Holding On
Chapter One: A Big Surprise
I sigh and fold my arms impatiently, tapping my foot against the floor in annoyance. I hate it when people are late and miss a deadline, especially if it's been arranged in advance. And you know why? It's because I don't like waiting around, not for anyone or anything, so when people are late and I have to wait for them I get very annoyed
My name is Richard Marten; I'm 20 years old with glasses. I'm tall and lean with messy black hair and light-brown eyes. I'm funny, kind and usually pleasant to be around, but not when I'm annoyed, and most of all, I love animals. I have two dogs and a lizard and I love them all.
And today I begin my new job as a vet for some organisation called the ARC, don't ask what A.R.C. stands for, I have no idea. All I know is I've been hired as a vet to look after a private collection of exotic creatures. Other than that I have no clue as to what I'm meant to do, which irritates me.
Suddenly a green blur zips past my nose, whizzes off down the corridor and vanishes around the corner, chattering. I step back in surprise. What on earth was that? "Rex!" An exasperated voice calls from behind me. "Oh Rex, come back!" I turn as a short, heavily-pregnant blonde woman comes running up. She has long blonde hair and crystal blue eyes. Dressed in a T-shirt and denim jeans she looks amazing.
She gazes longingly in the direction the green blur had gone then turns to me "Who are you?" she demands. I merely stare at her for a moment. She raises an eyebrow "Well?" she asks. "Oh umm, I was told by some man called James Lester to come and look after some exotic animals?"
Then her eyes light up in recognition. "Oh! So you must be the new vet!" I nod "Ah ok, I get you now. Alright then follow me." She turns and walks away, I follow feeling slightly confused. "Where are we going?" " To the Menagerie." She replies. "Is that where the animals are kept?" I ask. "Yup" She says, I nod and we fell silent.
As we walk I try hard not to look at her backside, she may be good looking but the swollen abdomen indicates she's already taken. And I draw the line at taking someone else's girlfriend or wife.
We walk down a long corridor and soon come to a titanium door with a small window. She punches a series of numbers into a small keypad on the wall and the door clicks open. I raise my eyebrows "Wow, you guys sure take security seriously." "Yup." She says "What do you do here anyway?" I ask. "You'll see." She replies mysteriously then goes inside. Sighing, I roll my eyes and follow, why was this woman being so damn evasive? "I'm Abby by the way, Abby Maitland." I nod "I'm Richard Marten." I tell her and she nods.
We are in a large laboratory that looks like an office. There's was a table with a computer on it and a biologist's microscope fixed to the tabletop. Various papers and files are scattered across the papers, there are photos of strange creature sightings and a wastepaper bin in the corner overflowing with crumpled papers. Several books line a large metal shelf against the wall and a model of a Smilodon skeleton stands in the corner.
Then a chattering noise sounds and a green blur zips past and lands on the table. I stumble back in surprise and almost fall over; luckily I regain my balance and look at what had tried to knock me down. "Rex!" Abby says happily. I look at the creature on the table; it's some kind of lizard. I'm guessing it's the same thing that flew past me in the hallway earlier, well at least that's one mystery solved.
Case closed; I take a closer look at the reptile, Rex? What kind of name is that for a lizard? It's a small, green lizard with large wings. It had a long body supported by legs ending in three-toed feet and a long, reptilian tail with a flexible green crest atop its head. Large green wings protruded from its back and stick to its sides. Its skin is green and scaly and it has small black eyes, the lizard chirps and waves its tail from side to side playfully.
Abby smiles and the reptile climbs onto her shoulder, she looks relieved to see it "Rex, you gave me a fright, never do that again ok Rex?" The lizard chirps and she seems happy. All I could think was, what the hell was it?
I'd never seen anything like it before. I knew of flying lizards, such as the East Asian Draco Volans, but I'd never seen one this big before. What had they been feeding it? Noticing my look Abby smiles, "This is Rex by the way." I look at the creature and nod "Hello Rex."
The lizard chatters and tilts its head, looking curiously at me. I tear my eyes away from him and look at Abby "So where am I working?" She smiles "follow me." She says
She strides through another door into a large, brightly-lit room and I follow feeling slightly apprehensive for some reason, I didn't know why but for some reason I felt like my life is about to change enormously, I feel the hairs stand up on the back of my neck but shake it off. Must just be because I'm starting a new job. I'm quite practical and don't usually dwell on feelings like this but for some reason I couldn't shake this one off. I really felt like my life was about to change enormously.
There is a table in the middle and on the other side is a reinforced glass screen looking down into a large, dimly-lit holding pen. There seemed to be something moving inside it. I squint and press my face up against the glass but the pen is dark and it's impossible to see much, but there is something in there. Something big. But I wasn't worried; I had dealt with large animals before, a lion, a black rhinoceros, a hippopotamus and a bull African elephant so I had plenty of experience with large creatures.
Abby smiles at me and Rex lands on the table; it looks at me and chirps happily. I look at her "Right so what's the big secret?" I ask. I expect her to try to avoid the question or say "what secret?" or something like that, instead she just says it, to my surprise, but what she says was not what I expected. "We work with dinosaurs." She says. I stare at her for a moment, expecting her to burst out laughing but instead she merely raises her eyebrows, I roll my eyes "Riiight." I said, like I haven't heard that one before.
"No really it's true. " She insists. I sigh "Come on seriously." I say, she just looks at me then "I'm being serious." She says. Now I was getting irritated. "Seriously! What is going on here?" She sighs and gestures to me "Come here." She walks over to the holding pen, feeling puzzled I walk over to her. She looks down into the enclosure "What do you see?"
I look down into the darkened pen, but still can't see anything. I frown at her, annoyed. What kind of joke is this? Then she flicks on another light and suddenly I can clearly see what is being kept inside and I nearly jump back in fright.
It's massive whatever it is, I look more closely and begin to notice some details, it has a domed head and a humped body supported by four, thick legs. It has two small ears and two long, curving ivory tusks protrude from the sides of its mouth, and it has a long trunk.
Wait? A trunk, then it must be an elephant, but no, it can't be it's much too big to be an elephant, that thing is nearly 15 feet tall! But if it isn't an elephant, then what it could be? What other modern animal has a trunk like that? Looking at the creature again, I realize it bears striking resemblance to an animal I'd seen in a book once, a book on prehistoric creatures.
It looked like, no it couldn't be. It looked like a woolly Mammoth. But that's impossible, woolly mammoths have been extinct for over 10, 000 years, they died out at the end of the Pleistocene era during the last ice age, there are none left today. But that thing, that beast it's no elephant, I look over at Abby, watching me now with crossed arms and a smirk on her face, like she knows something I don't. Then it clicked.
"You were telling the truth." My voice comes out as a whisper. She nods slowly "Yup." She said I couldn't believe it. Real prehistoric creatures? Woolly mammoths? How? "Wow." was all I could say. Abby nods and sits down at the table. She looks more sympathetic, "Sit and I'll explain." So I sit and she explains and I listen while Rex flies around the room in endless circles.
By the end, my mind is reeling. Glowing time portals, distant time periods in the Earth's history, rips in the fabric of time and space, dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures, futuristic dimensions, future monsters, terrifying Predators, looming apocalypse. It just seems unreal, like something from science fiction instead of science fact.
She then explains about her personal history; about her life and the lives of others who worked for this organisation, the ARC, which turned out stood for Anomaly Research Centre. I thought the building looked a bit high-tech, a bit too grand, bit too expensive to be just another office.
Turns out it's a top secret government organisation that studies the anomalies, learns about the, tries to predict them and find out what's causing them as well as dealing with prehistoric and deadly futuristic creatures that come through the anomalies and return them to their own time or keep them here in their headquarters. This area, the Menagerie, is where the creatures are kept and Abby looks after therm. She has her own crew to help out but she's in charge of the creatures. Sounds like there are a lot of creatures here.
It's all privately run and kept secret from the public. The anomalies and the creature incursions are covered up by fake stories and their job is to make sure no-one gets hurt but still people die, civilians die. She tells me about friends who she's lost. Stephen Hart, Nick Cutter, Jenny Lewis, Sarah Page. There's so many. Not all the creatures are as cute and friendly as Rex; turns out he's prehistoric too.
Looking at the woolly mammoth less than ten feet away I can't help but agree. Currently, it's walking around in its holding pen but I remember the story of the escaped elephant that wreaked havoc on the M25 two years ago, that Abby tells me was actually the Mammoth that came through a roadside anomaly and I can't but shiver at the power of this giant beast, how it can go from peaceful and majestic to wild and dangerous in a split second.
"So "Abby says "Shall I give you a tour?" I nod and get up. If I'm gonna be helping to look after dangerous prehistoric creatures, I may as well look at them first.
She gets up and looks through the glass screen down into the Mammoth's pen. After a moment's hesitation, I walk up beside her and look down at the creature. It's even bigger up close. Seeing Abby it unfurls its trunk and touches the glass with the tip, she smiles and spreads her fingers, placing them on the glass as if greeting the beast. It pulls back its trunk and continues walking around its pen.
"This is Manny; he's a Columbian Mammoth, a male he's been with us for about three years. He looks big and tough but he's just a big softie really" Abby says. I nod and look down at the Mammoth; maybe it's not so dangerous after all, maybe we can learn to be friends. "Right let's go on." She says "Time to see the others, come on Rex." We turn and leave the room, Rex glides after us. We step through another door and out onto a small platform. We walk down a small staircase and emerge into another long hallway. Lined up on either side of us are metal pens of various sizes.
Each pen is home to a creature. I listen to the various grunts, hisses, snarls and clicks and feel slightly anxious. Abby smiles "Don't worry, they won't hurt you just don't get too close or stick your hand through the bars. Follow me." I nod and trudge after her as we walk down the hallway, looking at the creatures moving around in their pens. . Each enclosure has a plaque outside it bearing the creature's scientific name. As we go along Abby reads each one.
"Smilodon, meet Happy" The sabre-toothed cat has a powerful, muscular body like a bear and two massive, nine inch canines protrude from its upper jaw. It growls, pacing around it's cage. Its eyes are feral and it watches us, snarling. Then it swipes its paw at us and roars loudly. I flinch and Abby gives me a reassuring smile. Rex perches on her shoulder.
"Scutosaurus." The Scutosaurus is tall and bulky with a massive body supported by four, pillar-like legs. It had a short, reptilian tail and thick, knobbly grey skin. It blinks back at us and groans. There are two of them inside the pen with a metal partition to keep the beasts separate. One is slightly bigger than the other.
"Triceratops. This is Theo." the Triceratops has a massive body supported by four, thick legs and a thick, lizard-like tail. Two massive, rock hard horns protrude from its head with a third horn on its snout it has a powerful beak and a bony frill around its neck. Spotting us, it bellows and stamps its foot then paws the ground. "Back!" Abby cries. We step back just in time. The beast charges and rams the door of its pen. The door holds but shudders under the impact. The dinosaur backs off and trumpets angrily.
"Yeah sorry about that. He can be temperamental sometimes just don't get too close and you'll be fine." Abby says, I nod and swallow. "Ready to go on?" She asks. I nod and we continue and reach the next pen.
"Silurian Scorpion" It's a gigantic scorpion with a massive body and huge clawed pincers with a long thin tail. It snaps its pincers and emits a loud hiss, I shudder slightly and we move on. "Iguanodon. This is Iggy" The Iguanodon has a large body supported by powerful hind legs. Its arms end in spiked thumbs, a long tail and a large beak. It rears up on its hind legs and hoots at us. We continue.
"Pteranodon." The Pteranodon has two huge, leathery wings and a light body; it has clawed feet and a brilliant red crest atop its head. It flies down off its perch and screeches at us, beating its wings. Its pen resembles a giant bird cage. We move on and it flies back to its perch.
"Utahraptors." I nod and swallow. The Utahraptor has a powerful body supported by thick legs ending in clawed feet. Clawed arms protrude from its chest; it has a long, reptilian tail and gleaming yellow eyes. Its powerful jaws are filled with dozens of razor sharp teeth and a row of spines run down its back and along its tail. It hisses at us and snaps its jaws. There are two of them in the pen; I guess they must be a mated pair.
There are four others, they are all in the same enclosure but kept apart by metal partitions. The raptors hiss, bite and snap at one another, moving around in their pens.
"Arthopluera." The Arthopluera has a massive, segmented body covered by thick armour and supported by hundreds of strong legs. Two long feelers protrude from its head. We move on. "Stegosaurus. This is Steggy." The Stegosaurus has a massive body supported by four, stumpy legs ending in huge feet. Its tail is long and thick with four, deadly spikes protruding from the tip; it has a small head and spiked beak.
Dozens of jagged, scaly plates protrude from its back running down to its tail. It bellows at us and swings its spiked tail back and forth menacingly. The plates on its back suddenly change colour in a frightening display. "It's a threat display, he's warning us to back off." Abby says quietly. We quickly move on.
"Allosaurus. This is Big Al." "Big Al "has a massive body supported by powerful legs ending in clawed feet. Clawed arms protrude from its chest; its huge jaws are filled with rows of razor sharp teeth. It has a long tail and two bright red crests above its eyes. It opens its jaws and lets out a deep growl. We move on. "Gorgonopsid." The Gorgonopsid has a powerful, scaly body supported by thick legs ending in clawed feet. It has a long, reptilian tail and huge jaws filled with teeth. It eyes us, as it paces around its enclosure, growling softly. We quickly move on.
We come to the last enclosure "Diictodons. These two are Sid and Nancy." Abby smiles, I get the feeling these creatures are special to her. I get the feeling she genuinely cares about all these creatures, even the dangerous ones like the Utahraptors and the sabre-toothed cat. But these Diictodons and Rex seem particularly special, I wonder if they were once her pets.
I suddenly notice that unlike the other pens this cage doesn't have a door with bars on it. Instead there's thickened glass screen, similar to the one in the Mammoth's enclosure that gives us a clear view into the Diictodon pen.
I look into the cage but at first I can't see anything, then Rex chirps and two small shapes run up to the glass screen and gaze back at us. They are small and cute with round bodies supported by four stumpy legs and stumpy little tails. They have large beaks and large round eyes.
Rex chirrups and the Diictodons wag their tails, Abby then presses a switch beside the cage and a small round opening appears, Rex flies through into the Diictodon's cage. Chirping happily, the lizard glides down and lands beside the two creatures. One of them sniffs him and chirps, he chatters in reply and one of the Diictodons bumps its beak against his snout. It's very friendly and I can't help but smile. Abby catches my look, and beams back. The three turn to Abby, she then slides a key out of her pocket and unlocks the cage, the doors opens and she steps inside, I then follow.
Inside, it's surprisingly warm. "It's hot in here." I say Abby nods "Each pen is temperature controlled so suit each individual animal." I nod " oh ok." Now I understand. Abby pulls some biscuits out of her pack, breaks one into small pieces and scatters the pieces on the floor.
The three creatures begin eating the bits of biscuit, the two Diictodons began wrestling over a chunk of biscuit eventually they drop it and run back into the rear of the pen. Abby smiles "Bye guys, come on Rex." Rex chirps and glides up onto her shoulder. She turns to me "Right let's go." I nod, waving goodbye to the Diictodons and we turn and head back. As we pass I look at the creatures again, shivering at some and admiring others.
We head back up the staircase and arrive back at the Mammoth's pen. Manny is still walking around in his enclosure. Seeing us the giant mammal acknowledges us with a nod of its head and a low rumble, Abby grins and even I smile. She then places a pet carrier on the desk. "Alright Rex, in." Rex flutters off her shoulder and to my surprise, obediently climbs inside.
Abby shuts the door and goes through to her office, placing the carrier on her desk. I feel slightly puzzled "You're just gonna leave him in there?" That doesn't seem very nice; I thought Abby liked these animals.
"Oh no I'll come get him when it's time to go home." He goes home with you?" I ask, surprised. She nods "When me and Connor were stranded in the Mid-Cetaceous for a year, Rex, Sid and Nancy were kept in the menagerie. Now that we're living with Jess for a while, I'm allowed to keep Rex at her flat but during the day, he stays here, because Jess won't have him flying around her flat unsupervised, but I come get him at the end of the day."
"What about the Diictodons?" "Sadly, Jess won't have them in her flat. She's worried they'll eat her shoes." I frown, eat her shoes? Noticing the look on my face, Abby grins. "Don't worry; you'll understand when you meet her. I nod. "So Sid and Nancy stay here unfortunately but Rex comes home with me and Connor. Either me or Connor or someone will come, feed him, give him water and let him stretch his wings for a bit then put him back in."
She looks around as if for hidden spies then leans in and whispers into my ear "Don't tell him I said this but after he let Rex escape once, I'll never let Connor feed him again!" I grin and we both laugh. "So what now?" I ask. "Now I some of the biggest and most dangerous creatures we have." She says grinning slightly.
I sigh "Right lead the way." I follow her as we pass the Mammoth's pen and come to another gigantic steel enclosure with a raised steel roof nearly 50 feet high, solid titanium walls and a thick, reinforced plastic screen that must be made of some very thick material. If I thought the mammoth's pen was big, this one is absolutely massive, then I see the creature inside and I'm not surprised. "Sauroposeidon. This is Littlefoot."
The Sauroposeidon has a massive body covered in thick grey skin supported by four thick, tree-trunk like legs ending in huge feet with a long, reptilian tail. Its gigantic neck rises nearly 40 feet high and it has a small domed head. The dinosaur is lying in a massive pool of water in its enclosure. Its long tail pokes out of the water and is draped along one side of the pool. The water reaches the creature's shoulders. I wonder how much water it would take to fill a pool of that size.
"How much does this thing eat in 1 day?" I ask. "40 tonnes of food and 40 litres of water." She says. My eyes widen; that much?"Wow." is all I can say "She's laid eggs you know?" Abby says. I look at her "Seriously?" I ask. She nods. "Can I see them?" I ask, "Wait; first let me show you the biggest and most dangerous creature we have." She says grinning at me. I sigh "If we must." she nods "Come on then and walks on, sighing, I follow.
We come to another large enclosure similar to the Columbian Mammoth's pen. I look in and there it is, in all its glory. Abby doesn't even need to tell me what this beast is, I recognise it from movies I saw as a kid, the last I saw it was when I watched Jurassic Park a few years ago and I still remember its name, the Tyrannosaurus Rex.
The monstrous dinosaur has a muscular body supported by two powerful legs ending in massive clawed feet. Two tiny clawed arms protruded from its chest tipped with sharp claws. It had a thick, reptilian tail with a massive head and powerful, bone-crushing jaws. The creature opens its massive jaws, revealing rows of glinting, razor sharp teeth. This giant predator stands 20 feet tall, weighs 9 tonnes and it nearly 25 feet long.
Seeing us, it lets out a thunderous roar that is blotted from our hearing by the sound-proof walls of its enclosure. It turns and begins stalking around its pen, swinging its huge tail. I am truly impressed. I turn to Abby "Why are the walls sound proofed?" I ask "It's to stop his roars from deafening us, or from scaring any of the other creatures." I nod, I suppose hearing a Tyrannosaurus Rex roar would scare any animal.
Abby grins "NOW you can see the eggs." I nod and as we leave, I glance back for one last look at the Tyrannosaurus. We go into her office. She unlocks a door and steps into another laboratory. On one side is a large artificial incubator. On each shelf are small clutches of eggs. Each nest has a label saying what creature they belong to. I see Pteranodon eggs, raptor eggs, Iguanodon eggs, and Sauroposeidon eggs.
Each shelf is set a different temperature to keep each set of eggs at just the right temperature.. Abby looks proudly at the developing eggs as though she's the mother which I suppose, in a way, she is. "What about the other creatures" I ask. "Well we're planning to use the Mammoth's semen and inserting it into a female African elephant to produce a baby Columbian Mammoth. We're thinking of a way to breed Rex, possibly with a modern flying lizard such as a Draco Volans. We want to breed Theo and the Allosaurus." "Oh and we think Nancy may be carrying babies but it's too early to tell."
My eyes widen "All these creatures, where are you gonna keep them?" "We'll expand our Menagerie." Abby says, and I nod, even though I'm not entirely convinced. Then she looks at the clock "Uh oh! I was supposed to be the Ops room for a team meeting ten minutes ago! Lester's gonna kill me, well I'll see you tomorrow. Bye! Look after Rex!" She then runs out of the room and dashes out of the room.
I watch her go with a wide smile on my face; I think I'm going to enjoy working here.