Authors Note: The main POV for each chapter will switch, so for those who aren't fond of Devin, don't worry, because he won't be the lead for all chapters. Also, not all chapters will necessarily be with this first group, although a great deal will be. Although this first chapter does not feature all of the Total Drama characters, they will all make an appearance in the story at some point in time. Also, Later on in the story, choices will have to be made that will determine the outcome of the story. These decisions can affect anything from a few lines of dialogue, to someone's life or death. You can vote for either choice presented by DMing me or leaving a Review.
Devin's POV:
It was a cold afternoon on October the 19th, as Devin sat at a bus stop, tapping his foot. Carrie sat with him, her face resting on her hands as they waited for their bus. They had just attended Carrie's birthday party, and Devin was the only one who had stuck with her, due to their houses being next to each other. Although he knew he would've stayed regardless, just so she had some company. He turned his head to her, smiling. "That was a great party, homie." Carrie giggled and blushed slightly at Devin's compliment. "Aw, thanks! Mom and I planned that for months." Devin chuckled and smiled again. He needed that, because if he didn't focus on stuff like that, he'd be focusing on the news, which he did not want to do.
There had been several reports of riots in other states over the past week, and while Devin would usually be concerned by an amount that high, it was what else they said that concerned him the most. The reports said that the rioters were extremely violent, attempting to bite and scratch at the Riot control officers. They had also been seen to show no reason, not responding to the Officer's warning shots with anything other than growls, nor did they respond with pain when hit with sticks or shields, merely stumbling back before heading straight back towards the officers. What concerned him most, however, was that it had been reported that when one of these rioters caught an Officer, they proceeded to tear at him and attempt to eat him, although they failed due to his riot armour. Devin shivered just thinking about it. He hoped beyond hope that things would be okay, but deep down, he feared the worst.
Carrie was clearly having similar thoughts, as she turned to Devin and spoke. "Hey, Devin? Do you think everything's going to be okay?" Devin was taken aback by this, as it occurred to him that he didn't know what to say. How could he? Things were too strange right now to have any hope of understanding them, but he decided to put on a brave face in an attempt to ease Carrie's nerves. "Y-Yeah! Of course! It's probably just, like, the effects of some new drug or-uh, some huge prank, probably" "Yeah..." Although Devin had attempted to make things better, it was obvious that he had neither convinced Carrie nor himself.
Devin attempted to change the subject by quipping "How much longer is this bus gonna be? If it doesn't come soon, they'll have to unfreeze my fingers in a thousand years!" Carrie chuckled slightly and, as if by summoning it, a small bus slowly drove up and stopped in front of the pair. The doors opened up to reveal a large black man sitting in the driver's seat, staring them down. They could see from looking at his nametag that his surname was Hatchet. Hatchet stared at them before shouting "Well?! You gonna get on this bus or what?!" Devin was spurred to action by his attitude and quickly nodded.
The two paid their fares and looked over the bus. There were six rows of seats on either side, although not all were taken. Looking over the bus, they saw a group of people. On the front row, there was a man examining himself in the mirror, who Devin would guess was a model of some kind. The man blew a kiss towards himself and smiled at his reflection in the mirror. Devin and Carrie chuckled slightly as they saw his strange behaviour. Opposite the man was a blonde woman in a red dress, filing down her nails as she grimaced at nothing in particular. Behind the man were two girls with matching outfits and hairstyles, one had slightly darker skin than the other, while the other was a lot larger than her friend. They were both intently staring at the man with glittering in their eyes, clearly enamoured by his appearance.
The next row had a middle-aged man in a yellow shirt with a child in a red cap sitting next to him. The man was trying to get his companion to talk to him, while the child merely played on his phone. Opposite the pair was a man with long blond hair tied in an orange headband. He was drumming his fingers on the seat in front of him as he bobbed his head, although the two girls were too distracted by the model to notice. The next row had a muscular black teen in a blue sports jersey, who was spending his time flexing his bicep and staring at it admirably. The next row had an overweight girl in a pink jacket, with a young man in a red tracksuit sitting opposite her. The final row had a pale girl with dyed hair and gothic clothes sitting, a gloomy expression on her face. Devin and Carrie decided to sit behind the older man and his son.
The man in the yellow shirt turned back to the two and smiled. "Heya, my name's Dwayne and this here's Dwayne Junior. How're you two today?" His son, Junior slapped his head with his palm and sighed deeply. "No, dad, don't talk to people on buses! It's embarrassing!" Dwayne scratched the back of his head before speaking again. "Oh-uh, sorry about that." Carrie responded first with "No, don't worry, it's fine." Devin spent this time looking at all of the other people on the bus. The overweight girl in pink spent was pestering the athlete in front of her. "Oh-and did you know that my great-great-great grandfather invented buses? Ja, before him, people all just piled up in a car and-"The athlete turned back to her and shouted "Can you shut up, lady?!" The girl was taken aback and briefly muttered "Um, my name's Staci.." before the young man interrupted her again "Whatever! Lightning don't care about your great-great-whatever! Can it!" Staci slumped back in her seat, downtrodden.
Near the front of the bus, the blonde woman stood up and started yelling. "What's taking so long? We should have been where we needed to be half an hour ago!" Hatchet responded to her with shouting of his own "We are runnin' low on fuel! I go too fast, we get stuck twenty miles away from town!" The woman didn't take this well, as she responded with "Don't you realise who you're talking to? I'm Blaineley Stacey And-" She was interrupted by the previously quiet goth girl responding with "Who cares?" Blaineley turned to the girl and walked towards her "You say something, Vampirella?" The girl rolled her eyes before standing up herself and looking the woman in her eyes. "Yeah, I did. I said that nobody cares who you are! And it's Gwen!"
Before Blaineley could respond, Hatchet yelled out "Oh shit!" and the bus grinded to a sudden halt, knocking Blaineley and Gwen to the ground. Devin spoke up to Hatchet "Hey, what's going on out there?" The man responded with "Fuck if I know! Some crazy lady just ran out in front of the bus! Everyone get in your goddamned seats!" Blaineley and Gwen did as they were told as Hatchet opened the door to the bus and a young woman stepped inside. She was shaking, almost violently, with an extremely pale skin complexion, however, her skin was not pale like Gwen's, through a mix of makeup and a lack of sun, it looked as if she was sickly, an image not helped by her constant coughing. A red stain was visible on the inside of her long-sleeved shirt, with a hole on a sleeve. Her dark hair hung around her eyes as she panted, ignoring Hatchet's questions and payment requests as well as the stares of the other passengers as she took a seat next to the man in the red tracksuit.
The man turned to look at her and spoke. "Hey, are you okay?" The woman just sat, panting for a few seconds, before looking up at him. "Oh, y-yeah, I-I'm fine. J-Just some crazy guy attacked me out of nowhere..." As he heard this, a link formed in Devin's mind: The rioters. The man in the red tracksuit, however, clearly did not make this connection as he responded with. "Oh, well-uh, if you need my help for anything, just say the word. Oh, and it's Tyler, by the way." The bus suddenly came to a halt, as Hatchet turned back to the passengers. "That emergency stop emptied our fuel tank. Hope y'all don't mind a bit of a trek, and if you do, tough!" Tyler snapped his fingers. "Hey, wait! That guy that attacked you what did he look like?" However, the woman's head had dropped onto her headrest as a slow moan escaped her lips in response.
The woman slowly raised her head to reveal that her pale skin had turned somewhat grey, and her eyes had gone milky white, as she growled at Tyler and lunged directly for him. Before she could get on top of him, Tyler thrust out his arms to stop her in place. The panic was immediately evident. Dwayne immediately picked up Junior and rushed him to the other side of the bus, while, Devin directed Carrie to follow the two. The model, Blaineley, the two girls and the long-haired man rushed to the other end of the bus as well. Lightning jumped to his feet, watching everything go down, with fear written all over his face, while Staci and Gwen merely stood, unable to move due to their positioning on the bus. The violent woman kept trying to get at Tyler, while he kept pushing her back, eventually; he successfully managed to push the woman backwards...
... Right on top of Staci. Immediately, the woman turned her attention to Staci and started tearing into her, while Staci, not as physically strong as Tyler, was unable to keep her at bay. "HELP ME! PLEASE, PLEASE, GOD, HELP!" Staci screamed as the woman kept tearing into her, in shock and with tears welling up in his eyes, Tyler fell backwards and screamed, backing up to the front of the bus with everyone else, who were either frozen in fear, crying, screaming or, in a few cases, vomiting . The woman kept tearing into Staci's stomach despite the latter's desperate screams. Eventually, she came back up with some intestines, taking a bite out of them. Staci's screaming subsided and she slumped down onto the seat, her eyes a window into cold death.
The growling woman then turned her attention to Gwen, who tried desperately to back away. She slowly advance on Gwen, before being grabbed from the collar by Lightning, who had overcome his fear paralysis. He pulled her back towards the door, as the other passengers moved away, he shouted at Hatchet "Open the goddamn door, man!" Hatchet obliged and, once the door was opened, Lightning threw the woman out. Hatchet then closed the door and stepped out of his booth, drawing a pocketknife. Suddenly, the woman crashed through the glass door, with shards flying everywhere. She then tackled Hatchet, causing the knife to go flying out of his hand, near the feet of the passengers. She attempted to claw at Hatchet, but the large man was able to keep her away long enough for Devin to pick up the knife and stab the woman in the head. The woman's body slumped on top of Hatchet's as he pushed her off him. "Okay, everybody off, now!" All the passengers obliged as they all left the bus one by one, followed by Hatchet.
For several minutes, everyone just sat down and contemplated what had just happened in total silence. Devin understood that, what could anyone even say? Tyler sat, shaking, as he wiped his eyes. Devin looked to him, understanding his dilemma Poor guy, he thought. I'd bet he blames himself for that girl's death. Devin wanted to say something to comfort the guy, but he couldn't come close to thinking of the words. It was at that moment that Gwen spoke up "Check for bites or scratches, or just any kind of wound like that. Bruises are fine." "Huh?" the long-haired man responded. Gwen came back with "This is all just like a zombie movie. If that much is the same, bites could transfer DNA and infect any one of us. Okay, we need to check Tyler, Lightning and Hatchet, since they were the only ones who made direct contact with that woman." Hatchet responded with "Are you crazy? This ain't some zombie flick!" Gwen shook her head. "Regardless, it's worth checking." Hatchet conceded and the three men were checked, with all being clean, having luckily avoided being bitten by the woman.
Everyone then took this time to introduce themselves by name. The long-haired man was named Rock, the two friends were Katie and Sadie and the model was called Justin. Devin checked his phone, seeing texts from his parents, saying that they were fine. He quickly responded, telling them that he was fine too and to board up their house. It was at this moment that Devin came to a realisation. "Oh, man! If this is how bad things are getting, then what about Shelley?!" He asked, but to nobody in particular. Devin took out his phone, thanking whatever god would listen that he still had bars, and calling Shelley's number. The phone rang several times, before eventually he heard the sound of someone picking up the phone from the other side. Devin thanked his lucky stars before speaking into the phone.
"Shelley? Are you okay" A few second delay occurred before he heard a response through the phone. "Uh... Devin? What do you want?" Taken aback by how she blew him off, Devin continued. "I need you to stop what you're doing right now and board up your-" He was interruputed by the sound of a male voice in the background "Shel? Who's that?" "Oh, it's nothing, Ashton, just Devin again." Devin chose to ignore this and continue his dire warning. "Shelley, listen to me, you need to board up your house right now." He heard a laugh through the phone "Any excuse to talk, huh? We're over, Devin, get over it already!" Devin was shocked by this, but reiterated his point once again "Shelley, listen to me! Board up the-!" Devin was interrupted by the sound of a banging on the door on the other end of the phone. "Ashton, be a sweetie and go check out that noise, would you? Thanks!" Devin realise that this wasn't good and tried to plead through the phone "No,no, no no no! Shelley, don't let him answer tha-"Devin was once again interrupted by the sound of a man screaming, quickly followed by the sound of a woman screaming for help, her cries getting more and more desperate, as the phone hung up.
Devin's arm hung limply by his side as he gripped his phone tightly in his fist. Carrie turned to Devin, a quizzical expression on her face. "Devin? What's wrong?" Devin responded with "Shelley's-Shelley's dead." Carrie put her hands to her mouth. "Wh-what?" Devin stared at the ground as he spoke. "I heard it. Over the phone." Carrie went pale as well as she tried to process what she'd just learnt.
Hatchet addressed the group. "Alright, I don't know 'bout y'all, but I'd rather not be stuck standin' here for the next hour! We broke down about four miles from our next stop, meanin' we can get there in about an hour. And y'know what's there? Shelter, weapons, y'know, shit we need! Come on, let's go, already!"
With Hatchet leading the way, the rest of the group followed behind him. Eventually, Devin looked back as he was walking. The empty bus was but a grey speck in the distance. Devin thought he could see a pink speck near it, but he shrugged it off as his eyes playing tricks on him, as he looked back continued with the others in their attempt to survive the new world.
So that was our first chapter! What did you think? What were your thoughts and feelings on the events that unfolded, and what do you think will happen to our characters in the future + Who will they run into next?
Character status:
Alive: Devin, Carrie, Hatchet, Gwen, Tyler, Lightning, Dwayne, Junior, Rock, Katie, Sadie and Justin.
Unknown: N/A
Deceased: Infected woman, Ashton, Shelley
Undead: Staci