Nick groaned at the ground. Dust sucked into his nostrils was exhaled sharply as he forced himself to roll over onto his back. As the anomaly vanished it had risen several metres in the air leaving him to fall the extra distance.

He blinked away dirt made moist by his eyes and searched his immediate surrounds. Dust, rocks, more dust... A short walk ahead he could see the land fall away toward the camp site, but it was the curious conglomeration of rocks to the left that held his attention. Miniature spillways of dust poured from the top boulder as something behind it scratched about. There was a horrid gurgle of laughter and Nick knew that an infant future creature was the cause.

"Right," he breathed to himself, rolling off his slightly bloodied arm. The sharp rocks he had fallen on left nicks and dents across his skin not to mention the destruction of his best jeans. There was a gaping void where his knee used to be which revealed a deepening bruise and a splash of red.

A scrawny grey body darted from behind the rock pile and scampered out across the barren ground. Unable to rise quickly enough, Nick swung his gun around with his free hand, levelled it up and pulled the trigger. The gun shot echoed, startling the creatures living in the scattered trees toward the camp. The future creature jumped, skipping its legs high and quickened its pace.

"Yeah, yeah," Nick muttered, dragging himself to his feet. "Wait up you ugly brat."

* * *

"What the hell sort of solution is that!" shouted Ryan at the void where the anomaly had been.

"A 'Nick-cut' that's what," sighed Conner, handing the portable anomaly detector to a roving scientist.

Ryan paced irritably, "So what do we do now?"

"Well," Lester emerged from the shadows of the forest with his arms crossed over his chest in a distinctly frustrated manner. "We can either excavate the scene for million year old Nick remains or head back to the ARC and monitor the area for new anomalies."

* * *

The ARC buzzed quietly as it did on Friday afternoons. With Nick roaming about in the past, the present seemed just that little bit quieter – saner, even. Jenny glanced at the lockers as she paced down the hallway. She let her hand brush against the door of the one labelled, 'CUTTER'. It was beyond her why she cared so much. Be reasonable she would tell herself, you hardly know him.

She found her desk buried beneath a fresh pile of papers and the sticky stain of coffee on the floor beside. Frankly, she was beginning to think of it more as a post office than a desk.

"Have you got a minute Ms. Lewis?" Lester placed another folder on the tapered pile.

Jenny frowned. "That depends on what you want."

"Oh nothing," he slinked behind her desk and made use of her chair. "Just a chat."

"Well chat fast," she quipped, fishing through the pile for a bright blue folder.

Lester raised his eyebrows as his folder slipped off the table onto the floor where its contents spilt, unnoticed. "I wanted to ask you what your thoughts are on Claudia Brown."

Jenny stopped what she was doing to glare. "You mean this delusion Nick keeps raving on about. My thoughts are that he's been through the anomalies one too many times."

"I thought that too," he replied. "But then I found this."

Lester reached into his coat pocket. He pulled out a small piece of paper held together by criss-crossed segments of sticky tape. Jenny took it from him, gently straightening it out in the palm of her hand.

She frowned, nudging it with her finger.

"Where..." she began, breathlessly. "I don't-"

"My guess is that we are looking at a photograph of Claudia Brown. I couldn't be sure of course, until I showed you."

"You think Nick was telling the truth?"

"After spending an hour debriefing a dead Major in my office, I'm starting to think that anything's possible these days."

Jenny put the photograph down. "That is not me," she said, not looking at it. "It means nothing." She stopped for a moment, swaying slightly as she leant on the desk. Her eyes were shut tightly against the brightness of the overhead lights. She brought a hand to her forehead, wiping away beads of sweat.

Lester stood quietly, motioning towards her. "Are you all right?"

"Dizzy," she replied. "I haven't eaten yet."

"You go do that," said Lester, prying himself from her chair. "We can't have our PR guru collapsing at the next press conference."

He left quietly and headed towards his office. It seemed that hunger had become a contagion as the corridor walls moved slightly in his vision. Flashes of light played at the edges of his vision and a sick feeling in his head quickly turned into a dull throb.

"Urgh," moaned Lester, suddenly feeling awful. He pushed against the glass doors of his office, slipping from their metal handles.

Lester fell into his office, hitting the floor hard.

* * *

Nick followed the creature around the camp site and into the dense forest at the edge of the volcanic landscape. Trees with bulbous bark towered above him, filled with the creatures of his childhood fossil books. There was a claw mark through the bark of one. Sap leaked out through the wound like honey, tumbling down. The viscous liquid consumed a winged insect which now floated, motionless, trapped in the translucent tomb.

A rustle to the left caught his attention. He thought he saw a fern shiver and a shadow vanish.

"You want to play?" he asked the forest. "I'll give you play."

* * *

Jenny sat behind her desk with her head in her hands. Beside her a glass fizzed with a dissolvable painkiller and a sandwich sat, untouched. She felt atrocious.

She closed her eyes if only to dim the world around. When had the ARC become so bright? She could hardly bear it. Jenny had been without breakfast before, it was the nature of her job to miss meals and snack on the run, but she had never felt like this. Something was wrong with her, but she simply didn't have the strength to call a medic.

* * *

Nick sat perfectly still, his gun trained on the base of a fern. There was something moving behind the crosshatched bark, disturbing the dark green fronds that scraped across the ground with passing currents of air.

There was pollen in air. Nick could smell its sweet scent as it was knocked from above and rained down like red snowflakes. He blinked away the maroon dust that fell on his eyelashes. The fern moved again, and Nick gripped the butt of his gun more tightly.

A dash of grey snuck between the foliage. Nick was sure it knew it was being followed. The future creatures were smart – 'gifted' as Helen had once said. They knew you were hunting from the moment the thought formed. Humans though, they were smart too. Evolution may not have given them super powers but it had bestowed blind determination.

"There you are," he whispered. The creature believed itself to be hidden and Nick had just enough space to execute a clean shot. "This is for Claudia Brown..."

Nick squeezed the trigger and a thunderous crack split the air.