Alice and What Came After: Between the Glass
Disclaimer: Let's see… I own my twisted timeline, Sarah, Connor, Damon, and Chase. Helen, anomalies, the ARC and its teams, and some monsters all belong to ITV/Impossible Pictures. Wonderland, Alice, Hatter, and the Queen of Hearts belong to SyFy and Nick Willing.
Chapter Twenty-three: Predators and Prey
"Okay, don't panic…" Connor suggested. "There's a bunker nearby…"
"I don't think there's time for that," Sarah whispered, her eyes firmly fixed on the tops of the buildings in the distance. The sightless creatures, their skin a pale gray and their limbs ending in sharp claws, were everywhere.
And giant flying bugs were in the air.
"Oi, where's action man when you need him?" he grumbled under his breath.
"Only, a few dozen years in the past. At least."
"Not helping."
She shot him a wry smile. "Okay, genius, what now?"
"We get undercover, then open the next anomaly. One that we pick."
She nodded, waiting for further instructions. Connor didn't seem to notice. He was too busy frowning at the detector in his hand.
"Don't tell me you broke it."
"No, it's just… I can't…"
"Put it in my bag," Sarah said with a sigh. "I have a feeling you're the clumsy one."
"Oi!"
"Hey, I'm not even allowed to carry hot tea!"
He smiled at her despite the situation. "C'mon, let's get indoors before they notice us."
Connor held out his hand. Sarah took it, staying close to his side. She wasn't familiar with this world. She didn't want to. She just wanted to get home. Alive.
And preferably, in one piece.
Jenny took Connor back to his flat. Hatter had offered to take him, but Cutter insisted that he stay with the team.
Cutter ended up being relieved of his duty as the leader by Lester. Stephen Hart took over command, sending Hatter to sweep one area of the canal, while he scanned another one with a small submarine.
It was a useless search. Cutter's instincts that the anomaly was water based, meant the creature was no longer in the canal. Hatter trusted the other man, even if Cutter didn't quite trust him.
When the man at the helm of the small craft turned his back, Hatter dove into the water. He hadn't put on a life preserver when he got on board, which made his exit rather smooth. He was under the water's surface before anyone could stop him.
The two figures moved stealthily in between deserted cars and alleys. Connor led, having much more experience with this future world than Sarah. Her sole experience ended with Helen kidnapping her.
After falling through the mirror.
"Conn, what if we find where I fell?"
"Why?"
"To send me back!"
"Can we talk about this later?" the older man suggested, his brown eyes scanning the rooftops. The Predators were on patrol.
Sarah considered rolling her eyes at him, then thought better. Connor was only trying to help her. He was trying to protect her. She wasn't at home or even in Wonderland. She was out of place and in unfamiliar territory. This was Connor's area of expertise. She would listen to him.
She turned around to look behind them. Her backpack slipped on her shoulder. Without warning, she backed into one of the half-open car doors. She flailed her arm, shattering the glass window with her right fist.
At the sudden noise, Connor turned around to find her sprawled on the ground, blood coating her right arm.
"Sarah!"
He pulled her back to her feet. But the damage had already been done.
Predators were closing in them.
"Now what?"
"We stay and get torn to bits. Or we run and get torn to bits."
"What about the opener?"
Connor shook his head. "Too risky. If one of them got through…"
"The world would end."
"Exactly."
In the distance, a crash sounded. The Predators turned their heads, listening to the sound.
A faint cry carried through the empty city. "Connor? Connor Kyle Hatter!"
"That's me," she whispered, shock settling in.
"Ssh…"
The Predators moved out, hunting for the source of the noise. Noise that continued as her past-self yelled for her brother and for help.
"Helen… Helen finds me…"
Brown eyes looked into brown eyes. "You can't see yourself in this state."
"But—"
Connor grabbed her arm, dragging her into the closest open building. "Wait here for me. Don't open the door. If I'm not back in… fifteen minutes… the door across from this one opens back to my world. It's an old military place that Lester bought after—never mind. Just use it."
She didn't get another chance to protest before he shut her in.
Hatter closed his eyes, listening to his instincts instead of his eyes. He swam down into the darkness, feeling for the familiar tug of an anomaly.
Down, down, down, he went.
Bubbles drifted out of the corner of his mouth as he reached the pulsing ball of light. His eyes flew open. Cutter was right.
He kicked his legs, powering through the hole and into a new body of water. He swam up, heading for the surface.
He broke the surface, gasping for air. Hatter was a strong swimmer—he'd learned as a kid in Wonderland when March thought it would be funny to push a young Hatter into a fast-flowing river. He'd swallowed loads of water, but survived. After that, he learned how to swim through trial and error.
Hatter pulled himself out of what strongly reminded him of a sewer tunnel. His wet clothes dripped on the cement floor.
"Hello? Anyone?"
"Over here! Help! Over here!" a frightened male voice shouted, echoing in the warehouse-type building.
He jogged over, bending down to stare at a grate. A hand shot through. "You okay?" Hatter asked.
"Yeah, I guess. It's cold though…"
"I bet. Have you seen a blonde girl?"
"Abby? Yeah, she's under, searching for a way out."
"That's great. I know someone who's gonna be very glad to see her. Can you get her for me? I'm gonna work on this…"
The teenager nodded, diving down to find Connor's girl. Hatter felt his heart skip a beat. Abby was alive. He'd saved her. Well, as soon as he got the grate open.
He looked at his fist and the grate's bolts. He focused the magic and fear he'd had for his team mate into his fist. He punched one of the bolts, cracking where it met the concrete. Then he slammed another.
Hatter couldn't help the grin on his face as he started to lift the metal grate off the tank. It was very similar to one he'd swum through.
As he settled the grate to the side, water flowed up and over the opening, drenching his feet.
"Abby?"
Two heads bobbed up. One blonde, one black.
Hatter thrust out a hand to the girl. "Quick, Abs."
He jerked her out of the tank as the teenager climbed out on his own. Both of them coughed and gagged.
"Hatter?" Abby said after a few coughs cleared the water from her lungs.
"That's my name."
"How did you…?"
"Magic. Let's just leave it at that."
"Where's Connor? And Cutter? Stephen?"
"Flat. No bloody idea. Still fishin' in the canal."
She smiled at him, her eye make-up streaked down her cheeks. "So it's just you?"
"Oi!"
"No matter what, your mate's got good timing," the young man said. "A few more minutes and those…things would've been back."
"Right. Can they walk on land?"
"Yeah," Abby clarified.
"O' course they can…" Hatter cracked his head side to side. "Let's get out of here."
"Hello? Is anyone out here? Hello?"
Dirty and sore, Sarah Hatter stepped out of a tunnel and into daylight.
A figure jogged toward her. She blinked.
"Conn?"
Her brother motioned for her to be quite. "Why?"
"Just trust me," he hissed, grabbing her hand.
Sarah did. As much as Connor was a pain in the ass, he was smart. He must have a reason. Unless he was just pissed at her.
Then she saw the creatures.
"Conn!"
"I know. Stay quiet and run."
They picked up the pace, staying low and close to the buildings. Sarah didn't protest. She let the questions build up in her head for once.
Connor unlocked a door. She ran in, smacking into something solid. Another person?
"Sorry, I-ah!"
Sarah stood face-to-face with herself. A dirty, scratched, and bleeding version, but clearly her. The same clothes, the same shoes, and the same bag.
"What the hell?"
"Please, try an' keep it down," her brother insisted.
"What is going on? Have you been running experiments again?"
Connor shook his head. "Sarah, this is you…not long after now. You see, that's you… from the future."
"But you—"
"My name is Connor, but my dashing good looks are just a weird genetic quirk. I'm not Connor. Not your Connor. Name's Connor Temple. I'm thirty, father of a cute lil' girl, and I like dinosaurs and long walks in the Cretaceous."
"My God… you sound just like 'im."
"I know… it's uncanny, inndint?" her future-self said.
"And you… I've seen some weird shit in my life, but you…"
"Listen, there's a woman named Helen. She was going to find you if we didn't. She's psychotic. She shot at you, killed Conn's wife and friends…"
Connor closed his eyes.
"So what's going on? Where am I?"
Her other self sighed. "Short version? The mirror's a form of anomaly. It failed and you fell through a crack in time and space… oh shit… this can't be good."
Sarah looked down at her double. The dirt-and-blood-encrusted figure was fading, like a candle about to burn out.
"Talk faster!" Connor urged. "Something's changing!"
"Trust Conn. He'll get you home. Stay away from Helen…"
"The opener!"
Her double tossed a backpack at Connor. As his hands closed on the canvas bag, her double vanished.
Sarah stared at him in horror. "What did you do?"
"Me? Nothin'! It was all…oi, forget it. Just stay close, okay? We need to go back a bit…"
He dug a small handheld device out of the bag. It powered on and a shining ball of light, like a thousand spinning Looking Glasses in the air, appeared.
Connor, not her Connor, but a Connor, reached out a hand. "C'mon, Sarah Hatter. Let's get out of here before we're both Predator meat."
"Predators? Like—"
"Not like the movie," he promised. "Nothin' like the movie. Imagine the senses on a bat on the fastest killin' machine ever born…"
Together they stepped through the mirrors, Connor talking the entire time. Behind them, Helen Cutter threw open the door to their hiding place just in time to see the anomaly disappear.
Helen frowned at the disappearing orb. There wasn't supposed to be an anomaly here. Not according to the time map.
This stunk of Nick Cutter's team and the Anomaly Research Centre.
She wrinkled her nose. She could have sworn there had been a girl calling for help. A girl shouting for Connor. There was only one Connor that she knew—a particularly annoying specimen of human that her dead husband had taken pity on—who went by the last name of Temple.
But the girl she'd glimpsed running with a dark-haired figure wasn't Temple's live-in girlfriend, Abby Maitland. Oh, no. She was dark-haired, too.
Just like Temple.
A devious smirk crossed Helen's face. "Which one are you…? Sister or daughter…?"
She pulled out her handheld anomaly opener. She would find out the answer soon enough.
An ugly-looking creature with tusks like a walrus appeared from one of the water pits. It flapped its way toward the trio. They each took a step back.
The creature roared.
"See any way out?" Hatter asked.
"No…"
"It's getting closer!" the boy shouted.
They backed up against a wall. Hatter bent down, his hand brushing against the damp floor. "Find a weapon! Something… anything!"
Metal clanged against concrete as the boy found a forgotten crowbar.
"'Stay close to him. Don't worry about me," Hatter whispered to Abby. "Get back to Connor."
"What are you going to do?"
He smiled at her. "What I do best."
Abby stared at him, utterly confused as the unarmed man hurried past the creature and to another wall away from them.
"Oi! Over 'ere, ugly!" Hatter shouted. He whistled loudly, his arms waving. "Oi! Tasty meat! Over 'ere!"
The creature turned, focusing on the other man.
"Now's when you run!" Hatter ordered, not taking his eyes off the creature.
Abby looked at the teen. "He's right. We need to run."
"Run where?"
"I don't know… there's gotta be a door somewhere."
She started pushing against the walls, hitting it with loose bricks and other debris. In the background she could hear Hatter goading the creature, drawing its attention away from them. Risking his own life to give them a shot at escape.
On the other side of the wall, Connor Temple and Nick Cutter stood together. After Stephen called to say they'd lost another team member—this time Hatter—Nick had decided to ignore Lester's orders to stay out of this mess.
He called up Connor, partially to inform the young man that his close friend had been taken, and partially to beg for help. It took a while, but Connor agreed in the end.
They followed Cutter's instincts to an old warehouse.
So far the search had proved useless. Until they heard a variety of noise from the other side of one of the walls. A familiar voice was causing a rather loud racket over the sounds of banging.
"Someone's there!" Connor cried happily.
Cutter picked up his crowbar in one hand. "This part was bricked over."
"Hello? Hello? Help's coming!" Connor shouted, pounding the wall with his fist. "Ow, that hurt…"
"Stand back," Cutter said, taking aim at the wall.
The crowbar cut through the loose bricks with ease. Whoever was on the other side was helping to weaken the wall between them.
"Hello? Hello?" a female voice called.
"Abs? Abby!"
"Connor? Connor!"
His face lit up. "It's Abby! She's alive!"
"Stand back!" Cutter warned.
"Professor?" she called.
"Stand back from the wall!"
He swung again and again, chunks of the wall crumbling. Finally a small opening appeared. Connor rushed to the wall, pushing pieces of brick aside.
"Abby!" he said, his hand reaching through.
Cutter knelt beside him, rolling large bits of rubble away. "Settle yourself, Sid… Nancy…"
Neither of them seemed to care. Abby's hand was wrapped tightly around Connor's as if it were a lifeline.
Author's Notes:
That was a long one, folks! Three chapters in a row is pretty awesome. The pace is starting to pick up, plus I'm trying to finish up by the end of the month since July is JulNoWriMo. It's a take-off of NaNoWriMo and I try to write a novel in 31 days (50,000 words). That means I'm putting fanfic on hold for most of the month to focus on my thriller.
Now for story news: Alice will learn about her murder in the next chapter. Connor's got to get out of the palace, and Jessica will have a run-in with Hatter. The timelines are going to start merging now, but Helen's not done messing around.
We're also going to find out why the mirror broke—probably in chapter 25. If there's anything you'd like to see happen or resolved by the end of the story, now's the time to speak up. Anonymous reviews are acceptable.
There's also a poll on my author page concerning character fates.
Thanks bunches! There's almost been 100 reviews (as of Friday night)! You guys rock!
FlyingAway - Thank you so much for your review! I'm glad that this story makes you think. When I'm writing each chapter, I usually have the last bit where we saw so-and-so up on my screen just to make sure the story continues on right. Thanks! :)
