Disclaimer: Primeval and all its characters belong to someone else.

Summary: - This is a first for me- an adventure story rather than just fluff! *Warning- character death- not too graphic, though!*

I really enjoyed writing this chapter, and I hope you like it and it makes you want to read more!

Thank you for the reviews; alerts etc- I really can't tell you how much they mean to me! You are so kind to take the time!

Shards of Glass

Chapter Seven- The Journey

They started their journey as quickly as possible, and once they got outside into the fresh air Abby seemed to recover quite quickly as the soft breeze cleared her head. They were able to move quicker now that Connor didn't need to support Abby's weight. They knew it wasn't too far to the anomaly as they remembered their journey to the building- was it really only a few days ago that they'd fallen through the anomaly! It seemed so long ago, now! The 'Cleaners' seemed to know where they were leading them and although they weren't at all friendly, they made sure Abby and Connor could keep up with their pace as they all moved hurriedly through the dense vegetation.

"So, what's your names then?" Connor asked one of the 'Cleaners'. No answer!

"I'm Connor and this is Abby" he said waving his hand in Abby's direction. Still no reply. The 'Cleaner' just looked stonily at Connor as they moved on.

"Better not chat so much, mate," Connor continued "A creature might hear you…" he said a huge grin appearing on his face. The 'Cleaner' continued forward a footstep or two, ignoring Connor. Suddenly he stopped, and Connor bumped right into him.

The 'Cleaner' looked right into Connor's face and growled "You shut up, if you know what's good for you!"

"Er…Shutting up!" said Connor feeling intimidated. He looked down at his feet for a moment until the 'Cleaner' shoved him forward. Abby cast him a sympathetic look, and they all continued their journey once again in silence.

They kept a careful lookout for predators as they went, the 'Cleaners' sometimes looking behind them to ensure nothing was following. They walked swiftly, but as silently as possible, not wanting to alert any creatures of their presence. Suddenly, a roar broke the calm and tranquillity, and seemed to wash over them. All four of them stopped moving immediately and looked towards the sound. Abby and Connor looked at each other worriedly.

The 'Cleaners' started to move on again, warily, with Abby and Connor following as quietly as they could. Suddenly a large therapod dinosaur about 10 feet tall came crashing out of the trees. The first 'Cleaner' didn't stand a chance. He didn't have time to do anything as the creature grabbed him in its large powerful jaws. The 'Cleaner' screamed once only. As the creature moved forward, the other 'Cleaner' stood his ground and fired shot after shot at it. Connor pulled Abby away and pushed her behind a very large tree, where they hid from sight as they had no weapons to defend themselves with.

Although the gunfire seemed to have little effect, the creature suddenly turned away, it's already dead prey dangling from its mouth, blood dripping from the body. Connor and Abby came out from their hiding place.

"Sorry about your… er… friend... brother… whatever… sorry, mate" said Connor. The 'Cleaner' didn't bat an eyelid. He didn't seem to have any emotions at all. He signalled them to move onward. Abby and Connor looked at each other but continued their journey still rather shocked and upset from the death of the clone.

"What was that?" Abby whispered to Connor

"Megalosaurus" Connor replied "Great Lizard!"

"Well, I hope it's gone!" she said looking around. Connor nodded in agreement. He didn't want to meet that dinosaur again- especially unarmed. Roars still sounded at times as they moved onwards, and every now and again one of them would turn nervously to one side or the other to check it was clear. Abby and Connor joined hands as they continued their journey, and the one surviving 'Cleaner' either didn't notice or care as he let them draw comfort from the contact. Suddenly they stopped, looking in awe at the sight in front of them. A short distance ahead of them was a group of dinosaurs.

"Wha…what are they?" whispered Abby looking at the powerful dinosaurs. They walked on two legs and had short arms with three fingered hands, ending in sharp claws about 6 inches long.

"Allosaurus. Very intelligent. Run in packs. Carnivores" Connor shot out quietly "We really don't want them to see us!"

They decided to try to head around them and hope they weren't seen. They didn't want to divert too far away or else they might miss the anomaly as they only had about a half an hour left before it closed now.

The 'Cleaner' set off at a fast pace, and Abby and Connor had a hard job to keep up with him. He no longer seemed to care if they were still following him or not, and was soon far ahead of them.

"C…Connor, wait up" whispered Abby, tripping over a tree stump "Ow! My ankle!"

Connor bent over to check Abby's ankle "It's already swelling up!" Connor said worriedly "Don't think it's broken, though- more likely a sprain. Can you walk?" He looked ahead as he spoke, just in time to see the 'Cleaner' disappear through the trees.

"I don't know- I'll try" said Abby, gingerly standing up on her good leg, the other in the air as if she was about to hop. She carefully lowered her foot to the ground, and put some weight onto it. She instantly crumbled to the ground, her ankle unable to support her weight. "Oh!" She cried out in pain.

"It's OK, it's OK- here, lean on me. We'll be OK- we can do this" said Connor

"Yeah" she replied doubtfully "But where's the 'Cleaner'? Connor! He's gone! We don't know the way back!"

"It's Ok, Abby- it can't be too hard to find- I kinda recognise where we are- that rock looks very familiar" He noticed Abby's incredulous look, and added "I was in the boy scouts, wasn't I. I'll get us back, don't worry!" He said with more bravado than he felt.

"Anyway, maybe when the anomaly opened Matt and Becker came through to find us"

"No" replied Abby "The 'no going through anomalies' rule- remember. Becker's a stickler for that! No, we're on our own!"

"Well, that's how I like it- me…and you, that's all I'll ever need, Abby. C'm here" Connor pulled Abby to him and hugged her fiercely, closing his eyes for a moment and just savouring her closeness. Abby too enjoyed the comfort of the close contact. She was very tired from all the emotions she had gone through these past few days. It took a lot out of her, and her spirits were at a very low ebb. But she knew that Connor and she were a great team together- they'd survived worse than this before, and they'd do it again. She was sure….

"Come on, we'd better move." Connor said after a few moments "Here, put your arm around me and let me take your weight."

"I'm sorry, Connor. It was stupid, tripping over that tree!"

"Yeah! Usually the kind of thing I do! Makes a change from me being hurt, and anyway you're light enough for me to carry if it comes to it"

"What!"

"Just joking! Need the practice for carrying you over the threshold, don't I! C'mon- let's go"

They slowly started moving in the general direction of the anomaly, Abby leaning heavily on Connor, and Connor half pulling, half carrying Abby along at the fastest pace they could manage. After just a few yards, Abby was hot and sweating through the effort, and her ankle was throbbing badly, but she gritted her teeth and carried on. Nothing was going to stop her going back through that anomaly.

Suddenly, immediately to their left they heard a huge roar and the thud of a huge animal approaching. It suddenly looked in their direction- it seemed to be sniffing the air.

"Oh, oh!" Connor said

"Oh, oh?" countered Abby

"I think it's got our scent! We'd better try to get away from here" The Allosaurus started roaring.

"What's it doing?" puffed Abby, as she and Connor rushed forward from tree to tree.

"It's alerting the herd- they hunt in packs. We'd better hope they don't all come- won't stand a chance! It's the scout- can you go a bit faster?"

"I'm trying, Connor-"

They continued on, the large dinosaur lumbering alongside just a short distance from them.

"Lucky they're slow. But they're so big, one stride brings them nearer to us!"

"This one seems fast enough for me!" Abby said

"Yeah, you're right…I…I think the others are coming! Listen! I can hear them roaring in reply."

They had no option but to keep going, but they got slower and slower as Abby's ankle made it hard for her to run in the dense vegetation.

"Con….Connor- leave me! There's no point in us both dying. You go ahead- bring back help if you can. I'll be OK"

"Wha…NO! No, Abby- I'm not leaving you here. We're a team, me and you- we go together or not at all"

"Please, Connor…" Abby begged, tears streaming from her eyes

"No! I can't- I love you!" Connor said, remembering another occasion when the very same conversation happened, more or less. But that time, he hadn't admitted he'd ever said those words to her- he wasn't about to make that same mistake again. "I'll never leave you and this time I'll shout it out from the rooftops- I love you!"

"Oh, Connor" she said, practically melting at his words. "I love you too!" It wasn't often either of them actually said those words out loud. When they did, it felt all the more special to both of them. But they didn't have time to linger as the Allosaurus suddenly ran out from the trees, directly at them. Connor pushed Abby aside and leapt the other way as the huge creature lumbered towards them.

Connor got up, and saw Abby struggling to stand as the creature saw her and started to make a bee-line for her. It came at a great speed- too fast for its two legs and it fell forward, crashing to the ground. Its arms were too short to protect it from the fall, and a loud crack emanated from it, as one of its ribs snapped. It landed just inches from Abby's face; it's long, sharp serrated teeth snapping at her.

Abby managed to struggle to her feet and the creature's teeth snapped shut at the exact place she had been a moment before, but only tasted air! As Abby backed away as fast as she could, half hopping, Connor ran over to her and helped her move around the huge dinosaur.

"The anomaly can't be too far from here now" Connor said

"If we're going the right way!" Abby said worriedly. They limped forward a few more yards when they heard another roar behind them.

"Oh no, another one! The pack must be following." Connor cried. They threw themselves over a tree trunk and fell down an incline where they finally came to land at the bottom. As Connor looked up, he looked straight into the face of a dinosaur which was lying on the ground. He jumped back, terrified. There were two of them. One was obviously dead, but the other looked injured. It roared in pain and struggled to get up, but its head just fell back to the ground.

"Poor thing!" said Abby sorrowfully. She was always saddened when a creature was hurt no matter if it had just tried to eat her or not! Connor looked at her, half in amazement, half in pride of his wonderful, caring fiancée.

"H…help me…" cried a weak voice. They looked at each other and then started to search for the owner of the voice.

"Over here!" cried Connor, as he found the 'Cleaner' who had left them earlier. One of his legs was trapped underneath the dead dinosaur's body, his gun still hot from shooting the two creatures.

"It's OK, mate" Connor said "We'll get you out" Connor and Abby looked at the creature. It was an Apatosaurus, Connor realised. They tried to shift the sauropod off of the 'Cleaner' but couldn't move it.

"Hang on" said Connor "We need something for leverage…"He looked around, and found a large, thick branch on the ground. He placed one end under the creature and pulled down as hard as he could. He only had the strength to raise it a little, but it was enough for Abby to pull her hardest and get the 'Cleaner' clear. Once he was clear, Abby fell to the ground, the effort being too much for her in her weakened state. Connor found himself with two casualties and could hear the roars of the Allosaurus pack coming- tempted by the smell of blood…..

To Be Continued….

There we have it! I hope you found it exciting! Please excuse any spelling mistakes- the excitement makes me type too fast as the action takes over!

Please, please review. Next chapter soon…