Brave Old World

Chapter content warnings: censored cussing; canon triggers (the skeleton, Nick and Ryan hitting each other, angst, etc.); mentions of snakes and spiders; mentions of sweat if that's a trigger; mentions of death (including starvation, animal attack, dehydration); slight grave desecration; bones of a human corpse are touched.


18:37 / 06:37 p.m.

After a short chat with Lorraine, who had resolved everything in her office in a few short minutes, Claudia had read through and signed a copy of the disclaimer given to Nick, which would be submitted to the appropriate persons along with her will should things go bad. She trusted Lorraine implicitly with this task, and knew that she would fight anyone and everyone tooth and nail to ensure Claudia's final wishes were carried out in the worst-case scenario. At Lester's direction, Claudia had gotten into contact with Captain Tom Ryan and informed him that he would also be going through the anomaly, and also rounded up a handful of medics to head down to the Forest to attend to the explorers. At long last, she reunited with Nick and Abby again, the former having thoroughly read through and signed the disclaimer.

Claudia had driven more sedately back to the Forest of Dean, her white-knuckled grip of irritation gradually relaxing over the course of the transit. She let Abby sit in the front this time, in case riding in the backseat had been part of her earlier nausea. Nick sulked in the backseat. The women pretended not to notice, chatting amicably.

Upon their return, they found the camp at the anomaly site far more developed than it had been that morning. White tents had been set up, along with towering area lights and a plethora of equipment. Claudia was pleased to see that the medics had arrived and set up shop almost immediately. She directed Nick to them, and Abby followed. Curiously, however, she noted that although Connor was present, Stephen was not.

She ducked into the loo tent that had been set up, and as quickly as she could she changed into the trousers, jacket, and shoes she'd packed. Stuffing her old clothes into the bag and mentally cringing at the wrinkles she knew she'd have to deal with when she got home, she removed her earrings and replaced her ponytail with a more secure braid down her back before stepping back outside.

Although the clothes were more comfortable, Claudia felt very at odds with her attire in this context. She was a Home Office official, an albeit minor representative of the British Government, a loyal servant of the Crown and dedicated to Queen and Country. It was her duty to appear professional, unbothered, and collected at all times, most especially in front of civilians or subordinates. She was to be an authority figure, a reliable leader. Wearing casual civilian clothes chosen for comfort and practicality rather than appearance and professionalism felt foreign and almost inappropriate.

But Claudia was not in the Home Office, with its bland flooring and narrow hallways and cramped offices walled in glass. She was in the Forest of Dean with its tall pines and carpeted with organic detritus. She was about to step through an impossible portal into the distant past to explore a strange world that should've been over and done with millennia ago and return a living fossil.

Claudia eyed the apparition, slowly cracking her neck, then her elbows, then her knuckles. She ran a finger around the circumference of her wrist between limb and watchband, breaking the uncomfortable seal formed by nervous sweat. Head held high and shoulders squared with false bravado but a very real resolution to see this through, Claudia approached the Scottish professor that had turned her world upside-down.

"Will you call Stephen again?" Nick requested, largely ignoring the Home Office medic waving a penlight in front of his eyes.

"He's not answering." Reported Connor, lowering the phone from his ear and redialing.

Claudia consulted her wristwatch, mentally making a note to invest in a more durable one. "It's 18:55. I want us back no later than 20:00 hours. If the first contact works out, we'll take it from there." She announced.

Captain Ryan stepped up beside her, and the professor's eyes cut over to him. "What's he doing here?" The Scot demanded.

"This is Captain Ryan. He's a Gulf War veteran with extensive desert experience. We don't know how dangerous it will be on the other side of the anomaly." Claudia explained. "No argument, Cutter. He comes as well."

The professor got to his feet, amicably shaking Ryan's hand. "You said 'us'." He noted.

Claudia masked her apprehension toward his possible reactions and nodded. "You said it yourself- I'll be coming with you."

Nick frowned. "That was yesterday, before we knew what we were dealing with."

She gave him her best diffusional smile. "We still don't know exactly what we're dealing with, and if I'm going to be involved in this in any way, I intend to be in the thick of it with the rest of you. That way I'll be able to give a firsthand account from a perspective that the government will appreciate, and I can accurately assess the situation and call in resources accordingly. I'm coming with you, and I'm accepting no arguments."

Abby walked up to them at that moment, holding the chirping Rex in her arms. "Please take care of him." She requested softly, transferring the creature into the professor's arms carefully. Claudia indicated to Ryan that he should step aside. "Look after yourself too." Abby added, placing a brief kiss on his cheek for good luck.

"Yeah. We'll be fine." Nick assured her.

Claudia met Ryan's eyes. "Whatever happens…" she glanced at the professor. "…bring him back." Her eyes returned to the soldier's, and her voice dropped. "Even if it means leaving me behind."

"It won't come to that, ma'am." Ryan replied, his voice steady and firm but soft. He was in no way blowing off her very real concerns about what and when they were about to walk into, nor dismissing her unselfish prioritizing of Professor Cutter above herself, but affirming that he would do his job and get them all home safe and sound- that he would not let such a situation arise. It was a rare thing to see this character in a soldier, and Claudia appreciated it.

Claudia nodded once, then stepped away from Ryan and moved to Nick's side. Rex chirped and warbled in his arms. Ryan took up Nick's other side, and the three exchanged nods denoting their readiness to proceed.

Nick led them forward, his stride calm and balanced despite the momentousness of the occasion and the danger that likely lay ahead. Although, perhaps that was why his steps were so neutral- an equal measure of both eagerness and trepidation warring within him to create an odd equilibrium.

Ryan stopped briefly to pick up a beige messenger bag that looked nearly fit to burst and put its strap over his head, and Claudia paused to wait for him. He caught up to her again in two long-legged strides that looked natural and annoyingly easy on him, and she stepped quickly to return to her previous place beside Nick Cutter as they neared the shimmering doorway.

Claudia drew in a breath, holding it as she stepped through the anomaly. She half expected it to hurt, or at the very least feel uncomfortable- electric, perhaps, or like hitting your funny bone-, but it didn't. Her entire body tingled for half a second, like a pleasant shiver all over, and then her eyes were being assaulted by bright sunlight.

She stepped through one foot at a time, and under one boot was amber pine needles and damp brown dirt, while the other set down onto rich yet rocky black soil. The chilly evening in the Forest of Dean was replaced in an instant by dry heat and what seemed to be mid-to-late-afternoon sunshine. The canopy of treetops was gone, and in its place a glorious blue sky. In the far distance, a few peaked volcanoes emitted plumy clouds of ash and smoke almost lazily, no other hint of threat or danger coming from them but their mere existence.

Many more Rexes merrily swooped and dived through the air a little way off, and the lizard in Cutter's arms loudly chirped in response to their sounds. Nick crouched down, carefully setting the creature onto the ground, and after a moment, he flew away. Claudia exhaled in relief, knowing that the pesky little animal was safely returned to his own home and kind, where and when he belonged.

Ryan set his backpack on the ground and began rifling through its contents in search of something, while Claudia was lost in the strange beauty of the foreign landscape.

"Give me an hour. Give me one hour on my own." Nick said, prompting Ryan to shoot back up to a standing position and Claudia to glare at the Scotsman. "I've got a radio." He said, patting one hip.

"Bloody Scottish. Unmanageable. Should've brought a security detail with me." Ryan muttered as they watched him mosey off. "Or maybe a leash."

Claudia snorted, quite far from ladylike, and Ryan gave her a surprised look. "I'm sorry, that's not professional of me." Claudia apologized, covering her mouth in a poor effort to hide her laughter.

"It's nothing, ma'am." Ryan assured her. "I take it you won't mind, then, if I throw him over my shoulders and carry him back should he not be cooperative when we tell him it's time to go?"

"We'll drag him back by his hair kicking and screaming if we have to." Claudia agreed. Ryan allowed the corner of his mouth to lift in a smirk, and Claudia returned it with a smile and eyes that promised mischief.

"Sir Lester will want an assessment of the area." She continued after a moment, her tone serious again. "The anomaly looks stable to me, so as long as we don't go too far, I should be able to make it back before there's any chance of us being stranded here."

Ryan nodded. He fiddled with his watch. "It'll go off in thirty minutes. If we're not far from the anomaly, we can go out a little further if we'd like."

"Smart thinking." Claudia said. She turned on the spot and pointed. "The professor went that way, so perhaps we should go in the opposite direction?"

"Sounds good to me."

The pair of them set off, downhill from the anomaly's location. A barren expanse of ground going generally downhill was their chosen route, taking them past a tall hill that Claudia feared would turn out to be another volcano with every moment. Mercifully, it did not erupt.

"Brown." Ryan said suddenly, stopping short, his whole stance and demeanor shifting into one of near-tense alertness. "I'm no paleontologist, but I know that doesn't belong."

Claudia frowned, turning her head slowly right-to-left as her eyes followed the same track, and they caught on something so familiar it was foreign. "My God." She breathed.

In the shade of conifers, half-hidden by their fallen boughs and needles and the dirt beneath, was the unmistakable remnants of a human camp.

White tents, their frames long since collapsed, were scattered about, and a few metal cases- like Halliburtons, or oversized briefcases a lot tougher than the ones used in Whitehall- were visible. Claudia took in a shaky breath and tentatively moved forward, one boot crunching a massive pinecone underfoot. She squatted beside one of the tents and carefully plucked at the fabric, hoping not to damage or disturb it any more than necessary and all too aware that anything from a horde of spiders to an angry prehistoric snake might be concealed underneath.

To her relief, once she'd found the edge- already raggedly torn from its frame- and flung it back to expose whatever was underneath, she found no living creatures. Instead, there was the tattered remnant of a rolled-up sleeping bag.

"This is mad." Claudia muttered. "Absolutely barmy."

"I feel like I've fallen down the rabbit-hole." Remarked Ryan.

Claudia huffed a humorless laugh at the irony. "I've felt the same since yesterday."

Ryan smirked. "Well then, Alice, shall we see if we can find the Hatter?"

A grin spread across Claudia's face despite the situation as she rose to her feet. "I think Professor Cutter is the Mad Hatter here."

"True enough. A house of cards, then?"

Claudia chuckled, actually amused this time. "Maybe something in one of these cases can tell us something. A regiment name, a country of origin, a time period- something."

"Agreed. Those look fairly intact." He indicated a couple cases lying a few feet away. The pair headed over to them, and Claudia knelt down.

She opened one of the cases. Inside was an assortment of freeze-dried food pouches, tinned goods, and a handful of remarkably-intact bars of milk chocolate in bright blue wrappers. "So, whoever was here certainly didn't starve to death, or relocate in search of food." Ryan remarked from over Claudia's shoulder. "They've expired by now, but the tins look like they're in good condition."

She looked up at him. "Dehydration, then? It's pretty hot, and I don't see any water."

Ryan shook his head, a skeptical expression on his face. "It's humid, and there's enough healthy plant life here to suggest that it rains somewhat frequently. Besides, they could've drank the packing liquid from the tins if it came down to it."

Claudia frowned, returning her gaze to the case. "In that case… what could have driven them to leave all this behind? If they had planned to relocate, they would've at least taken their food with them, but it's all still here."

"I'm not sure what creatures live in this time period, but I know about the cow and the Trent kid's window. Maybe that eats meat and is big enough to reach a second-story window came into camp and they had to take off."

"And either died somewhere else or went through another anomaly." Claudia added. "How long ago would you say this happened?"

Ryan blew out a breath. "I really couldn't say. I don't know enough about the climate, the weather. I'm not a paleontologist, or a scientist of any kind, for that matter. It could've been a couple months or twenty years. I really don't know." He scratched his jaw. "Those volcanoes make me nervous. I'm guessing that they were inactive, or at least fairly quiet whenever this happened, or we never would've found all this."

Claudia nodded, shutting the case. "We should keep looking. Maybe we'll find a clue somewhere else- anything to tell us what happened here."

Ryan nodded, and pointed off to one side. "Let's start over this rise in the land. If I was making camp in a place like this, I would have at least one soldier stationed on higher ground for a better vantage point."

Nodding in agreement, Claudia stood and followed the soldier through the trees up the hill. There weren't many trees on the plateaued top of the hill; instead, it was far more desert-like, covered in gravely brown earth.

Something strange was buried in the ground, something metal with bars over the middle. A crate of some sorts, probably. But further ahead was by far the most shocking and disturbing discovery thus far. "$h¡t." Ryan cursed, and Claudia found herself echoing him aloud.

Half-covered by sediment lay what was unmistakably a human skeleton.

It was impossible.

And yet, it was.

Claudia sighed with the realization that that seemed to apply to everything in her life lately.

"I'll see what I can learn from what's in the open." Claudia decided. "Go get Professor Cutter."

"Yes, ma'am." Ryan answered, sprinting away in search of their wayward Scotsman. Claudia glanced around, suddenly feeling even more overwhelmed without Ryan's grounding presence beside her. After a contemplative moment, she squatted down where she stood, dragging a scrutinizing gaze over the half-exposed, very human skeleton.

The skull could be nothing but a homo sapiens cranium. There was no oddity to the shape of the forehead, or the jaw, or the eye sockets, or the cheekbones, or the teeth. Claudia hadn't expected anything different, of course, given the very modern human camp.

Other than the half-hidden skull, all that was visible of the skeleton was part of the ribcage, most of the pelvis, and part of the right leg- specifically, the knee and the nearest portion of the femur, tibia, and fibula.

A thought occurred to her. What she and Ryan had seen of the campsite screamed 'government-funded military', which meant that the dead person laid out before her was probably either a soldier or a scientist. If they were a soldier, they would be wearing dog tags.

And dog tags could prove crucial to uncovering the truth about what had happened here.

Gritting her teeth in revulsion, she gingerly reached out, the pads of her fingertips just brushing across the gravelly earth that the poor sap was half-covered in- specifically, the part between the skull and ribcage. She wished she had worn gloves. "I am… so sorry." She muttered aloud, using both hands to paw through the dirt, wincing as the sharp stones mingled with the soil scratched and scraped her delicate fingertips.

At last, they brushed against a different substance, one that soon became abundantly obvious to be bone. Claudia cringed, but ascertained from the shape of said bone(s) that she had found the part of the spinal column that made up the neck. That wasn't her goal, but it was the next best thing.

Claudia resorted to dragging large mounds of earth away from the neck, her cupped hands demolishing the earth that obstructed her. At last, once she had placed an open hand at the top of the ribcage to keep the dirt within from spilling out, there was enough gone for her to see the neck quite well, and she simply fingered through the loose dirt with her free hand. Finally, they caught on something thin but distinctive- a ball chain.

Claudia wrapped her hand around it and tugged. The weight of the dirt in the skull kept it anchored to the ground, and the old chain snapped with enough force. And there, dangling from her brown-streaked hand with prehistoric dirt under her fingernails, was a set of dog tags.

Puzzlingly and somewhat concerningly, they were not the standard British round tags. Instead, they were one solid piece composed of two rectangular tags, like the American ones, stacked on top of each other, with a narrow hole in the middle. 'Canadian', Claudia realized. Dirt and grime were caked on too thickly for Claudia to even see the information stamped into the metal. Time and the elements had taken their toll on these tags. Claudia prayed that something useful could still be gleaned from them.

Footsteps behind her drew her attention, and she looked over her shoulder to see Captain Ryan returning, Nick in tow. "Did you show him the campsite?" Claudia asked, rising. Her knees protested at the sudden shift of position.

"Yes, ma'am." Ryan replied. His eyes went to the item she held. "Dog tags." He stated, his voice flat with professional restraint.

She swallowed. "Yes." She looked down, rotating her wrist to wrap the chain around her hand like uncut spaghetti on a fork. "They're Canadian, I think." She remarked, in the exact same tone he had used.

The ramifications of this discovery were massive, but this was neither the time nor the place to discuss them, or even give them too deep thought.

Nick approached the corpse, undisturbed save for Claudia's digging in the neck area. Claudia gave the dog tags one last look, then stuffed them into a front pocket of her trousers.

It was the Scotsman's turn to crouch by the body. Ryan abruptly dropped to one knee and dug something out of the ground, handing it to Nick. "A camera case?" Claudia queried, mentally berating herself for not noticing it.

Nick turned it over in his hands, inspecting the time-worn brown leather. "It's 'HC'; it's Helen Cutter." He said, voice strained. He stood back up quickly, looking off into the distance.

"Is it her?" Ryan questioned after a moment.

"You found tags?" Nick asked, glancing over his shoulder at Claudia. She nodded. "Then no. Helen wasn't military. In fact-" he went down again for a moment, counting the exposed ribs. "-it's a man."

"How did he die?" Ryan asked, looking between Nick and Claudia.

"I don't know." Admitted the Scot.

"Me either." Claudia added. "What was Helen doing with a Canadian soldier- in a Canadian military camp, no less?" She turned her gaze from Nick to Ryan. "Assuming that this wasn't natural causes, given that there's food and shelter down there, what are the chances that she and the other soldiers could've survived even though this one didn't?"

Ryan cocked his head in thought. "That depends. If he died before the rest of the camp was deserted, it's high. If he didn't, he might've stayed behind or broken off to lure off the threat and buy the others time. If the others escaped and she was with them, she might be alive."

"And she could've dropped the camera in the chaos." Claudia added thoughtfully.

Ryan consulted his watch. "It's time to go." He announced.

"Yeah, I cannae help that, I've got to find my wife."

The soldier and the civil servant exchanged a look. Attempting persuasion first, Claudia spoke gently to the mulish professor. "We have no idea what happened here or where she could've gone. We don't have the resources or the manpower or the knowledge to pursue this. We're chasing phantoms here. We need to return to our time and report what we've discovered. Then, if the anomaly's still stable, we might be able to bring more people through to search properly. But we need to go back first."

"You two go do that. I'm staying." Nick replied without looking at her. Claudia let out an annoyed breath, clenching her jaw. Reluctantly, she turned her eyes to Ryan and gave him a permissive nod.

The soldier drew his pistol as he approached from behind. "Sorry, Professor." He spoke, promptly bringing it down on the back of the Scot's head, and the professor crumpled to the prehistoric ground.

"You can put it in your report that I ordered you to do it." Claudia said, looking remorsefully down at Nick. "Is there anything I can carry to make carrying him back easier on you?"

An odd look came over Ryan's face, surprised and touched at Claudia's offer. "The camera case, and if you do exactly as I say, my rifle."

A few minutes later, they were striding as quickly as they dared back the way they'd come, Nick over Ryan's shoulders in a fireman carry and the soldier's rifle slung across Claudia's front, the camera case's much shorter leather strap overlaying it and keeping the valuable item secure against her chest. Sweat was heavy and damp across the expanses of her skin, gluing her hair to her forehead and neck and her clothes to her body. It was a different kind of dampness than she was used to, an unpleasant and uncomfortable one that she hoped to not experience again anytime soon, even though she knew she would need to return at least once to the Permian should a second team come through to further explore and investigate this particular cross-section of the geologic time column. The black webbing sling strap of Ryan's rifle chafed against her back and shoulder, moving and shifting and rubbing against her irritatingly despite it being shortened to keep the gun tight against her and the multiple layers of clothing between strap and skin. The muzzle of the rifle bumped against her thigh, near the knee, with every step.

She pitied Ryan, clad from shoulder to shoe-sole in black, with long sleeves, a loaded tactical vest, and multiple layers. Not to mention the nine-stone unconscious professor over his shoulders. She was just glad that he'd left the backpack at the anomaly site.

Onward and onward they trekked, hiking up the slopes that were far more favorable to descend. Ryan, to his credit, never slowed his pace despite the tremendous effort he was making, heaving for breath as he continued to carry Nick.

Eventually, the professor roused with a litany of slurred swears, threats, and insults, and Ryan let him down. Nick threw one arm around Ryan's neck and Claudia took his other, putting it over her shoulders as she and Ryan each laid an arm across the Scot's back. Together, the three of them wearily staggered up the last rise of primeval ground to the anomaly site. Panting, Ryan and Claudia reluctantly let go of Nick, all three of them bent over in exhaustion. Claudia stumbled away from them, tripping over her own feet and landing solidly on her backside. She didn't care and made no effort to stand or compose herself.

Nick abruptly reared back an arm and threw a flimsy punch at Ryan's face, causing Claudia to jolt in shock. Ryan returned it with a solid hit that sent Nick sprawled out onto the ground. "Don't do that again." He rebuked. He glanced to the side and froze in horror. "The anomaly – it's disappearing!" He cried in alarm, sending a fresh jolt of adrenaline through Claudia's veins that had her on her sore feet in seconds.
They dashed for the anomaly- shuddering with a strange noise as it waned into transparency- but Ryan abruptly skidded to a halt, prompting Claudia to do the same. "Quick!" Ryan barked, casting wild glances between the anomaly and the Scotsman, who, to Claudia's horror, was still on the ground. "Do you want to be trapped here forever?" He demanded.

"I'm staying here to look for my wife!" The Scotsman asserted, stubbornly refusing to even stand up.

"I'm not leaving you behind!" Ryan responded.

"Well, what do you wanna do? Shoot me?" Goaded Nick sourly.

"For God's sake, Nick, you don't even know if she's alive!" Claudia burst out. "She could be dead, she could be a million years from now! Your best chance at finding her is going home, searching for signs in the past. You can't stay here!"

Ryan, having visibly deliberated during her plea for him to see sense, darted back toward the professor, dropping into a kneeling position beside him. "Alright- you stay, I stay."

Bloody mad, both of them, but she had to give him credit. "That's- that's just childish." Nick chided.

"No more than you're being." Retorted Claudia, desperately squatting down on Nick's other side.

Cutter looked back and forth between his resolute companions, casting a look also at the rapidly fading anomaly. "Oh, come on." He muttered under his breath. Despite feeling tremendously sorry for him and trying to be understanding of his emotional turmoil, Claudia couldn't ignore the dread threatening to consume her whole. She believed with a grim certainty that tomorrow morning, Lorraine would have to act upon the will that had been left with her, and would be tasked with informing her parents that their daughter would not be coming home. She shut her eyes in a vain attempt to contain the tears blossoming in her eyes. She should've at least left them a casual farewell voicemail before leaving London.

"Alright."

Nick's single word of resignment and compliance flooded her with relief and energy, and she threw out her hand and caught his arm, hauling him to his feet as Ryan shot up beside him. The soldier snatched up his backpack, and the three of them ran for the flickering light and flung themselves through.


Author's notes:

The AU plot thickens! I know it's a sorta-cliffhanger, but I really wanted to get this chapter out.

With the exclusion of languages such as Yiddish, Hebrew, and Arabic, most languages are read left-to-right, therefore when we as humans (if we read left-to-right) move our eyes in the opposite way (right-to-left), we pick up more little details. I imagine the reverse also applies.

'poor sap' is a phrase my grandmother commonly says.

If I've incorrectly capitalized or referred to certain things (such as "a loyal servant of the Crown and dedicated to Queen and Country") I sincerely apologize. I'm American and I don't 100% grasp all of the capitalization and terminology for these things, but I'm trying my best. Feel free to correct me.

I will explain the Canadian tags further in future chapters. In fact, this arc (no pun intended) won't be FULLY explained for a really long time, although it will become pretty irrelevant for a while.

Tinned goods = canned goods.

I've eaten freeze-dried food on occasion. The meals have to be prepared, usually with boiling water right into their pouches, but the Neapolitan ice cream (which you don't do anything to before eating) is surprisingly good.