Isabella Carlson POV

I sit on the school bus, headed for my middle school. I look over at my little brother, Jeremy, who's in sixth grade, sitting in the front of the bus. I'm in the back witg the eighth graders. I look down at my Minitab and push the on button. The screen buses and them flashes off. Disturbed, I look out the window. Huge rocks of ice begin to fall, denting the bus. Pang, Pang, Pang... the sixth graders start screaming. Everyone starts screaming. The bus starts sliding across the road, crashing into a huge pole and toppling over, flipping onto its back. The side cracks and the rocks fall into the bus. Kids are shrinking everywhere. A rock hits my shoulder and I cry out. This is terrible! What's happening?! I look out the hole and see tgat were right by a Greenway. I have to get Jeremy and get in there! I drag myself through the isles. That's when I notice how strangely quiet it is. I look at a kid lying a few inches away from me. Dead. They're all dead. I hear crying though, one voice crying. Please, please let it be Jeremy. I crawl to his seat and look at him, tears welling up in my eyes. It isn't. Jeremy's body is twisted and covered in blood. He's dead. Okay, I have to calm down and find who's crying and get them into the Greenway. I look around and a rock hits my ribs. I can see the girl now, the girl who's crying. Her face is cut, but other than that she actually looks okay.

"Hey, Hey, it's okay. I'm gonna get you unto the Greenway, okay, where it's safe. Can you crawl over to me?" She wipes her eyes and nods, crawling over the bodies of the two girls who were sitting next to her. "Okay, I'm going to shield you. Just stay under me." I be me over and she does the same, coming underneath me. I grab her hand and we rum out into the empty parking lot of the Greenway. My back is pelted with the rocks as we run, but we manage to get to the door and we run inside. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I think so. They're... They're dead. All of them. Th we re were thirty of us on there, and only you and me made it out." She starts to cry and I hug her.

"It's going to be okay. What's your name? And what grade are you in?"

"I'm Lilly. I'm on sixth. What about you?"

"My name is Isabella, I'm in eighth." I look out the Windows on the doors of the store and see another bus, the one with the elementary and high school combined, lying on its side. "Okay, Lilly, stay in here, No matter what happens. I'm going to go out and see if there's anyone on the bus there." Of course, what I mean is I'm going to see if there's anyone alive on the bus. I know it's full of kids. Suddenly a boy crawls from the crushed side of the bus and runs to the front of the store. His dark brown hair is matted with blood, but otherwise he seems fine. I'd guess he's a freshman. He flings open the door and runs in.

"Are you... are you from the other bus?" He gasps. "The middle school one? Is there anyone else alive?" When he says that I think of Jeremy again and tears roll down my face.

"Yeah, we are. No other survivors, just us."

"Look, there's some kids on our bus who made it. Not any, but some." He points to our mangled, crushed bus. "We made off a bit better than you guys." I turn to Lilly.

"Okay, just... stay here. Were going to go to the bus." I turn to the boy. "What's your name?"

"Shawn."

"Okay Shawn, are you going to be able to help me?"

"Yeah, sure." Lilly sits down on the floor.

"Okay, hurry though, please come back."

"Don't worry, we will." Then me and Shawn run back out into the jagged rock storm, headed for the bus. I crawl into the wreck and immediately spot a tiny girl huddled at the front of the bus. She actually looks unharmed, and I pick her up. She just wraps her arms around neck and buries her face in my shirt.

"Its okay, you're going to be okay." I whisper soothingly. I walk past so many bodies, it makes me sick. Then I see two little boys curled up under a seat. One of them, a little Asian boy, has his leg wrapped up in what I guess is the others coat. I reach under the sear and gently royal the two out. The other boy, a pale blonde haired one, says

"Back there." And points to a slightly taller girl lying on an upturned seat. She has the same blonde hair as him. "My sister, go get my sister." I'm pretty sure she's dead, but I walk over to her just to humor him. I would guess she's in fourth grade. I reach down and feel her pulse. She's dead. I shake my head and squeeze the little boy.

"She isn't going to be able to come with us sweetie. I'm sorry. But she's going somewhere safe, I promise." He looks sad but doesn't say anything more. Then the little girl lifts up her head.

"A girl's over there." She says. I look where she's pointing and see a little redhead girl lying under another seat. I crouch down and lift the girl out.

"Shawn!" I shout. He runs to me with another boy in his arms. I carefully give him the two little girls and the Asian boy. "Will you take them in?" The blonde boy starts crying as Shawn takes the children pancakes a mad dash to the Greenway. I sigh in relief as he disappears inside. Safe.

"Why didn't he take me?" He says.

"I need you to be my helper so we can find others, okay?"

"Oh. Okay." I put him on my shoulder and we crawl to the back of the bus where I can hear clattering. I'm bot sure if it's the rocks or a person. We'll see. I look and see a tall African American girl lying on her side between two seats. She's obviously a high schooler, a freshman or a sophomore probably.

"Hey, I'll help you out. Can you walk?" She groans and nods. I help pull her from her spot and notice that her back is completely soaked in blood. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah." She stands up and we hurry through the isle of sideways seats and bodies. "Are you a middle schooler?"

"Yeah."

"Did my sister make it out? She looks like me, just shorter..." she looks at my face and starts to cry.

"I'm so sorry. Only two of us got out. My brother... here, come on." I hold the little boy tightly and the tgree of us run out through thepeltingbrocks, to safety in the Greenway. We run through the doors and collapse on the ground. Then Lilly runs to me, smiling through everything.

"Mike! Mike!" She grabs the little blonde boy and hugs him tightly. "I was so worried. I thought you hadn't made it." Suddenly I feel better. Lilly found her brother. Everything's going to be okay. A loud, loud screeching groan sounds outside and we look. The security gates rise up from the ground, there fat metal wall surrounding us in a wall of safety. Shawn walks over to me.

"I think we're going to be trapped here for a while. We need to find out each others names, then fix eachother up." He looks at me "you're not looking super great." I look at the kids. I guess I'll start.

"Okay everyone, my name is Isabella Carlson, I am... was in eighth grade." I point to Shawn.

"I'm Shawn Baker, I'm a freshman."

"I'm Lilly Jewkes." She points to the blonde boy. "This is My brother, Mike. I'm in sixth grade, he's in other sister, Rose..." I remember the other blonde girl. She looked a lot like Lilly, really. Same blonde hair, blue eyes... the little girl who I found first, the unharmed one, stands up. She has curly light brown hair and grey eyes.

"I'm Leah Visic. I'm in kindergarten." The Asian boy opens his eyes.

"I am Raymond. Chen. Raymond Chen." We don't bother to ask his grade. Honestly, it doesn't matter. The little redhead girl is next.

"My name is June. I'm in first grade. I want my mommy and my daddy. Where are they?" She s tarts to cry. The last girl stands up, the African American one.

"I'm Liana. I'm a Sophomore." Then she sits back down. So I guess our tiny little group is going to be together for a while. So we have Shawn, Lilly, Mike, Leah, Raymond, June, Liana, and me. Out of two boatloads of kids, that's it. Just eight of us.

"Well guys, we should clean up and get changed. I'll go get first aid." I say.

"No! You shouldn't. You're already really hurt yourself. I'll do it. There's no showers here, but we can fill up one of the bathtubs in the furniture section."

"Okay, great." So it seems that there is an apocalypse happening, and yet me and seven other kids have ended up in a well stocked store. I close my eyes... just for a moment. I feel so tired, so sad. Jeremy, Jeremy, my poor little brother. My poor, poor little brother.

Okay, so the story begins! Just so you guys know, this story has the same store and all, but Dean, Astrid... all them: theyre not in it. They never went to the Greenway. So theyre totally not in this story. I hope you liked the first chaoter, and please, please, please review!