MJF's Stories

Guest Star:

Ruth Kearney

Lloyd Daniels walked down the ARC corridor. He was lucky to be alive. A few days ago, he was nearly killed by a Mosasaur. If it wasn’t for Cutter, he wouldn’t be alive now. Since The X Factor, Lloyd had wanted a quiet (or as quiet as you could get fighting prehistoric creatures) life, but everyone was treating him differently because he was a celebrity. He wanted to be normal. But recently, he’d been feeling more normal. Which he liked. He was fitting in a bit better within the team. Especially with the Mosasaur occurrence, he’d been with Cutter and Danny searching for the creature. Before, he’d been watching from the sidelines.

“Morning!”, a cheery Mia said hi to Lloyd.

“Hiya”, Lloyd replied.

“You alright?”, Mia asked him.

“Yeah, I’m good thanks”, Lloyd quietly replied. He was tired. He wasn’t a morning person. Then a young girl bounced up to him.

“Hi! I’m Jess Parker, the new field co-ordinator”, Jess excitedly introduced herself.

“Hi, I’m Lloyd”, Lloyd said back.

“Nice to meet you. Now, Lester’s wanted me to introduce these things to you. They’re new trackers. I can see on my computer screen exactly where you are. I will speak to you from my computer through these earpieces. You can also communicate with each other”, Jess ran through the new devices.

“Ah, Lloyd”, came a voice from above. It was James Lester, “Could you round up the team for me please?”. Lloyd nodded. He ran around the ARC telling everyone to meet in the Main Operations Room. Once he was finished, Lester began his speech.

“Right everyone. There are some changes that have been put in place. First of all, we have a new field co-ordinator. You may or may not have met Jess, but she will be based here at the ARC and you will report to her. Jess will run through the new gadgets we have. Also, we now have a rota that will tell you what days you go out when there’s an anomaly alert. As there are so many of you on the team, some will go out on some days whilst some will stay here and do other bits of work”, Lester ran through the changes. The team didn’t seem too happy about the last change. They enjoyed working as a team so this was a massive shock to them.

DING DING! DING DING! DING DING!

“Anomaly detected. Location: the ARC?”, Jess sounded confused. The anomaly had opened in the ARC corridor. The team all ran out to the corridor, and there the anomaly was. Right in front of them.

They had waited for half an hour, but the anomaly did nothing. Until suddenly, something little popped through. It was like a bird. A whole flock of them followed. They started wandering around the ARC. The whole team were shellshocked! They started nipping at Connor and Jenny. The rest of the team tried to distract them away from Jenny and Connor, but they kept nipping. Jenny was not happy!

”Get off me!”, she was shouting.

“Jenny, that’s not helping!”, Connor tried to reassure her. He was certain that it was Jenny who was keeping them there.

“They’re Mei long from the Cretaceous era”, Cutter identified, “They won’t cause any harm but they’ll be a lot of trouble”.

“Guys? Can we concentrate on getting them away from us?”, Connor was slightly annoyed now. The nips were starting to hurt his legs and his toes. After all, the Mei long creatures did not get above their knees. Abby, Sarah and Mia looked at each other, nodded, and went to distract the creatures. They were making all sorts of noises and gestures, and the bird-like creatures ran after them. They led them to the anomaly, but instead, they ran around it instead. The team were not happy.

The Mei long proceeded to exit the ARC. The doors were being held open by a soldier, who was waiting for another soldier. He was pretty freaked out when he saw them! They ran outside and ducked under the security gate. The ARC team ran outside aswell. They had to get them away from the main road. But it was too late. They just wandered across, and the cars didn’t stop in time. Luckily, no humans were hurt, but the Mei long themselves were all dead.

“Shame there wasn’t anything we could do”, Jess said when they got back into the ARC. The team were pretty gloomy. They were, in general, harmless.

“Serves them right!”, Jenny hadn’t recovered from being pecked earlier on. The whole team glared at her.

“I suppose these things just happen”, Claudia added.

What the team didn’t know was that someone was watching from one of the labs. She scribbled something down on a notepad. It read…

H.C.

Guest Star:

Ruth Kearney

“I’ve sorted out the rota!”. Abby Maitland announced. She had been tasked with creating the rota for the team which tells them who’s going out on anomaly alerts. James Lester felt there were too many in the team. The others would stay at the ARC and either help Jess Parker, the field co-ordinator, or do some paperwork.

“Who’s going out today?”, Sarah Page eagerly asked.

“Hold on, let me explain”, said Abby, “It goes on a weekly rotation basis. I’ve worked out a group of five team members, plus Captain Mitchell, for each day in the week. Each day, at least one of our team leaders, Danny and Cutter, will be going”.

The rotations went as follows:

Monday - Cutter, Connor, Abby, Mia and Harry

Tuesday - Danny, Sarah, Lloyd, Claudia and Jenny

Wednesday - Cutter, Harry, Jenny, Lloyd and Connor

Thursday - Danny, Abby, Mia, Claudia and Sarah

Friday - Cutter, Jenny, Sarah, Connor and Mia - NOTE: HARRY’s DAY OFF

Saturday - Danny, Abby, Lloyd, Harry and Claudia

Sunday - All team members

The team examined this list very carefully. Abby made sure everyone got to go out an equal amount of times. Of course, there wasn’t an anomaly every single day, so some would miss out, but as Abby observed, there was no pattern in days or dates when anomalies appeared. James Lester came down from his office.

“Brilliant work Abby”, Lester congratulated her, “Now it’ll look less like a bunch of school children playing chase with a  monster”.

“I’ll take that as a compliment”, Abby replied.

DING DING! DING DING! DING DING!

“Anomaly detected. Location: the M25. Estimated duration: 10 minutes. Estimated size of anomaly: 30 metres”, Jess announced. It was a Monday, so Cutter, Connor, Abby, Mia and Harry all got ready to go out.

Jess was correct. It took 10 minutes for the team to arrive at the location of the anomaly. Well, as close as they could get. There was a traffic jam, much like when an anomaly opened there before.

“A mammoth came through”, Cutter remembered, “We’ve still got it in the creature menagerie. It’s all alone now though, as the Dracorex died”.

“Cutter”, Abby nudged Cutter. She didn’t want to remember when the Dracorex died. Cutter remembered and apologised.

“Guys, there’s been a second anomaly. It’s right next to the current one”, Jess announced through their ear pieces. The team started to run.

Meanwhile, at the ARC, Danny, Sarah, Lloyd, Claudia and Jenny were pretty bored. They didn’t like the introduction of the rota. But their day was about to get a whole lot more exciting…

Back at the M25, the team could see some sort of dinosaur looking pretty helpless.

“It’s a Brachiosaurus from the Late Jurassic era”, Connor identified, “It’s pretty harmless. Only a veggie”.

“Well we need to try and lure it back through the anomaly”, Cutter decided.

“It’s getting pretty agitated”, Abby observed.

“Shouldn’t we get everyone out?”, Mia th[b]ought. The team got straight to it. They managed to sneak a few people out of their cars without the Brachiosaurus noticing. There was one problem. It was getting annoyed in the confined space. It was knocking several cars out of the way, until the next one had people inside it. It smashed it upside down and stepped on it.

”Déjà vu?”, Connor smiled. The other four glared at him.Abby, Mia and Harry looked at each other. They nodded. They ran straight for the car to check the people were OK as soon as the Brachiosaurus moved away. They managed to help the people away from the car to safety. Something happened with the second anomaly. A smaller, but more deadly, creature came through. The team moved right back.

“What is it?”, Harry shouted.

“It’s a Neovenator. An Isle of Wight carnivore”, Connor replied.

”So it’s deadly?”, Harry had loads of questions. She wasn’t the brightest spark when it came to dinosaurs.

“No, it’s called a carnivore because it has a nice ring to it”, Cutter was being sarcastic.

“I hear you’ve been looking for me”, a voice came from one of the higher parts of the ARC. The other half of the team looked up, including Jess and Lester. It was Helen Cutter.

“Ah, Helen. Nice of you to save us the trouble”, Lester spoke to her.

“I’ve not come to hand myself in. But I need your help”, Helen replied.

“What?!”, the team said in unison.

The Neovenator was causing a lot of havoc. It was stamping on all the cars in sight, and the Brachiosaurus was starting to run for it.

“Girls, you go and chase the Brachiosaurus, lure it back here in three separate cars”, Cutter commanded. They went to choose their cars. Ones that weren’t squashed by the Neovenator, that is. They got in and drove off. Little did they know that the Neovenator noticed and started chasing them. It managed to catch up with Harry. It smashed her car right off the road. Mia was now in front of the creature. She was terrified.

“As you probably know, two anomalies have opened next to each other. A hungry Neovenator has come through. The team can’t handle it alone”, Helen told them.

“And you know this, how?”, Danny questioned Helen.

“Oh, you know me Danny. Always one anomaly head of you”, Helen replied, smirking.

“So, where do we go?”, Lloyd asked.

“The M25 of course”, Helen told him.

“How do we know we can trust you?”, Lester asked.

“You don’t. But do you really want your precious team to be killed?”, Helen gave them food for thought. Helen turned around, “Oh, I hear you have a new recruit”.

“I’m Jess”, Jess introduced herself. Helen then disappeared.

The Neovenator was gaining on Mia. She was swerving about, but it knocked her right off the road. Abby was the only one left. The poor Brachiosaurus was terrified. A car stopped right in front of the Brachiosaurus and tripped it up. It fell over, injuring itself. Abby did an emergency stop and tripped over the Neovenator. The injuries to that were very severe and it did not survive. The people in the car that tripped over the Brachiosaurus stepped out. It was the other half of the team.

“Thanks”, Abby said, “Right, let’s go help Mia and Harry”.

The team were all gathered around two hospital beds. Mia and Harry had survived, but would be hospitalised for a few more days. Helen had disappeared. But apart from that, everything was back to normal…for now…

Guest Star:

Ruth Kearney

Lester walked through the ARC Corridor. He was tired and fed up. The team was out as far as he was aware. He got to the ARC door. Then something, something made him turn; he wasn’t sure why he did it. But in doing so, he cut his hand on the door. He wasn’t sure how. But then blood started dripping from his hand. Drip, drip, drip. The sound echoed through the ARC. Drip, drip, drip. Then a massive roar came from above him. A future predator. Everything went dark. Then he awoke.

Sweat. He awoke, wet all over. His head was on his desk. Papers were strewn all over the floor. ‘Predator, predator’ he blurted, rushing to the window. Hoisting up the blinds, to show the ARC control room.

He relaxed. ‘A dream, nothing more and nothing less’. He regained his senses, opened the door and walked down the ramp.

Anomaly alert! Anomaly alert! The machines voice echoed through the long corridors of the ARC.

‘Where is it this time?’ Lester murmured, waiting for a reply. Nothing.

‘I said, where is it this time?’ He spoke louder. Still no answer. His patience was running out.

‘I SAID WHERE IS IT... Oh forget it, I’ll check myself’ He walked over to the detector. He selected his name: James Lester, he typed his password in. ‘PASSWORD DECLINED’ Lester tried again. ‘PASSWORD DECLINED’. Then something else came up. ‘Sir James Lester – deceased’. He frowned.

‘Connor, have you been messing with my account?’ He shouted angrily.

‘Cause when I find you, you’ll be in big trouble.’ Then Lester noticed something, something he hadn’t noticed before. The ARC was covered with spider webs, computers and wires were scattered and smashed around the floor.

‘What on Earth...’ He didn’t finish is sentence.

‘Your not on Earth, well, not the Earth you know... this is the future.’ The voice had come from behind him.

‘Who are you?’ Lester replied. A figure walked out of the darkness. She was a young woman in her 30’s, she had long brown hair and her clothes were torn. She had a nasty-looking scar across her forehead.

‘I am Aplo Sparks’

‘Did you bring me here? If you did you are in BIG…’

‘Yes I did, this is the Future version of the ARC, your anomaly team destroyed the world, now it’s left in ruins… I am the last of the humans.’ She said.

‘I don’t understand’ Lester mumbled.

‘The Predators, everyone died as a cause of the Arc’s experimentation’

‘What? Future Predators? No, we don’t experiment. We know the risks.’ Lester said confidently.

‘Your wrong, this location is enough proof.’

‘No, my team wouldn’t do that…’ Lester murmured.

‘Obviously you don’t know your team well enough. So, I’m going to leave you here, in hope that the future will change. You won’t survive the night with the predators; this is a dream world, but the future none the less. You die here, you die in reality!’

She disappeared.

‘Come back!’ Lester shouted.

It was no luck. She had gone…

****

‘OH MY GOD’ Claudia screamed, her voice echoed through the corridors.

Jess, Connor and Cutter left the Anomaly detector and ran up the ramp. 

‘Claudia, are you in Lester’s office?’ Jess shouted.

Another scream, this time it was much louder.

‘I’ll take that as a yes then!’ She said. 

Blood was dripping from the door handle. Cutter went in first.

‘Claudia?’ He opened the door. Claudia was staring at something in the corner of the room. He went in further.

In front of him was Lester, wearing his suit and staring straight at the door, but he was frozen to the spot. His body was motionless and encircling his head was shards of glistening light, an Anomaly. No one could speak, not even Connor. He moved closer. ‘What happened?’ he asked. 

Claudia said nothing but held out her hand. She was holding a yellow piece of paper. On it was two letters…

H.C.

****

Lester was searching through the weapons room of the future ARC. If he ever made it back, he made a note to buy some of these fantastic weapons… He picked up some Hand-Grenades, 3 Hand Guns with 4 pockets-worth of Ammo. He was ready. ‘If I survived Politics, I can survive this…’ He mumbled to himself.

He slammed his shoulder into the fire exit. He repeated it again and again. Finally, the door crumpled in on it’s self. He came out onto the road, or what was left of it. Buildings were ruined, cars were burnt out and grass was growing all over the road. Lester was too shocked for words. Was this what was to come of the Earth? Was it his fault? He walked further. Lester knew he was going to meet a Predator soon, just as Aplo had said. But, he wanted to delay the experience as long as possible. Who was Aplo? How did she bring him here? Were the team looking for him back at the ARC? He tried to put his mind at rest and work on getting home.

He stopped walking. ‘Had something moved over there?’ He thought to himself. His question was asked within seconds. Out from behind the car, an enormous creature rose. 

It was similar to a predator. But the head looked like the head of an insect and huge wings were attached to its back. It was a mutation – a mix of a Predator and a Megopteran. Two future beasts. Blood was dripping from its mouth. Lester was speechless. Someone placed their hand on his shoulder. He was too scared to take his eyes off of the creature.

‘It’s a Megator’ Aplo stated. ‘A mix of two of the most fierce beasts to have ever have lived.’ 

Lester didn’t reply, he had nothing to say. 

‘Predator got your tongue… it will have soon’ She laughed and disappeared. Just as he thought it couldn’t get any worse, another two came out of the shadows. They were staring at him and studying him. Like a Cheetah studies an Antelope, where was Lester’s weak point? Which part of him would taste best? He didn’t want to know. 

As the Megators edged closer, he slowly walked backwards then he broke into a run. The predators were looming over him; they cast long shadows in the dying sun.

To be continued...

Guest Star:

Ruth Kearney

The ARC conference room was full for the first time since it’s creation. It was one of the cleanest rooms in the ARC; the table was glass with five leather chairs on each side. On the left were Harriet, Abby and Jenny, on the right were Claudia, Lloyd and Jess and at the head of the table was Cutter. The team had tried to contact Danny, Mia and the others, but they were dealing with an Anomaly. They had had no luck. A heated discussion had just begun. Connor burst in…

‘I’ve got the scans’ he announced.

‘So what’s the result?’ Cutter asked.

‘Well… from what I can tell the Anomaly leads to the future, which for Lester is a really, really bad thing.’ 

‘And Lester…?’ Cutter asked impatiently.

‘Well, he’s in a kind of Dream state… In Limbo so to speak.’

‘So he’s in the future, but dreaming?’ Lloyd joined in.

‘Correct…someone must have used some type of future technology on him. But who?’ Connor said.

‘H.C.’ Jenny added, holding up the note for everyone to see. She threw it onto the table. Everyone fell silent.

‘We don’t know who it is, but if anything… she’s the primary suspect since she probably would be able to gain access to any future technology.’ Cutter added.

‘Yes…’ Connor agreed solemnly ‘But how do we get him out? He could already be dead…’

‘But if he’s in a dream, he can’t die.’ Lloyd said after a minute of silence.

‘He can die, he’s in the future and here in the ARC, he can die and he WILL die. He will be a target for hundreds of predators. He’s as good as dead.’ Cutter replied 

* * *

The night had nearly crept in, but Lester was still running. Despite having a few close shaves, two of the Megator’s had given up (they were big, but very slow). The third however was very persistent. 

He only had two grenades left and he wasn’t going to waste them on this, so he just kept running: dodging cars and jumping over debris. He was going to try to survive as long as possible. To prove Aplo wrong and return to the world he knew, he also needed to put the bins out – but that wasn’t as important. 

After a few minutes Lester stopped, ‘Oh no…’, he’d come to the edge of a cliff. It was at least a 50ft drop. Below him were thousands of Megopteran’s flying in all directions; he couldn’t even see the valley floor. It was a vertical drop into darkness. The Megator was hurling up cars in pursuit, it was metres away. He made a decision in a spilt second and one he may regret. The Megator made a grab at him and he jumped. He plummeted down to the Valley floor.

He was falling for around three seconds, surrounded by Megopteran’s; he then hit the floor and fell unconscious.

* * *

‘Try again…’ Cutter sighed. 

‘Can’t you see it’s not working?’ Connor shouted impatiently.

‘Look, we can’t give up on him. Without Lester, the operations here are over.’ Lloyd declared. 

After a long discussion the team had decided that they should reverse the Anomaly locker’s settings to expand the Anomaly that was encircling Lester’s head, if it worked they could send in a rescue team.

‘Right, one last time then…’ Connor added. 

Nothing happened for a few seconds, then, all of a sudden, there was a screeching noise and the room was flooded with bright light. They retreated slowly. The light died after a few seconds, the Anomaly had grown and filled the entire room. The team punched the air with joy. They were just deciding who was going to go through when a figure came out of the Anomaly. 

‘Lester is that you?’ Abby shouted. It wasn’t him it was a young woman, probably in her 30’s. She pointed a device at Cutter, Connor and Lloyd. There was a loud crack and everything went dark. 

* * *

Cutter was the first to wake up, his eyes were filled with dust, but he knew where he was. The future. It all came flooding back to him – Lester, Anomalies and that mysterious woman… was it Helen? This was probably all her doing. 

He woke Lloyd and Connor up.

‘Where are we?’ Connor murmured.

‘The future.’ Cutter replied, ripping part of his trousers and tying round Lloyd’s leg. He was bleeding badly.

‘Wow…what the hell?’ Lloyd hadn’t noticed how bad his leg was; he was staring at the sky.

Cutter and Connor both turned and looked up. They were in a deep valley and just above them thousands of Megopteran’s whizzed and flew around.

‘Megopteran’s…’ Connor muttered ‘We need to move now’

Lloyd tried to get up. ‘Arggh…I can’t walk!’ He fell back down to the ground. ‘it’s my leg…’

Cutter and Connor helped Lloyd up and carried him to the edge of the cliff. 

‘He needs medical help…he won’t survive for long in this condition’ Cutter whispered to Connor.

‘How are we going to get back? We don’t even have an Anomaly opener?’ Connor replied.

‘I’m working on it.’ 

Just then a quiet shout came from behind the rocks. ‘Lloyd was that you? Cutter shouted. 

‘What was me?’ He shouted back.

‘So who was that?’ Connor ran over and looked behind the rocks 

To his amazement, there, was a badly bruised and unconscious James Lester.

* * *

Abby and Claudia made a grab at the woman, they could see her more clearly now. She hurled a knife at them.

‘Why did you do that?’ Jenny screamed in frustration. 

‘You sent them in to the future…they could be dead!’ Harriet added.

The woman scowled and stabbed at the air a few more times with her knife. She then turned and replied – ‘I did it because I could…’ She disappeared; they didn’t know what to say.

* * *

Cutter was carried Lester to the Anomaly, Connor and Lloyd were a bit further behind. A trail of blood followed behind Lloyd. They needed to get out of her fast, if a Predator caught a whiff of the blood, game over.

They were in the middle of the Valley, with thousands of Megopteran’s above them – yet they didn’t take any notice of them. Unusual. One thing struck Cutter – if the woman wanted to trap them in the future: why did she leave the anomaly open? His question would be answered soon.

‘Cutter…’ Lloyd called out. His leg was getting worse. ‘My leg – I’m in so much pain…’

‘I know… We’re nearly there though – look.’

He turned – BANG! The bullet shot past his ear – heading for Connor. It all happened in slow motion. Lloyd dived in front of him. The bullet penetrated his leg. He screamed in pain.

‘Hahaha…’ It was the woman – standing in front of the anomaly, she was holding a gun.

‘You’re not going anywhere…’ She laughed.

‘Oh yeah…’ It was Lloyd – he had grabbed a rock and had scooped up some of his blood from the ground, he threw it at a Megopteran. The rock then fell back to the ground and hit Aplo in the arm. The creature looked down and made a dive at Aplo. She hit a button on her arm and teleported out. The anomaly began to close. Cutter grabbed Lester and Connor grabbed Lloyd. Cutter ran through the anomaly – it led to the ARC. He quickly dropped Lester on the floor and ran back through.

Connor and Lloyd were on the valley floor. Lloyd was in such a bad condition – he couldn’t be moved. ‘Lloyd, come on we need to go!’ Connor shouted. Lloyd reached up to Connor’s ear and whispered something. A tear rolled down Connor cheek, he understood immediately. He ran to Cutter, grabbed him and ran through the anomaly. The anomaly closed.

Everyone was silent in the ARC. Lloyd was not with them. Lester had been recovered and Lloyd had been lost. 

Connor walked over to the nearest laptop, he selected some music and it began to echo throughout the control room – it was Lloyd’s first performance on the X Factor. Tears rolled onto the floor.

* * *

Aplo stood on the cliff, watching the valley floor. It was empty. They had succeeded – they weren’t supposed to have done this time. She turned; she was no longer Aplo Sparks. She was Helen Cutter and she wanted revenge. 

Guest Stars:

Ruth Kearney and Cheryl Cole.

The team were not in a very happy mood. Just the day before, Lloyd Daniels, their colleague and friend, was trapped in the Future. He, Nick Cutter and Connor Temple had to save James Lester from someone called Aplo Sparks and some future creatures. Lloyd was seriously injured, and had asked Connor to leave him behind. Jenny Lewis was affected more than the others. Jenny used to be in a relationship with Lloyd. Claudia Brown was comforting her, despite it not sinking in for her either.

It was a nice day in the countryside. The sun was shining, the birds were singing. On the local farm, the farmer was planting some crops. What he didn’t notice was that a big ball of like has opened in one of the other fields. He also failed to notice what came out of it. It instantly noticed the farmer, and ran towards him. The poor farmer didn’t stand a chance when it dug its sharp claws into his body…

DING DING! DING DING! DING DING!

“Anomaly detected. Location:…”, Jess did the usual procedure, but was cut off. The anomaly signal had stopped.

“The anomaly must have closed”, Connor announced.

“Oh well, all the better for us”, Lester moaned.

DING DING! DING DING! DING DING!

“It’s re-opened”, Sarah said.

“No, it’s in a different place. But from the analysis, the anomaly is the same size in the same area. This one seems more stable”, Jess corrected Sarah.“

Right, get down there”, Lester commanded.

“Hang on, what day is it?”, Mia asked.

"It’s Tuesday, so…”, Harry told her, then ran to the rota, “Danny, Sarah, Claudia, Jenny and…”. Harry would’ve said Lloyd next…

“Are you OK to go?”, Danny checked with Jenny.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine”, Jenny wiped some tears away. The foursome ran outside and to the cars. Danny popped back.

“Where’s the anomaly again?”, Danny smiled.

It was half an hour before the team arrived in the country. All seemed nice and peaceful. Sarah looked at her handheld detector.

“It should be in this farm somewhere”, she told Danny.

“Right, Jenny, you go with Sarah and see if you can find the farmer, or farmers. Claudia and I will have a bit of a prowl”, Danny ordered.

Someone burst through the ARC doors. It was none other than friend of the team Cheryl Cole. Connor had informed her about Lloyd and she had come to visit.

“It’s really true, isn’t it?”, she said, walking up to Connor. It was obvious she’d been crying. Her make-up was running down her cheeks. But she didn’t care.

“There was nothing we could do. He was badly injured. But for all we know, he could still be out there, fighting for survival”, Connor tried to reassure her.

“Even if he was killed in that world, he won’t be dead for another x number of centuries, so officially he is still alive”, Lester butted in.

“Do you want a cuppa?”, Mia offered. Cheryl nodded.

Danny and Claudia were walking through the fields.

“You’re gonna pay for a new pair of shoes for me!”, Claudia joked. They were interrupted by a growl. They looked around, but could not see anything. They proceeded to look for the anomaly.

“Hello?”, Jenny called from outside the farmhouse.

”Maybe they’re out on the fields?”, Sarah suggested.

“Danny or Claudia would have called us by now”, Jenny replied. They heard a noise.

“What’s that?”, Sarah was worried. It came from inside the house. Sarah and Jenny both turned around, incase their ears were deceiving them. When they did so, a sloth-like creature propped itself up against the window behind them. You could see its breath against it. It moved away just before they turned back around.

“Let’s get out of here”, Jenny decided. Just when she said that, the window was smashed as the creature came right through the window. Jenny pulled out her tranquilliser gun. She fired at the creature. It was knocked out. Jenny and Sarah escaped.

“Jess, we’ve found the anomaly”, Claudia said through her earpiece.

”Excellent. Jenny, have you found the farmer?”, Jess asked.

“No, but we found a creature!”, Jenny told them.

”What’s it like?”, Connor rushed to the Detector, next to Jess.

”It’s like a giant sloth thing, a bit like a bear”, Jenny explained.

“And it’s absolutely massive”, Sarah added.

“It sounds like a Megatherium, from the Pliocene era. It kills its prey by stabbing them with its sharp claws”, Connor identified it.

“Well, we need back-up. Jess, where are they?”, Jenny demanded.

“They should be on their way”, Jess told them, “Hang on, they’ve stopped. Just down the road. Captain Mitchell, can you hear me?”.

“Yeah, I’m fine. The car crashed. Something jumped in front. The rest of the soldiers are either dead or injured. I just escaped myself”, Mitchell explained.

“What jumped in front? What type of creature? A dog, an owl, a lion, a Mega-something-or-other?”, Danny asked.

”Some kind of bear”, Mitchell told them.

“So there’s more than one. Great”, Jenny sighed.

Cheryl was shaking just drinking her tea. All she could imagine is Lloyd, injured, surrounded by creatures. Connor was a big help, but there wasn’t much he could do.

Jenny and Sarah met up with Danny and Claudia. They had to find another creature, pronto, before it reached the nearby village. Mitchell ran up to them aswell.

“We desperately need to find the creature”, Danny told them. They didn’t split up, as it was too dangerous. Together, they ran through the fields. They didn’t realise the creature was following them. It pounced, and Mitchell turned around just in time to tranquillise it. They all dodged and it landed on the floor.

“We need to get them back through the anomaly as soon as possible”, Mitchell said.

More soldiers were sent out to move the tranquillised Megatheriums back through the anomaly, and more did a search of the area, to make sure there were no more. An ambulance was sent out to the injured soldiers, and the team returned back.

“Lloyd would’ve enjoyed this”, Jenny said to Cheryl. They smiled at each other.

“Maybe it’s best if I stay away from here? It’s just gonna bring back all of these memories. It’s not fair on you or me”, Cheryl decided. Jenny nodded.

Guest Star:

Ruth Kearney

“Morning!”, Jess Parker excitedly said as she burst through the doors to the ARC Main Operations Room. Jess was a morning person, unlike most of the team. Mia and Connor waved back. Connor yawned. 8 o’clock in the morning was too early for him. Half the team weren’t even in yet. It was only those three and Abby.

DING DING! DING DING! DING DING!

“Nice early start”, Connor sighed. He hated early morning anomalies.

“Wait! Where’s everyone else?”, James Lester called down from his office.

“Not here yet”, Abby replied.

“Not even Cutter?”, Lester shouted back.

“Nope”, Mia told him.

“Well, you three can’t just go”, Lester didn’t want Mia, Connor and Abby going on their own.

“I could go?”, Jess timidly said.

“Any objections?”, Lester asked. No-one spoke up. Lester nodded. Jess was excited at the prospect of getting away from the desk.

Jess wasn’t really wearing the right gear. She had a short, green chequered skirt, and a green blouse to match. Her long, silky hair was down. And what’s more, the anomaly was at a swamp. Mia wasn’t dressed the best either.

“Oh, my new shoes!”, moaned Mia.

“Well, your birthday’s coming up soon”, hinted Connor. They smiled at each other and kissed as they were walking along.

"What’s that?”, Jess asked, a little scared. They ran up to something covered in mud.

“There’s a creature incursion”, Connor spoke into his earpiece.

“Have you seen it?”, Cutter was doing Jess’ job while she was out with the team.

“Not yet”, replied Connor. Jess was terrified looking at the dead body on the ground. Little did she know she was being watched from the long grass nearby…

Back at the ARC, Cutter was getting quite relaxed in Jess’ red chair. The armrests move up and down. Cutter found himself playing with it. Despite it being fun watching over everything, it was also quite boring. He was meant to go out with the team that day. He gets very protective over the anomalies sometimes and always likes to be there investigating them. But he had every faith in Connor, Mia, Abby and even Jess who he’s known for around two weeks.

“Cutter!”, Sarah Page came over to Cutter, “I’ve got an idea”.

“Aha”, Cutter swivelled round in the chair.

“Remember the anomaly model we made, which tracked all of the anomalies? The one that was lost when Helen bombed this place?”, Sarah told him.

“Yeah, I remember”, Cutter replied.

“Well, I was thinking earlier on. I tried to redraw it from one of the Anomaly Openers. I got this”, she showed him her diagram, “We need to start thinking about re-making the model. We could then start predicting anomalies”.

“Sounds good. But haven’t you got to work on that other theory of yours?”, Cutter reminded Sarah about her genes theory. She proposed that whenever you go through an anomaly, any other anomalies that open are drawn to you. And it’s something to do with the genes in your body. It explains why most of the anomalies open nearby, with a few exceptions.

"Connor said he’d conduct an experiment”, Sarah explained, “He needs a blood sample from a dead normal person, and a dead person who has been through an anomaly”.

“Why aren’t you doing it?”

“Connor volunteered. He knows I don’t like the gory stuff”.

The soldiers arrived at the anomaly location. The anomaly was across the lake. Due to its location, it could not be reached so it could be locked. That means it would have to be guarded 24/7.

“We’ll go explore”, Connor decided, “Mia, you take Jess and go that way. I’ll go with Abby”.

“Why can’t I go with you?”, Mia asked.

“Because I think you’d be perfect to show Jess the ropes”, Connor explained.

They all wandered off in the right directions. Mia started explaining to Jess how she got onto the team.

”I was out shopping. And suddenly, a dinosaur or two were roaming the streets. Just like that. It all sounds so stupid, I know. Abby spotted me, and called me into a shop where the team were hiding. They told me Helen Cutter had gone through anomalies and prevented the extinction of certain deadly creatures. They were going to reverse the actions. They took me with them as they didn’t want to leave me, helpless and terrified, amongst all the dinosaurs. So we went through the anomalies and each time, they stopped Helen. But when it came to the T-Rex one, they found it too dangerous. But I was brave and did it myself. That’s how I earned my place. And also because Lester couldn’t bare a member of the public knowing”. They both laughed.

“So, I guess you and Abby got along?”, Jess continued the conversation.

“Not at all. I developed a relationship with Connor. Well, I fell in love. And he did the same. But she was jealous. She had been eyeing up Connor for the previous two or three years. But never had the guts to make a move. When she noticed how stupid she was being, it was at our wedding”.

“You and Connor are married?”, Jess sounded surprised. She hadn’t read the files hard enough.

“Yeah. But I keep my surname as Turner for work. Any other time it’s Temple”, Mia told her, “But Abby ended up…”

Mia was cut off by the sound of something moving through the long grass. It showed itself as it emerged from the grass.

“Oh my god…”, muttered Jess, “What do we do?”.

“We…we…we…RUN!”, Mia shouted. They ran for their lives as a crocodile creature, about 1 metre long, started chasing them.

Meanwhile, at the ARC, something strange happened. The ARC went into lockdown for no apparent reason. All doors and shutters closed and locked. Lester walked down from his office into the Main Operations Room, where Cutter, Danny, Claudia, Jenny and Harry were.

“What’ve you done?”, Lester moaned.

“I didn’t touch anything”, Cutter replied.

“Where’s Sarah?”, Danny asked.

Sarah was in fact in her lab, completing the diagram for the anomaly model, mainly from some destroyed pieces of paper. She was confused when the doors slammed shut. She tried to open them but she couldn’t. She tried using the comms.

“Hello?”, Sarah said into the comm.

“Sarah! You OK?”, Harry asked.

“I’m fine. What happened?”, Sarah wondered.

“Hello sweeties”, came a voice from the top walkway of the ARC. It was Helen Cutter.

Mia and Jess caught up with Abby and Connor.

“There’s a crocodile!”, Jess quickly shouted, sounding out of breath. Speak of the devil and it shall appear. The “crocodile” came round through the grass.

”Looks like some sort of Protosuchus”, Connor analysed, whilst stepping backwards slowly with the team.

“Is it deadly?”, Abby asked.

“Yup”, Connor broke the bad news.

“So this killed the man?”, Mia posed the question to Connor.

“I guess so. Is now really the time?”

The Protosuchus was gaining on them. Closer, and closer. Until they were at the edge of the lake and had no-where to go…

“This is Jess’ system, I don’t know her password. I can’t break through it”, Cutter was getting frustrated with the Anomaly Detector.

“While you’ve not been watching, I’ve installed loads of firewalls to the Detector”, Helen told them, “Oh, and by the way, the air in all other rooms is being drained slowly”.

“SARAH!”, the team all cried in unison. Helen smirked. Getting rid of one of the braniacs on the team was a good day’s work, if you asked her.

The team were slightly terrified. They had no guns with them, and the soldiers weren’t nearby. Mia moved to the side and started luring the Protosuchus away. She backed up, being careful not to anger it. But then she tripped over a log and crashed to the floor. The Protosuchus saw it’s chance and came up next to her.

“NO!”, yelled Jess. She ran up and past the creature, attracting its attention. It decided to follow her. Jess started walking into the lake. It wasn’t that deep, but it was ruining her lovely outfit. She went straight through the anomaly, and it followed her. The other three just watched. Jess took a while. The anomaly started to close, but Jess ran through at the last minute. Connor helped her out of the water. They made their way to the car and left it in the hands of the soldiers.

When they arrived back at the ARC, they found out that they couldn’t get in. The ARC was in lockdown. Seeing as it was from Jess’ station, she managed to type in her password from the outside scanner and unlock lockdown. They ran inside, and met Cutter and the rest of the team as they ran out.

“Sarah’s been in there as air was being drained”, Jenny updated them as they burst into Sarah’s lab.

“It was Helen”, Claudia said. Cutter checked Sarah was OK, then ran back into the Main Operations Room to find Helen. But she was gone…

Guest Star:

Ruth Kearney

4:00am. February 7th 2011. 

“It’s re-opening!” yelled Harry as the glistening shape they had come to know as an anomaly re-appeared in front of the team, who had been gathered since the day before. A scary looking silhouette appeared within, and pounced on Mia. She screamed, but then looked at what had fallen onto her. It was Connor, dazed but alive. 

“Connor, are you alright?” asked Cutter, helping him to his feet.

“What just happened?” he asked, still confused.

“Don’t you remember?” enquired Abby, concerned for his well-being.

“Hold on...” said Connor “It’s coming back to me...”

10:30am. July 18th 2239

The Megopteran flew across the vast plains. Connor felt awkward on its back – he had no training with riding giant future insects – but he was managing to steer it towards the anomaly site. With this vantage point, he could see a slight glimmer. Was this a mirage caused by the heat, or was it an anomaly. He brought the creature in, but a metre from the ground, the wings were sliced off by a ferocious claw. The insect dropped to the floor, helpless, and was torn apart by about 10 to 20 Future Predators. Connor managed to get away, but was smacked on the head by one of the beasts. He stumbled forward – into the waiting arms of another Predator!

10:15am. July 18th 2239

Connor grabbed a baseball bat on the other side of the room. “At least they still play sport!” thought Connor as he squashed it against the wall. But just then, the whole floor shook. A pair of insectoid arms protruded through two holes in the floor, and the mighty bug smashed its head through the floor. He stood, frozen to the spot. Luckily, he spotted something familiar on a table nearby. It was like one of the neural clamps Leek had used on the Predators, but was even more advanced. He immediately grabbed it and pushed it over the Megopteran’s head. Its jaws stopped millimetres from his throat, and opened wide, freeing him. Grabbing the controller (which luckily still worked), he jumped onto the back of the mighty creature.

10:00am. July 18th 2239

He was running. Faster than he’d ever run before. Pulling his gun from his pocket, Connor turned and fired on his attacker. However, he had worked out that it would be more effective if he fired into the air. The Future Predators were very resilient, but the sound disrupts their sonar. Turning a corner, Connor noticed the top of a skyscraper coming out of the top of the ice sheet. He clambered through the window and smashed it on a Predator’s head. A shard of glass penetrated the skull of the creature, and it dropped dead. He was safe. 

Inside, he discovered a disgusting mouldy office. It was unrecognisable – not as he’d expected a futuristic office to be, but nothing like anything he’d experienced before. However, he was glad to be safe. Or was he? As he examined a computer-style terminal, a draw on the other side of the room slid open, and out flew a young Megopteran, calling for its mother.

6:00pm. February 6th 2011.

Nick Cutter was regretting turning his back on Connor for a moment. Lester had decided that only two members needed to go on this mission - a simple task of locking the anomaly. But as Nick returned to the car to pick up his phone, a pair of hands grabbed Connor and threw him into the anomaly, locking it. When Cutter turned back, Connor was gone – and so was his attacker. 

Connor rolled out into the desert. The anomaly was still open, so he picked himself up and hurled himself through it, just as it was locked! He bounced off the orb of light, which gave him an electric shock. This passed to a sign than was submerged in the sand Connor pulled it from the ground and dusted it off. It was a sign for road works, running from the 1st to the 9th February 2211. 

A familiar sound disturbed him – the anomaly had been unlocked! On the other side, Cutter had rushed over and reversed the anomaly. But as he got up, the anomaly closed totally. Connor yelled in anger!

Big mistake. Though he didn’t know it, in the hills there was the most dangerous creature the team had ever encountered. The Future Predators. And he’d just alerted an army of them. 

5:30am. February 7th 2011.

“That makes two of us.” Lester told Connor back at the ARC, recalling when he was trapped in the future by a woman called Alpo Sparks. “At least everything’s fine now.” he said optimistically.

“There are still some unanswered questions though.” commented Cutter. “How did England become a desert overrun by Predators in just over 200 years? And who threw Connor into the anomaly?” 

There was only one name on everyone’s mind.

Mia Turner was very happy. It was the 14th February. Her birthday, aswell as Valentine’s Day! She got double presents from Connor, her husband. She got some new shoes, like she was promised when they were ruined at the swamp, aswell as her favourite chocolates in a heart shaped box. She felt so happy, and the thought of her getting more from the ARC team was overwhelming!

“We’ve gotta go”, Connor said, referring to him and Abby.

“What? Work doesn’t start for another hour”, Mia was confused.

“Cutter wanted us two for something”, Connor lied. Mia could tell he was up to something. She kissed him goodbye, and he went out the door with Abby.

“So, when she comes in, we all jump out and shout HAPPY BIRTHDAY”, Cutter explained, at the ARC. They were planning to surprise Mia as she walked in. She was due for work any minute, and Mia wasn’t one to be late. The team all hid. Mia walked through the doors, almost on queue.

”Hello?”, she said.

“SURPRISE!”, everyone shouted, after Connor’s countdown. Mia jumped back in shock, but she was so happy that everyone cared so much for her. Lester never got this on his birthday. The team all rushed up to Mia to hand her presents. Cutter gave her a box of chocolates and a kiss, Danny gave her some wine, amongst so many others. Even Lester gave Mia some flowers and a hug.

DING DING! DING DING! DING DING!

“Anomaly detected. The day is Monday, so can Cutter, Connor, Abby, Mia and Harry get ready to go out for the anomaly”, Jess announced.

“I swear more anomalies open on Mondays…”, moaned Sarah. It was true. Every Monday for the last couple of months an anomaly had opened. For the other days, it was varied.

This anomaly was at a café. It was open, and it was fairly busy due to it being rush hour. The member of staff serving customers went to the toilet. She noticed a bright light coming from outside. She went to investigate. She thought it was simply the reflection of the scorching sun outside, but she couldn’t have been more wrong. She saw something that was like a glitter ball with shards of glass floating around it. Something inside it moved. The girl moved back, as a really large dinosaur stepped out into the small place. She was pushed against a wall. That was the only place she could go. The dinosaur was so large that it took up the rest of the room. Its long neck stretched out so high above the café building. The girl screamed for her life…

At the ARC, Monday’s team had just left. The rest of them looked seriously bored.

“I sort of wish Helen Cutter would turn up and shake things up”, Danny joked.

“Oh, you know me Danny. I know when I’m wanted”, a voice shouted down from above. On queue, it was Helen Cutter.

“In here, right?”, Harry checked, standing outside a café. Connor looked at the Handheld Detector.

“Nope, the next one up”, Connor replied.

“There are so many in this town”, Harry said as they carried on walking, “I mean, business can’t be that good with punters shared out between other cafés”.

“Depends on the quality of the cafés really”, Cutter counteracted what Harry said, “If a café has bad service and dirty tables, do you think they’d have good business?”.

“Where’s all this come from?”, Mia asked Cutter about his knowledge of cafés.

“I worked in one when I was 18. It was a pretty bad one, but it was the only job I could get. I needed some money when I wasn’t at university. I helped improve it”, Cutter sounded proud of himself.

“Here it is”, Connor pointed out. They stood outside the last café of the town. They could already see a dinosaur’s head over the top. They ran inside to find out the story. The guests were all at the back door. They were shocked to see a massive dinosaur trapping the staff member.

“It’s a Diplodocus”, Connor explained, “Late Jurassic. Just a veggie”.

“But it’s getting distressed in the confined space. We also need to shut the girl up”, Cutter sorted out what they needed to do.

“Right. How?”, Abby was confused.

“What now?”, Claudia asked Helen.

“Oh I’m just here to wish you a Happy Valentine’s Day. And to wish Mia a happy birthday”, Helen lied.

“How did you know it was Mia’s birthday?”, Jenny asked.

“Jenny, I thought you were a smart woman”, Helen did cryptic well. She wasn’t one to reveal anything to anyone.

“Ah, Helen. Have you come to hand yourself in?”, Lester asked his usual question.

“You’d be lucky”, Helen replied. She noticed some soldiers coming up to get her. She was in the balcony, where she normally stood when speaking to the ARC team like this. She pulled out a gun and shot both soldiers.

“Now listen up”, Helen shouted, “Soon, anomalies will be everywhere. You won’t be able to keep them away from the public. You won’t be able to control them. It could be catastrophic, but when done as part of an experiment…”.

“No!”, Danny realised what Helen was going to do. Helen smirked and opened an anomaly. She stepped through and closed it on the other side.

“Is she always like this?”, Jess asked.

“Pretty much”, Jenny replied.

The Diplodocus was going mental in the small back garden of the café.

“I could go and get the girl?”, Harry suggested.

“No, it’s too dangerous”, Cutter disapproved.

“I’ll be fine”, Harry reassured him. He nodded and she went in to the distressed girl.

“Hi, I’m Harriet, but you can call me Harry. I need you to try and keep calm for me”, Harry introduced herself.

“KEEP CALM?! Haven’t you seen the dinosaur?”, the girl shouted.

“No, I didn’t notice it”, Harry sarcastically replied, “But in all seriousness, you’re not helping it! You need to shut up!”. The girl was still screaming.

“OK, change of plan. Keeping calm isn’t possible when there’s a veggie dinosaur in front”, Harry said to herself. She turned back to the girl, “We need to get you out. Can you see where I got here? There’s a small path there. Follow it back to my friends over there”. The girl obeyed. Harry was about to follow when the Diplodocus moved back. It stepped right in front of Harry. She went to go back, but another foot was there. She was trapped.

Captain Mitchell arrived at the anomaly site.

“We’ve got a Diplodocus in the garden”, Abby explained, “It’s getting really restless”. Mitchell nodded and walked to the garden with his soldiers.

“Jess, how’s the anomaly going?”, Abby spoke into her earpiece.

“The anomaly’s still fine. Is there a creature incursion?”, Jess asked.

“I’ve already told you, haven’t I?”, Abby was confused.

”We’ve been quite busy here”, Jess told Abby, in a nutshell.

“OK. But yes, we do. It’s a Diplodocus”, Abby replied, “We’ll keep you updated”. As soon as she finished that sentence, a soldier walked outside with the girl.

“I’ll take care of her”, Abby said to the soldier.

Harry was trying not to panic. But now she knows exactly how the girl felt. The Diplodocus kept moving. Its feet narrowly avoiding Harry each time. She need to keep on her toes. Back at the back door, Connor, Cutter and Mia were moving the café punters away. The soldiers would need to speak to them to make sure they didn’t sell their story to the newspaper. Connor felt a lump in his pocket. He took whatever it was out. It was an Anomaly Opener.

“Cutter, I’ve got an idea!”, Connor shouted, “If I can open an anomaly right in front of the Diplodocus, then we can get it to walk straight through it!”. Cutter smiled.

“Hurry up with that then Connor!”, Harry shouted from where she was. Connor went to the front of the Diplodocus, trying not to attract its attention just yet. He opened the anomaly. The dinosaur noticed. It was a massive anomaly to the correct time period.

“Go on mate, walk through!”, Connor encouraged it. It walked through. Harry was relieved. She ran and hugged Connor.

“Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!”, she was ecstatic.

As usual, they returned to ARC. After hearing what happened with Helen, Cutter retired to his lab. He found a box of chocolates and a card. He opened the card. It read “To Nick. No-one is safe. H.C”. Cutter knew who it was from. There was knock on the door.

“Come in”, muttered Cutter. It was Claudia.

“I got you this”, she handed him a present.

“You didn’t have to”, he smiled at her.

“I better go”, she shyly said to him. She walked out.

Helen Cutter was hiding in a deserted building. She was mapping out a plan for her experiment. It would commence…tomorrow…

Guest Star:

Ruth Kearney

The ARC was busier than ever. Everyone was rushing around, trying to find the whereabouts of Helen Cutter. She had revealed to the ARC team that she was up to something. The problem was, the team didn’t know exactly what she was doing. They knew she was experimenting with anomalies, and they’d appear everywhere, but they wanted to know what Helen would get out of this, and the reason for doing it. What’s more, they were one man, or woman, down. It was Friday, which was Harry Stafford’s day off. She liked having a day to relax at home.

“Any sightings yet?”, Lester called as he watched down from the balcony outside his office.

“No”, most people shouted.

“Yes!!!!”, Connor ran in through the doors.

“You found something?”, Danny asked him.

“Yup. I checked the local CCTV cameras, and I spotted her entering this building that’s completely deserted. It’s gonna be demolished pretty soon”, Connor explained.

“Right, we need to get down there as soon as possible”, Nick Cutter started getting together a plan of action.

”Nick, Helen’s dangerous. Why are we going?”, Jenny asked.

“Jenny’s right”, Lester butted in from above, “It’s too dangerous for amateurs to go in. Let the professionals go”.

“But we know more about Helen. We’ve dealt with her countless times before. We can sort it out”, Abby argued. Everyone started talking and arguing at Lester at the same time.

“Cutter, could you please call your minions off me?”, Lester moaned. He spoke at normal level, but, amazingly, was heard over the racket the team were making.

“No ifs, no buts”, Lester said. And what Lester says, goes.

The soldiers left. Without them in the ARC, it was quite empty. There were a few researchers dotted around the place, and the team, and that was it. The team were really bored. All they could do was hope for an anomaly to open.

“Hey!”, Jess bounced over from her chair to where the team were gathered, “I could always sneak you out. I’ve got an overview of this whole place on my computer. I can close and open any doors I want to, and I could happen to accidentally allow you to escape”.

“Jess, you’re brilliant!”, Danny smiled.

”I know”, Jess joked. She went back to the Detector, which was her workstation. She brought up a new window, with an overview of the ARC. She clicked on a few doors, meaning they were locked. She turned out the lights. Lester was locked in his office, and couldn’t see anything.

“Go!!”, Jess shouted to the team. They legged it out of the doors. Jess deactivated the CCTV cameras outside of the ARC. The team got into the remaining cars and drove off to Helen’s hideout.

The soldiers, including Captain Mitchell, arrived at Helen’s base. She was prepared. She watched out of the dirty window on the top floor as they left their cars. She had a getaway though. She opened an anomaly and stepped through. She closed it on the other side…

Jess lit up the ARC again and reactivated the CCTV cameras. She then unlocked all doors.

”Jess, what on earth is going on?”, a distressed Lester called down from his office.

”There’s a problem in the system. I’m running a few checks right now”, Jess lied.

“Where are the team?”, Lester asked as he walked onto the balcony and down the ramp.

“I think they’re in one of the labs. Sarah wanted to show them something, I believe”, Jess was a very good liar. Lester seemed to believe it. He walked back up to his office.

Whilst the soldiers were searching the building, the team arrived. They walked into the building and proceeded to the stairs. They each took a floor to search. Cutter had the top floor. He walked in to the only room on that floor, behind a few soldiers. He saw a note stuck to the wall with blu-tac. Cutter picked it up and read it. It said “Disloyal Lend”. He was confused by this. He spoke to the other team members via his earpiece. They all met him up on the top floor. It was a struggle for Jenny, as she was wearing heels.

“But what could that mean?”, Sarah asked, “It seems like some anagram”.

“For what though?”, Claudia added.

“Surely there’s some website where we can type it in and find out what it could be?”, Mia suggested.

Harry was getting herself ready. She was going clubbing for the night with her friends. She hadn’t been clubbing for a year or two, so it was going to be fun for her.

Helen was in another time. It was the future. She saw the ruined buildings, rusty cars and cliff edges that she was now very familiar with. She walked over to the entrance of the future ARC. She edged open the door just enough for her to squeeze through, then pushed it back again. She walked over to the futuristic computer. Then she started tapping in data…

Connor and Sarah drove back to the ARC. They ran through the corridor and into the Main Operations Room. Lester saw them, but took no notice. He still thought they were in another lab.

“Jess, could you bring up an internet browser please?”, Connor asked her, panting.

“Sure. Why?”, Jess did so.

“Open Google and search for anagram creator”, Sarah commanded. Jess followed the orders.

“Now type in Disloyal Lend”, Connor finished. Jess did so, and loads of possibilities came up. After scrolling down, one of them stuck out like a sore thumb. They raced back to the building, after thanking Jess. Good thing it was only a 5 minute drive away.

Helen walked over to the corner of the room she was situated in the future ARC.

“Have you missed me?”, she smirked to the young boy, sitting there, tied up…

Connor and Sarah arrived back. They raced up the stairs, taking a quick break for Sarah to use her asthma inhaler, to the top floor where the rest of the team were.

“Helen’s in the future”, Connor blurted out as he burst through the doors.

“How do you know?”, Mia asked.

Harry was partying with her friends, dancing to her favourite song.

Helen walked back to the computer, and slotted in an Anomaly Opener. She pressed the screen several times, and typed in the code that was present on the side of the Artefact. She pressed more buttons on the screen, and anomalies started appearing everywhere.

Harry’s party was disturbed. Anomalies were appearing at her party aswell.

“Oh no”, she muttered to herself. A Raptor ran out one of them. Harry ran outside…

Back in the Future with Helen, her “friend” moved himself through an anomaly. It was one to the present day…

Anomalies were opening by the team aswell. And one of them, a young man, around 18 years old, jumped out. He was tied up.

“…It translates as Lloyd Daniels”, Connor finished his sentence, shellshocked. The young man was indeed Lloyd, who was once thought lost. The team didn’t know whether to be shocked or happy, or both…

Guest Star:

Ruth Kearney

She ran as fast as she could. She knew something was following her. Harriet “Harry” Stafford, however scared she was, had met these creatures before, for she works at the Anomaly Research Centre, or ARC for short. Dealing with prehistoric creatures was in the job description. She’d also dealt with this creature before. It was a Deinonychus, also known as a Raptor. They were vicious, vile creatures. Harry kept running. She felt scared. She kept looking behind. She wasn’t sure where she was running. It was a dark Friday evening, and everyone was at home. Harry was running through the town centre as fast as she could. She tried not to get distracted by the clothes on display in the window of M&S. She was a girl, after all. Harry had dark skin to go with her long and wavy brown hair. She was wearing black mainly. She was running bare feet through the town. It was her night off and she was at a party. An anomaly opened, and the Raptor stumbled through. Several people were killed, not believing it was real. After all, would you really believe it was a genuine prehistoric creature, even after seeing it with your own eyes? Harry didn’t at first. Infact, the first creature she met was a future creature. As she was running, she tried to remember it.

*******

She was running, much like she was now. It was like a dog, but with three heads. She’d never heard of anything like it. She studied Egyptology, but her friend, Sarah Page, dropped out suddenly. Harry always wondered why. But she tripped, and the creature towered over her. The next thing she knew, a ginger haired woman was looking over her. Jenny Lewis came to her rescue. And she saw her friend Sarah. She went to hospital, and recovered. She joined the team. But she was working undercover for Nick Cutter’s, the joint team leader, estranged wife, Helen. Helen had travelled through the anomalies for eight years and Cutter never knew where she went, until one day he stumbled across an anomaly, and found out that was where Helen went. Helen, however, was different. Her view on humanity was completely different. She’d tried to wipe out humanity several times before she met Harry. She was bribed by money Helen found. Eventually, Harry gave in to Helen, but got shot as a result. Harry survived another attack, and stayed on with the team, having made some great friends.

*******

BANG! Harry tripped over a rock.

“Déjà vu?”, she said to herself. She knew what was about to happen. She was saying things to herself.

“Please, please, please, please”

She remembered when recently the ARC team had to help the other ARC in Lincoln. The faultlines between times collapsed. Creatures poured through, but also their team leader, Katie Smith (Claudia Brown’s sister), who had been stuck in the past. Eventually, they teamed up despite being stuck down in London (but Claudia, Jenny and Lloyd Daniels were visiting Lincoln at the time). The teams sent an electric current through two anomalies, and everything went back into place. However, Katie also started to fade back into her era. The new leader, Louise Hill, decided to swap with Katie, as she always felt like an outsider. Louise went back to the past and Katie returned. The team up there decided to open an anomaly and rescue Louise aswell, but they only saw her body in the sand, with blood. The Raptor had killed her. And Harry was afraid that was going to happen to her aswell. She screamed and held her hand up to her face…

Guest Star:

Ruth Kearney

Harry Stafford was shielding herself from the ferocious Raptor leaning over her, when she heard a BANG! It was Lloyd. Harry gathered herself together, breathing hardly. Lloyd helped her up. 

“Thanks. But…”, Harry stuttered, pointing at Lloyd.

“I know. Long story”, Lloyd smiled. They hugged. The rest of the team were also there, smiling. But anomalies around there starting opening up.

“What’s happening?”, Harry asked.

“You know no more than we do”, Jenny replied.

Helen was smiling. Her plan was coming together. She wanted chaos from the present day onwards. And this was a fine way to get it.

The team went back to the deserted building. 

“Wait, how did you know where I was?”, Harry asked on the way.

“You told me yesterday. I thought we’d better come and get you”, Claudia explained.

“Looks like we got there just in time aswell”, Mia smiled.

“Lloyd, which anomaly did you come through?”, Cutter questioned, changing the subject.

Lloyd looked around. He pointed to one in the corner. The team looked at each other. They all walked through that anomaly. They were in the future ARC.

“They’ve been in that lab an awfully long time”, Lester said to Jess.

“I…err…think they’re planning something”, Jess carried on the lie.

“Jess, you know you’re a really bad liar”, Lester had sussed Jess.

“OK, they went to find Helen”, Jess revealed all. All of a sudden, anomalies appeared within the ARC. And the Detector wasn’t registering them.

“What’s going on?”, Jess was completely puzzled.

The team were being as quiet as mice. They crept up to the computer in the future ARC. Helen was there. Danny signalled that he would sneak up on her and hit her over the head. While he was doing so, Helen turned around and tasered him. Danny fell to the floor.

“Come out everyone. I know you’re all hiding”, Helen smirked. The whole team walked out of the shadows, albeit reluctantly.

“Now, drop your weapons”, Helen commanded. No-one moved, “DO IT! Remember, I’m not afraid to use this”. She took a gun out of her pocket. The team dropped their guns and took out their earpieces, but they weren’t much use in the future anyway.

“Excellent. Now, I suppose you’re wondering why I’m doing this”, Helen continued.

“No Helen, we came here to wish you happy experimenting with anomalies”, Claudia sarcastically shouted at Helen.

“Still as feisty as ever”, Helen remarked.

“But why are you doing this?”, Harry asked.

“No reason. I just want to have some fun”, Helen told her.

“That was sarcastic, right?”, Harry didn’t believe it. She felt a little like an idiot, as it was probably something obvious. But Helen just walked around to the computer again.

“OK, I guess not”, Harry now knew she was serious. A Raptor stumbled through one of the anomalies in the room. Helen shot it and it fell to the floor.

“This could be catastrophic”, Connor warned Helen.

“I know”, Helen replied. A Future Predator jumped down from the ceiling. Helen got distracted from it and the team ran back through the anomaly.

“We need to get back to the ARC”, Danny suggested.

“Where have you been?”, Lester asked as they entered the Main Operations Room in the ARC.

“Look, Lester, there’s no time”, Cutter argued.

“We need to quickly devise a plan”, Mia continued.

“I suppose me having a go at you can wait till later”, Lester sarcastically replied. The team ran into Cutter’s lab and started getting to work on a plan. There was a knock on the door.

“Hey. Could I come and help?”, it was Jess.

“Sure”, smiled Cutter.

“Wait…Lloyd!”, Jess was shocked.

“Yes, hi”, Lloyd smiled.

“Sorry, get a little excited with him. You know, with Lloyd being Lloyd and all. You know, I really loved Lloyd on…”, Jess was over-excited, and was cut-off.

“Enough of that, we need to stop Helen, and fast. Because otherwise, this could be the end of the world”, Danny’s last sentence did not leave the team on a happy note.

After half an hour of mapping out a plan, the team returned to the building and went back through the anomaly. The future ARC was deserted. Helen was not in sight. Connor, Sarah and Cutter, being the braniacs, went to the computer and tried to reverse the damage Helen had done.

“You think I’m stupid?”, Helen said as she walked out of the shadows, “On your knees”. The trio got down on their knees. This time, Helen did not notice the rest of the team hiding.

“So, you thought you’d be able to defeat me this time? I don’t think so”, Helen said, pointing a gun to them.

“Helen, just grow up”, Cutter shouted.

“Nick, you know me. It would take a lot more than words to shut me up”.

Connor had a brainstorm. He saw Helen’s anomaly opener. It had a new button on it, one he’d not seen before on his. It seemed to signify something expanding. Then he remembered when the anomaly re-opened in Oxford Street. The anomaly sent out a blast and sucked everything from that era in. Maybe this button was something to do with that? He signalled to Abby and Mia to get them to create a distraction. They ran out of the dark.

“Hey Helen!”, Mia shouted, waving. Connor jumped up, stole the anomaly detector, set a few co-ordinates and opened an anomaly.

“If I open this anomaly to the spaghetti junction, I can get it to suck in all anomalies, as any anomaly could belong there”, Connor thought. He pressed the expand button. The anomaly sent a blue, electric blast. It covered the whole of the future world. All anomalies in the future ARC slowly faded away, as they were being sucked into the spaghetti junction anomaly. Connor then closed that anomaly, and opened one to the present day. He took Helen’s upgraded Anomaly Opener with him. The whole team stepped through.

“Wait!”, Helen screamed.

“No chance”, Harry smirked. Harry saw this as revenge for what Helen got her into 2 years ago. She stepped through the anomaly and Connor closed it. Helen was stranded in the future, with no Anomaly Opener.

The team arrived back at the deserted building. Connor did the same routine. Before long, all anomalies, all over the world, and any creatures that may have caused havoc, were gone. The world was safe. And everything was back to normal. They returned to the ARC.

“So, all wrapped up?”, Lester asked.

”Done and dusted”, Danny smiled.

“Right, now I can speak with you lot and Jess about earlier”, Lester decided.

“Err, we’ve got a lot of paperwork to do”, Connor lied for the whole team.

“Oh do be serious. But I’ll let you off this once”, Lester showed his kind side, which the team weren’t used to seeing.

Everyone was sat in Cutter’s lab. Lloyd was explaining about his experiences.

“…And that’s how I got back. But one more thing - I’ve handed in my resignation to Lester. I’m leaving”, Lloyd announced.

“What?”, Abby, along with the rest of the team, was shocked.

“It’s too dangerous. And spending that time in the future was too much for me”, Lloyd explained. The team accepted it. Lloyd went to pack his things, and the team said their goodbyes.

“Remember, I’m always here if you need me”, Lloyd said to them. He took one last look at the ARC, and proceeded to the corridor. He was waved off by the team.

Abby, Connor and Mia walked into the brand new ARC. The Minister had heard good things about the team from James Lester, and decided to move them into a new building, with much better resources. The Main Operations Area was smaller, but was still able to fit all the workbenches, aswell as a brand new Detector. Connor ran straight over to it.

“Wow!”, he was amazed at what his creation had been modified to.

“Hi!”, a voice said from next to him. It was Jess Parker. She now had a red, swivelling chair with a retractable arm rest. She was well impressed.

“Connor!”, came a voice from behind. The team were slowly starting to arrive. This voice was Cutter, the team founder and joint leader.

“This place is amazing!”, Connor told Cutter.

“Yes, and you have your own lab”, Cutter revealed.

“What?!”, Connor was shocked. His day was getting better and better.

“Oh great, now I’m not gonna get to see him at all. He’s just gonna be in there all day”, Mia joked.

“Harhar, just cause you haven’t got a lab”, Connor teased.

“No, but she has a work desk over there”, Cutter told them. Mia grinned at Connor. Then they both burst out laughing.

Jenny Lewis knocked on James Lester’s office door. It was literally down some steps from where the Main Operations Room was, so Lester could easily see what was happening. His office had glass walls, so he could see out.

“Come in”, Lester said. Jenny opened the door and entered.

“You wanted to see me?”, Jenny asked.

“Ah yes, take a seat”, Lester offered. Jenny sat down. Lester continued, “I arranged for you to have your own office. Just ask Jess to show you to it”.

“There must be some mistake, why would I need an office?”, Jenny asked.

“You’re important to the team. Without you, how would we keep this away from the press? The Minister would have my head if it got printed in a newspaper”, Lester joked. Jenny did not laugh.

“Who else has an office?”, Jenny enquired.

“You, Cutter and I. Connor and Sarah both have labs, and Mia, Abby and Harry have been given desks in the Main Operations Room”

“What about Claudia?”

“She shares this office with me. That’s what the desk over there is for”, Lester pointed.

“Why does she share it?”

“She works alongside me with the day-to-day anomaly operations”

“So basically, everyone has somewhere to work here?”

“Yes. OK, thank you Jenny. You may leave now”, Lester finished the meeting, and Jenny left. She walked down the steps and to the end of the Main Operations Room to see Jess.

“Hi Jess, could you…”, Jenny was cut off.

“Could I show you where your office is?”, Jess predicted.

“Yes”, Jenny continued.

“Right this way. Harry, could you watch the Detector please?”, Jess asked, shouting to Harry, who was sitting at her desk.

“Sure”, Harry shouted back.

As Jess chauffeured Jenny to her office, Harry walked to the Detector and plonked herself in Jess’ comfy chair.

DING DING! DING DING! DING DING!

”What?!”, Harry didn’t have the slightest idea of what to do. She spoke into the tannoy, “Guys, we’ve got an anomaly. Err, don’t ask me where. Wait, it says it’s at the local library”. Jess ran back.

“Sorry about that!”, Jess smiled. Harry got up, picked up her bag and a black box from Jess, and followed the rest of the team out. They loaded themselves into the cars, and drove out of the building.

The library was, of course, silent. The only noise you could hear were footsteps and the turning of pages in books. Down an isle, an anomaly opened. Everyone nearby heard it open. It was hard not to, to be honest. They all decided to take a snoop round there. They were shocked to see a bright light with shards of glass floating around it. But what frightened them even more was the growling sound that came from inside it. They all decided to abandon their books and run for their lives as vicious dog-like creatures jumped out…

Three cars pulled up outside the library. It was the team, and they were greeted by a crowd of people, terrified. Three people were locking the doors.

Jenny picked up the megaphone that she keeps in the car. She turned it on.

“Right everyone, please listen up!”, she shouted into it. Everyone slowly hushed down, “I know this is a difficult situation, but the team and myself are going to deal with it as promptly as possible”.

“What were those things?”, someone shouted from the crowd.

“Just forget about the things”, Jenny answered. She signalled for Mitchell to speak to them about what they can and can’t say to people.

Cutter and Danny went into the library first. They had their tranquillisers ready. Connor, Abby and Mia followed, with Sarah, Harry, Claudia and Jenny bringing up the rear. Sarah was stopped by a woman from the crowd.

“My son’s still in there!”, she cried.

“Calm down, what’s yours and your son’s names? And how old is he?”, Sarah kept calm.

“I’m Amanda, and my son is called Matthew. He’s only eight years old”, Amanda explained.

“Don’t worry, we’ll see to it”, Sarah reassured her with a smile. She ran to catch up with the team. She told Cutter about Amanda’s situation.

“Right, we’ll need to split up”, Cutter decided, “I’ll take Sarah, Harry and Claudia to look for Matthew. Danny, you take the others and look for the creature and the anomaly”. Danny nodded. They parted ways.

Danny’s team were reading off their Handheld Detectors. Connor was leading the way, followed by Danny, then Abby and Mia, with Jenny at the back. Well, she thought she was at the back. Infact, something was stalking the team. Jenny felt something breathing on her legs as she stopped sort out her hair quickly. She turned round and screamed. She did not have a gun. Jenny got knocked to the floor by the creature. Danny ran back and shot it. It fell to the floor, unconscious.

“That’s from the future. The same era as the Predators”, Abby remembered.

”The one’s that terrorised Oxford Street?”, Connor asked.

“Yeah, that’s right”, Mia continued.

“Right, let’s get to this anomaly and lock it as soon as possible”, Danny decided, “Let’s go”.

Cutter and his part of the team were exploring the other side of the library. They heard a young boy calling out for his mummy.

“Matthew!”, Claudia mentioned. They ran to where the noise was coming from, and saw a young boy scrunched up in the corner as a dog-like creature was making its way towards him. Cutter shot the creature, and went and picked up Matthew.

“It’s OK. My name’s Nick. Now then Matthew, I’m going to take you back to your mummy”, Cutter spoke to Matthew, and then to Sarah, “Can you show us his mum?”. Sarah nodded.

Danny and co. reached the anomaly. Connor called Mitchell, who then sent some soldiers in with the Anomaly Locker. They reached the team quickly and set up the Locking Mechanism.

“Right, Mitchell’s searching the place right now for anymore creatures, and it looks like our work here is done”, Claudia told the team.

“Nice work everyone”, Cutter congratulated. As they were walking back towards the cars, Amanda ran over, holding Matthew’s hand.

“Excuse me! I just wanted to say thank you, to both of you”, Amanda spoke to Cutter and Sarah, “And I bought you both something quick”. Sarah received some flowers, which she described as lovely, and Cutter got a box of chocolates. Both tried to say no to them, but Amanda insisted that they kept them. Matthew said thanks, and they went home. The team continued walking to the cars.

All’s well that end’s well”, Lester summed up, speaking to Claudia in their office.

”Indeed”, Claudia commented.

”Let’s just hope Mitchell’s made those people keep quiet”, Lester hoped.

“Mitchell’s normally good with that, and I trust him”, Claudia noted.

Jess entered.

“Jess, what have I told you about knocking? It still applies here in this new ARC”, Lester moaned.

“Sorry, but I couldn’t help notice a headline on Google. It was to do with the anomaly today at the library…”, Jess broke the news. Claudia dropped her pile of paper that she was holding, and she exchanged looks with Lester. Neither looked happy about the situation.