Disclaimer: Don't Own, Don't Sue! ;D
A/N: If you didn't read "Who We Are Now" and "A Beautiful Lie" before this, please read those first, so this will make more sense! Thanks and Enjoy!
Chapter 1: Down and Out
Red alarms were blaring as Connor ran down the corridor toward the anomaly.
"Get him! Don't let him get away!" One of the guards shouted to the others.
Connor stopped at the anomaly and turned to look at the guards, who were just starting to turn around the corner.
He looked back at the anomaly, which started to pulsate, indicating that it was about to close.
Just as the guards drew their guns, Connor jumped through, the anomaly closing behind him, leaving the guards to fire at a dead end.
"Dammit!" One of the guards shouted.
Connor stood up, watching the anomaly close behind him.
He smirked to himself and turned, heading to the cave that he was temporarily staying in this time period.
On the way to the cave, there was a lake that he would occasionally stop at to refill his drink and sometimes bathe in.
Connor looked around to make sure that there were no creatures near the lake before he approached it.
He paused before he bent to drink to look at his reflection.
He had changed so much in the time that he'd been wandering the anomalies.
He had a few cuts on his face and the rest of his body due to close encounters with the creatures. For not having a first aid kit, they healed fairly well and became scars that he did his best to cover.
During his travels through the anomalies, his hair had grown, as did a beard. He had lost quite a lot of weight, because of the running and lack of food choices and surplus of predators. His clothes had also worn down during his purgatory in the anomalies.
The gun Helen had left him with before pushing him through an anomaly all that time ago, was still with him. He refused to use it on any prehistoric creatures.
He'd wandered into a future anomaly once, but he had only used two of the bullets to kill a future predator before he barely escaped through the anomaly that took him there.
He hadn't crossed Helen yet. He had planned to kill her when he did find her; but at the moment, getting home to Abby and the others was more important to him.
The purpose of his last trip was to collect supplies.
Helen had left him for dead with nothing more than a gun and the clothes he wore.
He had broken into some sort of futuristic government facility via an anomaly. He raided some bloke's locker, and borrowed the man's clothes, grooming kit, and several weapons from the armory before he tripped the alarms, which brought him to where he was now.
It wasn't the first time he'd broken in somewhere via an anomaly for supplies. He tried to make everything last for as long as he could. Last time, he'd stolen goggles and a scarf from somewhere in the early 20th century to help protect him from the weather, as well as his identity, should something like today happen.
He squatted down and drank some of the cool water, before standing up again and stripping his worn out clothes off, he'd destroy them later.
He turned to look at the clothes he'd nicked earlier and put them on.
His new outfit that he donned, as he looked back at his reflection, without the goggles and the scarf. He wore dark blue jeans that had holsters on them for his guns; a button-down, green long-sleeved shirt; a pair of black, fingerless grip gloves, and black hiking boots.
A black jacket had come with the clothes, but because of the heat, he left the jacket alone for the time being. The ring he constantly wore, safely underneath his fresh clothes.
He turned to the kit and looked at his reflection in the water. He'd only be able to cut his beard without hopefully injuring himself, as he had still not acquired a first aid kit.
After he finished grooming himself to the best of his abilities, he wrapped the scarf around his neck and pulled it over his nose and mouth, followed by placing the goggles over his eyes.
He heard roars from the creatures nearby and quickly picked up his discarded clothes, running to the cave as nighttime came over the forest.
He sat in the cave, high above the ground, watching the small fire he managed to create.
He slowly ripped his old clothes and placed them on the fire to keep it going.
"Goodbye." He muttered, staring at the fire.
He stood and pretended as if he were fighting an assailant. He threw some punches, dodged a few times, and threw some kicks. He felt like he was getting better at fighting his own shadow and the thin air; but he'd only find out if he ever really had to fight hand-to-hand combat.
Connor fell back down to the ground and glanced outside as rain started to fall and the creatures outside roared and groaned.
"How long has it been, eh?" He asked himself out loud.
"Oh, I dunno. A couple of years now." He answered himself.
He laughed aloud. "Probably. Ya can never really tell. Jumping through so many anomalies hopping to find the right one, really puts a damper on telling time."
His stomach growled.
"You're not exactly helping this situation, mate! I'm trying to figure out how long I've been living like a nomad and all you can think about is food! Perhaps I should have forgotten about fresh clothes and trimming me beard to steal some real food to feed ya!" Connor shouted at his stomach.
His stomach growled again.
Tears started to fall as his head drooped toward his knees and he began to sob.
"This is totally unfair!" He sobbed. "I just—I just want to go home—to Abby—to the others."
Connor woke up shortly before dawn the next morning to the sound of fighting.
He looked at the fire, which had died out completely over the course of the night.
He cautiously crept toward the entrance to see a raptor fighting another raptor over a freshly dead pterosaur.
His stomach growled.
"Shut up." He scolded his stomach. "the day I eat anything lizard-like is the day I announce my love for cat food, which will never happen because that's just—weird."
Connor checked the holsters on his jeans followed by holster he wore on his torso, to make sure that the guns were ready to use a moment's notice, should he need them.
The raptors had left about an hour or so later after devouring the pterosaur. Connor saw this as his chance to head out looking for food or an anomaly, whichever he found first.
Connor unveiled the ring from underneath his shirt. It was his only way of knowing if an anomaly was nearby.
He heard a snapping of twigs behind him and spun around, holding the guns in front of him, ready to pull the trigger.
Nothing.
He started to move quickly through the forest. He could hear something following him. Or was he just being paranoid?
As he ran, he noticed something off to his left, shinning.
"An anomaly." He smiled to himself as he ran toward it and jumped through it.
He rolled down a rocky hill and landed in the middle of a herd of Scutosaurus. Some of them became panicked and began moving away from him, growling.
"Great! I'm back in the Permian!" Connor shouted annoyed as he stood up and ran to evade the panicked herbivores.
He froze when he heard someone shouting at him.
"Hey!" A Scottish voice called from a top a hill where the anomaly Connor had come through presumably closed after he fell through it.
Connor, his face obscured by the goggles and scarf, turned to face the person, who began running toward him.
Connor took off in the opposite direction.
Whatever it took, he couldn't let his pursuer catch him.
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