Chapter One: The Convergence
Paul Burton was not a stupid person. He was a brilliant man, sly yet charming; he seemed to have all he needed. He had inspirational ideas that he believed could change the future of humanity and an IQ score far higher than the calculated average for a man of his age, a testimony to his great intelligence.
He did not believe in myths and legends nor did he believe the occasional wild stories presented by the media on national television, radio or in the newspapers, stories about time travel and prehistoric beasts in the 21st century. A mammoth rampaging on the M25 motorway, a bloodthirsty sabre-tooth cat in the Forest of Dean; none of these tales made sense to him.
Yet the day of the anomalies was a day that had happened. He had heard the events unfolding on the radio and seen them with his own eyes. It was a day when "anomalies" -time portals leading to the past or to the future opened on all continents and terrifying creatures rampaged through modern times. Thousands of people all over Earth had died on that day, including his father Phillip Burton and now he and everyone else knew exactly who to blame. An organisation called the ARC.
A few weeks ago strange balls of glowing light mysteriously appeared in populated areas, opening not just in Britain but in every continent on Earth- North and South America, Asia, Africa, Australia even Antarctica. There were reports of these strange lights opening all across the world mainly in densely populated areas. These lights resembled shattered shards of glass floating together in a whirling ball. They appeared not just on the ground but there were even reports of these lights appearing in the skies.
Religious fanatics claimed that the end of Earth was nigh, that the so called apocalypse had arrived, that these lights were angels falling to Earth. These were a sign, they said, God's warning that he was about to destroy humanity. Others claimed that they were spacecraft's from other planets carrying hostile extra-terrestrial life forms and that Earth was about to be invaded by aliens intent of destroying all humans and conquering Earth as well.
Worldwide panic broke out. The government advised people to stay away from the strange lights and to leave areas where the lights had appeared. Police forces were advised to stay away as well.
Then before long, there were reports of monsters appearing. Initially thought to be a hoax by fanatics wanting to cause further panic, a fresh wave of fear broke out when terrifying and dangerous creatures began to emerge from the lights. Some people thought they could be aliens while religious fanatics claimed they were demons being unleashed by God upon humanity.
However, the truth soon surfaced. These strange beasts were neither aliens nor demons. They were prehistoric animals from long distant eras in the Earth's history. Some were dinosaurs others were less known prehistoric creatures. Initially sceptic of this claim people were soon convinced when familiar creatures such as T. rex and Velociraptors emerged. Before long hundreds of long-extinct creatures were walking the Earth again causing death and destruction.
Raptors in Texas, a Columbian Mammoth in India, giant spiders in Germany, dire wolves in Peru, a T. rex in London, it seemed like the end. Luckily most people living in populated areas had already taken shelter inside homes, shelters, shops or businesses. The streets were practically deserted and open public areas such as parks were silent and empty.
The few people unlucky enough to be exposed when the creatures began to roam were soon killed by the predators although a few hundred did make it to safety in time. With all the exposed people already dead the beasts began feasting on livestock that were out in the open in fields or open enclosures. Luckily most house pets and zoo animals were kept inside and safe from the predators outside, yet once the cattle and horses ran out the prehistoric carnivores soon turned their attention to people.
But then someone made a crucial breakthrough; the cause of these time portals being referred to as anomalies. People were looking for a scapegoat someone to look to, someone to blame, and someone to take their anger on. And the ARC fitted the bill perfectly. The ARC or Anomaly Research Centre was an organisation that had known about the portals for a long time yet kept their discovery secret from the rest of the world.
Their headquarters was based in London from there studied, researched and examined the anomalies. Whenever an anomaly appeared they would go out and somehow make it disappear as well as dealing with any animal that had wandered through. There were even rumours they kept an army of prehistoric creatures that they had captured from anomaly sites locked up in their headquarters to study, dissect and experiment on this shocked and angered animals rights activists.
Most people, scientists in particular scoffed at the idea of rips in time and time travel. Yet most people bought the story and hundreds of angry citizens marched to the ARC in a huge mob carrying any weapons they found. They were even joined by mounted police on horseback carrying stun grenades and riot shields as well as rouge soldiers from the army with machine guns, grenades and AK47s.
Yet the ARC was guarded by hundreds of soldiers from the National Guard. An army of 6000 men with orders to shoot to kill. Some people wisely retreated yet still many people marched on and the first line of soldiers opened fire. It was a massacre. Almost no-one survived. After the first wave, the survivors scattered yet the army remained to protect the ARC.
Paul Burton watched all thus unfold from within his house. Soon the ground shook he ran to his window as a huge dinosaur with an incredibly long neck weighing nearly 50 tonnes walked past his house. And there wasn't just one. He watched in shock as the reptilian behemoths trudged down his road.
The government urged people to stay indoors, to barricade all entrances and exits and top stockpile water, food and other supplies. People were advised to not let anyone they did not know into their homes and to keep children and pets indoors. As prehistoric creatures roamed through the city, prehistoric birds and pterodactyls soared through the skies.
Yet then almost inexplicably something amazing happened. One by one the shimmering lights began to flicker and vanish. Just as mysteriously as they first appeared, the lights vanished without a trace. Not just in Britain but it turned out that all across the world these anomalies all began to vanish. Some people even hoped what the animals would vanish as well but alas no, the animals remained.
The plant eaters were devouring plant life and greenery all across the city, stripping the city of all its plants the big herbivores like mammoths or large dinosaurs were the worst, while predators attempted to break into houses and buildings in search of food. Many predators like sabre-toothed cats, wolves and some dinosaurs were hunting in packs and succeeding into forcing their way into houses, flats and buildings. Many more people died.
Yet with the portals gone and no chance of more animals arriving, soldiers from the army were sent out to kill the creatures. Hundreds of men with machine guns and AK47s headed out in trucks and killed any beasts they came across or patrolled the sky in airships shooting down any flying threats. It was not without risk, many soldiers were killed or wounded and many airships were taken down by angry pterodactyls, their crew plunging to the ground with them.
Then in Britain there was a change of hands. Fresh people arrived to deal with the creatures, they looked like ordinary soldiers with weapons yet they wore protective clothing, including helmets, reinforced clothing and bulletproof vests. They travelled in huge armoured vehicles and some even rode tanks!
They had strange weapons not normal guns but weapons called Electro Muscular Disruptors that were actually designed to temporarily stun the animals rather than killing them outright. The force of the blow depended on the size of the Electro Muscular Disruptor used as did how long the animal was unconscious for.
Sadly with most of the anomalies closed and gone the soldiers began loading the unconscious creatures into special trucks and transporting them away. Hundreds of people watched on their televisions as the strange soldiers quickly dealt with the creatures and shipped them away. It was still dangerous though and a number of soldiers died but not nearly as many as before when the army had been dealing with the beasts. They ignored all questions and after finishing their job moved on to the next creature.
Some people followed the animal transport vehicles in their cars to see where the animals were being taken. They were being taken to the ARC. The blockade of soldiers allowed the trucks through but no-one else. Anyone else who tried to enter was either asked to leave or detained by the soldiers. Anyone who struggled was knocked unconscious some people even had to be killed.
Eventually hours passed yet the government never came up with an explanation to the terrifying and confusing events of the day. They took no interviews and gave no explanation whatsoever to what had happened nor did governments in other countries. Poor countries like Africa and India had been hit the hardest it would take those countries years to rebuild.
But then there was an exciting new story on the news. A massive time portal had appeared at a disused nuclear power station, it was much bigger than the others and this one wasn't closing. Before long creatures came through it, a flock of small pterodactyls that hunted in a group and were driven wild by the scent of fresh blood. As he watched Paul suddenly felt his blood run cold, his stomach heaved with fear and he felt himself shake. That was the power station where his father worked!
They were roosting atop the power station buildings and attacked passing people they killed eleven people before at last a group of those same soldiers returned and took out the small reptiles with their Electro Muscular Disruptors. They were then one by one sent back through the time portal which presumably led through time to their own era. Then something yet horrifying occurred that chilled his blood and sent his heart into his stomach.
In a second, the main building exploded with a loud bang and a huge ball of fire that sent up a tall column of smoke and ignited fires in the surrounding area. Within a minute the damaged building caved in on itself and had collapsed into rubble and the nearby structures had been heavily damaged or set alight by flying debris. The main building was now just a heap of burning wreckage.
But the drama wasn't over yet the anomaly began to glow brighter than before, shrinking and expanding constantly. It continued this strange pattern for a few hours before suddenly it began to whirl at supersonic speeds and then vanished instantly in a blinding flash of white light. Yet with it, the rubble of the main building had simply vanished as well as had the surrounding buildings. All the fires had burnt out as well.
All Paul could was watch in horror. His father was dead.