unfortunate ➸ primeval

Chapter 7

"Clara. Clara? Clara!"

Clara sat up straight, wincing when her muscles and bones didn't co-operate. She raised her eyes to see Stephen standing over her, a steaming mug in his hand. She frowned, not fully woken up yet. "What. . .?"

"You fell asleep at your desk," he explained patiently. "So I brought you some coffee. It may not be your favourite, but it'll keep you awake."

"Oh, thanks," Clara smiled, taking the mug gratefully and sipping the warm liquid. "Where's Cutter?"

"At the hospital with Claudia," Stephen told her. "They're investigating a man who was brought in last night, claimed to have been attacked by monsters," his tone was knowing. "He said he'd call us if he finds anything interesting."

"Good," Clara sighed, relaxing back into her chair, much to her muscles' relief. Then: "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be with them?"

"No," he shook his head. "Cutter told me to come here and look after you. He had a hunch you'd be here. Looks like he was right."

"He's always right," Clara muttered. "Lucky bastard." She heard Stephen laugh from opposite her.

"That's Cutter," he agreed.

——

It wasn't long before Nick's call came through. He called Stephen, who put it on speaker so Clara could hear.

"Stephen, are you there?" Nick's voice echoed through the phone.

"I'm here," he confirmed. "With Clara."

"Hi, Nick," she greeted.

"Hi, Clara. Look, Claudia has managed to get Lester to section off the Underground so we can explore, so can you meet me at Arsenal Station in half an hour?" Cutter explained, rambling a bit.

"Yeah, sure," Stephen confirmed. "I'll bring Clara and we'll meet you there. Do you need me to bring anything else?"

"Ah, no, I think her army men have got that covered," Nick replied dryly. "I'll see you soon."

Stephen hung up and grabbed his jacket, motioning for Clara to do the same.

"Thanks for offering to 'bring' me," she tutted at him sarcastically. "Glad to know I'm such a valuable asset."

"You know what I meant," Stephen smirked as he opened his truck. "Now get in."

It only took them twenty minutes to get to Arsenal Station, which had been cordoned off by police tape and was swarming with Claudia's army men. She herself was speaking to the captain - Tom Ryan. Abby was stood with Cutter, who was watching everything going on with a sour look on his face.

Claudia approached the group just as Stephen and Clara joined. "They're going in," she said, talking about the soldiers that surrounded them.

"We should be going down there with them," Nick sighed, shaking his head.

"Special Forces go in first," Claudia confirmed. "You knew Lester wouldn't let you have it all your own way."

"They don't even know what they're looking for!" Nick argued.

"There aren't going to be that many venomous creatures down there, are there?" Stephen rolled his eyes at his boss.

"You should see the last tube home on a Friday night," Clara remarked dryly, earning a smirk from all three of them.

"We can watch them from their head cameras," Claudia bargained, leading them over to a laptop that had been set up. They watched as the soldiers ran down a narrow corridor and entered an old bunker, with bunk beds and various empty boxes lying around.

They were scanning the room slowly, looking for any signs of life. Captain Ryan glanced up, and Clara squinted at what appeared on the screen from the night vision goggles. They looked like enormous bugs, complete with large pincers. "Are they spiders?" She frowned.

"Ryan, what are they?" Cutter spoke into the radio.

"They're like spiders," Ryan answered, though his voice was slightly muffled due to the shouts coming from his fellow soldiers. "Only a lot bigger. Some of them huge. And they have pincers instead of fangs, which are even bigger."

"Alright, get yourself out of there," he ordered.

"Withdraw!" They heard Ryan yell, and about five minutes later they emerged from the tube station. One of them was injured, so he was sent to the medic.

"Was he bitten?" Clara asked Abby, who was closest. Abby craned her neck to get a look, and then she nodded.

"Looks like it," she grimaced. "Let's go and speak to Cutter and Ryan; they might know what we're dealing with." The girls went to Claudia, Ryan, Cutter and Stephen.

"How do you feel?" Nick asked Ryan.

"Sick, my ears are ringing, and I have a headache," he answered. "Oh, and there's something else - when we fired the shot it looked like a firework."

"That's a clear sign of excess oxygen in the air," Stephen added.

"The new air must be seeping in from another anomaly," Cutter sighed. He turned to Claudia. "I need to see these creatures for myself. These aren't from the Permian era anymore, these are from much, much earlier. Carboniferous, at an educated guess."

Claudia sighed, running a manicured hand through her impeccable hair. "Okay, go."

"Let's get some gear," Cutter nodded, motioning for his team to follow. "Let's find out what we're dealing with."