Survival

The group moved slowly and silently through the endless maze of hallways and tunnels that wound through the bunker, which lay directly below the warehouse, where currently soldiers and creatures were running wild.

Jenny led the way, poised and confident. She stood tall and moved at a brisk pace with a determined look in her eyes; it was as if in Cutter's absence, she had become the team leader and sure enough the others followed, trusting her to lead them to safety. She of course was aware of this and led the team on purposefully. She would not die in this place and nor would the others, she would get them out of here.

Connor followed close behind. Truthfully, he was nervous and scared, terrified in fact. But he was well aware of the two young women behind him and that they were relying on him to help them, so he swallowed his fear, eased his breath and walked along quickly, following Jenny's lead. Abby and Caroline, especially Caroline were relying on him to help them through this. As the only male currently present, he had to step up and guide the team even though Jenny was already doing a fantastic job as term leader.

Abby followed close behind Connor. Despite being alert and constantly on her guard for any sign of trouble, with her ears open, she couldn't help but glare at Caroline who slunk along after Connor, following close behind and looking scared. It was her fault they were here, it was her fault Rex was missing, her fault they had no idea where Cutter was, or Stephen. Abby had to admit, she was being a tiny bit unfair but she couldn't help it. Once they, and Rex, were home and safe, Connor was going to get an earful for all the trouble he'd caused.

Currently they were lost in a large bunker below a derelict warehouse, which for the past few weeks had been used by Leek as his base of operations. There were dozens of armed SAS soldiers and ferocious dinosaurs roaming loose in the building, as well as other prehistoric creatures. It turned out that the Oliver Leek was in league with Helen.

Both worked together to achieve separate objectives, Leek's was to use his knowledge of the anomalies to become a very powerful man amongst society in the future. It turned out that Leek's idea of a future was very grim, especially for mankind. Helen's aims were far greater, to be able to control and manipulate time itself, and change the course of history through the anomalies, rips in time and space leading to distant time periods.

It she achieved her goals, the destruction could be on an unprecedented scale, thousands of anomalies would open, creatures would run rampant, the universe would go mad and could even be destroyed as past, present and future collided and in the worst case scenario, the very fabric of time itself could be torn apart, then all of time would be rubbed out and everyone and everything would die.

Despite having very different aims in time, working together had worked out well for both of therm. Helen was given a base of operations in which to conduct her research on anomalies and to carry out her various experiments in a safe and controlled environment, in order to learn how to predict, control and manipulate the anomalies with a ready supply of people and captive creatures to use. Leek gained a cunning and powerful ally with prior knowledge of the anomalies, as well as valuable information on the creatures and how to control them.

Together they had acquired dozens of creatures from different eras. For weeks now Leek had sent his SAS mercenaries to various anomaly sights to capture creatures for him. They had collected a number of prehistoric creatures, including: four Utahraptors, one Smilodon, one Arthopluera, two Scutosaurs, two Silurian Scorpions, one Arthopluera, one Gorgonopsid and one Coelurosauravus, namely Rex, whom Abby was very happy to see.

The creatures were transported to the deserted warehouse and kept in cramped cages in the central chamber. The pens were equipped with laser defences to prevent the animals from escaping. The warehouse was guarded by SAS soldiers hired by Leek.

This had gone on for weeks without any of the team knowing then finally while searching for Caroline and Rex; the team stumbled upon the warehouse. Upon entering, they soon encountered Leek and a group of his SAS mercenaries.

His soldiers knocked Cutter unconscious and took them prisoner. Confused and shocked, they were led to a darkened room, illuminated by ominous red light where they found Cutter lying on the floor still unconscious. Any questions they asked were ignored and Leek slipped away into the darkness without any of them noticing, they were forced at gunpoint to sit on the floor while being watched by Leek's soldiers.

After Nick regained consciousness, the floodlights were turned on; revealing a shocking and terrifying sight that affected each member of the team in a different way. The entire room was filled with various dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures in cages equipped with laser-defences and guarded by armed SAS soldiers.

Leek stood atop a raised platform; gazing down with pride upon his menagerie. Helen soon strode up beside him and then the team realized the full truth, Leek, a member of the ARC, the only defence against Helen's destructive plans, was in fact in league with her.

Before this information could even sink in, they were separated and placed in different cells. Connor, Abby and Caroline were in one cell, Cutter and Jenny in another. Leek then entered their cell and dealt another shocking blow, one that hit Connor hardest.

Caroline was in fact his spy, he paid her to pick him up at the video store and to go out with him, it was all planned, Caroline never even liked him. Abby had always hated and disliked Caroline, even from day one she'd known there was something fake about her but this, this was just too much. Manipulating poor Connor, tricking them both, and then kidnapping Rex. Abby then felt her temper boil over and she gave the girl a venomous glare as she huddled near the back of the cell.

Leek then went on to taunt and tease Connor, calling him a geek, a nerd, a loser he said no girl would ever love him. Abby saw red, and was about to launched herself at the gloating government official, luckily a stern look from Jenny stopped her, Attacking Leek would only get them in more trouble, so for the moment, she held back.

Instead she turned her attention to Caroline and demanded to know where Rex was, if she had harmed him, Abby swore she'd kill her. Caroline refused to say and even sneered that no-one cared where the lizard was. Abby finally lost it and launched herself at Caroline, but she'd forgotten that Caroline knew how to defend her and her promptly fought back, the two quickly engaged in a brutal fist fight over Rex.

Connor tried to break it up, but was hit in the face purely be accident and ironically by Abby. Leek refused to intervene; Connor finally split them up, Caroline thanked him, making Abby shudder, but Connor said he didn't do it for her. Leek then left, smirking to himself, while two soldiers guarded them.

Soon afterwards Jenny was brought to their cell by Leek and two soldiers, there was no sign of Nick but Leek said he was safe, although no-one actually believed him. Before they could even talk, he led them through a secret sliding door that led to the cage room and showed them the captive creatures again; the team then watched as the animals were fed.

Chunks of raw meat were dropped down metal chutes into the pens; and two soldiers dumped a pile of hay just outside the cage that held the two Scutosaurs. Abby walked around the room, looking at some of the animals. She heard a savage roar and saw two raptors inside one of the cages fighting over a lump of meat and a caged Smilodon pacing around in circles. Seeing her, it growled and tore into its meat savagely. It pained her to see these amazing animals locked up and forced to fight over food.

She promised both them and herself once she and the others got back to the ARC, she would personally organise a rescue unit to save them. She then heard a wonderfully-familiar chirp and saw Rex in one of the cages, she was ecstatic to see that her was ok and ran over to his cage, she reached out to him but was unable to touch him because of the laser defences on the cage.

She spotted Connor nearby looking into one of the cages at a Silurian Scorpion. The giant scorpion snapped its huge pincers together and emitted a loud hiss. Startled, the student backed away. Leek merely smirked at his reaction. To her surprise, Caroline was simply stood in the centre of the room, looking at the creatures around her. Her expression was shocked; it was as if she'd never seen animals like these before. Wait, didn't she know about the ARC?

Before she could think any further, Leek left, claiming he had business to attend to and they were sent back to their cell. Back inside, Caroline nearly broke down. She was frightened and overwhelmed by what she had gotten herself in to, Abby realized from her reaction in the cage room that despite following Leek's orders, despite deceiving Connor , and kidnapping Rex she hadn't actually known what was going on.

She hadn't seen the bigger picture, she didn't know about the ARC, or the anomalies, or the creatures. She was just an ordinary person dragged into this mess. Well, she still didn't deserve any sympathy.

Connor on the other hand, was more sympathetic despite how badly Caroline had hurt him. He was hurt, badly hurt deep down. He had been scarred emotionally by Caroline's betrayal. Her betrayal had hurt him, hit him hard. He should have listened to Abby; he knew that now she'd been right all along.

Instead he was blinded by Caroline's bright clothing and red lipstick and couldn't see beyond that, well now he could and surprisingly he found himself blaming himself, not Caroline but himself because he should have listened,. Now they were all in trouble, so yes Caroline's betrayal had hit him hard, but he was still willing to forgive.

Jenny on the other hand, was not in a sympathetic mood at all. Her feet ached from all this walking. She was damn nervous about what that idiot Leek was planning next, she had no way to contact the ARC, her mobile was dead and Abby's and Connor's phones had no signal. Just great. To make matters worse she had no way where Nick Cutter was and that worried her. A lot. Because even though she was worried for herself and Abby and Connor, and even concerned for Caroline and even for Abby's lizard, it was Nick she worried most about because she had feelings for him.

Damn that man! Damn him with his wavy, blond hair, his warm smile, no! She had to be thinking of an escape plan now, not about Cutter! Jenny harshly told her to stop snivelling but Connor was more sympathetic.

Soon afterwards, Leek returned and his guards forced them to their feet; they were led at gunpoint into a sealed room lit by spotlights on the floor, then a sliding door on the other side of the room opened and to everyone's horror, a growling Smilodon entered. Abby was sure it was the same one that she'd seen locked up in the cage room.

Having dealt with similar creatures before; the group huddled together in a tight circle to prevent the animal from picking them off one by one. They never took their eyes off the giant cat, making sure they always kept it in their line of vision.

An unseen sabre-tooth was the most dangerous. As the predator paced and growled, a terrified Caroline nearly broke down in tears and attempted to run in hopes of reaching the door in time. But it was locked and the sabre-tooth was faster. Realizing this Abby risked her own life and quickly followed her. She explained that if they scattered, the Smilodon would pick them off, then keeping her eyes on the predator, led the girl back to the safety of the others.

Reunited, the group waited and so did the sabre-tooth. Looking into its eyes Abby realized it was the same animal that killed the girl at the amusement park. Jenny voiced that the creature was meant to be dead; the team then realized Leek had been lying. The Smilodon hadn't died after all; it had been brought to this place and locked up with the other creatures.

Then to everyone's shock and absolute horror, Abby did the unthinkable. Disobeying her own orders to stick together, she purposely walked away from the others and straight towards the Smilodon. Connor nearly followed her but Jenny held him back. All the way Abby stood tall and stared directly into the sabre-tooth's eyes, never looking away. She was challenging it. As predicted, the sabre-tooth ran forwards and pounced.

As Connor's desperate cry of horror mixed with the Smilodon's snarl, Abby ducked and it leaped straight over her head. The creature attacked a tangle of exposed wires on the wall which short-circuited and sent a mild electric current through its body, shocking the Smilodon. At the same time all the doors automatically opened.

The team immediately ran through one door, as the frightened sabre-tooth ran off through another. Almost straight afterwards, the facility's power supply mysteriously shut down. The lights blinked out and the radiators shut off. The air conditioning systems stopped. In the cage room, the laser defences turned off; the creatures escaped, then ran from the chamber in various directions and rampaged through the base.

As the animals broke out, the team heard a chorus of roars, hisses, grunts and shrieks that quickly alerted them to the fact that the animals had been released. Now struck in complete darkness, their path lit only by a few emergency lights, the team ran on.