Title: Passage of Time
Author: Kezelle
Disclaimer: I don't own anything. This is purely for fun and I make no money etc.
Pairing: Nick Cutter/ Claudia Brown Mild Abby/ Steven
Set: After episode 5.
Rating T? (PG) Just to be safe.
Parking in London is Hazardous to your Health.
Prologue
The car park attendant was probably on drugs. Claudia Brown recognised the spaced out glaze in the youngster's eyes. Unfortunately for her, the teen had defiantly seen something. The half eaten corpse lying next to the Mercedes proved it.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw Ryan cock his head to the side as his ear piece sprang to life, pressing the device closer to his ear. She was being to think that the ear piece was permanently embedded in the man's ear. He listened for a moment before turning to her.
"CTV confirms the creature hasn't left the building. There are men at every entrance."
'Well at least that was something,' she mused; the creature was trapped in the basement car park, five levels of underground parking half full with cars, poorly lit and a dangerous carnivore on the loose.
Ryan handed over his palm pilot. "We have an image of the animal on the only security camera that actually works in this pit."
She glanced curiously at the picture then blinked twice in almost disbelief. Moving closer she took a closer look at the screen.
"Are those feathers?" She asked the Special Forces officer. "They can't be."
"It looks like it. Weird. It's a small one. About five foot head to tail, definitely a carnivore. It's barely detectable on the thermal tracker but we believe it to be on the lower third floor. No sign of the anomaly."
"Have you sent this to Cutter?"
"Smith's on it."
"Alright. You'd better go. See if you can locate the anomaly or the creature."
The sound of a car stopping behind her caused Claudia to turn and was disappointed to see Abbey instead of the professor. Abbey Maitland on seeing her jogged up to the mini command centre the soldiers where setting up.
"Hey, what have we got?" She asked eagerly.
Claudia secretly envied the younger woman's excitement. Between dealing with Lester, Cutter and the endless paperwork involved in the freaky circus the anomalies where generating, she had no energy or time to savour the pure magnificence of these prehistoric creatures.
"No idea. Cutters stuck in traffic."
"Are those feathers?" Claudia had to smile at her colleague's disbelief.
"No sign of the anomaly or the creature or Cutter." Claudia huffed and looked at her watch. "Where is he?"
Abbey was starring at the picture, frowning in concentration.
"Claudia. His feet look like those erm… what are they called? Jurassic Park…" The older woman shook her head in confusion. "You know,…the intelligent ones…"
Claudia's expression cleared, "Raptors."
"Yeah, Velioraptors!"
Claudia starred off into space in astonishment.
"I only said they looked like them. They might be cousins or summit."
Claudia picked up the radio to warn the soldiers to stick together, vague memories of the film running though her head. Films had to have some basis in fact, right.
Her mobile rang as soon as she'd finished on the radio.
"Claudia Brown."
"Claudia, Sorry the traffics murder. We will be there in ten. Have the troops gone in?"
"Yes, Cutter tell me this isn't a kind of Velioraptor."
There was a surprised silence she dreaded before he got back on the phone. "It's not a velioraptor but it is related to them. It's a Sinornithosaurus."
"A what! What kind of name is that!"
"Latin. It's a carnivore, thought to be intelligent. Tell the team."
"Already done."
"Claudia. How many are there?"
"Just the one."
"One? Are you sure? These are pack animals…"
There was silence at the other end of the phone. Cutter glanced sideways at Steven who was driving.
"Claudia? Are you there?" The unnerving long silence continued before her voice finally answered. Deathly calm, shaking and hushed she spoke into the phone.
"Nick, I'm going to have to call you back." She hung up.
"Steven, step on it."
She couldn't move, couldn't speak if her life depended on it. Abbey was frozen in place beside her, her eyes wide with disbelief. The three Special Forces officers with them also stood motionless, instinct holding them in place.
In front of her, only six short feet away, sharp eyes watched. Was she imagining the frightening gleam she'd seen in its eye?
The creature had wandered slowing into the room as she talked with Nick and fixed its eyes on the occupants of the ground floor. The effect was staggering.
She could feel her hands trembling at her sides and prayed they wouldn't drop the mobile she gripped in sweaty fingers.
Everything screamed at her to run. Fight or flight had kicked in and, God, she wanted to run.
There was another sort of growl from her left which had her close her eyes in terrorized disbelief. Claudia opened her eyes and they slid to the side slowly where a second Raptor came around the wall from the lower level. What had happened to the team sent down to the upper floors? She didn't want to know.
The prolonged silence was a stalemate. She held her breath, hoping to put of the result of this standoff.
"Home-base, we have the target insight!" The radio on the make shift table sprang to life and the raptors sprang to life. The officers opened fire on the advancing monsters unaware of the third monster approaching from behind.
Abbey and Claudia hit the deck and crawled to the walls, searching for safety behind the parked cars, the raptors distracted by the bullets scorching the air.
Ryan was shouted over the radio, adding to the screams of one of the soldiers as a Raptor leapt onto his front and went for his throat. His screams cut of with a sickening gag. The second officer was already down and the third injured but still firing.
Claudia grabbed the downed soldier's weapon that had slid across the floor and aimed at the hissing menace. Abbey managed to reach the downed soldier using a metal chair to fend off the creature aiming for him, dragged the man towards one of the parked vehicles. The weapon was alien to her hands but effective, she counted one dead, the other two injured. She could hear footsteps racing towards them. Ryan's men?
Then the soldier's weapon jammed, leaving Claudia's automatic weapon their only line of defence. Taking advantage of this, one of the raptors leapt at her. He was dead before he reached her, but his sacrifice was not in vain. The automatic was knocked out of her hands and she was thrown to the floor. One of the raptors sharp, curved nails embedded in her side, forcing a painful cry to wrench from her throat. Another fresh raptor appeared and he joined the remaining creature, stalking the three humans. Claudia looked around desperately for something, anything she could find to use as a weapon. There was nothing. She started to pull herself to her feet when the raptor focused on her began to leap… and was hit in midair by a flying piece of wood.
Not flying, thrown, by Steven as he had Cutter ran towards them from the other side of the enclosed car park.
"Claudia. Run!!" Cutter yelled before grabbing another box and throwing it at the raptor, now turning toward him. She run for the safety of the cars, barely aware of the sudden charge to the air and then let out a shocked gasp as an anomaly shattered the air in front of her, causing her to skid to a stop, falling hard to the floor not a foot away from the threshold. Her head hit the ground with an audible smack, concussing her immediately as an explosion of pain ripped through her skull. The last raptor, the other surrendering to his injuries, also noticed the anomaly and recognized it, lurching toward the bright portal.
Abbey, who had crawled to Claudia's aid, screamed as the creature came upon them. Steven grabbed his knife, almost in striking distance, but slipped on the bloody floor, falling to his knees and sending the knife spinning out of his hand.
The raptor swept past the woman carrying on into the anomaly, knocking them into the anomaly just as it started to collapse.
Nick and Steven watched in horror as the anomaly disappeared taking Abbey, Claudia and the Raptor with it.
TBC
Thanks for taking the time to read tthis. Feedback would be happily recieved. Should i write more??