A slightly longer chapter to make up for my recent short ones. Enjoy :) x

Chapter 26

Jenny huffed irritably as the car jolted over yet another fallen branch, cursing inwardly as her wrist accidently smacked against the dashboard. From a PR perspective, she supposed it was a good thing when these anomalies appeared in the most remote parts of London, but still, she could really do without being thrown around the car like a rag doll en route. After rubbing her wrist impatiently, she reached down and pulled the hand-held anomaly detector out of her bag.

"It shouldn't be too far now," she said to Cutter, glancing up at the dirt track ahead of them. "It says it's just three hundred yards away . . ." she trailed off, confused.

There, directly ahead of them, was the anomaly, glittering invitingly at them in the harsh winter sunlight. But . . .

"Where are the others?" she asked, looking round at Cutter and seeing the same bemusement mirrored in his contorted expression. "They should have been here well before us."

"Maybe they just got lost?" Cutter suggested half-heartedly as they pulled up by the anomaly, although they both knew that couldn't be true – Stephen had an excellent sense of direction, and that aside, they all had their own portable anomaly detectors as well.

They both got out of the car, careful not to scratch the silver paint of the car doors on the thick trees that surrounded them. Jenny's first instinct was to shout out for her colleagues, but the foreboding silence of the forest pressed in on them, which for reasons unknown made her reluctant to start screaming her head off. Cutter approached the anomaly cautiously and crouched down, examining the ground around it with his head tilted to the side.

"Any tracks?" she asked with trepidation, keeping her distance so as to not contaminate any evidence of a creature incursion.

"It's hard to say," he replied in a distracted tone. "I'm not as good at this as Stephen is, and the ground's pretty hard from the cold."

Feeling the trepidation inside her build, Jenny studied the surrounding area, looking for anything that may be out of place. But everything looked just as it should; frosted, damp and peaceful. But then why did she have such a bad feeling? Leaving Cutter to his track search, she rounded the car, and slowly made her way over to the steep embankment that ran alongside the dirt track. Cautiously, she lent forwards to peer down into the wild shrubbery, holding onto a tree next to her to make it easier to keep her balance in her boots –

It took a few seconds for her brain to actually register the sight below, but as soon as she comprehended what her eyes were seeing, her stomach seemed to melt away with numbing terror.

"Nick!" she shouted, forgetting her vow of quietness in her utter panic. "Nick!"

He was at her side in a second. "What?" he demanded urgently.

Too shocked to speak, Jenny pointed, her hand shaking as she did so. His eye line followed her unsteady finger, and when he spotted it, his expression froze.

There, at the very bottom of the treacherously steep embankment, was the other SUV, battered and crumpled, and lying steaming on its roof.

"Oh my God," Jenny gasped.

"STEPHEN!" Cutter shouted, cupping his hands around his mouth to amplify his call. "STEPHEN!"

"ABBY!" Jenny yelled down the slope, her voice trembling with fear. "CONNOR!"

Nothing. Not one movement.

"Right, I'm going down," Cutter said grimly as he pulled his jacket off and threw it on the floor. "Stay here - "

"No way, I'm coming with you!" she exclaimed, slightly stung that he'd leave her here.

"Jenny, please – just call for back up," he said, distracted as he concentrated on stepping down onto the steep and uneven slope. "I'll be right back."

Jenny opened her mouth to argue some more, but he was already meandering his way around the slanted trees and fallen branches towards the upturned car. Grumbling, Jenny reluctantly made her way back to their own car, making a mental note to remind Cutter that she was technically his boss, and so in the future it was her call whether or not she stayed behind. In a world of her own, she opened the passenger door and began rooting for her mobile phone. It was the crashing of bushes that first made her ears prick. Straightening up, she looked around, and to her complete confusion, she saw that Stephen was running towards her at full speed, panting and sweating as though he'd been running the London marathon. As he drew closer, she saw that there was a deep gash on his forehead that seemed to be bleeding freely, and his bare arms seemed to be scratched heavily.

"What the - " Jenny began, gaping at him.

"R - run!" Stephen shouted over to her, his voice breaking with exhaustion.

Jenny was about to yell 'what is it?' over to him, but another sound of crashing vegetation stopped her. Her body seemed to paralyse in fright as she saw exactly 'what' was wrong. There, not twenty feet behind Stephen, was a creature that looked as though it had just escaped the deepest depths of hell. It was at least thirteen feet long and seven feet tall, and was chasing him at a startling speed on two powerfully built hind limbs and two shorter forelegs. It had a massively built skull and a narrow, crocodile-like snout that housed a row of sharp and bared teeth the size of small daggers. Its neck was elongated, and expanded into a large and heavily armoured back.

Stephen grabbed her hand as he reached her and then pulled her along behind him as he ran, snaking and winding into the trees. She sprinted hard after him, keeping up with his pace and refusing to look back, but she could tell that the creature - whatever it was - was gaining on them. Seconds dragged on like hours as Stephen pulled her onwards, and stitch started burning in Jenny's side, but she forced herself to keep going, despite the fact that she knew it was pointless – they could no more outrun a creature like that than they could a cheetah. Stephen suddenly veered off to the side, seemingly intentionally, and he pulled her with him. She stumbled as the ground went uneven under her feet before she realised that he was in fact leading her down the embankment, heading for the thicker lining of trees below.

Stephen's hand griped her own tightly as he dragged her in between two tightly packed trees. She could feel the creatures' rancid breath on her neck as it lurched forward to take a snap at her, but in its eagerness it caught itself in between the two trunks, giving them a very welcome chance of increasing the distance between them and it. In a haze of panic, Jenny felt Stephen's hand being wrenched from hers as they both threw themselves in opposite directions. The beast snarled loudly as it tried to free itself, but Jenny refused to look back, and instead flew through the trees at a speed she didn't even think herself capable of. The branches caught her skin as she went and she felt deep gashes form on her arms and cheeks, but she barely registered the pain; she was too aware of the heavy pounding of gigantic limbs behind her, telling her that the thing had recovered from its mishap all too quickly. Suddenly, she felt sharp claws pierce her back and she screamed as she realised that the creature had made an enormous leap and hit her square in between the shoulder blades. She slammed into the leaf-strewn ground hard, knowing that in a moment she would be dead; she felt its hot panting breath tickle her hair . . .

But a split second later, pressure left her. She looked up, seeing the monster rolling on the floor in front of her, the force of the leap having carried it too far. Adrenaline forced her back on her feet in spite of the fact her ribs felt broken, and she watched in horror as the creature growled, skidding around for a new attack.

"HEY!" Cutter's voice shouted suddenly. "OVER HERE!"

Jenny and the creature both turned to see Cutter sprinting towards them, a rock clasped in his hand. He threw it at full force, and hit the creature hard on the snout. It shook its gigantic head, and let out an ear-splitting roar, clearly annoyed as it turned to face Cutter instead. He backed away slowly and deliberately, trying to lead the thing away from Jenny.

Suddenly, someone grabbed Jenny's hand from behind her, causing her to scream involuntarily, her senses still in overdrive. But to her intense relief, it turned out to be Stephen again, gesturing at her to follow him. She allowed him to pull her over to a rather large tree nearby, but it wasn't until he abruptly started to climb it that she finally saw what his plan was. Once he was on a branch thick enough to hold his weight, he reached his hand down to help her up. She turned, wanting to see if Cutter needed help before she got to safety, but she saw him scrambling up a tree nearby also, his legs just out of reach for the snapping jaws of the creature.

"Jenny, come on!" Stephen yelled down, shaking his hand insistently.

She quickly placed her hand in his and held it firmly as she climbed. He hauled her up, compensating for her poor climbing abilities, and at long last she joined him on the low branch, perching awkwardly next to him. Thanking anyone up there that she had thought to change out of the short dress and into a more modest pair of jeans, she glanced around at Stephen, panting hard.

"Thanks," she mumbled, her voice seeming to catch in her throat.

He gave her a curt nod, his gaze set out into the distance. "You okay?" he asked quietly, still keeping a tight hold on her arm.

She nodded numbly, deciding that now wasn't the time to complain about her bleeding back and her painfully throbbing ribs, figuring it was the least of her worries. "What happened to the car?" she questioned, wondering if her breathing rate would ever return to normal after that fright.

"It pushed us down the embankment," Stephen answered, still panting. "We barely got out, and it kept attacking so we all ran in opposite directions."

"Are Abby and Connor okay?" she pushed.

"I don't know," he sighed, his brow furrowed. "Cutter, you okay?" he added loudly, his voice echoing around the forest.

"Yeah!" Cutter shouted back, standing on a high branch and holding the tree trunk for support as he stared down at the circling creature. "How about you two?"

"Fine, apart from a few scratches," Stephen replied. "What is it?" he added, obviously referring to the beast below them.

"I think it's a Postosuchus," Cutter answered, gripping the truck tighter as the creature made another attempt at reaching him. "Late Triassic."

"Yes, and whilst that is all very interesting," Jenny snapped sarcastically, rolling her eyes, "any ideas on how we're going to get ourselves out of this one?"

"I ran into Connor and Abby," Cutter shouted over. "I've sent them to our car to get the tranquiliser guns. They shouldn't be long."

The creature paced in between their trees impatiently, clearly annoyed that its tasty meal was just out of reach. It let out a deep growl of frustration that made the hair on Jenny's arm prickle. Her heart was still racing in her chest, the shock of the sudden attack still bearing down upon her.

But then something happened that made her heart disappear all together.

"JEN!" an instantly recognisable voice shouted from the distance - the last voice Jenny expected to hear at that moment.

It was Mark.

Squinting in between the trees, Jenny spotted him meandering towards them, unknowingly stumbling onto the creatures' path and completely oblivious to the danger ahead of him. He had clearly heard her shouting over at Cutter before and had come to investigate . . . but how had he known where she was . . .?

"Mark!" she cried, surprised that her startled mouth could form words. "Mark – run! Get out of here!"

"Jenny?" he shouted, sounding thoroughly bemused as his eyes searched the place for her. "Where are you? What's going on?"

"Mark – just run!" she begged, making furious notions with her arm despite the fact she doubted he could see her through the leaves.

The confusion hadn't quite died from his face and his eyes were still widened in shock as the Postosuchus pounced, hitting him square in the chest.

"NO!" Jenny yelled, the numbing horror forcing her to jump down from the tree, despite the twenty foot drop.

She landed painfully on all fours, although she barely felt it. Her breaths came in searing gasps as she scrambled to her feet, each inhale seeming to shred her lungs. Her legs didn't seem to be working properly, but she forced herself to sprint, telling herself over and over again that Mark would be alright as long as she could get to him . . .

She had only ran a few yards before Cutter appeared out of nowhere, grabbed her around the chest and holding her back fiercely.

"It's too late - "

"NO!" Jenny screamed, each word tearing at her throat as she struggled hard to free herself. "MARK! YOU'VE GOT TO SAVE HIM!"

"There's nothing we can do!" Cutter barked, his voice shaking as he fought to restrain her.

"NO – HE'S NOT – HE CAN'T BE - !" Jenny screamed, tears clouding her vision as she fought against Cutter's grip with every bit of strength she possessed.

"Jenny – he's dead!" Cutter bellowed, shaking her roughly as if to awaken some sense in her. "He's gone – it's over!"

"NO!" Jenny sobbed, losing the will to fight and sinking into Cutter's embrace, pain such as she'd never felt before emanating from her stomach.