Chapter One: Is That A Raptor?
A/N: I actually give up. I wrote 500 words for this original chapter. 500 words. And I always injure my favourite characters! Right, this is all changing...
Disclaimer: If I owned Primeval, this would actually happen in the series. But better. Like, a lot better.
The last shoppers ambled out of the store, chatting cheerily as they inspected their new purchases. The owner, a tall raven-haired man with warm brown eyes, waved them off, turning the sign on the door to 'closed'.
He pressed a blue button on the wall, causing the shutters to rumble shut, then strode to the back of the shop and up a crooked staircase in the corner. At the top, he paused and looked around at the now-familiar surroundings. A small, narrow corridor led to a door at the end, passing three others on the way: the bathroom, the study, and his son's room.
Taylor Walker was the only family that he, Justin, had left. His wife had died when Taylor was only one, and Taylor and he had had to move out when they couldn't pay the bills any more. That was when they had taken up the shop.
Justin had always known his son was quiet; but he was never this quiet. Taylor just hadn't been himself lately, and Justin was getting more worried by the day - he could even swear that Taylor had become paler. Ah, it's probably just hormones, he thought, shaking his head and walking to the door at the end: his bedroom. He went in, stripping to his boxers and climbing into the bed. He fell asleep almost immediately.
In the shop downstairs, a metallic hum vibrated through the air as a silver ball of light appeared right in the middle of the shop, pulsating slightly. Nothing moved for a few minutes, but then the light convulsed more rapidly, and a snout poked cautiously through the shining ball. A head and body followed, revealing a small greyish raptor of slim build, barely a metre tall.
It sniffed at the air, its already large eyes widening as it seemed to smell something. It whipped around, skirting the now gently pulsing portal. It reached a narrow staircase, and, glancing one more time at the scantily illuminated store, it took the stairs two at a time; stalking slowly down the hall, stopping at the third door down suspiciously.
It shook its head, carrying on to the door at the end, nudging the slightly ajar door fully open. Immediately spying the man asleep, it narrowed its eyes and, snarling viciously, leapt at the bed.
Far away, an alarm shattered the silence, causing a young woman to put down her coffee cup and start typing furiously. She pressed a button on the earpiece she was wearing, flicking back her brown hair and calling out orders.
"Jess -" Matt, the team leader, hurried in, running a hand over his stubble. He peered over her shoulder impatiently.
"Just getting the co-ordinates," Jess replied, tapping the keyboard impatiently as the red dot honed in on the exact location. She tapped a button, and the small monitor in Matt's hand beeped. "Here we go - sending them now."
"Got it," Matt rushed off, pulling Connor after him and grabbing his coat on the way.
"Becker," Connor nodded amicably to the Captain.
"Abby still on sick leave?"
"Yeah." Connor shook his head and sighed as they got in the car. "We'll have to do this one without her."
The raptor twisted its head from side to side, pupils dilating and shrinking again in the changing light of the lava lamp on the bedside table. It eventually snapped angrily at the night light, splintering it into small pieces and splattering red-hot liquid all over the walls. Roaring in pain and frustration, the raptor swung round and stalked out of the room, leaving the carnage it had created behind it.
Again, it stopped outside the same door it had stopped outside before, jerking its head back when a creak came from inside. It growled and butted the door, pushing it inwards silently. A boy was crouched on the bed by the wall; his eyes squeezed shut as he prayed that it wouldn't see him. It was turning to leave when he started to cough uncontrollably; the raptor whipped round and leapt at him, succeeding in ripping a chunk from his shoulder.
The boy yelled in pain and collapsed, but, before it could do any more damage, it recoiled from the prone figure as a crash sounded from the stairs. It turned to face the door just as two figures burst into the room, another one not far behind. The first figure held up a strange-looking barrel-thing: it exploded in the raptor's face, and then everything went black.
"That was just a weak setting, right?" Connor pushed past the others to examine the raptor, nodding once he had checked it was breathing. "Good. Abby would have killed you!"
Suddenly, he noticed the boy on the floor. "Ah. What happened to him?" Matt joined him by the bed while Becker walked off down the corridor, inspecting each room with his taser gun as he went by. "Did the raptor bite him or something? Is he...alive?"
"Yes, but barely." Matt paused. "That bite was deep, but it wouldn't have caused this much damage in such a short time..." he pondered on this thought whilst Connor inspected the raptor and told him it was a Coelophysis from the early Jurassic Period.
"Matt. There's a body," Becker had appeared at the door and he jerked a thumb back down the corridor where he had just come from.
Matt immediately stood up, marching out and telling Connor to stay in the room with the boy and the raptor. Connor nervously glanced at the raptor, then at Becker, who just shrugged and followed Matt.
The carnage in the room of the murder was huge: the raptor must have broken the lava lamp, as it was all over the wall, and there were bloody smears on the walls and the mirror of the wardrobe. Becker led Matt to the other side of the bed, and that was when he saw the dead man: his face and stomach had been savagely ripped open; blood was still trickling out of the gashes, adding to the pool already seeping into the floor.
"Poor man," Matt murmured. "Do you think he was married?"
"No." Becker pulled out a small touch-screen monitor, poking it a few times and showing Matt the contents. "Apparently, his wife died 14 years ago - the kid was only 1. The guy's name is..." he glanced at the top of the screen. "...Justin. Justin Walker. The kid is Taylor."
"Right. So now the boy's an orphan." Matt shook his head. "What should we do with him?"
"Well, first we should call in the backup to dispose of him, then -"
"No, no: the boy. I meant the boy. What shall we do with him?"
"Oh. We'll have to keep him in our infirmary until we're sure he doesn't remember or he's sworn to secrecy. But he'll have to regain consciousness before we can know."
Suddenly, Connor's voice drifted down the corridor. "Guys: he's waking up..."
Matt left Becker in the bedroom and sprinted back to Connor and the raptor, praying that the boy hadn't seen it yet. He called ahead: he wasn't getting there fast enough.
"Don't let him see the -"
"Is...is that a raptor?" a weak voice interrupted Matt's sentence as he skidded to a halt at the door.
"...Raptor..."
The boy was knelt on the floor, midnight blue eyes filled with confusion and his face a mask of disbelief. He went to stand up. Almost immediately, he fell to his knees, groaning in pain and almost blacking out again. Connor almost wished he had - this whole mess would be so much easier. But, when was life ever easy? The boy pushed himself back up just as Becker joined Matt in the doorway; he could only stare at the unconscious raptor on the floor.
"Woah..." he trailed off uncertainly. "A Coelophysis... wow..." the boy had a surprisingly high voice, as if his voice hadn't broken properly. He had a slight Welsh accent. Looking up at Connor as he struggled into a standing position, he asked a surprising question. "Is it... dead?"
"What? Oh, no, it's just unconscious." He then did a double take. "Wait - how are you - why aren't you... well, y'know, panicking...?" Connor stumbled over his words, shaking his head in bemusement, but Matt interrupted before he could make even more of a fool of himself.
"Hi, you must be Taylor. I'm Matt; this is Connor and Captain Becker. Nice to meet you." he held out his hand, then grabbed Taylor as his eyes rolled up in his head and he collapsed; lifting him up by the armpits, Matt slung him over his shoulder and heading for the staircase. Becker followed suit with the raptor, motioning for Connor to follow. He shook his head, sighed, and left the room.
Becker shifted the raptor slightly on his shoulder as he motioned to the man next to the anomaly, which was now very small. He tapped a few buttons on the small device beside it, and the shimmering mass expanded back to its original size.
Just as he was about to go through and return the raptor, the anomaly shivered and a boy leapt out, startling the man next to him. Within less than a second the boy had turned around and reached into the anomaly. He strained, as if dragging something heavy, and a hand appeared through the anomaly.
Pushing the words through gritted teeth, the boy spoke. "Please - help me get him through."
Becker lay down the raptor and rushed to help as Matt appeared round the corner. He nodded to Matt and they both grabbed the man's arm, which was now further through, and pulled. Something was pulling this man back though, and the struggle was still in progress when Connor entered: but, before he could help, a voice came through the anomaly, thick with pain.
"Nearly there -" the voice was cut off by a yell, but those two words were enough to freeze Connor in his tracks.
"Connor - what are you waiting for? Help us!" Matt jerked his head at Connor, gesturing for him to join them. Connor didn't move. He turned back to the anomaly and resumed pulling on the arm. Eventually, the person on the other side tumbled through, confirming Connor's worst fears, and he could only choke out one word:
"Stephen!"