Age of the Dead

Pilot

Nothing really happens in my life, ever. Until today. It was pretty much a normal day. I get up, go to school, come home do home work. Actually, go back to the going to school part. That is where it started.
I stand at the end of my driveway, waiting for the bus to come pick me up. The tips of my fingers and nose frigid. I pace back and forth to warm up. I finally see the bus turning around the corner toward my home. It stops in front of my house. I get into the bus. There was only six kids in the bus this morning. Brandon and Eliot sitting in the front seat. They are two best friends Brandon is looking out the window to his left. His dark brown hair combed away from his face. Eliot is on his phone, probably listening to music. As I walk to the back seat I see Luke sitting in the seat in front of mine. I have always found him fairly attractive. He also sits looking out the window, his chocolate brown hair could almost be mistaken for black if you weren't looking close enough. I finally get to my seat.
"Hey," Julie says quietly to me. She sits with her boyfriend Mason. Julie has been my friend for three years and she always greets me when I get on in the morning. The bus is roaring ahead toward school when the driver suddenly slams on the breaks, pulling the bus to an abrupt stop. The force throws me against the seat in front of me, and I swing my arms to protect my head from hitting the metal frame of the seatback. Everything grows quiet, the acrid smell of burning oil filling the bus, now at a standstill. I push myself back in my seat, working to stand. Gaining my bearings, I quickly stand, holding on to the steel frame of my seat for  balance.
My classmates come to life in a chorus of mumbles and murmurs. A sharp scream pierces the air, and I turn to see the bus driver, collapsed in his seat. He wore a dark blue ball cap that pulled his grey hair away from his face.  I rush down the center aisle of the vehicle, people pushing and shoving beside me trying to escape the chaos.
Stumbling to the front of the bus, I'm the first to reach the door. I head down the steps, my fellow passengers pushing against me while I work to pry the door open with my bare fingers. People are shouting for me to hurry. Finally I'm able to wiggle my thumb between the doors, shoving them open to freedom.
​That's when my thoughts turn to the reason for the accident. Why did the driver stop so suddenly? I slowly step onto the gravel road, afraid of what I may find
Cautiously, I walk toward the front of the bus, my fellow-riders following a step behind. We're met with the sight of a decrepit figure, laying motionless on the pavement. The air is so cold making it hard to breathe. It's skin is peeled back, making identification difficult. Hair is missing, what's left is growing in tiny brown tuffs. Clothed in a thin torn T-shirt, and dirty jeans, it reeked a disgusting smell that made me gag.  My eyes grew wide, my heart thumping wildly in my chest. I tried to catch my breath, when the figure begins to move, coming alive with a low growl.
​"Gurrrggg..." it says, turning its small fragile head toward us. The mouth and cheekbones are sunken, the skin discolored grey, and the eyes, unfocused and white, seem to stare through us.
​To our horror, the corpse-like figure pulls itself to a standing position, and begins walking toward us on a slow, precarious step.

My thoughts began to run rampant in an effort to answer the question as to what my friends and I were witnessing. I watch a lot of scary movies, and this monster sure looked like a zombie to me – I could be wrong. But I don't think so.
Mason, a kid who rides my bus said what I was thinking exactly as it came to my mind.
"is that a-a zombie?" His voice cracked in pure horror.