"Once you had put the pieces back together, even though you may look intact, you were never quite the same as you'd been before the fall."
-Jodi Picoult.
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Jess wandered into the ARC's main control room, her arms swinging by her side. Her bright pink heels clicked against the floor, something that Lester always reminded her of. Do they need to be that high? Can you get quieter shoes? No one else makes that much noise when they walk! She smiled brightly remembering the many comments he made at her when he was expressing his annoyance at her shoes. She knew he was a soft man underneath; that's what made it so much more fun when he was irritated.
"Hi Kate," Jess greeted; grinning at the soldier. Kate smiled back, her shiny black hair falling over her shoulders. She was dressed in her work attire; black top, black combat trousers, black boots; Becker found black a more professional colour for the security team; something that Jess constantly nagged him about.
"Morning," She replied, shifting the papers on the desk into a file. "I better get this to the Captain; he hates it when I'm late,"
"I'll see you later," Just as she managed to get the words out of her mouth, the ADD came to life. The sirens sounded across the building, alerting everyone to the new anomaly. "Looks like Becker will have to wait," She added.
"Jess, where's the anomaly?" Connor asked as he jogged into the room.
"Hang on," Jess murmured. She headed over to the computers and pulled up the information from the new anomaly. "It's at a restaurant, the one that closed down a couple weeks ago," She informed.
"Leslie's Lounge? Damn I loved that place," Sam's slightly husky voice came into focus. She pulled her brunette hair into a ponytail and grabbed the ear piece from the table.
"It's from the Palaeogene, haven't had one of those in a couple years," Jess added.
"Ok, everyone gear up, Emily, Kate with me. Becker you take the other car with Sam and Connor. I'll call back-up, they'll be behind; everyone got it?" Matt questioned, raising his eyebrow, "Then let's go,"
"I call shotgun!" Connor added, raising his hand and looking at Sam, "You got to be in the front last time,"
"Seriously? Come on, Temple, I'm not giving up my seat," Sam replied, waving her hand as she spoke.
"Becker, tell her," Connor moaned. Even at thirty years old he could act like such a kid, it was a good thing it made him loveable.
"You two can work that out for yourself, but if I was you, I wouldn't go up against Sam, Connor," Becker commented. He picked up his weapon and headed towards the exit, following Matt. The rest of the team followed as they made their way down to the car park.
The drive took about fifteen minutes, but soon enough they had arrived, skidding the cars to a stop. The team powered up the EMD's as they marched into the building. Becker kicked down the locked door, dust flying up as the wood hit the ground.
"I still don't know why I couldn't sit in the front; do you even know what shotgun means?" Connor questioned, looking pointedly at Sam.
"Yeah, I just choose to ignore it,"
"The anomaly should be straight ahead, it's in the main dining room," Jess stated through the ear pieces, interrupting Connor and Sam's conversation.
"It's over here," Kate called. She stood in front of the glowing energy, the light illuminating her features. She had worked here for a little over a year; and yet she still wasn't used to the anomalies, or the things that came out of them. Her mentor in the army had given her recommendation for this job after she had told him she was thinking of taking a different career route, she was a Lieutenant, Lieutenant Mackenzie. She could never repay him for giving her a job that allowed her to work close to home without her giving up the military and an action based life.
"Connor, do you have the ALD?" Becker asked the man, as he approached the anomaly.
"Yeah," Connor replied, pulling the Anomaly Locking Device from the holder on his back. It was shaped very much like a gun, apart from the small keypad on the side and the strange metal end, the same type of end that the original Anomaly Locking Mechanism previously had. Connor had managed to update it, to make it easier to move around.
He began to type in the code, before being distracted by the team lifting their weapons up into the air. The sound of wood hitting the floor echoed through the room, everyone suddenly became alert, wandering through the room slowly, checking for an incursion.
"Looks like we're not alone," Matt stated, whilst shining his torch around the abandoned building.
The crash of pans falling sounded from the kitchen before the area fell back into silence. The silence lasted. Matt pointed his finger at the double doors that led into the kitchen, indicating the team to follow him through them. Becker held his hand against one of the doors, sharing a glance with Matt before pushing it open and aiming the EMD's into the room. The torch lights soon flooded the area, lighting up the darkened room. All of the windows in the building had been bordered up, leaving the area in complete darkness. They couldn't see a creature, that didn't mean there wasn't one, something had moved in here. Kate and Connor remained by the anomaly, ensuring that nothing else came through, although it remained unlocked while they searched for an incursion, it would make things easier for getting the creature back through. The door ahead of them swung shut, the wood hitting against the doorframe with a sudden bang. Matt rushed forward, following through the door into the storage room. Something shot up out of the corner of Matt's eye, startling the team as they entered the room. Weapons flew up in the air, the torch beams illuminating the perpetrator. The team leader lowered his weapon as he looked upon the alarmed face of a boy, around the age of thirteen. Becker raised his eyebrows at him, and rested his EMD against his shoulder.
"P-please don't hurt me," The boy stuttered, raising his hands in the air as the team averted the weapons away from his face. "I didn't think anyone would come in here, I swear I didn't mean any harm,"
"Where did you come from?" Matt questioned, looking the boy up and down, he seemed like just an average teenager.
"Please don't arrest me, if my mom found out she'd kill me,"
"I've got this, check the rest of the area," Matt murmured to Becker. The soldier nodded at his team leader and manoeuvred the rest of the members out from the storage room to check for any creature incursions. "Where does your mother think you are?" Matt asked, hooking the strap of his weapon over his shoulder.
"I snuck out; she might know, not sure, sir,"
"Are you trying to run away?"
The boy nodded his head in response, "Are you going to take me back?"
"That depends, why exactly did you run away?"
"You'll think it's stupid,"
"If you don't think it's stupid, then I won't,"
"Well... my mom's remarrying, and the new guy's moving in today,"
"You miss your father?"
"Yeah, he moved up to Scotland, I don't see him anymore,"
"Look, I know what it's like to miss your father, but running away isn't the answer. We are going to have to take you back home,"
"I understand, sir,"
"Come on," Matt told the boy, leading him out of the kitchen and through the building, being careful to avoid the anomaly, preventing further questions. He motioned Sam to follow as he passed the team members heading back through into the dining room. She joined him outside, the daylight stunning them for a second as their eyes adjusted to the bright light once more.
"I need you to take him back home, he'll tell you the address. We'll meet you back at the ARC," Matt stated, nodding his head quickly at Sam before running back into the restaurant and straight towards the anomaly.
"Clear," Becker announced as he moved back over to the anomaly, "Doesn't seem to be any incursions,"
"Good, Connor?"
"Right," Connor responded, picking the ALD back up from the ground and setting it to the setting that will lock the anomaly. Before he had a chance to lock it, a head of blonde hair shot past him out from the anomaly. Becker motioned the back-up team to follow him as they ran after the woman. Matt, Kate, Emily and the remaining two men from back-up held the EMD's up, aiming at the anomaly.
"Connor, do you want to lock it now?" Emily asked impatiently, glancing quickly at the man.
"Right, sorry," Connor responded, shaking his head.
Another shadow flooded the anomaly, another figure. Two more people ran through the light, stumbling to a stop as the weapons pointed up at them. Connor stared at the two individuals in front of him. He knew them, he knew who they were.
Kate moved over and took the device out of Connor's hands, locking the anomaly behind them while he was distracted. She stepped back again, watching the couple who had emerged from the ball of light. One was a man, with out-grown dark ginger hair; growing stubble covering his chin. His clothes looked damaged and dirty; clearly he had worn them for a while now. The other person was a woman; the first thing Kate noticed about her was the piercing blue eyes that stared at the team whose weapons were pointed at the two of them. She had long dark brown hair, undoubtedly out-grown from however long she had travelled through the anomalies, her clothes were also tattered, the front of her vest top baring three claw marks that tore through the fabric, luckily it looked like it had only hit the fabric; she couldn't see any wounds on the woman.
"Danny? Jayme?" Connor murmured, eyes widening at the sight before him. He couldn't believe his eyes; he'd never imagined seeing Danny Quinn or Jayme Cutter again, not after three years. They looked extremely tousled from their time through the anomalies. Had they spent the entire three years travelling through them? How did they end up together? Why were they here now?
Kate watched curiously as she realised that Connor knew who they were. What had he called them, Danny and Jayme? The names sounded familiar, someone on the team must have mentioned them before.
"Where is she?" Quinn demanded, moving forward. He looked around the building they were in, searching for other people. The back-up team raised their EMD's once more at the sudden movement.
"It's alright, they're friends," Matt stated, "Where's who?"
Jayme spun around in frustration; a sigh escaping her lips. "We've lost her, that's just great!" She exclaimed, throwing her arms up in the air.
"We'll find her," Danny told her, his voice calm.
"You don't know that, we needed to get to her before she got here!"
"What are you talking about?" Connor questioned; his eyes flickering between the two old team members.
Before either of them had a chance to respond, footsteps sounded ahead of them. Everyone looked around as the back-up team wandered through the room. The soldiers turned their attention to Connor as soon as they had reached the group.
"Whoever she was, she's disappeared. The Captain's on his way back now to report to Lester, he said you could handle the anomaly," One of the men stated, glancing at the now locked anomaly.
"That's just great," Jayme announced sarcastically, "What are we going to do now?" She turned to face Danny.
"Who are they?" One of the soldiers asked confusedly, pointing at the frustrated couple that had just emerged from the anomaly. Connor, Matt and Emily shared a three way glance before turning to face Danny and Jayme. This was going to be an interesting conversation.