Engine 4197 slowed to a halt at King Street Station, a century-old brick building overlooked by a tall clock tower, and all of the National Guardsmen he had picked up disembarked from the train. Devin and Sgt. Thompson stepped out of the front car after the others had done so, and Devin headed towards the engine at the back of the train for his routine inspection. As he made his way there, he was stopped when a tattooed woman smoking a cigarette spoke to him.

"This all looks totally normal," Samantha said sarcastically.

"Look lady," Devin responded, "I'm just the engineer. They all got aboard my train and told me what to do."

"They tell you what's going on here?"

"No," he lied, after a moment's hesitation. "I don't know anything." He paused again. "Now if you'll excuse me, I gotta inspect my train."

Samantha motioned towards the engine car with her arm. "Don't let me stop you." Despite that statement, she called to him again. "By the way, I'm Samantha. And I'm not a fucking lady." She smirked at Devin; he nodded awkwardly, and kept walking. Samantha chuckled at his discomfort.

…

"Hello world, Charlotte here again," Charlotte said to start the video she was recording, in a much more somber tone than her last one. "I'm still in King Street Station in Seattle, because the National Guard aren't letting anybody out, and they're not telling us anything." She thought about mentioning what the two distraught mothers had told her, but decided to respect their privacy. "I've heard certain reports that have led me to suspect that the illness I mentioned in my last video has actually spread here and that we may be in some sort of quarantine. Now, a bunch more National Guard guys have showed up and there now has to be a hundred of them here." She paused and took a deep breath, keeping her concerned tears away. "I think there's actually something seriously bad happening right now and I'm gonna try and do more digging for any sort of reports on this. This is Charlotte Brody, of CBInternet, signing off." She then stopped her recording, composed herself, and made her way back to the main area.

Charlotte tried to get on the internet, but quickly realized there was no Wi-Fi anymore, meaning that not only could she not upload her video, but more urgently, she couldn't get any information on this illness and what else may be going on. However, she still had cell service, so she made a call.

"Hello honey," the voice said warmly, "how are you?"

"Hey Mom," Charlotte said with a slight smile, "I'm fine, but I'm in King Street Station."

"Dammit," Charlotte's mother said with concern. "I heard about it on the news. At least, it went by on the bottom of the screen, because the anchors keep talking about this weird disease or something."

"What have they said?" Charlotte was eager to hear.

"Not much; they don't really know what it even IS. All they're saying is that some people are biting other people. One guy said it's some new form of anarchist movement or something."

Charlotte was unnerved. "Okay, well, could you do me a favor? There's no internet here in this station, so could you maybe do some digging for me?"

Her mother sighed. "I'll try, but you know I'm not good with computers, honey."

Charlotte rolled her eyes with a grin. "Just follow the 'Breaking News' buttons and see what you can find."

"Okay sweetie, just be careful, okay? If anything goes wrong you just keep your head down, alright?"

"You really think I'm gonna hide from a story?"

Her mother sighed again. "Just don't get hurt."

"Thanks Mom. I love you."

"Love you too honey, buh-bye." Then, they hung up. Knowing her mother's technological difficulties, she started walking around the station, hoping that any sort of signal would come in.

…

"Jesus Christ!" She yelled in her Scottish brogue as she was forced into a booth the Guardsmen decided to use as a makeshift jail cell. "Is this really necessary?"

"Ma'am, you were making a scene and being belligerent, you've got no one but yourself to blame. We'll let you out in a while."

"C'mon Goddammit, this is such shite!" The soldier ignored her and walked off. She tried to open the door, but it was zip-tied shut. As she took a deep breath, she noticed there was another booth next to her. And there were three men inside.

"At least you get your own," one of the men asked, annoyed.

The man who addressed her was in his mid-thirties, and he was wearing a black beanie, a light tan jacket, and green cargo pants, and had a long chinbeard. Standing on his right was a man around the same age, but with five-o'clock shadow and was wearing merely a blue t-shirt and jeans. Standing behind them was a young man no older than twenty, who wore glasses and an all-black ensemble.

"Uh…" she stated awkwardly, "hi?"

The same man addressed her again. "Hi. I'm Ben. What's your name?"

After a moment of thought, she finally replied, "Alice. Alice McTavish."

"Nice to meet you, Alice. What brings you here?"

"They're searching everyone, and it kinda felt like a guard was groping me leg a little too long."

Ben laughed. "Sorry about that. But, that seems to be the way of the world now."

"Where are you from?" The younger man asked.

The third man turned to him. "Danny, does that really matter?"

"Shut up Henry, I'm curious."

"Uhh," Alice started, "I'm from Edinburgh. Scotland. I was here on holiday."

"Goddammit," Danny said, turning away in concern.

"What?" Alice was confused.

He turned back. "You brought this here!"

"The fuck?!"

"Holy shit…" Henry said, shocked. "You're right."

"What the hell are you idiots talkin' about?"

"There's an outbreak!" Danny snapped back. "Something going on in Europe…you just brought it here, and now we're all trapped here because of you."

"Whoa whoa whoa," Ben said, motioning for everyone to calm down. "Let's just take it easy, okay? We don't know everything yet."

"Thank you," Alice said, feeling at ease.

"A lot people come in and out of this country every day…we just gotta keep an eye out."

Alice lost that feeling of ease. "What do you mean?"

Ben continued. "Scotland is a nice place. Not a lot of sickness there. But if we see someone who came here from Mexico, or Africa, I think they should do a little more thorough searching."

Alice tilted her head in annoyance. "You're telling me everywhere in America is squeaky clean?"

Ben laughed. "If you think that's what it's all about, you're wrong. I'm not racist or anything, it's just that biologically, some things from foreign countries don't belong in our soil. Like, you can't plant certain seeds from south of the Equator in America because it'll cause a bad chemical reaction. That's all I'm concerned about."

Alice could sense that it was a little more deeply rooted than that, but decided it wasn't worth it. "Whatever, man. What're you even in here for anyways?"

Ben smirked. "We met, we were chatting for a while, then this kid offers us weed and we went into the bathroom to smoke up. Then a soldier came in, took the weed, and had us sent here."

"There's no doubt he took my weed for himself," Danny said in frustration.

At that moment, two Guardsmen came in. One was the same one who had sent all of them to their "cells", but none of them recognized the other. Alice looked at his name on his uniform as he spoke.

"Bigger fish to fry here," Sgt. Thompson said, berating the other man. He then turned to the prisoners. "Are you all sorry?" He asked in an exasperated tone; everyone nodded. "Good. Now let 'em out." The other soldier then removed the zip-ties and let all four of them out. Sgt. Thompson then escorted them to the main area in front of the station, where almost everyone was converged.

…

"Things are getting fucked man," Quentin said to Ryan and Ethan, "those soldiers ain't even letting people outside to smoke anymore. Something's going on out there."

"What do you think it is?" Ethan asked.

"I don't know, but it's looking better inside this shitty-ass place every Goddamn second."

"Bullshit," Ryan interjected. "If something IS going on out there, we have a right to know what it is." He paused to ponder for a moment, and as he looked in no direction in particular, someone caught his eye.

"Jesus Christ," he said, spotting a pretty biracial woman in her mid-twenties about fifty feet away, "that's Charlotte Brody."

"Who?" Quentin and Ethan asked in unison.

"She's a blogger. Blew the lid off that Malcolm guy, proved he killed a woman. She LIVES for unsettling shit like this." He paused again. "We should talk to her, see if she's figured out anything we haven't."

"Fuck it," Quentin said with a shrug, "let's see what we can get out of her." All three men then stood up and approached Charlotte.

"Excuse me," Ryan politely called out to her as she continued searching for a signal, "you're Charlotte Brody of CBInternet, right?"

Charlotte was caught off guard; this wasn't the place she expected to get recognized by someone. "Um, yeah, that's me." She paused awkwardly. "Sorry, I don't get recognized on the street too often…I mean, we're not in a street, but…you know what I mean."

"Look, I've seen a few of your videos, and I know you're committed to the truth no matter what, so please tell me you've figured out what's going on here."

Charlotte sighed. "Well, I've been trying, but I can't even get service on my phone anymore. They've got the clock tower guarded so that's out, and I don't smoke so I can't go outside to check out there for one."

"Can't even do THAT anymore," Quentin added.

"Great," Charlotte said sarcastically, "now all the smokers are gonna stink up the bathroom; it'll be just like my old high school."

"WAIT THAT'S IT!" Ethan enthusiastically jumped in. "When I was in the bathroom, I noticed there was a window. It's high up and it's pretty tight, but I think it'll lead out of here."

"You do realize I wouldn't exactly be…WELCOME in the men's room, right?"

"We'll wait till the coast is clear," Ryan said reassuringly. "Also, if it's too tight, I ain't getting through it anyway. I'll lift you all up to get out."

"I'm not sure if I could," Quentin noted, "I'll have to check it out."

"I think Charlotte's our best bet," Ethan observed. "You're clearly the smallest of us." Charlotte was half a head shorter than the shortest of the men, Ethan, and weighed a hundred and twenty pounds; she acknowledged the accuracy of his remark with an affirmative shrug.

"Okay," she said eagerly. "Let's do this. Which bathroom was it?"

Ethan led the other three to the bathroom, and Ryan went in first to see if it was empty. After finding that it was, the rest of the group came inside.

"Quentin, could you keep a lookout outside?" Ryan asked.

"Sure thing man," Quentin said with a nod, and then he walked out of the bathroom. Meanwhile, Charlotte examined the window, over the stall furthest from the door; it was gonna be tight alright, but she decided that she could do it.

"Alright guys quick," she said with authority, "let's get this done." Ryan and Ethan then lifted her up (although it was mostly Ryan as his reach was higher), and she unlatched the window and pushed it open as far as it would go, which unfortunately was only halfway. It was gonna be tighter than she had anticipated. Worse, she had gone from having very little room to turn around, to none at all, meaning that she'd have to drop head-first eight feet to the ground. "Dang it, help me down!" Ryan and Ethan obliged.

"I don't know if you can fit through there," Ryan said, exasperated.

Charlotte stared at the window with determination. "I can, but I need to go through feet-first or I'll break my neck."

"How do you plan on doing that? There's nothing to hang onto, no ledge, nothing."

Charlotte sighed. "You're gonna have to lift me upside-down." After explaining what she meant, Ryan grabbed her by her shoulders and Ethan grabbed her legs, and Ethan pointed her feet upwards and Ryan pushed her up. After bracing herself on the wall against Ryan, Ethan let go of her legs and stood next to Ryan, and they both pushed on her shoulders as she faced them and "walked" backwards up the wall. Once she was the height of the window, she eased one foot through, and after being assured that they had her securely, she put her other foot through. The men then began pushing her with the intent of getting enough of her body out the window that she wouldn't fall.

Meanwhile, outside, Quentin saw someone approaching the bathroom. Worse yet, a Guardsman. Calmly, he walked into the bathroom so he wouldn't draw suspicion. "Guys!" He was talking quietly, but frantically. "There's a soldier coming!"

"Crap," Charlotte said, aware of how compromising her position is, "push harder!" Ryan and Ethan pushed as hard as they could, which mildly bruised her abdomen as she passed over the uneven port where the window rests when closed, until finally, she could support her own weight. "Good, now look un-suspicious!" Ryan and Quentin walked over to the sinks, and Ethan closed the door to the stall as Charlotte desperately tried to squeeze herself through the window.

As Ryan washed his hands, he heard the bathroom door open. He inconspicuously looked into the mirror and saw that Charlotte had gotten out. He smiled, then grabbed a paper towel to dry his hands. He then threw the paper towel away, nodded politely at the soldier who had come in to also wash his hands, and then left. Quentin finished up, and left a few seconds later. Ethan decided to stay in the stall and wait for the soldier to leave.

Outside, Charlotte dropped down to the ground; the landing stung her feet a bit, but it didn't do any damage. After surveying the scene – she was in a waiting area on an abandoned part of the platform – as well as checking to make sure she was alone, she pulled her phone out and resumed her search for a signal, and made her way around the outside portion of the station.

…

Despite having only been at the station for an hour, Sgt. Thompson was ushering Devin back to Engine 4197.

"There's another unit at East Auburn Station," Sgt. Thompson said, "we need to pick them up and bring them here because we're starting to get overwhelmed by the number of people here."

"You really think having more armed soldiers is gonna calm these people down?" Devin asked incredulously.

Sgt. Thompson was annoyed. "Just do your job and let me do mine, okay?" Devin rolled his eyes, and they entered the cab of the train's engine car. Devin went through the process of powering up the train, and once it was ready, he sat down and pushed the throttle.

Charlotte, having overheard them as she hid behind a concrete bench, was contemplating her next move: should she keep roaming the station in what was becoming an increasingly hopeless search for a signal, or board the train and risk being caught? If it was just the two men in the cab, she thought, she'd probably be okay, but with them picking up several more soldiers, it just wasn't smart, so she decided to stay at the station. Unfortunately for her, she heard a door behind her open; she quickly scampered over the bench to hide from the soldiers exiting. Then, she heard the train start moving. Praying that there was a closet onboard that she could hide in, she ran alongside the train and opened the door to one of the cars, getting inside before the train got up to speed. She then began looking for a place to hide, while being quietly impressed with herself for her ability to sneak around.

Back in the cabin, Devin gradually got the train up to forty-five miles an hour.

"This track," Sgt. Thompson said, "it also carries the Empire Builder, right?" The Empire Builder was a cross-country train that travels from Seattle all the way to Chicago, a roughly two-day trip.

"Yes," Devin replied.

"Okay, well we may need to use this train as a shuttle; hopefully, a safer place will be established near the tracks. That station isn't gonna last much longer and we'll need to get those people out of there."

Devin sighed with annoyance. "Why would you round all those people up in a place you couldn't maintain?"

"It all happened so quick, we didn't really have time to shop around. And I didn't say it was imminently unsafe, I meant that we'll find a safer place. Something with more breathing room, if nothing else."

Devin couldn't shake the feeling that the sergeant wasn't telling him the whole story, but he knew prying further wouldn't get him anywhere. "A few more minutes till East Auburn." He focused on the track ahead, as Thompson pulled out his radio to inform the unit at the station that the train was en route.

Meanwhile, in one of the passenger cars, Charlotte found a small utility closet that she could fit into for when the other soldiers boarded, but until then, she maintained her search for a signal. Finally receiving one, she got online, and it didn't take long for her to start seeing the traumatizing headlines: "MASS CANNIBALISM PANDEMIC", "THE DEAD ARE RISEN", "NEARLY INVINCIBLE MUTATIONS", "POSSIBLE ALIEN INVASION?", "THE END IS NIGH!" She then clicked on a video link to a police officer's dash-cam footage, and watched in horror as the officer fired seven bullets into the torso of an awkwardly lumbering man whose mouth was covered in blood; despite the continuous stream of shots, the man stumbled to the officer, and pushed him onto the hood of the police car and proceeded to bite the officer's jugular vein as he screamed in agony. Charlotte closed the video, almost in tears by what she just witnessed. Then, she realized the train was starting to slow down, meaning it was approaching the station; quickly composing herself, she ran over to the closet and squeezed herself inside.

East Auburn Station was just starting to come into view for Devin, when he noticed something: the platform was empty. Sgt. Thompson noticed it as well. "What the hell? They checked in already, said they were waiting for pickup." He pulled out his radio. "Valley, this is Thompson, verifying East Auburn Station pickup because I'm not seeing anybody, over." No response. "Sergeant Valley, this is Sergeant Thompson, please respond, over."

Devin slowed the train for the approach to the station. "I don't like this, Sergeant…" he said apprehensively. As the train arrived at East Auburn Station, the two men visually scanned the area, and saw a large group of people standing in the station's parking lot. Hearing the loud humming of the train's engine, the majority of the group turned to face it.

"Oh shit," Sgt. Thompson said in horror.

"Fuck me," Devin said with an equal amount of horror.

Both men realized that this was a large group of walkers; most of them were in civilian clothes, but a few were in Guardsmen uniforms, indicating that the unit was overrun. Thompson was able to recognize Sgt. Valley among the horde, with a large chunk of flesh ripped out of his neck.

"Get us back to the city NOW!" Thompson ordered, barely able to keep himself from a meltdown. Devin started flipping switches, which wasn't fast enough for Thompson. "Just back this Goddamn thing up!"

"It's not a fucking car, there's a process to reversing this thing!"

"Well hurry up!"

Inside the utility closet, Charlotte had heard the train stop, and had been expecting to hear the soldiers boarding the train, but she wasn't. For a second, she thought maybe they just hadn't boarded this car (it was one of the last cars, after all), but then she suddenly heard a violent slam on the outside of the train, which jolted her. After that, she started hearing weird growling and snarling, and after some thought decided to take a look. She exited the closet and peeked over at the windows, and was horrified at the sight of several of the exact same lumbering freaks she had just watched on video. One of them spotted her, and started growling and snarling directly at her while slamming on the window, prompting her to run back into the closet, where she finally began to cry. "This is the end," she said to herself in terror. Suddenly, the train began to move again, in the direction of King Street Station.

The train began chugging in reverse and the walkers on the platform tried to grab onto it, with inevitable non-success. Some fell off the platform onto the tracks and stared at the train leaving; Sgt. Valley was one of them, and Sgt. Thompson could only stare at him in shock.

Devin could sense that the sergeant was deeply shaken by seeing so many of his fellow soldiers dead, so he tried to take his mind off of it. "I can back us up down the track a ways," he said, "but we're gonna need to get to the other side of the train so I can gauge the approach back to King Street." Thompson just nodded in silence.

After backing up about a half mile, Devin stopped the train, flipped a few switches, and he and Thompson exited the cabin. Not wanting to risk something coming out of the woods and sneaking up in the dark, they decided to run through the train instead of along the outside of it.

"This is so fucked", Devin said as they ran. "If those things break into the station, all those people are gonna die. They took down an armed unit of soldiers for Chrissakes!"

"I know I know," Thompson said, "I'm gonna see what I can do. Until then, you just be at the ready to move this train if things go to hell."

"They already have!" Devin said as they passed through the car that Charlotte was hiding in. "All you've done is create a buffet for those fuckers!"

"No matter what, I won't just let that happen."

They made the rest of their way to the now-front of the train in silence. They entered the cabin, and Devin got the train moving.

Once she felt the train in motion again, Charlotte exited the closet, knowing there was no one left to hide from. She went to a row of seats and sat down, still struggling to comprehend what she'd seen. Suddenly, her phone rang; it was her mother.

"Mom?" She said, answering. "Are you okay?"

"Honey," her mother said, with clear distress in her voice, "whatever's happening right now is serious. I don't know what it is but it's not good. Please be safe."

"I know Mom. I've seen it. Things are about to boil over here. I don't—"

"I'm trapped in the house, Charlotte. There's a lot of them outside and they're trying to break the door down. I called 911 but the lines were busy...I don't think I'm gonna get out."

Charlotte nearly collapsed. "Mom, no…just fight your way through. C'mon, you can do it! PLEASE!"

"Just be careful, sweetheart." Charlotte could hear her mother crying. "Just push through whatever this is until it ends. I know you can, because you are smart, and you are brave, and you are so strong." She paused. "I love you so much, Charlotte. I love you so—" Suddenly, the line went dead.

"Mom?" Charlotte reeled in devastated terror. "Mom?! MOM!" She pulled her phone away from her ear and looked at the screen, which now read "NO SIGNAL". She then collapsed to the floor of the train in tears.

In the front of the train, Devin and Sgt. Thompson stared ahead at the Seattle skyline, which suddenly went totally dark. "Oh shit," Devin said, concerned.

"We set up generators in the event the power went out," Thompson replied, hoping to reassure Devin; it failed.

"Just thought of everything, huh?" Devin came back, rolling his eyes.

"Do I need to explain again how we're doing our best?"

Devin sighed. "No."

…

At King Street, the station had been plunged into total and complete darkness by the blackout for almost a full minute. A couple of Guardsmen fiddled around with the generators to get them working, and soon enough, the lights were back on.

"Goddamn it," Chris said to Bill, "I don't have any service anymore, do you?"

"No I got nothing," Bill replied.

"Shit…" Chris was starting to panic. "I didn't wanna call my wife again, I figured she was probably asleep…fuck, fuck, FUCK!"

Nearby, Ben shared similar sentiments. "This is such bullshit! This ain't a free welfare phone from some shitty convenience store in the ghetto, it's supposed to have total coverage! What the fuck am I paying this much money for?"

Quentin overheard him, and wanted to address his thinly-veiled racist comment, but decided it wasn't the time. Instead, he turned his attention back to Ryan and Ethan. "I think they got Charlotte, she's been gone too long."

"She probably just wanted to escape this place," Ethan surmised. "Can't say I blame her."

"That's not what I mean," Quentin clarified. "I meant that maybe she got tangled up in whatever the hell's going on outside. Maybe she's hurt, or maybe even worse…shit."

Ryan looked at the ground sadly. "I don't think there's anything we can do for her at this point."

Near the main entrance to the station, which had been barricaded since everyone was brought in, people were starting to argue with the soldiers.

"What right do you have to keep all these people locked in?!" Gordon raged. "Unless you give us a good reason, we want out! Some of us have families!" (He didn't, but he figured the soldiers didn't need to know that.)

"Sir," a soldier said angrily, "I already told you, it's classified and you're all being kept here for your own safety!"

"Bullshit!" Victor yelled as he threw an empty water bottle at the soldier; it bounced off the soldier's elbow pad while he was facing away from Victor, so he didn't even know it happened. However, Henry saw it.

"What the fuck's wrong with you?" Henry said, angrily confronting Victor. "I served two years in Iraq, don't you DARE attempt to assault one of my brothers!"

"Well maybe if your brother wasn't bein' such a bitch not lettin' us out, I wouldn't have to!" Henry then punched Victor in the face, and Victor charged Henry, and the two began fighting in the midst of the crowd; Josh put himself between the two of them to break up the fight, and two soldiers then ran up and pulled the men apart.

"Don't y'all go making this worse than it already is!" Josh yelled out as one of the soldiers waved him off and away from the situation.

Over in the triage area, Danielle walked up to the grieving mothers, Greta and Elaine, to try and comfort them. "I don't know what's going on," she said, "but just stay here for now, okay?" As she walked away, Greta spoke up.

"Those things are here, aren't they?" She asked ominously. "The things that killed my children?"

Danielle paused, trying to think of the right thing to say. "I don't know. All I know is that I'm just here to treat anyone who needs it."

"Those things can't get in here," Elaine said, "or they'll try to do to all of us what they did to my daughter."

"Look," Danielle said, "you're safe for now. If anything changes, my priority will be telling the both of you, but just try and stay calm for the time being." She then walked away from them and over to Dr. Vaughn.

"A fight almost just broke out," he said, "and that's gonna keep happening."

"You think we're about to get a wave of new patients?"

"No. I think there's about to be a wave of stupidity that takes that front door down."

…

Outside, engine 4197 pulled up to the station. A Guardsman was on the platform waiting to update Thompson on the situation.

"What's the status in there?" Thompson asked.

"They're getting restless, sir. A couple of fights have already broken out, tensions are high; honestly, backup came just in time."

Thompson paused. "No…it didn't. Valley and his crew were either dead or gone when we got to the station."

The soldier shook his head. "Sorry to hear that sir." He then turned and walked, looking somewhat defeated, back into the station.

Sgt. Thompson put his hands over his face as Devin exited the train. "I don't know what to do now," Thompson said to Devin.

Devin didn't know how to respond. "Neither do I." He paused. "Look, I'm just gonna go do my inspection while you figure it out." Thompson nodded, and Devin walked toward the train engine. As he passed by one of the passenger cars, something caught his eye: a woman curled up in the fetal position.

Charlotte didn't care anymore about being seen by anyone, so she wasn't at all surprised when the door opened and a man came in.

"Who the hell are you?" Devin asked, still surprised. "What are you doing here?"

Charlotte slowly looked up at him, sat upright, and stared in defiance. "My job."