unfortunate ➸ primeval

Chapter 12

A few hours and two stuffed jacket potatoes later, darkness had begun to cloud the amusement park and Cutter had radioed both Stephen and Clara to go to the edge of the forest and meet the other three team members.

Once there, they all stood at Nick's four-by-four and prepped themselves with gear. Stephen had his large tranquilliser gun, Abby had a small handgun, Nick had a long sniper with infrared sights, and Clara got handed a small tranquilliser gun as well.

When their guns were sorted, Nick tossed them all some funky headgear, which looked like binoculars that strapped around the head. "What are these?" Abby frowned at it, inspecting the gear.

"They're heat sensitive cameras," Cutter answered. "The creature knows this territory well. It's made a kill here, and I think it's going to come back. Most likely it's nocturnal, so its senses are going to be sharper than ours. I shouldn't have to say this, but be careful." His gaze lingered on Connor as he said that, and the student nodded seriously.

Clara clipped the gear round her head, flipping the goggles up when they fell over her eyes.

"Any questions?" Nick asked. Connor raised his hand. "What?"

"Can I have a gun?" He sounded hopeful.

"Take a wild guess," Nick told him.

"No?" Connor tried.

"Good guess," Nick nodded. "If you're worried, stay close to Abby." Abby gave Connor a warm smile and tugged him along.

They filed into the forest in a line: Nick at the front as leader, then Stephen, Clara and Abby while Connor stumbled around at the back, struggling to walk straight with his infrared goggles on.

"Right, I think we need to split up," Nick announced in a quiet voice, but loud enough so that they could all hear. "That way we can cover more ground. Okay?"

"Okay," the group nodded. By now, they all knew who to split off with. Nick strode ahead, alone; Connor and Abby ventured to one side while Stephen and Clara took the other side.

Flipping her goggles over her eyes, Clara scanned the area around her, gun ready in hand. The only thing keeping her calm was the close presence of Stephen behind her.

"You know," he started quietly. "You look really hot through these." Clara chuckled softly, not turning to face him.

"I'm not surprised, seeing as they're infrared," she joked. "Everything's hot through those."

She stopped talking abruptly when a loud twig snapping came from somewhere near them. "Clara," Stephen whispered. "Was that you?"

"No," Clara whispered back. She heard Stephen swear under his breath as he held his gun at the ready, goggles over his eyes.

Clara scanned the area too, but the heat sensors weren't picking up anything. The trees surrounding them all glowed purple and the only close heat source was Stephen.

A low rustling sound echoed through the trees. Clara slowly raised her gun as they edged silently through the forest. Another loud snap came from behind them, and they both spun around to find a heat source. It was the engine of a van, and it looked abandoned in the middle of the woods. Even so, the two of them crept towards it carefully.

Flipping up her goggles, Clara examined the van, but there was nothing of interest there. It was just a maintenance van from the amusement park. Yet there was no one inside. "Did they get taken by the creature?" She whispered, but a loud crack sounded behind them before Stephen had the chance to answer.

Stephen spun, pointing his gun at the intruder. She turned out to be a woman, her hands raised. "It's Valerie!" She gasped, and the two lowered their weapons.