Chapter 25

As Cutter woke slowly, the first thing he became aware of was a sharp pain in his neck. As he became more alert, he realised that he was slumped across his desk in his office, head in his folded arms, and his stiff neck was at a very awkward angle. Carefully, he straightened up, wincing as a dull throbbing pain began to emanate from behind his eyes, making them water slightly. His mouth was parched, and his first thought was how he had gotten himself into this state.

Then, it all came rushing back to him, making him feel another pang of pain that wasn't associated with his physical well-being. He remembered trying to drown his emotions in a bottle of whiskey, and then being caught red-handed by Jenny. Then there was the screaming match.

Oh god . . .

He sat up, probably a little more quickly than was wise, and ignoring his back that screamed in agony, he hurried out of his office. As he passed a clock on the bland-white corridor wall, he vaguely registered that it was seven o'clock in the morning, but his brain was still sluggish as he walked slap-bang into a disgruntled-looking Lester.

"Cutter!" he snapped, brushing down his flawlessly ironed blazer. "Watch where you're going!"

"Sorry," Cutter mumbled absently. "I'm looking for Jenny. Have you seen her anywhere?"

"Yes, I saw her about an hour ago," he answered casually. "She's already left. They all have."

"WHAT?" Cutter gapped, feeling his stomach disappear. "Are you sure?"

"Well since I sent them out, I'm fairly certain yes," he answered sarcastically. "And shouldn't you be helping Connor? Remind me of what I'm paying you for - "

"I've got to speak to her," Cutter said, more to himself that Lester. "I've got to apologise . . ."

"Well I'm afraid that'll have to wait," Lester replied shortly. "You're staying here and helping with the Locking Mechanism. Connor told me before that it's nearly done, so the quicker you go and help him, the quicker this whole nightmare is over, and then you and Jenny can argue until the cows come home. Okay?"

"No, it's not okay - " Cutter began, panicking.

"End of discussion," Lester interrupted firmly.

It wasn't long after his frank and frustrating chat with Lester that Cutter found himself pacing next to Connor, who had his head buried out of sight under their almost completed Locking Mechanism. Unable to bring himself to be of much help, every few moments, Cutter glanced at the clock ticking along cheerfully on the wall, his stress mounting with each movement of the second hand. His thoughts were running away with him as images of what Jenny and the others would be facing in a short time kept surfacing. He couldn't concentrate . . . he could barely stand still . . . every single fibre of his being burned to go out there.

But, he reminded himself, he couldn't leave Connor alone with the burden of getting the Locking Mechanism finished before it was too late. It was their only hope, and it was unfair to leave the boy to handle it by himself.

"Can you hand me the Philips screwdriver Cutter?" Connor's muffled voice said, his hand gesturing in the vague direction of the toolbox.

Without a word, Cutter strode over and snatched it up, thrusting it into his waiting hand more roughly than intended.

"Thanks," Connor said brightly as he withdrew the screwdriver underneath the machine with him.

Cutter resumed his pacing again, running his hands back through his hair, his stomach churning with nerves.

"How much longer Connor?" he barked eventually, unable to contain his anxiousness.

"I dunno . . . a few hours maybe," the boy replied, sliding out from under the contraption and fixing him with an apologetic look. "I'm sorry, but these things take time - "

"Jenny hasn't got time!" Cutter snapped, rather unreasonably.

"I'm doing the best I can!" Connor protested, looking stung. "If you're so worried about Jenny, then go and be out there with her."

"But . . ." Cutter began, his anger melting into concerned confusion. "But don't you need my help here?"

Connor chuckled slightly. "You're more of a hindrance here if I'm honest. Look just go, I'll be fine. I've got two soldiers waiting to help me get the Mechanism down there when it's done."

"But - "

"Go Professor," he interrupted, rolling his eyes. "And tell Jenny I said hi."

Jenny stood with an uncomfortable knot in her stomach as she surveyed what was now a completely deserted London from her high vantage point on the roof of a building that looked like it was student accommodation. Twenty or so soldiers stood behind her, all armed, all waiting for her command. She, however, had her gun held loosely at her side, knowing that they still had about an hour until the anomalies were due to appear. As she gazed downwards onto the empty street, a prickle of fear that she had been trying her best to suppress crept down her spine, forcing her to shiver involuntarily. She had tried to convince herself that Ben's predictions about her inevitable death today were wrong, but whenever she let her guard down, the shadow of doubt seemed to set in, paralysing her with fright. She was no coward of course - indeed she never had been. But when one is forced to face up to their own immortality, fear was unavoidable. The only thing she could do was keep batting it away, and regain her composure, for appearances sake more than anything else. She suspected that the soldiers she was now commanding were uncertain about being lead into battle by a woman, and she was determined to prove herself. Breaking down into terrified sobs wasn't an option. Still, one particular thought did keep washing over her, knocking the air out of her as though it was a gigantic tidal wave . . .

What if the last words I got to say to Nick were those horrible, bitter words of last night?

"Ma'am?" one of the soldier's voices brought her back to reality.

She looked around at him expectantly and saw that he had binoculars held to his eyes, the better to see in the washy dawn darkness. "Yes?"

"There's a car heading up the street," he informed her in a tense voice.

"What?" she gapped, feeling a pulse of panic. "But the entire city's evacuated. Is it a civilian?"

"I don't know," he replied slowly, squinting into the eyepieces. "Hang on . . ." he paused for a moment, as though working something out. "No, I think it's a government car."

"Are you sure? Everyone's already supposed to be in position?"

"Pretty sure Ma'am," he stated, still holding the binoculars up to his eyes. "They're getting out of the car now . . . it's a man by the looks of it . . . yes, he's coming in here . . ."

Jenny's brain froze for a moment as her first though was that it was Ben, having broken out of his cell somehow.

"Go and bring him to me," Jenny ordered immediately to two soldiers on her right.

They nodded in acknowledgment and took of without a word.

It was a few moments later that, to Jenny's complete and utter horror, they returned with a struggling Nick held in a vice grip between them. Immediately, all the soldier's gun's flew up, all aimed at Nick as though they thought him the enemy.

"What - what are you doing here?" she demanded, her surprise coming out as anger.

"You know him Ma'am?" the soldier who had held the binoculars asked, his gun raised suspiciously up at Nick.

"Yes," she replied in a forced-calm voice. "And will you kindly stop pointing gun's at my husband head."

Without hesitation, all of the soldiers lowered their weapons, and the two holding Nick tight released him.

"I couldn't leave things the way we did," he said, looking her directly in the eye, ignoring the soldiers.

Jenny half-glanced around at her men, feeling slightly embarrassed. "You're not supposed to be here," she stated eventually, surveying Nick coolly. "Return to your post."

"No," he replied, crossing his arms stubbornly. "I'm staying here."

"Now Nick," she commanded sternly, her panic for him to get back to safety coming out as emotional detachment.

"Do you want me to take him back Ma'am?" the soldier said from beside her.

"Look, I'm not going anywhere," Nick interrupted forcefully. "So you can either give me a gun to defend myself, or let me get mauled by all manners of prehistoric creatures. Your call," he finished looking directly at Jenny.

She surveyed him coldly for a moment, desperate for him to go back to the ARC, but knowing that he'd well and truly snookered her on the matter.

She turned to the binocular-carrying soldier. "Go and get him kited out," she said reluctantly.

"Ma'am," he nodded, before gesturing to Nick to follow him back off the roof and into the room where they had stored all their spare supplies.

Damn it Nick, Jenny thought to herself as she turned back to watch the deserted streets of London.

When Nick returned a while later, he donned the same black jumpsuit the rest of them were wearing, his equipment belt around his hips, and a gun clasped in his hands.

"Satisfied?" she asked him coolly as he moved to stand next to her.

"Extremely," he replied simply.

"I'm in charge, do you understand?" she snapped, her hand on her hip. "I'll be the one giving the orders."

"Ma'am," he nodded with a small smile.

Unwillingly, she smiled back, aware that he was teasing her by being unnecessarily official, but before she could make another remark, one of the soldiers cleared his throat, gesturing down at his watch.

She checked her own watch, and saw that the man was indicating that it was eight-forty am.

Five minutes until the fault line was predicted to rupture.

"Right," she spoke aloud to the whole group in a forced-steady voice as she turned to face them all. "You all know why you're here. Our main goal is to contain any creatures that come through the anomalies. You all have several guns and extra ammunition, as well as tranquilizers and gas canisters. If possible, try and knock out the prehistoric creatures instead of using live rounds. However, if you have no other choice, kill them. You have all been briefed on what the future creatures look like - shoot them on sight without hesitation. Our secondary aim is to stop the creatures going back through the wrong anomalies. However, the priority is to stop them spreading throughout London. I don't know how long we'll be in battle for, but you know where the supplies are kept incase you run out of weaponry. Just make sure you stay safe, and keep each other safe as well."

She turned back to look out at the distance again blindly and she spoke into the radio that was strapped to her shoulder.

"Abby, Becker - any sign yet? Over."

"No. Over," Abby's crackled voice replied.

"Negative. Over," Becker replied.

"Everyone in position? Over," Jenny pushed.

"Affirmative. Over," Becker answered immediately.

"Yes. Over," Abby's voice said.

"Okay. Over and out," Jenny said, releasing the button on the radio and glancing round at Nick, noticing that he was watching her with an amused smile. "What?" she added to him, irritated.

"Nothing," he replied immediately, his smile widening. "You're just really sexy, that's all," he added in an undertone so that only she could hear him.

She chuckled slightly. "Are you joking?"

"No, I'm deadly serious," he said warmly. "Dressed in black, holding a gun, bossing everyone about. Massive turn on."

"Shut up - " she began to chide, but a flicker in the corner of her eye stopped her.

Her head snapped around, and she squinted out into the distance. Yes, that was defiantly a light . . .

Then, suddenly, without further warning, bright, retina-burning lights began to pop up as far as the eyes could see.

Hundreds of them.

They span from way out into the distance, scattered in between buildings, some clustered in groups, others far apart. They surrounded the building they were standing on top of, and stretched out far behind them. Some were huge and foreboding, bigger than houses, and others were as tiny as televisions.

But however way she spun it, Jenny realised with a sickening lurch that there were many more than expected, and covering a greater distance than they had the man-power for.

"Are you seeing this?" Jenny spoke into the radio numbly, her shock too great to bother using the correct walky-talky vocabulary.

"Yes," Abby's stunned sounding voice breathed back.

"Affirmative," Becker replied quietly. "We're surrounded."

Jenny glanced around at Nick, and saw the same terror she felt mirrored in his expression.

They were outnumbered.

Numb with shock, Jenny looked back at the still growing anomaly population, knowing that it wasn't just her that wouldn't survive this.

This was bad.

In her haze of disbelief, she felt Nick's warm hand brush up against her own and grasp it, squeezing it slightly in a futile gesture of comfort. However, it was enough to snap her out of her stupor, and start issuing crucial orders.

"Spread out across the edge!" she shouted to her men, and an instant shuffling sound told her that her orders were being followed. "Aim!" she added, and the unmistakable sound of guns being cocked could be heard.

She aimed her rifle also at the biggest anomaly on the road right in front of them, and felt Nick do the same from beside her.

The next few seconds passed as slowly as hours as they all waited in trepidation. Silence pressed in on them all as though the whole world was holding its breath, waiting for the blow to strike.

Suddenly, a gunshot could be heard cracking through the deafening silence, making everyone jump, despite the fact that there were no creature incursions as of yet. She glanced down the row of soldiers to her right, and saw one of them shaking slightly, looking at his gun uncertainly.

"Conserve your ammunition!" she snapped immediately. "Verify your target before firing!"

The man gulped and nodded, raising his gun again unsteadily. As Jenny looked back at the anomalies, she felt a prickle of guilt - the soldier looked barely twenty. Of course he was going to be nervous. God knows she was.

The eery silence pressed in still closer, as though it was the calm before the storm. After a few more moments of anxious waiting, Jenny actually found herself wishing that something would come through sooner rather than later so that the horrible anticipation of attack would alleviate.

No sooner had she thought it however, an earth-shattering roar came from the distance, making everyone start.

"Becker, what was that?" she demanded down the radio.

"T-rex!" he answered abruptly, and the sound of gun's firing could be heard sickeningly in the background.

Jenny was about to open her mouth and reply, but she froze immediately as several anomalies in front of their building started bulging . . .

Then, all hell broke loose.