'Where've you been?' Connor's blusterous voice boomed out as we came back down the hallway to the anomaly.

I tossed the digital radio at him and watched him frown as he lifted it to his ear. 'Had to check something.'

'We'll explain later,' Stephen added.

Nick looked up from tying his shoe and swung the rifle back over his shoulder. 'Listen, these two won't be asleep for much longer, I need to get them back before they wake up.' He grabbed a hold of the end of the pallet trolley to push it towards the anomaly.

'Can come with, you know,' I said. It made sense after all; I'd been in the cretaceous for a few weeks this time round. In the first year I'd wondered through the deserts there for well over a month.

Nick just shook his head. 'That's as far as you go.'

It sounded like he didn't trust me. I didn't know why but with no real reason to be suspicious I tried to push it to the back of my mind. 'Careful,' I settled on. 'Steep the other side.'

He nodded. 'Thanks.' He gave me one final smile before he stepped through the anomaly.

Once Nick was back and the anomaly had closed, Connor lifted the radio down from his shoulders and passed it over to me. 'That noise,' he said, 'it's stopped.'

From somewhere on the other side of the room- packing away the weaponry equipment- Stephen looked up. 'You were right.'

'What do you mean?' Connor asked.

'Anna said that it was all related, the radios and the anomalies...' He shut the rifle case. 'By the looks of it...'

'So this is what you were checking earlier when you disappeared?' Nick questioned.

I shrugged. 'Heard a noise.'

'You got all that from radio static?'

'Just followed a few breadcrumbs.'

'If the anomalies really are causing the inference it means we won't have to sit around waiting for the creatures any longer. We'll know the anomaly's open before they do.' He bent down, retrieved my jawbone knife from where it had fallen against the wall earlier that evening, and held it out towards me. I took it from him and slipped it back into the sheath beneath waistband of my jeans. 'What would we have done without you? It's good to have you back, Anna,' he said.

Nick hummed in agreement.

'Good to be back,' I said. And for the first time I felt genuinely glad I had survived it.

The novelty of light switches would never wear off– I was sure of it. I stood in the corridor of the new building and watched as a row of L. flickered on to unfold the hallway before me.

The walls were white, the floor speckled with silver flecks and it reminded me of the first hospital I'd ever worked at.

It was slippery underfoot. The tread from my boots had worn right down some time ago making the polished concrete almost hazardous in my perplexed state. If it hadn't been for Nick holding tightly to my hand I expect I would have fallen.

There were lockers, a few tables, a small kitchenette with beanbags and a fridge.

A fridge.

I let go of Nick and walked straight towards. A bottle of Dr Pepper rattled in the door from the momentum of swinging it open and before I could realise what I was doing I'd picked it up.

'Um, A,' Connor's voice crossed from the lockers, 'that's mine.'

I unscrewed the top, raised it to my lips and downed the whole bottle in a second flat. Then I dropped it.

'Never mind,' Connor finished. 'You know what... you probably deserve it.'

Nick blinked back at me in amusement as I then went through the shelves, picking up what looked to be leftovers in Tupperware pots, and not caring that it was probably someone's tea or lunch they hadn't got round to eating, a scooped up what looked like macaroni cheese with my fingers and put it into my mouth.

Then something behind Nick's head caught my eye.

I shoved the container– still open– back into the fridge and walked away without thinking about shutting the door. I stepped forward and pressed a hand up against the locker between Nick's and Connor's.

My name. Anna Havisham. I turned my head, still chewing, to look at Nick but he mimicked me with his own confusion.

'That name tag was blank earlier,' he said..

'Sure?'

He nodded. 'Definitely,' he said. 'I remember thinking how weird it was.'

I grabbed the lock with a pink, blood stained hand, and without thinking started to twist in a code on the dial. The lock clicked open.

'How did you know that?' Nick asked.

I shrugged my shoulders, pulling the lock off so I could open the door. There was a jacket hanging inside and a pair of white converse kicked off into the bottom. On the shelf at the top was a stack of papers and I grabbed them, scrunching them up to drag them down.

The first few looked like memos from Lester about reports I needed to file, beneath that were detailed plans of the building, a construction guide booklet to a room that looked to be located off that current corridor, and as I flicked it open I saw diagrams, sketches and blueprints all annotated with hand written notes in my handwriting.

I cocked my head, peering down at them.

'What is that?' Nick asked, as he looked down at the papers in my hands.

'My lab...' I deduced.

I threw the papers back into the bottom of the locker and started to jog quite quickly down to the rooms at the end of the corridor.

The door was open but the blinds were down meaning little light penetrated in from the corridor. There was a large desk, a chair, a blackboard covered in scribbles that looked somewhat familiar and on the top of a filling cabinet beside the board stood a picture in a frame.

'This is yours?' Nick questioned as he looked into the room. Again I couldn't answer with anything but a shrug. 'It doesn't look like you've been in here...'

'Of course it doesn't,' Connor commented, appearing behind us. 'You usually just work in the hub with the rest of us.' I looked back at him over my shoulder. He saw my confusion and explicated 'this bit, through here.' And he kicked open the swinging doors beside him and walked through into the main room of the building.

I followed.

I looked around at everything, wide eyed. People bustled around us, dressed in suits or uniforms like Ryan's men. Everyone looked busy. Everyone walked with such purpose. I doubted we would fit in here.

'The fuck is this place?' I asked beneath my breath.

'Ah professor, you're back. And such excellent timing,' another familiar voice called out to Cutter.

I brought my head round to watch James Lester descend from his office down the ramp towards us.

'What's all this about?' Connor asked.

'Perhaps the professor didn't explain,' Lester said, 'the new P.R manager who's working with the team is here now if you want to meet him.'

Before I could contradict him and say that I didn't want to do anything of the sort, Nick interrupted 'forget it. We're going home to bed.'

As if on cue Connor yawned.

'Yes, I know it's late, it'll only take a minute.'

I felt my eyes rolling and the effect alone nearly made me loose my balance from the dizziness it stirred. I needed more food, more water or something to hydrate me and bring up my blood sugar levels. My whole body ached sincerely as if aware of the fact that home was so close now and I was desperate to get there.

Nick glanced at me like he could sense it. 'You okay?'

And as though he hadn't noticed me standing there beside him, Lester turned his head, following Nick's line of focus and frowned. Oh god, not this again. 'Do I know you?' he asked. He looked me up and down, taking in whatever my appearance was, before his brow furrowed further.

'Anna,' I replied.

'You are?'

'Work here,' I explicated.

'You do?'

'Not look like I do?' I held out my hands to gesture to myself. All I had seen of myself for years was neck down. I knew my jeans were faded almost white from the sun but stained brown from the dust and the dirt and they were riddled with all different sorts of rips and holes. My t-shirt was just as dirty, somewhat mis-shaped and baggy, but did a good job of hiding the bones in my flesh. It wasn't too bad. Or at the very least it could have been much worse. I hadn't starved out there –thank fuck– I nearly had a few times but I'd always managed to find something to eat to keep me going. I'm not going to stop eating now.

Ever.

Lester nodded. 'No, I suppose you do. Let's get on with this, I guess, then you can all get home to clean yourselves up and get some sleep. I'd like you all to meet your new colleague.' I heard the heavy footsteps coming from the corridor before the doors opened again behind us, so I turned around quickly, aware that a shower was only one hello away. 'This is Jensen Lewis.'

My mouth fell open.

'Ryan.' I snapped my head around and met Nick's astonished gape with an expression not dissimilar.

I brought my head back.

Captain Ryan was dead. Nick saw it happen. I saw the body. So how was he standing there right in front of us?

The man stepped forward and held out his hand. 'I'm Jensen,' he said with a smile. 'It's nice to meet you.'