Becker

"Wake up sleepy head." I felt a light tap on my leg. "Go away," I mumbled. I found the edge of the blanket and pulled it high over my face.

"Don't make me get the hose," I heard, as a hand tugged the blanket off causing the sunlight to stream into my eyes. I squinted to see Matt staring down at me with a pot of coffee in one hand, a mug in the other.

"What time is it?" I rubbed my eyes and noticed I was lying on the couch. I don't even remember moving from the floor.

"Eight o'clock. Come on mate, we've got half an hour until work." He poured the coffee into the cup and handed it to me. I took a sip as Matt took the seat opposite me. He looked rather good this morning, a complete one-eighty from a few hours ago, as if nothing ever bothered him yesterday night. I on the other hand was thoroughly exhausted: I wasn't built to run on five hours of sleep. We sat in silence until I finished my coffee.

"How are you feeling?" I asked, setting the mug on the table.

"Fantastic. Never better," he said.

"That's good. So you want to go now?" I asked, desperate to get back to work, back to something I'm comfortable with.

"In that?" Matt smirked.

I look down, completely forgetting I was only wearing a tank and boxers. "Shit! I'll be right back." I bolted to the guestroom where my uniform was; I could hear Matt suppressing a laugh in the living room. Great now I'm the crazy one.

We reach the ARC at nine on the dot. Matt was quiet the whole ride there. The second we get pass the front door; we heard Jess' voice pipe up on our coms. There was an incursion by the docks. We took two teams and jumped right back into the car we arrived in minutes ago.

I threw myself into the passenger seat. I'm tired. Worn-out. Drained of energy. Matt's the one with the problems but if I don't watch myself I might get sick too. This was the first of many missions for today, knowing Matt. If I wanted I could take a few days off but I never do. It was only six months since I'd lost Conner, Abby and Danny; three months since I'd lost Sarah; Matt has become the closest thing to a friend in my life. I think my constant worrying – or paranoia – was taking its toll on me. My eyes were heavy, I could feel them closing. This is so unprofessional. I stare at Matt for a moment through the slits of my eyes. He seemed calm enough right now but I've started to notice his guard tense up in the past few days. It's not the kind of tensing up caused by the job but more like he was expecting something to happen. Whenever Jess informs us about an anomaly opening or an incursion, something inside Matt kicks into gear. He would rush us from anomaly to anomaly as fast as he could. On numerous occasions we would go through two or three missions in one day. It was odd: He was looking for something, like a specific anomaly…


Matt

We ran through two missions before nightfall including a nasty incursion at a shipping warehouse. There we spent a good amount of time trying to round up the few Deinonychus that ran out from the anomaly. They were meat-eaters; 11 feet long predators wrapped in 150 pounds of crazy. I can see on the men's faces that they had enough for the day, but there was one more anomaly we had to close. One that I had to get to.

We treaded quietly across the main floor of an abandoned building, wrecked from construction. I signaled for two soldiers to watch the door and took the rest of the men in. I glanced back to see that Becker had fallen behind formation. "Becker! Hey Becker snap out of it," I whistled at him. "Take my left flank." I commanded. He jerked back to reality and nodded to acknowledge he understood. He pulled the EMD close to his chest and slipped towards my left.

"You good?" I asked him.

"Fine, just tired," he admitted. He's exhausted and it's because of me. Don't worry mate, I'm almost done. It's close I can feel it. This is where the dreams led me; it must end here.


Becker

The area was becoming dustier and dirtier the farther we walked into the abandoned building. I could barely make out the outline of Matt's figure much less my own hands in front of my face.

"Should be 50 meters to your right. You will see the anomaly in the what looks like an old office," Jess' voice chatted through the coms.

"Got it Jess, thanks."

"Let's finish this and get out of here," I said, longing for a hot shower and a goodnights sleep.

"Don't worry your pretty little head, we're almost—" Before Matt could finish, the wall in front of him came crashing down, inches from we stood. A creature crashed through the rubble, leaping over our heads. I instinctively raised my gun, aiming it at whatever blur I saw. It's fast. I can't catch it. I see another leap out behind the wall and attack one of the units behind me. I continued shooting while backing up behind a side wall. I finally caught a glimpse of what the creature was when one of them lunged at the soldier closest to me. Thin, disgusting, and bat-like. It was the last thing I wanted to face, future predators. There's no hope for the soldier. He died the moment the predator attacked him, ripping its claws into the poor man's jugular. I can't worry about him. I saw two more predators running at us. I managed to stun one but only momentarily. There was never a chance to hit them more than once. They climbed up the walls from every angle and pounced with stunning agility. I looked around frantically. We were defenseless; there was nowhere to hide; only run. It's only me and Matt left; the rest of the team was either dead or dying. I see Matt struggling with one of the larger predators. He was pinned behind a metal shelf with his back against the wall. The predator reached an arm through the shelf, its claws inches from his face. I peered behind the wall and spotted one predator stunned on the floor; the other two were nowhere to be seen. We had to make a run for it.

"Matt!" I yelled. I motioned to an open door in front of him. He nodded at me and pushed the shelf as hard as he could, knocking the creature back. It screamed angrily as I shot out two blasts from the EMDs on its strongest setting. I sprinted towards the empty room, Matt was not far behind me. I could hear the last two future predators roaring behind us as we slammed the door with a bang.

"Come on, help me with this," Matt was pulling a metal table towards me. I grabbed the other side, and with what's left of our energy, braced it against the door. Matt bent over with his hands on his knees, gasping for air. I fell onto the floor besides him, sweat dripping from my face.

"That was not fun," I groan wearily. "So how do you suppose we get out of here? Matt?"

"Well there's one way…"

I look up to see Matt staring at a large, shining anomaly.

"Where do you think that leads?" I get to my feet to examine the anomaly more closely. "And more importantly, how do we close it? All our equipment is outside."

"We don't close it." He said quietly.

"What?"

"I need to go through it." Matt said flatly. He walked up to the anomaly.

"Am I hearing you right? No you can't go through there, it's against all protocol!" I growl angrily.

"I'm going and that's that." He said defiantly. I look into his eyes, there was no way I could talk him out of it…unless I use force. "No I can't risk another casualty." I shake my head, "If you are going, I will go with you."

"I can't let you do that mate."

"It's my job." It's more than the job. I won't let you go alone.

"You will stay. I have to do this alone."

"What are you saying!" I start pacing now, trying to understand him. "Do what—I'm coming with you."

"Stay here Becker, it's an direct order."

"You know how I don't like to follow orders," I stopped and smirked. "Something I learned from my team leader."

"I appreciate your help but I need you here to –"

"Matt!" I yelled in surprise as I see two large claws reaching through the anomaly and grabbing Matt's legs. He falls to the floor, his arms outstretched. I leapt forward, grabbing his wrists. Half of his body was already pulled through the anomaly. I could see part of the predator's head through the anomaly, its teeth clamped on Matt's foot. I could see him wince with pain. "Hold on! I got you." I promised through gritted teeth. I felt his hands slipping through mine. No. I held on harder, but now I was getting pulled in. My arms slipped into the anomaly; my head was starting to edge towards it as well. "Becker let me go," he looked up at me. "Let go or we'll both die!" I don't know what to do, the anomaly was shrinking and we're stuck in the middle. My arms are numb. I can't hold on any longer. I felt Matt pulling away little at a time, and then he was gone. I let go. I slid back to my side of the time. Fuck. The anomaly was almost gone. I can't seem to slow my breathing, my mind was whirling, and my heart was throbbing.

Then I did the one thing I could do. I hurled myself into the anomaly. Into certain death. I fell into wet grass. Still alive I hope. The last thing I saw was Matt lying on the ground. Then it was black.


A/N: Yay I wrote this so fast, there are probably some rambling moments since I've been writing this all night, it's 6AM..so yea its a long time.

So I can say that the two of them are in the...past! For now atleast. Please R&R I need to know what y'all think! :)