The Walking Dead (Nox, Robin, Charity)

Suddenly, a potted plant was smashed into the head of one of the zombies, effectively knocking it down. A man in a tweed jacket and bow-tie peeked his head into the alley way, eyebrows raising at the young woman trapped at the end of it.

"What are you doing back there? Come on," he shouted, gesturing for her to escape. In the meantime, he shoved the two remaining zombies into each other, sending them tumbling to the ground. Clapping his hands, he raised his arms in a short victory before crouching down and beginning to scan them with the sonic. He began with the one he'd knocked over with the pot before waving his screwdriver over the pair fumbling over each other in their attempt to stand back up. Righting himself, he flicked out the sonic, examining the readings with a look of confusion. "No, no, no, this isn't right," he muttered, tapping his forehead with the sonic in frustration. "Hang on," he murmured, crouching back down to examine the one he'd hit with the plant.

It had clearly gone unconscious, which made perfect sense according to the readings he'd received, but didn't quite make sense in his mind. He held open its eyelids, leaning in close to see what was inside. The cornea of the eye was still fogged, meaning if his conclusion was right, the decay wasn't being reversed. That would make stumbling around like this a bit difficult, right? How could they see what they were after? Unless...

"You, gamer girl," the Doctor called, straightening back up, shoving the other two recovering zombies back down in the process. "What have you got on you? Anything particularly smelly? You have showered today, haven't you?" he interrogated, striding over to her, sonic in hand.

Tom hadn't realized they'd even landed until the Doctor was halfway out the door. Grabbing his bag and slinging it over his shoulder as he had to half-sprint to catch up, he followed after him. Had he known running was a requirement, he likely wouldn't have gone with the strange man in the first place. Although, how could he refuse such an adventure? He just caught up in time to hear the Doctor talking to someone.

Panting, he came to a stop behind the man and looked around. There was something familiar about this place. He wondered where he was, when he was. Some time in the summer, he guessed, based on the weather. Then, he noticed the zombies and nearly jumped out of his skin, "Whoa!! Are those what I think they are?!" He was simultaneously terrified and excited. Years of video games and movies had prepared him for this moment. But he didn't have a weapon, and he wasn't exactly strong per se.

Looking past the zombies, he noticed the girl. She looked quite familiar as well, perhaps more familiar than the place. Nerdy shirt, Nintendo bag, 1-UP necklace. "Brooke!" Tom blurted out. He hadn't seen her in so long. Come to think of it, she didn't look too much older than when last he saw her. Maybe a year or two, but no more. He went toward the two, making sure not to touch any of the zombies as he did so. "Doctor, when are we?"

"Oh, there you are," the Doctor remarked, turning on his heels as Tom scooted past the zombies. "It's..." he glanced at his watch quickly, "2012. Do you two know each other?" He remarked, gesturing between the two of them with his sonic. "Lovely. Nice to meet you, Brooke, was it?" He grabbed her hand with both of his, shaking it rather aggressively. "Tommy here's my intern. I'm Dr. Smith. We're doing a bit of field work, and um," he glanced over his shoulders at the struggling corpses with a grimace, "It's a work in progress."

Turning around, the Doctor strode back towards the two conscious bodies, looping their arms around his shoulders. They reached out ahead of them towards the two humans, but paid virtually no attention to the time lord. "Know what's strange about these zombies? Have you noticed yet?" He poked at the bow-tie on the man, nodding in approval. "They're quite nicely dressed," he continued, looking over the woman's ripped dress. "More or less," he amended with a shrug, dropping their arms and shoving them back down for the third time, picking up the discarded potted plant.

"Either the zombies have only reached formal events, or these are fresh from the grave," he explained, scanning the lot of them once more. He checked the readings and nodded in approval. "They've long passed their expiration date. Tommy!" He spun back around, passing the flowers to him. "For your girlfriend," he grinned, nodding towards Brooke.

"Just Tom, if you don't mind. Wow... 2012," Tom carded a hand through his hair, ignoring the Doctor's question. Five years. She must be, what, 17? 18? "College was all right. I graduated about a year ago. Or a few years from now? It's complicated. Time travel." He shrugged, as if that were a normal thing to say. It wasn't, he knew that, but he didn't know how else to explain it. "I missed you, too," he sighed and slumped against the wall, sliding down to sit beside her, as far from the zombies as he could manage.

He scoffed, "Maybe they just got back from an opera." Raising a brow at the Doctor and the zombies, he looked more closely. They were dressed pretty well for zombies. So these were really undead, then, and not infected humans. He had to wonder if he and Brooke could actually be infected, if bitten, and voiced his concerns, "What happens if they bite us? For that matter, why aren't they after you?"

"She's not..." Tom started to protest, but instead simply took the flower and passed it to Brooke. Friends can give friends flowers. That's a normal thing to do. Maybe less normal when the flower was used to fight a zombie, but that was neither here nor there. "Have you managed to escape your 'family' yet?" he questioned Brooke, really hoping she had.

He didn't really know who this girl was, yet, but she seemed to be brimming with information. He liked her.

At the warning, the Doctor spun around, scowling at the appearance of two other bodies. He was really hoping he wasn't going to have to deal with this so quickly. "Aaaagh, I need to think," he complained, smacking his head and turning around. "Tommy and friend, we're getting out of here," he announced, moving to stand in-between them. Holding his sonic in the air, he grinned as the TARDIS materialized around them, watching as the zombies approached too slowly to make it inside. Once the room had fully appeared, he sprinted to the console and looked outside, watching the creatures slam themselves into the door. "Oh, now that's interesting..."

He turned around and smirked at the thumping before speeding around to the other side of the console, preparing some coordinates. "Brooke, I hate to tell you this, but I lied," he begun, slamming a lever down. The TARDIS began to groan and shake a bit before settling down again as it landed. The Doctor peeked his head around the console with an falsely apologetic grin. "My name's not Smith."