"After her!" Claudia Brown gave what most of the soldiers thought was an obvious order.
As Captain Ryan broke into a sprint he raised his M4A1 Carbine rifle slightly in both hands, ready to turn the nozzle fast and fire if necessary. He thought it was easy for her to say, she hadn't set foot into one of these anomalies yet. It was always easy to give the order but a lot harder to follow it through when you knew it might mean danger.
Captain Ryan was aware of Nick Cutter just within his peripheral vision, sense forgotten over his estranged wife as usual. Emotional attachments, it was one of the many reasons why Ryan believed this should strictly be a military mission much as he liked Cutter.
Even though the giant crocodile beast that lay annihilated nearby and Helen Cutter taking advantage of the chaos to run through an anomaly had added some spice to the day, Captain Ryan sadly couldn't consider this day to be out of the ordinary anymore. Who would have thought serving as a soldier in the Gulf War would lead to this?
They cleared the lights of the anomaly. The sensation was instant. Ryan had yet to adjust that odd feeling of warmth of light that bathed him. It sounded nice on paper but to Ryan it was like crossing over, sending him and his men one step closer to death each time as they could never predict what might be on the other side.
The first sensation was humidity, extra unpleasant for someone in black combat gear. Black was good for the deserts but khaki was better for the jungle in Ryan's opinion. It was another problem with the anomalies, one could never predict the terrain they would be intruding into.
He saw Helen sprinting along through a cluster of large palm trees with ease.
The soldiers followed gamely, focused on their quarry but trying to keep their senses open to their surroundings.
Nick Cutter kept up the pace as he followed after his estranged wife. He was beginning to tire of her ability to be elusive even as a small part of him admired her ability to survive so capably in these different worlds. He couldn't comprehend why she refused to stay with them in the present and work with them on these anomalies. Sure there was a sense of being in a prison within the Home Office but that was only because Helen had a lot to explain to the Home Office officials, something she surely couldn't deny. Claudia and her boss Lester were bureaucrats, they weren't going to have Helen vanish into some unknown cell, she just needed to consider compromising a little. They deserved that much. Nick was bitter that after eight years she still couldn't give him a satisfactory explanation for her absence.
It was a struggle to avoid tripping over large vines sprawled on the ground as well as overgrown roots and concealed rocks. Helen seemed to manage it effortlessly as she zigzagged in an attempt to lose her trail.
Nick was conscious of the noise of the soldiers' pursuit. They were fast but almost clumsy despite being trained in tact and subtlety. They knew the dangers of a single branch snapping underfoot and yet somehow all that knowledge and training had gone out the window. Nick supposed it was the bigger goal, if they were discreet they lost Helen but he worried about what dangers the noise might draw to them.
The redhead was too focused himself in the chase to truly take in the world. It was a blur of colour, mainly shades of green and brown but there were numerous flowers and fruits to add décor to the terrain.
Helen, still a good distance ahead of her pursuers, seized an opportunity. She spied a small gap under a cluster of low hanging leaves that was at the start of a bend that indicated the start of a hill descending. She dropped instinctively, sliding under the leaves and down the muddy slope. Her knife was out before she made the manoeuvre and as she spied the stagnant water that lay below, she instinctively jammed it into a tree to slow her journey.
Helen's arm jerked with the movement but she had dug her feet in as well to lessen the blow and her slide hadn't gotten momentum yet so despite the sharp pang of pain she mercifully hadn't pulled her arm from its socket.
The slope wasn't steep, she could risk continuing the journey down on foot with enough trees to grab to steady her balance to avoid a dip in the murky waters.
The soldiers skidded to a halt where Helen had vanished. No one had seen her sudden drop and slide. They glanced about in confusion, instinctively putting their backs to one another so no one was vulnerable. At least that's what they hoped.
As Helen was preparing to stand as quietly as she could lest she lose her advantage all hell broke lose with the soldiers.
The giant snake descended from the trees above where it had blended in with vines, still as it contemplated prey until food had unwittingly stumbled in below it.
It was fast and vicious, sinking its fangs into one man's shoulder and neck with a head so big it could have remove the man's own clean off his shoulders with little effort.
The spray of gunfire was instinctive. The men were in a panic, screaming and shooting at the large, black mass of flesh that was descending on them rapidly.
All Captain Ryan could think as he aimed his rifle was that it was the biggest snake he had ever seen.
Unlike his men, Ryan waited for the opportunity. The bullets weren't doing a lot of damage to the flesh, the snake was becoming agitated not frightened.
It hissed and wrapped itself around one of the soldiers, crushing him instantly with little effort.
Nick winced at the loud crunch of bones as a gasp of death escaped the soldier.
The snake moved for the others and Ryan glimpsed its face. The eyes held nothing in them, it was just a beast acting on instinct.
Ryan aimed at a gleaming eye as big as saucer and fired.
The bullet struck, liquefying the eye in a spray of blood. Blinded in one eye and suddenly vulnerable, the snake moved for a retreat as the crack of gunfire sent more bullets its way. It moved back up to the trees, vanishing as it quickly as it had appeared, abandoning its meal as it did.
Ryan exchanged a glance with Nick.
Nick knew what the captain was thinking, what all his soldiers were thinking. They sure as hell weren't staying here searching for Helen with something like that roaming about.
Nick glanced back the way they had come, wondering how far they had run and how far they were from the anomaly.
"KADEN!"
The yell was so unexpected it caught everyone off guard.
The soldiers, two of whom were trying to tend to their bitten friend, raised their guns with a wary surprise.
"That...sounded human," Ryan voiced his thoughts doubtfully.
Had it been a trick of the wind? A distorted animal sound that seemed human but wasn't, the way cats' howling could sound like babies crying, hyenas could mimic an almost humane laughter and of course birds could even copy human speech? Hell, was it Helen? It hadn't sounded like her and why would she be yelling anyway?
They were ready to dismiss it until a scream followed.
"That's not possible," Ryan murmured warily. "Is it?" He looked to Nick for confirmation, having no sense of what era they might be in except that it was the past. He searched the jungle, trying to trace the source. It didn't seem far.
"Well we're here aren't we?" Nick pointed out. He pushed back his damp soaked, golden auburn hair and turned to the right. "It's that way," he said.
Ryan looked to the soldiers. "Mac, Watkins, get Jackson back through the anomaly, and Jenkins' body," he ordered the pair tending the wounded man. "The rest of you with me."
The soldiers nodded although it was obvious from their faces that they wanted to retreat. The snake had been huge, easily forty feet. Were there more of it and what else was here? No one wanted those questions answered.
There were no more screams, just wild, anguished sobs but they were loud enough to follow.
Ryan and Nick headed back through the trees to the right, following the ground as it began to slope downwards leading them through to a clearing where a large body of water glinted up at them. It was a murky pond with steep edges and an uncertain depth. Its most bizarre feature was the figure of a woman sitting back from its edge crying.
Ryan and Nick exchanged another dubious glance. Neither one could believe what they were seeing.
Nick looked back to the young woman and grabbed Ryan's arm suddenly.
If there had been more foliage on the ground Nick wouldn't have spotted it. Its dark flesh almost blended in with the earth it slid across and it moved so slow that it was difficult to spy but it was so large it could only be so discreet. Nick only spied it as a stray beam of sunlight struck its flesh showing a sheen of black scales.
"Great," Ryan muttered under his breath as he readied his rifle.
It was another very large snake.
It was stalking the woman, slow because it could be but if it sensed them it would move fast and she would be gone. It hadn't neared her yet but Ryan didn't doubt it could clear the distance.
"It follows vibrations and heat," Nick explained quietly. "Look we need a distraction and we need to get to her as fast as we can while that's happening."
Ryan nodded and glanced back to his men. "Hunter, Bluestone, just start shooting at the damn thing," he ordered. "A spray of bullets right in front of it so it doesn't think about continuing in that direction, kill it if you can."
"Now really-" Nick began a protest as he looked at Ryan in irritation. They were the trespassers and he couldn't even begin to consider how screwed up the past might become with all this activity.
Ryan ignored him. "Either the snake dies or she does," he said bluntly.
Ryan waved his hand down in a command for the order to proceed.
As gunfire tore up the silence the snake had been taking advantage of, Ryan moved forward, low and fast. He was down and by the suddenly shocked woman within seconds but he was wary that it wasn't fast enough.
She had turned at the gunfire, stunned and her eyes were wide in horror as she saw the giant snake raised up as it hissed in anger and tried to recoil from the spray of bullets.
"On your feet, now," Ryan ordered.
She stared up at him with blank eyes, almost entirely white as her irises and pupils shrunk back in shock.
Ryan reached down and yanked her up.
The snake sensed the vibrations and it came forward, moving hard and fast through the bullet spray, determined to get its food and now outraged that something else might be trying to steal its meal.
Ryan aimed his rifle and fired. One bullet sliced neatly through a nostril.
The woman was on her feet.
Ryan gave her a hard shove and pointed to where Cutter and the soldiers remained. "Go, go!" he ordered.
He fired again and again. He saw the black form sliding towards him, it was death, he knew it. A few inches more and he might be the one who was snake food.
A cannister flew threw the air and suddenly the jungle in front of Ryan was full of smoke. It was the unexpected distraction he needed.
Ryan turned and raced back to the slope where the others stood.
Nick's blue eyes went wide. Out of the smoke the gigantic snake came, fierce and fast as it followed Ryan and the woman, furious now as it moved with a raised head, almost gliding over the earth, passing by rocks and vines like they were nothing.
Ryan saw the look on Nick's face and his men's, he saw the guns go up and he instinctively raised a hand to the woman.
Ryan slammed the woman down hard into the earth as he made himself drop with her. It was a calculated risk, it ended their retreat and had them suddenly motionless and ready for the predator but it ended the risk of them getting shot. He had to hope the bullets would do their job. He reasoned that at least he wouldn't have long to work out if he'd made the right call.
The bullets roared overhead. Ryan's ears were ringing and his nostrils reeked with the stench of the damp earth his face was pushed into. He kept his hand down instinctively on the woman, holding her in place but she was frozen up and it was unnecessary. He felt her clothes damp beneath his palm and clinging to her flesh.
Darkness pooled over them as the shadow of the snake rose behind them. The coolness of it was all Ryan felt. There was no muscular body wrapped in scales trying to suffocate him. No fangs piercing his flesh and shredding him into oblivion.
He'd lost two men in mere minutes. He knew somehow that Jackson hadn't made it, there had been too much blood. He wondered dumbly in this moment of hell how many now were dead since this madness had started? They were trained professionals but certainly not trained for this, no one was trained for this. They were men he had led to their deaths.
The gunfire stopped but it took a moment for Ryan to realise it as his ears continued to ring.
The captain heard a soldier shouting but it was hard to make out the words. He raised his head slowly and looked forward first. The men looked wary and anxious but the terror on their faces was was lessened.
Ryan raised his head higher and glanced back. The terrain was a mess. Foliage had been crushed and forced aside, the earth was deep in a pointed track and red liquid stained a large area but the creature was gone.
Ryan moved quickly, getting to his feet and pulling the woman up with him. Gone wasn't dead, it was time to retreat.
"We need to go back," Ryan commanded. He fixed a firm glance on Nick as he pulled the woman along, daring Nick to argue for Helen.
Nick was ashen faced, shocked to silence by what he had just witnessed. The brute force and determination of the creature had been almost unrelenting. He was unnerved by the encounter and marvelled that Ryan was somehow still standing. Nick brought a small, weak smile to the surface as he nodded. "Yeah, I think you're right."
Nick glanced to the woman. She was wearing camel shorts and a cream, cotton shirt, no shoes or socks, and she was visibly soaked from head to toe. None of it gave him clues as to her identity or origin.
"Questions later surely professor," Ryan commented pointedly.
Nick nodded again, he was just as eager to leave as everyone else. Helen had made her choice to come here. She knew the way to retreat and it was up to her to choose it.
Ryan released the woman and took the lead, walking until he realised the woman wasn't moving at all. He rolled his blue eyes despairingly and retreated to her. He knew it was shell shock, he recognised the symptoms and he sympathised but he had no time for it. He was the leader, he couldn't afford the distraction but he took her by the arm anyway and pulled her along.
The woman didn't resist, she moved almost robotically, her feet taking four fast steps just to match one of Ryan's strides. If the branches and rocks underfoot were hurting her exposed soles she wasn't showing it.
Ryan knew he could palm her off to another soldier to bring or even Nick but he couldn't have them put a risk by having her as a distraction. He had chosen to help her, he had to bear the responsibility.
Ryan glanced left and right and then instinctively up before he continued on their way.
Bullet casings let them know they had arrived back to the point of the first attack.
Everyone looked instinctively up but the leaves were large and cast many shadows, and vines in the darkness bore similar shapes to serpents. It was impossible to spy out any danger.
"There's noise," Nick said reassuringly, "listen, we're safe for now."
He was right, animals of uncertain species called out to one another as they moved through the jungle.
They continued walking, ears strained for noise, wary of when the silence might come again.
Everyone froze when their path was briefly blocked by a surprising intruder. The guns were up again but no one fired.
It looked like a turtle that ambled through only it was as big as a Smart car. It paid them no heed as it continued on its journey through the jungle in search of food.
"Why is everything bigger?" a soldier lamented.
Nick watched it go in awe. It had similar colouring to turtles he'd seen in the present, muted shades of green and brown to blend in with its surroundings. Its shell was gigantic and looked impenetrable. He didn't think such a beast would be prey for too many things out here and wondered if the large snake would even be capable of crushing such a large, thick shell.
Once the giant turtle had passed they continued on their way.
The anomaly appeared in sight, its blinking lights a beacon welcoming them home to the present. Nick realised worriedly that it had shrunk and the lights were jolting fast.
"It's going to close!" he shouted.
They broke into a run instinctively. Ryan moved twice as fast as normal to account for the mute woman he pulled yet still he hesitated when he reached the lights, waiting to see his men safely through first.
They all made it through with an obvious sense of relief.
They stumbled into to a children's park area, which had been taken over by soldiers and government bureaucrats. There was a large, black sheet of tarp hiding what drawn them to the area in the first place- some kind of gigantic, prehistoric crocodile or alligator that had come through at their arrival.
It was Helen who had warned them about the anomaly. In the chaos she had escaped into it just as the crocodile had been finished off. A planned opportunity or one of luck they didn't know. It was impossible to tell what Helen actually knew about the time phenomenons and what she pretended to know. She had lied before about sabre toothed tigers and instead their had been dodos. Unfortunately and unexpectedly they had turned out to be just as fatal for someone.
Claudia Brown, standing with her arms folded, looked poised with a professional cool calm as she tried to keep her emotions from her face. She suddenly lost her stern stance as she realised that Ryan wasn't holding Helen by the arm but someone else entirely.
Claudia's arms dropped by her sides as she took a step towards them, pausing as the anomaly flickered out of sight.
"Um Captain, who is this?" Claudia asked the obvious question.
Ryan gave her a rare smile laced with dark humour. "No idea," he retorted.
