2009

001.1

001.1. August 17th, 2009. A time merge begins.

Within the billions of people on this planet.. somehow.. 6 people had ended up on one train together. That train.. led them into an entirely different timeline.

While calmly travelling on the train, the train had finally stopped after a few minutes. At this point, everyone had gotten off at their destinations.

Valeria stood up and walked off of the train as it had come to its halt. The only sound was wind rustling in the distance and her soft footsteps against the metal floor. She hopped out of the door and looked around to realise something was very wrong.

Valeria looked around to notice the train station she had arrived in looked abandon. As if it had been abandoned for years. There were dead plants that grew into the seems of the cracked stone walls. It was dead silent..

She decided to hesitantly step through the train station. "..what the fuck.?" Valeria muttered under her breath as she looked around.

She walked towards the exit of the abandoned underground train station to walk up the stairs still looking around at the damaged stone walls.

Valeria had stepped out from the train station, running her fingers along the rough cracks in the stone wall before she finally made it up out of the sidewalk of the area.

The sidewalk was dust ridden and there was even some loose flying paper in the wind. It was once again dead silent. Only the sound of wind rustling.. was she all alone somehow?

She looked around a bit.. no cars, the streetlights were all broken or working all alone. The sunlight was out but, the air was slightly foggy making the air thick and harder to breathe. Every breath of hers felt shallow.

She was on edge.

Valeria reached for her phone in her bag to pull it out and try to turn it on, to no surprise it turned on but, no service. She doubted there would be any for a long while.

Valeria felt someone grab her shoulder and she immediately whipped her head around to see an unfamiliar man. Her heart was beating rapidly.

He looked at her confused. "Are you alright?" He asked her seeming a bit concerned for her safety or well being.

She looked at him like he was stupid. "No?! What the fuck is going on?! Where is everybody?" She asked in a bit of a panic. He shrugged.

"No idea. Lots of crazy shit happens in the world. But, it seems a little too calm out here, there's always calm before the storm. If some shit is about to go down we should find a safe place." He suggested to her.

She hesitated before she agreed. "Fine." With that confirmation he took his hand off of her shoulder and nodded to walk besides her on the sidewalk looking around at damaged or abandoned buildings.

After a moment of silence he had spoken up to her and looked over at her. "I'm.. Aidan, by the way." He informed her of his name.

She looked at him as if waiting for something. After a couple of minutes went by she spoke up again. "Do you not recognise me or something?" She asked frustrated at that fact.

Aidan looked confused. "Have we met each other before?" He asked her confusedly. She scoffed at him and crossed her arms to look away.

Valeria looked back at him now. "I'm famous! You know, you should feel lucky to even be speaking to me!" She added with a strong tone of entitlement in her voice as she spoke to him.

Aidan shrugged. "Never heard. So, what should I call you, Ms. Hollywood?" He asked her as they continued to walk looking for any other person or just a good place to rest and find out what was happening around here.

Valeria groaned. "Valeria." She admitted to him and looked towards a girl who seemed to be trembling as she was looking at something in the distance.

Aidan looked her way as well and had looked over at Valeria. "Should we talk to her or just ditch her ass?" He asked curiously.

Valeria did her best not to laugh at that and just looked to her. "She looks human enough, so maybe talk to her?" She added unsure to him. Her words made him raise an eyebrow and look at her with a confused expression.

"Hm? 'Human enough'? You implying something there?" He asked her curiously and she shrugged in response. "We're probably in some cool apocalypse right now." She suggested and he chuckled at her.

"You're an idiot. Zombies aren't real." He added and flicked her forehead to finally walk over to the trembling woman they had spotted before. She seemed to be playing with a crystal attached to her necklace nervously.

Valeria rubbed the spot on her forehead that he had flicked as she followed after him and looked at the girl. She looked so innocent and terrified.

"You good?" Aidan asked the girl and she seemed to flinch harshly at his sudden appearance. She placed a hand over her rapidly beating heart.

"W-What's going on here?" She asked Valeria and Aidan curiously. Aidan had remained nonchalant to shrug his shoulders as he slipped his hands into his pockets. "Hell if I know." He admitted to not having a clue about this current situation.

Valeria held back laughter at the girl just trembling as Aidan acted as if it was a normal day. Valeria looked to the girl and had sighed softly. "We're going to look for a place to rest and figure things out, wanna come with?" She offered to her.

The girl hesitated before she nodded and had agreed to it. "Alright, fine." She took a deep breath to calm her nerves as she looked back to the both of them. "Sorry. My name is Iris, what's your guys'?" She asked them curiously.

"Valeria, and blondie is Aidan." Valeria answered for Aidan. As she had referred to him as 'blondie', she pointed her thumb over at him.

Iris giggled at Aidan being called blondie and had seemed to lighten up a bit at that. "Sounds like you two have gotten along well, already." She added.

Aidan just rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Let's get going." He suggested as they had began to walk towards a building that wasn't so damaged, just to rest in.

The building looked like an abandoned office. It was a bit dusty and dark inside as the sun was finally heading down, hiding behind the mountains peaks.

"Ick.." Valeria muttered which caught Aidan's earshot. He looked to her with a smirk. "What's the problem, Ms. Hollywood? Not used to staying anywhere but your million dollar mansion?" He asked her.

She scoffed and crossed her arms over her chest. "Yes." She admitted to him and Iris giggled in the background. Valeria looked over at Iris and groaned. "Don't laugh! It's not funny, this place looks like shit." She added.

Aidan had moved over to a desk to open the drawers and pick up some keys out of it. It was a ring with a bunch of keys on it. "Jackpot." He commented and Valeria looked over. "Yeah, jackpot once you figure out what the 70 fucking keys go to." She added not as enthusiastic as he was.

He parted his lips to speak before they all stopped dead in their tracks as they heard a loud scream and heavy footsteps.

TO BE CONTINUED...