I stayed at the back of the group for the majority of the walk, watching out for any signs of movement in the dunes between the rocks.

Taylor was at the front of the group, setting a fair pace in spite of her injury and chatting the whole way.

It didn't take as long to get back along the rocks as I thought it would.

I had my gaze down and drawn off to the side when Nick's voice sounded and I suddenly snapped my attention up. 'Stephen,' he called, 'Stephen, it's fading.'

Taylor suddenly screamed as Stephen lunged forward, throwing her up over his shoulder. I caught site of the anomaly, just a little way off in the distance and knew immediately that there was no way we could reach it in time.

It was too far and the path between here and there was blocked. We weren't going to make it.

I stopped beside Nick at the edge of the rocks. Before our eyes, the anomaly pulsated and closed. Stephen flopped down, throwing his head into his hands and groaning.

'What happened?' Taylor asked, as she stared at the site where the anomaly had been. 'When are we going back?'

'Well,' I responded, 'not just yet, okay? We'll find another way.'

Taylor glanced around at me, and I gave her a reassuring smile. 'You mean another way to get home?' she asked.

'Hopefully,' I responded. 'Honestly, it won't be straight away, and you should know that there's a chance we're going to be stuck out here away from home for quite some time, maybe permanently. But we're gonna try our best, okay? Promise.'

The first thing we needed to do was find water. Because the Silurian would dehydrate much faster than it would eat us, and looking up I searched the sky for clouds. East.

'Anna.'

When I brought my gaze down at the sound of Nick's voice, I found him holding his canteen out towards me.

'I'm okay,' I said quickly.

He cocked his head. 'No, drink.'

And even though my mouth wasn't dry, I listened, taking his canteen and sipping back a little bit of water before I gave the canteen back.

'Thanks,' I said. 'Right, you have a P.H.D, right?' I asked.

'You mean–'

'Not a Ph.D., a P.H.D,' I returned in explanation, 'in your backpack.'

He nodded. 'It isn't…'

'Doesn't matter. Be able to pick up the smallest signs of radio waves out here, there won't be any risk of interference. It's better to have it out.'

'Okay.'

'We're gonna go east, alright?'

Stephen didn't get up. He glanced at me from his spot on the rock like he was doubting everything I'd said.

Maybe I shouldn't have told them that the lack of oxygen would get to their heads. He could use it to gaslight me.

I had no doubt it would come to that if we got any worse because even though I knew exactly what I was doing I'd already shot myself in the foot by telling them we would start to lose our grip on reality.

'Why aren't you freaking out?' he said, like it was suspicious.

I shrugged. 'Been here before, remember?' I returned, 'and you know what, I found my way back then and I can do it again. Better than that, I'm not alone. And while I'm not happy that we're all trapped, I am glad that it's easier to be trapped with people than it would be if you were all on your own.'

'How long?' Nick asked. I spun around to face him and found him standing with his arms crossed, his chin tucked into his chest. When I didn't answer, he glanced up. 'How long,' he repeated firmly, 'did it take you last time to get home?'

My attention flicked to Taylor, somewhat sympathetically because I didn't want to answer. I didn't want to tell her that, but it was better to be honest. I knew that. I tightened my grip on the straps of my backpack. 'Two years,' I said.

And even though they both knew it already, Stephen and Nick both sighed.

'We don't have two years,' Nick said, then he leant in towards me, voice low, 'you don't have two years.'

'It was only days before I found another anomaly,' I told them confidently. 'We'll be somewhere else and chances are it'll be somewhere better because you can't get much worse than here. Somewhere with accessible water, vegetation, a reliable food source. And I've got a theory, from some of my research, that certain times are more prone to the fractures– the anomalies– just like certain areas across the globe. So, we can stick to a radius,' I suggested, 'and if there was one anomaly here more likely there'll be another sooner rather than later. You just have to trust me.'

Nick was the first to stand up, show his willing, and just a few seconds later Taylor followed.

And we waited, only for few moments for Stephen to give a reluctant nod. 'Alright,' he said, as he pushed himself to his feet, 'you are the expert after all.'

'There isn't a way out of here, is there?'

Perhaps we'd been just that bit too quiet. In my distraction I hadn't said anything in quite some time; I'd been far too busy negotiating a path through the rocks, whilst all the while keeping, half my attention on the P.H.D, and one eye on the horizon in search for a glimmer of shimmering lights.

At the sound of Taylor's voice, I stopped, and turned back around.

I wasn't quick enough to answer before Nick did. 'Sure, there is,' he said. But his tone wasn't quite right and it was left sounding completely unbelievable.

'You're lying,' she returned, 'adults always lie. My mum told me she was going to be alright but she wasn't…' her voice cracked, and instantly concerned I took a step towards her. 'She died. Now you're lying too just like her.'

I had to swallow, my heart dropping at the realisation that Taylor wasn't really as happy a kid as I had originally thought. And I should have seen it before.

Instantly I was cross with myself for not noticing.

Taylor threw herself down in protest and put her head in her hands. 'We're gonna die in this stupid place!'

I walked towards her. There was a space beside her on the rock, but I didn't sit down right away– I held back for a second to give her the opportunity to turn her back if she didn't want me to be there. She didn't. Instead she kept her chin up and stared out across the miles of sand and dunes in front of us. I slowly lowered myself onto the rock beside her. 'I'm not gonna coddle you– I know you don't need that, and I know that you'd smoke out the bullshit. We're not in such great shape at the moment but I can promise you one thing, we're not going to die, okay?' She turned her head, looked me right in the eye like she was trying to decide whether I was trustworthy enough to listen to what I'd been saying. With another pang of sadness in my chest, I exhaled. 'I lost my mum too,' I said softly, 'and my dad… my whole family really. And after they'd gone I heard so many people say that missing someone– people used to tell me that a feeling like that never really goes away like they thought that would make it easier for me, and that it would just take a bit of time to get used to it. It wasn't true but I think you know that too, that after a while you stop missing them, and it becomes a numbness, like a nothing, because you've adjusted to not having them around. And it doesn't hurt anymore, but it's still sad.' I took another deep breath, trying not to get consumed by the trauma of my past. 'I want to be honest with you, Taylor, because nobody was ever really honest with me and it used to drive me insane. I know you want to get home, me too, I left my best friend back there. I'm gonna do everything within my power to do that. And I've been cut off before, but I did make it home.' I waited for her to react, a nod, a smile, something, and after what felt like the longest time, she finally nodded her head. 'Okay,' I said, 'now there are clouds due east.' I pointed up to the cumulus in the sky and she followed my finger. 'So that could mean a body of water, vegetation, so food and shelter. We're gonna head that way, and we're gonna stay on the rocks as far as we can.'

I stood and offered a hand down to her. She took it and let me help her to her feet. I went to head the group as we started walking again, and Taylor followed after me.

She eyed Stephen as she passed him, pausing just for a moment to look up at him. She narrowed her eyes. 'If you try to pick me up again, I'll bite you…'

Nick guffed but swallowed his amusement after a quick side eye from Stephen.

'Good girl,' I said.

'Would you rather die of thirst or be eaten? I think I'd rather be eaten; at least it's quick. Two bites, done. You're like four of five bites so it'll be worse for you.'

'Can you not try and be positive for five minutes?' I heard Nick groan from somewhere behind us. 'You know, hopeful?'

'We're probably the best food around. Imagine you're a giant sand thing living on nothing but millipede then you get to taste people for the first time. All gooey and warm. We'd be like a delicacy. So, who do you think they'll eat first?

'Why don't you sing a song or whistle or something? Anything. Just stop talking.'

'Whoa, whoa.' I stopped and spun around at the sound of Stephen's voice, just in time to see him point across the rocky terrain.

I looked back to see what had caught his attention.

'What?' Nick asked.

'Can you see that?'

My initial sweep of the area finished but I couldn't see anything, and out of instinct looked down at my watch.

We'd been here 7 hours. I lifted my head and looked to Stephen but before I could even open my mouth to explain he cut me off with a long sigh. 'I'm seeing things,' he admitted.

I couldn't blame him, my own head was starting to feel a little foggy like that period of time before a night out that even in the moment seems hazy like you know you won't be able to remember all of it clearly the next morning.

Another hour passed very quickly. Because walking and listening to Taylor ramble on condensed that time into only a few minutes, because every minute had been the same.

We didn't stop to take a drink. A canteen went up, then back down the line to Nick at the back, he must have still had water in his mouth when he heard the noise suddenly start to burst out the P.H.D in my hand, because I heard him spit it out and spray it over Stephens back as the alleviation hit him.

'Oh, thank god!' he said a moment later, wiping his mouth and pacing past the others to me.

Stephen joined us, peered down at the detector and sighed in relief. 'Oh yes!'

'What is it?' Taylor asked.

'That's hope,' Nick answered, as he tapped a hand against the blinking red dot on the screen.

'Another anomaly,' I explained. I looked up from the device to Taylor, but she didn't seem to be paying much attention suddenly. Her brow was furrowed, her eyes nonrespondent from the ground like she was listening to something.

'Which way?' Stephen asked.

Before anyone could answer, Taylor spoke again. 'I can hear a train.'

Stephen frowned. 'There are no trains in the Silurian…'

'It's not a train.' I lifted a hand and gestured across the dunes to a grey cloud of sand and dirt coming quickly and noisily towards us. 'Look.'

'That's a sandstorm…'

'Let's go,' Stephen said, slamming a down on Taylor's shoulder and pulling her off towards the rock.

In my panic I left the detector in Nicks hands and just stared at the holes in the rock face, big enough to climb into but so very, very small that I immediately thought I wouldn't be able to do it. All the air from my lungs vanished immediately. A chill ran up my spine– an echo of that freezing coldness from the chest freezer. I couldn't move.

'Anna, come on!'

Stephen's voice pulled be back into the moment and I forced myself to move forward, stopping just in front of the hole and swinging my bag down into it first.

Come on. Come on, you can do it.

I shut my eyes, grabbing the edge of the hole with my hands and crawling in.

And I kept my eyes closed.

I had no idea how long it was until someone skidded down next to me. And I wasn't going to open my eyes to find out who it was, so I waited for them to say something or do something that might give me some kind of indication.

'I dropped it.' Nick. His voice in my ears helped to settle some of the panic inside me. 'I dropped the damn thing!'

I didn't know what he was talking about. He swung himself down beside me, arm looping around my shoulder to pull me against him, I pressed my face into his chest and tried to take a couple of calming breaths.

'What?' I questioned weakly.

'I dropped the detector.' I inhaled and exhaled against him, breathing in his cologne that was still just about lingering above the smell of his sweat. His chest rose and fell– he was out of breath, I could feel it fanning out across the top of my head. I grabbed a hold of his forearm and squeezed it. 'What the hell are we going to do now?'

'It's going to be okay.'

I could feel him shaking his head. I opened my eyes and lifted a hand to his cheek to pull his face down so that I could look him in the eye. 'Anna…'

The wind whipped the sand right past the hole in the rockface and instinctively Nick turned his back to it to shield us both, but luckily none of it blew in. 'We'll get home,' I told him, 'even if it takes a decade this time, we are going to be fine.'

'This is my fault!' He replied in frustration. 'This is all my fault.'

'No. Nick, it doesn't matter.'

He sucked through his teeth and tried to shake his head again. 'How can you say that?'

'Because you're right here, and I'm here. And we're together.' I pushed myself up just enough to press my lips to his in a quick kiss. As I pulled back he reached up to cover my hand with his and turned to press his face further into my palm. 'Whatever happens now, you're with me.' I settled back against him, laying my head on his chest and exhaling slowly. 'Us.'