This story is set in the BBC tv show 'Primeval' which I am a HUGE fan of. The basis of this idea is making Abby into a type of 'anti-Helen' character, starting right at the beginning of the season one. This is what I was able to whip up on my own, and it's open to anyone who wishes to expand it.

PRIMEVAL: A RETELLING

Permian Era
Early morning

Munching on a piece of dinosaur jerky that she made last week, Abby continued her trek across the sprawling desert landscape. In one hand, she held a simple wind-up radio and was carefully listening to it for the well-known static and wavering vibrations that filled it whenever she was near a gateway. Though she had only been in this hot desert for a month, she already desired to leave it. It was the raw, unfiltered heat; it made her sweat too heavily for her liking. Sweat always caused her white-blonde hair to stick to her face in the most annoying ways, despite being pulled back into a tight ponytail.

Her current attire certainly didn't help matters in that regard. Abby was dressed in dark cargo pants, worn leather boots, a pink tank top with a heavy woolen sweater wrapped around her waist, and a ragged dark leather jacket slung loosely over her shoulders to protect them from the bright sunlight. There was a ripped rucksack on her back, filled with basic camping gear and necessities. For weaponry, she carried a patched and dented energy gun she found in one of the future gateways hanging in a makeshift holster on her right thigh, a katana sword strapped to her waist, a long hunting knife on her left thigh, and she was using her ironwood spear as a walking stick.

A loud bellow from beneath her caught her attention momentarily and she paused in her walking to look. She was on the top of a high hill overlooking a valley of dark desert rocks and slowly ambling across it were a herd of large, stocky dinosaurs that vaguely reminded her of tortoises back home. Abby smiled serenely as she watched them move. No matter how many gateways she's passed through, the sight of such wondrous creatures always enthralled her.

Loud chirping barks quickly drew her attention to the skies as a number of winged green lizards rode the strong winds past her. Her smile grew as she watched one particular lizard suddenly veer away from the rest and swooped towards her. It landed a few short meters away from her and cautiously moved forward to inspect the strange creature it had never seen before.

Crouching down as she swallowed her jerky, she gently called out, "Hello there. And just who are you, my friend?"

The lizard chirped in response, cocking its head from side to side as it evaluated her. Abby just chuckled softly before reaching into one of her cargo pockets and pulled out a slice of dehydrated fruit she'd picked up three gateways ago. Taking one last bite of it to enjoy the sweet tarty flavor, she lightly tossed it over to the lizard who happily approached to sniff at the strange smelling treat before snatching it up.

"I hope you enjoyed it," she said as she stood back up. "That was my last piece." Turning away from the lizard as she was sure it would soon lose interest in her, she realized that her radio had died again and quickly wound it back up. Unnoticed by her, the winged lizard took to the air to follow her, hoping the strange creature might drop some more of those yummy foods.

As she was approaching a grove of trees near the top of the hill, her radio started crackling. A gateway was nearby! "Finally," she mumbled in relief. Swinging her radio from side to side to get an idea of where the gateway was, something peculiar in the distance caught her attention.

"What's that?" she asked herself as she moved closer.

It wasn't until Abby was nearly on top of it that she realized just what it was. It was a ruined campsite of some kind. Crouching down, she idly kicked some of the debris and dirt off of it. The tent was shredded, probably by both the broken branches and a dinosaur attack. Opening a container, she found a small array of food and cooking items, all of it long since gone bad. "Oh well."

Losing interest as she closed the container, she returned her attention to the radio. To her surprise, she found that she had actually gotten closer to her desired destination. If the rate of the noise was any indication, the gateway was less than half a mile away. Smiling, she stood and began to work her way to where the radio was directing. Cresting another hill, her smile returned as she wiped a trail of sweat away from her face. There was the gateway!

Moving forward, she came to sudden stop as a loud roar pierced the air. Looking over her shoulder, her eyes widened in slightly panicked fear. A large dinosaur that was clearly a predator was barreling right towards her with its large maw opened in obvious hunger.

"Dammit!" she yelled as she immediately turned and ran for the gateway as quickly as she could. If she could reach the gateway, there was a chance that the predator would not follow her. A slim chance, to be sure, but it was still possible since it had happened before. Thankfully, the gateway was closer than the creature and she was able to leap through with no resistance.

But once she was through, she didn't pause to allow herself to get her bearings. She kept running through the forest that she now found herself in, in search of a hiding place, just in case. Just as she was ducking behind some brush and a fallen tree only a short distance away from the gateway, she heard the predator come charging through with a mighty roar.

'So much for that plan,' Setting her spear aside, she grabbed her energy gun and held it to her side as she forced herself to take deep, quiet breaths. She didn't switch her gun on because it was already on a low charge, maybe one or two shots left, and she was saving them for a real emergency. Plus the sound of the gun charging up would've alerted the creature to her hiding place.

After a few tense moments of listening to the dinosaur growl and snarl as it likely tried to decide what to do now since it was no longer in a familiar environment, she heard it let out a loud snort, followed soon after by the sounds of underbrush snapping, heading the opposite direction of where she was hiding. Letting out the breath she didn't know she was holding, she slumped back against the ground in relief as she whispered, "Thank you."

Quickly climbing to her feet, she returned her gun back to its holster as she finally looked around to see where she'd ended up at now. The trees looked almost familiar, but she couldn't quite remember from which era she'd seen them before. The temperature was much cooler than it had been in the desert. In fact, her sweat from the desert had already begun to cool and was starting to send shivers down her spine as the cold winds blew over her. She was quick to untie her sweater from her waist and yank it on, adding an extra layer of warmth for her. The sky, what she could see of it anyway, was overcast with thick, gray storm clouds that were threatening to open up with rain very shortly.

"Well, guess it's time to look around now," she said quietly as she started walking away. But she didn't get very far before a familiar chirping bark attracted her attention. Turning around, she quickly found the source to be shuffling along the ground towards her, cocking its head as it looked up towards her. "What are you doing here, little fellow?"

Crouching down, she watched as the little winged lizard quickly approached her, sniffing around as though expecting something… "Oh, that's it," she said as she realized what was wrong. "You want me to feed you again, don't you?" The lizard barked in reply, as though understanding her. "Well, I guess I got a new traveling partner again. Come here, little guy." She gently coaxed him into her arms and held him close to her body to help keep him in warm, she could feel him shivering violently already in the cool air.

Turning again, Abby Maitland walked away in a random direction, in search of food, shelter, and some clue as to where and when she was now.

҉

April 20, 2007
Forest of Dean
Three days later…

Connor Temple couldn't help but stare in bewilderment and disbelief at what he was seeing. It was like something out of Star Trek or some other random B-rated science-fiction film. A three-meter wide glowing sphere of yellowish light that was being orbited by translucent fragments of…something. Even after spending all night and a good portion of the morning staring at the thing, he was still awed and bewildered by what he was seeing. It was just…so incredible! He, Professor Cutter, and Stephen Hart had found it when they'd accidentally spooked a Scutosaurus and followed it back to where it thought it was safe.

Professor Cutter had already identified the glowing thing as some type of rip in space and time, like a gateway between dimensions or, more accurately, different time zones of the Earth's history. And the thought that there were living, breathing dinosaurs on the other side of the glowing anomaly was a truly fascinating and mind-blowing idea. But he knew it was true because he'd already seen a dinosaur that was wandering the forest.

'Tom and Duncan would be so crossed if they knew what they were missing out on right now!' Connor realized as a spiteful chuckle worked its way out of his mouth. And they'd called him daft for taking Professor Cutter's classes! Why should he care about ancient history? With his forte of science and technology, he should be focusing on developing the next generation of starships and plasma weaponry, they said. Well, look who was now one of the few people on the planet who knew the real hidden truth of evolution and the countless monster sightings all over the world!

'Still, it would've been brilliant if there was a hot girl involved with this as well,' he thought morosely. Connor Temple, like many science geeks, had the absolute worst luck when it came to getting a girlfriend, never mind being able to actually hold a conversation with one! They would take one look at him and, for reasons he still failed to understand, they'd turn away with only the barest amount of courtesy. It was a depressing fact about his life that he had long since gotten used to.

Pushing those thoughts from his mind, he focused his attention back on the anomaly as he tapped his pen to his lip. He was trying to understand how such a strange phenomenon could exist. Was it somehow some kind of natural force? Was it manmade or artificial in some way? He could totally understand it if it was some kind of alien creation, like in the movies. But one thing he couldn't figure out was; if it was artificial, why here and now was it opened? What purpose could it serve for whoever was controlling it?

As these thoughts were going through his mind, he noticed the strange pull in his hand. It was his pen. It was being pulled away from him. Gently moving his hand forward, he felt the pull increase. Finally, releasing his grip, he watched in fascination as the item flew out of his hand and shot directly into the center of the glowing light.

"That explains the compass going crazy," Connor said to Cutter, who'd walked up to him as it happened.

"What could cause a magnetic field so powerful?" the Professor mused aloud.

"Maybe it's an alien spaceship," Connor suggested offhandedly, earning a slight grin from Cutter in response. They both knew he was only joking when he said that. Well, mostly joking anyway.

As Cutter moved off to talk with the Home Office lady, Ms. Claudia Brown, Connor turned his attention back to the anomaly. Digging through his pockets for another source of metal, he quickly held it out and let the magnetic field take it, laughing like a child as who'd found a new toy. He didn't realize until it was too late that it was his front door key that he'd just lost.

"Hey, Connor," Stephen Hart called from where he was standing off to the side. "You're with me, come on!"

It took only a moment for Connor to remember what was going on and he quickly nodded as he rushed over to follow the older man. As he approached, he looked around and found that Cutter and Ms. Brown were nowhere in sight. "Where's Cutter?"

"Ms. Brown took him, said something about talking to her boss at Whitehall," Stephen answered nonchalantly. He turned and started walking off into the forest. "Come on, we've still got a dinosaur to fin—" He trailed off as he noticed something on the ground, crouching down to examine it. "That's odd."

"What is it?" Connor asked, crouching down to take a look for himself. What he saw was both familiar and a little confusing. There, somewhat hidden in foliage, were what looked like boot tracks and skid marks. Speaking his mind, he gestured to what Stephen was closely examining. "I may not be a hunter or even know the first thing about tracking people or animals, but this looks like someone had come running and hidden here for a little while."

Stephen nodded with a thoughtful look on his face as he looked from where the tracks seemed to have come from (the anomaly) and where they disappeared into the forest. "These tracks are only a few days old. That means either whoever was here got frightened by something, maybe a creature of some kind, and came here to hide… Or someone had come through the anomaly into our time."

Connor, who had just come to that revelation as Stephen was voicing it, suddenly found himself both jealous and further mystified. The jealousy was easily understood because if someone else had found this anomaly first, they could patent the discovery and make themselves filthy rich in no time if they knew what they were doing. Plus there was the possibility that maybe, just maybe, that person had actually traveled through the anomaly and perhaps even other ones before. There was no telling what they might've seen or learned.

"Well, this complicates things," Connor uttered, more to himself than Stephen but the man nodded in agreement. This discovery just made his work all the more difficult. Now he had to try to track down whom it was that had been here to see if they knew about the anomaly or not. That, on top of finding the predator that Cutter and he still strongly believed was still out there on the prowl.