At Least We've Got Snacks

Chapter 1 - The First Day

AUTHOR'S NOTE: The picture of the girl in each chapter is supposed to be May.

I stare out the window of the school bus, and my best friend, Kylie, nudges me and asks, "Alright, really quickly, for our book, what should the main character's crush's name be?" I ask in reply, "Who was the main character again?" She replies, "I think his name was Malaki." I reply to her initial question, "Maybe the crush's name should be Mia, so that their first letter of their first names match!" She types it out onto the Google Doc on her computer, and she tells me, "Alright, our story is all set!" I nod, and suddenly, I see a swirl of purple in the sky. I pause, then look out the window at the sky. A gigantic violet cloud swirls in the sky, and indescribable shapes fall from the vortex. The only thing I can think is, It's a portal, but ... to where? Or from where, for that matter? Suddenly, a huge monster barrels out of nowhere and rams head-first into the side of the bus. The bus rocks hard, and as people scream in fear, my head bangs against the window. I see stars appear in my vision and I tell myself, May Turner, don't you dare pass out, especially not now! I shake my head, and the stars disappear. The monster headbutts the bus again, and suddenly, it stands on its hind feet, reaches down, and picks up the bus. The bus tips so that the emergency exit at the back is flung open, and a bunch of people, including Kylie, fall. When she hits the ground, Kylie yelps, and Quint Baker, Jack's best friend who has a crush on Kylie, and June del Toro, the school photographer, call, "Kylie, are you okay?" She nods weakly and gets up, then stumbles away, and suddenly, a zombie lunges out of the shadows at her and bites her, and she's transformed into a zombie. I start to scream, but I stop myself and think, Zombies come to loud sounds, and screaming is definitely a really loud sound. I take a deep breath and suddenly, the monster that I forgot was there drops the bus, and glass shatters as the bus flips over onto its back. Metal crumples, and suddenly, two seats smash together, and my left arm is trapped with a sickening crack. I scream in pain, and I think faintly, Broken wrist, at least. The worst that it can be is a shattered arm and a dislocated shoulder together. A tear rolls down my cheek to my chin, and I realize that the seats have crumpled together and have created a sort of rough, uneven terrain. I try not to cry so that the pain doesn't become worse, and Jack notices my current predicament. He scrambles over the seats towards me, and he asks, "What happened?" I reply, trying not to let my pain show, "Nothing happened, just a little stuck." Jack glances down at my arm and tells me, "It doesn't look like you're 'just a little stuck'. Actually, it looks like you're a lot stuck." I try to shift my arm, and a blazing pain flares through me. I suck in a sharp breath, and I admit reluctantly, "Yeah, I'm a lot stuck. Help?" He replies with a grin, "My pleasure." Jack calls over Quint and June, who can help. They come over and get to work. About an hour later, Quint tells me, "May, I suggest that you find something to hang on to. This might hurt a little bit." I only have time to ask alarmedly, "Wait, what?!" before Quint grabs my arm and jerks it out of the crevice. My scream seems like nothing compared to the pain flaring through my arm. I know that loud noises attract zombies and zombies might attract monsters, but I don't care; anything would be better than feeling this pain right now. Jack claps his hand over my mouth, and I consider biting it. It muffles the sound considerably well, and I quiet down as Quint brings over a sling for my arm from his "seat". Jack takes away his hand, and Quint gently eases my arm into the sling, straps it around my midsection, and slips the strap over my head and around my neck, like the strap of a bag. I gently test it by bumping it against the ground, and I can't feel anything except for the general pain of bumping something against the hard ground. I grin happily at Quint as if he'd just given me an early Christmas present, and Jack's shoulders slump as I give Quint a happy one-armed hug. I hear a "Heh." from behind us, and I realize that the bully of middle school, Dirk Savage, just came in through the back exit of the bus. Dirk and I haven't really been the best of friends ever since I started coming to Parker Middle School. In fact, we've been the exact opposite. Anyways, I growl as I get to my feet, "What do you want, Dirk?" He raises his telescope-sized hands in an oddly innocent gesture and replies, "Slow down there, Turner, I just came to talk." June snarls, "Then you'd better talk quickly." Jack realizes that a fight's about to go down, and he gets up swiftly, stands between us, puts his hands out in a placating gesture, and tells us all, "Guys, this isn't going to solve the apocalypse!" Quint corrects him, "A fight might actually at least give us something interesting to do or watch during the apocalypse." Dirk, June, Jack, and I all glare at him at the same time, and he quietly corrects himself, "I withdraw my battle proposal." We all go back to discussing fighting without Quint's opinion. Dirk tells us, "Anyways, as I was saying before May interrupted me, I was just walking along down the street battling zombies and such when I heard a scream come from over here. Did something happen?" Jack tells him the whole story, and when he finishes, Dirk nods, then tells us the whole story of today from his point of view. When he finishes, he scratches his head confusedly and tells us, "The funny thing is that one of the zombies looked a lot like Turner's best friend, Kylie, I think." I look at the others for permission to tell him the bad news, and they nod. I look back at Dirk, take a deep breath, and admit, "That's because that was Kylie." Disbelief and sadness war in his eyes, and eventually, sadness wins. He sits down, hangs his head, and sniffles as he closes his eyes. Oh, I forgot to mention that Quint and Dirk often fought over Kylie, who was often warring between them herself. Anyways, June walks over to him and gives him a pat on the shoulder, and Dirk looks up, startled. She whispers, "We're sad about her, too." Suddenly, a zombie notices us and stumbles towards us, moaning. It bangs on the window near my feet, and I shriek and jump away. Jack yells, "GET INSIDE THE SCHOOL!!!" We dash out of the emergency exit at the back, and I realize how big of a jump it is with an injured arm. The zombie shatters the window in the bus, and I jump. My feet hit the ground, and a sharp flare of pain echoes through my arm, but I keep going. With each step I take after the others, I can sense the zombie getting closer somehow, even though I'm at a full sprint. Suddenly, my shoelace comes loose, and I trip over it. Almost in slow motion, the ground rises up to meet me, and my arm is trapped underneath me. I cry out, and Jack turns around. His eyes widen as the zombie stumbles closer and closer, and he turns around and dashes towards me. I try to drag myself upright, but my good arm collapses underneath me, and I crash painfully back to the ground. I push myself shakily to my knees, and I take it from there. I turn to face the zombie, and it roars at me. Rage bubbles up inside of me, and I roar right back even louder, and it stumbles backwards and limps away as fast as it can. Jack arrives at my side, and he stares at the zombie limping away, surprised. He remarks, "Huh." I giggle, and Jack calls Dirk, Quint, and June back. They look so surprised that they almost left me behind to fend for myself against that zombie, even though I scared it off. June and Quint rub the backs of their necks guiltily, while Dirk doesn't do anything because he's still thinking about zombie Kylie. I tell everyone, "Alright, we need to get to a safe place, preferably somewhere multiple yards above ground level but not that high maintenance ... ?" Jack and Quint conspiratorially glance at each other, and Jack admits bashfully, "I might have a place in mind."