Bear with me; I want to tell the story of the new companions before we dive in too far.

Three people sat huddled around a small campfire, surrounded by the wild bushland of Australia. Calls from birds and small mammals echoed from the darkness of the trees. They had driven to the end of a long dusty gravel road in the middle of nowhere, parking in a small clearing and setting up camp for the night.

Mathew Black was perched happily on a large rock, flicking pieces of bark from his fiery red hair; he was tall for his age, at eighteen, he stood six feet from the ground. Pale, freckled skin contrasted with the darkness around him, illuminated by the glow of the fire. He had a thin build, lending him a rather lanky, stretched appearance. He was laughing cheerfully at the memory of a long lost friend, telling the group of her insane antics at school. He had known her since their early years in primary school, and always thought fondly of their school days.

Next to him sat Hannah Merits. Although being the smallest, at twenty-two years of age, she was also the oldest in the small group. She sat on a thick log, picking at peaces of bark and throwing them at Matt and laughing at his irritation. She had known Alison Price, the missing girl, for only a few short months, but had bonded closely with her in that time. Her tidy blonde hair was carefully straightened, tumbling down over her large breasts. She paused every few seconds to turn her thin, tanned face towards the man on her other side, flirting with wide, brown eyes and batting her mascara coated eyelashes at him.

The third person sat a little apart from the others, staring blankly into the glowing fire. Christopher Messenger was lost in a world of distant memories. His own, deep, blue eyes were welled with tears. Of the entire group, he was the closest to Alison, before she had vanished the year before. He remained oblivious to Hannah's constant attempts at flirting, running a pale hand through his dark hair, too caught up in his memories to care about the world around him. He was the same height as Matt, although he had a more athletic, heavier build.

Behind them sat a large green and silver tent, erected and ready for use later in the night. To the other side of the camp stood a small black car. Both belonged to Chris. At twenty, he was halfway between the ages of his two companions. The trip had been his idea, it had been six months to the day since Allie had disappeared.

'Chris?' Matt said, leaning towards the grieving man. 'You alright?' He was met with only silence. 'Chris, I know you can hear me... She wouldn't want you to be like this. She'd want you to laugh at the stupid things she did, to be able to smile when you remember her'

After a few minutes of silence, he responded, his voice barely more than a whisper.

'I know...'

'Chris... You need to move on... There are more girls out there' Hannah said softly, moving closer to him.

'Hannah I don-'

'You need someone else in your life, someone who can help you be happy again' She interrupted, placing a thin hand on his shoulder.

Before Chris could reply, a strange man came crashing through the undergrowth and into the clearing. He skidded to a halt as he passed the trio, staring unbelievably at them.

'Hello!' He exclaimed happily, ruffling his wild brown hair with his right hand. He smoothed out his brown, pinstriped suit and smiled at the group. 'I need you to leave' He stated, pulling a strange pen from his pocket, his face suddenly serious.

'What are you on about?' Chris asked angrily as he rose to his feet. The man glanced behind him, listening for some unknown threat.

'I'm The Doctor, and I need you to leave'

'Look mate, do you need me to call someone for you...?' Chris asked, clearly thinking the man was insane.

'No, I need you to leave, now' He repeated, clearly frustrated he wasn't getting his message across. He glanced around the group, casting his eyes over Hannah and Matt, who sat, still stunned next to the fire. 'You're all in grave danger, you need to get into that car, and drive as far as you can'.

'No offense Doctor...?'

'Just The Doctor'

'Well no offense, but we're out here for a reason, we're remembering a friend, and you're disturbing us. So if you need to call someone, I can get you a phone, otherwise, why don't you take your own advice and leave?' Chris had moved towards The Doctor, standing only a few feet from him.

'Your friend, are they...?' The Doctor asked quietly, his face full of understanding and regret.

Chris choked back tears as he thought of her.

'Yes, she's gone'

'I'm sorry' The Doctor muttered. 'What was her name?'

'Alison'

'I lost someone... Rose... And what I can tell you is that Alison would want you to listen to me'

Chris snapped at this.

'YOU DIDN'T KNOW HER! YOU FUCK OFF, RIGHT NOW!'

The Doctor frowned.

'No, I didn't know her, but you did, and can you honestly say she'd want you to die tonight?'

Chris paused, looking hopelessly around the camp.

'She...'

In that second another man appeared through the trees, only he wasn't a man, he was an alien. It stood seven feet off the ground; its body was thick and athletic. Long arms ended in seven sharply clawed fingers. It had elongated skull, loosely covered bumpy olive skin, forming deep wrinkled crevices falling in horizontal pattern. It looked like the skin had been simply draped over the head like a blanket and tucked into the lumpy grey body suit at the neck. Large, jet black eyes sat beneath a non existent brow and thin green lips failed to cover the wide hole that was its mouth. Long, razor sharp fangs protruded from its depths, forcing the mouth to remain constantly open. Thick, cloudy saliva dribbled onto the dust beneath its hooked feet. A massive roar erupted from the creatures chest, its loosely flapped skin vibrating violently as the sound built up and it threw its head back to release the call.

This thing was alien, without any doubt and it was a predator, obviously ready to kill them all.

The Doctor called back into the trees where he had come from.

'YOU TWO WANT TO HURRY IT ALONG A LITTLE? I'VE FOUND IT!'

The creature advanced menacingly towards them, the roar lessened to a constant, threatening growl as it flexed its claws in preparation for the slaughter it was planning.

***

Sorry it's so short, I thought I'd just test the water and see how this goes down. Comments are welcomed and loved. First story, be kind.