Primeval

Chapter 2 ~ Home

Connor shook his head, "Danny?" Anna asked without really thinking about it. The two of them jus stared at each other, not saying anything, Anna knew this meant they did not know where their team leader was.

"He might have made it back through," Connor suggested.

"He can't have. I was at the Anomaly when it closed. Danny ordered me to go back through; there was an......incident,"

"What sort of incident?" Abby asked curiously.

The three of them discussed and told each other of their year in the Cretaceous. Anna almost envied them because they had each other.

"So what's all of this then?" Anna finally said, "the Raptor's collection?"

"We've been tracking it for a while. It likes to steal our things, but it wont kill us for some reason. But it smelt us near it's store,"

Anna began rummaging through the cluster of items. This Raptor had clearly been through an anomaly to get all of these treasures,, but the question was, where was the anomaly?

Anna's hand brushed something cold, and she jumped back a little. Reaching for the feature, her hand wrapped around something rectangular. Pulling it out of the pile, Anna held a familiar object in her hand. A gateway key. A device of Helen Cutter's making which allowed the user to open an anomaly. Quite different to the tracker that Anna still kept in her bag.

"This must have been Helen's." It was a sense of hope until she saw that, like her own device, was completely dead.

"It could work if we gave it a go?" Connor said. Being the computer genius, Anna handed it to Connor. They began to walk, Connor a few steps behind Anna and Abby, trying to fix the gateway key. It grew darker as thick clouds covered the sky. Faint shadows were cast from tall trees and the boughs creaked in the raising wind.

"You could try shaking it?" Abby suggested as a joke. "It always worked with the TV remote," But Connor was serious about fixing it. Yet Connor shook the device in desperation and a quiet buzzing sound emanated from behind Anna and Abby.

They swung round to see Connor staring at the machine with wide eyes, "It's working!"

It took several attempts but soon the wind picked up a drastic amount but not from the sky, form the clearing behind them,

Each one of them turned to see an Anomaly open. It's glass shards sprinkled until it formed the gateway. "Connor you're brilliant." Abby yelled. Without even admiring the Anomaly the three of them ran for it. until finding their path blocked by a very large dinosaur.

"Not you again." Abby snapped. Anna had no time to ask why she knew about this Spinosaurus as it ran straight for them.

Anna had a pathetic idea, but knew it was the only way to get through the anomaly. She spotted Abby's silver blanket poking out of her bag and grabbed it. She began to run back in the direction of the Raptor's nest, praying it had woken from being knocked out.

"Anna where are you going?" Connor shouted as he and Abby hid behind a tree. Anna had run off towards where the Raptor was.

When she reached the opening in the trees, Anna found the Raptor on it's feet again, rummaging through it's collection.

"Oi!" Anna shouted, the Raptor turned and screeched at Anna. Then turning it's head sharply to see the silver blanket in her hand. Chasing her back to the other's, the Raptor began to gain on Anna. The Spinosaurus was trudging backwards and forwards in front of the glowing gateway, as if guarding it. Anna scrunched up the blanket and with all the power she could conjure, threw it, hitting the Spinosaurus in the eye. The twenty foot beast turned to see the Raptor and charged at it's prey.

Abby and Connor, presuming Anna was with them, ran through the gateway and into piercing daylight.

Anna dodged the creatures foot and ran for the anomaly. But she was knocked against a tree by the Spinosaurus, unconscious.

It was warm, with no breeze and they were surrounded by buildings. "OK, this is promising" Connor said.

"Are we home?" Abby sounded unsure, "Connor, are we back?"

"Well, one good thing; I don't think we're going to get eaten here."

Just then, from around the corner at the end of the street came three black cars. When they were parked all in a line, a dozen men dress in black, carrying large guns, surrounded Abby and Connor, "Keep your hands down where we can see them! Down on the ground! Face down!" one of then yelled. Abby and Connor, unsure of what to do, followed their orders and laid face down on the concrete. Their heads turned to each other in confusion and when they looked forwards once again they were greeted by a pair of black military boots and a familiar deep voice, "I hope you brought be back a souvenir"

Anna woke to a see the back of the Spinosaurus, laying on the ground. Her head ached at the back; she lifted her hand to find blood in her hair. Once on her feet she looked over too see that the anomaly was now in a tight ball, it was locked. Just as Anna was about to scream in rage, the gate way opened once more. Without hesitation, she walked through the golden light and into London. The once soft grass turned to hard concrete and her eyes took a while to adjust to the sun. She was greeted by Abby's arms, "we thought it had killed you, you risked your own life so we could pass safely." Abby finally let go.

"Are you crazy," A voice spoke out from behind Abby. Anna recognised it immediately. Becker.

He stood six foot in height and his thick brown hair was neatly taken from his face. Becker's, deep brown eyes stared at Anna and he smiled, which was rarity.

"Where the hell have you been?" Becker asked, the two of them still standing twenty feet apart.

"Well, you know, here and there. In there mostly." Anna said, looking towards the anomaly as she said it. "I would have called but the reception was terrible," Humour wasn't a common thing for Anna but her seriousness was stolen from her as she breathed in the smell of London.

"We came looking for you all, I sent four missions, we tried everything!" Becker sounded ashamed but she simply smiled at him.

She ran to Becker, and threw her arms around his shoulders.

Their reunion was soon broken, though, when the sound of a fourth car came onto the street. A men stepped from the car.

He was only a little smaller than Becker and was dressed completely different to the men clad in black uniform. He had light brown hair and light blue eyes This man had a stern look about him and when he spoke to Becker his voice was a mild Irish.

"What's going on here Becker?" He asked, looking at the three battered people.

"Matt I'd like to introduce you to three of my good friends....." But Matt cut him off.

"Abby Maitland, Connor Temple and Anna Williams. I'm Matt Anderson, it's a pleasure to meet you. I will have someone escort you back to the ARC!"

The ARC or Anomaly Research Centre was where everything took place, the training, the research on Anomalies and Creatures and most importantly, Connor's Anomaly tracker.

"Keep three men on site until the anomaly closes." Matt ordered.

"And the rest patrolling a half-mile exclusion perimeter." Becker replied.

While they were talking Abby, Connor and Anna all listened intently, wondering if these people had any idea what they were doing.

"You don't need to wait for it to close!" Connor blurted out, "I can do it for you, with this! It works, believe me."

Anna and Abby looked uncertainly, as much as he was a genius, Connor could be clumsy and things seemed to turn out badly for him.

Connor pointed the gateway key at the Anomaly and pressed the button to activate it. As predicted, something did go wrong. Instead of closing, the anomaly, it opened wide and clear, spreading the amber light over the shining black cars.