MJF's Stories

It was a brand new day, and the start of a brand new job for Harry Simpson. He was just starting work in the local offices, only as a receptionist mind, but it was still a move up the employment ladder from working at Tesco for two years. Harry was in his early twenties, and he was extremely bright - all his GCSE results were A-A* grade - yet the only available job was at Tesco when he finished school. His colleague greeted him when he arrived at the desk. They job-shared, but they both worked there at some points of the day. He still had a few minutes until his shift, so he went to the toilet. He looked in the mirror whilst there, and sorted out his wavy brown hair, making himself look presentable. But then he noticed something, in the corner of his eye, glittering in the light, and then something pounced. And it all went black…

Ding! Georgia Stevens picked up her Blackberry, which had received a new text message. “1 NEW MESSAGE - Katie Smith” the text read. Georgia opened up the text to see that there was a new anomaly.

“Alex! Alex!”, Georgia called out. Alex had asked Georgia to move in with him, as they were now in a relationship. No reply came, and Georgia heard nothing to suggest Alex was moving, so she sighed before running up the stairs. She shook him violently, calling his name really loud.

“WHAT?”, Alex shouted, pulling away the duvet to reveal all his hair messed up. It hadn’t been cut in a long time, but neither of them seemed to mind.

“Anomaly alert, quick!”, Georgia briefly explained. Alex rushed out of bed to get some clothes on whilst Georgia went to wait in the car.

Katie was with Mike Andrews, Jimmy Turner, Sasha West and Lucie Campbell in the Lincoln ARC. They were quickly packing up the Anomaly Locker, ready to transport it to the new anomaly location - the nearest office block.

“Lucie, you’re gonna have your work cut out - everyone’s arriving for work at around this time”, Katie explained.

”Yup, I know. We need to sort this one out quickly”, Lucie replied.

The team arrived at the scene very quickly - it was only five minutes away, and really, it could’ve been walked. But an anomaly is an emergency and the quicker the team arrive, the better. Mike and Jimmy helped bring in the Locker equipment, with the girls walking straight inside. They were greeted by the lady at reception, and Katie and Sasha let Lucie “strut her stuff”. The receptionist cleared it, and set off the fire alarm so everyone could go off.

“The anomaly’s this way”, Sasha led the way, up the stairs, as the lift may not be safe. The toilets were only on the above floor.

Georgia and Alex used their handheld detectors to guide them to the anomaly, and they met Katie and the others in the toilets. Sasha was on the floor, helping a man who had blood all over him. He was unconscious, not dead, thankfully. He spluttered, before opening his eyes, slowly.

“Mike, you take Jimmy and Alex and help find the creature. Sasha and Lucie, call an ambulance and then make sure everyone’s evacuated. Georgia and I will help this guy”, Katie ordered. The team scattered away, leaving Katie to talk to the man, with Georgia watching.

“What’s your name?”, Katie asked him.

“Harry Simpson. It’s only my first day here”, Harry spoke as if he was in real pain, and the visuals were there to support that.

“Don’t worry Harry, you’re going to be OK, the ambulance is coming. Oh, and I’m Katie, and this is…”

“Georgia, yeah, I caught her name”, Harry smiled.

“What did this to you?”, Georgia asked.

“I didn’t see, it all happened so quick. I don’t remember a thing”

“Everybody, can we move right away from the building, thank you”, Lucie shouted through a megaphone that had been given to her by the receptionist.

“Who even are you?”, one of the office workers asked.

“There’s a time and a place for that”, Lucie replied.

“Right, the ambulance is on its way, shouldn’t take long”, Sasha informed Lucie.

“Cool, thank you. Hope he’s going to be OK. I wonder what type of creature did that to him?”

And at that precise moment, a lizard-type dinosaur was prowling the corridors.

“Did you hear that?”, a male voice said.

“Yes, this way!”, another voice replied. The dinosaur heard the voices and ran into the nearby room. Mike, Jimmy and Alex came around the corner, having just missed the creature. They slowly moved up the corridor, priming their tranquillisers. Alex was pretty scared of the creatures after almost getting killed by them in the Cretaceous era. He realised how dangerous this job is. Mike and Jimmy were alpha-male, and they were happy enough to go ahead and face the creatures. Alex wanted to be more like them, for Georgia at least. She needed someone who would look after her, not hide behind her.

The ambulance arrived outside, and Sasha brought them in.

“What’s his name?”, the ambulance man asked her.

“I’ve no idea, two of my colleagues are there with him though”, Sasha replied. They walked into the room and as they were talking to Harry, Katie and the girls waved and walked out.

”Katie!”, Harry called. Katie popped her head round the window, her long ginger hair dangling down.

“Will you come with me? To the hospital”, Harry asked. Katie laughed, and looked at the girls - they nodded, signalling that she can go with him, before running off to find the boys.

Jimmy slowly opened a door, pushing down on the handle and nudging the door open. He slowly peaked in to check the coast was clear, before quietly shutting the door again. Mike did the same, whereas Alex just “kept guard” as he put it in the corridor. Jimmy opened the next door, but it got stuck. He heard a sound, one that could never be made by a human being. He peeked around the door and was greeted by a dinosaur.

“Oh”, he said, before legging it. He shouted to Alex and Mike to run, and they quickly followed him. The creature ran out into the corridor and looked on them.

“Jimmy, what’s up?!”, Sasha asked as she and Georgia came from the opposite end of the corridor. She sighed as the creature looked at them, and they then both ran aswell. The creature followed the girls. It was slightly taller than the average human was, so managed to still fit in the corridors easily.

The boys ran outside, and met Lucie.

“I heard Sasha’s voice, and Georgia’s scream. Trust me, I know her scream, I need to go back for them”, Alex was determined to be a hero.

“Katie’s gone with Harry to the hospital, just so you know”, Lucie explained.

“Harry? Oh, he’s the injured guy”, Mike clarified to himself.

“You can’t go back Alex, they know what to do, they’ll be safe anyway”, Jimmy tried to reassure the young lad.

“I can’t risk it! I won’t be able to forgive myself if anything happens to them. That creature was an Alectrosaurus, it’s carnivorous and from the Cretaceous era”, Alex explained, before running in. The others called after him, but they couldn’t stop him.

Meanwhile, at the hospital, Katie had been told that Harry was going to be fine, he just needed some rest and a couple of stitches here and there. She went in to see him.

”Thank you”, Harry said to her.

”What for?”

“For saving my life. Lord knows what would’ve happened if you didn’t arrive when you did”

“It’s no problem. It’s my job really”

“What exactly were those things? The light I saw”

“What light? You never mentioned a light to me”

“Oh, I’ve only just remembered it. It wasn’t there when you came, so I wasn’t sure it was really there anyway…”

Alex ran all the way back up to the corridor where he heard the girls. He ran straight down it, and then he had two options - go back downstairs through another staircase, or carry on by turning left. He chose to carry on, and sure enough, he heard Georgia’s scream again. He ran as fast as he could, checking all the rooms in search of his girlfriend and her friend. He was eventually greeted by the Alectrosaurus, with Sasha and Georgia in the corner, huddled together. Alex ran to them, but the Alectrosaurus knocked him back, making him drop his gun. Georgia ran forward, picked up the gun and tranquillised the creature, just as it was leaning over Alex. He breathed a sigh of relief, as the girls helped him up. He have Georgia a massive hug.

They all went outside, to great the others. The clean-up was to be left to the soldiers, so the team went back to the ARC, without Katie, still.

Katie was still sitting with Harry. They had developed a real fondness for each other.

“Hey, I need to go now, I don’t want my boss having a go at me”, Katie laughed.

”Thanks for everything, honestly. Wait, can I have your number? I’d love to stay in touch”. Katie blushed - her face turned almost the same colour as her hair. She gave him a kiss on his head and then ran outside, waving through the window.

Later that evening, Katie was sitting in her office. She knew she felt something special with Harry, and she thought that it was worth missing all the action for. At least she knows that the team can cope without her if necessary, she thought. But she also knew she was making things up to cover for herself - she was in love, for real this time. She didn’t want a divorce again, she wanted this to be the start of something new.