Connor threw himself over Abby, shielding her from the bits of car shrapnel that were flying all over the place. He heard the dying squawk of the terror bird as the shrapnel sliced through its neck, and then the thump as its severed head fell to the ground.
Clutching the artifact in one hand, Connor looked into Abby's frightened face, and her into his. Then suddenly, Connor saw something else out of the corner of his eye, a flash of white. Looking up, he saw someone, someone he had been hoping to meet again, the one who had already caused the anomaly team a lot of trouble, the one who had caused Stephen to be ripped apart by the creatures in Leek's bunker, and the one who had killed Cutter, the man who had been like a father to Connor: Helen. She was dressed in a white shirt and trousers. She looked tired and frightened, she would soon have good reason to be now that Connor had seen her. With a snarl of fury he stood up and charged towards her. Abby sat up and looked at Connor, she saw Helen and gasped, remembering what had happened the last time they encountered her.
"Connor, no. Don't go! That woman is dangerous!"
* * * * * *
But Connor did not hear Abby. He charged onwards, everything else became a blur, distant. The only things that existed in the world were him and Helen. She turned and saw him. For a split second she looked scared, then that familiar and infuriating calm look appeared on her face.
'Are you coming to get me, Connor?" she said in a voice that was like honey, poisoned honey.
"Helen!" roared Connor. His enemy smiled and ran into the forest. That gave new strength to Connor. He ran like he had never run before, taking a running jump right over a fallen log. The log wasn't there, the wood wasn't there, there was only him and Helen.
"Come back, come back here, you bitch!" he roared, never taking his eyes off Helen. She in turn frequently turned around, apparently hoping that she had lost him.
'Fat chance' thought Connor.
Eventually Helen started to put some distance between herself and Connor, who despite his fury was getting tired. Soon he found himself half running half walking after Helen. He stumbled into a clearing where she was standing. Afdter quickly catching his breath he stood up straight and glared at her with fury in his eyes.
"You, you did it. You killed him, I know you did!" he snarled. Helen smiled a smug smile.
"So what are you going to do about it, Connor?" she said. "You're just a boy with about as much knowledge of anomalies as that ginger friend of yours, the one who was stupid enough to get himself bitten by the dodo."
"Don't you talk about him like that!" shouted Connor. "You have no right to talk about something like that, not when you were the one who killed Cutter, your own husband. I was there, Helen. I watched him die, I saw those bullets you pumped into his chest. You killed him, and now, I'm gonna-
"Kill me?" said Helen. "With what, Connor? You have no weapons, and even if you did you couldn't do it. Like I said, you're just a boy."
"Don't be too sure about that" hissed Connor. He held up the artifact. "I may not have weapons, but I reckon this should knock you cold for a couple of hours!"
Helen laughed a cold, cruel laugh that echoed throughout the wood. Then she held her hand up to her mouth and made some sort of throaty call. Having doen that, she reached into her pocket and pulled out something that looked like an electric shaver.
"You know Connor, you might be right. That artifact of yours may very well give me concussion for an hour or two. But answer me this...how can you hit me when I'm not even here?"
She pressed the button on her machine up. There was a whoosing sound and much to Connor's amazement, a new anomaly appeared behind her. Smirking, Helen turned and walked through it. As soon as she'd done that, the anomaly closed.
"No!" cried Connor, dashing towards the anomaly site.
"Connor" came a voice from behind him. Connor turned to see abby in her blue dress running towards him.
"Connor, we've got to get out of here. There's loads of terror birds out here."
Almost as if on cue, there came a loud squawk and two of the creatures came dashing out of the bushes in front of them, attracted by Helen's call.
Connor turned and ran with Abby back through the woods, the terror birds hot on their heels. But as he ran he he made a wish. He hoped that the sun would shine the day Helen Cutter died.