Lost Predator

by Alicia Brodersen

  Claudia rolled her eyes as the two men grinned triumphantly and gleefully raced off down the corridor.

  Up on the rooftop a few minutes later, the adult Pteranodon flexed its wings, its brilliant red crest glowing brightly in the sunlight as it surveyed the city. But just as Stephen took aim with the tranquillizer, the flying reptile spied him. With one mighty screech it launched itself from the side of the building and glided off into the maze of office rooftops below them.

  ‘We’re going to have to find a way of bringing her back into range,’ Cutter said, watching as the magnificent creature circled above them. It really was an awesome sight.

  He breathed in deeply. What was the best way to attract a prehistoric reptile? Cutter’s eyes fell upon the Pterosaur’s lustrous crest, glinting in the sunshine. Cutter turned round, looking intently at his team.

  ‘I need your shirt,’ he said suddenly, motioning to Claudia’s rose-coloured top.

  Claudia’s jaw dropped. ‘What?’ she said, mortified.

  But Cutter wasn’t going to take no for an answer. He’d already begun searching around the rooftop for something to use as a makeshift pole.

  Stephen watched out of the corner of his eye as a red-faced Claudia reluctantly took off her jacket. He might not trust her and her government cronies, but he couldn’t let her be humiliated.

  Stephen pointed to the scarlet T-shirt peeping out from underneath his sweatshirt.

  ‘I forgot about this,’ he winked, as Claudia heaved a sigh of relief. ‘You owe me!’

  A minute later, Stephen steadied the tranquillizer gun against his shoulder. The Pteranodon soon noticed the crude flag made up of a TV aerial and Stephen’s T-shirt. The winged reptile swiftly soared in towards them as Stephen fired a shot – and missed.

  ‘Try again,’ Cutter instructed calmly, sweeping the banner above his head as Claudia stood nervously behind him. Stephen took aim, but once again the creature flew out of range.

  ‘It keeps moving,’ he mumbled, re-loading the weapon.

  ‘Stephen, shoot it!’ shouted Cutter, as the creature began dipping towards them once more. It was now just metres away.

  ‘Shoot it!’

  Claudia suddenly lost her nerve. She could see no way in which Stephen was going to stop this huge reptile that was heading straight for them. And she wasn’t hanging around to be eaten.

  As the giant winged reptile shrieked at the three humans standing on the rooftop, Claudia began to run, trying desperately to reach the exit at the other side of the building.

  Behind her, a shot rang out as a tranquillizer dart connected perfectly with the belly of the Pteranodon soaring overhead. The creature crashed down, letting out an anguished cry as it skidded across the rooftop, heading directly towards Claudia as she tried to get out of the way. As she reached the roof’s edge, Claudia turned round – watching in horror as the enormous body of the winged reptile slid swiftly towards her on its belly. She closed her eyes as its massive beak came to a halt just centimetres from her feet.

  ‘What are we going to do with it?’ she could hear Stephen asking Cutter. He sounded far too casual for her liking, so she cautiously opened her eyes.

  ‘Take it back to the anomaly site,’ Cutter was shrugging. ‘Send it back.’

  Claudia was fuming. What was wrong with these lunatics? Hadn’t they noticed she’d almost been killed?

  ‘That is it, Cutter. No more favours!’ she interrupted furiously, still standing at the foot of the Pteranodon’s beak. ‘From now on, we do this my way. I make the decisions –’

  But before she could say any more, a final muscle convulsion from the dazed reptile’s body caused its great beak to spasm, flinging it up in the air and hitting Claudia square on the chin. She fell backwards and landed in a crumpled heap, knocked out cold.

  Stephen and Cutter stared at her for a second, and realizing she was more stunned than hurt, looked at each other with bemusement. ‘Whoops,’ grinned Cutter, raising his eyebrows. At least this would keep her quiet for a while, but now what were they going to do with a stunned reptile and a stunned Home Office associate?

  Back at the golf club a short time later, Claudia finally stirred from her beak-induced stupor. As she lay on a stretcher in one of the main rooms, images of the Pteranodon flying towards her on the rooftop flashed through her mind. Claudia sat up in fright, her sudden movement knocking the blood drip lying beside her on to the ground. She swung herself round off the bed and threw her feet to the floor, not realizing the drip was directly underneath her until it was too late. The dark red contents burst out of the bag and seeped on to the wooden floorboards.

  A slight breeze wafted through the afternoon air and Cutter was watching her from an open doorway.

  ‘What happened?’ she said, blinking.

  ‘You took a knock. Nothing to worry about,’ he said, guessing she was confused. He reassured her that she was safe, and back in the club house. Realizing she was awake, an SAS medic came in to check up on her. The doctor asked Claudia some standard questions to establish how she was feeling while Cutter picked up a small light from an array of medical equipment on the bench.

  ‘I’ll do some tests at the hospital,’ the operative concluded, addressing Cutter. ‘But I think it’s nothing worse than a mild concussion.’

  Noticing the leaking blood drip on the floor, the medic scooped it up and headed out of the room, leaving Cutter alone with Claudia. Cutter sidestepped the mess left on the floor and instructed Claudia to sit up straight.

  Brushing back her long brown hair, he shone the torch into her dark eyes, trying to see if he could find any answers to her initial unsteadiness. Claudia’s heart skipped a beat. She liked having Cutter there to take care of her.

  ‘How are you feeling?’ he asked, studying her beautiful face.

  ‘OK,’ Claudia replied quietly. Cutter’s heart went out to her. She might be obstinate sometimes, but right now Claudia simply looked frightened. And he knew something was terribly wrong.

  ‘Any nausea, any headache?’ he continued gently.

  ‘No.’

  ‘Anything odd at all?’ he persisted.

  ‘Just the one thing,’ Claudia whispered, her pretty brow furrowing. ‘I can’t see anything…’

  Over in a clearing on the golf course, Captain Ryan was about to get a surprise of his own.

  ‘I wouldn’t get too close if I were you,’ he was lecturing Stephen, as a flurry of SAS soldiers paced around the prone body of the winged reptile under a tarpaulin. ‘That thing could come round at any time.’

  Stephen looked at him wryly. Ryan might be a trained operative, but he obviously didn’t know the first thing about knocking out a Pteranodon with a tranquillizer dart.

  ‘She’s going to be out for hours yet,’ Stephen reassured Ryan. His face suddenly brightened as the very obvious sound of a bowel motion belched out from the other end of the Pteranodon.

  ‘You have no idea how revealing dung can be,’ Stephen said, as he ran towards the back of the tarp and reached underneath for the results. ‘You can learn a lot from it.’ He pulled out his hand, now holding a sloppy dinosaur poo.

  Ryan’s mouth dropped open in disgust as Stephen dipped a finger into the muck and delicately licked it, looking thoughtful.

  ‘That’s just not right,’ Ryan grimaced, looking green and shaking his head. He knew Stephen took his job seriously, but not this seriously.

  The captain’s top lip curled in revulsion as Stephen took another taste test. Something else just wasn’t quite right. The lab technician would have to have a closer look underneath the tarpaulin for anything left in the muck, but Stephen was sure this dinosaur deposit contained the remains of a diet consisting of nothing bigger than lizards and fish.

  Stephen’s heart sank. If he was correct, then it could only mean one thing. Some other creature had come through the anomaly and attacked the golfer.

  And the killer was still out there.

  Back in the woodland beside
the green, Abby and Connor let out a cheer as Rex’s mischievous chirp finally sounded through the trees.

  Running around through the scrub, they saw the tiny Coelurosauravus perched on a log underneath a massive old oak tree. But Connor grew uneasy as he noticed something eerily familiar about the tiny dinosaur’s behaviour. Rex’s cheery chirps had rapidly become short, frightened barks as he flattened his body against the log, and the small reptile’s head cocked to one side as he tried to see over Connor’s shoulder. It was a look Connor had seen already from Rex today.

  Abby and Connor slowly turned to follow Rex’s line of vision as a chorus of unearthly squawks rang out above them.

  There, lined up along almost every branch of the oak tree sat dozens of ugly, bird-like reptiles. They were Pterosaurs, but much smaller than the one that had swooped on Connor and Rex earlier on the green. Instead of a beak, they had short, carnivorous snouts filled with rows of needle-sharp teeth and piercing yellow eyes. Their leathery wings were a shimmering blue-black. Abby felt a shiver run down her spine. While the Pteranodon had appeared majestic, these things just looked downright evil.

  Connor took a step back when one of the Pterosaurs on a lower branch let out a greedy cry as it picked up a scent in the slight breeze. Connor pulled Abby to the ground as the first Pterosaur launched itself from the branch towards them, followed by another and another, howling like a frenzied swarm of over-sized bats.

  Within seconds it was over, Connor and Abby rising to their feet as the creatures flew off in the direction of the golf club.

  Connor heaved a sigh of relief as a frightened Rex scurried in front of them, seeking shelter. Whatever prey those horrific beasts were after, at least it wasn’t them.

  Back in the club house, Cutter was trying his best to reassure a vulnerable Claudia. If only she would realize that she could trust him.

  ‘Temporary blindness is a symptom of mild concussion,’ he said, as Claudia stared straight ahead. ‘You’re going to be fine.’

  Claudia nodded in agreement, but she didn’t look convinced.

  ‘Do you see anything at all?’ Cutter asked.

  Claudia looked around the room. She could just make out the blurry outline of wooden frames on the doorways and the bright sunshine streaming through dozens of glass panes.

  Just then, Cutter’s phone rang. It was Stephen.

  ‘Listen, you know that hunch of yours?’ the lab technician said, calling from the golf course. ‘You were right. Old Leatherface didn’t kill the golfer.’

  Thank goodness they hadn’t shot it, Cutter thought.

  ‘The dung is the clincher,’ Stephen continued. ‘Just a few small reptile and some fish bones. That’s it.’

  ‘Exactly what I thought,’ Cutter replied, his voice rising. ‘It wasn’t Connor it was after… it was Rex.’

  Cutter’s phone beeped, indicating it was about to run out of battery. Telling Stephen he’d ring him back, he finished the call.

  ‘Did you catch any of that?’ he said, turning back to Claudia.

  ‘The Pteranodon is innocent,’ she said contritely. Any closeness between herself and the professor suddenly seemed to be on the back-burner. ‘What do you want me to do, pay compensation? You have to admit it – you made a lucky guess.’

  ‘No,’ said Cutter, quickly glancing out of the window and scanning the skyline. ‘You’re missing my point. If the Pteranodon didn’t kill the golfer, then what did?’

  At that very moment, a blood-curdling scream tore across the garden. Claudia’s breath quickened as the reality hit her. The killer was still out there. And she could hardly see a thing.

  ‘What was that?’ she whispered frantically.

  ‘I don’t know,’ Cutter replied, quickly moving to close the glass-paned doors as a precaution. ‘Look, give me your phone.’

  Claudia’s brow furrowed. ‘It’s in my bag,’ she said, desperately trying not to panic. ‘In the car.’

  ‘I have to get to a phone,’ said Cutter. ‘Just keep calm. All we have to do is keep all the windows and all the doors shut.’

  ‘And we’ll be fine,’ he added, thankful Claudia wasn’t able to see the alarm in his eyes. ‘You’re gonna be OK because nothing can get in here.’

  Claudia nodded resolutely. Cutter could tell she was terrified, but if he didn’t call for backup soon then they might never get out of here. He left the room, heading upstairs to try and find a phone.

  Claudia took a few careful steps backwards, trying to find the edge of the stretcher. Her fingers gripped the sheet tightly, causing her knuckles to turn white.

  ‘Everything’s OK,’ she muttered, trying desperately to calm down. Claudia’s chest tightened as she thought she saw a small, black shadow flit past the glass doors that led out to the garden. Something was definitely out there.

  Claudia clumsily felt her way over to the door, pulling on it to make sure it was shut. It was. She breathed a sigh as she leant her head against the glass panel in relief.

  ‘Raark!’

  Claudia screamed and reeled back in horror from the ear-splitting sound, as the tiny angry head of a small Pterosaur appeared at the window in front of her. Suddenly, hundreds of the creatures appeared and started launching themselves into the glass in a frenzied attempt to get inside the club house. Unable to see where she was going, Claudia tripped backwards, landing awkwardly in the sticky red blood that was still on the floor beside the stretcher. She could only see a hazy cloud of black, and hear the violent screeching. Then there was the terrifying sound of shattering glass as several Pterosaurs finally managed to crack the decorative windows. Looking up into the light, Claudia could dimly see their outlines flapping furiously, unable to manoeuvre their wings through the small panels.

  Claudia trembled as she remembered the body she’d seen earlier. If Nick didn’t show up soon, it looked as though she would end up like Andy the golfer.

  Suddenly, through the deafening screeches and chorus of splintering glass, she heard Cutter’s calm voice. She felt his strong arms round her, pulling her up to her feet.

  Cutter escorted her towards a doorway leading to the middle of the manor. Claudia screamed as a vicious Pterosaur finally made it through the window and hurtled towards them. Cutter threw her into the room ahead, pulling the door shut just as several of the flying reptiles crashed into the doorway after them.

  ‘They just went crazy!’ Claudia panted, speaking at a million miles an hour as they stood underneath the magnificent dome that topped the centre of the golf club. ‘I slipped in the blood and then –’

  ‘They can smell the blood,’ Cutter interrupted.

  ‘Like piranhas!’ Claudia gasped, as the gravity of their situation finally struck her. ‘Oh… have I got much on me?’

  Cutter looked at her blood-soaked clothes, and then down at himself. In his hurry to pull her up from the floor, he’d also become covered in a significant amount of blood.

  A violent tapping echoed above. Looking up, Claudia could see that the black mass from the garden had now swarmed above the glass dome skylight, frantically trying to find another way to get to their sweet-smelling prey.

  As Cutter pushed Claudia out of the way, the winged reptiles finally punched their way through the glass and poured into the room. As he closed the doors behind them, Cutter knew the only way they could survive this was to get help. The line had been dead on the only phone he’d found upstairs, but perhaps he might be able to make it out to the car park. The professor racked his brains.

  ‘I think there’s one in the ambulance,’ Cutter said urgently, sitting Claudia down on a small couch. ‘I’ll be back in a minute.’ He looked at her anxious face and thought how pretty she was. What if they didn’t make it out of here? He had to let her know how he really felt.

  Without a moment’s hesitation, he tenderly kissed her. And Claudia didn’t seem to mind one bit.

  ‘You’re going to be safe here,’ he promised and slipped out of the room.

  Outside, th
e coast seemed clear. But as Cutter took a few more steps, a swarm of angry Pterosaurs suddenly burst out over the top of the manor. Cutter sprinted down a dirt path, through the woodlands leading to the road. Up ahead, he was horrified to see the body of the medic lying beside the ambulance. Without time to think, Cutter threw himself into the open back doors of the vehicle, pulling them closed behind him. The reptiles, maddened with blood-lust, hurled themselves against the windscreen, trying to get inside.

  Cutter caught his breath as he spotted a phone sitting in the front cabin. Moving into the passenger seat, Cutter dialled Captain Ryan’s number as a winged creature smashed into the window beside him.

  ‘We’re being attacked by a swarm of Pterosaurs!’ he shouted, as the SAS operative answered the call. ‘Claudia’s trapped in the manor.’

  Cutter shook his head as the ever level-headed Ryan instructed him to sit tight. What did the captain think this was? A fun day out in Blackpool?

  ‘Hurry up!’ Cutter yelled, as more flying creatures cracked against the sides of the ambulance. The glass wouldn’t hold much longer.

  Cutter moved to the back of the vehicle and began frantically rifling around the cupboards. Surely there was something he could use to keep the hungry Pterosaurs away from him. Cutter felt a wave of hope wash over him as he spied a gas bottle sitting on a ledge.

  Checking he had his Zippo lighter in his pocket, Cutter inched carefully out of the back of the ambulance, expecting to be confronted by hundreds of winged creatures. But instead, only a couple came at him. He flicked the lighter at the gas bottle as a jet of flame shot out towards the creatures.

  Cutter groaned as the burnt remains fell to the ground. If the full Pterosaur flock wasn’t here, then they’d picked up another scent.

  His heart sank. They had returned to the manor.

  Alone in the club house, Claudia sat quietly on the couch where Cutter had left her.

  With her sight still blurry, Claudia’s hearing was heightened, picking up even the tiniest sound. The quiet now was deafening, and Claudia hoped the silence didn’t mean the creatures had followed Nick as he left the building.