Scouting for Aliens (Chapter 4)

Chapter 4 (Behind the Tarp)

“Proper in the middle of nowhere,” said Holly, looking up at the trees as they towered above her.

“Hmmm,” said Richard, picking at some loose bark on a tree trunk.

“Hmmm?” queried the Doctor, locking the TARDIS door.

“Well it’s another load of trees again, isn’t it?” said Richard. “Gandra wasn’t too long ago, remember?”

“Gandra was a jungle world,” said the Doctor, smiling as he looked up to the green canopy of trees. “This is a forest. A good, old English forest.”

“I like it,” said Holly, closing her eyes and listening to the sound of bird song echoing around the forest. “It’s very restful.”

“Indeed it is,” said the Doctor. “This is exactly what we need. What we need to do is find a clearing somewhere nearby and get a fire going.”

“Can’t we just start a fire here?” said Richard, kicking some foliage out the way.

“We’d set fire to the forest,” said Holly. She’d started a few fires as a teenager back in the den in the woods. One time Simon had started it too close to a bush and had nearly set the whole of the woods on fire. She’d been careful since then.

“So we need to find a clearing then?” said Richard, starting to make his way through the long grass.

“And collect some firewood as we go. And we also need to find some nice, big trees to put our hammocks up in,” said the Doctor, hefting his bag onto his shoulders.

Holly watched Richard head off through the trees and turned to the Doctor. “Do you reckon he’ll be okay? He seems a bit down.”

“He’s struggling with the situation with his wife,” said the Doctor. “He’ll be fine. This is exactly what he needs to clear his head.” The Doctor turned to Holly and put his hands on her shoulders, looking down at her. “Are you alright?”

She nodded. “As well as I can be considering the circumstances.” She smiled at him and then took his hand.

The Doctor looked down at her curiously. Nobody had held his hand in a long time. It made him uncomfortable, but rather than pull away, he allowed Holly to continue to hold onto him. She was clearly feeling quite lonely.

“I was thinking of going back home,” she said.

“Really?” said the Doctor. “Are you sure?”

“I only said I was thinking,” she said, smiling at him.

“Well, it’s easy enough to understand your reasons. You came along for Lilly. Now she’s gone...”

“She’s coming back though,” said Holly. She was still trying to convince herself of that.

The Doctor nodded, although he didn’t think it was set in stone. She had found something in Jacarthia. He wasn’t sure exactly what it was, but so far he couldn’t compete with it. He hoped that Lilly’s feelings for Holly would bring her back eventually.

“Hey, you two,” came Richard’s voice from up ahead.

“You called?” said the Doctor.

Richard was stood on a slight rise in the ground, looking towards something. In the distance, about a mile away there looked to be a wisp of smoke rising gently into the sky.

“Has someone set the forest on fire?” asked Holly.

“Looks more like a camp fire,” said the Doctor.

“Should we go and speak to them?” asked Richard.

The Doctor considered it for a moment and then shook his head. “No. We’re meant to be getting out here to rest. This place is as good as any to set up camp. Maybe we’ll come across other people later on, but as far as I’m concerned this is about us.”

“I bags that big tree,” said Holly, grabbing her hammock pack from the Doctor.

“Is she alright?” asked Richard, watching Holly as she headed towards a large, fat tree trunk.

“She will be,” said the Doctor. He watched as Richard headed off towards a nearby tree with his hammock and then crouched down. He put his hand to the ground and felt around in the damp, earth. He closed his eyes, nodded to himself and then stood up. To himself he said, “Yes, this place will do quite nicely.”



It hadn’t taken long for the group to put up their hammocks. Andy had put his up close to the central camp whereas Graham had opted to be further away. Tom had shown them all how to tie the ropes to the trees and Andy was now sat in his hammock, his legs dangling over the edge, swinging gently and testing his weight in the hammock.

“Alright, isn’t it?” said Graham. “I told you it wouldn’t spin around.”

“It seems quite comfortable,” said Andy. “I don’t know whether I’ll get to sleep in it though.” He grabbed his phone from his pocket and frowned. “Looks like Nicole tried to call on the way in. I didn’t hear it.”

“No signal now, mate,” said Graham, picking at some bark on the tree. “Did she leave a message?”

“No. I told her to text me if it was an emergency.”

“Probably just calling to say how much she loves you.” Graham smiled across at Andy.

“Yeah, yeah, cut it out.”

“You boys alright?” said Mark, his boots already thick with mud from the wood-collecting they had done.

“Yeah, you?”

“Got my hammock set up by Flick’s tent.”

Andy and Graham looked across, through the trees and saw Flick’s blue-coloured tent set up not too far away. “How come she’s not in a hammock?”

Mark shrugged. “She said she didn’t get on with them. She’s got a bad back or something and a tent would be better for her.”

“I wish I’d have come up with that one!” said Andy.

Across in Flick’s tent she was sat with her map out. She kept staring at the red cross and then rubbed her eyes, looking up at the top of the tent. “Oh, god, what am I doing?”

“Flick?” came Mark’s Scottish tones from outside the tent.

She quickly closed the map and stuffed it in her sleeping bag as he unzipped the flaps and poked his head inside. “Fully clothed, are you?”

Flick blushed. “Just resting my feet for five minutes,” she smiled. “Are you all set up?”

“Yeah, not too far from you. That way if you get scared in the night I’ll be there to fight off the beasties.”

Flick frowned and nodded. “Yeah,” she said slowly.

“It’s a joke, Flick,” said Mark.

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” she said, feeling embarrassed.

“There’s nothing but birds and animals out here.”

“Yep,” said Flick, nodding slowly and making sure her map was safely tucked away even further. “Nothing but birds and animals.”

Outside, in the shelter, Tom was getting ready to show the rest of the group the best ways to start a fire. Flick and Mark exited her tent and Mark strode over to the shelter. Flick held back a little and looked around her. Nothing about the place was familiar, but the feeling of being here was familiar. She remembered the fear she felt when she had become lost with Lucy and the complete and utter oppression that seemed to be projected from all around her.

“You coming?” said Mark; he was turned to look back at her.

“Yeah, just taking in nature,” said Flick, flashing him a smile. She brushed the strands of her hair out of her eyes and walked over to the shelter.

After a good twenty minutes of being shown everything from rubbing sticks together to char cloth and then to throwing white spirits on a pile of sticks, Mark decided to go and visit the bathroom. It wasn’t exactly a bathroom, just a composting toilet hidden behind a green tarp a good 500 metres away from the main camp.

He made his way through the trees, crossed a dry ditch and finally arrived at the composting toilet. The tarp was pulled across the entrance. Tom had told them to only pull the tarp across when someone was inside it so the next person new to wait.

Mark put his hands in his pockets, started whistling idly to himself and looked across to the wooden frame of the toilet again. He could her movement from behind it.

“Come on, pal,” said Mark. “Some of us have been waiting all day to use one of these,” he laughed.

There was no response, just some more shuffling from behind the tarp.

And it was then that Mark realised that something wasn’t quite right. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but it felt like he was missing something. He felt his blood run cold when he realised that nobody else had actually left the camp to go to the toilet.

“Who’s in there?” he said, feeling stupid as soon as he said it. No response. He hadn’t expected it. “Come on. Who’s in there? It’s meant to be private woodlands.”

Still no response. Mark edged forward a little. This was stupid. It was probably an animal or something. Perhaps a fox had wandered in there. Or a badger or something. There was a loud thump from the wooden panels inside and Mark jumped back.

“Who the bloody hell is it?!” he shouted.

The tarp shook.

Mark stole his nerve, stepped up onto the wooden steps, reached out a hand and -

“Alright, Mark,” came Graham’s voice from behind him.

Mark jumped, span around, fell down the steps and landed hard on the ground. Graham was over him in an instance.

“Who were you talking to?” said Graham, helping him up. “We were about to send out a search party for you, mate.”

“There’s something in there,” said Mark, pointing back towards the toilet.

“What?” said Graham, walking up the steps and pulling the tarp back to reveal...nothing.

“There was something in there shuffling around. I thought it was one of our lot.”

“You’re the only one out here,” said Graham.

Mark was shaking. He felt stupid though. There was clearly nothing there. “I know that. I figured that out.”

“Come on, mate, let’s get you back to the shelter. I brought a flask of brandy with me. I think you could do with some.”



Mark nodded as Graham helped him back to his feet. But as he was guided away from the toilet he found it difficult to not look back. There wasn’t anything there now, but something wasn’t right. Something felt wrong.

To be continued...