How are you supposed to respond to an event you know is coming? That you've fucked up so many times before?

I've been to this day at least fifty times and failed to achieve my objective each time; this major wrinkle unable to be ironed out.

But, I have to find a way!

~*~

My father's captor places me in his Matter Transference Device (MTD for short), and instructs me to "take care" of Joel Miller. The Nazi doctor slicks back his hair, rolling his eyes at me: his most recent disappointment.

"Quickly, mine minion!" He instructs, padding his fingertips on the burns he had recently gotten. "You know how ze Doctor feels ven he does not get his vay! And you have been nossing but an inferior specimen."

I gulp. "Yes, Eddie." It's hard not to smirk as the words come out of my mouth. Awww, poor Eddie ...

"Don't call me zat!" He screeches, just before he presses a big green button, scattering my person into a million pieces. I'm everywhere and nowhere at once. The literal representation of Schröedinger's cat.

Time shutters past me in fleeting pictures, watching the atrocities that humans inflict on each other, over and over again. It makes the job easier ... yeah, Mia. Keep telling yourself that.

The manic madman had promised me that this was the last job before he'd let my father, Tank Dempsey, free. So, why was it so hard for me to pull the trigger of my Luger pistol?

My head thuds, as all my atoms gather together like magnets. I think I'm going to vomit ...

I check my watch. 2:10am.

Times a wasting! I haven't got long to get in there.

Looking side to side, I run to the front door, retrieve the key from under the mat and open the entrance. "Sarah?" I yell up the stairs.

I'm probably gonna scare the poor girl, but there's no time to question it. That girl is going to survive tonight. To hell with Richtofen!

I leap up the stairs, two at a time. "Sarah? It's time to get up!"

I stand by her bed, as she rubs her eyes. "Who are you?" the twelve-year old drawls. The lethargy of deep sleep still lingers.

"I'm Mia Dempsey, and I'm here to help you. It's time for you to get out of bed, and get dressed." I made sure I wore jeans and a checkered shirt this time. This scenario didn't go down so well when I was in my usual pencil skirt and US issue tweed jacket. "We'll meet your father downstairs."

The blonde, little girl sits there, infuriatingly still. Calm yourself Mia, she doesn't know her life depends on it.

Luckily, her shorts and shirt are out from yesterday. I place them beside her and hold her hand. "Please, Sarah. I'll explain it to you later. You're going to have to trust me."

Sarah continues to rub the sleep from her eyes, as she groggily places clothes on and rushes downstairs in search of her father. She heads to the back of the house and looks out the glass door. The very door that her father will run through in a minute, shortly followed by an infected neighbour. Jimmy, I think his name was.

"Step away from the door, sweetie! Wait by the kitchen." I place a hand on her shoulder, trying to brace her. "There's an explosion coming in twenty seconds. Just stay by me or your father and you'll be fine."

BOOM!

"How did you know that was going to happen?" She looks up with doe eyes, and as our orbs connect, I see a flicker of recognition. Not uncommon when we've met previously, on such a fractured timeline. "Do I know you?"

"Not yet, Sarah." I tuck her cropped hair behind her ear and say, "But we will! I promise."

Our conversation is cut short by Joel's punctual arrival, turning up all covered in blood. I check that he's not bitten. I sigh in relief, not this time.

"Sarah, are you alright?" His eyes dart from me to his daughter. "Who in the hell is this?"

"I'm, just a neighbour." Hurry up Joel, get your pistol loaded.

He stares at me, dumbfounded.

"Don't worry about me!" I shout, "get out your pistol, for Pete's sake! Jimmy's coming."

He grunts, but relents. Joel's surely remembering the old acquaintance, turned horror movie.

The infected Jimmy smashes through the sliding-glass door, every part of his skin and body already festered. Blood seeps from his tear ducts and he shakes his head back and forth, as if fighting the infection that has already taken hold.

Nothing can stop the rage. The compulsion to spread the infection becomes so ingrained, as the cordicep fungi wraps around their brain.

Joel is still loading his six-shooter. He's not going to make it!

I push Sarah behind me, and pull the Luger from my holster. I hit Jimmy right between the eyes.

Crimson sludge paints every surface, a marker into their new world. There is no turning back, and I should know.

"Let's go! Your brother's gonna be arriving any minute." I take the girl's hand and Joel corral's us outside, shock taking the wheel.

The burly man looks at me sideways as his younger brother Tommy pulls up, just as I said he would.

"Why the hell didn't you answer your phone?" Tommy yells at his older brother, "have you any idea what's going on out there?"

Joel wipes his face of blood and growls at his sibling, "I've got some notion!"

"Holy shit!" the younger brother exclaims, finally taking in the picture.

But now is not the time to stop! I shove at Joel gently to kickstart the process.

We load into the car, then Tommy reverses and hightails the hell out of here. He's about to turn right onto the highway, like he always does.

I tap him on the shoulder. "Please, Tommy! Not that way!"

The sandy-haired brother looks at Joel incredulously. "Where'd you pick this one up from?" He runs his hands across his stubbled chin, a telltale sign that the younger brother is hiding something. I'd seen it so many times before. Funny that I know so much about him, but he can't remember me.

But of course he can't ... this isn't the same Tommy.

"If you go that way," I pause, wondering how to phrase the next part, but I come up empty. So I go with honesty. "Sarah won't make it if we turn right ..."

Joel claws at the back of the car, the big poppa bear he is. "What the hell did you just say?" He attempts to grab at the steering wheel. "Get out! I don't have time for this bullshit!"

Tommy swats at his hysterical brother. "Calm the hell down, will you? I'm going left."

He turns left, and I cross my fingers. Hoping it isn't the reality where the other family don't look where they're going, and plough straight through another car.

We always exit the car. The guards come. Shoot Sarah.

Game over.

My heart is in my throat as we pass the rows of houses, until we reach the charcoaled-coloured one.

And... there's no collision.

I take a deep sigh, as someone hits us from the left side, crushing us into the road barricade. I look around as Sarah sits limply in her seat. Her arm all scratched up and bleeding.

I quickly unbuckle my belt as I gently tap the poor girl on the shoulder. "Sarah! Come on, wake up sweetie!"

Joel, dazed and confused, struggles to get out of the car to assess his daughter's wounds.

A siren wails, and it stops as they take in the horrors in front of them. The sleek, black van slides its doors open, as two heavily-armoured men file out.

Oh God, no!

The concerned father, scoops his semi-conscious loved one out of the car. "Come on, baby girl!"

I tug at his flannel shirt, pleading, "Leave her in here! They'll shoot her."

He nods at his now conscious brother, and yanks his arm away. "You don't know! She needs help, and I'm gonna get her some!"

He heads towards his "defenders," but they take one look at Sarah, and her bloodied arm, and assume the worst.

I get out of the car, unholstering my pistol, trying to shoot both men before they can fuck everything up.

"She's infected! Open fire!" The trigger-happy troops open fire, letting off a couple of shots before I end both of them.

Joel and Sarah lay on the ground, like crumpled paper cups. The father's eyes flash open as he looks down at his baby girl. She's not moving, as dark crimson pours out of her fresh wounds.

Not again! Not again!

No matter what I do, I can't save her.

I let the pain tear through me, as I crystallise into nothingness once again.

I have failed.