CHAPTER 6

The engine growled a few times, and stopped.

A bright spark of light came from beneath the bus's steering wheel, and the engine roared to life.

"Yes!" both Shinji and Akito said at once.

Vash gathered up the kids, and lead them to the front door. Matt took point again, along with Vash.

Peter, Jones and Rob took the rear, making sure that no more un-godly creatures came to tear them into shreds.

The evacuation took place without incident, but Peter noticed someone was missing.

He looked behind him and saw Reena standing over the corpse of the teacher.

Peter left the group and crouched down next to her. She was sobbing silently and simply staring.

Peter knew he had to say something.

"Uh...What was his name?"

Reena looked up, and smiled weakly.

"He is.....was Mr. Crescent. He was our geography teacher. Now he's dead."

"He sacrificed himself to save you. He was a very brave man."

Reena sighed, then looked up, anger flashing on her face.

She picked up his gun, which was lying next to him, and said "Let me help. Please?"

Peter shook his head in doubt "I don't know. I think it'll be too dangerous for you. Our best bet is to get you all out the city"

"This entire CITY is dangerous! I'd rather die helping then helpless!"

Peter looked into her eyes, and saw sincerity, and also that she had those of someone past her time. She had experienced things more disturbing than most people do in their entire lifetime. Above all, he saw the desire for revenge, to destroy the people responsible for this horror in her home.

"Know what kid? You're in."

Reena's face lit up, then she bent down to grab the rest of his ammo.

She opened the cylinder, spilling the empty shells on to the floor with a metallic "clang". She loaded the new rounds in, and popped the cylinder back into place.

Reena put the rest of the ammo into her deep pants pocket.

Peter nodded, then asked "How many shots you got there?"

"About 30 or so. 26 of them are in speed loaders, and the rest are loose"

"We'll need to get you more ammunition or another gun soon, but until then, make every shot count."

"Got it." Reena said with a twinkle in her eyes

"Oh, by the way..."

"Yes?"

"How old are you?"

She tossed her hair over her shoulder and with a smile, said

"17."

Peter shook his head in amazement. For such a dire situation, Reena was perky...even...sexy!

But most of all, she was determined and focused on the task at hand.

"What are we waiting for? Let's catch up with the rest.".

Back at the front of the group, Vash took a head count, to see how many kids where there.

He figured that one bus could carry about 50 kids, but there was 152 of them.

That meant either 3 busses or 3 separate trips in one. He would rather get them all out in one trip, though, so that meant Shinji and Akito would have to steal 2 more.

Vash looked out the door windows, and heard the engine on the bus running. He also saw Shinji and Akito through the bus windows.

Like handling kids wasn't enough, there were many zombies attracted to the bus and to the school.

"Ok. Kids! We have to make it to that bus, so I need all the grade 9s to line up.

They lined up, and Vash simply picked the first 50 kids in line.

"The rest of the 9ers will go with the grade 10s, on the next load."

Reena and Peter chose that moment to show up.

Vash raised an eyebrow when he saw Reena with the gun.

Peter had that "Don't ask" look on his face, and said outloud "We'll help get these kids to the bus. You get to the jeep and cover us from there."

Vash loaded a new clip into the SAW, and Peter did the same with his MP5. Matt would cover them from the doors, along with Rob and Jones.

Vash gave the "get ready" signal to Shinji. Instead of giving the signal back, Shinji blew out the windshield, and told Akito something. Akito nodded and loaded a grenade into his launcher. Only then did Shinji give the signal.

'Ready guys?"

Vash kicked open the door, and all hell broke loose.