Hello again. This chapter got away from me a bit, so it's a little longer; I kept having to add important details, but desperately wanted to end it where I did. Next chapter is also partly written, so hopefully, that'll be up soon.
Dedicated to RextheCoeulurosauruvus, for providing me with lots of prehistoric facts, including many about our favourite Coeulurosauruvus.
Disclaimer: I don't own Primeval or a Coeulurosauruvus. You can probably guess why.
Three rooms down, there was a faint bump. This grew into a larger bump, followed by a loud crack. Plaster went flying out and a distinct craggy line appeared in the wall. One more bump and a significantly sized hole formed, through which a beady black eye peered out into the gloom of a Prospero testing lab. A growl echoed through the empty area, resonating with a couple of gas taps. The eye disappeared and there was some quiet scrabbling.
Suddenly, the hole became a new, rough doorway for the Juravenator, who landed sprawling across the floor, narrowly missing a workbench. It tottered to its feet for a second, before collapsing again, lying there while some red liquid trickled from its hind leg. It let out a mewing sound, filling the lab with pathetic whimpers.
After all, it couldn't know it had caused all the problems?
"Whose idea was it to make the ceiling so higher here?" pondered Matt, sighing as he looked at the hole he'd created. He could only just reach it when unscrewing it and now he had to get up there. Why did they have to get trapped in the foyer, rather than the lower corridors of the main block?
"You should up first," stated Becker. Matt looked around at him strangely. "We can't stand on the cabinet and boost either of us up; it's a recipe for disaster and broken arms. So, as I'm taller, you'll need me be able to give you the extra push once you're up. Furthermore, I'll be able to reach higher when I'm trying to pull myself up."
"That argument is completely nonsensical!" exclaimed Matt. Becker looked at him, frowning. "You have one inch on me, which, if you must, you can use to reach without the cabinet." Becker looked away, licking his lips, causing Matt to imitate the Captain's previous expression; typically Becker only did the tiny tick when he was nervous and, as far as Matt could tell, there was no immediate danger, the problem being the dinosaur wasn't close by.
"It's just a better idea for you to go up first," insisted Becker, rather too agitatedly for Matt's liking. Matt raised his eyebrows, and Becker slowly blinked to calm himself. "Sorry. I'm just tense... about... where the dinosaur as gone. Besides, you are right, there's not much in it, so it'll make no difference."
Matt nodded, not quite satisfied, but willing to let the problem slide for now. He went to stand under the hole, while Becker positioned himself in front of the leader, cupping his hands. Matt placed his foot in the home-made handhold and put his hands on Becker's shoulders.
"On three. One... two... three!" Matt surged himself upwards, propelling himself upwards. He reached for the hole's edge, but felt he was going to miss it, until, out of the blue, Matt suddenly gained an extra foot and a half in height, allowing him the grasp it with both hands.
Below him, Becker was standing with both his arms like a weight lifter, with Matt on top, having boosted him up a little further. Matt pulled himself forward over the edge and Becker gave a last little push for him to get in properly.
Matt caught his breath, then leaned over the edge.
"Right. Now your turn."
"Ok, so we can't contact then or lift the lockdown externally. Well, it seems all we can do is stand around and have a committee meeting."
"What will that do?"
"It's a committee meeting. It'll achieve absolutely nothing like always, Jess." The field co-ordinator sighed and went back to the external monitor, housed in a compartment below the guard house. She was regretting phoning her boss, who, so far, had just made unhelpful, sarcastic remarks. Mind you, what was she expecting from him? That he would turn up, open all the doors magically and single-handedly march in and wrestle the dinosaur into submission. Now there was an image...
A beeping, followed by some swearing, drew Jess out her thoughts. Jimmy smacked his laptop, which he had linked into the interface, on the side in a move that many a person had done whilst using a computer.
"No luck?" asked Jess, trying to sound positive, yet realistic. It was a hard tone to manage.
Jim shook his head. "I was trying a squirrel attack, but, annoying as he can be, Connor is genius; it's sent a back-pulse virus which has cut my connection and scrubbed my programming. Bet my IP address has gone off to the ADD as well."
Jess smiled and nodded as if she'd understood every word he'd said; she could manage computers and even minor problems, but hacking was a world beyond her. The gist was clear though. They couldn't hack the system; Connor knew every trick in the book and had employed this knowledge well, setting up firewalls and traps at every turn.
"Well, Simons, it seems we can't rely on trickery and underhand techniques to get in. How is the brute force plan going?" said Lester, turning to the soldier who had just hung up his mobile, looking grim.
"I've managed to source a diamond tipped chainsaw. It's the only think which will get through those doors, but it'll take an hour and a half minimum to get here. Also, got the night duty soldiers to come in, but we have no weapons – we have to guard any entrance hole in case the dino uses it as an exit."
"Indeed. Don't worry. I'm sure that just as we sort everything out, they'll lift the lockdown from inside," replied Lester, staring at the monitor. So far, none of his internal pleas had stopped it showing in grim red letters 'WARNING: CODE 2 LOCKDOWN'.
Matt reached down and caught Becker's wrist. The Captain's hand grasped back. He bounced two times and, on the third, Becker leapt into the air with as much power as his thighs would give him. Matt grunted as he tried to haul the other man up, but the Captain swung back, his arm skorting along the thin edge of the gap.
A yell came out from below and Becker's hand loosened its grip. Matt jerked forward and slammed his other hand down to prevent him from being pulled down and through from his elevated position. Pressing down, Matt managed to slow his partners descent so Becker was able the land safely back onto the cabinet, where he grasped his arm to his chest and bit his lip in trying not the scream out expletives in pain.
"You alright?" Matt called down in genuine concern. There was a silence as Becker examined his arm. The skin was broken, an angry slit going across, but it wasn't deep, certainly not life-threatening. After a few more seconds, Becker confirmed in his mind that it wasn't even bleeding.
It just stung like anything. For a moment, Becker was taken back to the parlour in the school kitchen when Matt added salt to his wound. Ok, this was milder, but it was the same kind of hurt.
He gazed back up to Matt. "Yeah I'm good. Just maybe try... I dunno... lay your jacket over that edge." Matt made an attempt at a grin before pulling off his out-door jacket, which he'd been wearing since they went out earlier that afternoon, and laid it over the edge.
"Remind me again, why would I have a Swiss Army knife on me exactly?" Connor bit back a response to his girlfriend's angry question. He could tell that was rhetorical. Instead, he returned to the grill above his head and pondered over the six screws which were barring their entry into the shafts that led in the rough direction of the menagerie. "Hurry up. Rex is getting restless."
"Well, maybe find a box to put him in." There was an icy pause, causing Connor to wriggle in discomfort before he turned around to the petite blond giving him a severe glare. "Abby, think realistically. We've got to crawl through to the menagerie, then to meet up with Mat and Becker, then help them catch the Juravenator again and then through to the ADD to lift the lockdown. You're going to do that all whilst carrying Rex in one hand?"
Rex chirped and started muzzling Abby under her chin; it was as if the little trouble maker knew what Connor was saying and decided to purposely make the situation awkward. Indeed, Abby's eyes narrowed.
"I can't just leave him."
"And you can't take him with you!"
"You sound like Burton!"
"At what point am I saying 'kill Rex'?" cried Connor. Rex suddenly let out a pained squawk and nestled closer to Abby who promptly switch her attention to the bundle she held.
"Just open the grill, Connor," she said bitterly, turning her back upon her boyfriend. Connor closed his eyes momentarily to calm himself, before tugging out his set of house keys in an attempt to open the grill while his girlfriend fussed over a reptile.
A light blinked in the corner of the screen. Footsteps approached the desk where the computer sat and there was a creaking from the office chair as a man sat down heavily.
Burton observed the blinking light for a few seconds before taking a deep breath in and reaching forward to pick up his phone. The screen revealed its normal default menu screen. No messages. Burton bit his lip and chucked his phone down gently. As he pondered his next move.
"Right. So now all we have to do is wait?"
"Yep," replied Jess absently as she picked a piece of dirt off her bright green cardigan – her favourite. Lester clasped his hands behind his back and clicked his tongue a few times before Jess' look stopped him. "Why don't you go back to your party?"
"It was not a party. It was a business dinner. And besides, I can't go back. I declared it was a top priority emergency. How do you think I'd look if I returned within an hour? Shows either we don't have proper emergencies or I'm not needed for them and am therefore a useless component to operations."
"You're not needed for them," Jimmy put in as he played around with his settings on his computer. Jess tried, and failed, to stifle a giggle. Lester just harrumphed.
"We definitely need to get them out. We need some actual geniuses out here."
"Ok, are you ready to try again?" asked Matt through the hole.
"Just about. I just need to... ah!... I just need to see if I can get my foot in this crack...here," grunted Becker, as he climbed back up onto the cabinet carefully. Once he was sure he was stable, he reached up again to Matt, who leaned down. From his slightly elevated height, Becker was just about able to clasp his hand around Matt's arm with the leader able to do likewise. Both men used all their strength to attempt to get Becker up.
Becker felt his feet leave the solid surface momentarily and tried to stretch out to the hole's edge. In doing so, he was once more sent swinging to one side, but this time the jacket cushioned the blow so the cut before reacted to the bump, but there was no big searing pain as before and Becker clung on.
Matt grunted with effort as he swung Becker back out and tried to haul the Captain up. Becker felt himself be winched up a little further and once more extended a hand for the edge. Matt wasn't ready though, and the hand keeping him stable slipped. Becker jolted down, still above the solid cabinet below, but Matt, by instinct, slammed his hand back down.
Unfortunately, his palm met with his jacket, which slid uselessly off. Due to the shock of the movement, Matt momentarily let his hand relax its hold on Becker who, at the same moment, was suddenly blinded by Matt's jacket. The lack of strength from both parties strained the link between the pair until something had to give.
In the end it was the physical connection and Becker was left plunging to the ground about four foot below; a short, but sharp, fall. Matt felt the pressure release from his arms so quickly that he was unable to even lean further forward to catch the falling Captain. Instead, he was left, grasping at the air which failed to break Becker's fall and listening to the slump of a body upon the ground. Peering over the edge, his eyes widened as he stared at the sight of his friend lying motionless on the floor, his body at an awkward angle from where he had bounced off the metal cabinet below.
Please comment. Especially on my use of cliff-hanger. ;-)
