Leander watched in terror as the creature "undressed", eventually kicking Fred's empty skin away with its hideous foot. Its voice was the ugliest sound he'd ever heard and The young man had to put a hand on his mouth in order not to throw up, because now saliva was dripping from the alien's fangs as it eyed him hungrily. The Doctor maintained his tense position, squeezing the screwdriver in his hand. The irritated snarling grew ever louder as the Time Lord attempted to negotiate.

At one point the Slitheen mentioned an upcoming "big surprise" that had to do with eating humankind. Leander felt blind panic welling up inside him, because his family was still out there, helpless and unaware. Since the disgusting beast had been inside Fred, he might've been spying on their family for God knows how long already. He didn't pay attention as the creature threatened to kill them and his ears were deaf to the earthshattering noise coming from the sonic device. All he could think of was returning home and keeping his family safe.

The Doctor quickly shook the lad out his daze, ordering him to make for Fred's house. Leander wanted to object, but the Time Lord's resolute and authrotitative expression left no possibility to contradict. So Leander ran, repeatedly glancing back over his shoulder. The Doctor was still pointing the screaming screwdriver at the the green being, who continued to wriggle in pain, although tried to strike back a few times. Leander made a few last leaps and was finally inside the farmer's hut.

The house was dark except for a small lit candle on the kitchen table. Panting, the boy sank on the nearest bench and buried his face in his hands. Today's events were obviously too much to take in and Leander was already beginning to question the capability of his own senses. It was hard to decide, how one should react, because this situation was completely new to the young Englishman.

After five minutes of silence had passed, Leander lifted his head again. Only now did he notice that the droning in the field had long ceased. He rushed to the window and the spot was empty. No monster, no Doctor to be seen. He heaved a sigh of relief, but the concern for his new friend left him uneasy. Did the Doctor manage to escape or was he captured by the green monstrosities? Not even wanting to consider the thought, Leander got up, determined. "There's only one way to find out," he thought to himself, reaching out his hand to open the front door. It momentarily froze in the air as a repulsive voice behind him said: "Dinner. Lovely!". Something hard hit the back of Leander's head and the world went black.

The Doctor kept his hands locked onto the sonic screwdriver, watching as Leander thankfully obeyed his orders and began to make his way to the farmers house. Now, he needed a plan to divert the creature.

However, the Doctor's attention had been too focused upon Leander. As he turned to look back at the Slitheen, he was met with a green clawed hand flying towards his stomach, which connected with a force strong enough to send the Time Lord flying backwards. The Doctor landed with an audible 'thud', letting out a pained yell as he collided with the grass and mud. His sonic flew out of his hand, landing beside him whilst he covered his stomach with his hands. His teeth gritted, he weakly looked up to the Slitheen, which was chuckling threateningly.

"I'll deal with you in a second, old man. You're death will be a great victory for me." It growled at him as it turned and set off towards the house in chase of the young man. The Doctor bit back another yell of pain as his stomach throbbed, feeling bruising already spreading across his skin. A punch like that would have most likely killed a human. He knew that Leander would be killed within seconds if he let the Slitheen get to him. And he had to protect the young boy.

Biting back a wince of pain, he slowly got to his feet, his hands still clutching his stomach. He gritted his teeth as he made it to his feet, nearly forgetting about the sonic as he began to make his way towards the farm house.

"Leander..." He mumbled, walking up to the window to see if he could spot any signs of life. All he needed to find was some-

The Doctor suddenly heard a loud 'bang!' come from inside and then the sound of a body hitting the ground. He ignored his pain and rushed inside.

It was unclear how much time had passed, but when Leander finally opened his eyes, he was still in the same dim room. The candle on the table was unlit, burnt down to a pile of vax. Judging by the light outside the window, it seemed dawn was not far. As he warily scanned the chamber, recent events started to creep back into his mind. Daunted, he tried to sit upright, but soon found he couldn't, because his arms were strongly tied to the sides of his body with a coarse rope, which in turn was wrapped around a huge wooden pillar.

"Why on earth..." he mumbled, desperately attempting to struggle free from this tethered situation. It was of no use. He had probably been taken prisoner by the green baboons, either to be cooked for breakfast or... To act as bait to lure the Doctor here? If this was the case, it had to be prevented at all costs. The last thing he wanted was to let one of the loveliest people he'd ever met sacrifice himself to save a miserable friendless boy whose existence was disgrace to his family.

First he had to make sure the Doctor hadn't already been captured. "Doctor?" he murmured in a hushed voice. "Are you here? Doctor?" He narrowed his eyes to see what was in the dark corners of the room, but no outline of a body or any living being was to be seen. Trying to get himself to calm down, Leander sank back against the pillar and closed his eyes. So this was the end. If not the end of his life, at least the end of an era in his life. If he somehow managed to escape, he knew he couldn't go back to his old way of living. Meeting the Time Lord had woken up a long-lost rebel inside him and Leander wasn't willing to let it just fade away. Not this time.

After a while he thought he heard something from the back room. His senses didn't betray him - it was the sound of muffled foreign speech and occasional low growls. Leander gulped. Only a wooden wall separated him from his disgusting enemies, who were probably discussing the best ways to cook him. He tried to make out what they were saying, but strangely enough wasn't able to. This struck the young man as odd, because earlier he'd understood their every word.

His string of thought snapped immediately when he felt someone's cold fingers touch his hand and close around it. Leander bit his lip hard in order not to cry out. He was equally terrified and curious to see who or what it was. But when he finally glared down to look, he only saw long slender fingers that squeezed his ever tighter.

"Leander... Are you okay?" the Doctor's voice weakly whispered from the other side of the pillar. Leander's heart leaped in simultaneous joy and horror. He tilted his head as far back as he could, but still couldn't see his friend nor the state he was in. Eventually he felt hot from struggling and gave up. All the could do was to squeeze the Doctor's hand in response.

"If only I had the sonic... But they've taken it - ow!" Panic overcame Leander once again, because the Doctor sounded like he was in serious pain. The boy would've given anything to ease that pain.

"Doctor, hang on, please! We'll figure something out, I promise, just please don't fall asleep, all right?"

There was no answer. Tears welled up in Leander's eyes as he furiously made another useless attempt to break free. The creatures in the next room snarled louder and someone got up. Footsteps neared the front room and Leander squeezed his eyes shut, hoping this all was just a bad dream.

The Doctor had managed to slowly sneak inside the dimply lit house, the voices of two Slitheen coming from the back room. He had to hurry. They would be able to smell him soon. He limped over to the back wall near the kitchen and hid behind it for a few seconds, making sure that he hadn't already been heard.

The Doctor glanced around the wall and took his chance to quietly sneak over to it, keeping his eyes open for Leander at all times. But the pain in his stomach and ribs was becoming more noticeable and the burning sensation was spreading, creating more pain in his already injured back. The Time Lord held back a wince of pain and cast his eyes to the ground. That's when he spotted a hand sticking out from the wall. It was Leander.

The Doctor painfully got to the floor and grabbed Leander's hand, hoping that the young boy wouldn't cry out in shock. Thankfully he didn't.

"Fit as a fiddle, well, I should hope so...uuguugh..." The Doctor held back a groan of pain as he felt his back twinge with strain. "We need to get you out of these ropes..." The Doctor's voice faded slightly as he felt his mind trying to shut down his body into the healing process.

"Doctor, hang on, please! We'll figure something out, I promise, just please don't fall asleep, all right?"

The sound of the young boy panicking made the Doctor push on and he rummaged through his coat pocket, finding a sharp enough object to be able to cut through the rope. However, the slitheen appeared to have stopped talking. And one of them had gotten up.

The Doctor used all of his strength to cut the ropes one by one and eventually, Leander came free. He heard the young boy scramble to his feet, but as he tried to get to his, he found he was hardly able to stand. The old Time Lord winced in pain as he managed to get to his feet. "Leander...where are you, we need to get out here..."