AN: Whoa, finally an update! They will come more frequent from now on.

A New World

Chapter Two

"Where's Ellie?" Tom demanded. He aimed the rifle at Turner; if the stranger made a move the younger man had no qualms about using it. He wouldn't shoot to kill at first of course, but if it came to that then he would "what did you do with her?"

To his frustration, Turner chuckled as though he found Tom extremely amusing. "She's at my camp, and that is exactly where you are going" he responded in a very firm tone. He hadn't forgotten about the raptors and behind the smirking mask, Turner was on edge, obviously he had never dealt with dinosaurs before and so he had no idea how they acted. "Are there anymore of you?" the 'children' would be taken off the plateau and questioned, a few people would be interested to hear how they had survived alone out in the wilderness, and with prehistoric creatures running around all over the place too.

Tom shook his head; he wasn't going to tell this guy anything at all. "Take me to her" he ordered as though it wasn't an adult that he was speaking to. Usually he was quiet, but when threatened he could be the complete opposite.

"Sure fine whatever" this kid was starting to irritate him, the sooner he could hand him off to Graham the better. Turner indicated that he wanted Tom to follow him and he turned around and began to make his way back to the area he had just come from. This time he managed to return to camp without incident, he stepped past the campfire and disappeared into his tent. A couple of seconds later he poked his head out "well make yourself at home" Turner spoke sarcastically.

The younger man would have replied in a similar tone if he hadn't have heard Ellie, he looked at her, thankful that she was all right. "We need to get out of here" Tom spoke in hushed tones. Wary of the two men, Graham was standing only a few feet away and it was obvious he was trying to hear what was being said.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks so much for asking" her tone of voice resembled Turner's. Her arms were folded and she looked around with a stoic expression "we can go as soon as it gets dark. These people will probably go to sleep soon, Graham was saying where they come from its usually late at night around this time and that they haven't gotten used to the time difference" Ellie informed.

Tom looked vaguely surprised that she had got any kind of information. Turner hadn't been particularly willing to talk "oh so you're on a first name basis."

Ellie rolled her eyes at his annoying attitude "actually that's his last name, his first is Robert" take that brainiac. All they seemed to do was argue nowadays, she looked back at the topic of their conversation; he had stopped trying to hear them and was stoking the fire. "All we can do at the moment is wait."

The young woman looked away from Tom and went and sat by the campfire. "Fine" he responded I should've just left her on her own, she seems to have gotten everything figured out. He wondered how Laura was doing, she wasn't used to being left on her own for long periods of time, but of course he couldn't say anything aloud because he had told Turner there was only Ellie and him. Tom sighed, he didn't like feeling useless and right now there was nothing he could do, and so he too wandered over to the fire to wait. The light was waning and the two plateau natives were beginning to think their captors would never sleep; Turner had left his tent around three hours earlier and hadn't gone back. In fact he seemed perfectly happy to camp out under the stars, and if that was the case it made escaping rather difficult.

Just as Ellie's eyes began to close Tom poked her side to rouse her "I'm still awake" she protested in a voice that was louder than she meant it to be. She heard him grunt, he didn't believe her for a second. For the next hour they pretended they were asleep and at ten minute intervals sneaked peeks at Turner, who also appeared to be sleeping. He wore his wide brimmed hat forward on his forward so that it covering his eyes, his body was hunched over and he was perfectly still. Graham was in the tent and there was no sound coming from that area. Tom took Ellie's hand and gently shook her awake to let her know that it was time. As quietly as they good they stood, mindful of the rustling leaves and twigs that littered their path. Only the call of a bird close by broke the silence and apart from the two strangers that had disturbed the Plateau hours before the place was a picture of serenity.

Tom led the way through the trees, they stepped around the trees and bushes carefully and looked back to the camp periodically to make sure Turner was still sleeping. And then, they were home free! As soon as they were far enough away from the camp that no noise they made would be heard they fled through the jungle towards the treehouse. One hundred meters or so from their home they both paused and waited five minutes to make sure one last time that they had not been followed but all was quiet and, satisfied that they would be okay, they took the lift up to the treehouse.

They found Laura fast asleep on the couch, plates had been set out on the table and cups, two of them still full. Laura's plate had remnants of fruit left; she had waited for them, becoming worried when they had not returned. Eventually tiredness had overpowered her fear that they wouldn't return and she had succumbed to sleep. Ellie sat down on the arm of the chair and roused her little sister, talking quietly as she did so "we're back."

Laura stirred and it took her a few seconds to realise she was not merely dreaming. Her eyes snapped open and relief flooded through her "I thought you had gone too" she said quietly and fiddled with the edge of the blanket that had covered her.

"We had to find a hiding place for a while, raptors picked up our trail" Tom spoke up with the believable lie. It would do no good to worry the youngest member of the family with the matter of the two strangers. He and Ellie had agreed outside that nothing would be said about the true matters of that day.

"But you're not going to leave again, are you? We're supposed to go to the Zanga village tomorrow so we can trade" trading was good, hunting was bad, hunting could get Ellie and Tom hurt and Laura was always fretful of that. She smiled when Tom shook his head, at ease once again she settled back on the couch and closed her eyes, it didn't take long for sleep to find her again and soon she was dreaming, blissfully unaware of the conversation going on downstairs.

Tom and Ellie had gathered in the old, now unused Lab that had belonged to their grandfather George, it was rarely used anymore. Tom would have lied to learn more and he immersed himself in the scientific texts that were gathering dust on the bookshelf. He shifted a test tube rack and sat down on the edge of the table it was set upon "I don't think those men will just leave here...they'll try and find us and when they do we'll have to tell Laura something."

Ellie was looking the other way and didn't see his concerned gaze, he worried too much and she hated that, he treated her as well as Laura like a child! "I know" she muttered her agreement "but in all likelihood we'll be able to slip past them tomorrow on the way to the Zanga village, we'll be there for a few days and in that time they may have given up and decided to return home" the brunette reasoned.

Her back was facing him but Tom knew that if he could look her in the eyes she would watch him defiantly, wanting her own way. Only this time she wouldn't get it. "It's too much of a risk, up here they won't see us but down there..." he waved his arm in the general direction of the jungle floor "there's a chance that they'll see us."

"Fine, you stay here like a frightened animal, tomorrow morning Laura and I will leave and when we come back everything will be back to normal" she did not wait for him to reply and marched out of the Lab and up the stairs to her room.

Tom followed her; this time he wanted the last word. "Do you like being in the thick of danger?" he demanded to know "is that why you called the Raptors to you earlier? To see if you could get out of it? To tempt fate?" he cut across her path to stop her from walking any further.

"Don't be stupid" she spat out and pushed him aside. "If I hadn't have done that then we would've had three people after us, two we can deal with." Not that one of the men being killed by a Raptor had been her intentions, Ellie had simply wanted to escape but things had gone awry. That was not her fault.

"That is not the point and you know it," he scolded, "you didn't have to call the Raptors because I was there!" he stepped in front of her again and spoke quieter now, mindful of the young girl asleep nearby.

"And what exactly would you have done? Shot him?" Ellie laughed at that thought. "You are impossible Malone, I can't do anything right by you," she shouted, sounding resentful of that fact. Not that Tom blamed her.

He shook his head and walked in the direction of his own room. "Fine" he called over his shoulder "go risk your life again." They both walked to their individual rooms and the treehouse was silent for the remainder of the night. It wouldn't remain that way for long.