'How long will it be until it starts kicking?' Nick's hand was resting on my stomach, his thumb drawing slow patterns beneath my camisole.

I'd been close to sleeping– my eyes had been shut but I had been lingering in that state between unconscious and conscious where I could still hear what was happening but not fully experiencing it.

I had to hum to sort of clear my throat before I could answer. 'Couple of months,' I replied. But I wasn't sure exactly; it was hard to pinpoint the exact date of conception because there were multiple possibilities. 'I mean, right now its probably the same size as a blueberry and doesn't have arms or legs. Its got a massive brain though.'

'Of course it does,' he replied as he kissed the top of my head. 'It takes after its mother.'

The wind and sand whistled past the rockface. 'Sorry about not telling you sooner.'

He turned his head down to look at me. 'What do you mean?'

'Feel like I did it all wrong; I should have taken a test and you should have been waiting outside the door– I don't know. I should have told you rather than hiding at Connor's.'

'Did you know that whole time?'

'I didn't not know but I didn't believe it so I didn't think about it. It wasn't a surprise when I realised, if you know what I mean.'

'Not really,' he said. 'You must have thought you were going crazy.'

'No I knew that ship had sailed a long time ago.' I was thankful he loved me in spite of that. 'But I should have communicated better– god knows a lot of things could have been avoided if–' I cut myself off. We'd been over this already. We'd both made mistakes. We were both unbelievably sorry about it but more than happy to just forgive and forget. I wanted him to know the way I felt was unconditional– I hoped he felt it– and wasn't tainted by any of those moments where we'd tried to sabotage ourselves by believing the other deserved better. 'From now on I'm going to say whatever comes to mind.'

'That would imply you had a filter before.'

'That's not what I mean.'

He smiled. 'Okay. In the spirit of communicating… I think you look so beautiful right now. And, I think you are always so brave.' He tucked my head beneath his chin and stroked his thumb across my abdominals.

'I have an issue with the way you leave teabags in the sink,' I replied, because I wasn't going to hold it in.

'Ah,' he returned.

'I'm afraid my emotions are only going to get worse from here.'

'I love your emotions,' he said dismissively as he tightened his arms around me and held me closer. 'And I deserved that; I know you don't really like to be complimented.'

'Thank you,' I said. 'For always being so thoughtful.' He hummed. 'I love you.'

'I know.' He kissed the top of my head again. 'I love you too.'

It took hours for the storm to pass.

We finally emerged. Nick helped me up onto my feet. The light was blinding, my corneas immediately started to burn and I had to quickly narrowed my eyes again to try and give them time to adjust.

'I dropped the detector,' Nick yelled across to Stephen.

Half distracted by trying to help pull Taylor out Stephen just frowned, keeping his hand tightly gripped around Taylors to stop her sliding through the sand and down the incline of the rock face.

'So this is where hope gets you,' Taylor grumbled.

'What are we going to do?' Stephen asked.

I shushed him, but perhaps he didn't hear, because a moment later Nick replied, 'I don't know. We'll have to find it, somehow, I guess–'

'Shush!' I repeated firmly. As Nick glanced round to me, I held a finger to my lips. 'I can… I can hear it… So, it can't be far, alright?'

The noise led me right to it.

It was some way across the rocks, and even I was surprised that I'd managed to pick up the noise from such a distance.

I dug through the sand, brushing the detector off and checking quickly that it was mostly undamaged before I blew the sand out from the corners of the screen. The others stopped beside me and gave the screen a final wipe with the hem of my top. 'Remind me to tell Connor he did a really good job on these things.'

I heard the sound of a gun cocking despite everything else going on around me–the detector, Taylors sigh, the guys discussing which way to go– I heard it so very clearly.

I turned, claiming the guys' attention, and they too spun around in that same direction to find the cleaner staring back at us.

The gun in his hand was cocked and aimed and semi–consciously my grip on the P.H.D tightened, as I took half a step to the side to make sure the others were safely shielded behind my body.

'I'll take that,' the cleaner said. 'There's only one ticket out of here. And I'm taking it…'

Nick glowered at him. 'I thought it might be you,' he spat.

I kept my grip tight around the device in my hand. I wasn't going to give it up. Not alive anyway. I'd made a promise that I had every intention of keeping.

The cleaner shifted uneasily. 'Come on!' he said.

I bit the inside of my cheek. 'What?' I asked, 'what you gonna do? What's gonna happen? Gonna shoot me?' I smirked. 'I doubt it?'

'Anna,' Nick said, his hand grabbed my arm but I quickly pulled back. I gestured for him to stay back. He wanted to tell me how stupid I was being. How bare faced, unabashedly, strangely bravely, stupid this was.

But I knew that.

I didn't care.

'Come on,' I said, 'do it then.' I took a couple of steps towards him.

'Hold it there.'

I stopped. It was far enough anyway. 'You think I'm scared of you.' My other hand fell to the handle of my knife, and I eased it out the casing.

'You should be,' he said.

I laughed. Finally, he bit. The gun sounded, the bullets peppered down around my feet, and the sand clouded up around me.

The noise shattered up through my spine, I bit down hard on the inside of my cheek but I didn't flinch.

'Next one goes in you.'

'If we don't get out of here we're dead anyway,' I said. I saw the sand start to shift behind him, a wave beelining through towards the noise. 'You aren't getting it. You aren't getting anything from us. So go.'

He raised his gun, angling it up from the ground where it had been pointed, right to my chest. 'Give me the detector.'

I lifted my chin. 'No.'

His finger ghosted the trigger but the shot never came. He screamed, the gun flew from his hands and the creature grabbed a hold of his ankles and he was suddenly halfway buried in the ground. Sand ballooned up, and I turned my face away quickly shutting my eyes again to keep the sand out, when I opened them again, Stephen was running past me.

'Help! Oh god, help me, it's eating me!'

'Tough break,' Stephen hissed as he dropped down in front of him. 'Who sent you!' he demanded. When the cleaner didn't respond, Stephen grabbed the front of his vest. 'It was Lester,' he said, 'wasn't it.'

'I'm a professional, I don't talk, ever.'

For a second, I moved, half taking a step towards him to help the guy out, but I froze. Perhaps it wasn't a good idea.

The cleaner screamed again and I didn't have any more time to consider what I thought I should do before he was pulled down under the sand.

Slowly, Stephen turned back to me and stood up. 'You're absolutely certain,' he started, as he ducked to retrieve the gun, 'that you don't know anything?'

'I know it's not a great idea to run and shout on the sand,' I answered slowly.

'Good point,' he agreed.

We both turned our heads back to where Nick and Taylor were standing on the rocks. 'You okay?' I asked.

Nick just narrowed his eyes slightly as if in disbelief but he nodded. 'Are you?'

Yes.

Somehow.

I checked the detector. 'we're gonna have to go across the sand.'

'What?' Taylor asked.

'The anomaly's that way.' I pointed across the dunes. 'And it can't be far, but we can't stick to the rocks any longer. We've got no choice.' It was a calculated risk. 'Or, we stay here, hope something else opens up in the next 24 hours because that's all we've got before we seriously start to face some irrevocable damage. We could stay here on the rocks but the way I see it there isn't much point.'

Nick nodded in agreement. 'If we tread lightly, we should be okay.'

Sensing the hesitation yet again, I continued 'according to this the anomaly should just be over the crest of this next dune.'

Stephen led the group. He said it was because he had the gun, but I suspected he wanted to be cautious, to keep an eye out for the creatures in the sand.

Taylor was limping along behind him, and I was a few steps behind her.

Nick was at the back.

Everyone was quiet, even Taylor. It set me a little on edge, as the only noise for miles around was the beeping of the device in my hands. I was too busy looking at it to see her go down.

Whether or not her leg gave way or she just tripped I didn't see, but one second she was there, and when I looked up from the device she was already falling, and I just had too little time to catch her.

I heard her hit the sand and we all stopped.

I waited for what I hoped would be nothing, that there weren't any creatures close enough to hear the sound but I was out of luck. I saw the bow of the sand, a rippling as it came quickly towards us, and before I could say anything Stephen dropped down into the sand.

He grunted, a cry of pain escaping from his lips as Nick darted past me, dropping down in front of him and grabbing a tight hold of his arm.

Taylor screamed, she pushed herself back on her feet, but worried she would be next I quickly snapped my arm out towards her. 'No, Taylor, stay there!'

'It's got me,' Stephen said.

We had a rope in the bag, we could lasso a loop around his chest and haul him out using me as a ground anchor.

'Hold on,' Nick said.

'It's got me!'

And before I could even reach for his backpack, Stephen disappeared beneath the sand. My eyes widened, Nick fell back and the sand puffed up again. Taylor continued to scream.

'No, Stephen!' Nick pawed his way through the top sand, trying to dig down to him, as I quickly circled on the spot desperately checking for any other signs if something was coming for the rest of us.

But no.

Taylor's screams grew angrier, she looked frustratedly down at the sand around the neat whole Stephen had disappeared into and suddenly started to jump.

She stomped a path, leaping and bounding in circle around the rucksack– the last remaining sign of Stephen's presence there– 'Let him go!'

'Taylor!'

'Let him go!'

'Taylor, stand still!' Nick called hurriedly.

'No,' I interjected, 'no, Nick, it's okay. It's okay.'

And I'd barely had a chance to inhale, having depleted the air supply in my lungs with my words before the ground burst up. Sand rained down on us again, and I grabbed Taylor, pulling her back behind me as the creature surfaced with Stephen still gripped within its jaws.

Then, behind us, something else came out the ground, another creature, and I pulled Taylor back with me to flatten us against the sand.

It scuttled right over the top of us, heading to crash straight into the other. As they collided, Stephen dropped free.

'You okay?' I asked, sitting her up.

Taylor nodded.

'Come on.' I grabbed her hand, hauling her up to her feet and dragging her with me up to the top of the sand dune.

The sand was soft, it collapsed beneath our feet and we almost skidded back down where we came from but – with all our energy exerted– we made it to the top and I turned to look back to the guys.

They were behind us. I could see Stephen rolling away through the sand towards Nick, and Nick was rifling somewhat desperately through the duffel.

'Look!'

I spun around, following Taylor's outstretched finger and spotted the glinting light of the anomaly down the bank.

'Come on,' I said again, tightening my hold on her hand as I started to run, as fast as I dared with her ankle in mind, pulling her along with me.

'What, are they staying?' she called, gesturing back over her shoulder.

'They'll catch up,' I said, because I had no doubt of it. They'd be able to move a lot quicker than the two of us with the injury.

We skidded down through the sand. No sooner had we reached the bottom of the dune did Nick and Stephen appear behind us.

Stephen grabbed a hold of Taylors other hand and helped her run towards the anomaly.

'Are we going home now?' Taylor asked.

'We're going somewhere,' I replied.

The cool air on the other side hit me like a slap across the chest, and as we came to a stop to catch our breaths, I let go of Taylors hand and shut my eyes to revel in the oxygen rich atmosphere.

Thank god.

At least the climate here wouldn't kill us. The sun was already halfway across the sky, meaning the daytime temperatures were relatively average.

Nick leant back against a nearby tree, shaking the sand out his hair, and panting. I watch the rise and fall of his chest. He finished brushing himself down and looked up to meet my eye. 'Are you okay?' he asked.

I nodded. 'Yeah.' I could hear birds. It was a good sign. It meant there weren't any predators in the trees which meant we would have somewhere safe to go if we needed to get off the ground.

As though expecting something to jump out the bushes at us, I turned on the spot to look around. 'Well, we're not home, but at least there's no sand…' Nick said.

Just trees.

It'd be far too easy to get lost round here. 'Taylor, don't wonder off anywhere, okay?'

'What is this place?'

My immediate reaction coming through was Cretaceous; the humidity seemed about right and the forest looked very similar to the place I almost got eaten by the Spinosaurus.

But there was something about it that didn't seem right.

'Any guesses where we are?' Stephen furthered.

'The air's more heavily oxygenated,' I stated, 'the woodland looks familiar but I could have ended up here before…'

It had to be on the more recent end of the geological spectrum. We were at least a couple of hundred million years closer to home now.

'Hey, look!' Taylor pointed off through the trees, before the excitement got the better of it and she ran off towards whatever she was pointing at.

'Taylor,' Stephen called after her as I broke out into a run to chase her down.

I slid into a clearing. 'Smoke?' I questioned. Taylor ran down the path towards what looked like a camp, filled with wooden tents with animal skin canvases stretched across them. 'There shouldn't be smoke here.' It was a hundred million years too early.

She bent down, picked up a handmade tool and twirled it in her hand. 'Whoa, cool.'

'Middle palaeolithic,' Nick said.

I glanced down at the tools scattered across the ground. 'None of this stuff should be here. We should go,' I replied.

He nodded. 'Let's get out of here.'

The sound of footsteps suddenly brought my attention back round, and as I turned I saw a man– a Neanderthal– downed in fur and armed with a spear, step around the fire toward us.

I snatched at my knife, only just pulling it free before I noticed something and cocked my head. 'Wait!'

Nick's arm shot out. He landed a punch in the Neanderthal's face and the man went down.

A cry erupted from my mouth. 'Nick!' and I dived down after the man.

'What?' he asked in confusion.

'The eyebrows,' I said, waving a hand over the man's face. 'Look, they're all wrong.'

'And that doesn't look right.'

As I stood up and stepped back a bright neon pair of underpants beneath the leather skirt immediately caught my attention, and quickly snatched a hand over my mouth to hide my amusement.

'Oh, god,' Nick groaned. 'I think I just punched an actor.'

'Yeah…' I agreed. 'I mean, it was a good clean punch if it's any consolation. Probably won't make him feel any better…'

'Cutter?' I immediately recognised the voice and straightened up, head rotating towards the direction it had come from just as Connor stumbled inelegantly through the bushes. 'Anna–' He tripped but managed to catch himself just before he hit the ground and rose back up. I laughed, feet moving of their own accord towards him, and he opened his arms to grab me in a tight hug.

'Connor!'

'Oh, oh god, am I glad to see you!' he pulled back, studied my face, and sighed in relief. 'Oh, I knew, I knew you'd make it back. Not gonna lie though you had me seriously worried.'

'How long has it been?'

'Um…' he paused as if to think seriously how best to explain it. 'Well, Jensen hasn't sobered up yet, if that helps. And I mean that guy had a lot of coffee…'

'Unbelievable…'