Fear the Walking Dead (reimagined)

Part 1. Pilot.

act one

I get on the bus to start my journey home after school finished.
I look out the window and lean my head against it, feeling the vibrations as the bus starts moving.
I watch absentmindedly as we drive past buildings and people who are all busy living their own lives.
I get pulled out of my thoughts when the bus comes to an abrupt stop.
I put one hand on the seat besides me to stabilise myself and the other around my bag that is placed on my lap to keep it from flying to the floor.
I knit my eyebrows together and look around to see what happened when a boy around our age runs into the bus and screams.
"The cops are shooting an unarmed homeless guy!"
Everyone immediately runs out after the guy except for me and one boy with long-ish, dark hair. We both sit there just staring at each other since we're the only people left before he gets up to also go see what the commotion is about.
I look to the front and see that even the bus driver has left so I hesitantly get up and follow the boy.

act two

He looks back as he walks and gives me a tight lipped smile before waiting until I catch up to him.
As we get closer to the crowd we see an ambulance parked at the side of the road.
There is a police officer that's getting treated by the paramedic and when I take a closer look I see that he has a bite mark on his arm.
I frown and look even closer to find it to be a human bite mark.
We push through the thick crowd and I see the boy that I'm still walking with pull out a camera from his bag before recording everything that's happening.
Who even carries around a camera these days now that everyone has a smart phone?
"Hey this is wrong man! Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!" I hear a man yell from the front of the crowd.
As we get closer to the fences surrounding the crime scene I catch a glimpse of a body lying on the floor.
I feel my heart racing in my chest but I'm determined to keep up with the dark-haired boy since he is the only person I recognise in this crowd.
"Step away sir, this is none of your business!" A police officer yells back at the man.
"It is his business! It's all of our business!" Another man yells at the officer, getting everyone riled up.
"That man never hurt a fly! He was unarmed! LAPD is out of control!"
Angry cheering erupts around me and I feel people starting to push up against me.
I catch the boy looking at me with worry and I realise how scared I must look.
He hesitates for a moment before stretching out his hand to me as a sign for me to take it so we wouldn't lose each other.
I look between his hand and his eyes a few times before slipping my hand in his.
He gives it a short squeeze before he focusses on recording what's happening again.
"We're gonna need to clear this area now!" The police tries to calm down everyone that's gathered.
"We ain't clearing nothing!" Another man yells, gaining agreeing shouts from all around us.
They keep arguing and I feel myself grow more and more nervous.
A part of me wants to leave and run home but my house is only a street away and since my parents are on vacation I'm home all alone.
I don't feel like those four walls will provide enough safety so I find myself anxiously clinging onto the hand of a boy I haven't even actually met.
"Hey kid! Put the camera down!" The police officer yells at the boy who looks back at me for just a second.
Everyone around us starts yelling at him to keep filming so that's exactly what he does.
Everything gets more and more heated and I feel my heart hammering in my chest being at the center of the attention now, holding onto the hand of the boy that is disobeying the police.
I gently tug on his arm to make him look back at me.
"Maybe you should put it down." I say shyly.
"No. People need to see this." He tells me determined so I stay quiet.
Suddenly I hear a phone ringing and the boy lets go of my hand to grab his phone out of his pocket and answer it.
"Dad?" He yells, trying to hear the person on the other side of the line over all the yelling.
"Dad I'm at a protest, there's a protest."
I fumble with my hands, not taking my eyes off the boy as if he's my only safety buoy in this mess of people.
"The cops, they shot a homeless man dad! He wasn't doing anything." He explains to who I assume is his father calling him.
"The people are taking action! This is important dad. Dad! I gotta go. I gotta go dad." He yells before putting down the phone with an angry expression.
He looks at me and grabs a hold of my hand again before resuming his recording.
I hold his hand tightly as I try to come up with a plan.
What do I do? Where do I go? What if this gets any worse? Is my house even safe?

act three

After a few minutes of people screaming, the police telling all of us to go away and people angrily chanting I see someone tap the boy on his shoulder before they start dragging him away.
The crowd has gotten so out of control that I can't hear anything they're saying to each other and for a moment I fear that I'll be left alone out here in the middle of the chaos but then I feel tugging on my hand that's still tightly in his.
I start walking with them as we make our way through the crowd and I see him glance back at me every so often to make sure I'm okay.
I flinch when a car explodes not too far away from us and we all start walking faster as people start fires everywhere.
The man, who I assume is the boy's father, runs up to a barber shop.
"Excuse me! Can we please come in?" He asks the man who was in the process of closing the metal shutters, undoubtedly to protect his property from the riot.
"Sorry, we're closed." He tells us.
"Please it's not safe out here." The boy's dad continues.
I look around at everyone running past us in a panic with wide eyes, the sound of the two men arguing fading away.
I get pulled out of my thoughts when I get pulled inside together with the boy, his dad and another woman who I'm assuming is his mom.
The man from the shop shuts the door behind us, locking us in and everyone else out.
I look around and see two more women looking at us with a mix of confusion and worry.
"I'm Daniel." The man who owns the shop introduces himself.
"This is my wife Griselda and my daughter Ofelia." He motions towards the two women.
They both give us a polite nod but the looks on their faces show me they're still skeptical.
"Thank you for letting us ride it out in here. I'm Travis and this is my son Chris and his mother Liza." The man now also introduces him and his family.
Now everyone's eyes fall on me as I stand there awkwardly.
I start fumbling with my hands again once I realise the boy had let go of my hand the moment we stepped into the barber shop.
"I- I'm Y/n." I sheepishly introduce myself.
"How do you know Chris?" Travis, the boy's dad asks me.
"I-" I stammer but then Chris speaks up.
"We met on the bus before everything happened."
Travis just nods before all the adults move to the back to talk privately.

act four

Chris and I look through the shutters at all the chaos that's unfolding right outside.
People are flipping cars, lighting stuff on fire, breaking stuff.
"Thank you." I say suddenly, gaining the boy's attention.
He shoots me a questioning look so I continue.
"For taking me with you."
He smiles warmly.
"Don't worry about it. Where are your parents?" He asks.
"They're on vacation, they wouldn't be back for another three days. I'm on my own." I chuckle dryly.
"You can stick with us for as long as this keeps going." He smiles and I nod.
He looks outside again but I take my phone from my pocket and start calling my parents.
Chris looks at me expectantly when I redial their numbers multiple times.
"No one's answering." I say with a lump in my throat.
"I bet they're okay. Don't worry." Chris says as he squeezes my shoulder.

act five

"Kids, we're going to try and make it to Madisons house. They're all waiting for us. Make sure to stick together." Travis tells us as everyone gathers at the door.
Just when we are about to leave we smell smoke.
I look around and find fire starting to eat up the walls.
"They must have started a fire in the place next door." Travis says as he looks at Daniel.
"Come with us!" He yells and after some hesitation we all step outside and run around trying to get to a car they have parked around here somewhere.
I run together with the group of strangers who are the closest thing to a family I have right now and I try not to look around, afraid of what I might see.
Suddenly a group of people runs past us from the other direction, splitting me from the rest of the group.
I'm breathing heavily and I try to push past when I feel Chris's hand find mine again.
He drags me along with him and holds onto me just like he did before.
Finally we make it to the white pickup truck and everyone squeezes inside.

act six

Travis gets behind the wheel and Daniel gets in the front with him.
All three of the women get in the backseat so Chris quickly jumps into the open back before pulling me in with him.
We fall to the floor of the pickup right as Travis pulls away, leaving everything behind.
I rest my back against the side and try to catch my breath.
I feel Chris put his arm around my shoulders and pull me a bit closer to him and against my better judgement I let him.
I rest my head on his shoulder and feel how heavy he is breathing too as his chest rises and falls.
We drive quickly through the streets of Los Angeles and the pit in my stomach tells me that this is not going to be the end of this yet.