"I'm not the walking dead."

☆

"Do you ever get that feeling of deja vu?" Isaac looks to his left at the man next to him, paying more attention to the phone in his hand. 

"Mmm." The man called Zander nods, with mild interest. "Every day I have to come to work. I believe it's called being an adult."

"That's not quite what I meant." Isaac looks into the distance in thought. 

Zander lowers his phone, taking his time before answering. "Then what do you mean? Do you mean like, you think you've done this before because, like I said, we do the same thing Monday to Friday…"

"Maybe deja vu isn't the word…." Isaac leans closer to Zander a little, so the other passengers on the tube cannot hear. "Do you wonder if you dreamt something, or if it actually happened? Like a memory from your childhood?" 

Zander turns to his friend and frowns. "Isaac. What is this about exactly?" 

"I keep having this dream and I wouldn't question it, but it's the same every time. It makes no sense, but it feels so real."

"Ok, so… how does it go?"...

…He wouldn't listen. Why did Isaac never listen to him? "Come back now, you are going too far!" His older brother, Ian was calling up to him, but young Isaac just carried on regardless. He wanted to peer right over the edge, see the water crash against the rocks.

"I'm being careful. You worry too much". He replies, paying no mind to the fear radiating through his brother's voice, as he takes yet another step to the edge. 

"Gran will kill you when she finds out. She has told us not to come up this far and you know it!" Ian tries to sound authoritative with his words but yet another step is taken forward.

"That's what scares you the most isn't it. Not that I'll fall, but what Gran will say." Isaac jokes as he now purposely turns around, facing Ian as he begins walking backwards up the steepening incline.

"Just...LOOK OUT!" 

All of a sudden Isaac falls backwards over a large embedded stone in the path's edge. He uses his hands to steady himself, as he falls back, but the problem is, there is nowhere to place his hands. Just thin air. Isaac rolls backwards over the cliff edge. Falling.....falling. until he is about to meet the crashing water beneath. The waves are beating against the side of the cliff. The noise deafening as he smacks into the water…

…"Well it's obviously a dream, because you're still here. That kind of fall would have killed you or would have seriously injured you at least." Zander shrugs, looking Isaac up and down. "You do have a pulse right?" He reaches a hand forwards to check Isaac's neck. 

"I'm not the walking dead." Isaac pushes the hand away. 

It causes Zander to chuckle. "Just checking." He looks back at his phone. "Why don't you just ask Ian? He was there or not there." 

"Ian?" Isaac looks down. "We're not exactly close. Besides, he hates talking about the past." 

"Well then, if you ask me, it's a dream. You are alive, and we're getting off at the next station." Zander stands up as he pockets his phone. The two males exit the train, getting comsumed by the madess of the rush hour, to finally surface at street level. 

"Same again later?" Isaac questions as he looks briefly at the tube exit. 

"Yup…Hello?" Zander smiles at Isaac as he turns his back to him, emersed in whoever was on the other end of his phone. Isaac watches him walk away for a minute before regaining focus on his own agenda. He glances at his smartwatch. He has 10 minutes…

***

"And this will be your space." The female gestures towards the male who takes a step in that direction, resting his briefcase against the leg of the desk, which would be his place of work for however long he felt he could deal wth it. 

"Thank you." He smiles, proceeding to now remove his full length navy trench coat and hang it on a free-standing hook in the corner of the room. He turns to look at the lady once again. "The bathroom?..."

"Oh, just through here." She takes the lead, with the male following her into a small kitchen area, which then led through to the toilets.  The man takes his leave in that direction as she heads back where she came from, into the office space to see she is once again not alone. "Morning Isaac."

"Morning Jojo…." He stops mid sentence as he takes a minute to look around the room. The strange coat, the briefcase. He places his satchel on his own desk as he drapes his much shorter jacket on the back of his swivell chair. "What's going on? Who does that coat belong to?"

Jojo places a hand on her hip, shaking her head. "If you actually read the company emails, you would know. It's a new team member. "

"But I work alone.' Isaac points out. "I've done this job by myself for two years since Kate went on mat leave and didn't come back, and I've been fine."

"Excuse me? You are always complaining about your workload." Jojo walks over to Isaac, patting him on the shoulder as she passes. "Be nice." She softly says in the shell of his ear before leaving, with Isaac remaining still, left to stare at the soon to be filled desk. He finally looks away, regaining focus on what he needs to be doing, until the sound of a door closing causes him to again look up….