(A/N: ANOTHER old story I've had decaying on my laptop that I've been way too nervous about posting online. I mean, it's THE WALKING DEAD. I know people get serious about this show, so I was scared about putting this up. Well, I got over it! Here's a random story featuring some OCs. I apologize in advance about the number of OCs in this first chapter. *cries into hands*)

Ch. 1: Bree – The Outbreak

I really wish I would have brought my headphones.

There's nothing worse than getting stuck on a six-hour drive in a bus filled with strangers and you don't even have your headphones. Take it from me. I'm experiencing the pain of being headphone-less right at this very moment.

I sulk at my fully charged iPod and heave a sigh that allows my body to sink even lower into the soft seat that the charter bus provides each of its passengers. Just thinking of my precious pair of no brand but very reliable headphones sitting at home makes me want to sob. Another mopey sigh escapes my mouth as my knees find their way to the back of the seat that is in front of me. I lean my head back and turn it just slightly so that I can keep myself occupied by staring out of my window at the passing scenery. It is slightly reminiscent of the times my family and I would take long road trips and I would scan the outside world for how many red cars we passed, what kind of shapes the clouds felt like forming that day, or who was picking their nose while driving. It was all in effort of keeping myself entertained. Technology wasn't as big as it is now. Seriously, how did any of us survive back then without cell phones with apples on them and laptops that break apart without really breaking?

Outside of my glass window lies the green tops of trees and shrubbery that pass by at lightning speed. Every now and then, there's a break in the forestry and I get a glimpse of a few scattered houses in the distance, maybe a brown river with muddy banks. The sky is unusually dark for this time of day. It's barely 9AM and there's an ominous shadow covering the normally blue sky like a thick sheet of black. I blink worriedly. I hope it's not going to rain.

I notice my reflection in the grimy window and offer it a tiny smile, which it happily returns. I swipe at my dark bangs, trying to push them behind my toffee-colored ear. My bangs have gotten too long to stay over my forehead now. Any attempt at keeping them there is a one-way ticket to resembling the girl from The Ring. They stay put for a moment before quickly dropping back over my eyes. My red lips tug down into a grumpy frown. It's a real love-hate relationship with these things. I blow upwards, causing my bangs to flutter and then relax back into my seat to resume staring out of the window. The sky remains dark.

My community college decided to give a few lucky students a free trip to Atlanta to watch the Braves play in a game, which is why I'm on this bus. Coming from a small town in Florida, I always leap at the chance to travel. It doesn't matter where it is, I'll take the chance if it's affordable. And who can't afford free? Unfortunately, I might have not thought this through before signing up. None of my friends signed up, and the ones that did sign up decided to cancel at the last minute. This is how I find myself riding in a bus filled with people but somehow feeling depressingly alone.

"Having fun?"

The unfamiliar voice comes as a surprise to me. I almost don't look up, fearing that the person isn't speaking to me. When they repeat themselves, I risk looking up.

A guy my age grins down at me from over the seat. He looks a lot more relaxed than I do. His arm is slung over the seat and his green eyes gleam with excitement. An easy grin is slathered across his tanned face.

"Hey," he greets me with a lazy lift of his chin.

I sit up in my seat, caught off-guard. Somehow, I managed to snag a seat behind this totally adorable person in front of me. The dimples in his cheeks wink at me and I find my cheeks warming under his unwavering stare. Habitually, my fingers push my bangs aside again. This time, they stick.

I swallow down my nervousness while trying to work a smile on my face. It's difficult. My being in the presence of a guy I find attractive is the equivalent of a lone soldier facing down an entire army. I simply stand no chance of getting out of this unscathed and without making a fool out of myself.

"Yeah!" I lie in a voice that is ten times higher than it normally is. I clear my throat and try again. "Yeah, I'm having a great time." I don't even sound convincing to my own ears, so it comes as no surprise when Dimples laughs at me.

The dimples in his cheek only grow with his laugh. "You sure don't look like it," he postulates. "You look like you're headed into war instead of a baseball game."

I can't help but laugh at this. I relax a bit in my chair and offer him a shrug of my shoulders and a grin. My bangs fall in front of my face as I go to speak, so I'm forced to pause and swipe them away. Dimples laughs again and I can feel my hand begin to shake. Oh no, I'm starting to get nervous. I hate being under a guy's scrutiny for too long. I start getting all nervous, and acting all weird and then everything starts falling apart like a giant house of cards. It's not a pretty sight. I take a few mental deep breaths and put a renewed smile back in place. "I don't really know anyone here, so I guess I'm not feeling that excited. Plus, I don't really like baseball."

Dimples looks astonished. He turns his body even more so that he can see me better. He also gives me a better view of him, lucky me! Sinewy muscles with dragon tattoos imprinted on them bulge out of a short-sleeved white tee. He looks as if he plays sports. No wonder he's on this trip. He has a reason, unlike me. "You don't like baseball?" he asks. "What made you come on the trip, then? Especially if you don't know anyone here…?"

"Travelling," I say almost instantly. "I like going places and this was a good opportunity to do that."

Dimples nods, but the look on his face tells me he's still puzzled. He folds his arms together on top of the seat. The corner of his mouth lifts up a bit. "So," he begins in a lilting voice. "Who are you going to sit by at the game?"

I shrug again. I hadn't really thought about that. I figured I would just sit wherever there was an empty seat and wave my foam finger around, pretending I actually cared that a guy hit a ball with a stick. After telling Dimples this much, he gives another chuckle.

"You can sit by me," he says. After a pause, his cheeks tint an adorable shade of pink and he adds, "…I-If you want to, I mean."

How could I say no when someone asks me like that? A nervous giggle escapes my lips and I bunch my shoulders up. "O-Okay!" I say with another bout of astonished laughter. I clear my throat and try again, hoping to come across as more nonchalant this time. "I mean, yeah, sure. That sounds great." Ugh. I turn into such a geek when cute guys get involved. But hey, look who gets to sit by said cute guy?

A relieved smile eases onto Dimples face. He offers me his hand. "Darren Wilshire," he says. It sounds like the name of an aristocrat instead of a college student with tattoos.

"I'm Bree Evans," I reply while taking his hand in mine. It's warm and not at all rough like I imagined his hands to be. He gives my hand a shake. I beam up at my new companion, happy to have made a friend for our trip. Maybe I won't be as alone as I thought I would be.

Suddenly, the bus screeches to a halt. I'm thrown against the seat in front of me, smashing my face into the leather, while Darren is sent flying backwards. Startled screams sound throughout the bus as everyone falls out of their seats from the sudden stop. I find myself wedged in the area where your feet are supposed to go, nursing a massive headache.

"Is everyone okay?" I hear our bus monitor shouting above all of the noise that has erupted in the bus. I pull myself out of the tight area my body had been wedged into and stand up to get a look at everyone else's condition. Everyone has been scattered around the bus with their assorted belongings. Spilled, colorful candy rains down the aisle, blankets hang over seats, and crushed cell phones lay unclaimed.

I hear Darren curse from in front of me. He stands up and straightens up his outfit before casting me a worried look. "Are you okay?" he asks.

I pat down myself, checking for any sore spots. The only thing that really hurts is my head.

I shake my head. "Yeah, I'm good," I inform him after my inspection.

I turn my attention to the bus monitor, who is trying her best to remain calm and keep everyone else calm as well. Her dark eyes are wild and panicked as they bounce from student to student.

"Everyone, calm down," the middle-aged brunette orders from the front of the bus. "We were forced to slam on the brakes because of a roadblock. We'll be moving as soon as we can."

Distorted grumbles meet her words. The disheveled students pull themselves up from the ground and get situated back into their seats. I stay standing. I want to know just why the heck we stopped in the middle of the interstate. It's typically not a good place to slam on your brakes. I'm surprised our bus didn't get ran over by a speedy semi.

"What's going on?" one girl asks from the back of the bus. I opted to sit in the front, since everyone knows that the back of the bus is not the place you sit when you're trying to zone out.

The bus monitor peers out of the front window. Whatever she sees out there is enough to make her face pale. She shakes her head, causing her long ponytail to swish behind her like a bundle of noodles.

"I don't know," she admits. "There are a lot of cops out there, though. I'll go get us an answer." The bus driver opens the door and the bus monitor exits the bus. Immediately, the noise level in the bus shoots from stunned silence to annoyed yelling.

"We're going to miss the game!" one boy roars while slamming his fist against the seat in front of him. He's breathing heavily, like a bomb ready to explode. Wow, dude needs a chill pill. The Braves game is not that serious. The two girls seated in front of him turn around and the group engages in a heated argument, adding to the noise level. The girls look ready to tear him a new one.

A lanky girl I recognize as one of the softball players from our college stands up and edges to the front of the bus, where Darren, his friends, a couple of other loners, and I are seated. She just about presses her freckled nose to the glass of the front window. Her cornflower blue eyes squint from behind her square glasses. "It's a darn madhouse out there," she mutters with a slight Southern twinge to her husky voice. "Looks like the apocalypse or somethin'."

That doesn't sound good.

I have to know what's going on out there so I climb out of my seat and join her, along with half of the bus. What I find myself staring at is shocking. The entire interstate has been cut off by policemen in uniform and orange roadblocks. Dozens of cars form a line in front of us, each of them blaring their horns. Some of them have crashed into the one in front of them. Angry drivers stand outside of their car, shouting at the policeman and each other. Past the roadblocks is nothing but gray fog. It is so dense, I can't make out anything except for it.

"Did they really stop us because of fog?" I hear Darren whisper from beside me. I look over and find him shaking his head and looking extremely pissed. "You've got to be kidding me."

I glance back at my window and wipe my sleeve across a small section of it, clearing it of some of the grime that is caked there. Now, I can just make out our bus monitor in the distance. Her brightly-colored baseball cap is the only speck of color in the impending fog that I can discern. She's engaging in a heated conversation with one of the policeman and neither of them are backing down. Her lean arms swing towards the fog while she continues to shout at the police. He matches her angry demeanor and points back at the bus. Finally, the bus monitor gives up and marches back to the bus. Everyone greets her with questions, all of which she ignores.

Her pasty face is red and her expression reads as "extremely ticked off". She decides to answer the one question that really needs to be answered right now, the one that's weighing the heaviest on my mind.

"They say there's some sort of outbreak in the city and with all of the fog, it's not safe to continue driving because we won't be able to see well."

Instantly, my mind is drawn to the numerous news reports I've seen recently on television. According to the media, a disease is rapidly spreading through the States, driving people to insanity. Victims of the disease were known to lose their minds and attack anyone that came near them. Graphic images of gray creatures that looked more like decaying corpses instead of humans always accompanied the news reports. Eventually, Mom would change the channel, but the images always stuck with me.

It feels like a there's a heavy stone in my gut as I go to ask the question. "I-Is it the virus that's been all over the news?" I ask. The bus falls silent.

The bus monitor's eyes fall on me. She gives a slight nod before looking away. Immediately, the bus is filled with panicked whispers that slowly turn into shouting.

"Well, what're we going to do?" the softball player asks over the noise. "We can't turn around, can we?"

I look over my seat. No, turning back is not an option. The line of cars behind us is endless. The only way we have to go is forward unless we want to walk.

The bus monitor sits in her seat. "We're just going to wait for them to clear the roads. By that time, the fog should clear and we will be able to move on." She doesn't say another word. Her hand has found her cell phone and she is lost in the dim light that emits from its screen.

Seeing that our only figure of authority has checked out, everyone decides to sit back and wait. Whispers of topics that range from the outbreak to the Brave game begin. I pull out my cell phone and call the first person that comes to mind: Mom. She answers on the second ring. I can tell immediately that something is up by the tone in her voice.

"Please tell me that your bus didn't take the interstate?" she pleads.

"We did," I admit with slumped shoulders.

My words are met with a groan. I can hear Mom take a deep breath away from the receiver. Then she's back and her voice is all business. "They're saying that the roads could be closed for hours. Are you all just sitting out there?"

"Yeah, it's pretty bad," I say while craning my neck to get a look out of my window. People are running towards the policemen who are doing their best to hold them off. The blaring of horns is really starting to give me a headache. I lean forward and press my forehead to the seat in front of me. "Don't get all worried, though," I say in a teasing tone. "I'll be okay."

"Did you pack any snacks with you?" Mom asks as she transitions into full-Mama mode.

I grab my duffel bag and dig through it, sifting through my belongings. Inside I find two bags of my favorite flavored M&Ms, my filtered water bottle, a couple packs of fruit punch drink flavorings, a bag of baked chips, and two giant package of teriyaki-flavored beef jerky. Snacking—it's my only weakness.

"Yep," I assure Mom with a smile that she can't see but can hopefully hear. "I've got the whole grocery store with me, thanks to you."

"I bet you're happy I threw all of that stuff in your bag now," Mom jokes. I laugh and nod, even though I know she can't see it.

I didn't realize it then, but I was going to be very happy that she packed those things for me in just a few more hours.

I ended the call with Mom shortly after telling her to give my love to my older brother and younger sister. The old cell phone is just about to go into my pocket when I feel someone tap my shoulder. I glance over and find the bespectacled softball player giving me a bashful smile.

"Hi," she greets me. She looks slightly embarrassed. "Um, would you mind if I borrowed your cell to call my dad? I left mine home like a complete idiot," she explains while jokingly hitting her forehead.

"Oh, sure!" I hand her my cell phone with a smile, which earns me a grateful nod. The girl dials a number and starts talking. I flop back in my seat and resume staring out of the window. No cars and booger-pickers to count and keep me occupied now. The hysteria is only increasing outside. People are screaming at one another, some have even resorted to violence. I cringe when one man pulls a knife out to threaten one woman. I shoot up in my seat as I watch the scene unfold right before my eyes. My hands go against the glass of my window as the woman pulls a bat from her trunk and wields it like a sword towards the deranged man. There are children in her car and this lunatic is threatening their mother?!

"It's crazy out there…!"

I look up and see Darren staring out of the window as well. His jaw is clenched as he takes in the sight of the knife-wielding man and the irate woman. Thankfully, another man comes up and knocks the first man out. The woman hurries back to her car, safe for now. I sink back to my seat, relief that the crisis had been diverted.

Darren shakes his head and offers a weak smile. "Some road trip, right?" he jokes.

"Definitely going into my memory book," I joke half-heartedly. I can only return his smile for a moment before it's gone. The fog is starting to creep up on our vehicle, coating its outside like a deadly disease. Pretty soon, it's too foggy outside to see anything besides the paved road beneath our bus. I can feel fear creeping alongside the fog, ready to pounce on our idle bus.

"Here you go." The softball player has finished her phone call and is holding out my cell. She gives me a grateful smile that makes her blue eyes crinkle at the corners. "Thanks a lot. My dad was so worried about me."

"You're welcome!" I take my cell phone and slide it into my pocket. "I know what you mean. My mom is probably flipping out right now."

The girl giggles then adjusts her glasses to get a better view of me. "You're… Bree Evans, right? You were in one of the plays last year." she asks, catching me off guard. "I'm Eva Mae. We have College Algebra together," she elaborates.

I sift through my bland memories of College Algebra class, which seem to only involve drawing on the back of assignments and yawning at my professor. Somewhere, in the midst of that, I recall the perky blonde seated a few rows in front of me. Eva Mae… Yep, I remember her now. She was always the class clown, somehow managing to make math class somewhat funny. She was also insanely intelligent. She breezed through every test like it was butter and she was a hot knife.

"Oh, right!" I say as the realization further dawns on me. "Sorry, I'm completely zoned out in that class. I hate math."

"Me too," she admits. "I may be good at it but I think we all die a little every time we step into Dr. Kenneth's class."

We share a laugh, both knowing the truthfulness to her statement. Dr. Kenneth is known for his boring lectures and monotonous voice. His class was where fun went to die.

Our laughter is suddenly drowned out by a chorus of screaming that comes from outside of the bus. Everyone in the bus falls silent as the screaming continues, only getting louder as the seconds go by. I clutch onto the arms of my seat and my back goes rigid.

"What is that?" Darren asks while standing is his seat. Panic starts to set in when our bus begins to rock from side to side. At first, I thought it was someone being silly and rocking the bus from the inside, but the students' terrified wails tell me otherwise.

Someone outside is rocking the bus.

The screaming in the bus mirrors the shouts outside as the bus continues to violently rock from side to side. I clutch the sides of my seat and risk looking out of my window. I can just barely make out dark figures pressing against my side of the bus. Groans emanate from these figures, somehow finding my ears even above all of the screaming. Don't tell me hysteria has driven the people into this kind of panic…

"Remain calm!" the bus monitor orders, but she looks anything but calm herself. Her ponytail is a tangled mess and her cap is on crooked. She holds on to the top of her seat, trying to remain upright. "I don't know what's going on out there, but we will handle it!" she assures us in her hoarse voice. She turns to the bus driver and yells, "Turn on the radio! Find out what the heck is going on out there!"

The driver obliges, his chubby hands darting out and pressing the radio switch. Soon, voices mixed with static come through the speakers built around the interior of the bus. I try my hardest to pay attention while still trying to not fall out of my seat.

"The government has ordered an immediate evacuation of the city of Atlanta. The disease that is now classified as a pandemic has spread rapidly and some patients have broken free of the confinement facility. The patients are labeled as hostile and extremely dangerous. There have been countless deaths and the number keeps growing. If you are in the city of Atlanta, please go to the Bank of America Plaza. Police are waiting there and will escort you out of the city and to a safe area…."

Without warning, the sharpest shove yet hits our bus. We begin to tip. My first instinct is to grab onto my seat. Bags rains down from the shelves above and starts pelting the poor kids who have the misfortune of being on the side that is getting closer to the ground. Screams ring throughout the bus as everyone starts to slide out of their seats and onto the floor. My fingers stay clasped around my seat even when the side of the bus makes its loud, sickening impact.

The side of the bus smashes against the ground, hard. Gravity does its job and it does it well. Glass shatters upwards, cutting into the students on that side. I find myself hanging from my seat, my duffel bag's strap over my shoulder, my feet dangling in the air. Pained moans come from not so far below me. I risk a look over my shoulder and see shattered glass and blood spilled below. Some students are unconscious, having hit their heads the wrong way, while many still seem unharmed. The radio is nothing but static now. I dangle from my seat, my throat raw from screaming, still trying to take in the words of the radio announcer. Occasionally, a few broken phrases come through, but I can only guess at their meaning:

"Not much time…"

"…Escape, now!"

"….Safety is not…."

A real voice breaks into the radio's conversation, asking, "Is everyone okay?" The bus monitor is alright. I see her climbing up from her seat, glancing around worriedly at us. After making sure that there's no one below me, I release my hold on the seat. My feet land on the pavement that is now parallel to our bus's windows. The world seems to have twisted around. Instead of an aisle, we are forced to step over the seats in order to move forward.

I see Eva Mae rising from the seat in front of me. There is a small, bloody gash on her forehead and her mouth is leaking blood.

"That was nasty," she gripes. She releases a low hiss after pressing her palm to the wound of her hand. It comes away red. "The people out there are goin' crazy!"

Crazy? Whoever tipped our bus was certifiably insane. "Crazy doesn't cover it," I note while looking up and out of the window above my head. The sky seems to have grown even darker. A shiver as cold as death snakes its way down my spine and I look away.

"Okay, everyone." Once again, it's up to the bus monitor to bring order to the chaos. Her pale hands swipe at the sweat pouring down her face. It looks as if it's taking everything in her to keep from breaking down. "Try to form as good of a line as you can manage and head out the emergency exit in the back. Can I get a strong guy to push out the door and help the others out?"

We try to do as we're told. I'm beginning to freak out by this time. People were getting hysterical enough to tip over buses. Was it because of waiting in line, the threat of the disease, or something else entirely?

I try to focus on the matter at hand and get behind Eva Mae and in front of Darren in the line. Darren is making nervous humming noises under his breath that I can only guess is a stress-coping mechanism. The tune is off-beat and strange, but he seems relatively calm. Eva Mae is picking at the wound on her face, seemingly obsessed with the blood pouring from it.

One of the football players manages to get the emergency exit door open by kicking it out. It clacks open and a hideously foul smell floods into the cramped bus. I groan and cover my nose at the stench. It smells like a mixture of manure and rotten eggs.

"Sewage pipe must have busted somewhere," Darren guesses from behind me. I can only give a shaky nod in agreement. That or something died out there.

Slowly, the line moves forward. One by one, students are helped off of the bus by the football player. The closer that I get to the front of the line, the greater the anxious feeling in my stomach grows. Something is wrong. The screaming that plagued the outside world just a few minutes ago has died away into a still silence. The blaring horns have silenced. Now all I can hear is the dragging of limp feet and the unearthly groaning.

The next few events happen so quickly, it's not until much later that I'm able to figure out exactly what happened. The football player is the first to scream. After that, the rest of the students who have hopped out of the bus join in, followed closely by the moaning of something that sounds inhuman.

"What's happening up there?" the bus monitor shouts. "What's going on? Someone, answer me!"

I can't see a thing from over the tall Eva Mae's head, no matter how high I'm able to stand on my tiptoes. The moans only grow louder, along with the screaming. It's horrible. Garbled shrieks, muffled groans…. They sound like they're in so much pain. Students have started going the opposite way, back towards the front of the bus, pushing against the rest of us who are still in line. I struggle to stay upright, but they have no intention of stopping. Plus, they are not alone.

With them comes the gray creatures from the news reports, snapping their bloody fangs at anyone who happens to be in their way. The TV did little to capture just how gruesome they truly are. Their moldy-looking skin is peeling away, revealing snatches of white bone and rotting entrails. Brown blood trickles out of every open wound on their body, like the muddy rivers I saw earlier.

My first thought: I've got to get out of here.

Struggling to stay upright despite the students and creatures thrashing to get past me, I spin around and try to head to the front of the bus. The screaming starts up and I can hear students being ripped to pieces behind me. Warm blood splashes against my back. The blood trickles down my collar, down my spine, everywhere. I freeze up at the impact.

"Shoot, keep going, Bree!" I hear Eva shout from behind me. I snap out of it quickly.

Up ahead, the bus driver and monitor have opened the door and are helping students climb up and out of the bus. Darren gets helped out before me and I'm next. I'm lifted out of the chaotic battlefield and out into the gray foggy world. I turn around and give Eva Mae my hand. She takes it and I help her out of the bus. She's the last person; no one else comes, no matter how long I wait. The screaming continues in the nightmare bus. I turn away and puke off the side of the bus. When I open my eyes, I find myself staring down at a sea of gray creatures.

I stifle a scream by covering my mouth. I stumble away from the edge and nearly fall off the other side. Only the swift hand of our faithful bus monitor keeps me from taking a plunge into the gray sea. She pulls me back to the group.

My knees buckle and I collapse to the ground. My heart is pounding against my ribcage, threatening to break free and jump out to the creatures below. Their black, rotted teeth snap up at us, waiting to tear us apart. Flashes of bloody skull, torn appendages, and brown guts are littered throughout the dark mass of creatures. I swipe at my wet mouth with the back of my hoody's sleeve and dry heave a couple of more times.

The bus monitor looks just as shocked as I feel. Her brown eyes are wide as she takes in the endless sea of creatures. "This can't be happening," she mumbles. She takes out her cell phone and dials a number. A moment later, she begins talking to someone who I can only assume to be the police.

I glance around at the remaining students. There's only a handful of us left; twelve at max, including Darren, myself, Eva Mae, and the bus monitor. Darren is staring down at the creatures like a man lost at sea while Eva Mae is rocking on the ground, sobbing. Her glasses are crooked.

With shaking hands, I pull out my cell phone and dial Mom. The phone rings and rings but no one answers. I hang up and try again, then again, and again, but the result is the same each and every time. No one answers.

Fear grips my heart even tighter. It takes a few deep breaths to get my heart to slow down into a pace that seems relatively normal. I can't freak out; not right now. The screaming, crying, tears, and snot can come later, after I get out of this. At that moment, I'll allow myself to do all of the screaming and crying that I feel like doing. Right now, I've got to think rationally, I've got to keep a cool head.

The bus rocks as it begins to fill up with more and more of the creatures, each eager to get their hands on the slain students inside. I might be wrong but it sounds like the creatures are feasting down there and I can only guess what the meal is. The screams stopped long ago. Only the sounds of ripping flesh and breaking bones ring up from below, causing the bile to climb up my throat. I force it down and look out towards Atlanta.

That's where they're coming from. The fog was their ally, covering their grayish forms in its wispy clutches, drawing them closer and closer to us until it let go and they were free to attack. The other cars are empty now, perhaps abandoned a long time ago, or perhaps their drivers were lost.

It's a long time before anyone speaks. "What are we supposed to do?" Eva Mae whispers from beside me. She's stopped her rocking but there are still fresh tears on her pale cheeks. She wipes at them and gives a choked sob. "I've got to get home; my daddy will be so worried."

"We'll be okay," I try to assure her, but the words sound false even to my own ears. Eva Mae looks grateful for the assurance but that doesn't stop her from crying. I stare out at the gray creatures, wondering if this is it for me. Thoughts of never getting to fulfill my dream of becoming an author, of ever finding true love, even of beating my older brother's high score on a video game… All of these things fill my head and it takes all of my strength to push those kinds of thoughts away.

No. I'm going to survive this. I'm getting back to my family and everything will be okay.

I'm thinking this right up until the moment I feel our bus begin to rock again. Terrified, I peek over the edge of the bus, along with the rest of the survivors. The creatures are at it again, but this time, they've decided to try and scale the bus. Their limp forms claw and grab at the underside of the bus, which is now exposed, and are using it to hoist themselves up.

Darren curses. "They're coming up here!"

Panicked screams sound through our group, but this only seems to send the creatures into even more of a frenzy. Their attempts at climbing only strengthen. Some are even making some headway. Their lopsided heads appear right beneath us. One looks at me, its one eye locked onto my face. I watch its loose jaw click into place before a growl rips out of its torn throat. It reaches for me, but this causes it to lose its grip and go tumbling back to the ground. I hadn't even moved a muscle; I'm completely frozen in fear.

That's it. We can't stay up here any longer. Those people, no, those creatures are right at our feet and I'm in no shape to try and fight them. It's only a matter of time before they reach us and we end up like the poor people inside of the bus.

My eyes scan the crowd of monstrous, disease victims, looking for a way out. After a few seconds, I find one. There is a small break in the crowd, near the emergency exit. It seems as if the ones that were back there have all flooded inside, giving us a much-needed escape route.

I wave my hand at everyone, hoping to get their attention. Unfortunately, everyone is too busy watching the invading zombies.

"Hey!" I finally shout. "There's a way out over here!"

This is enough to grab their attention. Everyone's eyes fall on me, the girl who could have been declared a mute while riding the bus. A blush settles on my face but I fight to remain in control of my emotions. No time to get embarrassed, Bree.

"Back here!" I yell while gesturing towards the empty space by the emergency exit. A look of relief floods almost every face on top of the bus. The bus monitor gives me an enthused smile before she take over.

"Alright, you heard the girl! Back there, jump off and then run straight! Don't wait for anyone, just run straight and we'll meet up at a safe place."

Students quickly hurry towards the escape route, but a few look hesitant, including our bus driver. His crazed eyes dart between the oncoming diseased and the escape route. Sweat pours down the folds on the back of his neck. He adjusts his cap and shakes his head.

"Dunno, Kate. It might be better to wait for help here," he finally says.

Kate, our bus monitor, fixes him with an outraged look. "Stay here? Those people are nippin' at our toes and you want us to stay put?" She walks over and shoves her finger next to his nose. Her voice turns into a low, menacing growl. "You get up and climb down with the rest of us. No one is staying behind."

The driver swallows hard but still manages to shake his head. "N-No. I'm waiting for help, right here."

A few of the students give muted nods of agreement and take a seat. The bus monitor looks at the students, seeming unsure of what to do. I clutch at the strap of my duffel bag and shoot nervous glances at our escape route. It won't be clear for much longer. In the foggy distance, I can just make out more of the limping figures heading our way. If we don't move now, those things are going to be on us.

The bus monitor notices them, too. "Fine," she says after a brief pause. "Fine, you all stay here but you call us if those police show up." I'm surprised when she leans down and places a lingering kiss on the chubby man's pouty lips, ignoring the startled looks that some of the students give her. She pulls away and caresses the top of his shaved head. "Be careful, Reggie," she murmurs.

She then turns to us and points at the escape route. "Let's go," she orders. Everyone nods and we head out. I'm the first one to jump and I waste no time in running once my feet hit the pavement. Darren follows behind me, then Eva Mae, and two more students. The bus monitor pulls up the rear but a sharp scream from the bus stops us all dead in our tracks.

I look back and am horrified to see that the diseased have managed to scale the bus. They pour over the lagging group like a tsunami with red waves. Screams rip out of their throats, limbs are ripped from their sockets, and blood splashes everywhere.

"Reggie!" Kate screams. Before anyone can stop her, Kate is rushing back to the bus.

"Miss Kate!" Eva Mae screams after her but it does little to slow our bus monitor down. It turns out that the rest of us have our own problems to take care of. The figures from the fog have emerged. Their dead eyes lock onto us and they move in for the kill.

My first instinct is to run and I do. I run back towards the bus, barely noticing that the rest of my group has decided to plow forward through the mass of gray. By the time I realize this, they've already disappeared into the fog. I stop running and turn to face the way that they went. I ball up my hands by my sides and search the fog, hoping to see a familiar face. I find none but the diseased.

"Darren?" I yell. No one answers. "…Eva Mae? Anyone?!"

Still, there is no reply. My fists begin to shake when I see that all of my yelling has only drawn more of the diseased to me. Their filmy, white irises roll over to land on me. My heart shoots into my throat when low grunts escape from their throats before they begin to stumble towards me. I let out a choked sob before I turn and run. I shoot past the bus, not eager to see what fate befell my fellow students. I keep my eyes locked straight ahead. The silent crunching of bones and sopping noises of wet, detached flesh tells me everything I need to know about the bus passengers.

I stumble through the fog, tears stinging at my eyes, fear eating away at my heart. The fog is slowly beginning to melt away, revealing more and more of the creatures. I've always been a fan of horror movies. Flesh-eating zombies and gruesome monsters have never made me flinch. My family and I would laugh at the terrible stage blood those movies would use. "I could so survive that," I'd boast to my older brother between spurts of laughter at the stupid teenagers. You'd have to be a total idiot to get killed in those movies.

Reality has a way of throwing all of your expectations back in your face. I'm nothing but a blubbering sack of tears right now. Survival is more of a hopeful dream than a viable option.

I'm alone out here in this endless fog, headed towards who knows where, with creatures that seem to enjoy the taste of human flesh right on my heels. Littered across the ground are corpse after mangled corpse, each torn apart by the infected. It takes everything inside of me to keep moving forward.

I don't expect my foot to land on air instead of more pavement. My leg goes forward and takes my entire body with it. I tumble down the sloped hill with a cry of surprise. My body rolls along the suddenly rocky ground, taking the brunt of the blows dealt by the jagged rocks sticking up.

Thankfully, it's not long before my rolling comes to a slow halt. Every part of me is aching, some parts are even bleeding, but I'm able to pull myself up into a standing position.

"Ow...ow, ow, ow…" I mutter while nursing my throbbing head. My hoody tore at the elbow to reveal an elbow caked with red blood. My eyes flutter at the sight. I tug my sleeve back down and look up to see what had caused my stumble.

The guardrails which prevented such tumbles has been ripped apart forcefully, opening a path down the steep hill I've had the displeasure of going down. My eyes find the cause of the breakage a few yards away from me—a dented car with shattered windows. I carefully wipe the rest of the painful rubble out from my skin and move towards the car. I can only pray that the passengers somehow managed to survive the nearly ten foot fall, not to mention the impact of hitting the guardrail at such a speed.

I tiptoe up to the driver's side of the car and peer into the window. A horrible sight awaits me.

A man, no a man-turned-monster, sits in the driver's seat, his face dug into the female passenger beside him. Disgusting, ripping, wet noises emanate from him as he devours the woman's face. He's tearing into her skull as if it were made of warm butter instead of thick bone. Dark, twisted veins work their way up his graying skin, like vines curling over an old building. They pulsate with every chew, every rip that comes with devouring his victim. The woman remains silent; life must have left her a long time ago.

I barely hear the startled scream that presses out from between my lips. The monster's head snaps up. Heavy breaths sound and then he turns his horrible, blood-drenched face to look at me. I can only stare back with wide eyes as the man lurches at me.

Fortunately, he still has his seatbelt on and it doesn't look as though he knows how to operate it. He lunges for me again and again, but his seatbelt keeps him held firmly in place. After a few more tries, he seems to give up. He gives a disgruntled moan before returning to the meal he already started on much earlier.

I take a few, shaky steps backwards, away from the horribleness, before I turn on my heel and run. I don't even know where I'm running but I just want to escape the sight of that poor woman with her skull cracked open and those disgusting sounds that came with digging into it.

The trees pass by in a blur of colors as I continue to run. The fall season has taken away all of the green that nature might have had and given it back as a brilliant array of yellows and reds. I love the colors that come with this season, but right now all they remind me of is blood and the mushy membrane that covered the inside of that woman's skull…

I slowly stop running and put my hands on my knees. Vomit flies out of my mouth and rains down on the forest floor in a bright burst of reddish color. The putrid stuff just keeps coming until finally, thankfully, it ends. I stand up straight and breathe heavily at the sky. My sleeve goes across my mouth. I force myself to calm down by taking a couple of deep breaths.

You're okay, Bree. You're okay. It's going to be alright. My blurry eyesight clears and eventually, my heart rate returns to normal.

Running from place to place and puking everywhere is not going to get me out of this crazy ordeal. I'm going to have to get my head together if I want to have a shot of getting to safety. I was caught in a bad place at the wrong time, but now I'm able to think clearly.

I pull out my cell phone and immediately dial 911. The phone rings for a few moments before a female answers, "911, what's your emergency?"

I grasp the phone closer to my ear and laugh with relief upon hearing another human voice. Now I don't feel completely alone out here. "H-Hi, I really need some help," I tell the woman. "There was a big accident on I-29, and –"

"We've already dispatched officers towards the interstate, ma'am. Just relax in your car and they will be there as soon as possible."

"I-I'm not in my car!" I yell. "I accidentally went off the interstate because I was being chased by these things—"

"I'm sorry." The woman's voice is curt and final. "We're doing all we can right now to get you help. Just stay where you are and help will come. Goodbye."

'No!" I cry. "No, no! I need your help! Those things are eating people and…."

The dial tone silences my unheard pleas. I slowly press my finger against the screen to end the call and press my forehead to the cool surface of my phone. My ragged breathing causes fog to appear on the screen and my shoulders to shiver.

The police weren't going to help. I can only imagine how many distressed phone calls they were receiving. They weren't going to send out a car to find some hysterical lost college student in the woods. I'm on my own out here.

My hand finds the cross dangling near my heart. I grab it and hold it tight. Courage surges through me as I go to take my first step towards home.

A/N: So...whatcha think? Even if you hated it and want to burn it with fire, I'd love to know :D I appreciate any and all feedback. Merle will be showing up after the first couple of chapters. Next chapter is from a special someone's POV! See you then! ;)

Laterz,

CR