fredbassett | Fic, Death and the Maiden, Part 7, Claudia, Team, 15

Title : Death and the Maiden, Part 7
Author : fredbassett
Fandom : Primeval
Rating : 15
Characters : Claudia/Nick, Stephen/Ryan, Lester, OCs
Disclaimer : Not mine (except the OCs), no money made, don’t sue.
Spoilers : None
Word Count : 21,221, divided into in 8 parts.
Summary : Dinosaurs are not the only things to come through the anomalies.
A/N : This series is early in my main ‘verse, not long after the events of The Devil’s Crowll. It arose nearly three years ago out of a chat with

steamshovelmama. I owe an absolutely huge debt of gratitude to

aelfgyfu_mead as her assistance with Middle English made this story possible. I am also grateful to

talliw for information on clothing and shoes. And as ever, thanks are due to

lukadreaming for her beta help.

Claudia watched Stephen and the soldier slip away into the trees. A low growl of thunder signalled that the storm was gathering intensity and a moment later, a flash of lightning lit the sky.

She shivered and pulled her coat around her before making a quick dash across the car park. There was no point in staying at the hospital. The search for the missing man was in Stephen’s hands now. She turned the key in the ignition and immediately activated the windscreen wipers. The road outside the hospital was already awash with water, although fortunately most people seemed to be staying inside out of the rain, which she hoped would make the soldiers’ job easier. The last thing they needed was civilians out and about in the middle of an anomaly-infested countryside.

With the headlights on, Claudia made her way slowly back in the direction of the hotel. A jagged flash ripped through the trees, lighting up the road in front of her. A dark shape moved inside the forest to her left then swerved without warning across the road. She half-expected to see some sort of dinosaur, but instead, caught in the beam of her lights, was one of the wild boars that roamed at large through the area. Instinctively, Claudia stamped on the brakes, knowing instantly that she’d just done exactly the wrong thing. Her wheels started to skid. She lifted her foot off the brake, steering into the skid, not against it, following the teaching she’d been given a few years before on a defensive driving course. For a moment, she thought she was going to succeed in bringing the car under control, then her wheels hit a deeper patch of water and the brief flare of hope died.

The car drifted sideways, narrowly missing a tree. The wheels bounced off the road and slipped down into a ditch, flinging Claudia forward. The seatbelt held her in place and she tensed, anticipating the moment of impact. A moment later the airbag inflated, cushioning her, but inducing a sickening feeling of suffocation as she fought with her hands to keep it clear of her face. The car came to an abrupt halt with a loud bang. She jerked in the restraining straps, feeling like a puppet whose strings had been violently yanked…

* * * * *

Stephen bent down, examined a print in the red mud of the forest floor then motioned to Dane to keep behind him as he moved off again. The temptation to break into a run whilst following the trail was almost overwhelming, but he knew that if he did he risked missing any clues left behind by the fugitive. The escaped man’s bare feet hadn’t left much of an impression behind them and, away from any of the tracks that criss-crossed the area, picking out footprints on a bed of wet leaves and twigs was by no means easy.

They were beyond the hospital grounds now, heading away from the village but still in an area popular with dog-owners and other walkers. The light was fading fast and the heavy canopy of trees made matters worse. Stephen was using the torch mounted on his borrowed M4 rifle. With numerous anomalies breaking out all over the forest and a kill order in force he’d judged the assault rifle to be a better choice of weapon rather than his more customary tranquilliser gun. The memories of his encounter with the gorgonopsid not far from there were still fresh in his mind and he was taking no chances.

Dane stayed a few paces behind him, silent and watchful. Stephen knew the soldier was furious with himself for letting the prisoner escape, but he’d had a difficult call to make. The real problem had been caused by the fact that they’d been spread too thinly by the search for the correct anomaly and the need to contain the men who had strayed through it.

A low crackle of static in his radio earpiece signalled to Stephen that the amount of anomaly activity in the forest would make communications difficult, especially as mobile phone reception in the area was, at best, patchy, and at worst, hopeless. Concentrating on the task at hand, he made progress as quickly as he could, checking for prints and other signs of the man having passed by. Stephen tried to put himself in his quarry’s place and imagine how he would react in the same situation. The man was a stranger in a very strange land, surrounded by sights, sounds and even smells that would be wholly unfamiliar to him. Would he head into the deepest part of the forest and simply hole up or would he actively look for a way back to his own time, even supposing the man had any idea at all of what had happened to him?

Stephen shook his head, ignoring Dane’s murmured question when the soldier saw his gesture. Trying to second-guess the fugitive’s actions would get him nowhere. He’d just have to do his job and rely, as ever, on hard evidence. It wasn’t the time to start giving in to hunches. That was more Cutter’s style than his and it was why they worked so well together. Stephen tended to rein in Cutter’s wilder flights of fancy whilst remaining fully conscious of the fact that Cutter often supplied an intuitive grasp of events that sometimes defied more pedestrian thought processes. For now he’d just have to rely on his own judgment.

The sound of a car engine told Stephen that they weren’t far from the road. The car sounded like it was travelling slowly, the driver mindful of the difficult conditions. They were in an area of mixed woodland, with oak and ash vying for space with silver birch, interspersed with some large beeches. The rain was coming down heavily now, forcing itself between the leaves of the trees and soaking through his jacket.

A small clearing opened up in front of them and Stephen was able to easily spot the route the man had taken. Nodding in satisfaction to Dane, he picked up the pace. The ever-present static buzz in his ear was distracting, but they needed to keep comm lines open. Stephen fiddled with the control, turning the volume down, leaving it just loud enough to register if a recognisable communication came through.

A rustle in the undergrowth attracted both men’s attention. With smooth movements born of training and practise, their rifles were brought to bear on the source of the noise. Emerald fire flashed from two small eyes, reflecting the torchlight. Stephen’s heart rate leaped for a moment and then settled back down as he recognised the dark bulk of one of the wild boars that provided such a convenient excuse for so many of the strange sightings in the forest.

“Bet that’d taste good with apple sauce,” Dane commented.

Stephen grinned. “They’re good in sausages, too.”

The boar regarded them without fear. The original animals had escaped from farms breeding them for meat and had taken to life in the wild with enthusiasm. They were now breeding so rapidly in the area that there was talk of a cull being needed. The wide nostrils snuffled wetly then the boar turned and walked away from them, seemingly unconcerned by the encounter. As they moved on, Stephen wondered what the likelihood was of one of the animals ending up on the other side of an anomaly, given the frequency with which they seemed to occur in the area. That was the sort of glitch in the fossil record they could really do without.

After fewer than 50 metres, Stephen sucked in a sharp breath and muttered, “Bugger…”

Some distance away to their right, a flickering light twisted and turned in the air on the edge of a patch of dense brambles. This was exactly what they didn’t need. Dane cursed quietly. The comms were still down and they had no means of calling for back-up, even if anyone was free to respond. More in hope than expectation, Stephen pulled his mobile phone out of a pocket and checked the signal. One bar wavered tantalisingly on the screen then blinked out.

If they delayed too long their quarry would lengthen his lead, but if they didn’t check this one out they could be throwing away an opportunity to get the men at the Mitchells’ hotel back to their own time. Something the size of a small pig made Stephen’s mind up for him by hurtling out of the anomaly and running head-first into the bramble patch. A sharp squeal signalled its displeasure.

By the time Stephen and Dane reached it, the creature had managed to become thoroughly entangled and had started to shriek shrilly. Dane grinned and pulled a long combat knife out of a leg-sheath. Stephen knew the soldier well enough to be certain he meant the animal no harm and in a matter of minutes he’d hacked away enough of the undergrowth for Stephen to reach its back legs and start to haul. With each hand full of a stubby, three-toed foot, he wasn’t able to do much to help Dane, but it didn’t take long to free the little beast and soon an elongated head with a wide neck frill emerged. The pronounced beak-like nose gave it the sort of looks that only its mother could love and it was still squealing like a stuck pig, but apart from a few scratches, Stephen was certain the creature was suffering more from fright than anything else. If he had to put money on it, he would say he had an armful of young protoceratops.

“Oh shit, it’s closing!” Dane’s words sent a sharp flare of adrenaline through Stephen’s system. Without even pausing for thought, Stephen took three rapid steps towards the flickering – and very obviously fading – anomaly and pitched the squealing creature through it, hoping there was a soft landing on the other side.

A second later, the anomaly snapped closed.

* * * * *

Claudia sucked a ragged breath into her lungs and felt a sharp pain in her chest. She’d been in a car crash once before, in her teens, and recognised the sick feeling of disorientation that always followed the moment of impact. She also recognised the pain of cracked – or maybe even broken – ribs. Claudia fumbled with her left hand for the button to press to release her seatbelt, while with her other hand she pushed away the airbag and groped for the door handle.

Nausea threatened to overwhelm her as she slumped sideways out of the car on to wet leaves. Claudia could smell diesel and knew the fuel tank must have been ruptured in the crash. She had no idea how serious the risk of an explosion was in the circumstances, but she had no intention of finding out the hard way. Her legs felt like jelly as she stumbled away from the car, making a grab at a nearby tree to help her stay upright.

Her chest was heaving and each laboured breath set off another spike of pain, but she didn’t think it was hurting badly enough for her to have punctured a lung. Coughing, although excruciating, wasn’t bringing up any blood. Once Claudia was far enough away from the car to deem herself safe if it exploded, she allowed herself the luxury of a rest, leaning back against the bole of a gnarled oak tree. The teeming rain had flattened her hair to her head and soaked through her thin jacket, and Claudia was already starting to shiver, probably more through shock that cold.

Her hand trembled as she reached into her pocket for her mobile phone. To her surprise, it had withstood the crash, but lack of a signal promptly dashed any hopes she had entertained of calling for help. Claudia stared around, trying to orient herself in the wood. She needed to make her way back to the road to try to flag down a passing motorist. Her first two steps were wobbly and she had to struggle to stay upright, but the sound of a passing car helped to calm her panic and provided some much-needed direction. She knew she was just shaken, not badly injured. All she had to do was reach the road…

A hard blow between her shoulder blades knocked Claudia to the ground, expelling the air from her lungs and sending searing pain through her chest. A cry of pain was ripped from her lips and Claudia felt her senses slipping again as she fought to retain consciousness. Two rough hands closed around her throat and for a moment Claudia thought she was being strangled, but then the silk scarf she was wearing was ripped off and used to bind her hands behind her back.

The man growled something under his breath that she didn’t quite catch but Claudia didn’t need the help of the Middle English Compendium to tell her that her attacker had just ordered her to be quiet. She was hauled roughly to her feet and pushed against a tree trunk. Her attacker was dressed in a loose-fitting pair of tracksuit trousers and a thin green hospital gown. His feet were bare and covered in red mud. Claudia recognised her assailant from earlier that day and she could see the outline of a bandage on his upper arm: the legacy of Blade’s accuracy with a knife.

The next word was equally clear. Claudia was being ordered to move. The man pushed her in front of him, away from the relative safety of the road and deeper into the forest. As far as Claudia could tell, her attacker was unarmed and without stopping to consider the consequences, she sucked a deep breath into her lungs and yelled as loudly as she could, ignoring the pain in her chest. Her hope was that Stephen and Dane might be close enough to hear her voice.

The man’s fist lashed out and caught her on the cheek, sending her backwards onto the wet leaves. Tears of pain sprang out of her eyes. Claudia tensed, half-expecting to be kicked as well, but all the man did was curse violently in his own language and haul her upright, pushing her in front of him again. Claudia stumbled though the trees, trying to stay calm. She’d spent enough time around soldiers to know that her situation was by no means hopeless. She clung to the thought that an opportunity would present itself at some point. This time, the man was unarmed and rape didn’t seem to be his primary intent in this encounter.

* * * * *

“Stephen, stop!” Dane’s voice was low and urgent. “I thought I heard something.”

Stephen turned back, tilting his head to listen. The only sound he could hear was the wind in the trees.

Dane ran a hand through his wet, black curls, a look of frustration on his face. “I thought I heard something,” he repeated.

“What did it sound like?” Stephen asked.

“A woman’s scream,” Dane said hesitantly, as though he expected to be disbelieved. “But I couldn’t swear to the direction.”

Stephen let out a long, slow breath. If they were to stand any chance of catching up with their quarry they couldn’t afford another distraction. Mentally cursing their lack of effective communications yet again, he took a decision he hoped he wouldn’t live to regret. Although the fugitive they were tracking wasn’t the only likely cause for someone to be screaming in the woods at night, he had to be pretty high up on the list of suspects and the quickest way to find him would be by following the trail they were already on, rather than haring off at random in a different direction.

Stephen pointed at the barely-visible trail on the wet ground. “Tell me if you hear anything else, but for now, we carry on.”

Dane, like all of Ryan’s men, was too well-disciplined to do anything other than accept the decision, but Stephen just hoped he’d made the right call.

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From:

lukadreaming.livejournal.com

Erk! Cliffhanger! And much tension in this very vivid installment. I like the guest appearance from the wild boars!

From:

Fic, Death and the Maiden, Part 7, Claudia, Team, 15

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