It was Lester who picked up Rex from Abby's place after the trio became M.I.A. He'd been in bed at his city flat, opting to stay close rather than go home to his family for the weekend, in the hope of a quick development. Sid and Nancy scuttled around his bedroom floor, gnawing at the bottom of the bed posts between chattering to each other. The noise of their nocturnal activity echoed into Lester's dreams. In which Nancy chased Sid, who sought refuge between the civil servant's legs in an act that was not only futile but almost sent Lester toppling over. As he steadied him, he turned his head to watch them continue their game down the corridors of the arc. The walls scaled up as he took note of them, hazing slightly at the edges as his gaze drifted. By his office, a slightly deranged Scotsman scribbled complex equations on its window, gesticulating madly to the observing dodos perched on the railings. One turned to face him before toppling over the edge and plummeting to his feet, much like they do in that Ice Age movie his kids like. Except before it hits the ground it transforms into a ball and refracts to towards a tall ruggish man with slightly spiked hair, Stephen. Stephen takes no notice of Lester even when he calls his name, instead he flicks to ball up before sending it flying towards Becker, who headers it straight to the console. There's a shattering of glass and a subsequent cheer before the arc disappears and a forest takes its place.
Suddenly he's running, his tight suit trousers pulling in resistance, he puffs quietly trying to keep up with the blonde girl in front,
"Hurry up!" she calls, giggling.
From behind him emerges a dog sized sabretooth; it bounds towards her happily. Abby and the sabre lead him to an opening in the tree line where the sunlight streams down, unobstructed by the canopy and in the centre an anomaly flickers. They stand to watch Sarah, who is knelt in front of the it, tweaking the spire of the locking device. The sabre sits patiently besides, nuzzling Abby's leg and purring as if it were a domestic cat. Sarah stands back before instructing Conor's invention into action causing the anomaly to pulse into nothingness. At the moment it disappears there is a massive crash of thunder, dark clouds obscure the sun and clearing turns dark. The girls turn and laugh to one another, but Lester can feel his heart beat quicken. There's something in the trees.
The creatures are agile, they leap from branch to branch effortlessly getting closer every time. They land as a pack, the leader snarling through wretched foaming jaws. Gangly with bulbous grey heads, the future predators break into a run, lunging at Lester. Before they can reach their target, the sound of gunfire sees them collapse to the floor. Lester stares at the heap of bodies for a moment then follows the sound of the gunshot to see Connor, leading the section of soldiers. Abby jumps into his arms more for affection of the man than in relief of surviving. The storm continues to lash down, the raining dripping from Lester's brow to his mouth forcing him to spit it out. The group head for cover, leaving the creatures as they lay but as the last figures leave the clearing the creatures fade away as smoke.
Rather than find their way back to the arc the group enter the courtyard of his university, its beige pillars encapsulating the group as a place of refuge. Lester takes note of the group which has swelled into a crowd, all of whom chat absentmindedly amongst themselves. He searches the group for his team, his eyes scanning until he sees Cutter, adorning a graduation cap and robes, spinning Jenny around in a dance. The pair waltz romantically, focusing only on each other, gazing into the other's soul. They draw closer as the music ebbs to a close, kissing in its final moments. Across the grass is Becker, fitted for combat and delivering orders to his section, he directs a stick at a large house on his model that seems to resemble Westminster. Before he can decipher more there's a subtle rumbling, the ground begins to quake and the great pillars of the courtyard start to crumble. Something looms closer in the dust. It beckons forwards into view, revealing the mammoth – his mammoth. And on his back, standing amongst the ruins of Oxford, Danny fucking Quin. Danny stands in jubilation before surfing down the mammoth's trunk, which delivers him safely to the ground. Upon reaching the ground Danny saunters over, high fiving Connor then Abby, and makes his way to Lester. As he swings his hand to Lester's Oxford vanishes.
Lester now finds himself sitting in his favourite chair, by the fire with his favourite mug in hand. He gazes out the window to see his children playing in the garden with his wife pushing his only daughter on their homemade swing. He takes a deep sigh of relief and closes his eyes to relax into a nap. That's when he hears it. The small unobtrusive chirp of a lizard, his eyes snap open to find Rex gliding across the room.
James shoots upwards, gasping into consciousness. He leans over to check his phone only to find it is 2:43am, not that that acts as much of a deterrent. He clambers out of bed and in doing so sends the snoozing huddle of Sid and Nancy tumbling on the floor. They squeak happily at his feet whilst he pulls on the nearest trousers he can find and follow him to the door until he slams the door rather unintentionally in their faces.
Its not until he reaches Abby's flat that he realises he doesn't have a key, no matter, it's nothing a heavy enough rock can't fix. And so, in the dead of night, a senior member of the civil service breaks into his employee's property, pulling himself through a broken window- in his pyjamas no less to retrieve a prehistoric lizard. God, how he hoped he didn't have to explain this to the minister. At least Rex was grateful, upon seeing the bedraggled man's face he swooped eagerly into his arms, chirping merrily.