceremonial blessing for our little trip, after the song and food. The shaman over there is going to give us the blessings of the gods.”

Martha gave him a cynical stare. “You don’t really believe in gods do you?”

“Why not, old mojo boy over there saw straight through me, said I had descended from the celestial plain. He’s not that far off.”

Martha could see the excited gleam in his eyes, and despite the unsettling news and events that had crashed into their life she could feel the excitement too.

She could see the Doctor was itching to join the ceremony, but as the main reason for it Nguwe had said it was forbidden.

She tried to stifle a yawn but the Doctor noticed.

“You should get some rest, the blessing only involves the men, sorry,” he added when he had seen the beginning of annoyance on her face

Too tired to protest she wandered back to her lodge. She lay down and sighed, letting the constant thrumming of the drums lull her to sleep.