p class="MsoNormal"span style="text-decoration: underline;"span lang="EN-US"Chapter 2/span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""Dead? What are you talking about?" new girl -I think her name is Roberta- says./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""Your friends are dead? " I say not believing a word she just said. "Have you only just noticed?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""It's true. In the café. Go and look if you don't believe me." Alice sobs out. "All right." I say as I exasperatedly jump up to get this prank over with./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US"span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span"No. You can't go out there." she screeches raising to block my way only to collapse back onto the steps again./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""Why not?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""Getspan style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanback." She screams this time with a mad glint in her eyes and I put my hands around my ears, my face in exaggerated pain. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US"Suddenly Newbie nudges me out of the way and extends her hand out to Alice saying, "Come and sit up here. Have you hurt yourself?" Alice instead ignores her hand and wails "Keep him away from the door!", bracing herself against the stairwell. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""OK, he's sitting down over there." Newbie says and points to a seat a couple of rows back./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""I am?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""You are." She says gritting her teeth impatiently at me. I pull a face at her but still trudge back to the seat. I watch as Newbie helps Alice into a seat and says "So take a breath, and tell us what you saw."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""I told you, everyone is dead," she starts, her jaw clenched "I was in the café, I went to use the ladies – yes, even I have to go sometimes, Smitty." She says before I have the chance to interrupt. "I came back and everyone was sort of lying across the tables … like they were asleep. At first I thought it was some sort of lame joke, I mean, hello, /spanspan style="mso-ansi-language: EN-IN; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"très/spanspan lang="EN-US" embarrassment, but then I went up to Libby and Em and Shanika, and I shook Em and she fell to the floor. She wasn't breathing." Alice was in tears again "No one was breathing!"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""Are you sure?" Newbie asks kinda disbelieving./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""Of course I'm sure!"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""How did it happen?" She asks Alice crouching down beside her. "Were they sick or something?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""I'm supposed to know? " Alice yells. "They were all just lying there, the whole class!"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""What about everyone else? The waiters, the other people in the café?" She asks tiredly./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""All dead. On the floor, on the chairs, behind the counters." Alice shudders./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US"Newbie gives her a weird look and turns to me raising her eyebrows. "Mr. Taylor and Ms. Fawcett? We have to find them."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""No." Alice screams "Mr. Taylor was there, in the shop. I saw him, standing by the sandwiches." Newbie looks relieved but I wouldn't blame her, Alice had gone insane. "Has he called for help?" she asks./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US"Alice vehemently shakes her head and says " I ran up to him. He turned round … his face was yuk. His eyes were weird, all red…"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""He has pathetic Man-Flu." I exclaim frustrated with Alice's drama./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""More than that." She pauses for effect. "He was dead too." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""What?" Newbie says. span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span"He grabbed at me. I ran … out … he tried to get me." Alice said./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US"This time I can't control myself and burst into peals of laughter, saying "You are so full of it! What's today's date, April fool's? We're supposed to believe that everyone's tombstoned from instant food poisoning and Mr. T has risen again and is trying to kill you?" I jump up holding my hands out and moan imitating a zombie./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""Believe it! Do you really think I'd even bother to speak to you two unless everyone else was dead?" Alice says thumping her fists on the armrests. span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US"Newbie raises an eyebrow. "She has a point."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""She has a nerve, more like."I say shaking my head./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""Fine. Go and check. But don't blame me if you end up dead."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US"I step up to head out but am stopped by Newbie planting herself between planting herself between us. "Wait; we need to call the police, an ambulance, don't we? We should stay here until they come." She says./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""My phone…" Alice's face widens in horror "It's with my stuff! Oh my god! I left my Candy Couture bag on the table!" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US"Oh god is she seriously thinking about her bag at a time like this. "Oh, the tragedy! The dead people may be … touching it!" I say in fake apprehension./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""Shut up! You know nothing! It's one of a kind!" Alice cries. Newbie just groans in frustration and rushes back to her seat. She grabs her backpack and snatches a phone out of her backpack and holds it up to the window after a few moments./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""Not working? When did you get it, the Dark Ages?" I ask as I bounce past her and pull my smartphone out of m back pocket. "Now this little baby will pick up a signal on the moon." I say cockily as I glance at the screen only to find that this too doesn't have signal./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""But not here?" Alice says style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""Give it a minute. We are in the middle of Nowheresville." I say as I press random buttons in the hope that I get reception. "Shiznuts. What's wrong with it?" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""No reception. We have to find the driver. He's probably got a radio." Newbie turns to Alice and asks "Did you see him when you were outside?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US"Alice cocks her head to the side and says "What, you mean when I was running for my life through a snow blizzard? Er, that would be a no."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US"Newbie just scowls at her and says "We need to go check behind the bus. That's where the driver went."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""See ya. I'm not moving." Alice sits down on a seat in the middle up the bus./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US"I decide it's up to me to check it out so I get up and walk to the door. "I am. You stay in case Malice here gets the idea of shutting me out." I give a pointed look and hit the lever and run down the steps./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""Be careful." Newbie shouts out as she reaches the top of the steps. span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanI can't keep the grin of my face and my hand fidgets around my neck. Hearing her concern is oddly very satisfying and I feel something at the pit of my stomach. But my thoughts are pushed out of my head as I see the wreck in front of me./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US"span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanA mini with a painted Union Jack on the roof is wedged against the bus' bumper. The driver is lying motionless in the snow with his legs under the car. I jerk forward and try to wake him up slapping his face lightly but he is unresponsive. His right wrist is bleeding heavily but apart from that he seems uninjured but he could be bleeding internally for all I know. span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanI needed to get him out of here but he is too heavy for me to hoist him up by myself so I shout out "Hey!"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US"There isn't any response not that I'd expect Alice to, so I shout out again "Give us a hand Newbie." span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""What's the matter?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""Come here." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US"When there is still no response I run up to the door and exclaim "Oi!" only for Newbie to jolt in surprise and fall onto the top step on her behind. Now in any situation like this I would have laughed but the driver was outside bleeding out so I say "it's the driver. I can't carry him on my own."span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US"span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span"Carry him." She asks wide eyed I just exclaim 'Quick!" and dart back out. Newbie soon appears next to me behind the bus and looks horrified at the wreck./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""Here. Help me drag him down." Newbie comes around and sees the drivers still body "Is he OK?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""Not a scratch on him except for his hand." I say holding up the driver's bloody wrist. Newbie looks like she is about to hurl but still says "We need to bandage him – quickly." And takes off her scarf and wraps it around his hand. She looks around searching for something to fasten it with when I remember I have my black Death Throes badge on and quickly unpin it and hand it over to her./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""Here."span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanShe takes the pin from me and quickly fastens the scarf. "Should we move him?" se asks me worried. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""Yeah. He'll freeze otherwise." I bend down and start pulling him up, miraculously it works this time. Could it be because Newbie was here… Nah!/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""Luckily for us he's a short-arse. I'll hoist him up and you get under his other arm." We both manage to lift him up only for him to moan and regain consciousness. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""Good you're awake. Mister, we need to move you. Just put one foot in front of the other and we'll do the rest." I say as we slowly trudge forward towards the door. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US"It is closed./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""Malice! Let us in, you bloody moose." I shout banging on the glass of the door. "Come on, Alice! Hurry up and open the door." Newbie says her eyes nervously darting to the café. Unfortunately for us that blooming idiot doesn't appear./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US"The driver grunts and gestures to a small metal flap on the side of the bus and Newbie presses it only for the door to swish open./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""I'm gonna kill her." I growl and Newbie snarls "Get in line."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US"We somehow manage to get the driver on board and into his chair where he punches the door lever closed and then passes out./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""Is he dead?" Alice's voice rings out and I look up to see her standing on top of two seats holding a pair of binoculars. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""You shut the door, you cow!" I say./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""Be grateful, found these in Mrs. Fawcett's stuff. I was being lookout." Alice says as she waves her binoculars and then points up to the escape hatch. "You can see into the café. No one is moving." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US"I quickly run up the aisle and say "Here, give me." And snatch the binoculars off her and scramble up the hatch. I hear Alice scream something out but am too busy to care./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US"I train the binoculars onto the café and a cold terror grips my heart. No one is moving. But wait I see something moving in the distance and focus the binoculars on it./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""Headsspan style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanup! Here comes Mr. Taylor." I shout out as I see his form bumbling around. There is a cacophony of noise from the bottom that I choose to ignore and stare hard at Mr. Taylor. I am dragged out of my thoughts when Newbie shoves her head through the hatch wiggling for space trying to see what happened./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""He's coming out. He's heading this way." I say frozen./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""Don't let him in!" says Alice, trying to climb in too./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""He doesn't look right." Newbie states./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""Duh, you think? I told you he tried to grab me and his eyes were all screwy." Alice says finally managing to get up into the hatch./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US"I look on horrified as I see his face. It looks bruised and greenish-brown, his eyes are blackened and screwed up tight and his mouth id wide open with blood dripping down it. "And the rest. Take a look." I add handing the binoculars over to Newbie who takes a horrorstruck look at him and hands them back./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""I don't think he remembered your sandwich." She says nervously./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US""Let me see!" Alice says trying to elbow Newbie out of the way but looses her footing and with a squeal she almost falls, saving herself by grabbing the hatch lid which crashes down with a thump./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US"Mr. Taylor's head snaps up in our direction and letting out a long groan, he stretches his hands out and heads directly towards the bus./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-US"He looks … style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span/span/p