3- Evacuation

8:26 am

The students were silent, awaiting the words of whoever was on the other end of the microphone. It seemed like an eternity before the gravelly voice of their principal began to speak, a certain calmness in his voice that defied the situation.

"All students and staff please report to the auditorium in an orderly and timely manner. Do not go outside, teachers please do not lock your classroom doors, thank you." The PA clicked off and the students rose around Edd who found it hard to get on his feet.

He was having a hard time getting his mind around the situation. He spent a whole minute trying to piece things together when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

Edd jumped with surprise, turning to see the face of Ed, "C'mon, Double-D, we gotta go" he said this with a smile but he still looked worried. Edd nodded and stood to follow him out of the room.

Mrs. Lealman followed behind them as they entered the crowded hallway. The students surrounding them talked excitedly amongst themselves. None of them knew what had happened or why they had been called for an emergency assembly.

Ed and Edd spotted Eddy among the crowd around the auditorium doors. They all somehow found seats together, the entire time Edd had Eddy in his ear, pestering him with questions. He was still suffering from temporary hearing loss. He couldn't take in anything that was happening around him. The entire walk to the auditorium was a blur. He faintly remembered meeting up with the others, and before he knew it they were sitting in the noisy pews surrounding the stage.

A few minutes later, the principal appeared on the stage. He centered himself behind a podium and raised his large hands as he asked for quiet. It took a moment but soon the entire room had fallen silent. He began to speak, a nervous quiver coming through his usually strong voice, "We have just been notified that there is an emergency situation." He continued to speak, reading off a sheet in front of him. He told the students about the viral outbreak and what had recently happened in some parts of the city. Apparently there had been more instances such as those that they had witnessed in class earlier, some of them which seemed worse.

"The entire student body will be evacuated" He continued, "All students please make your way to the pick-up zones which include the cafeteria, the gymnasium, and the main foyer. We will be traveling to a secured location by bus. Please exit in an orderly manner and follow teacher instructions." With that, he walked off the stage as the students began talking loudly, most sounding panicked and frightened.

It was a few minutes later that the teachers began ushering everyone out of the auditorium. Edd stood up and walked among the other kids from the Cul-De-Sac towards the main foyer. He looked around, Jimmy was holding Sarah's hand tightly, and Johnny was talking excited with Rolf who also seemed unfazed. Kevin was walking with his arm around Nazz who had her arm wrapped around his waist.

A few minutes later they reached the foyer. It had large windows which reached from the ground to the ceiling. The lights were bright in comparison to the dark, gloomy atmosphere outside. There was a mist spread over the ground making it hard to see the houses across the street. There were three busses outside the front doors, waiting to take them to safety. They were accompanied by six police cars, two to guide each bus.

The teachers who were with them ushered the students one by one onto the busses. Edd was still dazed by the situation and it took all of his mental power just to keep his feet moving and his breath steady. He was the last of the group to step onto the bus. Theirs was comparatively less crowded than the other two busses so it was easy to find a seat next to Ed and Eddy.

Theirs was the last bus to pull away from the school. As they drove through the fog, the mood became a bit lighter. Edd finally had a chance to process the past hour. As he watched the school disappear into the mist behind them, he collected his thoughts. Was it possible that he could be simply dreaming all of this? No. No matter how improbable it all was, it was happening. All he could do now was take things as they came.

"So, Double-D" said a voice behind him. It was Nazz, "What do you think is gonna happen now? I mean, you're smart. You know what the task force would do in this sort of situation, right?" she asked, her eyes pleading for him to give a comforting answer. The other students around them listened with anticipation, waiting to hear Edd's reply.

"Well," he began, almost not knowing what to say, "First they'll take us to a secured location, some place large and out of the city. My guess would be the stadium that is out towards Lemon Brooke." He continued. As he spoke, he felt that it may be true; the stadium was gigantic and would be more than enough to house many of the residents of Peach creek temporarily. "Then from there we just wait until either the whole thing blows over, or the task force gets the situation under control."

Nazz and the others seemed slightly relieved; all they really needed was some assurance that they would be ok. She smiled at him and turned to continue talking to one of her friends who was sitting next to her.

Eddy turned to Edd, "Do you really think that's where we're headed?" he asked.

"Well sure," Edd replied, "It's the only logical thing I think they would do." In reality, he had no idea what would happen next, in fact he wasn't really even sure what was going on at the moment. There was just too much to comprehend at the moment, but it was no use worrying the others.

Edd looked around; there were fifteen students on their bus and two teachers. He had never expected that he would be in this sort of situation with any of these people. In fact, he had never expected to be in a situation like this at all. He almost had to laugh, 'how things can change in only a few short hours' he thought to himself as he leaned his head on the window and looked into the fog outside.

The bus made its way through the empty streets of Peach Creek. There was a single car parked haphazardly here and there, but other than that, it seemed as if the evacuation had gone smoothly. It gave Ed a little comfort knowing that at least his friends' families were safe. He didn't worry much about his own, partly because he was confident that they would be able to take care of themselves, and partly because he was scared to think about something happening to them.

After about fifteen minutes, the bus reached the outskirts of town and they were headed down the main road that lead to Lemon Brooke, a larger nearby town. The sides of the narrow road were lined with trees, all with sparse red, orange and yellow leaves. The ride got slightly bumpier as they transferred from the smooth pavement to dirt which had been made loose by the persistent rain. The chatter died down a bit as there was less and less to talk about. Most of the students simply went to gazing out the windows at the low hanging fog outside.

"Look Double-D! It's the swamp man from 'Green Lagoon'!" shouted Ed loudly as he pointed out the window excitedly. A few of the kids jumped at the sudden noise, the rest remained either chatting lightly or gazing absentmindedly out the window. They were used to Ed's outbursts.

Edd looked out the window following Ed's finger. There was nothing discernible among the fog and trees except the occasional bush or fallen log.

"Ed, there's nothing out there" Edd said, smiling as he patted Ed gently on the shoulder

Eddy butted in "Stop trying to scare everyone, Lumpy. It ain't workin'" He flicked Ed on the forehead making an audible thunk, "You need to lay off the monster junk" he added with a chuckle.

"Ouch, Eddy!" said Ed, rubbing his forehead vigorously "That hurt!"

Edd laughed a little, "Eddy's probably right, Ed. You should really…" but he was cut off mid-sentence by a scream coming from the front of the bus.

He quickly stood, turning his attention to the front windshield just in time to see… something rush at the police car ahead of them. It crashed into the back end, pushing it into a wild swerve. Finally the cruiser flipped, tumbling across the pavement several times before it flew at the front of the bus. The bus driver, having little time to react turned sharply to the right. The bus fishtailed tossing everyone aboard from side to side. Edd tried to hold onto one of the seats but it was no use.

After what seemed like ages, the center of gravity shifted and with an earsplitting grind the bus landed on its side and scraped several yards across the pavement. Edd was tossed to the side, smashing his head on a window.

"Edd? Hey, Double-D? Are you okay?" Edd could hear the voice of Johnny from far away. He gritted his teeth. Why was Johnny there? And what was wrong with his head? Disoriented, he opened his eyes which seemed to be weighed down by several pounds.

Johnny and Eddy's faces came into focus after a few seconds. Johnny had a gash on his cheek below his right eye, Eddy had blood dripping from his lip down onto his chin. "What happened?" Edd managed to choke out. His throat was dry and his head was pounding with every word he spoke.

"Something made us crash," Said Eddy as he held out his hand. Edd took it was eddy pulled him to his feet.

"The bus is totaled, we need to figure out what to do" said Johnny as he clutched plank to his chest. Even Plank had managed to sustain some injuries, he had a split half way up the board and his right eye was smudged.

Edd glanced around, "How many survivors are there?" he asked, almost afraid to know the answer.

"There're only eleven of us" responded Nazz from the front of the bus. She had gotten the first aid kit and was wrapping gauze around the wrist of a girl that Edd had only seen a few times around school. Her name was Lindsay; she was a cheerleader and head of many of the committees around school.

He glanced around at the other survivors, Kevin, Ed, Sarah, jimmy, Rolf, and a girl named Jamie, none of which seemed too injured. He was able to look out the back of the bus towards the road; there was a lone patrol van outside, the one that had been the tail end of their convoy.

"Has anyone tried the radio?" Edd asked.

"It doesn't work anymore" responded jimmy who was sitting on the floor, or rather, the side of the bus. "It was only static when we tried earlier but now it doesn't even turn on" he continued.

Edd looked back at the van outside, a plan was quickly forming in his head. "We have to get to that van" he stated, turning to the others.

Kevin stood up quickly, "Go outside? You mean where that thing is? We all saw it, what if it's still out there?" he said, glaring at Edd as he did so.

"It's either get to that car or die in here" said Edd, glaring back. Kevin seemed a little less willing to stand his ground after Edd had pointed this out. His face loosened up a bit and his eyes grew less narrow.

Sarah stood up quickly, "Then let's go!" she said loudly. She started towards the door but Ed stopped her.

"No, I'll go. What if you get hurt baby sister?" said Ed with a look of concern on his face.

"Ed's right, Sarah, we can't just make a run for it. What if that thing's still out there?" said Edd. He thought a moment, "I'll go out, get the car and bring it to the door so you can all get in quickly. Then we'll go from there." He reached for the red handle that opened the back door to the bus.

"Be careful, Double-D" said Nazz from the front. Edd nodded and stepped out at Eddy and Ed held up the heavy swinging door.

Edd sprinted from the nearly thirty yards to the van, the rain pelting him as he searched back and forth, looking out for whatever had attacked them. He nearly slipped on the slick pavement but regained his balance quickly and continued.

As he rounded the back of the van he saw that the door had been left open. Glancing over his shoulder he walked to the door and jumped in the seat. Luckily the keys were still in the ignition, there was blood splattered all over the steering wheel and dash board. Evidently whatever it was that had been there earlier had come back for the officer.

Edd started the van and backed it up to the end of the bus. He glanced at the seat to the right of him and saw a 9mm handgun. He picked it up; still loaded and working. Perfect! He thought excitedly as he shoved it in his jacket pocket.

He jumped out of the driver's side and opened the two back doors for everyone. Ed and Eddy held the escape door open as the other eight climbed out and jumped into the open van. Once everyone was safely inside he closed the doors tightly and quickly turned to walk towards the driver's seat.

It was at that moment when he heard two distinct growls from directly behind him. He spun around to face two dogs, their breeds unrecognizable because of the rotting flesh that covered their emaciated bodies. It seemed to be melting away, falling to the ground in small chunks that made an audible splat on the wet street. Blood and water dripped from their mouths, which were baring sharp white teeth.

It was at this moment that Eddy glanced out the window, "Holy shit!" he shouted in surprise. Everyone turned at his voice and saw Edd, cornered by the two rotting beasts.

"He's going to be killed!" Nazz shouted as she jumped up. That's when the dogs jumped toward Edd, their gaping maws ready to latch onto his body.

Edd quickly whipped out the 9mm and fired two rounds.