Hello everyone!
Sorry for the wait on this rewrite! I had to save this until I could upload it with all the extra chapters so that the continuity doesn't suddenly become skewed! Thanks for all the really positive reviews, it's great to hear you are enjoying this as much as I am writing it!
Oh, and good news! Since the last upload, my back has become markedly better; am walking again! Mind has become clearer too, so hopefully future chapters will be less cloudy :)
As always, please review! (Any criticism you may have, please ensure it is constructive, i.e. positive; one can critique something positively, and it will ensure I take it onboard much more willingly :))
Without further ado...
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Shocked silence hung over the herd as Frank's words echoed in their minds. Manny looked around him, sharing shocked glances with all who could see him. Questions bubbled up in him, but they refused to formulate into sentences, no matter how often he tried to speak.
"Question," Sid said, breaking the silence. "Why would the plant life be the thing that got you interested in this expedition, Claire?"
Manny stared at him in disbelief. Sid quickly noted the glances aimed in his direction and shrugged,
"What?" He said.
"They tell us they got death threats, and you want to hear about Claire's interest in plants?" Manny spluttered.
"It's ok, Manny," Claire said softly, before smiling slightly at Sid,
"In answer to your question, that would be because I am a botanist."
"A what?" Sid replied.
"It means I study plants, recording all the types and kinds I see so that humanity has a greater knowledge of the world it lives in." She answered slowly.
"Well, as fun as hearing your plant love is…" Crash muttered,
"…Can you please tell us about the near-death? That sounds awesome!" Eddie finished his sentence, giving Crash a high five.
Manny shot them both a glare, silencing them instantly.
Frank shuffled in his seat, drawing his attention back to him. Manny noted the suddenly weary - almost angry - glint in the human's unfocussed eyes. He slumped slightly, recognising the look;
he knew - whatever it was - the human was reliving it.
A part of him, deep down, regretted ever asking.
Frank cleared his throat and smiled, his eyes still retaining a hint of distance,
"Six months after the expedition was announced, we had picked our team and tried to keep it quiet...until someone leaked the details of who was going," His voice sounded forcibly calm, to the point of being strained. "Just hours after it leaked to the world we started to receive death threats; people of every creed and affiliation started stating it was better to kill our expedition rather than let us conduct the mission and risk killing everyone,"
Manny shuffled uncomfortably in his spot as Frank's voice lost its calm edge, his anger now underlining every word.
"And then, one day, someone tried to make good on the threat," He growled. "They decided the best way to end the expedition before it began was to end myself, Claire and Ben..."
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Frank's day had started off as normally as it could have; he woke up, dodged the protestors outside his house, drove into the Directorate of London, passed through several military checkpoints as he reached Lewisham, drove past several hundred picketing protestors, swerved the car to avoid a brick, and finally arrived at the chaos that was the heavily guarded compound in which his expedition was preparing...whilst dodging several hundred more picketing protestors.
Normal. Utterly, utterly normal, he thought ruefully to himself.
He greeted several mechanics, chatted idly with one of the security staff as he filled a cup with coffee, and immediately withdrew towards his office in search of a modicum of peace...
"Good morning!" Sam said brightly, already slumped into his office's sofa as he entered the room.
He let out a sigh, quickly checking his watch, and gave his overly cheerful sister a weary look.
"Sam, it's eight in the morning," He grumbled. "It's too early for your overpowering good cheer."
She smiled at him,
"You say that regardless of the time," She replied. "So I thought I would just make you miserable anyway. After all, what else are little sisters for?"
"Oh joy," He said dryly. He dropped himself into his chair, relishing its softness. Now that he was at least comfortable, he turned back to Sam and smiled, only to pause mid motion as the stacks - and yet more stacks - of paper came to his attention.
"Ah...indulging in a little light reading?" He asked, gesturing towards the mountains of paper.
"Sort of," She replied, her smile faltering slightly. "It's today's post. I thought I would take the liberty of dividing it into two piles; Death threats," She gestured towards the mountain of paper. "And letters that aren't death threats," She gestured towards an empty spot on the floor.
"How thoughtful of you to go to all that effort," He said, smiling wryly. "So, any good examples of humanity's insanity come through today?"
She chuckled ruefully,
"About a mountainful," she replied. "Most from religious groups who seem to have gotten into their heads that the biblical command of 'do not murder' somehow doesn't apply to them...there is one of interest, though."
Frank sat up,
"Oh really?" He stated in morbid curiosity.
Sam's smile weakened into a near frown, lifting a letter from the coffee table in front of her,
"Here, see for yourself."
He leant forward ambivalently, taking the letter from her hands. He studied the envelope as he did so. He shot a confused glance at Sam,
"This one doesn't have a stamp." He said.
She nodded slowly,
"It means it was delivered by hand," She replied quietly. "Which means it had to have been delivered this morning."
Who would run the risk of delivering a death threat by hand? He thought. His eyes widened. Unless...
He set his half-empty cup of coffee on the table, ripping the envelope almost to shreds in his determination to read the letter. He unfolded the paper, scanning it intently;
Your heart and soul will die as the clock strikes four. The death of the few to save the many.
He read it again. And again. And again.
"Damnit," He growled. "No hint as to where or to whom."
"If they put that in, then it wouldn't be much of a threat," Sam mussitated. "Do you think this one is actually serious?"
Frank looked up, staring grimly at his sister,
"They delivered it by hand and have actually put a specific time," He replied. He held the letter up. "I think we might just have had our first seriousthreat."
Sam slumped,
"I thought as much."
He leant back in his chair, staring blankly at the ceiling as the words rolled through his mind.
He let out a bitter sigh, realising he had a long - very long - day ahead of him.
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"I don't care how hard it will be!" He bellowed down the phone. "I want more guards both at the complex and wherever an expedition member is present, and I want them there before three pm! Or do I need to call the secretary general himself?"
A knocking on his office door distracted him. He spun around, now facing Terry and Sam, both milling awkwardly outside the door. He gestured them to come in, paying little heed to the response on the other line. He glanced up at the clock on his wall and grimaced.
Eleven already? How long have I been on the phone?
Remembering the phone in his hand, he turned his attention back to the voice,
"...no need at all to call the Secretary General! I will have more guards with all expedition members before three."
"Good," He stated coldly. "Thank you, goodbye."
He slammed the phone back onto its receiver, collapsed into his chair, and massaged his temples in the hopes his headache would go away.
"Those security brats giving you some trouble, boss?" Terry murmured as he sat on the sofa.
Frank let out a mirthless chuckle,
"Apparently there's not enough to spare," He replied. "Well...until I mentioned the secretary general of the UN, and then suddenly he had guards to spare."
"You should open all of your requests with that line," Sam said insinuatingly. "Why do you have a direct phone line to the Secretary General anyway?"
He turned away briefly, pretending to read a note on his desk.
"He's interested in the scientific possibilities of this technology," He lied. "And so he wants to ensure we have all that is required for it to be a complete success."
He kept his eyes focussed on the note in front of him, waiting to see if they bought what he said.
"Well, that's good of him," Sam said. "Nice to know the all-powerful, all-corrupt UN still has a good side after all."
He stifled the urge to sigh in relief.
"So what is going on to deal with this threat, boss?" Terry quizzed. "I ain't all keen on us getting blown up after all."
He swerved in his chair, looking in Terry's vague direction.
"They are sending more guards here, more guards to protect Charlie and Nigel up in Manchester, and more guards to my home."
Terry whistled in surprise,
"You sure ain't taking any chances, are ya boss!"
"Wouldn't it make more sense to get them all here?" Sam asked. "It would be easier to protect us all that way."
"No," Frank said firmly. "I am not going to risk putting us all huddled together so that one well placed bomb can kill us all in one go. It's safer this way."
She sighed, curling into Terry's arms,
"I guess you're right," She murmured. "...what a crappy situation."
"Crappy isn't quite the word I'd use," He murmured.
He glanced at the clock,
Ten past eleven, he thought, five hours left.
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He had gotten no work done that day, his mind firmly fixed on the threat. He alternated between pacing, staring blankly and shouting down the phone. He kept checking his watch, feeling trapped by his circumstances.
He leant back on his chair, staring out of his window at the hangar below, bristling with people and noise and work.
Looking on at the mechanics busily refining their trucks, machines and designs, all he could think of was the threat.
Why has this rattled you so badly? He asked himself.
They received death threats all the time, he reasoned, so why had this one rattled him? They had put up with them for almost eight months since someone had leaked the details of the expedition's members...
But he knew that this threat was different; that this one was too specific, too oddly handed over, to be a mere threat made out of ignorant rage at the use of an ill understood technology.
That, he knew, was why it had gotten under his skin.
He snapped out of his thoughts as virtually all motion in the hangar below stopped, all faces turned towards a select few places. Leaning forward to get a better view, he realised they were all staring at the radios scattered across the hangar. As he saw Sam turn to run towards the stairs, he spun around and switched on his radio, switching to the channel he knew the mechanics liked to listen to.
"...gunshots have been heard, and there are unconfirmed reports of bodies laying in the streets. Police sources suggest that this may be the home of Frank Howard, the leader of the controversial first expedition through time..."
The door slammed open behind him,
"They're after Claire and Ben!" Sam shouted. "The threat is real!"
He jumped to his feet, checking his watch as he followed Sam out of the door.
"They're early," He stated. "It's not even quarter past three-"
"You ordered more guards to be there by three," Sam interrupted as they sprinted down the stairs. "Their arrival might have sped things up."
Bodies on the streets...
He grabbed the handrail, his sense of balance suddenly abandoning him.
The guards I ordered there to protect us...are dead on the streets.
"I need to get to them," He said. "I need to get there now!"
Terry gestured in his direction, grabbing his attention. Somehow, without him noticing, they had rolled up two of their trucks towards the edge of the hangar.
"We're ready to go and kick some ass, boss," Terry shouted. "But we gotta move now!"
He broke into a run, stopping briefly to grab a security guard by the shoulder,
"Get hold of the security company, tell them what's happened," He stated.
"But sir!" The guard protested. "You can't go! Think of the risk-"
"My wife and son will die if we do nothing," He shouted fiercely. "And so, with respect, I don't care about the risk to me or these trucks if it means I can keep them alive. Now get hold of the security company!"
Frank didn't wait to hear the guard's response. He jumped into a truck, reached for the pistol strapped to the inside of the car door, and screeched the tires as he rushed to keep up with Terry and Sam, both in the truck ahead. Protesters jumped out of their way in panic as they sped past.
He didn't contemplate the risk they were taking; not only of risking the expedition's trucks, but also their lives, in such a move. He didn't care; his son, and his wife were in danger.
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It took them longer than he had wanted to get home; they still needed to stop at every military checkpoint if they wanted to remain unriddled with bullets. When he finally screeched the truck to a stop - slamming the brakes so hard he tore the carpet beneath it - the sight utterly took his breath away.
His house was destroyed; his porch, bay window, and virtually everything around it had been perforated and shattered by gunfire. Every windowpane seemed shattered, its glass scattered all over the floor...
My God, he exclaimed mentally.
His front garden was strewn with three dead bodies - all garbed in the security uniforms he had seen countless times - all arrayed in the undignified postures of death. Police cars - equally damaged by gunfire - were scattered across the street, parked at odd angles. Even from his vantage point, he could see yet more bodies laying around the cars. Officers all hid behind their cars, guns pointed towards his house.
He took in a deep breath, unable to take in all the carnage; it felt surreal, like some fragmented memory of the Troubles...
He jumped as Terry slammed on his door.
"Come on, boss!" He yelled. "We ain't got the time!"
He checked his watch, cursing under his breath.
Six minutes until four pm.
He jumped out of the truck, slipping the pistol holster onto his belt as he did so. He glanced grimly at Terry and Sam, relieved to note that both of them were wise enough to have kept any weaponry on them subtle.
In the corner of his eye, he could see something move towards them.
"Get out of here!" A police officers shouted, panting as moved closer. "This area isn't safe for civilians. I must ask you to leave."
"That is my house," Frank said, gesturing towards the ruined building. "You have to let me through!"
"I'm sorry sir," The officer stated. "But until we have negotiated with them, you cannot pass."
"They won't negotiate!" He retorted. "They want me, and my family, dead. And they will be in," He checked his watch. "Four minutes unless you let me pass."
The officer hesitated.
"I'm sorry, sir, but you cannot pass." He said firmly.
"Hey, officer, can I have a word?" Terry said.
The officer turned towards him, only to fine Terry's fist landing squarely in his jaw. The man practically spun on the spot and crumpled to the ground. Frank stared at the limp form on the floor, then up at Terry in shock.
"We ain't got the time for pussyfooting!" He grumbled, shaking his hand as if in pain. "We need to get in there boss! Less than four minutes!"
Within moments, he was sprinting towards his destroyed front door, hearing the equally rushed footsteps of Terry and Sam following in his wake. Behind him he could hear enraged shouts from police officers, ordering them to back away, but he paid them no heed.
I'm coming Claire, he thought, I'm coming Ben, don't die on me yet!
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Claire held Ben tightly in her arms, glaring at their captors through tear streaked eyes. She didn't know she could hate anyone till that moment; she hated the two men standing over her. She hated the fact they were security guards, hated the fact they had been protecting them for months. Hated the fact she had actually invited them to dinner in thanks just two weeks before...
All that time, and they were planning this.
The thought disgusted her more than she could possibly conceive.
"We trusted you," She spat at them. "We trusted you with our lives."
"And I will take them gladly, whore of satan." One of them replied coldly.
"Why?" She hissed. "What have we ever done to you to deserve this?"
The one who had spoken knelt down, levelling an icy stare - and his pistol - at her.
"It is not what you have done, but what you are going to do," He replied. "Time travel is an abomination against God's creation. We do his work in killing you. The few to save the many."
"Monster." Claire spluttered, spitting into his face. He recoiled a moment, wiped his face, and slapped her so hard she crashed onto the wooden floor. She quickly straightened herself, holding Ben ever tightly to her.
She clamped her eyes shut, willing for something - anything - to save them.
Or, if not me, then save Ben, she pleaded mentally. Please can something...anything...save Ben.
The man glanced at his watch, giving her a cruel smile,
"It's almost four," He said cooly. "Any last words, whore?"
"Go to hell, bastard." She growled.
"That is precisely where I plan on sending you." He replied.
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Frank stood on the stairs, hearing the entire exchange. His heart pounded on his ribcage, feeling a fool for not realising;
Our own guards.
His mind reeled; people he had trusted - had even considered as friends - now stood over his wife and son, preparing to kill them. He glanced at Terry and Sam, silently ordering them up the stairs. They now stood beside the doorframe, waiting for him to move. He felt rage building up within his chest, and it forced himself to pause;
rage could get everyone killed, he thought.
He took several deep breaths. The several more.
He shot a glance at Terry and Sam, mouthing one word silently at them;
NOW!
He dived to the ground, as Terry and Sam jumped into positions where they could get a clear shot. As he crashed to the floor, he could feel time almost visibly stopping as adrenaline adrenaline coursed through his body. Within moments he had his pistol trained on one of the legs of the guards and opened fire before slamming into the floor. His shoulder screamed in pain, but he paid no attention to it as he stared at the guards, both of them felled by two more bullets, aimed specifically for the legs.
We want you to stand trial, he thought angrily at them, no martyrdom for you today.
The guards screamed in agony, writhing in pain across the floor. He scrambled to his feet, stepped over the flailing guards, and scooped his family into his arms, crying with them as he did so.
"It's ok, it's ok," He whispered. "We're here, you're safe, it's ok..."
"You," Sam growled behind him.
He turned to find his sister staring angrily down at one of the guards. The man froze in his flailing, looking up at her in terror.
"Unlike your pathetic excuse of a faith, I am a Christian," She growled at him. "And the bible says do not kill. Ponder that when you rot in jail," A slight, mischievous smile crept onto her face. "It is, however, a little fuzzy about kneecaps..."
She shot him in his other knee, eliciting another scream of pain.
"That's for trying to kill my family." She stated.
Moments later, the room was flooded with police officers, all of them screaming. Sam, Terry and Frank, unwilling to get shot, immediately placed their weapons on the floor.
"POLICE, DON'T MO-!"
The officer at the front paused mid motion - and mid sentence- as he surveyed the scene before him. Frank recognised the bruised face as the same man Terry had punched.
Besides the black eye, he looked distinctly relieved.
Frank gave him a weary smile,
"Is there a problem, officer?" He asked in a rough approximation of breeziness.
Too much had happened for him to care about his brazen attitude to the police;
His family was safe, and that was all that mattered to him.
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The herd sat in rapt silence, eyes eagerly following both his, Claire's and Ben's every word and move. Eventually, they stopped talking, allowing him a much welcomed chance to lean back against the wall. Several silent moments had passed before the herd realised that the story had finished. Suddenly, the whole camp exploded in noise,
"Dude, that was AWESOME!" Crash and Eddie squealed excitedly.
"Good job!" Diego stated.
"And so brave!" Ellie said.
Manny looked at her, levelling an incredulous stare in her direction,
"What?" She asked.
"I seem to recall a certain possum once telling me that bravery is just dumb." He said playfully.
"Yeah, you're right, a possum once said that, and she meant it then," She replied, a mischievous smile creeping onto her face. "As a mammoth she thinks brave is a good thing to be."
"So what happened to them?" Diego asked keenly.
He cast the sabre a bewildered glance, unsure of which 'them' he referred to.
"…We…lived…?" he said slowly, confusion rife in his voice.
Diego let out a chuckle, shaking his head in amusement,
"Not what happened to you guys, but to the guards!"
Suddenly realising the sabre's meaning, he blushed slightly, chiding himself for not seeing such an obvious link.
"Ah...well, that would make a little more sense..." He muttered, shuffling in his spot out of embarrassment.
"They we're tried and convicted, and are now spending the rest of their lives in prison." Claire replied firmly.
"Prison?" Manny quizzed. "What's prison?"
He chuckled, realising just how much he would need to explain...and re-explain...for the idea to stick.
Do I spend all night teaching them about our judicial system, our laws and our penal institutions? He asked himself sarcastically.
...some other time, perhaps.
"Something you will never need to know," He replied. "But it's somewhere you don't want to go to."
"So what happened next?" Ellie asked, cutting through Manny's queries. Crash and Eddie stop their antics and immediately paid attention.
He opened his mouth to speak, but it was Ben's voice that echoed through the camp.
"After dad, Auntie Sam and Uncle Terry saved the day, they talked a lot about what to do next. Everyone pretty much said the same thing...that we should still go ahead with it...because, if we stayed, there could have been another time."
He heard his son's voice grow thick and wrapped his arms around him, feeling his dry sobbing against his chest.
Manny studied him, his expression virtually entirely neutral.
"And, even after all that, you guys still decided to go ahead with it?"
He gave him a weary smile,
"Seemed to make sense to get as far away from the people that wanted to kill us. Twenty thousand years in the past seemed like a good enough bet."
"Question," Diego said pensively. "You mentioned other people in your story-"
"Sam, Terry, Nigel and Charlie," Frank interrupted.
"Right, those guys," Diego continued. "I gotta ask...where are they?"
Good question, he mused. He shot his head around the camp, suddenly aware of the glaring absences he hand't noticed. He felt like a fool - too exhilarated and confused by the day passed - for not noticing. He shot a confused glance at Claire,
"Good question," He repeated, aloud this time. "Where are they?"
Claire's smile tightened into a frown.
"I don't know," She replied. "Their truck crashed right beside ours, but we were the only humans they found."
Diego coughed, dragging his attention back to him.
"Humans weren't the only thing we found there," He said carefully. "We picked up scents that could only have come from sabres."
Wearied and worn out though he was, he found himself on his feet in a split second,
"Sabres?" He spat. "As in the same ones that nearly killed all of you this morning?"
Diego nodded,
"Yeah," He replied. "Them."
Horrific visions of sabres eating Sam, Charlie and Nigel filled his vision.
Horrific-yet-oddly-satisfying images of Terry suffering a similar fate also reeled through his mind.
It was enough; he had to find them.
"Diego, I need you to take me to the crash site," He stated bluntly as he reached for his rifle.
He could see the herd exchanging confused glances in his periphery vision.
"Right now?" Diego said, incredulity tinging his voice.
He froze, staring aghast at the sabre.
"Yes, now!" He snapped, gesturing wildly towards the darkness beyond the camp. "The rest of my expedition is out there, possibly captured - or worse - by sabres, and you want me to wait?"
Anger rose up in him as he saw the wary glances being exchanged. He stared at them, his jaw hanging slack in disgust. He barely felt Buck jumping onto his back.
It should have been encouraging to him, but all he felt was anger;
The only one of them willing to help is the only one I didn't have to save, he noted acridly.
"Seriously?" He spat. "Just because they aren't a member of your precious herd, you're not going to help me?"
Almost instantly, Manny's eyes fell upon him, his brow furrowed over a fierce glare. He knew then that had struck a chord.
"We didn't say we weren't gonna help!" Manny retorted. "But, with that kinda attitude, i'm not sure I wanna."
He took a step forward, gripping the grip of his rifle intently. He knew, from the shrinking terrified faces of the possums, that he looked as menacing as he had wanted.
"There were four other people in this expedition. One of them is my sister. I am not going to just sit here in comfort whilst she is in danger," He growled. "Or are you trying to tell me that, even after we humans saved you...after I saved you...you're going to just sit here and not help? Can you live with the knowledge you might have let four people die just because it was dark?"
The mammoth scowled, looking briefly to the ground.
"Alright, fine," Manny muttered through gritted teeth. "We'll help you, human."
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Terry sat beside the fire, his hands cradling one of Sam's. He looked at her, studying her features for the hundredth time that day, willing her to wake up. He scanned around him, noting the usual array of disinterested-yet-watchful gazes that followed his every move, and sighed.
He had known, even from the snippets of angered conversations he had heard over the course of the day, why the raid had failed; the description was unmistakably Frank.
"Well who else could it be," He murmured aloud. "Only one other gun hand in this posse, and there ain't no other humans about."
He could see Charlie turn towards him in the corner of his eye,
"Sir?" Charlie quizzed.
"Was Frank that pasted 'em this mornin'," He repeated, meeting Charlie's stare. "Ain't no doubt about it."
"Ah, so you know this human?"
He snapped around, catching a glimpse a Soto's sneer illuminated by the fire's harsh glow.
"Yeah, boss," He replied. "He's one of ours; he's the expedition's leader."
Even as he maintained eye-contact with Soto, he could see shapes moving beyond the firelight. He sensed rather than saw their motions, pulse racing beneath his cool exterior.
What the hell are they up t...
He spun his head around and back to Soto; beyond the light, sabres had surrounded them.
Soto sneer curled into a cruel grin as he gestured with his paw,
"Seize her."
He lunged for his gun, but he felt dozens of strong paws pin him to the ground. He heard Charlie and Nigel shout and scuffle, but before long the struggle had ceased. He glanced desperately at Sam, seeing her dragged away from him.
"Let go of her, asshole!" He screamed, using all of his might to try and escape his captors, but to no avail.
"Ah, but why would I do that, Terry?" Soto replied coolly. "Why give up my most...convincing...hostage."
His heart thundered against his ribs as Sam was dragged further and further away from him. Surrounded by sabres and pinned to the ground, he weighed his options. He knew armed resistance was impossible, or resistance of any kind; anything he did could end up with Sam - and everyone else - dead. He could hear Sam's warning echo in his mind, now rueing his dismissal of it;
He wants your soul.
He swallowed hard, looked up at Soto, and sighed,
"Whatever you want from me, I'll do," He murmured. "Just don't hurt Sam."
Soto gave him a smile with no warmth,
"A wise choice, human," He stated. "In return for your mate's life, this is what I ask of you."
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End of Chapter 8
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Till chapter 9, adieu!
