Like I said, getting back to business with this fic. Gonna be doing Doctor/Amy POV, as if it wasn't like that already… Well… I'm more omnipotent, but… Eh. I'll also be trying to write… More detailed? Better? All of the above, actually. I've noticed it's not actually very good quality. I'll work to fix it.

I'll be/I've been researching a monster that might work with this story (Present and future tense because this should take me a few days, this chapter, I mean). Anyway, thank you all for supporting with reviews, and taking time out of your day to do so. I'm afraid our journey is almost over. Only a couple more chapters left, folks. I'll give you the warning.

Well, let's get started.

The Doctor was off rummaging about in the closet in a hall coming off the main room, and Amy was watching the monitor intently. She'd convinced him to let her watch for Sam, in case he came back, or in case he came out of the woods again. If he did come back, oh would he get a scolding! She was about ready to throw the kid through a wall. The Doctor hopped up the stairs carrying what looked like an encyclopedia. It looked like it hadn't been touched in ages, though, dust at least two inches thick on the cover. He was sneezing up a storm when he brushed the years off with one hand and covered his nose with the other. Amy coughed, sneezed, and then backed up about five feet to spare herself.

"Doctor, what—" Another sneeze, "What is that?" She asked, standing on her tip-toes to see over his shoulder at the book. He was in the middle of a fit and didn't answer right away, but after he composed himself, he returned,

"It's Earth's Monsters: The Book." He stated, flipping open to a page somewhere in the middle of the book. He thumbed the corners of the pages until he found the one he was looking for, if he wasn't just being nostalgic. "Basically the encyclopedia of all the monsters Earth has ever had the fortune of housing." Amy was interested by the pictures on a few of the pages, but he was flipping through them too quickly for her to get a good look at most of them. Maybe she could convince him to let her read the book later, for fun.

"Looking up some vampires? Are you trying to tell me that you—you—haven't come across something like a vampire?" Amy asked, tauntingly. It was almost pathetic, she laughed at him inwardly.

"Amy, pay attention." He glanced over his shoulder at her and poked her in the forehead, "If you had been you would know that we are absolutely not fighting a vampire. Not even plural, vampires." No, he was looking for something different. Not too different, surely nothing Sam and his family had ever run into before, so he could understand how they would be confused. He didn't bother reading any of the words as he flipped through the thin, wearing pages, just giving the images a quick once-over before moving on. If he remembered this book properly, and he was pretty sure he had a good idea, it would be somewhere between the werewolves and the Loch Ness Monster (they were really, really off about that one, he couldn't even believe they'd thought it was a sea creature. Even the dinosaur theory was out there).

"Well, then, smarty-pants, what are we after?" She asked, giving his back one of her half-snarky 'I knew that' looks.

"The name seems to be escaping me at the moment, just give me a while, I'll find it." He replied, though she could tell that if she'd asked him what he wanted for dinner he would have answered the same. He tended to get absorbed in his work, so much so that he set default responses. She could always tell when he was off on some research project or another, he would answer her questions with ridiculous quotes and ignore her actual statement. Would have been just another day in the TARDIS, if they didn't have a child out there in danger.

Rolling her eyes, Amy walked back over to the monitor, hoping she hadn't missed Sam passing by—though she doubted that she had. It'd almost been an hour since he'd run off, he'd have come back by now, or made it to the highway. The maps were pretty accurate, and they weren't far off the main road. God, she hoped he'd made it to the highway. If what The Doctor said was true, he had already been taken by… Whatever it was they were looking for. But, then again, he did say taken. That was promising, right? "So, Doctor, when do you think we'll be able to go find them?" She asked, only half to get an answer.

"Not now Amy, only a few more moments, and I'll have it…" The last word was drawn out, to show her that he was concentrating very hard on whatever it was he was doing. She heaved a sigh and flopped into the companion's chair. It was, in truth, anybody who wanted to sit there's chair, however unimportant that might be. She ran a hand down her face in exasperation. She hoped the kid was alright. She had a thing for kids, she supposed it came with being a woman. Never really occurred to her to think about it.

He suddenly jumped in place two or three times, and started making small, distressed noises. He pointed at the page in the book, and then punched the console. Amy watched in fascination. The wild Doctor in his natural habitat, trying to alert it's companion that it has found something edible on the ground. She rolled her eyes and walked over to where he was pointing and trying to form words.

"English, Doctor." She patted him on the back, "Don't hurt yourself." She took a look at the page he was pointing at. Relieved that they found what they were looking for, she asked, "Well, what is it?" The book wasn't really in English itself, so she couldn't be sure.

He ran a hand through his hair and let out the breath he'd been holding for the past thirty seconds. "I can't believe I didn't notice it before now!"

"What, didn't notice what?" She pressed, jabbing him in the side. Spit it out already.

"They're hunting Revenants, Amy, Revenants!" He shook her by the shoulders, and she suspected he was taking out his anger about not realizing before on her. She shrugged him off and walked towards the book. Since she still couldn't read it, though, she had to ask,

"What's a Revenant-whatever?" A better question, in her opinion, would be 'how do you kill a Revenant'.

"A Revenant, Amy, is a corpse, returned from the dead to wreak havoc upon the living. Or, at least that's what it says in this book…" He started mumbling to himself, before he nodded, shook his head, nodded again, and continued, "See, they've an appetite similar to vampires, but they're not as… Change-y."

"Change-y?"

"Yes, change-y. Can you come up with anything better? No!" He snorted, scanning the book's page again. "But something's not right…"

"Do re-animated corpses have brains, Doctor?" Amy asked curiously, peeking over at the pictures in the book. It looked like they could be animals, people, you name it.

"No, that's part of the problem. I've never seen a Revenant before, but I doubt they would take this much caution when they eat… There might be something else out there," He narrowed his eyes at the page and wrinkled his nose. "Yes, definitely something else."

"But Doctor, we can't just leave Sam out there while we waste time figuring out what it is." Amy huffed. He glanced quickly up at her and nodded in agreement. She folded her arms over her chest and waited for his decision. Help the kid, find out what it was, help the kid, find out what it was, help the kid… Help the kid. He nodded again and stood up straight.

"Amy, get a coat. It's getting dark." He closed the book and looked at the monitor. Nothing had moved out there for ages now, he hoped they weren't too late.

"So, Doctor, if the Revenants don't have brains… And if they're rotting corpses or something, why did they get caught? I mean, aren't they almost professionals?" Amy asked, shrugging further into her coat as the sun slipped further below the horizon.

"See, that's what I was wondering. Why something else must be behind it. A couple of Revenants, or even a small colony of them, they could be taken out by a child with a baseball bat. Something has to be behind it…" He was still trying to work it out himself. Anything could take a few of the creatures under their power if they had the time and the tools. Which was just about anybody on Earth, when it came down to it. Well, he could rule out babies. Babies couldn't talk or walk, let alone run an undead army. Even one of the Revenants would be able to take out a baby. That was upsetting, babies would be much easier to deal with than what it probably would be.

"What are you thinking it could be? Surely nothing you haven't dealt with before, nothing you couldn't handle." She perked up, looking at him expectantly, though it was more or less in the hopes of getting out of the cold sooner rather than later.

"I don't know, Amy. I really don't know." He replied, and her face fell.

"Well, I'm sure we'll be fine," She kept on, smiling again, "Always are. There's always a way to win, yeah?" The Doctor nodded solemnly. Of course there was. Just had to keep thinking positive, right?

"Yes, of course." He replied audibly when he noticed she was no longer looking at him.

"Where do we start looking for them?" She asked.

"I'd guess down this road. If not deliberate, there's less of a chance we'll get lost." She chirped a happy reply he wasn't quite listening to. He looked from side to side into the woods, searching for any sign of life, or half-life, it might seem. Smoke from a fire, twigs snapping, birds flying away from trees, anything. Anything at all.

Amy also began scanning the trees and beyond, glaring at the trunks like she wanted to set them on fire. She muttered something about what a fun trip this was turning out to be, and he chuckled halfheartedly. It was a few moments later that she gripped his arm as tightly as she could and make a small squeaking noise. After regaining control of her mouth, she leveled her voice and said, "Doctor,"

"Hm?" He looked over his shoulder from where he'd been searching the other side of the road.

"What's that?" She asked, unmoving. He followed her line of vision.

"Oh my—"

Again, I'd like to thank you all for putting up with that horrible writing, geez that was awful.

I've a pretty good idea of where I'm going with this, and since it's obviously AU you understand that it won't be very accurate in canon terms. I'll try not to go all out stupid, but you never know.

Also, special thanks to quoththeraven5 who comments on just about every single update. Motivation is a plus.

/ollies outie