The ARC
AN: this story should be back in full swing now, and I have deleted some chapters, mainly 'cause they were terrible. To put this story back up, I am sacrificing one of my others which will go on my 'discontinued for now.' List. Information is on my profile.
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Primeval or any of its characters and probably never will –sad face-.
Chapter 5- Diictodon
Lorelei perched herself neatly on the edge of professor Cutters desk, watching as Sarah fiddled with the intangible mess of metal poles in the middle of the room. Honestly, she still didn't truly understand what the meaning of it was. She was in the middle of contemplating whether to ask Cutter, yet again, why he couldn't of just done it on a computer when Lester casually strolled in.
He calmly admired the model as he spoke, "You know, I've always liked modern art. So uncompromising."
Lorelei and Sarah shared a look as Nick's voice tore through Lester's sentence.
"Yeah, it's a very complex model of the exact locations and dates-"
"Of anomaly appearances throughout recorded history." Lester countered smugly, "Yes, I know."
"Yeah, just don't touch it." Lorelei said quietly. To her surprise, Lester nodded at her and she smirked as he carefully picked his way across the room towards Becker, who now stood in the doorway.
"Ah," Lester was back to being his normal- albeit slightly arrogant- self, "Any news on Helen Cutter?"
Becker locked eyes with Lorelei for a split second before turning back to his superior, "I've instigated a complete review of security."
Lorelei involuntarily closed her eyes as the memories of a few days previously flashed through her mind. Lester, however, seemed un fazed.
"You're sure the intruder was her doing?"
The young American scoffed slightly, although the people in the room ignored her as Nick answered.
"I can't think of anybody else who can create an exact replica of a dead man."
Sarah came to stand next to Lorelei and gave her a concerned glance. The younger woman nodded, assuring her friend that she was fine.
"Keep everyone on high alert. If Helen's back, we should all be worried."
Cutter looked down at his feet before Lorelei gave him a small nudge, he looked up as she gave him a small, re-assuring smile.
()()()()()()()()()
Later that morning, Cutter, Lester, Lorelei and Jenny approached Connor from behind as the young scientist threw a piece of wire behind his back. The two women behind Lester and Cutter had to dodge, rather ungracefully, to the side as the wire flew past them. Lorelei chuckled at the fact that Connor had hardly noticed their presence.
"So, this contraption is going to seal anomalies, is it?"
Lorelei resisted the urge to roll her eyes at the patronising voice of Lester. Connor spun around, slightly startled,
"Uh… in theory, yeah."
Lester folded his arms across his chest,
"You know, after a million pounds' worth of research and development, I'm hoping for something a little more than theoretical." He said, turning to Cutter.
The man in question spoke confidently,
"And you'll get it. I mean, in simple terms, this machine will reverse the polarity of the anomalies so that nothing gets in, and nothing gets out."
Lester was soon called away and Lorelei came up behind Connor and pressed a comforting hand on his shoulder as Nick asked,
"You're sure about this?"
Connor glanced at Lorelei before turning back to his contraption.
"Pretty sure." He stated, although his face told a slightly different story as he let out a nervous laugh.
Lorelei rested her chin lightly on his shoulder, "It'll be fine."
Her smiled faltered slightly as the anomaly alarm blared overhead and her friend instantly made his way towards the ADD.
"Okay… it's in the city."
The location zoomed in even further before Connor turned,
"It's a hospital."
()()()()()()()()
Lorelei sat in the passenger seat beside Becker and nervously played with the hem of her shorts. Things had ben awkward since the phone call she had made a few days prior, and she didn't plan on having an actual conversation with the captain yet. She occasionally glanced over at him as he drove, secretly wondering what the ARC was planning to achieve by sending a large group of men with lethal weapons into a hospital filled with civilians, civilians who may or may not have any idea of what would be going on. She hoped that it would be a routine job; go in, watch the anomaly and wait 'till it closes. She was so lost in her own thoughts that Becker practically had to shake her back into reality,
"We're here." His voice filled the empty air of the car.
Lorelei glanced around, the soldiers in the back seats had already left and Connor and Abby stood, waiting for her a few metres away. She nodded, opened the door and slid out of the car, yawning as she did.
"Bad night?" Abby asked quietly as they entered the hospital, soldiers in tow.
Lorelei nodded her confirmation; she really didn't want to talk about this now. Abby seemed to sense this as she said no more, she only squeezed her friend arm lightly and smiled knowingly at her. The group made their way to the reception.
"Becker, take your men. Look for any sign of creature activity."
Becker left with several men as Lorelei looked up as the lights flickered.
Connor spoke from next to her, "Power cut."
Nick re-assured the three younger members of the team, "Hospital's back-up generator should kick in any minute, come on."
And with that, the four made their way down the hallway to locate the anomaly.
As Lorelei walked past the counter, she accidently bumped into someone. On paying closer attention, she realised that the woman she had bumped into was heavily pregnant. She apologized immediately and the woman politely waved of her concern before stepping up to the counter. Biting her lip in slight embarrassment, Lorelei jogged to catch up with the others. The lights flickered again as she made her way up another corridor with Connor as the four split up.
"You alright?" Connor asked her as he checked a small cupboard,
"Yep, why wouldn't I be?" She answered, trying to sound as innocent and oblivious as possible. She knew exactly what he was asking her.
Connor shut the door and turned to her, raising an eyebrow dubiously. Lorelei just sighed and sauntered of, she turned the corner rather quickly,
And walked straight into Becker, she took a few steps back before apologizing as Connor smirked at her. So she hit him.
The twos banter was interrupted as a woman- who Lorelei recognised from earlier- came up to them, she seemed terrified and Becker immediately sprang into action and was the first into the small hospital room.
The young woman flustered as she pointed to the other side of the room, "It went through a hole in the wall, there."
Sure enough, as the trio pushed the chair out of the way, they came face to face with a hole, about the diameter of a football, in the light blue wall. Connor and Lorelei looked to the woman for some sort of explanation. Connor spoke first.
"What did?"
The woman shook her head slightly and stammered, "A ratty, chipmunk, beaver kind of thing."
Lorelei held back the small giggle that had made its way up her throat and turned to Connor.
"Well that narrows it down."
Connor raised his eyebrows before dialling Cutter's number.
"Cutter, we might have a problem." A short pause as the young scientist glanced around, unsure of what to say, "A ratty, chipmunk, beaver kind of problem."
Lorelei bit her lip as her mouth twitched upwards to form a small smirk.
()()()()()()()()
A few minutes later and the group had once again met up, Lorelei walked close to Nick and Connor.
"Okay, so how did she describe this creature, apart from the whole "Ratty, chipmunk" thing?"
The young American beside him answered, "Right, about so big" she made the gesture with her hands, "Protruding teeth, large, some claws."
Becker spoke up from behind the three, "We've had three other reported sightings."
The group stopped as once again the lights flickered, it was starting to get irritating.
"Well, there could be dozens here." Nick started before turning to the three younger team members, "Okay, I need you three to get this place evacuated, now."
"Sure." Lorelei nodded as Connor spoke and began to walk off.
Connor turned to ask a random nurse whether the hospital could be easily evacuated; Lorelei doubted that this would be the case.
"Temple! Swann!" Lorelei turned to glare at Becker.
"We're coming." She huffed, "We were just taking our own sweet time in doing so." She pushed passed him and made her way up the hall, noticing that neither man was following her.
"Temple! Becker!" She tried to imitate the captain's voice and when said soldier turned to scowl, she gave him a mock, two-fingered salute.
()()()()()()()()()
Some minutes later, the three of them were making their way through the corridors of the now seemingly abandoned building. Lorelei went to make her way into a small ward but was stopped when Becker's hand lay on her shoulder,
"I'll go first."
She laughed lightly, "Becker, it's about the size of a jack russel!"
He merely pushed past her and stormed into the room, gun raised. Connor followed, but not before he smirked at his friend and raised his eyebrows. Lorelei rolled her eyes and pushed him into the room.
"Anything?"
"No."
"See." The two men turned to glare at the young woman; Connor was about to speak but his phone cut him off.
He glanced down at the screen before answering and putting the phone on loudspeaker.
"Cutter?"
"We're trapped in an operating theatre, with the anomaly and… a woman who's about to give birth."
Lorelei cringed slightly as Nick finished his sentence.
"We're on our way."
Connor turned to Becker,
"Where are the operating theatres?"
"Now idea." He stated, checking his gun.
"Well then, we need to find someone who works here." Lorelei suggested.
The captain turned to her, "I'm a trained soldier, I think I can find my way around a hospital."
Lorelei smirked at his stubbornness before gesturing to the door with a flourish of her hand.
"Well then, lead the way Action man."
About fifteen minutes later, Connor and Lorelei were following the now called "Action man" as he attempted to find Cutter and Abby. Lorelei smirked as the man in question spoke, clearly agitated.
"How difficult can it be to find an operating theatre in a hospital?"
She snickered as Connor rounded on the soldier, "What was that you were saying about being a trained soldier?"
The young woman stood on the other side of the captain, smiling sweetly, "Feeling humiliated yet?"
He gave her a look and began to answer back when he was cut off by a noise above their heads. He instantly pointed his gun up towards the ceiling before turning to Connor on his right.
"Catch it." He stated.
Connor turned to him, "What do you mean, "Catch it"?"
Lorelei gave her friend a gentle shove as Becker repeated himself, "Catch it!"
Connor, clearly defeated, turned and made his way forwards, "All right."
"Connor, get under it." Lorelei was being little help.
Connor pulled some sort of trolley from the side of the hallway and followed the noise forward, hoping that the creature would fall and land inside. Soon enough, the creature fell into the trolley with a loud squeak. It struggled to gain its footing as it tried to balance itself on its feet. Lorelei glanced over Connor's shoulder to gaze at their new prize, she smiled as the animal glanced up, looking slightly confused. Her friend gave her a proud smile before bending down to speak to the four legged creature.
"Hello mate. My name's Connor, this is Lorelei and this is…" he stopped as he gestured to Becker.
Lorelei giggled and turned to the soldier, "C'mon, you're not made of steel, admit it; that's cute."
He merely rolled his eyes as she gave him a mock glare, Connor continued to speak into the trolley.
"How are you? If I'm not mistaken, you're a Diictodon, right?"
The small creature yelped and danced about inside the trolley. The three of them looked at it for a little while longer before Becker cleared his throat and brought the other two back to reality.
"Cutter." He stated before walking off.
Lorelei raised an eyebrow and followed, leaving Connor to follow with the trolley.
()()()()()()()()
The three of them made their way into one of the many operating theatres. Becker did a three-sixty before turning to Lorelei.
"They're not here."
She sighed and ran a hand through her hair as she sat on the operating table; Becker lowered his gun and leant against the same table, clearly frustrated. Connor dragged the Diictodon through the door a second later and sighed, and expression matching the other two's on his face. The creature squealed from inside the trolley and Connor turned to the American with a questioning expression, she shrugged and covered her mouth to yawn, all of this running around was tiring her out.
"What is it, mate?"
She turned back to Connor to see he was peeking into the covered trolley and speaking to the Diictodon,
"Hey? What are you trying to tell me?"
Becker rolled his eyes, "Oh, fantastic. Now he's Dr Doolittle."
Lorelei hushed him and jumped off of the table to join Connor.
"He wasn't making that noise before." She stated quietly, Becker stood alongside her and nodded.
Connor turned to the two of them as a noise echoed through the halls, "You guys hear that?"
The two in question listened for a while longer before nodding. Connor smirked, he had an idea, Lorelei knew it from the look on his face,
"We follow the sound?" She guessed,
Connor smiled, "Follow me."
Becker sent her a slightly confused look and Lorelei beckoned him to follow, "C'mon, action man."
They eventually found the room and managed to force their way in.
"Sorry we… oh." Lorelei stopped, mid-sentence and glanced around the room, from the young woman now holding a baby, to Cutter and Abby standing alongside her. She raised a questioning eyebrow as she was politely pushed out of the way by Becker to allow a nurse into the room. Nick and Abby said their goodbyes and the group left the room.
"So who locked you in?" Becker asked.
"No idea." Nick shook his head and spoke lightly.
()()()()()()()()
The drive back to the ARC was a quiet one, Lorelei spent the journey yawning with her forehead resting on the cool glass of the window. She refused to let herself fall asleep. Once she was back at the ARC she could get in her car and drive home.
If only life was ever that simple.
"Should have checked our passes."
Becker's ticked of voice drifted over Lorelei's shoulder as she stood in the drizzle just outside of the entrance to her workplace, the hood of her leather jacket covering her hair.
"Yeah, your men are getting slack." Nick stated, equally annoyed.
"You go on ahead. I'm gonna have a little word with security."
Cutter nodded and led the way into the hub.
It was strangely empty and silent.
"Something's not right." She stated, her accent seemed to reverberate off of the walls as a small shiver made its way up her spine.
All of their heads snapped up at the sound of guns being loaded.
Lorelei's eyes narrowed to slits as she stared up at the woman who had come so close to destroying everything. Helen. Cutter gave an exasperated expression and almost rolled his eyes. Lorelei clicked her fingers nervously. She never thought she'd say this, but what she would give to have Becker in the room right now.
"It's… you." Connors voice plucked her from her thoughts and she turned to see two Cutter's before her.
She blinked, no, she wasn't imagining it, and she was pretty sure she wasn't drunk. This was actually happening.
"Huh?" she breathed.
Nick turned and was startled to see himself in front of him.
"Put Connor, Abby and Lorelei with the others." Helen's voice drifted through the air and Lorelei felt someone grasp her arms and begin to drag her towards the double doors. She struggled and looked up, only to freeze as she saw the face from only a few days back looking down at her. Confused and slightly bewildered, she let herself be dragged through the halls of the large building.
They were placed, or rather thrown in Lorelei's case, into a small storage room, where they were greeted by Lester, Jenny and Sarah. Lorelei found her feet but not her voice and merely watched the conversation unfold in front of her;
"What is going on?" Connor asked
"I was about to ask you the same thing. What the hell has got into Cutter?" Lester asked.
"That's not him." Abby stated quietly.
Lorelei spoke, her voice barely above a whisper as she tried to understand what was happening, "There's two of him."
"Two versions of Cutter?" Lester's voice dripped with sarcasm "Sounds like some kind of nightmare."
Connor patted Lorelei's shoulder as he passed her to go and try the door. He shook the handle to no avail and turned back to the group.
"We've got to do something."
Sarah seemed to have an idea, "Connor," she sat by the computer in the corner of the room, "we have to place this audio file over the internal sound system."
Connor looked uneasy as he spoke, "We can't do that from in here."
Lorelei groaned in the corner and lightly hit her head against the wall, "Brilliant."
They sat in silence for a while, each person lost in their own thoughts, glancing at Connor; Lorelei could tell that he was wracking his brains for some sort of answer. Her mind, however, was focused on sleep and whilst she was wondering whether she would be able to catch forty winks a noise from outside made her look up. There was a few seconds of silence before the door opened to reveal Becker dragging an unconscious clone into the room, she sighed lightly in relieve, though she didn't think he noticed.
"Everyone all right?" the captain turned to look at her and she nodded silently, too exhausted to sleep or be facetious.
Lester spoke up and the two looked broke eye contact to look at their superior,
"Helen's taken over the ARC." He stated.
"I know, her people are crawling all over the place." The captain replied.
"How many men have you got with you?"
"Just me. Should be enough."
Lorelei groaned once again and made to hit her head on the wall for a second time but Becker grabbed her hood and stopped her. The two of them glanced at each other before Connor spoke.
"Becker, need to get this to the PA system." He held up a silver disc that he had just taken out of the computer.
Becker nodded, "you come with me, the rest of you stay here." And with that, he led Connor out of the room.
Abby walked up to Lorelei, a knowing grin on her face, "You all right."
"Yeah, he may have just saved me from brain damage." She laughed lightly before noticing the smirk on the blondes face, "Oh, hush!"
For a few minutes there was silence as they waited eagerly to hear that the boys had succeeded. No one noticed the soldier twitching on the floor.
"Do you think that they made it?" Sarah questioned.
Abby sighed as she played with a petri dish, "We'll soon find out."
Lorelei, who was standing next to Lester, let out a squeak of pure surprise as her boss was tackled to the ground by the man who had pointed a gun at her days before.
"Hey!" She went to help Lester but only succeeded in getting herself a vicious punch in the face, she felt the warm liquid drip from her nose and land on her upper lip, the taste of copper filled her mouth as another blow impacted just above her temple. She glanced down to see Lester on the ground, unconscious. She was surprised that she was still standing as the fist connected with her stomach, a few more brutal blows to the face and she was on the floor, out cold.
Stop, do nothing, obey my voice.
The sound of Helen's voice fills the ARC again and again, as predicted, the soldiers stopped and Jenny took this time to crawl towards Lorelei, the young girl was still breathing but was definatly out for the count. Lester stood up and punched the soldier square in the jaw.
"Insurance." He offered as an explanation.
()()(()()()()()(()()()
A loud explosion echoed through the building and the sound of flames licking at the metal of the doors could be heard, Connor and Becker made their way towards the storage room and slammed the door open.
"Come on, everyone out. Now!" the captain ordered.
"Becker!" He turned to look at Jenny who was still crouched over Lorelei; he moved towards her, "She's out cold."
Glancing at the young Americans face, Becker cringed, several bruises covered her features and tell-tale crimson liquid ran from her nose. Without hesitation, he scooped her up and carried her through the doors, her head rolled back over his arm as he moved through the smoke and rubble and bodies. Connor made his way to look for Cutter.
Several of Becker's men helped to support Lorelei as he placed her on the concrete behind an SUV. He gently brushed the hair from her face and examined the damage; a black eye, a large bruise on her temple, and what looked to him like a possible broken nose. It didn't look great, but she would heal.
"Where's Helen?"
He didn't hear or see the rest of the conversation as he began to order his men around and try to prioritise any casualties. He stayed by her side until another explosion sounded and he stood, shielding his eyes against the glare of the flames, the building was in ruins. Connor made his way towards him and nodded toward Lorelei on the floor.
"Look after her."
And with that, he watched the scientist head into the building, knowing that there was no way he would have been able to stop him for he had that look of determination on his face.
After what seemed like hours, Connor emerged, carrying Nick in his arms. Becker ran to help Connor set the older man down. He already knew what had happened.
Professor Cutter was dead.
He was almost glad the Lorelei was not awake to see this. He was sure that it would have broken her.
I definatly know that I did not do Cutter's death justice so, sorry for that. I'm better with dialogue then I am with descriptions. But anyway, it's back and should be updated soon, unless everyone hated it. As always, tell me what you think.