Thursday, June 21, 2001 Salt Lake City, UT 7:06 PM.

The morning hours melted into afternoon and with it their hopes of an easy escape from the city. While many of the residential and business districts were fairly free of abandon cars, most of the major traffic arteries, as well as every freeway exit or entrance in the city were so crammed with wrecked or abandon vehicles that they were impassable, especially for a school bus. To make matters worse the number of zombies roaming the streets had increased tenfold in just a few days and were nearly everywhere in the city. Rarely did they make their way through some neighborhood without seeing several zombies scattered down the street, wandering aimlessly up and down from yard to yard. And whenever the bus passed the zombies it drew their attention, and the zombies began to stumble awkwardly after them. As for those that got in their way, the bus steamrolled them like bowling pins, just like Matt said.

The summer heat also added to their discomfort. By noon the inside of the bus was stifling. By four o'clock, it was sweltering. They had opened all the windows on the bus, but the breeze was tinged with a sweetly sour aroma of decay. Their single bright light was the C/B radio, set on a frequency where a live newscast was ordering the evacuation of Salt Lake City. There were emergency relief stations located at the University of Utah Hospital Campus, The Salt Lake International Airport, Hill Air Force Base, and Fort Douglas. In a voice that sounded borderline hysterical, the announcer reported of fires raging uncontrollably across the Wasatch Front. That power was off in over half of the city, and the rest expected to fail within a week's time. The reporter cleared his throat and also reported that rioting and looting was widespread. And finally, as if an after thought, it was confirmed that the recently dead were returning to life and attacking and devouring the living.

The afternoon became evening, and the temperature cooled. They had rotated drivers, and now Frank was seated behind the wheel once again. The live report on the radio was gone and now it repeated the same EBS information they had heard on the radio down in the shelter. Sharon slept a few seats back, curled into a ball. Matt and David passed a Gameboy back and forth, while Susan sat at the back of the bus, staring out the window. Zack rode shotgun, standing in the stairwell with his back against the handrail.

"I think we're beating a dead horse." Frank said wearily. "If we want out of this city, were going to have to ditch the bus."

"There has to be a way." Zack said.

"The only way is through one of the rescue stations. And the military will be there."

"You know they will take our guns." Matt said from behind.

Frank looked at the instruments disapprovingly. "We're practically on fumes. Twenty more minutes and we'll be pushing this bus."

"Well then that should be our first priority. Find someplace to refuel."

"I knew we should have left with Adam and Kelly." Zack said. Everyone fell silent again.

Matt looked to the back of the bus where Susan stared out the window, her eyes haunted. He walked back there and sat beside her.

"How you doing?"

"About as good as could be expected I suppose." her voice was flat, and her eyes never left the window.

"I know the situation looks pretty bad."

"Bad? It's totally fucked!" She said, her voice suddenly angry.

"You're right." Matt said with a wry chuckle. "It is pretty fucked. But once we get out of the city and up to our friends property, everything will be ok." He wondered if he was trying to convince her or himself?

"Whatever." she said. "Don't you think there will be zombies up in the mountains? I mean, everybody left the city, and a whole bunch them must have went up into the mountains." This was the most she had talked since they had fled the house after the firefight with her ex-boyfriend Benny.

"Probably, but there won't be as many of them. And the rough terrain will make it hard for them to get around. We can handle them easily." Now he knew he was trying to convince himself...

It took them half an hour, which was ten minutes longer than Frank had given them, but they finally found a gas station that wasn't clogged with abandoned traffic or swarming with zombies. As they pulled into the dark lot, the headlights illuminated five zombies lurking about.

"I sure hope the power is on." Zack said.

Frank looked about. "The street lights are on." He pulled the bus into a refueling slot, but left the engine running. In the side mirror, he could see the first zombie bump into the side of the bus.

"What do you guys think?" asked Zack.

"The lights on the pump are off. I don't think they have power." Frank said. "We're going to have to go inside and turn them on." In the side mirror he could see the zombie moving toward the bus door. Another one appeared behind it.

"Open the door Frank." Matt said, shouldering his rifle. Frank pulled the lever and the double doors swung open. Matt stepped outside, aiming at the first zombie; a gangly, teenaged boy wearing blue jeans and nothing else. His naked torso looked brutally mauled. It was six feet away when he put a bullet through its brain. It crumpled silently and he took aim and killed the second one.

Zack joined him outside the bus. "Close the door. We'll go inside and turn on the pumps."

They ran across the dark lot to the main building. The door was locked, but Matt put a round through the lock and the door opened.

"Definitely a habit." Zack muttered and turned on his flashlight. They followed the beam behind the counter.

"Here are the pump controls." Matt said. "But I don't see a power switch."

Zack swung the beam around. "Here's a door."

Matt held his rifle ready while Zack stood to the side and swung the door open, aiming the flashlight beam inside.

"Clear." Matt said after a moment. They stepped inside to a small room. There was a desk with a floor safe beneath it, a large ice machine for the fountain machines, and a large gray power box. A small digital clock plugged into the wall sat on the desk, reading 9:35 PM.

"Jackpot. Look at the clock, we still got power." Zack said smugly. He scanned the flashlight around the door until he found a light switch. He flipped it and a small bulb above lit up.

"You take care of the pumps. I'm dying for a candy bar." Matt exited the office, plucking the flashlight from Zack's hand. Zack opened the electrical panel and studied it a moment before flipping the breakers for the pumps.

Matt had unwrapped a candy bar and was eating it and was now busy loading a plastic bag with candy and chips. "I'm so sick of Spam and sardines. After we gas up the bus were going to have to clean this place out for food."

"Agreed." Zack was examining the pump controls. He pushed a few buttons. "That should do it. I think we-"

"Oh shit!" Matt's exclamation cut Zack off. He looked up to see an old Army jeep pulling into the station behind the bus.

"Get down." Zack said, ducking below the counter. Despite the light in the office, the interior of the station was still dark, and there was a good chance they hadn't been seen. He crawled from behind the counter to join Matt near the door.

"We're screwed." Matt hissed.

"We have to stay cool Matt. We have to stay cool. You saw what they did to the Clancy's." The memory was still fresh in both their minds.

"I hope Frank doesn't try anything stupid..."

"Shit." Frank muttered as he watched the jeep roll up on the driver's side. A spotlight attached to the driver's door shone into the bus.

"Put your weapons down!" someone barked from the jeep.

Frank opened the door as the jeep came to a halt beside them. Three soldiers wearing camouflage fatigues and helmets and carrying M-16s exited the jeep. The first one hurried up the steps as Frank stood from behind the wheel and opened his mouth to speak, but before he could utter a word the butt of the soldier's rifle caught him in the stomach.

"Sit down!" the man screamed, shoving Frank back across the steering wheel.

"What are you doing?" David asked, but the soldier turned and backhanded him across the mouth, sending him sprawling.

"Leave your hands off my boy!" Frank lurched at the soldier, grabbing his shoulders. But a second soldier had entered the bus, and he clubbed Frank across the back of the head. Frank fell aside, dazed. The first soldier turned around and kicked him in the chest. He fell back against the stairs and tumbled out of the bus. David charged with a scream but the soldier drove the butt of his rifle into his stomach.

Frank fell face first on the cold pavement and was lifted to his feet by two more soldiers.

"Do-don't hurt my f-f-family." he gasped weakly.

"Shut up motherfucker!" one of the soldiers punched him in the stomach while the other held him up on his feet.

"What are you are doing?" Sharon screamed at the top of her lungs. Her eyes were wide, her teeth bared, her hands in claws. She could take no more and lunged at the nearest soldier. But he just smiled and delivered a solid punch directly to Sharon's chin. She crumpled to the floor of the bus, out cold.

Susan cringed in shock.

"Well, well," smiled the first soldier. "Hey Chet," he called back to the second soldier. "Look what we have here." Chet looked over his shoulder where Susan huddled in fright.

"Party time." he said with a laugh...

"I can't believe this is happening." Matt said from inside the store.

"We have to stop them." Zack said.

"Are you crazy? As soon as we walk out there they will shoot us!"

"We can't let them kill Frank."

"Do you want to go out there?"

"No. But I can't sit by and watch them beat Frank to death." Zack looked into the bus, where he could see Susan wrestling with the two soldiers. He watched in disgust as they ripped her blouse down the middle. When she tried to fight back, one of them punched her in the stomach. She crumpled out of view. The two soldiers were laughing at one another.

"They are going to rape Sharon and Susan." Zack said. Without another word he stood and raised his rifle to his shoulder and walked out of the gas station.

"Fuck!" exclaimed Matt, right behind him.

"ENOUGH!" Zack screamed, training the barrel of his rifle on the head of the soldier who was beating Frank. The soldiers turned, startled. "Let him go right now!"

The soldiers did not comply. Matt had fanned wide to the left, his gun trained towards the bus.

"I said right now!" Zack walked towards the bus, looking the soldier in the eye. "Or I put this right through your brain." The man held his eye for a long moment, his gaze hard, but he saw Zack was dead serious.

"Let him go Sam." He said over his shoulder. The soldier holding Frank released him, and he slumped to the pavement.

"Hands up." Zack said. He was now less than ten feet away from the nearest soldier. "Both of you." The two soldiers raised their hands.

"You fucked up real bad my friend." the first soldier said, his voice full of bravado.

"No you're the one who fucked up." Zack said. "Call your boys out of the bus."

"No."

"I'm warning you I will shoot you dead where you stand if you don't call your boys out of the bus."

"You can't possibly kill us all before we reach our guns." the man said.

"No but I can damn sure kill you. Now don't fuck with me! Call them out of the bus."

Inside the bus, both soldiers had gone to the floor with Susan, and her muffled screams of fright could be heard among their bawdy laughter.

"Don't do it Joe." Sam said, slowly lowering his hands. "They're just going to kill us anyway."

"No we're not." Zack said. "We just want to get some gas and get out of here. Now keep your hands up." He switched his aim between the two soldiers.

"If you go for that gun, you die." Matt said, moving in closer, aiming at Sam.

"Chet! Don!" Sam called into the bus. "We got some trouble out here!" The two soldiers popped up into view.

"What is it? We're kind of in the middle of something." called one, then he saw Matt though one of the side windows.

"Get the fuck away from her! Now!" Matt screamed, aiming his gun at the soldier through the bus window.

"Down!" said the soldier on the bus, and both of them disappeared from view.

"Watch it!" Matt exclaimed. "On the bus!"

"Face down! On the ground!" Zack screamed at the soldiers who stood outside the bus.

"Fuck you!" screamed Sam, and dodged to his right around the front of the bus, un-slinging his M-16.

The soldier who had been beating Frank fumbled for his rifle, but before it was even off his shoulder Zack put a bullet through his chest. He fell back over Frank, gurgling bloody foam as he went through his final motions.

One of the soldiers in the bus popped into view, M-16 in hand. He squeezed a three round burst through the window at Matt, but it passed harmlessly to his right. Matt ducked his head, moving for cover behind the bus.

Bullets whizzed by Zack's feet, and he realized that the soldier who had ducked around the front end was shooting underneath the bus.

Frank pulled himself painfully to his knees, reaching for the dead soldiers M-16. He heard gunfire coming from inside the bus.

My Family!

He lurched to his feet and entered the bus to see one of the soldiers crouched in the center of the aisle, rifle trained out a driver's side window. The other soldier was moving in a crouch towards the rear of the bus. Sharon lay unconscious on the floor. Susan lay beside her, her blouse and bra hanging in torn rags at her sides. David was crumpled on the ground underneath a seat. The nearest soldier looked at Frank, eyes wide with terror. He began to swing his gun around but Frank already had a bead on him.

"Bastards!" Frank screamed, squeezing the trigger of the M-16. A three round burst caught the soldier just below the throat, and he fell back, firing into the ceiling. The soldier in the rear of the bus spun around, and Frank fired. The rounds hit the soldier in the shoulder, and he fell back against the rear door. He lifted his M-16 weakly in one hand, and let loose a burst just as Frank fired again. The soldiers face exploded with the impact of the heavy bullets, but his own aim had been true and Frank's chest burst as the M-16 rounds tore it to shreds. Frank crashed back against the windshield, before falling down the steps once again...

Zack popped around the front of the bus to find the soldier had rolled out from underneath and was already rising to his feet. Worse yet, he was drawing a bead on him! Zack flung himself back around the front end, but not before hearing the soldier fire. He felt an impact like a sledgehammer in his left arm and side, and then he was flat on the pavement, fighting for breath as the white-hot fire of a bullet burned through him.

Matt came around behind the bus and saw the soldier fire at Zack as he leapt for cover. Matt raised his rifle and shot him between the shoulder blades. He let out a gurgle of pain and fell face first on the pavement. Matt spun around, adrenalin pumping, heart pounding, lungs gasping, ready for the next target. His ears were ringing from the gunfire, but he saw a couple of zombies walking in from the far end of the lot. He targeted them one at a time. His hands were shaking, and it took him five rounds to hit them both through the head. He spun around, looking for more...but there were none.

After several long moments, he slowly began to come out of his daze, and he became aware of the bodies lying around him. He spotted Frank lying halfway out of the bus, feebly trying to pull his broken body off the stairs and to the ground. Matt dropped his rifle and pulled Frank out of the bus, rolling him onto his back. Blood was pumping from Frank's ruined chest, and a thick dark stream of blood ran from his mouth, covering his face in thick rivulets. His eyes were wide, unfocused.

"Frank." Matt sobbed, unable to peel his eyes away from Frank's ruined chest. Franks hand raised and gripped his shoulder.

"T-t-take care of m-m-m-fam--!" he broke into a liquid cough and vomited a thick spray of blood. His hand gripped Matt's shoulder painfully tight, then loosened ever so slowly as Frank faded into death.

Matt hung his head. When he raised his face, his eyes were tear stained and his face full of rage.

"GODDAMN YOU! GOD DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL!" he screamed at the night sky. As he fought back the tears he made a promise to Frank; A promise to see his family to safety. He pulled himself away from Frank's body. David stood in the bus door, looking down in horror at his father's mangled corpse.

"Dad?" he said, not wanting to believe his own eyes. "DAD!" he screamed, falling to his knees beside his father's body.