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Debbie makes a quick decision, and steps over the policeman toward the kids.  A small hand grabs her ankle.  It is what’s left of the child that the cop was feasting on. The boy has reanimated, but is pinned under the dead cop, unable to move anything except his left arm.   The youngster with red eyes hisses at her.  It is an unholy sound.  She pulls away easily, but can’t figure out what to do with the infected boy.  "Alright kids, it’s time to leave!"  she tells the kids.  Some of them nod and start to move, but two won’t budge.  She picks nine kids up one after another, and lifts them over the dead cop and child. They move to the front of the bus where her sister is now leaning on Tim’s shoulder.

The little infected girl has reached the top of the stairs of the school bus un-noticed until now.  She lets out a moan and Tim kicks her square in the face.  She tumbles out of the bus but starts to get up immediately. There are gunshots outside the bus, and the infected child stops moving.  Another policeman, this one un-infected, has shown up.  He enters the bus and sees the carnage.  "Let’s go!"  he says loudly. The three adults and nine kids follow the cop out the door. A woman is yelling from the top of some brick steps.   She tells them to get inside.

The staggering forms are closer. The policeman fires at one and one kid starts screaming. The screaming child breaks from the line and runs away, disappearing around a corner.  Debbie gets to the top of the stairs and tells the cop there are two more kids on the bus.  He races down the steps as the rest of the group gets inside. The infected have almost reached the bus and Tim bellows a warning to the cop. The policeman fires into the face of one undead, and rushes on to the bus. Three infected follow him, lurching up the stairs after him.  A single gunshot is heard, and then the emergency hatch at the back of the bus opens, and the cop jumps out with two kids.  He has to carry one and this one is bleeding from the lip and dazed. They run up the stairs and the woman from the building slams the door. The building is an old school.

"She wouldn’t come," the cop says to Debbie, "I had to slap her so she would let go of the seat."  He hands the child to the woman who called them to the School.  Let’s get this door barricaded. Tim passes Lea to Debbie.  Lea is conscious, but in severe pain.  She is pale.  Debbie helps Lea into an office and she sits on a wooden bench.  Lea is covered in blood, her shirt and upper pants are dripping crimson.  A small trickle escapes her mouth and dribbles down her chin.

"He’s a good guy you know," Lea tells Debbie, "even if he did shoot me."  She manages a weak smile and doubles over coughing. Blood is flowing freely from her mouth now and there’s a steady drip from her chin.  "We were going to get married, he just asked me."  She holds up her left hand and there is a small diamond ring on her finger.

"Hold on Lea, I’m going to look for a first aid kit."

Lea nods as Debbie searches the office for something to help her sister.  Debbie can hear furniture being moved in the hallway, and the sound of small children crying and asking for parents. The windows of the first floor of the school are eight feet above the ground outside.  Debbie glances out one of the windows, and she sees many lumbering infected coming toward the school.  She continues her search, and finds a clear plastic medical kit.  She moves back to her sister to administer what first aid she can.  Her sister’s sightless eyes are locked on the ring her fiancée had given her.  Lea has died.

Debbie starts to cry.  She searches for a pulse but finds none.  She gets up and walks into the corridor.  "Tim. Tim, its Lea…"  Tim drops his end of the heavy metal desk he was moving to barricade the front door and runs into the office.  He sits gets down on one knee and grabs Lea’s left hand.  Ironically, it looks as if he is proposing, complete with tears.  He lets loose a single sob, closes her eyes with his hands, and lowers his head.  Had he kept looking at her he would have seen that she too was crying.  A single tear of blood leaks from Lea’s right eye. Tim starts to stand, and tries to let go of Lea’s hand.  She holds him.  For the briefest of moments, Tim is ecstatic, he believes she is ok.  He looks quickly at her with all the hope he can muster.  Her crimson eyes spring open as she lunges for him.  He deflects the attack and she sprawls on the floor snapping. She still has an iron hold on his hand, so he shakes frantically, and she releases. Lea gets to her knees and Tim is crying pitifully now. He is repeating "No." over and over again.  Lea stands and walks toward Tim, a feral snarl on her lips. Tim has backed into a wall and is now motionless as she approaches, other than the deep sobs that wrack his body.  Debbie is in shock and doesn’t know what to do.

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