Badlands (4/5)

[bigtitch]

Title: Badlands (4/5)
Author: bigtitch
Word Count: 19k
Rating: GEN
Characters/Pairing: Cutter, Lester, Ryan, Stephen, Connor, Elvis Harte, OCs
Author notes:After a bad anomaly event Cutter is struggling to cope. Lester forces him to take a holiday. A week fossil hunting on the Durham coast should be nice and relaxing. Unless something else is going on.

This is officially a crossover with Our Girl. Basically I wanted to play with Elvis. However, he only makes a cameo appearance in this fic. There will be a sequel where I get to play with him properly.

The places in this fic are real (although some are operating under a pseudonym). The people are most definitely not real and any resemblance to a real person alive or dead is completely coincidental.

Massive thanks to fififolle for the beta. All mistakes you find are entirely down to me. Also thanks to fredbassett for huge encouragement to start writing again.



Chapter 4

Back at Lumley Hill Farm, Cutter decided to walk off his large lunch by retracing his steps in the walk he'd taken on his first evening at the farm. Knowing where he was going meant that he could appreciate the countryside this time around. Even under a grey sky it was beautiful and the air was clear enough that he could see far up the coast in either direction. He could see up the length of what must be Cauldron Bay. There was the harbour of Seaham Harbour just past that. There were some ships, too, possibly heading for Sunderland or Tynemouth. To the south there was a prominent headland. The little information board told him it was Beacon Hill. So that was where the observation post had been. It would have been possible to see lights on Mayfield beach from there. At least Cutter didn't have to worry about checking that out. He'd already done that without knowing what he was looking at. There was nothing on Mayfield beach to worry about. The UFO anomaly project was a non-starter.

That left mythical creatures. Sarah had mentioned the Lambton Worm, but other than it appeared somewhere on the River Wear he had little knowledge about it. Cutter decided he would have to spend some time doing research before heading into the field to try and spot signs of it. There had to be a nearby library with a local folklore collection. He tried to see if he had any contacts at Durham University who could help. He felt his mood pick up. This was much more his style than UFOs. He'd leave those to Connor.

++++

On the way back to the tower, he passed the field with the lorry trailers and found Middleham cleaning one of them with a long brush and bucket of water. Middleham gave him a wave and Cutter took that as permission to go through the gate into the field he'd previously taken to be off-limits. The farmer quickly put down his brush and walked towards him. They met just before the first row of trailers.

'I just wanted to say thanks for the tip about the Black Diamond,' Cutter said. 'That's some of the best fish and chips I've had in a long time.'

'That's good to hear. But you've been down south so I'm not surprised. I've never had a good fish supper further south than Scarborough.'

'You have something there. I've never found anything that can match a good Glasgow chipper.'

'Eeh, I'm not going to start an argument over that. As long as they're frying in dripping and not vegetable oil they're good by me!'

'I'll not keep you,' Cutter said. 'I just wanted to thank you for a good lunch!'

Cutter turned to go and then spotted something lying in the grass by the fence. He bent and picked it up. It was a plastic doll with long hair and a sparkly dress like a cut-price Barbie. He turned and held it out to Middleham.

'Someone's lost this.'

Middleham took it and his brow clouded for a moment and then he smiled. 'Ah. It's one of Poppy's.'

Cutter looked puzzled.

'My granddaughter. She was over with my daughter at Easter. She must have dropped it. Thanks. I'll put it with her collection here for when she comes again.'

'Do they visit often?'

'Not as much as we'd like. Anne loves to spoil her. You know what grandmas are like. Poppy's got more dolls than she can count.'

'Yes, because granddads never spoil their granddaughters!'

Middleham rubbed the back of his neck in an embarrassed way. 'Only when I need to, y'knaa!'

Cutter nodded and walked back to the tower.

++++

Cutter opened his laptop and logged into his emails. There was a reply to his from Liz.

'Nick! I thought you'd dropped off the planet! I'd love to see you again. I know this is short notice, but how about tonight? 7pm for a bite to eat. Nothing fancy, but we can chat and you can meet the family?'

Liz was right, it was short notice, but Cutter didn't hesitate to accept. What else was he going to do in a tower on the edge of the sea?

++++

Cutter drove slowly through a modern housing estate built on the outskirts of Seaham. He had a bottle of wine sitting on the passenger seat beside him, courtesy of a detour to the ASDA he was now getting to know quite well. He was now trying to follow Liz's directions through a maze of curving streets and inadequate road signage. Eventually he spotted one number nine that seemed to be in the right area. He pulled up on the road outside and got out of the car.

The front door opened and Liz was there. She was wearing glasses now and her hair had a few touches of grey, but her smile was still the same. Nick could do nothing else except respond to it.

'Nick!'

'Liz!'

They hugged.

'You're looking good, Liz.'

Liz pulled apart and gave him an appraising stare. 'You're looking tired.'

'Yeah, it's work,' Cutter said and then tried to brush it off. 'But that doesn't matter here. Have some wine.'

He held up the bottle.

Liz took it. 'Thanks. Come in and meet the family.'

Liz led him into a large open plan living space. All pale walls and pale upholstery, very Good Housekeeping. A young girl in a dark red school jumper was sitting colouring at the coffee table. A broad-shouldered woman with straw-coloured curly hair stood up to greet him.

'This my wife, Katy,' Liz told him. 'And this is our daughter, Maggie.'

'Hello Nick,' Katy said in a local accent. 'Liz has told me lots about you.'

'Now I'm scared!'

Liz bustled off to the kitchen end of the room and Nick bent down to see what Maggie was colouring. She was a little shy, but he must have made the right kind of encouraging noises because she fixed him with a firm gaze.

'Mum says you know everything about fossils.'

'Well...'

'Because I've got a fossil. Or at least I think it is. I found it on the beach. But Mrs Newby says it's just a rock.'

'Oh, well, why don't I have a look at it and we'll see what it is.'

'Good. Mum says Mrs Newby knows lots of things but she doesn't know everything!'

'Maggie!' Liz laughed from the kitchen. 'You're not supposed to repeat that!'

Maggie looked unrepentant.

Dinner was a lasagne with salad, both in large portions. Nick had expected to feel awkward after being out of contact with Liz for so long, but that soon dissipated. They didn't talk of anything momentous. Liz described her life with Katy, who was a family law solicitor in Sunderland. Nick shared what he could about what he was doing. They swapped what gossip they knew about mutual friends. It was more the reconnecting that was important. As he started to pick up the ties that bound them both together he found that there was a reason they had been friends in the first place and that was still there.

Eventually, Maggie, who clearly felt that enough time had been spent on old stories of university days, disappeared from the table and came back clutching her purported fossil.

'This is it,' she told Nick.

Nick took the rock from her and smiled.

'It's a fossil.'

'Really?'

'Yes. What you have there is the back end of a trilobite.'

'What's one of them?'

'You know what a wood louse is?'

Maggie nodded.

'Well, think of a wood louse with the legs of a crab that lived in the sea and that's pretty much what a trilobite is.'

'How old is it?' asked Katy.

'Well, the other fossils round here are late Permian, so 250 to 300 million years ago.'

'Wow! That's old. You hear that, Maggie?'

Maggie wasn't totally buying it. 'Are you certain sure?'

'Maggie!'

Cutter nodded seriously. 'I'm certain sure. You tell your Mrs Newby that a Professor of Palaeontology says this is a fossil.'

'I will!'

Cutter looked apologetically at Liz. 'What have I started?'

After the meal Katy and Maggie joined forces in stacking the dishwasher and Liz took Nick out into the garden while the twilight lasted.

'You were right about Helen,' Nick said.

Liz looked surprised. 'I never said anything about Helen.'

'I know. You were still right.'

'What's up, Nick? I've seen you stressed before. I've seen you having problems with Helen before. I've never seen you this...' she searched for the right word, '... weary.'

Nick sighed. 'I suppose it started with Helen leaving me, but it's not just that. It's been bad at work. And I can't tell you what it is. Just that it's been stressful and then something happened I'm having problems dealing with.'

'I'm sorry. Are they being helpful at work?'

'They're trying to be. But it's more in the nature of what it is. These kind of bad things just happen and sometimes they get to you. Nothing I can do about it unfortunately.'

'Are you sure about that?'

'What do you mean?'

Liz walked over to the garden bench, sat down and patted the space next to her for Nick to join her.

'When I started teaching I was set on it being my career as well as something I loved doing. I was going to do my best to rise through the ranks and be someone who could change the direction science teaching was taking. And raise a flag for women in STEM subjects.'

Cutter raised his glass to her and she smiled ruefully.

'And it was going well. I loved teaching and I did push myself forward to advance. Form teacher. Head of department. Finally I got a job here as Deputy Head at the High School. I arrived full of plans of how I was going to improve things and make it one of the top schools in the county.' Her mouth twisted a little.

'And?'

'And after a while I found I hated it. I was spending less and less time teaching and more time doing admin and managing people. After a couple of years I was starting to dread going into work.'

'What happened?'

'Half way through the summer holidays Katy found me in tears over the thought of going back in September and told me I was being an idiot. And was it all worth it when there were other jobs out there I could do?'

'What did you do?'

'I resigned and got a job teaching at the sixth form in Peterlee. It was a drop in pay, but that was four years ago and I wouldn't swap it for double the money now. I'm so much happier.'

'What about your plans?'

Liz shrugged. 'I'm not the only one with plans, Nick. Now they've got someone with bright ideas and the temperament to follow them through. No one's irreplaceable and, to be honest, they're probably doing better without me.'

'So you think I should give up my job?'

Liz shook her head. 'No, I don't know enough about it to give that advice. But one thing I will say. The most enthusiastic I've seen you all night and the closest to the Nick I knew was when you were explaining a fossil to an eight-year-old. You might want to think about that.'

Cutter shook his head. 'What I do is too important.'

'Maybe,' Liz said. 'But your mental health is important, too, and you have the right to look after it, no matter what pressure people put on you at work.'

She stood up. 'Anyway, here endeth the lecture.'

++++

Cutter was running because he was being chased. He knew that without ever seeing what was chasing him. He was running as something malevolent was on his heels wanting to do him harm. A child was in his arms. A girl. She had long hair and a sparkly dress. Somehow he wasn't holding her close to his chest but arms outstretched as though offering her to someone or something. As he watched, dark red splotches appeared on her dress. He could feel wetness on his hands and arms. Wounds appeared on her arms and legs. Her face started bleeding. Cutter knew the girl was going to turn her face towards him and show her cheek torn apart. Again. Always this picture. Her head moved.

'NO!'

Cutter jerked awake. He'd woken before she could show him that dreadful injury. But it didn't matter. He didn't need to dream it. It was already in his memory.

++++

Nick woke to a world of mist. The view from the living room window was restricted to just to the Middleham's farmhouse and no further. So much for going fossil hunting on Cauldron Beach.

He ate his breakfast in front of his laptop as he tried to find something useful he could do indoors. He discovered that the best local folklore collection was in the Sunderland City Library rather than somewhere in Durham University. As Sunderland was only about ten miles away he decided to spend the morning doing research into Sarah's Lambton Worm and hope for better weather in the afternoon.

Sunderland City Library was housed in a building that spoke of prior civic prosperity with a rather incongruous modern glass addition. The librarian in charge, possibly glad of something interesting on a slow Thursday morning, was really helpful. She took him to the folklore section, described which parts were on microfiche and which reference tomes would be of most use to him. Cutter thanked her and hid a smile as she left. He hadn't been called 'Pet' before.

Sarah's notes on this legendary worm, or dragon, were brief. It had shown up in the River Wear about the time of the crusades. It destroyed crops, livestock and anyone stupid enough to get in its way. It was defeated by Sir John Lambton, son of the local lord, who followed the instructions of a local wisewoman and cut it into pieces. There was a song about it.

Unfortunately that was about all he could find that had any substance. One telling said the worm was associated with Penshaw Hill, another said it was Worm Hill. Both were in the same area near the River Wear. But that was about it. Cutter contemplated going on a visit to both places, but then decided it would be a waste of time. This was legend. Something to bear in mind if there was a future anomaly event nearby, but nothing that needed urgent work now.

Cutter put the Lambton Worm aside and disappeared into the online catalogue to see what else could be trawled up. He'd forgotten the fun in hunting down references and new topics to research.

He found another worm in passing. Too far north to be the same as the Lambton Worm, but Cutter made a note for Sarah to investigate. Legendary or not, any creature that had got the name of 'The Laidly Worm of Spindleston Heugh' was worth further attention.

A catalogue entry caught his attention. 'Legendary Worms and Ley Lines' by Palgrave Routledge Esq. It sounded promising so he tracked it down on the shelves. It turned out to be a bound pamphlet published by a local folklore society in the early 1930s. Routledge was evidently a ley-line enthusiast and had traced several across Durham and Northumberland. One line, starting at the monastery at Jarrow and ending at Durham Cathedral, crossed the River Wear very near the Lambton estates. Routledge therefore speculated that the monster of legend had been brought from 'some other world or time by the action of the ley energies'. Only a few years ago Cutter would have dismissed this out of hand. Now he sat back in his chair and wondered if this researcher had stumbled upon a genuine insight. There was a document scanner in one corner of the room and Cutter stretched copyright rules by scanning in the whole pamphlet for Sarah to read. He hoped Routledge would forgive him.

His stomach rumbled and he realised it was after one o'clock. He was done here, but it hadn't been entirely unproductive. And yes, he had enjoyed himself. As he walked down the steps on to the street the sunshine made him smile. Maybe this time he would have a successful fossil hunt.

++++

Despite the good weather, Cutter's fossil hunting trip had a false start when he found that there was no easy way down to Cauldron Beach from Cauldron Point. He had to walk the entire length of the beach nearly to Seaham before he could find a safe way down the cliffs. Still, it was a nice day now that the mist had lifted and his extra walk gave him a chance to look for likely places to find fossils.

He knew, thanks to Liz's wife Katy, that no one local called it Cauldron Beach. It was the Blast Beach. Pit waste from the nearby colliery had been tipped out to sea and left to flow back in with each tide. The beach had been turned as black as any you'd find on a volcanic island. With the collieries gone, the beach had been cleaned up, but there were still some pit deposits left above the tideline and it was in these layers that the fossils were to be found. They didn't belong to the limestone cliffs but from much further underground and even out to sea.

Cutter made it down to the beach and started looking. He knew it was always easier to find seaside fossils after a storm had a chance to wash a few out of the cliffs. It had been calm recently, but he still had hopes.

He found a likely looking rock, took out his geologist’s hammer and gave it a hefty tap. It was solid sandstone. He grunted and went on looking. After half an hour of picking and tapping he hadn't found any fossils, but he had collected an audience of two boys of about twelve years old.

'What you doing, mister?'

'Looking for fossils.' Cutter tactfully didn't ask why they weren't in school.

'Found any?'

'Not yet.'

'How do you find them?'

'Well, you find a likely rock.' Cutter picked up another fist-sized sandstone boulder. 'And you split it with a hammer like this.' He did so. 'And if you're lucky…' Cutter opened it. 'You find a fossil like this!'

The two boys peered at the rocks he held in each hand. A bumpy, regular pattern took up two-thirds of each side of the split.

'Wow! Is that a snake?'

'It looks like it, doesn't it? But it's the bark of a tree that lived here a long, long time ago, called lepidodendron.'

With that two boys turned from being Cutter's audience into his research assistants. In fairly quick order he no longer had to hunt for likely rocks, they would bring them to him while he split them open. After an hour of happy clambering and scrabbling about the rocky shore, Jason and Mark went off with a fossil fern and another example of tree bark.

Cutter sat on a rock and watched them go. He didn't know when he'd enjoyed himself quite so much in a while. He suspected it was possibly the most education the two had managed to pay attention to in quite a while. He didn't know if even the geekiest fossil fans among his students had ever been quite that enthusiastic.

He'd had fun.

It was an unfamiliar sensation.

He could hear Liz's voice in his mind telling him he needed to do this more often.

++++

Cutter's plan had been to walk down the beach, go around the point to Mayfield beach and then walk back up to the tower via the path under the viaduct. What he hadn't planned for was the tide coming in. It was just starting to approach the bottom of Cauldron Point as he reached it. Cutter hesitated, but saw that there was a thin path worn around the bottom of the cliff just above the incoming waves. He glanced back and decided to go for this way rather than walking the nearly the whole length of the beach again for the only other path off he could see.

He nearly made it. The path, if that is what it was, was one foot-width wide and he picked his way round it, holding on to the cliff side with his right hand. That would have worked, if his rucksack, which was only slung over his right shoulder, had not picked that time to slip down his arm and unbalance him.

His right foot went out from under him and he slid down the steeply sloping foot of the cliff until he came to a stop up to his knees in the incoming tide.

'Ach! Ya eejit!'

He hoisted his rucksack back up out of the way and waded round the rest of the point in the water. He was already wet through so a bit more wasn't going to make it any worse. He stomped up the beach thoroughly in a temper with himself as the water sloshed in his trainers.

He walked on part of the way as if he was determined to make the worst possible job of it and be as miserable as he could be. Then he realised that this wasn't necessary and dropped his rucksack by the side of the old pillbox and leaned against the concrete wall as he took his trainers off to empty them.

There wasn't much water left in his shoes by this point, but he emptied it out anyway. His socks seemed to be the worst affected so he took them off and wrang them out before putting his bare feet back in the trainers. Wet socks in hand, he bent down to pick up his backpack.

His eye was caught by a pile of jade green feathers piled up against a little boulder at the side of the wall. He'd seen feral parakeets several times in the London parks, but he hadn't realised they had colonised so far north. He bent down to look closer. The skeleton the feathers had belonged to was there. He carefully picked up the skull and froze. This was no parakeet skull. For a start, parakeets didn't have teeth and this definitely did. Holding his breath he searched among the gravel for more clues and then he found it. A tiny, sickle claw no more than half a centimetre in length, but unmistakable.

Micro-raptor.

Cutter straightened up and looked around as if he had managed to miss the anomaly the creature had come through. It wasn't there, of course, this little dinosaur was long dead and its anomaly long gone.

They were right. The observer corps had seen something all those years ago. But this skeleton was much more recent. Maybe the past year or so. Why hadn't the ADD detected it? Or had it and it hadn't been worth investigating like the one in Anglesey?

He arranged the bones he could find and a few of the feathers on one of his socks and took a picture with his phone. He had only one bar of network connection, but he addressed it to Connor and pressed 'Send'.

Then he picked up his backpack and walked up the path, half-expecting a flock of raptors to appear out of the wild rhubarb.