Primeval Fic: Paddington Alert (5/8)

[nietie]

Title: Paddington Alert Part 5
Author: nietie
Characters: Abby, Nick, Ryan, Stephen, OC                                                                                                          
Genre: gen                                                                                                                                               
Disclaimer: Primeval and its characters belong to Impossible Pictures
Summary: An anomaly at PaddingtonStation has released some Tasmanian Devils. Nick, Stephen, Abby and Ryan take the creatures back to an abandoned city of London in another timeline. After an earthquake that leaves Stephen injured, the anomaly disappears and they get stuck in the near future.

Author’s note: a million thanks to lukadreaming for beta-reading.

Hazel eyes looked at Ryan.

The boy was about 17 years old, unruly long brown hair covering part of his face. His clothes were filthy and torn, arms covered with scratches, face smudged and drawn.

Ryan secured his gun. “It’s all right, son. We mean you no harm.”

There was no reaction, just a bewildered look on the boy’s face.

“Do you speak English?”

“Crikey. You scared the shit out off me,” the boy said, getting up on his feet. He was about  6 feet tall and muscular, but still had the face of a teenager.

Nick appeared in the doorway, curious who Ryan was talking to, but sensing there was no immediate danger.

“I’m Tom Ryan. And this is Nick Cutter. What’s your name?”

 “Ty. I’m Tyler.”

“Where are you from, Ty?”

“Boronia, Australia. A suburb of Melbourne. And you?”

“We’re from London,” Nick answered. “Did you get here through an anomaly?”

“What’s that? Do you mean the shimmering light that appeared?”

“Yes, how long ago was that?”

“I don’t know. I lost track of time.”

Ryan suggested they continued the conversation at the hotel. “Stephen and Abby are probably wondering where we are. Besides, Ty looks like he could do with some food and rest. And I don’t want to encounter anymore animals in this place.”

…

Abby and Stephen were surprised to see that Nick and Ryan had brought a companion.

 They let the boy settle on one of the beds and gave him something to eat and drink. Then he started his story.

In November 2013 he had been hitchhiking through the Australian outback from Alice Springs to Darwin when he’d seen a shimmering light. He didn’t know how long it had been there. At first he didn’t want to go through it, but animals were attracted to it and came in hordes to run into it and disappear. And at one point he’d had to flee from a herd of cattle and jump through the light. He’d bumped into a wall and lost consciousness. When he’d woken up again, the light and the animals were gone and he’d discovered that he was in an abandoned hospital. Looking at  some patient charts he’d found out he was in London. He had been wandering around for quite a while now, losing track of time. He’d only encountered animals, no humans, until now.

“You’ve no idea at all how long you’ve been here?” Abby asked, impressed by Ty’s story.

“No, if you check your watches, you’ll see time has stopped. No clock or watch is running. Even Big Ben has stopped.”

“You’ve got to be kidding,” Stephen said. He looked at his wristwatch immediately. “You’re right!”

“That’s impossible! I used my watch last night to wake up Stephen every half hour. It worked perfectly!” But Abby then discovered her watch had stopped at 11 minutes past 2.

”Where did all the people in London go? Could they have gone through your anomaly so they’re in the Australian outback now?”

“I don’t know. When I was there I was all by myself and hadn’t seen a human being for a day or so. I was camping about a mile off Stuart Highway. The nearest town would have been Ti-Tree. As far as I know no humans came through the anomaly either way.”

Nick had been silent, pensive. He was trying to process the information he’d just had.

“You haven’t seen any anomaly since you came here?” Stephen asked Ty.

“No, after I found out I was here in London alone I stayed in this neighbourhood, in case the light would reappear. Besides it‘s dangerous outside with all those animals roaming around. They’re soon going to starve because they won’t find enough food.”

“What kind of animals did you encounter?” Nick wanted to know.

“Cattle, kangaroos, lizards and creatures that looked like Tasmanian Devils. Although you can’t find those in the outback.”

“I know! That seemed odd to me too,” Stephen added.

“Telephone lines are dead and there is no internet. I haven’t been able to contact anyone. So I don’t know what happened back home,” Tyler added.

After a short discussion they decided that Abby would stay with Ty and the boy should get some rest. Stephen would go downstairs to see if he could fix the hotel’s electricity supply.

It was better for them to keep the hotel as their base. It was relatively safe here, there was food and bottled water and it was close to the sites where the two known anomalies had been. The ADD still worked, so it would warn them if an anomaly opened.

Nick and Ryan would go and find that car they’d been talking about all day. With a vehicle at hand they would be able to patrol parts of London for a few hours a day for as long they were stuck here.

But first Ryan made a quick visit to one of the men’s shops at the railway station and came back with a new pair of jeans and a T-shirt for Ty and a new pair of jeans for Stephen.

Ty went to the bathroom to freshen up. When he came out, he only wore the jeans, his upper body naked and still damp. Abby couldn’t take her eyes off his muscular chest, swallowing hard.

Stephen had an evil grin on his face when he looked at her before he disappeared into the bathroom.

Abby blushed. Wow, what was she thinking? Ty was a kid, this was so wrong.

“Um, let me take a look at those cuts and bruises, if you don’t mind.” She tried to sound businesslike and unaffected. “We should treat them before they become infected.”

Ty, unaware of her uneasiness, sat down on a bed and allowed Abby to disinfect the wounds.

Nick, Ryan and Stephen went on their way to accomplish their tasks. Stephen was using the crutches to ease his wounded leg. Nick and Ryan accompanied him downstairs, handed him a torch and left the hotel.

Stephen had put some tools in the back pocket of his new jeans and a gun in the waistband and hobbled through  the basement to the boiler room and the fuse boxes. It was dark downstairs and he left every door open, so the way back would be easier to find.

It took him about an hour to work out the electricity, water and heating systems and to repair them. Now they would have hot water and electricity. He bet Abby would love to take a bath or shower as soon as possible.

He was putting the tools away, when he heard a growling sound.

He pointed his torch into the direction the sound was coming from. Yellow, fluorescent eyes looked at him. The growling turned into snarling. Stephen saw a dog-like creature with a pointed muzzle and erect ears.

“Damn, a dingo, ” Stephen muttered. Hopefully it was the only one down here. Usually dingoes were alone, but they would meet up in a group from time to time, especially during the mating season. If the dog was on its own he would be able to handle it. Dingoes had to be with more than one to be able to kill bigger prey.

Stephen rested his back against the wall, drawing the gun, trying to shoo the dingo away. Maybe it would be scared by its opponent’s size and the noise Stephen made and it would run away.

But the animal didn’t seem to be intimidated. It showed its canine teeth and approached slowly.

Suddenly a body of fur leaped into Stephen’s direction and all he could do was shoot.

TBC