To Be A Warrior

Chapter 39: Train To New Oban Part 1

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?"