DATE: 27TH JUNE 2179. TIME- 06:31

Anne jerked awake in the dark, gasping from a nightmare, her memory already splintering and skittering off into the recesses of her mind. She caught her breath, felt the clammy sweat on her skin, and then exhaled as she realized it had been a dream. Glancing around, she saw Newt and Tim sprawled on a blanket that had been thrown on the floor, jackets and sweatshirts and seat cushions for pillows, and she remembered it all. The derelict spaceship and its abhorrent cargo, and what had happened to her husband. 'Russ,' she breathed, eyes welling with tears that she quickly wiped away. She had to be stronger than that, for her kids. Others slept around them, nearly a dozen people she had known for years but who seemed distant from her now. Some of these people were her friends, others her neighbours or co-workers, but her only priorities were Newt and Tim.

'Mom?' Tim asked quietly. 'Are you okay? You made a sound.'

'Just bad dreams, sweetie,' she said, hoping she sounded calmer than she felt. 'Go back to sleep.'

'I haven't been sleeping. I can't. Every time I close my eyes…' You see your father die, she thought. Whimpering softly, she grabbed her son and hugged him tightly.

'I know, Timmy. I know.' They'd been holed up in operations for almost two full days, waiting for help that may or may not be on its way. Food and drink had been brought to them over the course of the two days, and much of the detritus of those meals remained.

'What's for breakfast?' she asked, lifting a sleepy Newt into her arms, where the girl snuggled against her and went back to sleep. Even though she was trying to act normally, with every second she was planning. Help must be coming, she thought. But when? Would there be anyone left to save when they did arrive? She decided to track down Al Simpson and find out. Anne clutched Tim's hand in her left, carrying the sleeping Newt against her hip with her right.

She found Simpson making himself a coffee. Poor man, he looked like hell. Anne switched Newt to her other hip and fixed him with a stare as they walked towards him. She wasn't about to let him avoid her.

'Do you really think we'll be safe here in operations?' she whispered, coming in close to him so that other people wouldn't hear their conversation.

'Honestly Anne, I don't know. I'm pretty sure that if we stay separated, those things will pick us off one by one,' Simpson said. 'Our best chance is to use all of our resources to secure this area, and hold out until help can arrive.'

'How long until we get help?'

'Minimum of four weeks' mumbled Simpson, staring intently at his shoes.

'Four weeks?!' she hissed back, 'we're not going to last four days!'

'What do you want me to do?' snapped Simpson, 'I have no weapons, no resources, no communications and no transport. What the fuck do you want me to do?'

'I'm sorry Al, that was unfair of me, but four weeks? Do you think we're going to make it?'

'I have to believe so, yes. The alternative is simply too terrible to contemplate. Now excuse me please.'

Anne stepped out of the unfortunate man's way and glanced over her shoulder spotting Tim. 'Let's go, little man, breakfast.'

Tim frowned. 'I'm not little.'

'No,' Anne agreed, thinking that with his father gone, Tim would have to grow up very quickly indeed. 'I guess you're not.'

'Don't worry, Mom,' he said grimly. 'You and Newt can count on me to look out for you.' Anne bit her lip and tried not to sob. She had no fear for herself, but the thought of her children trapped with these monsters made her want to scream. Monsters we found, she thought. Monsters we brought back.

'I feel better already,' she said. 'How about you, Newt?'

'Uh, sure,' the girl said noncommittally. Newt clutched her Casey doll to her chest, and clung a little tighter to her mother.

Anne glanced at Tim, so brave and handsome… so like his father she thought, kissing Newt on the temple.

'C'mon, food' she instructed them and led them off to eat.