Anarchy on Earth

~6~

Above: Henry Smith, (Being incredibly stupid) as seen on July 4th 2018)

I believe it was the next Monday, where it was the first day that everything went wrong.

My eyes fluttered open, my head throbbing. I felt sick to my stomach. I was cold as well. Very cold. I got out of bed, and walked towards my closet. After a brief two minutes, I was dressed. I pulled on my jacket over a black T- shirt, and jeans. I stepped over to my window, and looked outside. The street was strangely deserted. I grabbed my phone off

my nightstand and turned it on. I had no service.

"That's odd..." I said to myself.

I walked out of my room, slamming my foot into the door in the process. Trotting down the hallway, I wondered why I had felt sick when I woke up. I was fine now. I glanced at the clock down the hallway.

"Not again!" I nearly shouted, realizing I was late for the bus. Where was my mom? She didn't work on weekdays.

I grabbed my backpack off the floor, and ran down the stairs. I threw open the door, and dashed out into the street. I saw the bus pulling up to the street corner, everyone getting on.

"Wait for me!" I yelled, trying to make it.

The bus driver looked slightly annoyed as I got on. Why wouldn't he? I was late almost every morning.

"It always seems like you're the late every morning, when I pull up." He told me

Well what do you know?

"That may be so." I grunted, climbing on to the bus.

He smirked, as he always did, and shook his head.

"Go sit down kid." He said.

I made my way to the back of the bus, ignoring snarky comments from people on the bus. I nearly collapsed in my seat, which was right next to Henry's and in front of Miranda's.

"Late again?" Henry asked, playing away on his phone, a game I didn't recognize.

"Hey, what happened to the service?" I asked, still noticing there was no cell reception.

"I dunno. Soda Prison doesn't need Wi-Fi though." He said, without looking up.

'What Mr. Gamer here is trying to say," Miranda said, leaning over my seat, "is that the network went down yesterday at 10:00 and hasn't been up since."

I thought for a minute. "What the hell is going on?" I said, sharply, as the bus rolled down one of the few empty roads in Brookevale, meadows surrounding us. "The Network has only gone down once, and that was during the 'Great Surge' of 2016."

"I dunno. Soda Prison doesn't need Wi-Fi though" Henry repeated.

"Henry?" I said.

"Yeah?" He asked, vaguely looking up.

"You said that already."

"Huh?"

I groaned. "Henry, quit becoming addi-" I started.

There was a piercing scream, and then a massive thud. I flew forward in my seat, and face planted into the seat in front of me.

I covered my head, as the bus reeled to the side, screams filling the bus. Strange black liquid splattered over the floor. I looked up, and saw utter terror.

The windshield had shattered, the bus driver gone, only a bloody stump left. As I tried to unsee what I had just seen, I was thrown down to the floor, as the bus took a dangerous lurch, and ran off the road all together. We barreled down an empty field. The sound of more breaking glass. Desperate screams faded, more black liquid. The feeling of a drop. Water. A blast of heat.

I could not see. My vision was blurry and fuzzy, my head feeling as if someone had hit it with a baseball bat. I wanted to throw up all over the floor, but I held in in. I was lying on the floor of the bus, still not knowing what had happened. We hit something... no, someone. There was shattered glass in my hair, some of it digging into my scalp. For the most part I was generally unhurt... just sore, and in pain. My shirt was stained with blood, but not mine.

Who's then? I thought

I started to hyperventilate, as I began to think about the other people on the bus, specifically Henry and Miranda. I looked across the butchered aisle, wide eyed. Henry was lying underneath a collapsed seat. He looked at me, and blinked. Then he looked in the direction down the aisle. Then, I heard it. The ominous shuffling, I had heard not 2 days before. It was coming in my direction.

A grubby shoed leg stepped past me. Blood trailed after the leg, as another one came. I almost screamed. The leg was ripped apart, a bony stump the only reminisce of a foot. The thing stopped in front of me, turned towards the back of the bus. Slowly, it turned my direction. As terror filled the pit of my stomach, the thing revealed its face. It was ripped apart, scars covering its face. Blood ran down its mouth, and I could swear it snarled at me. Stranger Danger much?

The stranger, faster than I expected, lunged at me. I yelped, and dived out into the aisle, dodging a swipe from the stranger's twisted fingernails. I quickly stood up, my legs almost buckling beneath me. The stranger turned around, and lunged at me again. I had nowhere to run, so it tackled me to the ground. Its mouth opened, filled with a set of horrid rotting teeth. I raised its hand to deliver a blow that would end my life. I was pinned to the ground.

"NO!" I yelled, twisting my head to the ground.

The stranger brought his arm down.