Sabrina Holland

Sprint

The setting sun glinted off the blade of the knife. It was a simple knife, made of smooth metal with the handle clad in leather. If one was to look closely, they would realise that the knife had been crafted by a skilled hand and not of a machine's cold touch. Countless hours of work had gone into creating this knife, made for a boy whose death had come at the hands of the one who now held his knife. For a moment Sabrina thought back to that moment so high up on that cliff before turning her attention back to the more important issue at hand.

"You… Ruby… are so selfless. It's… amazing." A croaked chuckle left Sabrina's exhausted throat. "Jake… I never did anything wrong when I was with Jake. I hadn't acted on my vision but that was it. That was nothing. When I listened to that voice in order to survive… that was when I became… bad." Sabrina finally looked away from the knife of her memories and to the woman who sat next to her.

Ruby Ascot was covered in the concrete dust of the collapsed building, coating everything from her trainers to her face in gentle grey flecks. However, this didn't mar the bright red hair that was the staple of Ruby, cut short and tomboyish which drew Sabrina's attention the moment she had first laid eyes upon the girl. Ruby's legs were splayed out in front of her, unmoving due to the impact on the way down with the building and blood duller than her hair dripped down her left shoulder. Ruby's eyes were clenched shut as if she refused to even look at Sabrina. Not that she could blame her.

Sabrina gently placed her hand on Ruby's cheek, looking at the closed eyes as if attempting to penetrate them. "I met you and… and I fell in love again. I wanted to protect you no matter what. I wanted to be with you for as long as I could. I thought that would be for a long time. Then the Epsilon incident happened and… and I did more bad things. I didn't want to act on the visions I had, I didn't want to place either of us in danger. I had to battle with that urge for survival again. But you… you continued to love me, even as I did all those bad things… even after… even after…" Sabrina looked away for the briefest moment to look at the body that lay crumpled a few metres away. The jewel-emblazoned eagle glittered obscenely against the blood that pooled from the crushed skull of the small woman. Sabrina could still feel that rebar in her hand and suspected that feeling would never leave. "…This."

Silence trailed for a few seconds. "…What you've done… is absolutely wrong… but…" Ruby still refused to open her eyes. After all, who would want to witness their own death? "…I… at least can guess at your struggles. I can understand why, even if it's wrong. That's why… That's why I can still love you… But I love the you from before Epsilon… And after… after you do what you need to do, you need to become that woman again." Finally she opened her eyes and Sabrina could stare into those hazel gems that she loved so much. "You need to be the best Sabrina Holland you can be."

"…I can't do that…" Sabrina said quietly, her resolution hitting her with surprising ease. "…Because I won't be around to be that Sabrina Holland. She's too far gone to come back." Sabrina placed the hilt of the knife in Ruby's own hand, feeling the cold palm with her fingertips.

"What are you-?"

"You are a… very special person, Ruby. It's unbelievable that you've managed to overcome my sense of survival. That's… That's magical. It really is." Sabrina felt such serenity that one could imagine she hadn't just murdered two innocent women. "I don't know if this will work but… But I hope it does. I hope that you can go on to enjoy your life, Ruby. Find a friend – someone you can really trust. Someone you can speak your soul to and someone who can be everything I wasn't. Someone who will stick with you through thick and th-thin…" Sabrina felt her voice crack and the serenity was invaded by grief, running all the way up her spine. She refused to cry though. Not now. "Someone you can laugh with... and cry with… w-who'll enjoy the concerts you like and… and… will comfort you in times of despair… Who can do all the things I never did… Someone who is brave… and brilliant… and…" Sabrina swallowed, feeling the hot lump at the back of her throat. The words dissipated in the cool evening air.

"Sabrina, don't—"

"Ssh…" Sabrina squeezed her hand over Ruby's own, the leather of the knife between them. "I had a choice, Ruby. Me or you. Survival or death. Last time I chose me. I chose survival and it corrupted me. This time… You're to good a person to go." This time, Sabrina closed her eyes. "I love you, Ruby Ascot."

With those words on her lips, Sabrina pulled hard on Ruby's hand. She felt the sharp blade pierce into her belly with no resistance, sliding in with ease. Sabrina gasped – uncertain whether it was the pain of the knife or the relief of making this choice. She pushed forward, allowing the blade to completely disappear inside her, in order to get close enough to kiss Ruby again. This kiss was different that that quick one from before. This one was filled with so much euphoria that Sabrina was certain that this was the correct decision.

Ruby had to live.

London, England

Sabrina held the knife that had killed her in front of her as the figure rushed towards her, screaming like a banshee with arms flailing uselessly. She grit her teeth, not understanding why she was even walking again but not willing to argue that fact. She had died, Sabrina knew that, and she had somehow come back alive, waking up in this silver morgue with a hundred doors to the other dead. This figure rushing towards her had come out of one of these doors and going by its pallid appearance it was certainly as dead as Sabrina should have been.

Sabrina swung her arm and stabbed the knife hard down into the collarbone of the figure, letting the sharp knife dig deep. This seemed as effective as prodding it with her finger as the – for lack of a better word – zombie tackled into Sabrina with the force of a rugby player and knocked her against the floor, the knife pulling out of Sabrina's grasp and staying stuck in the collar of the zombie. Sabrina hit the floor with her back and used both arms to push against the shoulders of the zombie whose teeth were gnashing up and down like a deranged animal.

"Meagan!" Sabrina called, looking to her left where Meagan Thompson stood, staring down at the scene with wide eyes. From this position the red marks on her neck where Sabrina had strangled her reminded Sabrina that she couldn't expect any help from Meagan. Didn't deserve any help from her. Another dead body. At least, she should be. Sabrina had watched the life leave the girl as she had strangled her back at the construction site, squeezing so tightly she could feel the veins and trachea in her palms. Yet here she was, just like Sabrina, alive and well.

Sabrina shoved harder on the zombie and knocked him away from her, scrambling back to her feet only for an errant slap from the zombie to hit her in the face. Sabrina winced at the impact and felt a sharp nail tear into her cheek. She responded with a punch of her own, desperately attempting to get the zombie away from her. Instead the bones of the face crumbled under her fist and one eye popped, the goop of the eye sliding down the zombie's cheek. Sabrina recoiled in shock at the effect of decomposition and looked at the now-twisted face of the zombie.

At least it had stopped screaming. Not that the banging had stopped which Sabrina could make an educated guess were hundreds more like this one, trying to escape their steel graves. It lunged towards Sabrina with both hands and now Sabrina had her wits about her she ducked under its grasp, reaching up to grab her knife out from its collar. Hoping that every zombie movie she had ever watched when she was a kid was true, she rotated the blade and slid it into one ear. The zombie immediately buckled, pulling out of the knife and collapsing to the floor. Sabrina stepped away, panting.

Sabrina wiped the remnants of blood on the black jacket with the emblazoned eagle she now wore, a memento of the other woman she had killed, Lily Talbot. She turned to Meagan who was wringing her hands. "What was that?" Meagan asked, eyes wide.

"Somebody long dead," Sabrina motioned towards a door in the far back wall. "Come on, we need to get out of here before that banging stops and we get a lot more like this one." Yet Meagan refused to move. "Come on, what's wrong?"

"What's wrong?" Meagan asked incredulously, looking to Sabrina as if she were a fool. Hell, Sabrina was certain that she herself was a fool when it came to certain decisions of her life. "What the fuck is going on? You killed me, Sabrina!" She motioned to the mottled marks on her neck. "But now I'm alive and in some kind of morgue and with some kind of zombie, I mean, a zombie!? What the fuck is this, some kind of stunt, some kind of personal hell, some sort of bloody ridiculous… I mean, look at it!" Meagan was growing hysterical, pointing at the body on the floor. "This isn't right, this isn't right, I can remember, I remember your hands, I remember it fading, I remember not being able to speak, not being able to breathe as you-you-you choked me to fucking death! This isn't-This isn't right… No, no, no, no, no, this is not… How can I… How can this…?" Meagan clutched her hands to her head, eyes wide and panicked. "I'm not-I'm not breathing now; I'm not breathing now!" Meagan let out a choked gasp and let out strange noises as if trying to deliberately draw breath in and out. "I'm like him, I'm just like him, I'm dead, I'm dead!"

Sabrina quickly realised that she wasn't breathing either though found herself deliberately sucking in air instinctively. She supposed that when you breathed day in and day out for twenty years it would be a little weird to suddenly not do it. Sabrina knew it was odd that she wasn't panicking and certainly should be acting like Meagan, yet she knew that this was a chance. A chance to find her again.

Ruby…

Sabrina stepped closer to Meagan, aware of the constant banging and knowing their time was limited. "Get it together."

"Shut up! Shut up, shut up, shut up! I don't understand, I don't, shut up! SHUT UP!"

"You're not like him," Sabrina said firmly, raising her voice to drown out Meagan's shouts. "You can think, you can talk. That thing had no control. We do. Think about it, Meagan. Come on. I have my memories. You do to, don't you? You remember Trenton, don't you? Just like I do Ruby?"

"Don't say his name! Don't say it!" Anger flared over the maddened Meagan but as soon as she said it the anger dissipated. "Trent..." She took a deep, unnecessary, breath and finally calmed down, running both hands down over her hair and cheeks. "Trent." She said again, closing her eyes. She murmured his name a few more times, a ritual of sorts to regain her sense. She opened her eyes and looked at Sabrina. "I'm okay. I'm… I'm okay."

A crashing noise brought Sabrina and Meagan's attention down the corridor. It seemed as if fate had let them have their break as doors all up the corridor burst open and bodies flung themselves out, each in varying stages of decomposition and all as entirely naked as Sabrina and Meagan had been. Some crawled, some walked, some ran, yet all screamed as if their souls were trapped in the eternal torture of hell.

"Go, go! Run!" Sabrina called, grabbing Meagan's shoulder and pushing her in front. They ran as fast as they could, doors on either side and in front of them of them breaking open, filling with hundreds of the dead in just one instant. A crawling one reached for Sabrina but she gave it such a sharp kick that its jaw came clean off. She stumbled but Meagan grabbed Sabrina's arm, stopping her from falling. "Thanks," Sabrina said honestly but Meagan didn't look back as they ran.

"It was instinct," Meagan replied, avoiding two more reaching zombies. As they ran, Sabrina realised it wasn't only the breathing that was absent. It was the use of energy. She wasn't sweating and no matter how hard she pushed herself she didn't feel any kind of energy limit. She and Meagan retained the same high pace as the door at the end of the corridor grew larger and larger. Part of Sabrina thought this could be pretty useful. "They're too close!" Meagan called as they ran.

"Just get to the door!" Sabrina replied.

"What if it's locked?" Meagan responded.

"Fuck if I know. We slam into it then."

"You think that'll work?"

"Wanna turn around and face our chances with the dead?"

"Yeah, that's exactly what I want to do."

Their bickering was cut short when the door unbelievably opened wide, as if beckoning them in. Neither thought to question it and burst through the door, squeezing through shoulder-to-shoulder. Sabrina instantly turned around and slammed the door shut, scrabbling with a latch and holding it firmly in place. She straightened, once again finding it unusual that she wasn't breathing at all. If she were indeed alive, she would have been doubled over, her lungs working overtime. Instead she felt as she had been relaxing for a day in a sun-soaked observatory.

"...Sabrina…"

Sabrina turned and found herself face-to-face with the most unexpected person she could imagine. The woman looked as if she could be Sabrina's grandmother, with her grey hair tied into an untidy bun and a face full of wrinkles. Her eyes under her glasses were flashing between Sabrina and Meagan who had fallen to the floor in shock, her back pushed up against the door separating them and the dead, who were now banging like savage animals on the metal. Sabrina suspected it wouldn't last long.

"Now this is interesting," The old woman said, hefting a shotgun Sabrina hadn't seen before against her shoulder. The shotgun looked like it shouldn't be in the hands of such an old woman. "I almost didn't believe my cameras when I saw you running from the dead. Glad I opened the door when I did. The two of you were dead as doornails when you came to my door, so I wonder why you're walking and talking and not one with the rest of the dead. Come on, we'll pop upstairs and have a cup of tea." The woman turned and started towards the steel doors of an elevator before stopping after noticing neither Sabrina nor Meagan were following. "Come now, I'm not going to bite. I know who you are. Sabrina Holland. Meagan Thompson. Key figures in the Epsilon incident. The last of that List to go. Oh yes, I know."

"Who are you?" Out of all the hundreds of questions Sabrina had floating around her head, this simple one was the one that slipped out.

"My name is Doris, dearie. Doris Crawson, member of the Department of Supernatural Investigations and manager of the TRSI building in London." She paused a moment, pursing her lips. "I probably shouldn't have told you that. Ah well, the times have made my lips loose and the idea of talking to some people, dead or not, after a day like this is rather enticing. Now come on, the kettle is already on and I believe I have some teacakes hiding in the cupboard."

The Department of Supernatural Investigation. The goddamn DSI. Sabrina should have known. Yet given the choice between the undead and the DSI, though a tough one, she chose the living and followed Doris Crawson into the elevator with Meagan by her side, allowing the steel doors to close shut around them.

A/N:- Well, hello there. It's been a while. I've had enough of hemming and hawwing and should I or shouldn't I, so I'm just gonna. Welcome to the fourth book of the World's End Chronicles, Apocalypse: Outbreak. While probably not necessary to read the first three books, I will be using characters from these stories and referencing events from these stories, so in order to understand a lot of the backstory I'd recommend having a look-see. The Cliff's Notes is that The Four Horseman have resurrected the dead under the orders of Pandora after a certain Paige Calloway killed Death. I know, sounds crazy when I put it look that.

I'm not going to have a schedule for this one. I was worried to much about not having the time to put out chapters regularly that I've put this off for long enough. I'm just going to submit when I do and I think that's the healthiest way for me to do it. So to those of you who've read my other books in these chronicles, welcome back, and for those of you knew, welcome. I hope you enjoy the first of the Apocalypse trilogy - Outbreak!

* Ruby Ascot is credited to gotthealpha in me