Anarchy on Earth

~7~

I was dead.

Just kidding. Did you believe me? No? Oh well...

I THOUGHT I was dead. The stranger came to kill me... somehow. By the looks of it, he wanted to freakin' eat me... but that would be ridiculous. People didn't eat other people... unless this wasn't a person anymore.

Just as the stranger brought it's hand down near my throat, it seemed to break in front of me. It went limp, and fell to the side, lying still. It was dead.

"Oh god." I gasped, in half relief, half terror.

Miranda stood a few feet away, holding a length of broken pipe, with a jagged tip, now soaked with blood. She looked at me for a second, smiled faintly, and then threw up behind her.

"WHAT DID I JUST DO?!" She screamed.

"I'd be damned if I knew!" Henry grunted, edging out of the seat, blood trickling down the side of his face. "But it was awesome! I'm ready to cheer, and soil myself in terror!"

"Yeah, you do that." I said, tiredly. "I'm going to try to find a first aid kit at the front."

I began to notice my surroundings. As I walked briskly to the front, I noticed to my dismay, the rows of seats housing dead students, clutching their seat neighbors, or simply staring into oblivion. Somewhere butchered beyond recognizing. At the front luckily, (As lucky as you could get with this, I guess) there was no body in the bus driver's place, rather just a pile of shattered glass, ripped skin, and piled organs, which looked strangely enough like the food they served at school on Tuesdays. I tried to look away, as I grabbed the emergency kit out of the sludge of bus driver. My face felt hot. I looked out of the windshield, and saw flame. I gasped, and stepped back. The engine was on fire, the flames slowly creeping up into the bus.

"Guys!" I hollered. "Engine fire! Get out, now!"

Miranda, and Henry followed me to the door, which was blocked by a giant boulder in the field we ran into.

"Out the back." I said, jogging to the back of the bus.

Suddenly, there was a large boom, though smaller than the crash, that sent me running. A surge of heat wiped into the bus. Black smoke rolled in, thick as oatmeal... oily... substance.

I threw open the door, and ushered everyone out, but only Miranda came out. Where was Henry?

I looked back, and saw him grabbing onto a seat, coughing heavily.

"Henry!" I shouted. "Come on!"

He didn't budge.

"Henri!" I yelled.

He paused, and looked up at me.

"MY NAME ISN'T HENRI!" He yelled, clumsily jogging down the aisle.

I nearly shoved him out of the bus, as I followed.

"Hurry!" I shouted, as I hit the ground. "Take cover in the woods!"

We ran straight into the dense woods to the left of the bus. As soon as we made it in, I dived behind a tree. Another resounding boom shook the ground, as the bus I had just been standing on, exploded. Fiery debris rained all over the street, field and woods. I jerked my head to the left, as a burning piece of steering wheel whizzed by my ear.

The fire rain stopped, and I peeked my head out. The bus was nearly gone, only the floor, and part of the wall left. Oily smoke flowed up into the sky, and the echo of the great explosion still rang through the empty air. Everything was gone. My backpack, my fellow students...

"Crap!" I whispered.

"What?" Miranda asked, walking up to me and raising her eyebrows.

"My book was on the bus." I said, shaking my head.

"We have other things to worry about!" Henry said, almost laughing. "We have to get home! Warn our parents about whatever is going on!"

"Very true... but how are we going to get home?" Miranda asked.

"We walk." I said, stepping out into the road. I looked in the direction the bus had been coming.

I pointed. "We go that way."

"But I don't wanna walk." Miranda almost wined. "It's too much work. Can't we just wait for another bus to crash, and then hijack it?"

"Ummm... no." I said.

"Jokes on you guys. Ima run back to Brookevale myself. It's only 3 miles away." Henry said.

"Henry, we can't get separated anymore. Not after what just happened. You don't know if there's more of them out there."

"I don't care, to be honest. I'll meet you by the gates." He said, and took off running down the road.

"Jack?" Miranda asked.

"Yeah?"

"You should take the pipe I found." She said, as I looked over and realized she was still carrying the sharpened pole. "I can't kill any more of them... It was too much."

I nodded solemnly, and took the pipe. The blood on it was already dry and crusty it made my stomach lurch.

"Let's go. I want to see Henry when he dies." I said, sarcastically. "I just hope he doesn't manage to kill himself before we get there."

"I hope not." Miranda said seriously. "You aren't serious are you?"

"No, I'm not."

We never joked about another dying after that day.