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Next: "No Time for Playing Around"
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Series 1 Episode 6
"Locked In"
Written by a64
Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!
In the quiet main room of the Home Office headquarters, the anomaly detector started to ring. Sarah Page heard it first. She called for the rest of the team, who came slowly from their various jobs.
“There’s an anomaly, really close from here...” said Connor to the team, “in fact, if I trace it...” He pressed a few buttons on the keyboards, and the map on the screen zoomed in to a specific place. “That’s odd,” he continued, “It says here the anomaly is coming from inside the Home Office itself!”
A guard was patrolling down a corridor. He had paced up and down for the last few hours, and was really getting quite bored of it and was waiting eagerly until the end of his shift in around half an hour. Suddenly, he noticed a flickering light from the end of the corridor, like a candle. The guard moved towards it, but just when he went to look at it, it vanished and the corridor was dark again. Puzzled, he moved back to his shift, pacing up and down. He did not notice, however, what had come through the anomaly...
“So am I right in saying,” James Lester slowly said to the team, “we have an anomaly inside this building? And you don’t know where it is?”
Connor nodded. “It’s the building – it’s shielded from communications and satellites, so people can’t detect the dinosaurs we have stored here. But, we can’t either!”
Nick Cutter chipped in. “I think what Connor’s trying to say is, we should all split up and try to contain the anomaly, and whatever came out of it.”
“That’s if something did come out of it,” said Claudia. “It only lasted about a minute. It could have been nothing, just a blip!”
A reptilian shape moved in the darkness. It had found its way inside an air vent, and was lost in the mirrored network of tunnels already. It was starving, having not eaten for weeks. It looked around and soon found its prey – a long red wormlike creature. As it moved its teeth towards the object, it felt a buzzing, humming sound coming from it. Regardless, the dinosaur devoured the cable – and chewed right through it.
The effect was instantaneous. The entire Home Office floor was plunged into darkness.
“What’s happened?” everybody wondered. Within seconds, backup generators kicked in, causing a blue ethereal glow to form on the team’s faces.
Danny spoke up – “A power failure – and I bet you it’s connected to the anomaly.”
Lester sighed. “Okay, you win. We’ll split up and try and find out the cause... besides, I can’t do anything here since the computers are down, and we’re sealed in!”
There were three groups – Danny, Jenny and Sarah went around the perimeter to search for any intruders. Nick, Claudia and an irritated Lester were to search the middle section of the Home Office, including their leisure facilities. Connor, Abby and Mia meanwhile were left to check the anomaly detector and to help find out more about the cause of the power failure.
“Why are we sitting here fiddling with that thing?” Mia complained, as Connor worked on the detector. “I’d much rather go and find this dinosaur or whatever.”
Abby ignored her, so she wandered off. Something round here must be more interesting than sitting around...
“What were you doing when the anomaly detector went off? You’re usually the first to notice.” Abby inquired.
Connor raised an eyebrow. “Why do you want to know?”
Abby persisted. “I was with Mia. Looking over some, uh, records. Of dinosaurs.” He told her.
This sounded unconvincing to Abby. “You like Mia then?”
“Yeah... she’s cool.”
Abby still thought something was up, but she left it for the time being.
Danny’s group was lost. Jenny said they were to go right, but it came to a dead end. He wished the comms were online – without them, they had to rely on their own navigational skills. Which turned out to be pretty basic, in hindsight.
“Danny, look!” The shout came from Sarah, who was investigating a small hole in the wall.
“Teeth marks!” Jenny exclaimed. “Must have been a small creature, about a foot high. They could have disrupted the wiring.”
Sarah was puzzled. Was that the cause of the power failure? And where was the creature now?
Almost in reply to her thoughts, a roar came echoing down the corridor!
Claudia turned round when she heard the roar. It was faint, but through the walls unmistakably that of a dinosaur, and an aggressive one. “Cutter...” she said, nervously.
He had heard it too. “I’ve got a plan – here, if we break into these lockers...”
“Hey, those are government property!” said Lester. But inside, were an assortment of guns and weapons.
“Now let’s catch that monster!”
Connor gave a shout. “Yes – the anomaly detector is connected to the backup generators. We’ve got power!”
They crowded round the screen. A grainy CCTV image was updating, surveying the entire Home Office. They tried to spot anything at fault.
“There’s Danny’s group, down that corridor. And there’s Claudia and Lester.”
A blurry shape moved past the screen. “Was that...?” Abby exclaimed. Connor wound back the footage. Unmistakably, the screen showed a fully grown Raptor running down a corridor.
“Raptors!” shouted Connor, “In the Home Office! We’ve got to tell the others!”
Mia had wandered to the main boardroom, but with none of the computers online it was useless. She decided to find Claudia and Sarah and the others – perhaps they’d found something worthwhile.
Something moved just inside her vision. She turned, and a spiny tail went round a corner. Ignoring anything she had been taught as a child, Mia crept towards the corner, and watched in astonishment.
There was a Raptor, with a scrap of something in its mouth. It looked like meat, and it was feeding it to a baby. The scene would have been adorable if it weren’t for the blue scaly skin and sharp teeth, something Mia was slightly unnerved by.
As she stepped backwards, the Raptor turned round. It gave an unearthly roar as it noticed, and ran towards her!
Nick’s group met Danny’s as they went towards the location of the roar.
“Here, take these guns – you might need them!” said Nick, and they raced ahead.
Mia kept eye contact with the raptor, conscious of her heart beating unnaturally fast in her chest. She was scared, sure, but she had always seen in films never to let it show. The reptilian eyes followed hers, and she tried not to make any sudden movements, moving backwards slowly and steadily.
Connor and Abby met up with the rest of the team quickly.
“It’s a raptor!” Connor said. The others didn’t need telling twice, and quickly loaded the weapons specifically.
Jenny was the first to ask: “Where’s Mia?”
“I thought she was with you.” Said Abby.
They ran down the corridor after her.
The raptor was now advancing further, pinning Mia into the corner. She couldn’t escape. It was so close that she could hear its breathing, and its heartbeat....
And then suddenly it moved back. The baby raptor had reminded its parent that it had been forgotten about by uttering a small squeal. Mia opened her eyes to see the two ugly dinosaurs cutely eating the scrap of meat they had, and her heart melted.
Bang! Bang! Two shots rung out as the team approached the dinosaurs from around the corner.
“Mia! Are you all right? Did they hurt you?”
Mia just stared at the two lifeless bodies of mother and child that moments ago were embracing.
“They weren’t attacking...” she stuttered, “They were living. Mother and child – and you killed them!”
There was a depressive mood among the Home Office when the power came back on. The grand rescue the team had planned turned out to be two seemingly harmless creatures, and Mia was the most disheartened of the group.
“I’d better call Whitehall,” Lester said, “to tell them we haven’t been eaten alive.”
Connor was moping about with Abby.
“I was going to say something to Mia earlier... something to cheer her up.”
“She’ll get over it,” Abby said a bit too optimistically. Seeing a T-Rex was bad enough for her, she thought, but a baby dinosaur, like a Raptor... she reckoned that she might have quit the job at the ARC if that happened to her.
Lester came back from his office.
“Everyone – we’ve got a high priority alert.”
“What, an anomaly?” said Connor. “But the detector hasn’t gone off?”
“Not an anomaly – not yet at least.” Lester sighed. “It’s Helen Cutter. We’ve found her.”
In the quiet main room of the Home Office headquarters, the anomaly detector started to ring. Sarah Page heard it first. She called for the rest of the team, who came slowly from their various jobs.
“There’s an anomaly, really close from here...” said Connor to the team, “in fact, if I trace it...” He pressed a few buttons on the keyboards, and the map on the screen zoomed in to a specific place. “That’s odd,” he continued, “It says here the anomaly is coming from inside the Home Office itself!”
A guard was patrolling down a corridor. He had paced up and down for the last few hours, and was really getting quite bored of it and was waiting eagerly until the end of his shift in around half an hour. Suddenly, he noticed a flickering light from the end of the corridor, like a candle. The guard moved towards it, but just when he went to look at it, it vanished and the corridor was dark again. Puzzled, he moved back to his shift, pacing up and down. He did not notice, however, what had come through the anomaly...
“So am I right in saying,” James Lester slowly said to the team, “we have an anomaly inside this building? And you don’t know where it is?”
Connor nodded. “It’s the building – it’s shielded from communications and satellites, so people can’t detect the dinosaurs we have stored here. But, we can’t either!”
Nick Cutter chipped in. “I think what Connor’s trying to say is, we should all split up and try to contain the anomaly, and whatever came out of it.”
“That’s if something did come out of it,” said Claudia. “It only lasted about a minute. It could have been nothing, just a blip!”
A reptilian shape moved in the darkness. It had found its way inside an air vent, and was lost in the mirrored network of tunnels already. It was starving, having not eaten for weeks. It looked around and soon found its prey – a long red wormlike creature. As it moved its teeth towards the object, it felt a buzzing, humming sound coming from it. Regardless, the dinosaur devoured the cable – and chewed right through it.
The effect was instantaneous. The entire Home Office floor was plunged into darkness.
“What’s happened?” everybody wondered. Within seconds, backup generators kicked in, causing a blue ethereal glow to form on the team’s faces.
Danny spoke up – “A power failure – and I bet you it’s connected to the anomaly.”
Lester sighed. “Okay, you win. We’ll split up and try and find out the cause... besides, I can’t do anything here since the computers are down, and we’re sealed in!”
There were three groups – Danny, Jenny and Sarah went around the perimeter to search for any intruders. Nick, Claudia and an irritated Lester were to search the middle section of the Home Office, including their leisure facilities. Connor, Abby and Mia meanwhile were left to check the anomaly detector and to help find out more about the cause of the power failure.
“Why are we sitting here fiddling with that thing?” Mia complained, as Connor worked on the detector. “I’d much rather go and find this dinosaur or whatever.”
Abby ignored her, so she wandered off. Something round here must be more interesting than sitting around...
“What were you doing when the anomaly detector went off? You’re usually the first to notice.” Abby inquired.
Connor raised an eyebrow. “Why do you want to know?”
Abby persisted. “I was with Mia. Looking over some, uh, records. Of dinosaurs.” He told her.
This sounded unconvincing to Abby. “You like Mia then?”
“Yeah... she’s cool.”
Abby still thought something was up, but she left it for the time being.
Danny’s group was lost. Jenny said they were to go right, but it came to a dead end. He wished the comms were online – without them, they had to rely on their own navigational skills. Which turned out to be pretty basic, in hindsight.
“Danny, look!” The shout came from Sarah, who was investigating a small hole in the wall.
“Teeth marks!” Jenny exclaimed. “Must have been a small creature, about a foot high. They could have disrupted the wiring.”
Sarah was puzzled. Was that the cause of the power failure? And where was the creature now?
Almost in reply to her thoughts, a roar came echoing down the corridor!
Claudia turned round when she heard the roar. It was faint, but through the walls unmistakably that of a dinosaur, and an aggressive one. “Cutter...” she said, nervously.
He had heard it too. “I’ve got a plan – here, if we break into these lockers...”
“Hey, those are government property!” said Lester. But inside, were an assortment of guns and weapons.
“Now let’s catch that monster!”
Connor gave a shout. “Yes – the anomaly detector is connected to the backup generators. We’ve got power!”
They crowded round the screen. A grainy CCTV image was updating, surveying the entire Home Office. They tried to spot anything at fault.
“There’s Danny’s group, down that corridor. And there’s Claudia and Lester.”
A blurry shape moved past the screen. “Was that...?” Abby exclaimed. Connor wound back the footage. Unmistakably, the screen showed a fully grown Raptor running down a corridor.
“Raptors!” shouted Connor, “In the Home Office! We’ve got to tell the others!”
Mia had wandered to the main boardroom, but with none of the computers online it was useless. She decided to find Claudia and Sarah and the others – perhaps they’d found something worthwhile.
Something moved just inside her vision. She turned, and a spiny tail went round a corner. Ignoring anything she had been taught as a child, Mia crept towards the corner, and watched in astonishment.
There was a Raptor, with a scrap of something in its mouth. It looked like meat, and it was feeding it to a baby. The scene would have been adorable if it weren’t for the blue scaly skin and sharp teeth, something Mia was slightly unnerved by.
As she stepped backwards, the Raptor turned round. It gave an unearthly roar as it noticed, and ran towards her!
Nick’s group met Danny’s as they went towards the location of the roar.
“Here, take these guns – you might need them!” said Nick, and they raced ahead.
Mia kept eye contact with the raptor, conscious of her heart beating unnaturally fast in her chest. She was scared, sure, but she had always seen in films never to let it show. The reptilian eyes followed hers, and she tried not to make any sudden movements, moving backwards slowly and steadily.
Connor and Abby met up with the rest of the team quickly.
“It’s a raptor!” Connor said. The others didn’t need telling twice, and quickly loaded the weapons specifically.
Jenny was the first to ask: “Where’s Mia?”
“I thought she was with you.” Said Abby.
They ran down the corridor after her.
The raptor was now advancing further, pinning Mia into the corner. She couldn’t escape. It was so close that she could hear its breathing, and its heartbeat....
And then suddenly it moved back. The baby raptor had reminded its parent that it had been forgotten about by uttering a small squeal. Mia opened her eyes to see the two ugly dinosaurs cutely eating the scrap of meat they had, and her heart melted.
Bang! Bang! Two shots rung out as the team approached the dinosaurs from around the corner.
“Mia! Are you all right? Did they hurt you?”
Mia just stared at the two lifeless bodies of mother and child that moments ago were embracing.
“They weren’t attacking...” she stuttered, “They were living. Mother and child – and you killed them!”
There was a depressive mood among the Home Office when the power came back on. The grand rescue the team had planned turned out to be two seemingly harmless creatures, and Mia was the most disheartened of the group.
“I’d better call Whitehall,” Lester said, “to tell them we haven’t been eaten alive.”
Connor was moping about with Abby.
“I was going to say something to Mia earlier... something to cheer her up.”
“She’ll get over it,” Abby said a bit too optimistically. Seeing a T-Rex was bad enough for her, she thought, but a baby dinosaur, like a Raptor... she reckoned that she might have quit the job at the ARC if that happened to her.
Lester came back from his office.
“Everyone – we’ve got a high priority alert.”
“What, an anomaly?” said Connor. “But the detector hasn’t gone off?”
“Not an anomaly – not yet at least.” Lester sighed. “It’s Helen Cutter. We’ve found her.”
Next: "No Time for Playing Around"
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