Chapter 13

In a split second, Jenny had pulled out a gun and was aiming it at Helen with a shaking hand.

"You,' she spat, her face contorted in anger. "You did this."

"Tut, tut, tut Jenny," Helen smiled, shaking her head. "You might want to put that gun down."

She looked around at the trees as over a dozen armed soldiers walked out, their guns poised and aiming at Jenny; but the odd thing was that they were all the same man! It was the Cleaner they had seen at the shopping mall, and then again in the Silurian era; he was replicated over and over again! It was the strangest thing Cutter had ever seen in his life - he had seen this man die in the past; eaten by one of those Scorpions. And now here he was; a dozen copies of him! Cutter looked at Jenny, and saw her frightened gaze travel across all the guns, as though weighing up whether to lower her weapon or not.

"You'll be dead before you can even think about pulling the trigger Miss Lewis," Helen added, looking amused. "If I were you, I'd put the gun down."

Jenny remained in her position for a moment, obviously thinking hard; Cutter could practically hear the thoughts whirling around in her head. Then, slowly, she lowered the gun.

"Good girl," Helen stated, nodding at the soldiers who also lowered their weapons.

"Did you do this?" Jenny demanded, gesturing at Abby's lifeless form. "Did you shoot her?"

Helen's smile faltered slightly as she looked around at Abby.

"It was an accident; I thought she was one of them . . ."

"Bull!" Jenny spat.

Cutter threw his arms around Conner who had made to lunge at Helen, and with difficulty, he restrained him.

"Why on earth would I want to kill Abby?" Helen asked, sounding perplexed. "The girl has done nothing to me. If I were going to shoot anyone intentionally, surely it would be the woman who is with my husband? What does that tell you - ?"

"That you're a bad shot!" Jenny answered with loathing.

As Cutter looked at the woman he had once been in love with - that he had married, and once chosen to be with for the rest on his life - he found himself marveling at how it had all come to this. Helen showed no remorse for her actions; from the way she was acting, it was as though she had just shot a clay pigeon.

"What's happened to you Helen?" Cutter said before he could stop himself.

She looked at him coldly for a moment before answering.

"Me? What has happened to you?" she replied, looking him up and down. "You used to be so passionate . . ."

"I draw the line at murdering innocent young girls!" Cutter spat, his temper erupting. How had she turned into this?

"It was an accident," Helen repeated, as though that settled the matter.

"Are you responsible for all of this?" he demanded over Conner's profanities, still struggling to restrain him. "Did you do all of this?"

"No," Helen replied coolly. "I think you're giving me a little too much credit - "

"You can control the anomalies!" Jenny interjected.

"And apparently clone dead men," Cutter added, surveying the soldiers who were observing the conversation with impassive looks on their identical faces.

"Yes, but I can't control the Creatures; not without the chip anyway. And have you seen any of them with chips?"

"Well if you can control the anomalies, why haven't you done anything to fix this?" Cutter demanded, pushing Conner backwards.

"Oh you misunderstand me," she smirked. "Just because I'm not responsible doesn't mean that I'm not thrilled with the outcome. I mean, a world with no humans? Once I've got rid of all the Predators, it'll leave room for other species to grow and evolve in peace."

Everyone gapped at her, shocked that her attitude to the genocide of mankind was so positive; even Conner stopped struggling to stare at her in disgust.

"You can't be serious?" Cutter breathed eventually, knowing full well that she was.

"Mankind is a disease on this planet Nick . . . and I consider myself the cure."

"So there are no people alive at all?" Jenny demanded.

Helen shrugged.

"Some perhaps," she answered. "They've probably formed survivor colones. But I doubt they'll live long . . . the Predators will find them eventually. There are thousands of them and they're breeding. They've managed to wipe out most other countries too; I didn't know this before, but they are incredible swimmers - "

"And you're just going to let all of this happen?" Cutter growled.

"Why try and stop the inevitable?" she replied. "That's always been your problem Nick . . Mr Fix-it . . . I bet you haven't even considered the fact that this is our destiny? To step aside and let other species take over and try and salvage a planet that we've all but destroyed . . ."

As she rambled on about her self indulgent crap, Cutter's gaze was drawn to the mustard-coloured back-pack she wore. . . suddenly an idea struck him . . . but how could he do it?

" . . . our intelligence is our downfall," Helen continued wistfully."We think we can do whatever we want and screw the consequences . . ."

From the side of the road through the thick trees, Cutter suddenly sensed that something was watching them; he could feel the eyes boring into them . . . oh God they had fallen into an ambush! Although maybe it would give Helen the distraction that he needed . . . hopefully, they would make it out alive; his grip tightened on his gun as his heartbeat increased to an exponential rate.

No body else seemed to have picked up on it, however.

Helen was still babbling on, completely unaware.

Jenny was merely inches in front of him, slightly to his right. Under the cover of Helen's voice, he hissed to her, moving his lips as little as possible;

"When I say run . . . we run . . . keep your gun up . . ."

He saw her head turn slightly towards him and she nodded her head a fraction of an inch before turning her attention back to Helen.

" . . . so that's why I've got to do this Nick," Helen finished apologetically. "I wish I didn't have to kill you too, but needs must."

"I - what?" Cutter said, for a moment forgetting his plan. "What are you talking about?"

"You didn't think I was just going to let you walk off did you? I didn't know that you were alive anyway, but now that you are . . . I can't risk leaving you. Just think of it as a favour; better die by a bullet than be ripped apart by a Predator."

"I thought you said you shot Abby by accident?" Cutter said, starting to panic - if they didn't strike soon, they'd be dead . . .

"I did, but that doesn't change anything."

"Helen, I know we've had our differences, but do you really want to kill me?" Cutter asked in disbelief.

"I'm sorry Nick," she said, sounding surprisingly genuine. "I wish there was another way . . ."

She raised her gun to him, tears glimmering in her eyes as she did so. Jenny's gun flew back into the air, aiming at Helen's head.

"Don't you dare," Jenny shouted.

Out of the corner of his eye, Cutter saw something move in the bushes . . . come on . . . come on . . .

"Don't worry Jenny, you'll get your turn too," Helen said coldly, gesturing at her soldiers to raise their weapons.

It was a stale mate. If Helen pulled the trigger, Jenny would shoot her, but if she ordered her soldiers to kill Jenny, she may involuntarily pul the trigger anyway. Perhaps that's why she paused.

There was a crashing sound behind the soldiers; everyone looked around, momentarily forgetting their stand off.

To Cutter's complete shock, the Columbian Mammoth that they had been keeping in the ARC burst through the shrubbery . . . he had been expecting the Predators, and couldn't help but feel a shooting sense of relief at the alternative; in all that had happened, he had completely forgotten about the gigantic Mammoth. However, it did not look in the best of moods as it charged towards them. The soldier's guns flew up towards it, as did Jenny and Helen's; the latter throwing her back-pack on the ground as she did so, the better to aim.

Yes! thought Cutter.

While she was distracted, Cutter lunged forward and grabbed the bag, flinging it over his shoulder. He grasped Jenny's arm and dragged her away; flinging her ahead of him.

"Run!" he yelled, both to Conner and Jenny, but his voice was drowned out by the noise of the Mammoth, the shouts of the soldiers and gunshots.

"I can't leave Abby!" Conner cried.

"We've got to! Just trust me!" Cutter exclaimed, pushing them both ahead.

They all sprinted down the road, Cutter hoping desperately that Helen was to busy to notice them. However, bullets flew passed them suddenly, telling them that she had spotted them. Both Jenny and Cutter turned their guns around and fired back as they ran, missing their targets by inches. Helen looked as though she was about to follow them, but in a split second, she was knocked to the ground violently by one of the Mammoths tusks and moved no more. Whether she was dead or not, Cutter didn't know or care. All he cared about was getting Jenny and Conner back to the relative safety of the house.

They kept sprinting for a long time in silence, only slowing down when they were sure nothing was following them. Beside him, Cutter was aware that Jenny was limping; the amount of running she had done had probably been too much for her still-sensitive ankle. She didn't complain, and when Cutter put his arm around her waist to help her, she shrugged him off, mumbling something about being fine.

The house came into view and they hurried inside without a word. They walked into the kitchen numbly, to be greeted by Lester's voice that was laced in irritation.

"Well it's about time - " he began, holding the crying baby out to them, but he stopped short, his eyes widening as he took in Jenny's bloodied appearance.

"What happened?" Becker demanded, rushing up to Jenny, obviously thinking that the blood was hers.

Jenny, however, didn't reply; she didn't look capable of speaking. She shrugged off Becker's fussing with a shake of her head, and turned around to walk up the stairs. Conner slumped into one of the kitchen chairs and began sobbing into his arms. Becker and Lester were looking to Cutter for an explanation, appearing completely dumb-founded.

"Abby's dead," he said bluntly, aware that Conner started crying harder at his words. "Helen's doing. And she's after us too. So Becker, make sure that the house is secure. I'll be back in a moment," he finished, setting the back-pack down and following Jenny up the stairs without another word.

The plan could wait.

This was more important for the time being.

He heard the shower running, so guessed that Jenny was in the bathroom. He went in without knocking; after all, it wouldn't exactly be the first time he'd seen her with no clothes on. However, when he entered, he saw that she was in the shower fully dressed. She was scrubbing the blood off her body in an obsessive-compulsive manner; the tiles surrounding the shower were splattered red.

"Jenny?" he said gently, approaching her slowly.

She looked up blankly, barely aware of his presence. Then she continued to scrub her arm; the area had already turned an irritated shade of red.

"Stop," he said, climbing in the open shower next to her, not caring that he was soaked in seconds.

She didn't listen, so he grabbed her wrists and held them tightly.

"Stop," he repeated as gently as possible.

Her face screwed up as fresh sobs took over her.

"It's my fault," she cried, trembling violently under Cutter grip.

He put his arms around her and pulled her into a tight hug. Her shoulder's shook, and she seemed to be struggling to stay standing.

"I killed her," she sobbed, clutching his saturated top.

"No you didn't," Cutter repeated firmly. "It wasn't your fault . . . you didn't know that was going to happen."

"If I hadn't had asked her to come with me, none of this would have happened," she continued, her words barely audible over her gasps as she tried to steady her breath.

He could find no words to comfort her . . . nothing he could say would make her believe any different; if he was in her position, he knew that he would feel the same.

All he could do was hold her while she cried.

Sorry it's rather depressing, but they wouldn't exactly be laughing or joking after losing another team member :(

I still hope everyone is enjoying the story. Let me know :D

I will try and update again as soon as I can x