"Are they out there?" Tracy whispered fearfully, clutching her cell phone, knowing how important it was to this somewhat insane plan that Nick had cooked up in about two minutes flat. Something about leaving the bus and running inside to retrieve some guns, or something. She hadn't caught much of it.

"Chad, turn the bus off," Nick said, looking through the main window of the bus, and seeming to ignore Tracy's question completely. He was far too busy scouring the area for any of the horrific creatures.

She wondered if he had even heard her.

Chad complied to Nick's request, and turned the bus key causing the bus to shudder into silence. It sounded almost like it was dying

A few dead quiet moments passed, as the six teens shot glances around this seemingly silent and harmless neighborhood; rows of houses that looked almost exactly alike.

Typical American suburbia.

Only... there wasn't any people enjoying the day. No one running, no children playing out in front of their homes, no one mowing their lawns, or keeping the plants on their property under control.

Nothing. Just silence. A now non-typical American suburbia.

Or was it the new typical?

What was happening?

"I don't see anything, man," Chad said from his position at the driver's seat. Somehow, Chad had managed to do quite well in the position as driver. No one really knew quite how Chad knew how to drive a bus, but no on really complained. He was just winging it, as far as anyone could tell. It was a miracle that he hadn't crashed into anything.

Nick didn't respond to Chad's remark, but instead addressed the group as a whole. "Okay, everyone with a backpack or bag, please empty it," he said leading by example as he wipped his black backpack off, opened it, and dug the contents out. They needed to carry the things they were going to go grab in something, and Nick figured that the various bags would do the job quite nicely.

It took several seconds for the order to sink in.

Chad was first to react, as he picked up his yellow backpack from the floor near the driver's seat, where he had yanked it off before jumping back into the driver's seat of the bus.

Three minutes later, all bags were empty, and the contents, being textbooks and other school supplies, which were now useless, were discarded to the back of the bus, well out of the way, as not to get in the way of the group.

Nick was deep in thought, mentally getting himself ready. He pictured the crazed people biting the normal ones, and a thought occurred to him: Protection against bites.

"Mike, put your sweatshirt on." Nick requested of his huge friend.

"Why?" Mike shot back., "I move faster without it. I don't want it catching on shit."

"These things, as far as I can tell, try to bite you and rip you to fuckin' pieces, Mike," Nick explained, "The sweatshirt will act like an armor, almost. These things seem to bite, remember?"

Mike stared at Nick for a few moments. "Yeah, I guess..."

"And what if they are zombies?" Nick asked.

Everyone in the bus knew the answer to that one, but no one voiced it. If they were zombies, and they bit, then wouldn't people who got bit change into them? That was the theory, anyway.

"Exactly," Nick said, answering the silence. "Sweatshirts and other heavy clothing will help protect us from shit like that... Let's just... Let's just assume the worst, and try to armor up as much as possible."

It didn't take any more convincing for Mike to pull his pewter sweatshirt from his shoulders, and put it on. "I hope you're wrong," he said to Nick.

"Me, too," Nick agreed.

"We still don't know exactly what they are, dude," Chad said.

"True, but do you really wanna take chances?" Nick shot back. He certainly didn't want to take any risks.

"Fuck no," Chad muttered.

Nick nodded, "Alright..." what would the next best move be? Oh. Looking around. "Everyone look around again. If any of them followed us, or heard the noise from the bus, they should be here by now," Nick said, leading once again by example and looking around, trying to spot any movement at all.

After about thirty seconds of very intent searching, the group couldn't spot a single one of the crazed people. Or anything else moving for that matter.

"Right," Nick muttered. "You ready, Mike?" he asked, not looking at his comrade, but rather at his comrade's house, a house that looked much like any other here.

"Yeah," Mike responded.

"Kay, grab that bag, please," Nick said first pointing to Chad's now empty obnoxious yellow backpack, and then slinging on his own now empty pack.

Mike grabbed the yellow pack, and put it on, having already figured out why Nick wanted to bring the two bags with them.

"Alright, everyone stay down and don't draw any attention to this bus, kay?" Nick asked the four that would remain behind.

The three girls nodded, and Chad said "Alright," with a nod of his head.

"I'll call you when we're ready to leave the house," Nick said, glancing at Tracy, "Then, you'll all need to look around again, and make sure that none of those things have snuck up and are waiting for us."

"You got it, man," Chad said nervously.

Nick paused for a moment looking the group over. What if something happened to Mike and him? He didn't really want to think about being torn apart somewhere and leaving the others in a bus not knowing what had happened to him.

But in case that did happen...

"If we don't make it back, listen to Chad..." Nick said quietly. "Chad, it's your job to keep everyone safe... Alright, Mike. Let's go." Nick didn't even give his best friend enough time to answer.

Mike then pulled a key from his pocket, and put it in his mouth, biting down hard on the small metal object, then he opened the bus doors, as Nick reached into his pocket and pulled out the black cylinder that was the only thing that could be considered an actual weapon that any of the six teens currently possessed.

"Expect a call," Nick said to Tracy, who was still clutching her phone as if her very life depended on in.

Then they were gone, Nick was out first, whipping the baton out to it's full length as he exited the bus, and Mike following right on his heals; both boys in full sprint.

Chad slammed the bus door shut, and hunkered down in the space between the door and the drivers seat. There was plenty of room there.

It was only a few moments after the guys left, when they were completely lost to sight.

Silence took over in the bus, as the four teens waited.

"He's crazy," Ashley said softly. "He's actually fucking insane."

"Who?" Chad asked, confused.

"You fucking friend. He's a psycho!" She nearly screamed.

"Shut up, shut up!" Chad whispered urgently, trying to quiet the near hysterical girl, while Tracy and Ali watched on. They were spectators who couldn't really do anything.

"No!" Ashley retorted. "You saw what he did to that man! He killed him, and he didn't even wait, he just killed him! He doesn't even care that he just killed someone!"

"No, he does care," Chad hissed. Where was this girl getting these ideas? "You don't know him well enough to know what he's like, okay?" Chad said, getting annoyed and slightly frightened of what could come running if Ashley got too loud. "And remember what that man tried to do to you? He was gonna kill you! Nick saved your fucking life!"

Ashley did remember, but she didn't care. She had to vent at someone, and Chad was right there. "No, fuck you!" She almost screamed, "You're friends with him! He even carries a weapon with him!" Ashley was starting to come to the point of freaking out, when the person who is doing the freaking out makes no sense.

Chad shot out of his crouched position, and he grabbed Ashley's arms pinning them to her seat in one clean move. He then brought his face right next to hers, and brought her eye to eye with him.

The sudden movement and subsequent pinning of Ashley left all three girls, Ashley included, completely paralyzed.

"Now you fucking listen to me and for Christ sake, shut the fuck up!" Chad nearly snarled somehow keeping his voice level and under control.

Chad waited, making sure a now teary-eyed, blonde-haired Ashley had indeed stopped talking. When he received no reply, he started talking in a very low voice and even though his voice was low, Ashley heard very clearly everything he said.

"Alright, Nick has always fucking been like that, okay?" Chad said. It was true. Nick had always seemed to keep his cool, no matter what. Chad almost instantly came up with an example. "One time when we were eight or nine, I mean little fucking kids, we were playing on the playground at our school," Chad began, vividly remembering this day. He didn't for one instant loosen his grip on Ashley. He didn't need her losing it again, and this seemed to be a good way to keep her quiet.

"And a kid fell off of the monkey bars," Chad continued, his memory taking him over seven years back, "and he broke his arm, and it pierced right through his skin. The bone pierced through his fucking skin like a fucking spear or something. Nick didn't even say anything... He told me to follow him and he calmly walked right over to that screaming kid, grabbed him, asked me to help, and we carried him inside the school." Chad took a breath, "A teacher called an ambulance. Nick stayed with that kid until the ambulance came to pick him up. Even when the teachers told him to leave, he didn't."

He finally broke eye contact with Ashley, and glanced at Tracy, who was sitting to Ashley's right, and then Ali, who was sitting across the narrow walkway of the bus on her left. He was making absolutely sure both other girls were paying full attention. He already knew Ashley was.

Chad looked back at Ashley and continued "He didn't freak out at all. Every other kid there was in tears, or at least didn't know what to do. I would have been just like that, but he just motioned me over, without even blinking, and we ended up being the only kids who did anything."

Chad paused, then remembered a different event. "Another time, maybe two years ago, we were in town, walking to go get some ice cream or some fuckin' thing, and this woman was hit by a truck. A hit and run. Driver never stopped, he just kept on going. She was beat up real bad. I mean real fuckin' bad. The truck actually ran her over. Broke most everything inside her."

He paused again, reflecting. "We were the first ones to get to her. Nick ran over to her, and I followed. That woman knew she wasn't going to make it, and she spent the rest of the time talking to us. Saying her dying words to us."

He trailed off, but started up again several moments later, "He didn't freak out then either. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen him lose focus, no matter what was going on... And you know what? When he's like that it's almost contagious. I get like that, too. I know it's scary to not have any emotion like that, but Nick's like that. It's who he is. It's scares me sometimes actually...

Chad finished his speech, not knowing what else to say, and he slowly let go of a now silent Ashley, and retreated to his original spot on the floor.

No one spoke for a moment, then Ali said "That hit and run, I heard about that on the news. Those kids were you..?"

"Yeah..." Chad said softly, staring off into the past. "That was us... Look, I don't know why he's like that, but it's rare when he is. he can just... keep control of his emotions, or soemthing... I dunno..."

None of the girls responded.

Chad sighed "Anyway," he said, thinking of the Nick's and Mike's current mission for Mike's dad's firearms. He hoped everything was going swimmingly in there.

At least more so then out here.

"So, do you guys know anything about guns?" Ali spoke up. She must have been thinking about Nick and Mike as well.

"Yeah, I'd say so. At least enough to get by," Chad said, glad to have a shot at making small talk. "Nick's dad's a cop, actually, so it's in his family, that's for sure. Mike's got a couple. Nothing too fancy. Me and Nick have gone shooting with Mike a couple of times. And my dad used to own a bunch we lived in Alaska. He's only got a .22 rifle now, but still..." Chad paused, "Anyway, we may need them... I dunno what the fuck's going on, but I'd just like to be prepared."

"You guys are all fucking crazy," Ashley murmured, looking at the floor. Why the fuck was she saying shit like that? Chad wondered. She was probably just dealing with what had happened back at the school, so he wasn't too mad at her.

"Yeah, maybe we are," he said, not at all believing it.

"But hey. That'll fuckin' pay off."