I barely jostle in my seat as the train continues down the track. How long has it been since I got here? A minute? Two? My heartbeat pounds in my chest as I fight to contain my mounting worry and keep Halima from noticing that something is wrong.

The last time I was here as Catherine, I heard someone cough. There's someone infected on the train, but I don't know who. I have absolutely no clue as to how this is all going to play out, nor do I know what's going what's going to happen after I wake up!

I swear I've just ruined Peter, Tom and Sam's night. I'm sure Peter and Tom are waking him up now to tell him his wife has passed out again after saying some really weird shit and they don't know what's going on with me and want him to explain and-God, why does everything have to be so complicated when it comes to me?!

"Five?" Halima says, and I snap my gaze to her, perhaps a bit too quickly, seeing how she flinches. Thankfully, she blinks and is back to all smiles. "Did you know where we're sittin' it's literally ten kilometers to the end of the train?"

I swallow. "Uh, no, I-"

"And have you checked out the spa menu? It's off the hook!" She doesn't give me a chance to reply before she's raising up her phone and smiling at the camera. "Team ObanHeads, I've booked a fifteen-minute head massage at the spa. What else do you vote for me to do?"

"You've got to visit the arboretum," A man replies. "See the highland from the viewing gallery."

"Can you book a sleep pod to try the kelp bio-yarn sheets?" A woman asks, which makes me scrunch up my face. Some of the stuff on this train is weird.

"Ugh. What are you people like?" Sam says, and I instantly perk up at hearing his voice. "Halima, go to the pet area. There are puppies."

Halima sighs as she stands, exiting our mini-seating room into the large area of the carriage where some people are milling about. I follow, unsure of what I'm supposed to do as past Catherine.

"I can't do everythin', guys," She says, her lips pinched in thought.

"Excuse me," A young woman asks, tapping me on the shoulder. I turn and give her a raised brow, and she smiles politely and tucks a stray strand of ginger hair behind her ear. "Uh, do you work for the train company?"

I shake my head. "No, sorry. But we do know someone who does." I take a look around, and as luck would have it, Andreas is in this area of the train, talking to some snazzy looking people in suits and pencil skirts. "See that man over there? That's Andreas Unopolis, one of the designers. Would you like us to introduce you?"

She shakes her head, but whatever expression she makes is ignored by me when I hear a distant sound, akin to the sound I hear quite often in the present as Callista.

It's snarling. Human snarling.

Oh no.

I glance around, but see no one out of the ordinary. I heard it. I know I did, so where is it?

"Uh, no. That's okay," The stranger says, and I smile tightly, taking the smallest of steps back and making sure to push against Halima just enough that she follows. "I was just asking because-well... Did you see that man that went into the toilet? He looked really sick. Do you think he's okay?"

I blanch. "Uh, well, maybe he just gets motion sickness. Best to not go anywhere near-"

"Hello! Hello!" Ellie says cheerily, seeming to have appeared out of nowhere. "Thought I'd come around and see how the other half lives. Well, it's the same a few carriages down. It's just not so glamorous as you low numbers." She pauses once she takes in Halima's pinched brow and how my skin has paled. "What's going on?"

"Man in the loo. Lady here thinks he's got the flu," Halima answers. "You know. The flu."

Her eyes widen. "We should tell the train staff."

"He doesn't sound well," The woman says, looking over to the bathroom. The growls and snarls are getting louder, and the door is rattling. I suck in a sharp breath in my teeth when she takes a step towards it, then another. "Can you hear him? Sounds like he's growling-"

She shrieks when the door bursts open, revealing a man, probably in his mid-forties, snarling with eyes glazed over in death. His skin has that gray undertone I've grown to recognize, although this woman only shrieks in shrill confusion.

"Oh my God! What has happened to him?" She yells in horror. "His face has turned all gray and he's-ah!"

He lunges for her, grabbing her and sinking his teeth into her arm.

People start screaming.

"We need to go, now!" I yell, and Halima nods frantically.

"Yeah. I've been checkin' online. Graham from the ObanHeads, the one that got the flu-I got a message from his mum, says he'd died. That flu kills."

"Everyone, out of the carriage!" Ellie shouts. "Everyone, please! Run!"

Most of them don't try to argue, and those that do are ignored and passed by. I weave through the others that are scrambling to get away from the snarling, biting man and the now coughing woman. Halima and Ellie stay close to me, pushing people ahead of them to make sure they get through. Andreas is up ahead, doing the same.

He makes eye contact with me, and the utter terror and confusion in his eyes hits me like a truck. All of these people are so scared, so confused as to what's happening. I wish I could tell them, but I can't, because Catherine is supposed to be just as confused and scared as they are. Twelve-year-old Callista in America will be just as confused and scared as they are when it gets there.

This isn't for me to change the past but learn about hers so I can know how to go about things in the present, even though in all honesty Catherine is the least of my worries right now.

I can hear the shouts and cries as more people sprint ahead of us, and those behind us who ran the opposite way are met with growls and snarls and coughs. The more people that push forward, the less of them I see until it is just me, Ellie, Halima and Andreas running this way. Even when we get to the next smaller carriage, there's no one there.

Halima's phone buzzes, and surprisingly she doesn't ignore it.

"What is it?" She asks.

"Halima? Ellie? Uh... Catherine, was it? C-Can you hear me? It's MorningTownRide from ObanHeads. Uh, but you can call me Sam. You're run one kilometer along the train. Probably a good time for me to let you know what I can see."

Andreas frowns. "Who's this? Some ObanHead? How did he-"

"Listen. I've got cam access along the whole train. It's a special thing they did for the inaugural journey. I can tell you what I can see. Do you want to know or not?"

I resist the urge to smile at teenage Sam's sass and very low tolerance for bullshit.

"We need to know," Ellie says, and he huffs.

"Okay. Oh, it's not great. The bloke in the toilet's bit that one woman, obviously. About five minutes later she was biting other people. The bites make them go like, rabid or something. The good news is no one farther along the train looks like they have it, so if you keep moving towards the front of the train, you should be safe. The other people who escaped your carriage are already moving ahead of you just like you told them."

"So we're the final survives from carriage B? No one else is coming?" Andreas asks, his voice strained.

"No. So no reason to wait for anyone else."

"We should stop the train, get the other passengers off," Ellie suggests, but she's just met with a sigh from Sam.

"Yeah, except there are reported outbreaks of the flu at like all the other stations you could potentially stop at."

"Okay, okay," I mutter. "Uh, Andreas. You need to get in touch with the crew. Tell them to seal that carriage, stop them from getting through. You can do that, right?"

"Should be able to," Halima says. "All carriages can be sealed in the event of emergency."

Andreas cringes. "No, we can't do that."

My eyes widen. "Why not? For heaven's sake, this virus is deadly! It will kill us all if we don't stop it now!"

"Carriages can't be sealed. We had a launch date to meet. It wasn't a key feature. We had to make sacrifices to stay on target."

I gasp, but Ellie just glares at him.

"Make sacrifices? Cut corners, you mean."

"Even if you can't totally seal the carriages off, you can close the doors," Sam says. "Keep moving. Put some distance between you and that flu. Go!"

I look back at those closed doors, my stomach churning because I know that won't be enough to keep them out.

So I run.

I can feel Catherine's panic, her own fear melding with my own. I only know its hers because of the irrationality and insecurity swirling within me. Callista knows what this is, but Catherine doesn't. While I'm the driver, her consciousness is still here in the backseat, bits of it seeping into my own mind and giving me those same feelings she felt during this.

It's weird, honestly, thinking about how normal and human Catherine was... is. It's hard to see her as an actual person when the closest to seeing the present version of her is when she's spouting riddles and trying to beat the shit out of me for things that aren't my fault.

We reach the end of this carriage fairly quickly, but the zombies are clawing at the door to get inside and follow us through. We waste no time running into the next carriage, and instead of soft carpet and walls with decorated paintings I find soft grass and dirt and large trees looming overhead. I can hear birds chirping.

I push away the awe to close the door behind us.

"Wow," Ellie gasps. "Sorry, but wow! I know we're fleeing for our lives here, but this arboretum is amazing!"

Sam laughs. "Yeah! Two kilometers from where you started, and you've got two kilometers of trees ahead."

"It's amazin'!" Halima exclaims, and thankfully she and the others follow my lead as I start heading onward, wanting to be as far away from that door as possible. Once we get out of here and get to somewhere with furniture, we can see if we can bar the door or something to keep them out, at least for a little while.

"Look!" She points upwards. "The trees are curved around the ceiling of the carriage like a green passageway."

"Japanese maple," Andreas states, sounding proud. "We have them specially grown that way in greenhouses in Sweden, then planted here. They take to the movement very well."

"Have you seen the movie Snowpiercer, Andreas?" Ellie asks, and he nods.

"We enjoyed watching that movie. A lot of good ideas."

"This is just what New Oban is like, isn't it?" Halima asks as she looks around. Her eyes are wide with wonder and what might be... desperation? "Somewhere like, modern? You can say anythin' there?"

"Yes, I expect so," Ellie answers, looking confused, but she brushes it away. "But what's our plan here? We can't stop the train and we can't seal the carriages."

Andreas sighs and run a hand through his blond hair. "You're all good people, I think. I'll tell you what I know. All the large cities in the UK are being quarantined. I'd hoped this train would be safe, but you've seen what's happened. I've received a message from Invertech." He holds his cellphone. Must've checked it while we were running for our lives. "The military are establishing a quarantine zone in New Oban, but they can't let the train in. Passengers who on the first three carriages of this train when we arrive at New Oban will be escorted by military guards to the safe zone.

"There should be automatic announcements going off in the other carriages telling people to move forward. We must reach the front of the train before we reach New Oban."

"How much time do we have?" I ask.

"Enough, but only if we move quickly. Come on!"

•

"We must be halfway through this arboretum," Ellie says, panting lightly. "It's enormous!"

"Uh, yeah, yeah," Sam stammers. "You are doing well, actually. You've come in three kilometers. Only seven more to go to the first carriage, but uh, yeah. There are people behind you. Flu people."

Andreas glances over his shoulder. "I can see them through the trees."

I don't even have to look back to know they're there. I can hear them, growling and groaning behind us. It's a normal zombie growl through, not a V-Type growl, so I suppose that's a good thing, although we haven't invented the cure yet, so bites here are fatal.

How weird it is to think a cure won't be found for another seven and a half years.

"Wow. That's a lot of flu people," Halima murmurs, having looked back. I can see the shock on her face, even as she gulps and forces her eyes back to what's in front of her.

"Yeah. Some people were on the viewing deck above the arboretum, asleep or with headphones on, or-or they were old," Sam explains. "And one flu person got up on the viewing deck... and now they're chasing you."

I see movement through the trees. It's a person, not infected. He's got a baseball bat. I open my mouth to tell him to aim for the head, but before I can he wraps a blanket around it and douses it in vodka. Dropping the glass bottle, he pulls out a lighter and lights up the bat, swinging it towards the zombies, not to hit them, but to frighten them back.

"I-how-why are those flu people so unfazed by fire?!" Sam screams, but then he winces when a zombie lunges for the man and bites him, causing him to lose his grip on the bat which catches his arm on fire. The man screams and drops the flaming bat completely, and the flames quickly start to spread to the trees and the grass.

Oh no.

"The trees!" Ellie shouts, and Andreas sucks in a sharp breath, paling significantly.

Seconds later, an alarm goes off in the arboretum.

"Fire detected. Fire detected in Zone K. Deploying fire retardant snow. Please evacuate the area."

Almost immediately, white powdery snow starts falling from the vents up in the ceiling. Ellie giggles as some of it lands on her shoulders.

"That's so pretty," She says, although from the look on Andreas' face I have a feeling that something definitely isn't right. "It's actually snowing in here."

"Oh, it's going to remove all the oxygen in this arboretum if we don't keep moving," He says, and I choke on my own breath.

"Quel? T'es sérieux?" I screech, only pausing for a moment to realize.

Did I just speak French?

Whether or not Andreas understood what I said, he speaks again. "We have to keep moving. Run!"

He doesn't have to tell me twice. As the snow continues to fall heavily, we continue to run. The zombies behind us pay no attention to what's going on. The lack of air won't hurt them, neither will the flames.

My legs burn from the run, and I remember that all that running me, Halima and Ellie did to get to the train to board it was today, even though I haven't dreamed about it for-I don't know, a few weeks? Catherine's body is feeling fatigued because of it.

I can already feel my breathing becoming more and more shallow as the snow falls and gets all into my hair. From Halima's phone I can hear Sam muttering frantic curses under his breath.

The zombies behind us growl and moan, and I wonder what the others are thinking about this. There's an unreasonable amount of terror flooding through me, and I can only assume it's Catherine feeling this. When I look back, it confirms it, since these people look much better than the zombies present day me has seen, and I'm still terrified.

Although I suppose the fact that we're rapidly losing breathable air also has something to do with it. This body isn't used to running, so it's not used to not getting enough oxygen in the blood because of the increased heartrate, so add that to the fact that there's less oxygen then normal, every part of my body is screaming for me to stop so I can catch my breath.

Within two minutes Ellie is gasping for breath, and Andreas looks a bit paler than before. Within five I'm beginning to feel faint and Halima's got her hand clasped over her chest as she struggles to breathe.

"Okay, you've run four K," Sam says, sounding relieved. I would sigh in relief with him if I could. "You should be at the end of the arboretum."

"It's getting... hard to... breathe," Ellie gasps, but Andreas points ahead.

"The door! We're almost... there!" He grabs the door and swings it open, and we all rush inside, coughing and sputtering as fresh air enters our lungs. I make sure to shut the door behind us, nearly collapsing onto the oak floors beneath our feet.

My chest aches, and I close my eyes for a second, taking in slow, controlled breaths to help ease the pain.

"Wow!" Halima says, recovering surprisingly quickly. "The library!"

I look up at the floor to ceiling bookcases, full of books. Present day Ellie would have a field day to see this many books again, I think. It's a nice library-polished with clean reading desks with lamps that give off a warm light. It's peaceful.

I push myself to my feet. We don't have time to sit and admire this library, no matter how badly I wish we could, since such a vast amount of books in one place isn't much of a thing in my present.

"We need to keep moving. Before the zom-" I pause. "I mean, flu people get in."

"No, it's okay," Andreas says, dusting himself off. "We can seal these doors."

He presses a few different buttons on the keypad next to the door, and a second later a small beep from the door, along with the door sealing shut.

"How come we can seal these ones but not the others?" Halima asks.

"Ah... We prioritize the seals on the arboretum, to preserve the trees in case of a fire on the train."

I curse under my breath while Ellie scowls. "Okay, so you want to preserve the train but not the people?"

"We didn't know there was going to be an outbreak of flu that turns people gray and viscous!" He exclaims, before rubbing his face. "And the trees were very expensive. About six million pounds each to grow them that size." He cringes a moment later. "Now that I've said that out loud, I do realize how that sounds."

"Do you now?" I ask, and he just sighs.

"This train should have been a manual for the modern world. It was supposed to help people. New Oban was a model of how you could run a lower energy city of the future! Completely self-sustaining. Jobs for all. No homelessness. The train was supposed to represent all of that."

"Yeah." Sam drags out of the word. "Did... D-Did you actually understand the message of Snowpiercer?"

"The message is a train can be more than you think. The right train can keep you safe for decades."

"Uh... okay. This is the kind of thing that the ObanHeads would've loved like, three hours ago, but we've got bigger things to worry about now. More and more people in the UK are being quarantined with the flu. There's been a riot in Bristol, Sheffield's set up a military base a-and... New Castle station's been shut down."

The way he said that last part makes me nervous, and I say so.

"We're not supposed to stop at New Castle, are we?" Ellie asks.

Andreas shakes his head, but he looks panicked. "No, but they need to change the points for us at New Castle. If there's no one there to change the points, the train will crash."

I blink once, twice, before it sets in. "Are you kidding me?! Damn it!"

"There might be something we can do," He says, trying to calm me down but doing a piss poor job. "We have to head forward. Come. Let's go."

•

The sound of glass breaking makes me flinch.

"Okay. You've run five K and you're halfway through that train." Sam pauses when Andreas smashes something, shards of glass scattering across the floor. "Uh, Andreas, what are you smashing in the dining room car? I hope it's not the crystal win glasses, because I always fancied having a good drinking out of one of those?"

"Aren't you seventeen?" I ask.

"How did you know?" He says instead of answering, and I cringe.

"Uh, I know someone who knows you at uh, your university. My sister."

He hims. "Really? Weird. I don't think any of my classmates are French."

"She's not a classmate, I don't think. Says she listens to you sometimes on the radio station that the university has." I pause before deciding to add, "Thinks you're cute."

I can picture his eyebrows shooting up in surprise. "Really?"

"Uh, oui. Her name's Callista. Looks a lot like me, just a younger."

"I'll uh, keep an eye out for her."

I refrain from laughing. Since he obviously doesn't remember seeing Catherine even after seeing me, and neither does Ellie, apparently, I can only assume Sam won't remember this conversation if this does somehow manage to change the past.

Sam clears his throat. "So, uh, Andreas, what're you-"

"Emergency intercom point," He replies.

"How do things look in the rest of the train?" Ellie asks.

"Uh, yeah. So, the people at the front of the train aren't doing so well. Someone up there obviously had the flu too. A lot of people have been bitten. Some of the survivors have managed to barricade the doors to the spa, but it's not good."

"It is good, in a way." Andreas presses some buttons on the emergency intercom point, and the speakers squeal loudly. "Remaining passengers, we are sorry to inform you that this train is going to crash in New Castle in just a few minutes. However, our test bed prototype express is currently at Platform 4. I can turn it on. If you make your way to the sleeping pod area, you will be most likely to survive. Doors will open automatically on impact. Thank you."

He turns off the intercom, shoulders slumping. "This isn't what we wanted. You have to believe that. We thought we were making a beautiful thing."

Halima places her hand on his shoulder. "You did, Andreas. You made a beautiful thing... Do you know why I love the NewOban Express so much?"

"You loved all the cool nature stuff, didn't you?" Sam guesses, and she shrugs.

"Well, yes, but it was more than that. NewOban Express is a fresh start, and I needed that. I had a boyfriend in college. Not Muslim. I kept him secret from my parents. Maybe they would have been okay with him, but I didn't tell them... He wasn't a nice guy. I tried to convince myself that he was, but he wasn't. Two months ago..." She releases a shaky breath. "I found out I was pregnant. And I told him, and he was really nice. Said all the right things. Said how he'd look after me and everythin' would be great because-because I told him I wanted to keep the baby.

"And then one day, I got back to our room and he was just gone. All his stuff was gone, phone number changed, none of his mates would say where he was. Just gone! And I didn't know how to tell my parents. I kept thinking I'd tell them on the journey to New Oban, but when I got the ticket to the Express, I thought, 'It's a sign. A new start.'

"I thought I could spend the journey workin' up to it and tell them when I got there." She sounds so desperately hopeful, but it fades. "And if they never wanted to talk to me again... I could just stay there."

"Oh, Halima," Ellie says, eyes full of pity. "I've known people in this situation, and parents sometimes aren't what you hope, but give them a chance to love you."

She nods. "Yeah. I want to... but I tried callin' them and they're not answerin' their phones. And the flu and-" Her voice breaks.

"Well, we know communications have been down just about everywhere," Sam says. "The only reason I'm still able to able to talk to you is because I'm using my laptop, although internet's probably going to be working less and less too soon. But don't decide it's the worst. Now come on. If you get to the middle of the train, you'll have a fighting chance, but you have to move. Run!"

I wake up.

The light is blinding, as is the harsh smell of disinfectant. Every corner of my mind screams in panic as blurred white and fuzzy shadows dance across my vision. I can't just wake up! Not now! Not after that!

No! No! No!

"You're awake," A soft voice says, and after I finally register shapes and colors, I realize I'm not in the coms shack, or out in the snow. I'm in the hospital, and Maxine is standing over me.

"Wha-where-" I croak, mouth much too dry.

"Relax. Peter and Tom brought you in. Said you passed out," She explains. "You do that a lot."

I swallow, trying to get some moisture on my tongue. "I... is Sam here?"

She points to a nearby chair where he sits, slumped over with his eyes closed.

"Oh."

"I'm sure the two that brought you here will be back in a few hours to check up on you. They both seemed a bit panicked, which honestly worried me since Tom panicking is never a good sign."

"How long have I been out?"

"About three hours," She answers, and I nod. It makes sense for Tom and Peter to panic because of that. They know that I'm weird and have some knowledge about my visions and insight on the past and how it affects me, but I think they were expecting me to get dizzy, get a nosebleed and then be okay. Passing out and staying out probably worried them.

I'm going to have to bake a lot of sweets in hopes that they won't be too upset at me for freaking them out.

But now I have to hope that I can sleep and figure out what the hell is going to happen, or I suppose, happened, to Catherine and the others on that train.

"So what's wrong with me this time?" I ask. She won't find anything wrong, but I can't just not ask without raising suspicion.

Maxine sighs. "I took the liberty to draw some blood to take a blood test, but the only thing I could find was traces of Van Ark's concoction."

"O-Oh?" I ask, and my voice cracks.

"There's no need to worry about that," She says quickly, sensing my distress but assuming it's there for a different reason. "These traces have also been found in past blood tests. It's why you can uh... punch through metal."

My voice wavers. "Right. Right."

"I plan on taking another look, but it seemed that you probably just suffered from an extreme case of exhaustion. You should get some rest. I'll be back in a few hours."

Thankfully she leaves after that, and I sigh in relief, slumping back into the hospital bed with the less-than-comfortable mattress. Glancing over at Sam, I debate whether or not I should tell him what I've just dreamt or wait until this is all over and I know what the heck is happening on that train.

Whether I do that or not, I will have to tell him about me attempting to tell Peter about my immortality. He already knows I was going to tell him, so this won't shock him, but I'm sure Sam will disapprove over the fact that I tried to tell Peter before it was time, since my other attempts at changing my visions never went well.

I'll just have to wait, it seems. In the vision I was extremely upset at Peter, screaming and crying.

I groan. Peter literally scared me half to death a week ago and I didn't react like that, so I can only imagine what that idiot is going to do to lead up to my big reveal.

Lord help me.

A/N: Here you go, guys! I hope you enjoyed this chapter! This is just an update saying a may not update much these next two weeks simply because it will be finals in college by that time, so if I don't put up any chapters that's why, and I will try to make it up to you over Christmas break. Thank you and have a blessed day!