Doomsday

The bus rumbled as it drove over the bumpy road to Tucson from Phoenix. Neither of them could have anticipated their parents' decision to send them back to Tucson for no reason. It was something that appalled them even now. They were being sent to live with their Uncle Tatum, but for a reason that neither of them knew.

They had been on the bus for just over a day, and had finally arrived in Tucson, happy to be getting off the bus soon. Little did they know that they would be getting off the bus, just not in the way they expected.

Kirsten was playing with her stuffed bear next to him. She was mumbling to herself softly, so Alan couldn't hear.

"Hey, Kirsten." he called. She looked up at him.

"Mm?"

"We're almost there. You hungry?" he asked her. The girl pouted and continued playing with her bear.

"A little." Alan pulled out a small chocolate candy and handed it to her. As soon as the treat entered her line of vision, her eyes nearly glazed over. She reached over to grab it, only to realize that it was just out of her reach, with her fingers barely grazing it.

"Mmnnngg...." she groaned in discontent, attempting to reach out and grab it anyway. Eventually, she put her feet up on the seat to get more reach, but Alan then pulled the candy away just out of her reach again.

"Come on, you can have it, so it's fine." he said with a smile. Kirsten pouted and crouched on her hands and feet. Alan could clearly see that she was ready to pounce.

"Oh no you don't-" Kirsten jumped at him, landed squarely in his lap. She grabbed madly at the chocolate, but Alan kept it out of her reach skillfully.

"Gimme!"
"Hahaha, just take it!"
"Stop being a meanie!"

Their little struggle ended when Alan received a phone call. He handed Kirsten the candy, much to her delight.

"Who's that?" asked Kirsten as she bit into her chocolate.

"It's probably Evan. He said he'd call me earlier today." said Alan before picking up the phone.

"Dude, are you seeing this?" asked his friend over the phone.

"Seeing what?"

"It's all over the news man, how are you not seeing this?" Alan looked over at Kirsten, who gave him a questioning stare.

"Kirsten and I are still on the bus. What am I not seeing?" he asked.

"Here, I'll email you an article. Read it and call me back."

"Wait, I-" Evan hung up on Alan, who sighed at the antics of his long time friend.

I bet it's something about an apocalypse. Yep, gotta be. he thought as he went to his emails. There sat a new email titled: Check Out This Article on the Apocalypse from doomsday.org . Came Out Today!

Called it. Alan sighed and selected the email.

"There have been numerous rumors circulating among citizens of the U.S. that the apocalypse is upon us. Reports from remote areas of the United States, including places located in as far as Washington and Arizona, have witness accounts of the dead returning to life and attacking people. The government has seemingly done their best to keep this information from being released to the public, but some information was leaked out this afternoon. It explains how fifteen people were injured just this morning by "a crazed man that was thought to be dead". An interview with a witness revealed that the man had various fresh wounds on him in fatal areas, implying that before he attacked, he had been dead just moments ago. What could this mean for the state of the world? Well, if you live in these states, be sure to watch out for updates in the future."
The article then proceeded to list a large number of states in the U.S., Arizona being included. When Alan finished reading the article, he called Evan again.

"Well?"

"So what, should I be conserving food and water? We're on our way to meet up with our uncle, so does that mean I should call him and have him fill his sink and tub with water in case it goes out?" Alan asked sarcastically.

"I'm not sure, but come on! This could be the first signs of the apocalypse!"

"If it's true, that is."

"Stop being such a debby-downer, Al. Aren't you excited?!"

"I think you're the only one who'd get excited at the prospect of an apocalypse. Is this seriously happening?"

"Honestly, I doubt it. These articles pop up all over the place on the deep web, so maybe it's not that reliable."

"You got that from the deep web?!" Alan asked, alarmed. Kirsten let out a short squeal of surprise and looked at him worriedly.

"Well duh. Where else can you get information like this that's not available publicly?" Alan massaged his temples for a moment before speaking again.

".....anyway, why did you waste my time with this if you didn't even believe it yourself?"

"I'm just giving you a heads up, Al. There's no guarantee that this is 100% accurate, but you also shouldn't brush it off as a hoax. Those kinds of people are the ones that die first. Stay safe, alright?"

"You too, Rambo." replied Alan as he rolled his eyes. Evan let out a short chuckle before he hung up. Kirsten stopped playing with her bear to address Alan.

"What was that all about?" she asked, her eyes full of curiosity at the conversation he just had.

"Oh, it's nothing. Evan was just being Evan. But that reminds me. I have to text Uncle Tatum." he said as he pulled out his phone.

"Hey, hey look!" said Kirsten as she pressed her face against the glass of the window to see the Tusconian landscape.

"What are you talking about? We've already been here before." said Alan as he finished his text to Tatum.

Hey, Uncle Tatum. It's Alan. Kirsten and I are almost there, and I just wanted to confirm where we're going to meet up. TMC right?

"Yeah I know, but it's still pretty!" exclaimed Kirsten happily. A little bit later, he received a reply from Tatum.

Yeah, the TMC. And your cousin is coming too.

"Wait, we have a cousin?" Alan mumbled in surprise. They had just found out that Tatum existed recently. He had no idea about any cousins.

We have a cousin?

Yeah, but she's thirteen. Her name's Katie.

"Hey Kirsten."
"Mmmm?"
"Did you know that we have a thirteen-year-old cousin named Katie?"
"We do? Is she nice? I bet she's pretty."

"Yeah, I'm sure she's pretty." he said, smiling.

Noting what the bus driver said, Alan nodded. "Welcome back to Tucson, Kirsten."

"Phew. It's almost over." said Kirsten. Alan nodded again and decided to send one final text to Tatum.

Okay we're headed to was all he got to say.

As Alan was texting, the driver spotted a group of civilians running in the street. He violently spun the wheel, causing the bus to screech and tip over. It tumbled and skidded, only killing a few civilians in it's wake. The bus now laid heavily damaged with busted windows. One had to be careful not to get hit by the shrapnel.

Move to Rear of the Bus.

***Don't read unless you read the Rear of the Bus after reading the post above.

As Alan made his way through the bus, he could hear whimpering coming from one of the seats. He went over to see what it was, only to be greeted with a horrific sight: His sister Kirsten with her right leg crushed between the wall and floor of the bus, which had been forcefully smashed together from the crash.She was bleeding heavily and on the verge of tears. It appears she had just came to her senses as well.

"K-Kirsten!" he exclaimed as he went to help. He tried to pry the wall off of the foot, but to no avail. It did budge a little bit, but that only made it clear to Alan that is was going to hurt Kirsten to get it off of her.

"Kirsten...don't look okay? This is going to sting a little bit, but it's just like when you get a shot at the doctors." he said, trying to console her. She didn't respond or react to him at all, only continued whimpering.

His breathing started to quicken as he readied his hands. He was going to do this as fast as he could for her sake. With keen precision, he reached out and yanked the wall up off of her foot as hard as he could. Kirsten cried out in pain as he moved it. He finished a little slower than he thought he would since the wall was heavier than he had anticipated, and instantly embraced Kirsten in a hug, to which she screamed and sobbed into his shoulder.

"It's okay...it's okay...good girl...good girl..." he cooed soothingly.

When she finally finished crying, he stood back up and gave her a pat on the head. "You did good, Kirsten." he said.

They appeared to be the only ones to survive that bus crash. The place was full of dead or unconscious bodies. The engine was still running. That wasn't a good sign.

He looked around at the corpses around him.

So the bus crash killed all of these people... He sighed and looked back at Kirsten's foot. He couldn't tell how bad the damage was by looking at it, but he could at least see that most of the bones in her leg were broken. It looked like it was causing her a lot of pain.

There's no way she can walk like this. he thought.

He turned around and crouched. "Get on my back." he said. Kirsten didn't respond, but he was patient. After about a minute or so she crawled over to him and climbed onto his shoulders. Once he made sure she was secure he stood up. "All good?" he asked. She shook her head. "I'm sorry, but we need to get out of here." he responded. He continued to the front of the bus.

Move to Front of the Bus.