Oh. I'm back.

I look around at the people all walking around quietly, minding their own business. They wear different clothes, some fancy, some not. There are women wearing high heels and red lipstick, men having those nice leather shoes or sneakers. Some are walking and talking on cellphones.

I'm back to before. I'm back to being Catherine.

It makes sense, in a weird way. One thing is out of the way and so I'm forced to focus on the next. Just a few hours ago Paula and I saved Nadia from the V-Type infested building that killed all the Last Riders. They're gone, no longer a threat. I mean, there's still the signal, but if no one is going to give the signal, then no one with the pills are going to take them. We didn't even have to do anything to stop the Riders. They were their own destruction.

Of course, there is that insane man who's going to at least try to murder Janine, but that's in the future...

The future. Maybe because I saw the future, I'm back in the past to help balance it out.

I went to bed thinking I'd sleep peacefully, but I don't think that's going to be the case. I'm back here for a reason. This means something to Catherine. This is a memory that's important to her, or it will be important to me. I just have to figure out how and why.

I smooth out the wrinkles of my shirt, not bothering to really look at it. I can't really care for fashion when I know I'll eventually be wearing old shirts that are stained and close to unravelling.  But at least my dear older doppelganger wore soft leggings and comfortable flats. It's been so long since I've worn heels, I doubt I'd be able to walk in them correctly. I wish I had something to tell me what day it is. Since my bag was destroyed when the train exploded, I cannot check it. I wonder how long it's been since that day. Have I already rode the train to New Oban? Sam never really told me much about it, but I haven't asked too much. With everything going on, it's hard to focus on something that happened years and years ago before the world ended.

Plus, I'm beginning to think if this is going to be a continuing dream, then maybe I shouldn't know too much before I experience it.

I'm in a train station, although I'm not sure which one. Maybe I haven't ridden the New Oban express yet? I take a look at my shirt, pulling at it to read what it says. It's hard to read it from upside down, but-

"ObanExpress is the fastest, longest, and most advanced..." The automated voice says over the speakers.

"Yeah, yeah, alright," The man beside me says with a roll of his eyes. "We know that. We need to get down to the next platform now. What's the holdup?"

He looks at me as if I can answer, but I simply shrug in reply.

"Sorry, sorry," A voice says. I know that voice! "Hello! Passenger Five?"

I turn, nearly gasping when I see a familiar face, one I met before the real me, Callista met her. I met her when I was Sargent Ellis, the first Abel Runner Five.

The dark-skinned woman smiles at me, her eyes shining as her fingers fiddle with her long-sleeved shirt. "Hi. I can see from your T-shirt who you are. Sorry. Wow. That's a low number. You must have won that ticket really early on."

I laugh nervously. "Uh, oui."

"Oh, you're French? Cool. I guess you can tell from my voice I'm American. Uh, I'm Ellie." She smiles politely. "I'm Ninety-three. Not an age, obviously. I won the uh, Mastermind General Knowledge prize ticket. Hi."

"Hello. I'm... Catherine," I reply with a nod. "Mastermind General Knowledge? You must have done a lot of studying for that."

She shakes her head, smiling a bit sheepishly. "No, not really. I really like books. I'm a major in social anthropology, but just learning and preserving knowledge in general has always been something I'm interested in."

I open my mouth to reply, but a hand on my shoulder makes me pause.

"Cat, I'm here," Halima says, ignoring my slight frown. "Just like we said. Waterloo station. Did you see what they had in the capitol hotel? It was so nice of Andreas to rent it out for us, wasn't it? My parents can't believe it. They're on the slow train up to New Oban now and I'm getting the express. Yay! I think I'd actually feel weird to call you anythin' but Cat or Five now after what we've been through together."

"Five is fine," I answer with slight irritation, but she ignores it, instead looking over to Ellie.

"Oh, sorry. Hi, Five's friend. I'm Halima."

"I'm Ellie. As-salamu alaykum."

"Wa ʿalaykumu s-salam," She replies.

Ellie's eyes widen when she sees Halima's T-shirt. "Oh my God. You're number Six?"

"Yeah. We didn't get them given to us by someone who works for the train or anything', before you get any ideas," She says quickly, and I have to resist the urge to facepalm. Still Ellie quickly shakes her head.

"No, I didn't think-"

"We're just that good, me and Five." She glances around, seeing the crowds of people moving about. "Wow. The queue-you'd think they were givin' out free pastries at the front."

I flinch when the speakers overhead squeal.

"Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please. Due to staff shortages caused by the sudden onset flu, Waterloo Station is being closed."

There's that mention of the sudden onset flu again...

Halima scoffs and throws her hands up in the air. "This is ridiculous! The express is leaving from King's Cross really soon."

Ellie makes a face as tons of people head out. "Look at all those people heading for the taxi ranks. We'll never get one."

"Is there a chance we could make it on foot?" I ask. "How far is this station from the one at King's Cross?"

"It's a couple miles."

I nod. A couple of miles in this body is doable. Catherine isn't as experienced of a runner as I am in the present, but she was able to run pretty well last night. "We can make that. We're all wearing comfortable clothes. It shouldn't be too hard. Let's go."

We head for the exit, weaving through the crowds of people. There are so many. I've been in crowds since the apocalypse started, but the fact that we were willing to do this every single day, and we were willing to get be this close to people when there's no way of knowing whether or not they're infected... And with how this flu sounds, with it being so sudden, you'd think people would want to keep their distance, but I guess not.

We head outside, and I want to marvel at the cars on the road, the buildings that are new and clean. I mean, I've seen clean buildings, I've seen vehicles, but most of those buildings are protected by gates. These are just out in the open, no need for protection from the undead...

How we took our safety for granted. But as we keep moving, I notice that very few cars are doing that-moving. People start to honk their horns in frustration, hoping that maybe the person in front of them will get the hint and move, but they just can't.

It's so loud though, the roar of the engines, the loud, sharp sounds of the horns. After just a few minutes I'm finding it hard to focus, and I increase my speed in hopes to get away from it faster.

"Reckon we made the right decision back there, Ellie," Halima says. "Look at this traffic. Complete gridlock."

She nods. "Waterloo bridge is at a standstill. If we'd got a cab, we'd still be at the station."

"Is this all because of this sudden onset flu?" I ask, and Halima nods vigorously.

"Yeah. It's crazy right?"

"Uh, yes, crazy," I say, a certain feeling of dread creeping in. "Uh, has there been outbreaks of it in different places?"

"Like different cities?"

"I was thinking different... uh, countries?" I ask, and she shrugs casually.

"I haven't heard anthin'. But this flu really does come on suddenly. My mate, Graham, on ObanHeads got it and one minute he was on his webcam chattin' away, and the next he just had to go to bed coughing and coughing. He hasn't been back on ObanHeads in two days."

My heart stops, but Halima doesn't seem too concerned.

"He'll be back today though, for sure. He won't miss the maiden voyage."

"It does seem to strike quickly," Ellie hums. "A couple of people at the department rang in yesterday to say they had it and we told them to just stay home. We don't want to get it."

"Yeah, that's the thing. You can catch it so quickly."

I bite the inside of my cheek. Them talking about how quickly it spreads does so little to ease my racing mind and fearful heart.

"Uh, how does it spread?" I ask, and they both give me raised brows.

"What do you mean?" Ellie asks.

"Is it in the air? Or is it transmitted through bodily fluids? Or maybe..." I swallow. "Did the people you've talked to who have it say they were bit-"

"What's that?" Halima points ahead, and I look up ahead to see that the road's been barricaded. There are people at the barricades in uniforms. They're carrying guns.

One of the guards holds up his hands as we approach. "No way through here by order of the military police. Major flu outbreak at King's College."

"Which department?" Ellie asks immediately, but the guard shakes his head.

"Can't tell you that, Miss."

"Is that where you work?" I ask, and she nods, her face twisting in worry.

"Yeah. I would have been there today if not for the ticket to Oban." She pauses, as if trying to regain her composure. "Come on. If we're gonna make this train, we have to go around this roadblock. Let's go."

She doesn't give us a chance to really reply before racing off, and we follow, but I can't stop to think about this. I mean, there are other diseases besides the zombie virus, and just because it's only in England doesn't mean it's the zom virus. I mean, Junin2 never made it to America. I'd only heard about it on the news before the apocalypse. But it never got to my home country. It was just in England and a few other European countries. Maybe this flu is the same.

It can't be the same. Everything seems so normal. It can't be the same.

Right?

My heart pounds. Oh, I'm trying so hard to convince myself this isn't it, that it's not now.

I try to think back. It was late June of 2013 when the zombie virus came to America, which was two weeks after it broke out in England, when Patient Zero became a zombie. So, I just have to see if it's before then.

Please let it be before then.

I don't want to have to go through the panic of when it first started again. I remember the terror, how people didn't understand what was going on, how they wanted to believe they'd survive even after they'd been bitten.

I don't want to relive that in Catherine's body.

But the weather tells me it isn't winter and it isn't fall. It's too warm to be any of those. Panic starts to seep in, but I know that if this is what's going on, then I need to ask. I need to know what the date is because if this is the beginning of the end, then I need to make sure Ellie is safe, and Halima. Ellie will make it out alive. I know that because I've done runs with her years later... but Halima...

She's a nice woman. She doesn't deserve to die. I want to believe she's the woman who wrote me that letter. She called me Cat, but she also mentioned a daughter and Halima does not look pregnant nor has she mentioned it. So what if it's someone else?

Even if it is, I'm not going to let Halima die. I've seen so many innocent people die in the apocalypse. If this is it, then I don't want it to happen to her.

Someone coughs from nearby, and I tense.

"It's okay," Halima says upon seeing the fear on my face. "Traffic pollution is makin' everyone cough. But if we keep going at this pace, we will make it onto the train. My mum and dad want me to take photos of everythin' on the train. They're so excited for me!"

Ellie nods, smiling softly, but it fades as a man at a nearby table outside a little bistro starts to cough, his shoulders shaking uncontrollably.

"That man doesn't look so good." She slows down a bit to talk to him as we pass, making sure to keep some distance from him. "You should go home, friend. Don't want to infect the rest of us."

The man looks at her, watching as we pass, but he's too busy hacking to say anything. My heartrate quickens, and I feel a stab of fear as I push my burning legs to go a bit faster. We have to keep going.

"It won't be like this in New Oban, you know," Halima says, trying to keep a positive attitude. "It's a marvel city. Really healthy living. A tech city with free Wi-Fi everywhere and you're not allowed to work during your lunch break. I bet you don't get that where you work, Ellie."

She looks down at the phone in her hand and frowns. "I've been trying to call my department and no one's answering."

"Maybe they're at home in bed," I suggest, forcing a smile. I doubt that, but I can't tell her what I'm thinking without them believing I'm crazy.

"They're not answering their mobiles either. Here." She pulls out some face masks from her pocket. "They gave out face masks at the Uni the other day. I've got some if you want. Just keep them just in case."

I take the mask, really hoping I'm wrong about this. If I'm not though, then these masks won't do a thing. I need to know.

"Halima, I-"

"You know what the best thing for this will be?" She interrupts. "Fresh, healthy air from the Scottish Highlands. That's what. Let's keep moving."

I open my mouth again, but sigh when they speed to a near sprint. She won't be taking out her phone when running like this. I'll have to ask later.

•

A loud scream erupts into the air, and a second later I watch a woman come sprinting out of the building, nearly ripping her tight skirt as she runs as fast as she can.

"Did you see that, Five?" Ellie asks. "Other side of uh, Theobald's road."

"Uh, yes," I say, watching as a police officer stops the woman, trying to calm her down. She's shaking like a leaf.

"She's alright though, yeah? She doesn't look hurt," Halima says, pulling out her phone to look at something. I don't ask what, instead looking at Ellie, who's still eyeing the woman that's now behind us.

"No, she just-she looks so scared."

"Maybe she heard the news about King's Cross. It's just come up on ObanHeads. They're closing the station."

Me and Ellie both gasp. "No! Not before we get on the train."

"No, the train to New Oban will run. It's ready, but after that there'll be no trains out of London at all."

My brows furrow in confusion. "What? Why?"

"There's no more staff. The flu's got really intense in London. The only reason they can let the express go is because it's been ready to go for days. It's got all its own staff."

Ellie nods to herself. "Okay. Either of you want to be in London for this really intense flu? No? Me neither. Let's get to the train. Come on."

My gut twists. These two shutdowns have all happened within a matter of maybe half an hour. Not even Junin2 is that bad and it literally melts your face off, or it did before we gave out a recipe for the vaccine.

"Halima, this may seem weird since today is a big day because of the New Oban Express and all, but I need you to tell me the date." The words come out in a rush so I don't get interrupted again, and Halima looks at me as if I've completely lost it.

"You want to know the date?"

"That's what I just asked, isn't it?" I reply, and her eyes widen at my sudden change in tone. Even Ellie gives me a certain look, but I don't care, not anymore. This is going too far, and I need to make sure before I assume this is the start of the apocalypse. "I need the full date. Day, month, year. I haven't had a phone since our train's fuel line ruptured, so please tell me the date."

She blinks. "You know, you're acting a lot more different than you were last night when we checked into the hotel."

"I was tired and wanted to get to bed. Halima, please."

She looks even more surprised, but she answers, not even needing to pull out her phone.

"June 15th, 2013."

Oh God.

"We need to move faster," I say instantly, ignoring the way my lungs burn and how sweat runs down the back of my neck. How I wish I'd worn my hair up today. But it seems Catherine wasn't thinking this would happen, not that I can blame her. No one knew. Not even the Minister was expecting it to happen this quickly.

She's still alive here, I realize. Sigrid and Van Ark and Moonchild and Ian. All of them are still alive. But so is everyone I've lost since this apocalypse started.

How sad to be reminded of that.

As we keep running, people keep honking their horns as the cars are still at a standstill. Nothing is moving. These people are going to die here. They won't be able to get out of the city and they'll be trapped in their cars. They'll probably be surrounded soon.

We have to make it to the New Oban train. It's our only way out. We'll die here if we don't.

A part of me knows that I'll get out. Catherine will get out, but then again, this has been shown to mess with time. If I die here, then maybe Catherine will have actually died.

But messing with fate is tricky. Doing so could make things even worse, if I've learned anything from time travel movies. And if I die here, then that means I can't make sure Ellie lives, and Ellie helps us with the Edda, which in a way, helps Veronica figure out how to cure the zombie virus-the first one, anyway.

One person honks the horn over and over again, and we all look over to him. He's coughing, shaking uncontrollably. I can see the sweat on his forehead through the window. He's infected and turning and we need to move.

That poor man. He has no idea what's happening to him.

This is why I didn't want to relive this. At least now we know what happens if you get bitten and there's no cure around. That person knows and they know what must be done. But not here, not now. These people here are clueless and all they know is they are sick and something really bad is happening and they don't know how to stop it.

For a brief moment I feel tears sting the back of my eyes for this man. I've never met him, and the real me never will in her body, but how sad it is that he will die here today, not knowing what's happening, what will happen. How extremely sad.

It makes me hate the Minister even more, and I wish her death had been just a bit more painful.

"What's that guy's problem?" Halima asks, sending the infected man a judgmental look as he honks his horn. I don't think it's his intention from how bad he's shaking. He's grabbing ahold of the steering wheel just to stable himself. "Mate, honking the horn doesn't make the car go faster, you know!" She pauses. "What is he doing?"

Suddenly he jerks the steering wheel to the side, and the goes speeding off the road and onto the sidewalk. Tires screech painfully, and Halima and Ellie both gasp as people on the sidewalk scream in terror.

"There are people there! Watch out!" She warns as people dive out of the way and the car slams into a lamppost. The airbag pops out, but the man barely seems to notice with how badly he's jerking.

"He-he just drove right into that lamppost," Ellie stammers. "That's one way to get out of gridlock."

"Don't get close to him," I say, knowing that even if they wanted to, they wouldn't be able to since he's on the other side of the street. The door opens and the man stumbles out. He's bleeding, hacking up blood and gasping for air.

"He looks so sick."

"Yeah, he's unwell," Halima agrees as a man heads towards him. I shake my head, silently telling the good Samaritan to stay away. Suddenly the infected man lets out a growl. "Wow. He's really unwell."

I see it the moment it happens, the life leaving his eyes, the change. He looks up at the man that came to see if he was okay and lunges, sinking his teeth into his arm. The man screams.

"Did you see what I saw?!" Ellie nearly screeches, and I close my eyes.

It's begun.

"You mean did I see him take a big chomp out of that man who was trying to help him?" Halima asks, sounding equally as terrified.

"Yeah."

"Then yeah. Yeah, I did see what you saw, yeah."

"The man he's bitten is starting to cough too," I point out, wishing I would have warned him. But would it have made any difference? Would he have even heard me over all the horns and shouts? "We must get out of here. They will infect us if we stay."

"And the train's leavin' in," Halima pauses to check her phone, "six minutes. It's just at the end of the road. We can make it."

I look around, and in some of the cars I see more people coughing and shaking, and there are others in the same position sitting on the benches, or walking on the sidewalk, or coming in and out of stores. Ellies points out a woman shaking in a red Porsche.

"They're everywhere." My voice shakes as I remember. It will be in America in weeks. How long has it been here? Days, maybe? It may have only been in London for a single day with how quickly it spread back then, back now. So few people knew or had warning...

"I don't know about you, but I really want to get to New Oban now. I'm going to see my parents there," Halima says, and I look at her with determination.

"Then we need to run. Now. Sprint! Come on!"

•

The contrast of soft music and a few calm people walking around towards the New Oban Express compared to the chaos going on outside is jarring. For a second I wonder if there was a sudden change of time, but it isn't.

"Look at her, Cat," Halima says in awe. "Kilometers of train stretchin' off into the distance."

"Keep going," Ellie stresses as a few beeps come from the intercoms. "Show your retina scan and your ticket at the barrier."

I do as told, letting the piece of equipment scan my eye and then the barcode on my ticket.

A picture of me-well, Catherine-pops up onto the screen, along with some other details on what I can get while on the train. There's a long list. Some things are already shown to be booked. Interesting.

"Welcome aboard the New Oban Express, Passenger Five."

"Wow," Halima says. "It's got our picture and everythin'. And it knows how I want dinner. Amazin'."

"The train is about to depart. Please go down the walkway to your left. Our automated system will guide you to your seat once the train is in motion."

Ellie sighs in relief. "We're the last people on it looks like..." She looks back for a moment before stepping onto the train. "They're sealing the doors to the station behind us. There are people banging on them."

Pity hits me as I see wide eyed people slamming themselves against the doors. There is terror in their eyes as they beg to be let in, but they won't be. All these people are going to die. They are dead in my time.

I don't have my own body's strength. I couldn't pry those doors open if I tried. All that would result in is Catherine getting left here in London. I have to leave them.

"But look at the train," Halima says, trying to take our attention off the horror going on outside. I grit my teeth and look away from the frightened people, guilt eating away at my chest. "Come on, Cat. Down this walkway."

We step onto the train and start down the walkway, and Ellie gasps at the beauty of the cream and burgundy paintwork and wooden interiors. There're LED lights on the platform pointing us to our carriage. We open the door to it, and it's beautiful. It's so pristine and clean and lush.

There's a lot of greenery in this carriage. It even smells like fresh flowers.

Halima quickly pulls out her phone. "Wow. Okay. I'm here. Sorry. Okay, I've got a few mates online who I promised I'd show this to. Just hookin' up to the ObanHeads on my phone... Connected! ObanHeads, look around."

She slides her phone around, and I duck down just a bit, letting my hair fall forward to cover the side of my face. I don't know why, but I don't really want all of Halima's online friends seeing what I look like.

"Wow!" A girl exclaims from Halima's phone. "Is that living grass on the walls?"

"Did you know that even though a megalith is silent, they put in a special clickety-clack noise because people like it?" A man asks.

"Can you look at the pantograph please, Halima? I want to take a screenshot for my collection."

"Can't look at the pantograph from inside a train," Another man says, and my head snaps up.

Sam.

"Can I just say though, that this picture is incredible. With this and the internal camera access they've given the fans, I-I almost feels like I'm there."

Sam's here. He was... he saw all this.

Halima squeals when we feel the train start to move. "Oh my God! Here we go."

I start to smile, her excitement very contagious...

But it drops as soon as I hear someone cough.

And then I wake up.

A/N: Here you go, guys! I hope you enjoyed this chapter! It is dedicated to
jettmanas and natlinaksita
Please be sure to vote and comment! Thank you and have a blessed day!