Disclaimer: Again, Primeval is not mine...
A/N: Have too many thoughts in my head that I have to get down quickly before I forget them. So as a treat for all the lovely reviews, here is chapter two!
TWO
Captain Becker peered through the branches, his gun steady as his finger hovered close to the trigger. Danny Quinn was crouched quietly beside him, his grey eyes taking in the incredible scene before him. They had found the Anomaly, a flickering, golden ball of shattered time, hovering in the clearing, its reflection shimmering brilliantly in the babbling brook beside it. They counted only two raptors, tearing apart some poor grazing creature that they had dragged through the anomaly – at this point they were not entirely sure whether they were part of the original pack, or if they had just come through, either way, they couldn't stay.
"Take the shot," Quinn mouthed, nodding his head towards the feasting predators. Becker nodded, pale with fear, yet determined.
He squeezed the trigger twice in succession, moving the weapon only slightly in order to get both creatures, and although his aim was true, all he managed to do was irritate the beasts.
Their great bird-like heads bobbed in the direction of the bushes and they hissed, approaching with menace, their great sickle claws glinting in the dappled light.
The two men glanced worriedly at each other, sweat beaded at their foreheads.
"You know how there are times where you have to stay and fight, and there are times where you have to run away, screaming like a little girl?" Quinn asked quietly as the Raptors got ever closer to their hiding spot.
"Yeah, I've heard something like that," Becker muttered back through gritted teeth.
"Well, Becker...get your skirt on because I think we're in one of those situations," Quinn said, his legs poised to jump and run, like an athlete waiting for the starting signal.
The captain nodded and flashed him a half smile. "Just as long as you never mention the whole screaming like a little girl part, yeah?"
"Deal...on my count. One...two...three!"
As fast as their legs could carry them, they ran into the forest, away from the predatory beasts. As they ran, they could hear the reptiles gaining on them, tearing through the undergrowth, their calls echoing through the countryside.
"I suppose that's the dinner bell!" Becker cried, firing his weapon blindly over his shoulder.
Danny risked a quick peek over his shoulder. "Yeah, didn't think they'd go for fast food though,"
The adrenaline surged through his body, but he could feel his legs burning.
"We have to find Connor and Abby," the ex-cop called veering sharply North, as he consulted his compass. Becker followed his tight manoeuvre and they broke through the trees into rich farmland. They stopped for a moment and looked around. The Raptors were nowhere to be seen.
"D'ya think we lost them?" Becker asked, his gun at the ready as he spun slowly on the spot.
"Nah mate...haven't you ever seen Jurassic Park? You think it's over...than WHAM! They come in from every direction and tear you to shreds," Quinn replied, pulling his hand gun from its holster.
Becker continued to sweep the area.
"That is probably the single most disturbing thing I've heard all day," His eyes were searching the tree-line for anything...
"There," Danny hissed pointing towards the brush.
The two wounded raptors approached slowly, growling at their prey.
"Aim for the face Becker...try for the eyes – hopefully the bullets penetrate their brains and they die very quickly,"
The captain glanced over at him worriedly. "I'm good mate, but they're quicker. We'll have to wait until they are on top of us,"
"Yeah...that's going to be soon,"
The vicious creatures leapt at them and they began to fire rapidly. Becker downed his first, shooting it in directly in the throat, but Quinn was having a harder time of it. He was pinned beneath the writhing creature, out of bullets and sure he was going to die, when there was the sound of a small explosion very close nearby and he was showered in bits of raptor brain.
Becker dragged the dead monster off and held out his hand.
"You idiot! You could've deafened me!" Quinn exclaimed loudly through the buzzing in his ears.
"You're welcome!" Becker cried in response, pulling him to his feet. "Now come on...I can see some tracks leading up to that barn!" Danny nodded, and together they set off up the steep hill towards the run-down building.
Helen watched from the door as the cleaners roughly bound Connor and Abby with rope. They we're deeply unconscious, perhaps a miscalculation on the dosage on her part, but no huge deal.
"Hurry up," she snapped; glancing quickly outside to be sure that no body was aware of their presence. Once the cleaners had their wrists and ankles tightly trussed, they were dragged unceremoniously through the debris in the barn, skin tearing on splinters of timber before being dropped in the mud outside.
She looked at the cuts on their arms and tutted at the cleaners. "I instructed you not to hurt them..." she berated softly. " Never mind...bring the van around," she ordered, crouching down by the unconscious young man. She grabbed a fistful of his dark hair and examined his young face. "What did Nick tell you?" she muttered softly, before letting his head loll heavily to the floor. "I will find out soon enough,"
The sound of the van pierced her musings and she stood back as the pair were bundled into the rear of the van.
"One of you, stay in the back. If either of them wake up...put them back to sleep," she said, climbing into the driver's seat.
As she buckled up, she heard the back doors slam, indicating that everything was set to go, but when she drove down the farm, she didn't even glance in the rear-view, because if she had, she would have noticed the three raptors crashing through the barn, attracted by the smell of the injured and unconscious pair in the back of her van.
The first thing that Abby became aware of was the excruciating pain pounding in her head, next she noticed that she was in the back of a dirty old van, trussed up like a thanksgiving turkey, thirdly, she noted, Connor was still deeply unconscious, his eyes flickering backwards and forwards beneath his lids. She touched his arm gently, but began to panic when her fingers came away bloody. After taking a closer look, Abby let out a sigh of relief. The wounds would be painful when he eventually woke up, but they weren't serious.
"Oh Con," she murmured, resting her forehead upon Connor's.
Helen swung her head around momentarily to see Abby's blue eyes peering confusedly up at her.
"I don't want her awake," she snapped sharply, returning her eyes back to the road.
Abby frowned and turned around to see the butt of the clone's gun flashing toward her at speed. The pain was sharp, but brief as she fell into blackness once more.
Helen glanced back again, seeing the young blonde girl, once again unconscious; however, crimson blood covered most of her pale face, her small, delicate nose broken.
"What did I tell you?" she snapped, but she shook her head. She would deal with this later. At the moment, she was more concerned about finding the Artefact, and if a few noses needed to be broken, so be it.
They were out of the countryside now and driving through the almost gridlocked streets of London, but soon enough, they were approaching the Warehouse where one of her biggest secrets was waiting. Nobody but her knew about this – her and the brainless clones and soon Connor and Abby...but they wouldn't be too much of a problem. Once Connor told her what she wanted to know, and she could bet the Artefact that he would, they were disposable.
The massive warehouse doors were dragged open from the inside and then van was driven in. A large anomaly flickered before them, but the ARC would never pick it up. The warehouse was cloaked in a future technology that prevented detection from so far away.
"Get them out," she ordered, stepping from the driver's side door.
Connor and Abby were pulled from the back and thrown onto the concrete floor. Abby's nose was still bleeding profusely, but now Helen didn't care about that. She motioned for the clones to retrieve their prone forms.
"Bring them through, and for heaven's sake, don't drop them!"
This time, the clones did as they were told, following her into the flickering golden light and stepping out into the future.
"Something has definitely gone wrong here," Becker murmured, stepping into the run down barn. "Looks like there's been some sort of altercation,"
The captain bent down, noticing two phones, lying smashed in the rubble. He picked them up and handed them to Quinn.
"You don't think...The Raptors?" Danny blanched.
Becker shook his head slowly. "No...there is some blood, but not enough for a raptor attack. There are these though," he said, picking up a pair of spent tranquilizer darts.
Danny raised an eyebrow. "Unless raptors are smart enough to use tranq guns, they aren't our culprits...so the question is...who took them?"
TBC
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