Connor met us at his front door. I had been half expecting him to have the tequila bottle in hand ready to pass it over so that we didn't come inside, but to his credit he must have realised it was just an excuse.

Once we were inside, layers removed as the heat hit us like slap to the face, I headed for the kitchen to put the kettle on whilst Nick dropped dramatically down onto the sofa and groaned.

'So,' I started, as Connor leant beside me against the worktop, 'have you spoken to Abby yet?'

'What do you mean?'

'What we talked about.'

'No.'

'Come on, Con, what's the worst she could say?'

'"Get away from me you freak, you're disgusting and you make me want to be sick."'

'Right,' I said. 'Well the chances of you hearing those exact words again are so low.'

He groaned. 'I can't do it.'

'You can,' I returned. 'Have a cup of tea and call Nana-'

'What's Nana gonna say about it? "Where are my specs?"'

'She's gonna say exactly what you need to hear.'

His expression shifted in agreement. 'Yeah, no, you're right.' He sighed. 'God, it's just every time. Every time.'

'She's scary accurate.'

'You remember when she was standing beneath that pear tree in her garden and held out her hand before that pear just fell into it.' And he mimed it with his hands.

'Oh, yeah!' I said, 'she always has to be so dramatic, doesn't she?'

'That's why she's so funny.'

'No, the best thing was when she like lost her yoga teachers phone number and so just dialled a random one, you remember... and the guy picked up and was like "hey this is Jimmy,' and she screamed and hung up, and we were like what?'

Connor started laughing. 'Yes! It was him!'

'It was him.' I had to take a second for laughing. 'She'd been calling him Kevin for three years like-'

Connor's laughter cut me off and I joined in. Through the open doorway, I saw Nick lift his head. 'What?' he called.

'Our Nana's psychic, right,' I replied. 'And she's hilarious. She always used to know when we were gonna go see her, there'd always be a can of squirty cream for hot chocolate in her fridge.'

'My favourite thing she ever did was when she mixed her idioms and said that's a bit close to the nipple.'

I threw my head back and laughed. 'Oh, I'd forgotten about that. I think that's where you get it, you know Con, I don't really remember your mum and dad much, but they weren't like you were they.'

Connor shook his head, 'no, I don't think so, I don't really remember them either to be fair. I don't remember much before I came to live with you. You were still walking around in just your nappy and you were best friends with the old man who restored all the old grandfather clocks, and you had pigtails and couldn't speak yet.' He put his arm around my shoulder. 'She used to be the cutest kid, you know,' he said, 'I don't know what happened.'

'You know that would be a lot more convincing had you not come in to my room one morning convinced you'd had an ethereal experience– that an angel had given you cheerios and "tucked you in" the night before, when the reality was you'd just been super drunk and I'd put you to bed.'

'I don't know what you're talking about.'

'Uh huh.' I rolled my eyes. 'Anyway, weren't we were talking about Abby?'

'I just... I don't it's such a good idea. It'll ruin everything if she doesn't like me back. It's alright for you two. It was so obvious that you guys are like perfect for each other, even if it seems like really weird with the big age gap-'

I instinctively kicked Connor in the shin to shut him up. I shouldn't have bothered; it was already too late and Nick was already frowning.

'Ow!' Connor said as he reached down to hold his leg. 'What was that for?'

'How big is the age gap?' Nick asked.

'It's not that big,' I replied calmly. I shot Connor a quick glare that I hoped Nick didn't see. Connor shrugged dramatically.

'I still don't know how old you are,' Nick continued.

'I don't know how old you are,' I replied, 'so I'm guessing it like 15 years at most. Does it matter?'

There was maybe a second of silence. It was long enough to frighten me. To my surprise it was Connor who answered. 'Of course it doesn't, age is just a number, innit? And you two are meant to be it's actually quiet sickening and super unfair. Seriously though, when did you guys know you liked each other?'

Looking back at Nick gave me butterflies. Our eyes met and his lips slowly curled up into a smile.

'When did you start liking me?' I asked.

Nick shrugged, 'second I saw you,' he said. 'I didn't let myself think that you'd be interested in me until we came back through that anomaly.'

'Really? What about when I kissed you at the hotel?'

'Yeah, I don't think it occurred to me that you might have liked me when you did that. Apparently I'm not as clever as I pretend to be. When was it for you?'

'The first time I heard your voice I knew you'd be important to me. I don't think I knew the extent of it until you came back from the anomaly in the basement and you weren't breathing. I don't think I'm as clever as I'm pretending to be either.'

'That doesn't work for you,' Nick replied.

'Why not?'

'Because you don't need to pretend.'

At that moment my ring tone started to blare out my pocket again and to avoid the blush flushing up my neck I reached down and quickly pulled it out. Then I turned my head to Connor. 'It's Abby,' I told him as I read the caller I.D.

Connor immediately straightened, 'is she okay?'

I didn't respond, instead I answered the phone. 'Abby? Hey, how are you?'

'Anna...' she immediately returned– and even without needing to see any sort of expression I could tell she was stressed. 'I'm sorry to call but I need to ask you something.'

'Are you okay?' I questioned in concern.

'Yeah...' she assured me unconvincingly, 'um, can you do me a huge favour? We're closing the zoo; I need to go down to the police station, my boss is missing. Apparently I was the last one to see him. Do you know anything about Sea Lions?'

'Sea Lions?' I repeated, 'Californian or Australian?'

'California, I think,' she replied. 'I think he may have injured a flipper. I mean I know it's a huge favour to ask but he's probably going to need someone to take a look, is it something you can do.'

'Of course I can,' I said. 'And it's no bother at all. I'll take a look at him and hopefully we'll be able to sort that out. I'm gonna set of right now, okay, I'll be 15-20 minutes, but if you need to go then don't worry.'

'Okay, okay, um yeah... I think...'

'Go down to the station,' I said calmly, 'talk to the police, we'll catch up when you get back to the zoo.'

'Okay, thank you, I'll see you at the zoo later then.'

'Okay, bye.' I hung up. 'Abby's got to go down to the police station to answer some questions about her boss, so I'm going to the zoo to check on the animals,' I relayed.

'Oh, I was gonna go into Uni and help Stephen with something,' Connor said as he walked towards the dining table and picked up his jacket from the back of the chair, 'can you drop me there on the way? You'll go past, right?'

I shrugged and nodded, 'sure.'

'You can stay here if you want Cutter.'

Nick stood up, 'I was thinking about going into the home office, might as well get through some of the paperwork I've been putting off.'

'Alright yeah, well it makes sense to drop you off there on the way and leave the car with you in case you need it. We'll take one of the trucks to swing by the uni on the way to the zoo. I don't know how long I'll be and you might want to get home at some point.'

Nick quirked an eyebrow. 'I seriously doubt that.'

The zoo car park was empty this time when I pulled up in the truck. And it was weird considering we'd only been here this morning and a few hours later this same place felt like a ghost town.

I headed for the main doors, knowing it was quicker to walk through the reptilian centre to get to the aquatic mammals but half expected the doors to be locked when I put my hand on the handle and pulled. To my surprise, they swung open.

'Hello?'

I didn't get a response. Even the office was empty as I passed. I guess Abby must have just left the doors open for me knowing I wasn't going to be there long after she left, but still, something about it all didn't feel right.

I didn't bump into any other staff the whole way to the sealion enclosure.

I left the medical rucksack with all my kit and supplies outside at the top of the pool where the sealions went into the water and after taking a closer look at a few of them– who were laid out on the deck beside the water– I went back down into the tunnels beneath to watch them swim.

It didn't take long to spot the Sea Lion Abby had been talking about. It couldn't have long since been infantile; there were still patches of black-brown fur across his body where the others around him where a mix of slate grey and charcoal.

His right front flipper looked fine to the naked eye, but as he pushed it through the water, there was an acute degree in the range of movement from its scapula where its flipper went limp, until he circled it forward again. It was most probably a muscular issue, a swelling in the flesh around either his ribs or scapula from taking a tumble or something that reduced the capacity of its deltoid or pectoralis.

I stepped closer to the glass, hoping he would swim closer to me so I would be able to check there wasn't any sort of flesh wound beneath his flipper that could explain if it was a conscious effort to ease his own pain.

I couldn't see anything. I needed to get him out the water.

There was a bucket of fish on the deck.

I took a step back and immediately crashed into something.

I jumped, a gasp slipped past my lips before I reeled around as the fright jolted up my spine I saw Stephen and without thinking –after a short sigh– I shoved him out of frustration. 'What the hell, Stephen!'

I could feel my heart heavy and painfully pounding in my chest and I tried to put a hand over it to calm it. He looked back at me with an expression half amused and half what I thought looked like relief.

'What are you doing here, sneaking up on people like that?'

'I wasn't sneaking.' He took a step forward to peer in at the sealions through the glass, he continued 'I was walking.' I laughed in disbelief. 'Normally.' I narrowed my eyes slightly as he turned his attention from the window to me. 'Are you alright?'

I wet my lips, 'why wouldn't I be?'

He lowered his head to talk down to me. 'There might be a creature here.'

'And you think it killed the lion...'

He nodded. 'And maybe Abby's boss... The others are on their way.'

'Oh.'

His brow furrowed as he held my gaze and blinked back at me expectantly. 'What?'

'No, nothing.'

His eyes rolled slightly. 'Go on, you might as well spit it out. I know you're dying to say it anyway.'

I tried not to laugh. 'You were worried.' It seemed like a seemingly self-explanatory conclusion to reach. He was the advanced party that had come out to find me and make sure I was okay.

How very Stephen of him.

I'm sure my amusement was clear in my expression.

'About... ' he made a sort of half gesture in my direction before he put his hands behind his back, 'and the ... Sea Lions... wouldn't want anything to happen to them.'

Suddenly something unexpectedly piqued his interest and sensing it too I unfocused my gaze to strain my ears to listen. And so, again, I wasn't paying attention when he suddenly grabbed me, one arm wrapping around my back whilst the other pressed a hand into my chest to push me back.

I collided with the wall, in an alcove where the glass of the window was built into the concrete, and the air was knocked from my lungs as Stephen's body slammed against mine.

I knew not to speak, so it was completely unnecessary when his hand shifted up to press over my mouth. The surprise evolved quickly to panic.

My hand shot out to grab his wrist.

I was back there, the concrete of the stadium floor against my back, whilst Tom's sweaty palm crushed my mouth trapping the air and starving my lungs.

A noise came from me, one I completely wasn't expecting or even knew I could make, but it snapped Stephen's attention back to me and my eyes met his confused gaze. I dug my fingers into his wrist and hoped he would get the idea. Slowly, he released the pressure over my mouth, his hand slipping from my face, but with nowhere else for it to rest it ended up by my hip, my small hand still enclosed around his wrist.

His gaze dropped, only for a moment, so quick I almost didn't notice it but the expression in his eyes when his gaze came back to meet mine told me I hadn't imagined him looking at my lips.

I didn't know what to do except keep staring, because I was aware that my brain seemed completely empty and my heart was still thumping so powerfully there was no way he couldn't feel it in his own chest.

I hissed his name –quieter than a whisper– but his expression was slack like he wasn't listening but waiting, and I didn't know what for.

Half a second later the creature dropped into the other end of the tunnel.

My eyes widened.

It wasn't anything like I had expected. It was a big black shape, crouched, walking with its wrists much like most species of bats and I could honestly see the resemblance of its evolutionally ancestors from the trident nose to the short tail. Fully erect it must have stood about 8-9 feet tall.

There were enough teeth in its mouth to bite off a head in one go.

And it was bound to be fast.

I cocked my head, trying to watch for its expression or tell that it was about to charge when I realised the direction of its focus wasn't actually on us but on the window we were next to.

It heard the footsteps of Ryan and his men long before we did. Its attention turned back on itself and just as the soldiers flooded the entrance of the tunnel it took off in one giant leap straight towards us. Stephen's arm wrapped around my head holding me against him, as the creature rebounded off the wall right above our heads and was gone in an instant, out the other end of the tunnel.

Stephen slowly released his grip on me and pulled his head back ever so slightly so that he could look down at me again.

He didn't say anything. He just stared down into my eyes.

I felt his breath fan out across my skin. His grip on my hip suddenly tightened, his thumb digging right into my hipbone and I jolted forward to get away from it.

His hand slipped from the top of my head to the back of my neck.

'Hey,' Ryan's voice cut through. Immediately we both turned to see him standing beside us, 'you guys both alright?'

I couldn't speak.

Slowly I started to nod.

Stephen agreed. 'Yeah,' he said.

'You sure?' Ryan asked as he punched Stephen's arm reassuringly.

'Yeah,' Stephen repeated. 'Thanks.'

'Of course... Anna?'

'Fine, I'm fine,' I said –more to myself than either of them. I put my hand against Stephen's chest and pushed. He took a step back. 'I'm alright, really.' I could sense the disbelief but I didn't try to plead my case any further. And just wanting to get the hell out the tunnel now the walls were feeling like they were closing in, I headed towards the soldiers and the exit.

I stood outside in the fresh air for a minute or two to collect myself before I found the energy to head back inside.

To my surprise Helen was sitting just inside the entrance hall, cross legged on a bench, in front of the camel enclosure.

She looked up as I entered, my steps immediately slowing like my body didn't want to get any closer to her. And I hoped that leaving a distance between us would show I wasn't much in the mood for a conversation. I think she must have sensed that, because a moment later she stood up, grabbed her backpack off the ground and came towards me.

'You've got quite the knack for finding trouble,' she said. And I wasn't sure whether or not she meant to sound impressed.

'Usually, it finds me,' I replied, leaning back against the railing to the enclosure behind me. I sighed. 'I didn't say thank you before, for saving my life... even if you did leave it rather late...'

'Well, you were doing so well without me... it was only when Nick ran off that I thought I should intervein.'

I gave a straight lipped smile. 'Right.'

'I can see why he's attracted to you.'

'Oh come on now,' I complained, 'that's two. That's two times I've had to reject you now Helen, you need to take a hint.'

She laughed. 'Princess. I'm just saying. It's obvious you like him too.'

'Not that it's any of your business.'

'He's my husband.'

'You left him. You divorced him and you disappeared, remember? And I am so fucking grateful that you did, my god!'

'You're his type, Anna. Down to a T. Strong. Independent. Reasonably intelligent-'

I laughed. 'Are you trying to make yourself feel better? I'm sorry to say we both know I'm a lot more than that.'

'... you're modest...'

'It's the truth.'

She nodded knowingly. 'You're...' she paused, and looked me up and down, 'beautiful.'

'And there's the hat-trick. That's the third time you've hit on me, it sounds like you have a pretty serious crush... I'm sorry, I don't feel the same way...'

'... he didn't love me anymore... he didn't... whatever he says about it, you need to know one thing, I just did something he didn't have the courage to do himself. Because why should I have to be miserable for the rest of my life, stuck in a marriage to a man who didn't want to be with me anymore.'

'That's where you're wrong Helen,' I replied. 'I don't know who told you that, I don't know where that idea came from but you're wrong. He didn't stop loving you for a long time after it was actually over. But of course you don't believe that; you don't want to.'

'Why was I brought here now?' she asked.

'Because you're going to help us find the creature,' I said.

'Do you think if I had any idea how to do that I wouldn't have told you by now?'

'Honestly?' I asked, 'that wouldn't surprise me, no.'

'Well, I don't.' She crossed her arms over her chest.

'Well,' I mimicked, 'that's unfortunate because no one's going home until we do. What do you know about it?'

'It's fast, incredibly fast, and it can camouflage itself in almost any environment. And to have survived in the Permian it's had to be highly adaptable which is bad news for us. Who knows, maybe that's how humanity meets its end... by becoming the food source for a more successful species.'

I sneered. 'Uh. Well... that's nice.'

'Do you want the good news, or the bad news first?' I called out as Nick came over the hill from the car park and walked down through the trees towards us.

'What's the bad news?' he called back in response.

'So, we have no idea where it is, or how to find it...' I said. Nick joined the group, all of us: Connor, Stephen, Ryan and his men, and Helen, were reunited. 'And we don't think it could be headed back towards the anomaly site which is a couple of miles south of here, because it went that way...' and I pointed across the field in the direction we'd seen it go.

'And which way is that way?' Connor asked.

'North-east.'

Nick put his hands on his hips and sighed in frustration. 'What's the good news?'

'At least we know what it looks like.' We shared a look and I could tell he was hoping for better good news. I recognised his annoyance because my expression was exactly the same. 'And...' I continued flatly because it still wasn't good good news, 'it's ancestry could give us some clues.'

'Like what?'

'Well, even though it's evolved to be completely flightless it still moved like it had wings,' Stephen offered.

At the sound of his voice, I glanced across to him. I could tell something was up–I could sense it– but I had absolutely no idea what because right now it could have been a plethora of different things. Before he could notice I was looking at him I turned my attention away.

'Okay,' Nick nodded, 'anything else...?'

'Well, if it hasn't left a trail of bodies, it must be taking them somewhere,' I said, 'it must have like... a nest –'

' – a lair,' Connor interjected.

'A lair,' I repeated, staring excitedly back at him. 'But, without any way of finding the creature, I don't know how we'd find that either.'

'Short of stringing up some bait,' Helen said lowly.

I tutted at the unhelpfulness. 'Thank you, Helen,' I replied sarcastically.

'We will not be doing that,' Nick finished.

'I'm just saying,' she continued, 'if it found you in that building full of other animals...'

'Well, either it picked up your scent, or it's been stalking the zoo for days now...' Ryan suggested, 'when did the boss go missing?'

'Yesterday,' I answered, 'I think.'

Ryan clapped his hands together. 'Well there you go. It was probably waiting for someone to go down into that tunnel alone so it could grab you and haul you off for lunch.'

Slowly, I shook my head. 'It doesn't make sense. The way it behaved, down in that tunnel, was really weird, right?' When no one answered I turned my head back to him. 'Stephen,' I prompted. He seemed distracted– I wasn't sure by what– but apparently he'd been listening all the same.

'It doesn't make sense that it didn't attack,' Stephen agreed.

'The creature was so close to us... but... it was like it had no idea we were there...' I said slowly as though that would help me understand. Perhaps it worked. Because semi-consciously I continued 'like it couldn't see us...' because it was distracted by 'the Sea Lions'. It was the noise.

I turned to Helen. There are things here that can see your scream from a mile away. I narrowed my eyes.

'We can use dogs to find it,' I finally realised.

Nick whipped his head round to me.

Connor frowned. 'Eh?' he questioned. 'You... um... missed a few nouns out your sentence, Anna.'

'It's the frequency,' I said, 'they must still use echolocation. It didn't attack us because Sea Lions vocalize at a much higher frequency to humans so it was literally blinded by the noise of the animals. And since echo location works by excreting high frequencies that are reflected by objects in order to create a visualisation of their surroundings, all we need is something that can detect high frequencies...'

'Like dogs,' Nick repeated.

'Or an oscilloscope...' I continued, 'there's one in the car.'

'What's an... one of them?' Ryan questioned.

'It's a devise that detects high frequencies,' I explained.

'Like the creature...' Nick said.

'Nick, it will always be one step ahead of us if it can detect physical movement before it's in visual range.'

'We still won't see it coming,' groaned Stephen. 'We need a warning. A weakness in its defence or attack strategy. Otherwise it's just going to pick us off.'

'Well, the dogs would know it was coming,' Connor explained. 'Or at least when we were really close. They'd start barking, right?'

I nodded. 'Yeah, absolutely.'

'We can use its own weapon against it,' Nick finished. 'Connor, go get it.'

Nodding compliantly, he quickly turned and ran off through the trees and across the grass towards the carpark.

'Alright,' Ryan continued, 'and what happens when we do find this thing.'

Nick looked across to me and he paused like he was waiting for me to disagree with him. However, this time, I had no qualms and knew the circumstances were completely different. I nodded.

'We kill it,' Nick said definitively.

'But I thought–'

'Not this time,' I explained.

'It's fair too dangerous,' Nick added.

'And killing these things won't affect the past or the present,' I added, 'only the future.'

Ryan nodded, adjusting his grip on the gun in his hand and straightening his shoulders. 'I've got to admit,' he said, 'that makes a refreshing change, I was beginning to feel like a social worker...'

Even I had to admit it was a little bit funny.

Ryan couldn't have been more different from me and yet there was disharmony in our friendship. There wasn't anything right or wrong about being different; I sometimes wondered if I'd have been more like him had I not suffered those various incidents that made me so opposed to it.

'Do you think there's any chances that the people it's taken could still be alive,' he asked.

Before I could give a polite answer, Helen interrupted 'I doubt it.'

Narrowing my eyes at her, I followed on 'we don't know. Maybe. Depends on its feeding patterns; if it fed recently it could be likely to keep its food source alive so its fresher for its next meal.'

'That's delightful.'

'Yeah, but it might mean some of those people are still alive. I brought a med-kit...' I then continued in realisation, 'I left it up at the enclosure. I should–'

A noise interrupted me. It was distant– barely recognisable from so far away but it sounded almost like glass shattering. And– 'What was that?' Nick vocalized, mirroring my thoughts.

I felt my heart drop. 'Connor.' Then I felt the ground moving beneath my feet as I ran. Someone called my name, but I'd left them all behind in a moment.