We met Connor back at the truck. He'd spent the last hour wandering around with his P.H.D and searching for some sign of something. Stephen had found a trail, or at least he seemed to think he had. Connor was overly excited about it had taken it open himself to get the biggest sniper from the truck.

I decided not to say anything. Instead I stood and watched them all gather their gear as I fisted my hands around my backpack straps. Nick stopped in front of me, shoving his radio back into his pocket to free up his hands so that he could pluck the weapon and the keys from Connor's hands.

'Anna,' he said, 'let's go.' I nodded back at him. 'Connor, if you see anything suspicious... call me.'

Connor frowned, 'hang on...' he said, following the gun with his eyes, 'what am I supposed to do if I do see something?' He held up the radio. 'Talk it to death?'

Nick looked to me, and guessing he didn't want to be the one to explain why he couldn't have a gun I took over. 'Shot me, remember?'

'... it was an accident!' he replied. 'I said I was sorry.'

'Okay,' I assured him, 'but... people here too.'

'Exactly...' he winged. 'And you can't seriously leave me here unarmed.'

'Going out there unarmed,' I reminded him, gesturing back over my shoulder.

'Anna, you've got a knife...' Okay, so I was hardly completely defenceless but it wasn't the same thing. 'I don't even have that.' He had a point.

I sighed and looked back to Nick.

'Alright,' Nick resolved, 'you can have the keys to the gun cases.' Grinning, Connor reached out to take them, but, unfinished, Nick pulled them back out his reach. 'Only as a last resort,' he stressed, 'got it?'

'Loud and clear.'

I smiled, grabbing the straps of my rucksack and moving to follow after Nick. 'Be careful,' I said.

He nodded. 'You too.'

I'd run the best part of a mile down the track in the woods without stopping. It was something I had grown used to. I had always been more of a sprinter in athletics, I could get anywhere quick but had never been great with long distances. My stamina had changed whilst being away on the other side of the anomalies. I'd been running everywhere almost constantly- too afraid to slow down. I'd worked out how to sustain and maintain a constant quick speed that meant I could cover a lot of ground whilst also outrunning anything that chased after me.

I lost myself on the path. When I slowed down to check for tracks on the trail I heard a sound behind me, and only remember that Nick was there when I turned and saw him. He was out of breath, a little red in the cheeks but mostly okay as he came to a stop beside me.

'Alright?' I asked, because I felt bad; I should have stopped before a minute way before now to allow him to catch his breath.

'Yeah,' he replied. 'Don't- don't worry about me, if you need to go...'

I knew sped was of the essence but I hadn't needed to go that fast. 'No,' I said, 'it's okay.'

He nodded. 'Where are we going?'

I pointed down to the end of the path where the trail lead to the main walkway through the woods. We walked the last bit together. We quickly reached the walkway and had to stop again. There were two options; two directions at complete opposites to each other. Nick glanced first to the left, then the right. 'Which way?' he asked. He took a couple of deep breaths before he winced. For a moment I almost thought he was in some serious pain- maybe he'd pushed himself a bit too hard- but he suddenly turned and faced. 'This doesn't feel right.'

'What?'

'It doesn't feel right, having all those people here, when they don't know what's going on.'

It was a bit of a tangent. He must have still been thinking back to that conversation we'd had with Campbell and I didnt blame him. Nodding, I adjusted my grip on the straps of my backpack. 'Can't tell them though,' I replied, 'so what?'

'There has to be some other way...' he stated. That much was obvious. 'And what Jensen said. The press aren't gonna find anything... we know there isn't an anomaly here.'

So he did trust Connor. It was refreshing to hear, not because I doubted it, but because it helped to solidify my own suspicions that whatever was going on here wasn't the standard incursion.

'Been thinking,' I said, '... the creature...'

'You think you might know what it is?'

'Don't think its just a python...'

Nick growled. 'We can't– how do we protect people from something like that?'

I shook my head. We couldn't. The only chance we had was to stay out it way. 'Find it,' I said even though it was obvious, 'before it finds us.' But we were pretty much stuck in that regard- there wasn't a single sign of it out here.

Nick knew that too. He grabbed his radio. 'Stephen,' he said into it, 'have you seen anything?'

'Fresh tracks,' Stephen's voice crackled back. 'It's doubled back on us.'

'Back towards the park?' I questioned. I spun around, squinting through the trees.

'Looks that way,' Stephen affirmed.

Nick groaned.

'Cutter!' I brought my head back round to him, as the sound of a different voice coming from the radio. Connor. 'There's a creature here. I'm going after it!'

I snatched my radio up to my mouth. 'No!' I replied, 'Connor!' I didn't get any response. The radio didn't even crackle. 'You hear me? Connor?' He wasn't there. I lowered the device and locked eyes with Nick. 'Got to stop him!'

'Go.'

I turned and sprinted back through the trees.

The embarrassment didn't fade from Connor's cheeks for the next few hours.

I suspected Nick was actually a lot more relieved than he let on but was choosing not to show it, which meant Connor stay very quiet. Stephen was nowhere to be seen, I assumed he was still tracking the creature whilst Nick and I had stayed with Connor by the truck and we had taken to studying local maps to try and work out if there was anywhere nearby that a creature could have been hiding.

We weren't long into our conversation when my phone rang.

After another few seconds- which I spent staring at the caller I.D in confusion- Nick nudged me as though to ask why I hadn't answered it yet.

I turned my head up to him.

'Can you remember how to answer it?' he asked- because it wouldn't have been the first time I'd stared cluelessly down at it and tried to jog the memory of how it actually worked.

It wasn't one of those time, I knew exactly how to answer I just didnt want to. 'Jensen,' I explained. Though why he wanted to talk to me I had no idea.

Nick frowned. 'What could he possibly want to say now?' I held my phone out for him to take, and sensing that I wasn't going to do the talking he took it from me and answered. 'Hello... yes this is Nick Cutter! …She's busy, you'll have to talk to me...'

I tried not to smile.

If anyone had told Nick Cutter that he was softie he would have firmly denied it. The truth was he would do just about anything for anyone he cared about. I loved it about him. He had a way of being proactively kind, observant to jump up to do something for someone if he thought it would help.

I stared from behind my sunglasses as he listened to whatever Jensen was saying on the other end of the line. 'A farm?' He repeated. 'Where?' he flicked through the map and quickly located it. 'That's the same one Stephen saw. Okay.' He pulled the phone down from his face to talk to me. 'Apparently it belongs to a Michael West. He used to import exotic animals, but he lost his licence three years ago for illegally bringing in lion cubs for a private zoo.'

'Telling us this...?' I replied questioningly.

'He's been tied down at the A.R.C,' Nick replied, 'with the paperwork from Connor's almost manslaughter ... He's made the decision that you're the next best person to be trusted with the public.'

A horrible decision really.

But the other options were either Connor or Cutter and neither seemed like a good choice. Stephen probably had the best social skills out of all of us but he was busy doing something arguable more important. Sighing. 'Tell him I'm on my way.'

Nick put the phone back up to his ear and smirked. 'We're on our way.'