Disclaimer: Don't Own, Don't Sue! ;D
Chapter 4: Changes
As Connor cleared the hill he had been sitting on moments earlier, he could hear Cutter and Helen shouting after him; but he also heard Captain Ryan calling after them.
"Cutter! Helen! Stop! We need to get back to our side of the anomalies!" Ryan shouted, running behind them.
"There's someone else out here!" Helen called to Ryan over her shoulder.
"Great." Connor muttered to himself as he ran.
Just what he needed. The biggest paradox ever would be created if he was captured and dragged back through the anomaly.
Connor ducked as he heard gunshots fired at him.
"Don't shoot!" Cutter shouted at Ryan.
"Nick, humanity could be at stake because of this person!" Helen challenged.
Connor had to laugh to himself as he took temporary refuge behind a boulder. Helen caring about humanity was a joke within itself.
Then again, maybe if she hadn't done all the horrible things she did, he would be thinking such things.
Connor grabbed one of the guns from his holsters and cocked it and he peeked round the giant rock.
They were closing in on him, coming up the hill. He needed to find an anomaly to escape through and fast.
He'd have to buy some time by shooting at them, to be able to run away. Connor took a deep breath as he stood and started firing at the trio.
"Get down!" Cutter yelled as he pulled Helen to the ground. Ryan dove to the ground as well and began to fire back.
"We need to go back through the anomaly!" Ryan shouted as he fired back.
"Not without that man!" Helen objected.
Connor saw their arguing as his chance to escape. He turned and ran for cover, his rain-soaked clothes tight against his body.
Cutter turned and saw the anomaly pulsating. "I think the anomaly's getting weaker."
"He's getting away!" Helen shouted as she stood to chase Connor.
"We are leaving! We'll worry about him another time." Ryan said as he and Cutter grabbed Helen and dragged her back toward the anomaly.
Connor didn't care if they were still following him or not. He ran until he found a little alcove under a hill to catch his breath.
After several minutes of waiting silently, Connor heard nothing and assumed that they had gone back through the anomaly.
Connor picked up a nearby stone and flung it off into the distance with a shout.
He didn't care if any predators heard him at the moment.
"I can't believe it!" He scolded himself. "After all of the sci-fi movies I've seen in my life, I get flung into Helen's past and end up causing a paradox, preventing her from ever going through the anomalies and everything!"
The icing on the sour cake was that Connor had now realized that he'd been gone for eight years and not the two to three years that he had orignally assumed.
Connor's scolding was interrupted by his stomach rumbling.
Connor knew that he should take the soaked clothes off and let them dry, but his hunger was overpowering common sense at this point.
He replaced the gun in its holster, still reeling from the reality that he'd actually shot at Cutter and Ryan, and pulled the scarf down around his neck.
He took the duffle bag off his shoulder and dug through it, producing a small can of Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup.
Connor downed the can. It was sweet and slightly bitter, because it was fairly cold and didn't have water added to it.
While he was grateful for the food, his stomach didn't seem to agree and he was sick immediately afterward.
Connor dragged the back of his hand across his mouth, but it didn't rid him of the smell or the horrible taste in his mouth.
He reclined back against the back of the alcove and closed his eyes for a few moments, breathing deeply.
When he opened them again, it was night outside. The stars glittering in the sky.
Connor rummaged blindly through the bag, looking for a bottle of water. He opened a bottle and took a small sip. He was intent on making these supplies last as long as he could. He placed the bottle back in the bag, but stopped when he felt something amongst everything else in the bag.
He pulled out a small, white box.
"A wind-up radio." Connor smiled to himself.
He quickly zipped the duffle bag and slung it over his shoulders.
He emerged from the alcove. Even if there was no anomaly, he couldn't very well stay here long or he'd be eaten.
He started to wind up the radio listening for the strange, yet familiar interference that would indicate an anomaly.
Although there were no radio stations in the Permian, there was static….and: an anomaly signal.
Connor walked for what seemed like hours before he finally located the anomaly.
"Finally, farewell Permian, hello….whatever's on the other side of the anomaly that will hopefully not kill me."
Connor jumped as he heard a roar.
He turned slowly to see a Scoutasaurus and sighed.
"Thank God you were a Gorgonopsid." He muttered to the dinosaur, before making his way to the anomaly and slipping through.
Connor looked around.
"Definitely not home and definitely not the Permian." He commented as he moved further away from the anomaly.
There were cliffs, mountains, and a vast forest that welcomed Connor with creepy roars and what sounded like monkeys on helium.
As he entered the forest, he realized that he had probably made the biggest mistake by not figuring out where exactly he was in time.
He lowered the goggles, so that they were around his neck with his scarf, and he could see his surroundings better.
Connor froze when he heard some twigs snap behind him.
As he turned to see what was behind him, he was knocked unconscious.
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