The creature was going to catch them soon. Logan knew it. The creature was going to catch them and kill them. The creature didn't seem used to the forest trees of the survival dome but it was faster than them, much faster. He knew it was after them and it was getting closer. He could hear it's feet slamming on the ground behind them and they were getting louder. Logan could hear his heart beating as loud as a drum. He looked at Katie and she seemed to be concentrating so much on the running that she couldn't talk. The vines of the dense undergrowth hit at the both of them and it was painful but not as painful as it would be if the creature got them. The trees seemed to be an advantage of cover as well a disadvantage as they had to dodge them. Nothing seemed to be helping them escape but they knew it really was. Survival instincts were kicking in, they both knew to not stop running even through their legs hurt from the beating they were getting. The creature pounced at Logan and Logan thought that it was going to kill him. He managed to use a tree to block him and pulled Katie down a path. He suddenly felt a hand in his other hand. Katie was holding his right, someone had taken his left. He looked to the side and saw Sammy was running along side him. Somehow she had managed to catch up with them. "This way." she shouted and lead them to the left.
They stopped on the edge of the pit. They all skidded to a halt in front of it. "Thanks Sammy, now you've got us all killed." Katie hissed. Sammy seemed to not be scared even though they all were really terrified. Logan wondered what the government would tell his parents had happened if they all died, a terrorist attack on the school, maybe, him running away because he didn't want to go after all, or a car crash. He wondered how Liam would feel finding out he was the only one left. He wondered whether Liam would even want to continue with another team if he got the chance. He thought about saying something that sounded brave but the creature emerged from the trees. It had blood splattering it's face. Logan realised that they were all bleeding, Sammy was bleeding the least, amazingly, but she was covered in blood from the creature on her clothes and arms. Logan and Katie seemed to be in pretty bad shape even though it hadn't reached them properly. The creature had blood dripping from it's tummy and it seemed to be very weak. It roared at them, infuriated by their attempt to escape. It slowly approached them, stalking them. It began to circle them, stopping them from walking past. "What's it doing?" Logan asked, whispering.
"It's looking for which one of us to attack first." Sammy explained. "See which one is weakest and an easy kill or which of us is the biggest threat." The tiger seemed to have chosen Logan and the boy looked like he was about to ask Sammy why. "It wants to take you down because you're male and it can smell it and thinks your a bigger threat than us." Sammy said before Logan had chance to ask. Logan only just realised how impressive the creature really was it could tell he was male from his smell and Sammy seemed to know what was happening. He glanced back at her and gave her a look to prepare her for what he was going to do. "Then..." Logan took a step forwards. He smiled at the creature. "Eat me!"
"Logan! Don't!" Katie begged. She looked at Sammy, pleadingly. Sammy shrugged as if there wasn't the life of their friend at stake. "Sammy stop him." Katie begged. Katie ran over to Logan, fighting to pull him away from the creature, but Sammy pulled her back. "It can smell that he's male." Sammy said simply. "We don't really have much choice. It's going to keep chasing us until it gets a meal." Then it pounced. Logan wasn't sure what happened but one minute he saw the creature leaping at him, bound to hit him any second, the next he was lying face down in the dirt with Katie lying on top of him. He looked up at Sammy but she didn't look at him. She was looking down at the pit. She pulled a face that showed she felt more remorse than disgust and Katie and Logan both dared to look over the edge. The creature's body was still intact but the fall had killed it. Katie felt like she was about to be sick so she turned away. She put a hand to her mouth and tried to steady herself again. Logan turned to Katie, checking she was alright. He himself had gone as white as a sheet. Sammy looked at them. "I'm going to have a look."
"I'll come." Logan said. Katie shook her head. "What if there are any more of those things up here and they find you alone? They'll kill you." Logan reminded her.
"It'll be safer if we stuck together." Sammy agreed. She checked her satchel bag and smiled. "This time I came prepared." She pulled out a rope and tied it to one of the trees on the edge of the wooded area. The rope was long enough to reach the bottom of the pit where the creature had met it's end. Sammy dropped down onto the first level. "The rope is more for getting ourselves back up." she pointed out as the others followed her.
Liam woke up. He guessed he should apologise to Logan. He felt bad now for running off. He would also check if Sammy was back. He got out of bed. He had now decided that if Sammy didn't want to tell them he should respect that and that it was Sammy's secret to tell. He had to stop telling people about it. His feelings were for Sammy and he should be caring about what she thought of him, not trying to correct a life that Sammy was happy leading already. He guessed that it was because of a new life had meant new tactics and he had been playing by the old ones. Now he almost had to rediscover life after something as life changing as this. Sammy must have already done it. He waited until breakfast came then set out for Logan's room.
The creature was huge. Logan had been wrong, thinking it was the size of a car. It was much larger than that and much more powerful. If it had even managed to catch Sammy with it's paw then Sammy would have been killed. The creature had a coating of blood on it's face. "Did you do that?" Katie asked. She looked very disgusted. "It's not it's blood, it was it's kill."
"Oh." Katie said. She buried her head in Logan's jacket. Logan looked at the creature. Sammy knelt down beside the creature and began to go over it's claws. Logan saw how large they were. They were like daggers. "It could have killed you."
"It doesn't matter." Sammy said.
"What is it?" Logan asked. He tried to get a closer look but Katie stopped him. Sammy looked at the cut. "I did that." she said. She managed to pull something from the wound. It was Sammy's knife. Her hand returned covered in blood and she wiped it on her clothes. She pulled out her notebook and began to draw it. "It's a sabre tooth tiger." Sammy explained. "Or it was. It went through an anomaly."
"Anomalies do that to you?" Katie gasped. Sammy shook her head. "No, it ended up in a sewer mishap in an illegal plant in Africa. It was mutated and became that." she finished. "I had to stop it."
"There's a team here to stop it." Logan said. "You don't have to do anything alone any more." He looked over Sammy's shoulder. The drawing she had done was of the creature with it splitting bottom jaw open and the drawing felt like it was roaring. Sammy smiled. "Have you made up with Liam yet?"
"Nope." Sammy said.
"Do you want to?" Logan asked. Sammy didn't answer. Katie looked at Sammy. "What happened?" Katie asked. Sammy shook her head. "We better get going, I'll ask if I can have it moved in to the lab in my quarters so I can check it's not toxic."
"Do you really think they'll let you?" Logan asked. Sammy smiled. "I'm sure they will."
Liam began to panic. Logan hadn't been in his room, nor had Katie or Sammy, he hadn't expected Sammy to be in her room anyway. He asked Carmen, who he saw passing the corridor, but she had no explanation, nor did Freddie. He then saw Walsh. "Do you know where Logan and Katie are?" Liam asked. Walsh nodded. "They were taking part in a training exercise, one that you should have been present in."
"You were planning saying that all night." Liam said. Walsh shot him a glance that suggest that, if looks could kill, Liam would a smouldering pile of ash on the floor by then. "So where are they?" Liam asked.
"I am just about to free them from the survival dome." Walsh reported. Liam nodded. "Can I come with you? It's just that I need to talk to them."
Walsh had stopped outside the door and was looking at the lock. "I think someone picked this lock." Walsh said quietly. "I better go in front. It would look bad a weakling like you getting killed if there was an attack and I was present." He opened the door and went inside. Liam noticed that Walsh was gripping a tazer gun in one hand. "You've never dealt with a creature before, have you?" Liam asked. Walsh gave him another glare. Then he opened the door.
Sammy watched as the door was opened. Liam and Corporal Walsh walked through. She looked at Logan and Katie deciding silently what to do. They decided to not tell Walsh where the creature was and see if Carmen or someone else would give them time off lessons to have it moved into a lab, preferably in Sammy's quarters. They all walked forwards. Sammy trying to hide herself for as long as possible. Walsh saw her. "Gilans!" he shouted. Sammy closed her eyes and shrugged. "Gilans! What are you doing here?" he barked. Liam stared at Sammy. "I needed a bit of space to think things over." Sammy said. It seemed believable to Liam but he guessed that Walsh wouldn't understand. "You have quarters for that."
"She came out here because she enjoys the risks and danger of the place." Liam said. Walsh seemed to calm down since it didn't seem to involve emotions that he didn't seem to understand at all. Sammy mouthed 'thank you' to Liam and he smiled. "You have a lesson with Stephanie Butler." Walsh said. Then he turned and walked away leaving the children to find their own way. "So spill the beans." Liam said.
"On what?" Sammy asked innocently. Liam shook his head.
"You disappeared last night and then turn up in the survival dome. The lock as tampered with and me and Stephanie saw you in her store cupboard with some cat food."
"Just to get this straight, tigers do eat cat food, right?" Sammy joked. Liam raised his eyes brows. "Was that why you stole the cat food from the stores?"
"I didn't steal it I paid for it." Sammy said with a smile. Logan began to laugh. "Sammy, you are unbelievable." he said.
Stephanie looked up and saw the children walk in. "Sorry, we're late. We got a bit lost." Liam said.
"Well, don't worry." Stephanie said. She looked at them and smiled. "Well, only Liam knows me but I can guess your names. You're Sammy, that's Logan and you're Katie."
"So what are you going to teach us?" Logan asked looking at all the animals in awe. Stephanie smiled. "Well, I thought it was easy to guess. I'm going to teach you about animals."
"Stephanie, you know we're learning about animals, can we go and see an animal?" Sammy tried. She glanced at Logan and Katie who nodded. "We could say that we were checking out tracking techniques in the survival dome."
They reached the survival dome. "So what your saying is that there is a animal in there." Sammy, Logan and Katie nodded. Liam looked at them. "What type of animal?"
"You know I borrowed some cat food." Sammy said. "Well, it's a type of cat."
"You could say that." Logan said. Katie smiled. Stephanie rolled her eyes and watched as the three children went inside. She pulled Liam back. "What is it you see in her?"
"She's brilliant, if a bit strange." Liam said and went in.
"Are you sure we can trust her?" Katie whispered. Both her companions shook their heads. "It's as good as we've got." Sammy said. "We don't want Walsh to find it and experiment on the body. He might use it as a weapon."
"Despite what you think, I don't think he's clever enough to be able to turn it into a weapon?" Logan said.
"Still, we need to make sure that he doesn't take it away from us before we can sort it out." Sammy said. Liam caught up with them. "What are you talking about?"
"You'll see in a minute." Logan said. They then all walked over.
Liam saw that Stephanie seemed to enjoy climbing through the survival dome. He didn't want to say anything but noticed that Stephanie was doing well too. He didn't want to help either. He saw the others walking ahead of them but didn't want to join them. "Do you think that this has something to do with Sammy borrowing the cat food?"
"Yes, I think we should be one the look out for some little kittens." Stephanie said with a smile. She looked at Sammy. "But I wouldn't put it past Sammy to have feed cat food to some sort of dog." Liam laughed at that.
"Maybe she just ate it herself." he said. The others had reached the edge of the pit. Sammy looked back at them and dropped down into the pit along with the others. Liam and Stephanie followed them.
Stephanie was horrified by the creature's body. She wanted to turn away and be sick but knew that would be the wrong thing to do in front of the pupils. "What is it?" she asked. Sammy answered. "A sabre tooth tiger that ended up in a sewage plant and mutated." Sammy pointed at it. Logan nodded in agreement. "How did it get here?" Stephanie asked in a wavering voice. "It came through an anomaly. I saw it on CCTV and knew I need to stop it. It didn't like the cat food I tried to feed it." Sammy said.
"So, it ended up here, dead."
"It was going to kill us." Logan said. "We had no choice."
"You didn't have to kill it!" Liam snapped. He had been looking at the creature in mournful silence. He then turned away and headed towards the edge of the pit. Sammy shot Logan a glance which said what should I do. Logan nodded towards Liam and Sammy walked over. Logan took the chance to explain to Stephanie that they wanted to move the creature into Sammy's quarters and Katie used a ploy that they wanted to keep it a secret. It made Stephanie feel that the children trusted her so she wasn't going to let them down.
Now they where apart from the group, Sammy and Liam felt like it had been last night just before Sammy had left. "You shouldn't have killed it." Liam said. Sammy turned so they weren't facing the group. She sat on a rock with Liam. "It was in pain, it was the best thing for it."
"It could have recovered." Liam said. Sammy shook her head. "It wasn't meet to have happened, it shouldn't have. I'm sorry, Liam, I should have tried to stop it. I didn't. I won't say that there is a way to justify what happened but it wouldn't have survived away. It was alone in the world, it couldn't mate of have any friends like it. I'm sorry for what I did." Sammy said.
"It should be me who's sorry." Liam said. He took Sammy's hand and squeezed it. "I'm sorry about how I reacted just then and what happened last night. I liked what happened in the end though." Liam said. Sammy looked back.
"I think I should go and help them." she said. Liam felt Sammy pull away and his hand fell down by his side.
The creature's body was put on Sammy's laboratory table. Stephanie decided that she would stay in the lab for the lesson. The other children were there too. Liam and Logan stood back. Katie was helping Sammy find everything she might need. Liam and Logan crept into the bedroom. Liam tried to find the photos but they weren't there. "I feel like we're leaving Katie out." Logan said.
"It doesn't matter." Liam said. "She might tell Sammy."
"She's much better than you give her credit for." Logan warned. Katie appeared behind Liam. "I'm much better at telling the truth than Sammy."
"He meant you."
"Oh, not Sammy." Katie said with a smile. She walked over to Logan. "Whilst Sammy is explaining the general attack pattern of the sabre-tooth tiger, I thought I might talk to you two boys."
"Well, Sammy's been keeping secrets. She knows this boy called Oliver and she has done this stuff before. There's loads of stuff she hasn't told us." Liam explained.
"That's Sammy for you." Katie said. Logan nodded. Liam smiled as Sammy walked in with Stephanie. "So, we might as well as have our lesson here." Stephanie said. Sammy looked a bit frightened and panicked at the idea. "Why don't we have it somewhere else?" Sammy kept glancing at something in her bag and then pulled Katie, Logan, Liam and Stephanie deeper into the lab. She closed the door and pressed herself against it. "What are you doing?" Logan asked. Suddenly a light was shone through the frosted glass. Sammy put her hand up to silence them. Whilst looking at the frosted glass Liam noticed starches on the glass. Liam could tell they belonged to an animal but he wasn't sure which one. It was probably a predator and very powerful but not powerful enough to smash through the thick glass. Liam's heart was thundering and he guessed the same for all the others in the group. Stephanie looked terrified. Katie looked at Sammy as if she was mad and then they all heard noises through the glass. The noises then stopped suddenly. The light flashed away. Sammy pressed her ear against the wall
and realised the noises had completely stopped. She opened the door cautiously and then Sammy smiled. Stephanie looked at them all. "OK, Sammy, explain what just happened otherwise I'll tell the others about your little pet." Sammy looked awkward as if she didn't what to answer. Liam decided he would make it easier. "Sammy's room has some sort of recurring anomaly. I'm pretty sure that's why she chose this room. The photos came through the first time and then the deinonychus that were in the ARC junior building. Sammy was protecting us from the deinonychus that had been going to come through." Liam said. Sammy looked at him and frowned. "OK, thank you Liam." Stephanie said. She looked at Sammy. "And you didn't think of telling us?"
"Well, I thought you knew." Sammy said.
"Sammy, maybe you should report to the main centre so we can think of what to do with you and your anomaly." Stephanie said. "You lot can, um, go downstairs and learn about the animals in my lab. Liam can show you round."
Sammy sat in the main room. The ARC team had been called. "Can you fire me?" Sammy asked Connor as he walked over.
"They can kick you out of the team and arrest you. There's a good juvenile detention centre near by." Connor said with a smile. Sammy looked down. She was worried that she was lose her chance to help them and if she went to prison she would probably never be able to deal with the anomalies. She was worried about her friends as well, especially Liam. She had the feeling Liam liked her a bit too much. "So what are you going to do with me?" she asked. Nick was talking with Stephanie and he walked over to give the verdict.
Liam was sitting in his room, worried. Katie walked in. Logan had been called up to the main centre, probably to give evidence against Sammy, he had promised Katie he wouldn't. Liam was sitting on his bed. "So, our mischievous Sammy, wonder how they are treating her." Katie said.
"We'll need to move the creature in case Stephanie does talk." Liam said. If Stephanie realised that they had all taken a miss on her lesson she would probably me a bit angry with them. "Let's move it into here. You're the animal expert and if you hang round with Stephanie then she won't get suspicious. Sammy can visit here as well because she'll have an alibi." "Which is?" Liam asked, innocently.
"Oh, yeah, an alibi is when you have a story to say your somewhere else or for a different reason." Logan teased.
"I know what an alibi is, why would Sammy have one coming into my room?"
"Logan's room and people start thinking he's cheating. My room and people think we keep having girly chats, it doesn't seem like Sammy to have girly chats." Katie said. "Everyone knows you have a thing for her and everyone can tell that she trusts you the most out of all of us, even if it isn't that much. If she keeps going into your room then people will think that she's just spending time with someone she trusts or think something a bit more serious is going on. I doubt they will think you'll have the guts to do something like this and," she paused to give Liam a cheeky smile, "it'll impress Sammy." Liam thought about it for a second. He didn't like the idea of the creature's body being cut up and stared at even after it was dead. The adults would do that. If it was him and Sammy in charge then he'd be able to look after it all and learnt about it from Sammy's knowledge. Liam and Sammy put together could probably work out what was each thing for with the need to cut it up. Liam smiled and nodded. "Let's move the body."
Logan walked into the room. Sammy was sitting at the table and the adults were sitting around it. Nick turned to him and signalled for him to come over. Sammy turned and waved at him as well. "We were just discussing how we were to punish, Sammy. We have decided on a punishment."
"Which is?" Logan asked. He walked over and sat next to Sammy. Everyone looked at Sammy who seemed to be only slightly worried and not the least bit guilty. "We've made our decision. Although Sammy was voted to become the leader, with her past record of disappearances and her disobedient nature we have decided that the runner up, you, should become leader instead. Sammy has also been suspended for two weeks."
"Two weeks!" Logan gasped. "What will she do for two weeks?" He guessed that Sammy would not have anywhere to stay and if she was sent off she would probably not come back. "Find somewhere to stay?" Connor suggested.
"But we need her here!" Logan said. "Lets make a deal, Sammy can stay in the building but be excluded from lessons and two weeks of missions."
"OK, I'm guessing that'll be a punishment for her." Stephanie said. "But there's still the matter of the dead creature in her room."
Logan hated what they were doing. Sammy was trying to push past Nick and get to the creature first but the guards were blocking her way. She didn't want the adults to take the dead creature away. It didn't deserve to be destroyed and cut up by scientists. As Sammy thrashed about, the two guards grabbed her, restraining her as they heading along the corridor. They saw Katie and Liam in the corridor. Liam was horrified at what he saw. "Leave her alone!" he shouted and looked like he was about to attack the men and get Sammy freed. Logan looked at him and suggested he stayed away. "What are you doing?" Liam asked, masking his anger. Logan smiled and tried to calm Liam down but the men behind him couldn't tell what they had done. Katie winked quickly so the men didn't notice it either and Logan understood what it meant. "They're after the creature."
"What?" Liam gasped. "You can't." He looked horrified at what the men were planning and how they were doing it. He was trying to act the way he was expected to act. "Logan! Tell them they can't!" Sammy shouted, struggling even more. Her legs were flying through the air and it looked like she was trying to not hurt the men too much. "It's horrible! I should never have brought it here! I should have let it kill me!" Liam looked at her and stepped aside from Sammy's door. He stared at his friend and found himself smiling, at Sammy's dedication and also about the trick they had just pulled.
The guards pushed them into Sammy's room and Connor began setting up equipment to monitor Sammy's anomaly. Sammy was forced to sit on her bed with a guard standing next to her, making sure she couldn't do anything. "It's through here." Stephanie said, walking into Sammy's lab. Sammy sat in her room helpless. Liam and Katie took seats next to her. "It's going to be alright." Liam whispered.
"Even so, it's already dead, what can they do to it now?" Katie asked. Logan had gone through with them and was talking to the guard, trying to convince him to leave Sammy alone so she can talk to her friends. Katie watched them. "Why is Logan leading the way?" she asked.
"Because Logan is the leader now and frankly he is the best choice." Sammy said. She explained about the punishment she had got and her friends listened hard. The guards were looking at them suspiciously. "Where is it?" Stephanie said, stepping through the door. She glared at Sammy. "What? Why are you looking at me? Whatever it was, it wasn't me, I was in the main room with you lot."
"And we were in your classroom. We just came up to see if you had finished punishing Sammy." Katie lied. Liam nodded to agree. "And Logan was with us until you called him up into the main room." he added.
"What's wrong?" Sammy asked again, generally confused.
"The creature, where is it?" Stephanie said, her voice with a harsh tone. Liam looked at Sammy and saw her shocked reaction. "It might not be dead." Liam said. He enjoyed the flash of fear in the eyes of the guards. "You better go look for it." he said.
"Gilans, you're in lock down. You are to stay in your room and not leave unless given permission." Corporal Walsh barked.
"Can we visit her?" Liam asked.
"I suppose you can." Carmen said. Liam smiled.
"You better go and search for the creature. CCTV is the safest way. I need to talk to Sammy." Liam said. The guards left and left the four children alone in the room.
"So what is going on?"
Logan and Katie had left to go and make sure the cameras were set which had broken the awkward silence that had fallen over them all. Sammy and Liam were left in the labs, together. "Where is it?" Sammy said. The table was empty. "Seriously, where it is?" Sammy was almost in tears and Liam knew that she didn't want the creature to be treated as just another science experiment even though it was dead. "It's OK." Liam said. "Me and Katie guessed that Stephanie would talk and we had to move him away. It's in my lab but since you're stuck here we won't be able to let you look." Sammy stared for a second and then jumped forwards. Suddenly the two were hugging. Sammy was rubbing her face into Liam's shoulder. Liam hugged her back, tighter. He felt his hand catch in her hair and smiled. "It's safe." he whispered into her ear. Sammy smiled. "Just because it's dead doesn't mean it had to be destroyed. It was alive once and deserves respect. We need to bury it."
"I'm sure Logan will help us do that." Liam said. "We could sneak it out on a mission." He paused and Sammy looked at him. "What would we tell Stephanie?"
"I think she deserves to believe that it's still alive and stalking us through the corridors." Sammy said. Stephanie had betrayed them and now Liam felt awful Stephanie knew anything about the creature and his troubles with Sammy. Sammy pulled away gently so she could look at him better. She must have noticed his guilty look. "It's not your fault. We should have all thought it through better and, in any case, we could just all blame Stephanie." she said. Liam smiled. That was just so very Sammy. She would always be able to cheer him up and that made Liam sure he loved her. Not only did she cheer him up but she respected the creatures and felt that killing them should never happen. He could tell that was how she felt and he loved her because of it. Now was time to admit it, he decided. He steeled himself to tell her and held her hand. "I love you Sammy. I love the way..." Liam stopped mid-sentence. Sammy was wincing as if this was bad news. Liam lowered his head in shame as Sammy turned away, staring at the wall, as if trying to think what to do next. "I'm sorry." Liam said sadly as he left the room. When he had gone, Sammy turned back and closed her eyes as she faced the closed door. She had a tear tumbling down one side of her face. "It's me who's sorry." she said.