Future Hearts (A Primeval Story)

How To Train Your Dracorex Part 1

"So what's up with you? I saw your eyes when you came in pretending to be all cheery." She sighs, jumping down off her desk. "Just thinking of all the ways I can kill my brother." Raising an eyebrow at the annoyed blonde I open my mouth to question her when that familiar alarm goes off. My adrenaline runs as I almost smile through the initial panic. Just getting out of the ARC today is a godsend. "You can explain later." I point at her as I pull the barrier Becker had fashioned, which I later made more sturdy and permanent, across the room the keep Lupin confined.

"Where is it?" Sarah answers as I reach them, having taken longer to get to them as I had to make a stop at the armoury. Our group gets bigger as all its members slowly join. "Not far." Danny seems to only now notice her pulling her bag onto her shoulder. "Woah, where are you going?"

"Danny I'm sick of working on the artefact." I know for a fact she is as I'd seen her nearly have a mental breakdown after staring at the hexagonal object for too long the other day. "We need you here." I sense he worries that she isn't as field ready as the rest of us. "Danny, give the woman a break. Trust me, she needs it." I move past them, brushing my shoulder against his arm as I pass. I hear some more mumbling before I reach the exit.

The trip is short, made shorter by me taking my bike instead of hitching a ride with either Danny or the security. Getting to the scrap yard before them I gasp at the site in front of me. A fully grown dracorex nearly being crushed by a worker in a clawed crane throwing cars around. Wary to move forward I watch in horror as the poor, frightened creature tries to escape. "He's gonna kill it." The words escape my mouth as I eye the origin of the grabber. "This is madness, come on!" I follow Danny as we run to the bonnet of a car, jumping up in an attempt to catch the crane operators attention. "Hey! Stop!" I shout, eyes worriedly switching between the manic man and the wobbly dinosaur. I almost slip off the bonnet as another car comes crashing down in front of us. Danny saves me from the crush by grabbing my waist and pulling me back to him. Too shocked by my near death to thank him, I stand still. "Get him out of there!" By now Becker had reached the crane, throwing it open and pulling the shaken man out with a bit too much force. He eyes me concerned but his concern is what pushes me to move again, acting fine I wave him off.

Eyes landing back on the dracorex I feel my feet begin to shuffle slightly towards the end of the bonnet. "It's injured, we have to help it." I hear Becker scoff lowly from behind me. "Yeah I was afraid you were gonna say that." Turning to flash him a glare, I warily eye his gun pointed at the creature. Pushing myself from the car, I feel Danny try to grab me as I slip from his grasp. "Mia! Sarah wait!" He commands as I hear people running up to him from behind the car flipped on its side to create a barrier between them and me with the dracorex. I hear Abby tell him she can help but heed her no mind as I slowly approach the dinosaur, enamoured by its strange beauty. "We're going to push it back to the anomaly. If it's going to die, it's going to die in its own world." I feel myself shaking my head at his words but don't turn back to face them. "It's not going to die." I know if I need to, I'll fight to help this creature. For something so big it looks so afraid and disorientated as it sways side to side, barely keeping its feet planted on the ground.

I hear the men talking about the location of the anomaly but it's Abby's question that I bother to answer. "Mia, how's it injure?" I creep closer, keeping most of my body hidden behind another crushed car, not wanting to scare the creature more. Squinting I wince at the blood coming from the wound in the dinosaur's flank. "It's got something stuck in it's side."

My voice must have been too loud, loud enough to alert and startle the Dracorex because one minute I'm hiding behind this car and the next I feel this massive push, like being hit by, well, a car. I scream out in surprise as I hear Danny call my name. I barely escape being crushed for the second time this morning, backing away and pushing myself as far into the bodywork of a car as I can. "Oii! Over here!" Danny begins to whistle and shout, banging the bonnet of the car as he does so, calling for everyone to make noise. Reluctantly grabbing a piece of scrap metal from beside me, I follow as the group continue to bang and shout, pushing the stumbling dinosaur back towards the anomaly, framed and fenced in by the tall stacks of cars.