To Be A Warrior

Chapter 60: Into The Unknown

"Cat, Sam, it's Halima. I need your help. Something's happened and-" She pauses for a breath. "Something's gone badly wrong in New Oban, and I'm running out of people I can trust. You two and Ellie and Andreas-you saved my life back on Z-Day. I need you to come to New Oban. I'll meet you outside the city walls and... hurry. Please."

"That's really all she sent?" I ask as my feet trod on the cold ground. Sam sucks in a breath.

"Yeah. Well, that and a map marked with a time and a place to meet her. I guess she wanted to wait a few days to make sure we'd actually see and-well, be able to make a plan. I'm so glad we decided to come. She sounds in a bad way. You're not far from New Oban now, love. Keep following the old railway line and you'll see the city walls soon."

"We can still see you from the camper van," Nicole says. "I doubt that'll last."

Sam huffs. "Tell me again why you decided to come."

"Because this woman knew Catherine, the Original, as Singer's called her, and seeing that I want to know more about what exactly Singer and her doppelgangers are-"

"Yeah, yeah. She won't be able to tell you much. She thought Catherine was just a normal person. At the time, Catherine thought Catherine was just a normal person!" He sighs, and I can picture him rubbing his temples in frustration. "Never mind. If you want to waste your time in here with me, fine. As long as you don't get in the way of the mission."

"I won't," She replies, almost sounding offended. "I was a kid when New Oban and the Express was big. Never really knew much about it. It was supposed to be a... model city?"

Sam's tone changes, sounding much like an excited child talking about his favorite subject. "Oh, yeah! I always wanted to visit New Oban. 'The City of the Future.' 'The Jewel of the Scottish Highlands'." Even when it was built, it was groundbreaking, but now, compared to Abel-hell, compared to New Canton or Banktown, it might as well be an alien megacity."

"That great, huh?"

"They're still living in skyscrapers! They've got these massive concrete perimeter walls. I mean, if you had to choose a place to spend the apocalypse, it'd be at the top of your list," He gushes, and I bite the inside of my cheek to keep from smiling at how cute he is when he's excited like this. "Halima's been living there since Z-Day. She's got a little girl now-Amala. She used to message me on Roufflenet and tell me how they were getting on, and then-then about six months after Z-Day, we lost touch. New Oban went silent.

"There were reports that a wall got breached; they lost some of the city to zoms and... well, we thought maybe the survivors just didn't want to talk anymore."

I frown. It reminds me of that compound Maxine and I had to break into when trying to stop Moonchild. They were completely silent, no talk to the outside. Although they did it to keep hidden. New Oban was already a known place before the apocalypse.

So why did they do it?

"But then Halima sent you that message last week," Nicole states.

"Yeah. If she really needs our help, we're here for her, right?"

"Right," I chime in, trying not to trip over the train tracks that have almost been grown over completely. "Although there is one thing I worry about. Halima's gonna know that I'm not Catherine. I have brown eyes and she had amber eyes."

"I'm sure it'll be fine. I mean, Halima hasn't seen Catherine in almost eight years. I'm sure she won't remember the color of her eyes."

My teeth tug on the bottom part of my lip. "Well, she'll probably remember that Catherine was French."