MJF's Stories

Lucie Campbell was in Ben Taunton’s office. She spent a lot of time with him, because of her position as Public Relations manager. But a lot of the time, she tried to get in on the action too. After all, it wouldn’t be fair if she had to go and see to people whilst the rest of the team fought of dinosaurs, would it?

DING DING! DING DING! DING DING!

“Sorry Ben, I must go”, Lucie interrupted.

“If you must”, Ben sighed. Lucie ran out of Ben’s office and down the ramp to the rest of the team. Unlike what you’d expect a PR person to wear, Lucie wore jeans and a long sleeve t-shirt most of the time. She wore her long, silky, wavy brunette hair down. She generally wore a scarf, purely for fashion purposes.

“Everyone ready?”, Katie Smith, the team leader, asked. The team nodded. They all walked through the ARC corridor quickly, and to the cars. The anomaly was in a hotel…

The nearby hotel was packed. Several people were trying to sign in, and get their keys. Others were trying to sign out so they could leave. The phone line was busy aswell with people trying to book for the holidays.

“Everyone, please wait”, the receptionist shouted. She closed the desk, and she walked upstairs to fetch assistance, as despite her ringing the bell several times, no-one came. She walked into the staff room. It was empty.

“Oh”, the receptionist said. She decided to get herself a drink and wait a few minutes to see if anyone came in. She heard a sound behind her. On top of the table was a light, with what looked like shards of glass floating around it. She was confused by it. She’d never seen anything like it. But before she knew it, she was fighting for her life as a massive creature came through the light…

Leila Samuels had arranged a meeting with a journalist at her house. She made sure she had her photos of the creatures from the park ready. She heard the doorbell go. She got up and opened the door.

“Looks like you may have your work cut out for you Lucie”, Sasha told Lucie when they arrived. The hotel was so busy. The team parked the car, and walked to the reception desk. Katie saw a megaphone behind the desk and picked it up.

“Right everyone! Could we please try and be quiet! I’m going to pass over to my colleague and she will explain why we’re here”, Katie shouted before passing the megaphone to Lucie.

“Thanks. Right everyone, we’re from the government and we’ve been called in because of an emergency. Could everyone please make their way out in an orderly way. Thank you”, Lucie continued from Katie. The guests all shuffled outside, with Jimmy, Georgia and Mike agreeing to keep an eye on them. Sasha, Katie and Alex would then deal with any creature incursion, and Lucie would sort out the people side of things.

“So, what exactly did you see?”, the journalist asked Leila.

“It was hard to see some things, considering there was a massive crowd and this was broad daylight. I managed to get these photos”, Leila handed the journalist the photos.

“And what exactly is that?”, he asked, pointing to the Raptor.

“I’ve done some research, and it appears to be a Dromeosaurus from the Creatceous period”, Leila explained.

“But that’s impossible?!”, the journalist was shocked, “And who is she, the ginger haired woman?”.

“The other people called her Katie, but I’m unsure on the surname”

“Thanks very much. Is it OK if we publish these in tomorrow’s newspaper?”

“Course you can”, Leila finished the interview there. She smiled after showing the journalist to the door. She knew this would be big, and it was her who uncovered it all. Now all she had to do was to track down the woman. She went and sat at her computer, and opened her internet browser…

Katie, Alex, Sasha and Lucie heard a scream from above. They ran up the stairs. The screams were loud. They ran round the rooms on the first floor. Lucie opened a door, and saw that a rather large creature was in there, along with a woman and an anomaly. She told the team, and she ran to the woman.

”Hello, I’m Lucie, just keep calm, I’m gonna get you out”, Lucie reassured the receptionist.

“I’m Lisa. Thanks. I was only trying to get someone to help at reception”, Lisa explained.

Katie, Alex and Sasha stood at the door, loading their tranquillisers.

“What is it, Alex?”, Katie asked,

“It’s a Therizinosaurus. It shouldn’t cause any harm, as it’s a herbivore, but it might be getting slightly distressed”, Alex explained.

“And where’s the anomaly to?”, Sasha enquired.

“If I remember correctly, it’s to the late Cretaceous era”, Alex told her.

“Right. Now we need to get in there, and get the woman to be quiet”, Katie said, then made some gestures to Lucie. The Therizinosaurus was large in height, and was bending down seriously, swooping around the large staff room. The noise was too much for it. Lucie spoke to Lisa.

”Right, you need to be quiet. This creature is harmless, but we’re making too much noise for it”, Lucie whispered. Lisa nodded. After a minute of silence, the creature stayed still. Katie, Alex and Sasha now needed to get it back through the anomaly…

Mike, Jimmy and Georgia were holding back the hotel guests. They were complaining of anything that you could imagine. Some were moaning about their luggage being inside, some needed the toilet, others were hungry. Georgia spoke into the megaphone.

”Everyone, silence please. We’re making the building safe for you, so you can go back in. We’ll be done within half an hour, don’t you worry”.

Leila was on Facebook. She typed the name Katie into the search bar. First of all, she checked her mutual friends. As they both lived in the same area, there was always the possibility of mutual friends. But there was no-one called Katie that matched the image. She then narrowed down the location to Lincoln. She saw Katie Smith there, and Leila clicked on her page. Her profile image matched the picture Leila had. Leila then looked through Katie’s friend list to find matches for the other people. After about an hour of making sure she was absolutely correct, she came up with 7 people - Katie Smith, Alex Johnston, Sasha West, Georgia Stevens, Michael Andrews, James Turner and Lucie Campbell. All shared the same workplace and location - the ARC…

Katie, Alex and Sasha moved round the back of the Therizinosaurus. They decided that if they managed to nudge it, it would get the hint and it’d go back through. It looked quite like a bird, but had no wings. It had claws, and of course was quite big. Katie hit it. The other two joined in. The Therizinosaurus started to move, but not to the anomaly! In it’s bent-over form, it moved to Lucie and Lisa. They decided to hit it back, so it could then get the gist and go back through. It worked. They ended up leaving it no option but to return. Alex then set up the Anomaly Locker, and locked the anomaly.

On the way down outside, Lucie briefed Lisa on what she can and cannot say to others. The guests were allowed back in, and Lisa was allowed to go home to rest and recover from her shock. The team returned to the ARC, and Lucie continued her meeting with Ben Taunton. She explained to him about the day, and how she played a part in saving Lisa. Ben decided that she should have a promotion to being a full team member. He was feeling unusually nice. Despite that, she still had to deal with PR aswell. Lucie was chuffed and she went to tell the team. They congratulated her.

Katie woke sat up, her bed sheets were all over the place and she had a scorching headache. She stared at the wall for a moment trying to recollect her memories. Then it came to her, she'd had a dream about the ARC. The dream was fading but the bits she'd pieced together included Sasha lay down in one of the ARC labs, Lucie screaming and a big hairy pig. It was 4 in the morning and she didn't need this stress. Katie got up had a Night Nurse and drank a glass of water. When she woke at 7 Katie had forgotten her dream. 

Alex was in the ARC doing some jiggery-pokery with the anomaly detector when Katie walked in looking like a zombie. He was thinking of something to say that wouldn't offend her but Ben got there before him as he walked down from his office. "Katie you look dreadful, you should go home and have a rest" Ben said with hardly any tone. 

"Oh thanks Ben, that's really kind of you" Katie replied squinting because of the lights behind Ben.

"Erm, no, there's a Government official on his way here, I don't want him thinking we're scruffy" Ben mockingly explained.

"Oh" mumbled Katie as she turned around and walked out. As she put her hand on the door handle the lights turned red and alarms blazed. She spun round to see the Anomaly Detector was detecting an Anomaly. "Test alarm, Alex?" Katie shouted over the alarms. Alex jumped up and pressed enter on the keyboard to turn the alarms off.

"Nope, wasn't me." he said while navigating the Anomaly Detectors many map systems to the Anomaly's location. The rest of the team ran into the main operations area. Mike Andrews, Sasha West, Georgia Stevens, Jimmy Turner and Lucie Campbell all collected there equipment and were out in a flash with Alex and Katie in tow.

They arrived at the Anomaly site in 2 cars. They stepped out of the cars and took in the scene. They had been brought to a multi-storey car park that went up for about 5 floors. They looked at each other and sighed. Katie got out her mobile and called Ben, Katie spoke in an urgent tone but Ben didn't seem to understand the urgency "Hello Ben...Ben! No we're not coming back......well tell him to wait. Yes I know who's in charge. Ok listen, go to the anomaly detector and press ctrl, 3 and D. Yes at the same time!. What floor is the anomaly on? 4? 5 ok! Bye!"

"Ok floor 5, the top floor, great (!)" Georgia moaned.

"At least any creatures won't be able to get out without passing us" Jimmy added.

Jimmy, Mike, Georgia and 2 soldiers took the lift to the top while Katie, Alex, Lucie, Sasha and another soldier walked up the ramps.

The lift reached floor 5 and the doors opened slowly. There, right in front of the doors was the Anomaly. The 2 soldiers aimed at the Anomaly and the one with Goatee said to Mike: "We're trapped sir, what do you suggest?"

Mike looked at him then at the anomaly: "We go to floor 4 and take the stairs" The goatee soldier pressed the 4 button and the lift doors closed. Jimmy could swear he saw the Anomaly flash, as if something passed through it. He looked to Georgia but she didn't seem to have noticed.

Meanwhile on floor 5 a large, furry, pig-like creature appeared from the Anomaly in gallop. It crashed into a car setting off an alarm. The pig went ballistic and ran down the ramp to floor 4 then to floor 3. 

The lift stopped at floor 4 and the soldiers stepped out then Jimmy, Mike and Georgia. They all heard the car alarm and ran up the stairs. And just missed the big, hairy pig run down the ramp...

Alex was tired, they'd got to floor 2 but Sasha had insisted they ran up the ramps when they heard the car alarm. "Don’t get me wrong," Alex explained to Sasha between breaths: "But I'm more of the lift weights while Top Gear is on type rather than going running every morning at 6" The soldier sighed and continue onwards with Sasha and Lucie. 

Katie sat down and put her head in her hands. "Katie, is there something wrong?" Alex asked feeling genuinely worried.

"I don't know, Alex, I just feel drained." Katie explained from behind her palms.

"Let me have a look at you" Alex insisted. Katie took her hands away from her face and sat up. Alex jumped backwards and rubbed his eyes in an almost comical way.

"What is it?!"

Alex pointed at her eyes and described what he was seeing: "There’s something in your eyes, it's like..a...no that's impossible. Katie it's like you've got an Anomaly in your eyes!"

The other half of the team ran out of the stairwell onto floor 5. This being the top floor meant it was open. The wind was terrible up here and Georgia's hair was blocking her vision. Mike would've made a joke but he didn't want to look unprofessional in front of the 2 soldiers. Jimmy went over to the car with the alarm. He reached in and put the keys on the seat into the ignition then turned the engine on and off to silence the alarm. Mike had a look at the back of the car, there was a large dent facing the Anomaly. Georgia looked around and came up with a series of events that would make sense: "I think a creature must have come through and hit the car then got spooked by the alarm. It must have gone back through the Anomaly"

"Great, an easy day for once" Jimmy said.

"Don't jinx it Jimmy"

On floor 3 Lucie, Sasha and the soldier (Sasha had made some small talk and found out his name was Alonso) were stood next to a pay and display machine which looked like it had been ran over. "It doesn't have to be a creature" Sasha told the soldier

"If it's all the same ma'am, I'd like to make sure the area is safe" and with that they turned around to go to the next ramp. They were faced by a massive pig covered in brown fur. Lucie screamed.

Floor 2, Katie had passed out when Alex had told her about her eyes. Alex tried not to panic but it was hard not to considering the situation. He checked her pulse, it was slower than the last time he checked. The first aid stuff was with the soldiers at the Anomaly site on floor 5. He scooped Katie up into his arms and ran to the next floor, he seemed to have all the energy in the world now.

Georgia. Jimmy and Mike were heading down to floor 3 when they saw Sasha, Lucie, a soldier and a big hairy pig. The soldier's gun was underneath a red mini out of his reach. The soldier that wasn't called Alonso and didn't have a goatee loaded his gun with a tranquiliser dart and aimed at the pig. Then suddenly Alex ran up a ramp with an unconscious Katie in his arms. The pig moved and ran at Alex as the soldier fired. Sasha was hit by the dart in her shoulder. She immediately collapsed but luckily Lucie caught her. Alex stared at the pig charging at him and spun on the spot and ran in the opposite direction. "Heeeeeeeelp!" Alex shouted.

The soldier shot another dart into the Pig's hip making it slip and land on top of the red mini. Alex gave Katie to Jimmy and ran over to check on Sasha. "She's alright, she only took in a little of the sedative" Alex told the team.

"...And Katie?" Jimmy inquired.

"I'll explain later"

Mike got out his mobile and called the ARC: " We're gonna need a trailer here pronto"

Later while the team were trying to get the pig onto the trailer, Katie woke up. Alex was there to greet her with a "Morning sleepy head" and a glass of water. Katie sat up and looked at the pig. Her eyes widened. 

"Katie, are you ok?"

"Yeah... I'm fine, really"

Eventually the team got the pig on the trailer and drove it up to floor 5. Mike drove the Jeep through the Anomaly.

In the past Mike and Jimmy got out the Jeep and went over to the trailer. Jimmy tried to tip the creature off the trailer but Mike stopped him and pointed at the Anomaly which was now fluctuating: "There’s no time, unclip the trailer and let's go!"

Jimmy separated the trailer from the back of the Jeep and jumped in as Mike began to dive off. They passed through the Anomaly and skidded to a halt in front of the team in the present. The Anomaly closed.

At the ARC, Alex brought Katie into a lab. Katie looked around and saw Sasha lying on one of the lab tables. She stopped and started shaking.

"Ok Katie, tell me what's wrong?!"

"Alex, did Lucie scream today?"

"What...?!"

"Just answer me" Katie snapped.

"Yes I heard her as I carried you up there, why?"

"Last night I had a dream about a hairy pig, Sasha lying in here and Lucie screaming"

"It must be to do with your experiences with the Anomalies; I think I can help you. Wait here"

Later Alex returned with a test tube full of white powder and a packet of tablets. He put them on the table: "Ok this is something Doctors are working on to treat bullet wounds, it contains magnetic substances to dissolve the bullet and flush it from the body. It should have a similar effect on the Anomaly energy in your body, take a tea spoon in some water every night," Alex explained.

"And these pills?" Katie asked.

"Oh that's a packet of Night Nurse..."

"Thank you Alex"

"Oh and if I were you, I wouldn't tell anyone"

"No need, I'm sure I'll be fine..."

Georgia was watching TV in her flat, Jurassic Park on ITV2. She kept telling herself it was research but really she just liked laughing at people failing at what she did every day. She decided to pop out and buy some Easter eggs for her friends, the ARC team.

She walked down the road to a newsagent; the owner was outside changing the headline stand. She walked inside and went to the back where the chocolate was. She browsed through the eggs. There was a wide selection available: Disney themed, Doctor Who, Cadburys, Nestle and one with some little toy dinosaurs with it (she decided it would be unwise to get anyone that one). She bought Ben a Kit Kat egg, Lucie a galaxy egg, Alex a Finding Nemo egg, Mike a Tarzan one, Sasha a Mars one and Katy a Thornton’s egg. She payed at the till once the owner had finished outside then she walk out. She walked past the newly updated headline stand showing tomorrow’s headline. “Dinosaurs in Park, Secret Government Organisation to Blame”

“So how are things down your end?”, Katie Smith was in her office, speaking through the phone to her sister Claudia Brown, from the main ARC team in London.

"Just the usual. We’re one member down, but it’s quite a big team anyway so we’re coping”, Claudia spoke back.

"Really? Who’s gone? And how?”

"Lloyd left. I thought I told you? Oh well. It was of his own accord. I don’t blame him really, he was stuck in the future for an awfully long time. It’s enough to drive even the sanest people crazy”

"Fair point”

There was a knock at the door.

"Right, I’ve got to go now. Speak soon!”, Katie hung up, “Come in!”

It was Alex. He brought in a newspaper and put it down on Katie’s desk.

"What’s this for?”, she was confused.

"Read the front page”, instructed Alex. Katie read the headline and the article. Her eyes were almost bulging out of their sockets. When she finished, she looked at Alex in total shock.

“Ben, Lucie, we’ve got a PR emergency”, Katie walked into the Main Operations room and shouted up to Ben’s office.

”What on earth are you talking about?”, Ben yelled back, walking up the balcony. Lucie was just behind him.

"What we do here has leaked to the front page of the tabloids”, Alex announced.

"How did that happen?” Georgia asked, from next to Alex.

"We don’t know, and that’s what we need to find out”, Katie replied.

"How can we track someone like this down?”, Mike queried.

No-one replied to this. The team were completely stumped.

"Let’s get on to the newspaper companies that printed this. Locate their source”, Lucie suggested.

"Right, let’s go!”, Katie decided.

Lucie spent an hour or so on the phone to multiple newspaper companies. They all led to some girl called Leila, but they didn’t specify a surname. Until she spoke to The Sun - they gave the full name - Leila Samuels. Lucie knew that name, it rang a bell in her head, but she couldn’t think why or who she actually was. She decided to look on Facebook. It was the easiest way to find someone. She thought Leila Samuels would be quite an uncommon name, and she was right. Only five people came up. The first person she clicked on looked far too young to have leaked something like this. The second and third had no profile picture. The fourth seemed useless aswell. But the fifth set off alarm bells for her. This Leila Samuels was a photographer for the local newspaper. Lucie looked at her profile picture. She recognised the face, but again, she didn’t know where from. She then looked at the school. Lucie instantly picked up on that, and remembered the Leila Samuels from her class at secondary school. The bad memories were returning.

Lucie remembered Leila always bragging about her camera, and when Lucie brought hers in to take photos on their last day of Year 11, Leila laughed at her camera, saying Lucie couldn’t afford a camera as good as hers. But that wasn’t the first thing. Lucie was bullied by Leila and her friends in Year 9. Lucie was very bright at school and was always listening and paying attention on class. Leila thought of this as a perfect opportunity, and decided to verbally abuse her, calling her horrible names. Lucie was dreading each day. She was surrounded by girls that she thought were nice. But one day, it turned physical. The girls all surrounded her, and were pushing her about. She sobbed in her bedroom at home. She ended up telling her tutor about the girls, but they always said they’d get their revenge. Leila made the odd comment to Lucie afterwards, but apart from that, they were fine with her.

Lucie shuddered. She’d forgotten these bad memories and they had just come back. And now the same Leila was out to get her, yet again.

Lucie walked down the ramp from her part of Ben’s office (their desks were separated by a glass wall, with a door-size gap at the end linking the two rooms). She met with Katie, and explained her.

"Right, we need to track down this Leila. Can you get me an address?”, she asked Alex.

"Sure I can”, Alex replied. He ran off to his desk.

10 minutes later, the team were on their way to Leila’s house. They arrived, got out of the car and knocked on the door. Lucie was at the front, with Katie just to the side. No answer. They move out of the way as the soldiers bashed in to the door and entered. They walked in to the front room. They saw something they’d never have imagined to see. It was nothing other than - an anomaly.

"I see you’ve found me”, came a voice from the side. The soldiers moved the direction of their guns to Leila. She clicked her fingers and two adult Raptors walked through the anomaly.

"There’s no way out”, she said. Another anomaly opened in front of the door and another Raptor came through there. The team were surrounded, and Leila was totally in control. Leila laughed.

The team were trapped. They were surrounded by an anomaly, Leila Samuels and three Raptors. There was no way out…or was there?

”Quick, go through!”, Alex shouted. The team knew what he meant, and they ran through the anomaly. Alex pulled out his Anomaly Opener and closed the anomaly.

"Where are we?”, Sasha asked. They had landed in a rocky desert type place, with a few shrubs here and there.

"We’ve been here before”, Mike remembered.

"Yes, we saw Louise…”, Jimmy stopped mid-sentence.

"Wait, who’s Louise?”, Katie remembered none of that, or her time spent in this place. After a few seconds of silence, Alex spoke.

"It’s the Cretaceous era, where the Raptors are from”

"In that case, can we go home now? My shoes are getting ruined”, Georgia moaned.

"Let me…oh…the battery just died on this”, Alex sighed, holding the Anomaly Opener up.

"So we’re stuck?”, asked Lucie.

"For now, yes”, Alex sadly told her.

"Right, we need to take shelter somewhere”, Katie decided, “We can’t be caught by a Raptor”.

The team had found somewhere to shelter themselves. They sat down. Alex was fiddling with the Opener.

"Work, you stupid thing!”, Alex threw the Opener into the sand.

"Alex, calm do-“, Georgia was cut off by a whirring sound. The Opener had rebooted itself after being thrown down. Alex smiled. He picked it up, jumped up, and pressed some buttons. No anomaly appeared.

"What’s wrong with it?”, Sasha asked, “I’m getting hungry”. Alex walked up to her and stood next to her.

"You could always do what Katie did and kill a Raptor and eat it”, Alex whispered into Sasha’s ear.

"Did you really believe her when she said that?”, Sasha smirked.

"Errr…no…”, Alex lied.

”Oh, Alex. I need to teach you about sarcasm my friend”, Sasha laughed.

"I know loads about sarcasm, actually”

"You’re learning quick!”

"Give it a rest Sasha”

On that note, Alex went back and tried fiddling with the Opener some more.

It was night time before anything more happened. The Opener still wouldn’t open an anomaly. The team were sleeping, bar Alex. He refused to sleep until he opened an anomaly. He heard a noise from behind him. A noise that was familiar. A noise he wished he hadn’t heard. He turned around, slowly and quietly, to see a Raptor standing behind him. It was looking away. Alex carefully nudged over to Katie, and shook her. He shushed her, and showed her the Raptor. She was shocked. She woke up Georgia, who was next to her, who in turn woke up Lucie, then Sasha, then Mike and last but not least, Jimmy.

”What?!”, Jimmy rudely shouted when Mike woke him up. The Raptor, of course, heard, and looked straight at Jimmy.

"RUN!!!!”, Lucie shouted. She was terrified of Raptors. The creature she hated dealing with most. The team picked up their stuff and legged it. Sasha tripped as she ran. The Raptor was almost upon her, when Alex took her hand and helped her up. She was almost a goner. They sprinted as fast as they could.

"Do you really think we can outrun this thing?”, Mike panted.

"There’s always the chance we could. If we just stopped, we’d certainly be gone. We need to take this risk”, Katie doing fine. She went down to the gym several times a week. Running was a piece of cake. Alex was still fiddling with the Opener. He didn’t see a rock, and he tripped over it. The Opener fell down next to him, just out of reach. The Raptor was approaching. Alex was reaching over for the Opener. He had to nudge over to get it. The Raptor was almost there. Alex grabbed the Opener, and threw it to Georgia.

"What the hell am I supposed to do with this?!”, she screamed. Mike and Jimmy ran off to the side to distract the Raptor.

"Just press the middle button on the control panel at the bottom of the screen!”, Alex yelled. He had hurt his knee. Georgia pressed the button. Alex was hoping it would work this time. And to his luck, an anomaly opened right next to him.

”Go through!”, ordered Katie. Mike and Jimmy ran through the anomaly, with the Raptor following them, until it saw Alex…

"If I did it correctly, it should be to the ARC!”, Alex smiled. The team had all gone through, bar Katie and Alex. Alex could not get up, due to his knee.

”What about you? I can’t carry you on my own. Should I go and get someone?”, Katie worried.

"No, just leave me. I’ll be OK”, Alex asked.

"I can’t leave you here”, Katie had a tear rolling down her eye, “You make the best cups of tea out of anyone at the ARC”.

Alex laughed, “To be fair, Jimmy’s ones are awful”. They both laughed together, whilst crying also.

"We’ll come back for you”, Katie decided.

"You can’t, this Raptor’s gonna be upon me in a matter of seconds. Leave now!”, Alex commanded. Katie had a look at the Raptor, which had stopped in front of Alex.

"Close the anomaly on the other side”, Alex added. Katie had one last look at him, and ran through.

Katie landed on the other side of the anomaly, which, as Alex had predicted, had opened to the ARC.

"Close it”, Katie tearfully said.

”What about Alex?!”, screamed Georgia.

"Just close it, it’s what he asked”, Katie quietly replied.

"But…but…”, Georgia was in tears aswell. Lucie put her hand on the Opener, and took it out of Georgia’s hand. She pressed the middle button, and the anomaly to the Cretaceous era closed.

"No! Why him? Of all people?”, Georgia sobbed.

”Come here”, Katie opened her arms up for a hug. Georgia walked over, and cried on Katie’s shoulder.  Mike and Jimmy even had tears rolling down their cheeks, dripping onto their t-shirts. Lucie walked over to the girls and put her arms around both of them.

"I can’t believe it”, mumbled Georgia, “I loved him. I wanted to tell him. Now it’s too late”.

“NO!”, Leila Samuels screamed. She could not believe that the team escaped from her. She sent the Raptors back through the anomaly. She had used neural clamps to control them. She closed the anomalies.

“I know where they’ll be”, she thought aloud, and grabbed her car keys…

The team were being debriefed by Ben in his office. Georgia was still in floods of tears after loosing Alex.

“Do you mind? I’m getting incredibly sick of people sulking and distracting me from my work!”, Ben was shouting by the end of that sentence. Georgia got out of her seat and ran off.

“I’ll go”, Lucie decided.

”Me too”, Katie agreed. Sasha, Mike and Jimmy, who were standing, took the girls’ seats and continued the debrief with Ben.

Georgia ran down the office ramp, through the Main Operations Room, down the corridor and out of the door. She bent over and vomited. It was too much for her to take. The person she loved was gone.

“Georgia!”, she turned around to see Katie and Lucie calling her name. They ran over to her. Georgia’s mascara was running down her face. Most of it was already on Katie’s yellow blouse.

“I can’t take it”, Georgia was opening up, “I’ve never lost anyone close to me. I still have my parents, and my grandparents. I’m only 20. The only death I cried at was Elisabeth Sladen, from Doctor Who”.

“Oh yes. God rest her soul”, Katie remembered that day in April, when it was announced that Elisabeth Sladen, who was Sarah Jane Smith in Doctor Who, had passed away.

“Wait, I know that car”, Lucie interrupted, pointing to a car pulling up.

“It’s Leila!”, Georgia remembered.

“Get inside and warn the team!”, Katie ordered. They ran inside, with Lucie and Katie either side of Georgia, holding a hand each.

Leila walked out of her car. They’ve seen me. She picked up a gun from her boot and hid it in her inside jacket pocket. She walked up to the security guard.

“Hi, I’ve got an appointment with Ben Taunton, in there”, she pointed towards the building. The soldier looked too, and she hit him round the head with the gun when he wasn’t looking. She continued to walk into the ARC. She was troubled by the code system that allowed access to the doors. Leila decided to run back to the security pod, and she watched back to this morning on the CCTV cameras. She zoomed in as Katie entered the code to gain access. “45291” She memorised the code and typed it in. She entered the ARC…

“Leila’s here!”, Katie shouted, when she entered the Main Operations Room.

“She won’t be able to get in”, Ben shouted back down, “She doesn’t know the code”.

“You think?”, a voice came from the doors to the corridor. It was Leila, “Everyone, on your knees, NOW!”

Sasha, Ben, Jimmy and Mike walked down from the office and joined the girls, on their knees.

“What happened to you, Leila?”, Lucie asked. She was shushed by Katie, but she carried on, “Why are you doing this?”

“I saw many things. I was walking through a forest one day. I saw this light. I reached to it, and walked through it. The next thing I knew, I was in a different world. The light disappeared, and I was trapped. I had to live in the past for years, travelling from era to era through these lights, which you call anomalies”, Leila explained.

“And it turned you mad”, Sasha added.

“I wouldn’t call it that”, Leila corrected Sasha, “But anyway. It’s a nice place here”.

“What do you want, Leila?”, Lucie butted in.

“I want to get my revenge on you, Lucie”

“What did I ever do to you? You were the one who picked on me, called me names, and just bullied me in general”

“You told on me, you grassed me up”

“Sorry, how old are you?”, Lucie got up.

“On your knees!”, commanded Leila.

”But that’s it, you won’t shoot. The anomalies have messed with your head. Everything’s been made 10 times worse, and them some”

Leila had tears coming to her eyes.

”Put the gun down Leila. None of us want you to shoot anyone”

“What she said”, came a voice from behind. It was Claudia Brown from the main ARC team.

“Claudia!”, Katie was shocked.

“Katie”, Claudia smiled. “We’ve got someone for you”. Katie looked up to see Alex standing there, a little tatty and bloody.

“He stumbled through an anomaly down by us. I thought I’d escort him back up”, Claudia revealed. Georgia looked up, and her mouth almost hit the floor in shock.

“Wait! Stop this now!”, Leila was losing control over the ARC, “Aah, my head!”. She cried in pain, and put her hands up to her head.

“It’s the anomalies. They’re getting too much for her head. She can’t imagine what she was like before. Suddenly, Leila dropped down to the floor. Lucie ran over, and checked her pulse and breathing pattern.

”No pulse, and she’s not breathing”, Lucie announced.

“Can we try CPR?”, Jimmy suggested.

“Too late. It was getting too much for her. It would continue to hurt her head. She wouldn’t cope”, Claudia told her.

“One step ahead, are we sis?”, Katie laughed.

“Always”, Claudia smiled.

“Alex”, Georgia looked up to him.

“Georgia”, he replied.

“It’s really you…”, Georgia was stunned.

“Yup, as good as new. Well, almost. My hair needs a bit of a wash”, Alex laughed.

“Why did you do that to me?”, Georgia was hitting Alex in the chest; not that hard though. Alex just put his arms around her and hugged her, and she cried on his shoulder.

“I love you Alex”, Georgia admitted.

“I love you too Georgia”, Alex replied.

”Are you just saying that to make me feel better?”

“No”

Georgia looked up and smiled at him. They continued their hug. A round of applause came from the others, as they stood there, watching the new happy couple.

“All’s well that end’s well”, Katie said to herself, sitting in her office. She’d had a weird day. She spent time in the Cretaceous era, seen her sister, lost and found a member of her team, and defeated the baddie. It’s all in the job description at the ARC. Never a dull day. And they were sure to have many more exciting days in the future, together. Not just the team, but also Alex and Georgia together.