Free The Living Dead Boy by Rhiannon Frater

leap out.
    “C’mon,” Josh said to the little girl, gripping her hand. “We need to go.”
    “They ate Mary,” the little girl answered him, fumbling with her pocket.  She was wheezing loudly, her tiny fingers sweaty in his hand.
    “I know. But c’mon.”
    Josh pulled her to her feet as she drew an inhaler from her pocket.  She couldn’t be older than six. Dragging her behind him, he ran past the end of the bus.  His brain felt mushy and he was having trouble moving.  It was like being in a bad dream where your feet were like concrete slabs and you could barely run.
    Just as the older female student landed on the ground, the boy behind her gasped in pain.  Two sets of small hands grabbed his sides and tugged him backwards.  He fell into the darkness of the bus.
    “Shut the door!” Josh shouted.
    “My brother!” Corina’s friend screamed.
    One of the boys grabbed the door and tried to slam it shut, but it bounced off the bloodied, torn hands thrusting out toward them.  Josh continued to run, trying to watch where he was going while still keeping an eye on the bus. The little girl stumbled after him as she tried to run while taking a quick hit on her inhaler at the same time.
    “Close it!”  one of the older boys cried out.  “Hurry!”
    The shouts behind him continued as the two boys struggled to shut the door and someone inside, either a zombie or wounded person, fought to push it open. Finally, the door latched, blood seeping out beneath the nearly severed fingers poking out from beneath the edge of it.  The older kids ran past Josh and the little girl, shouting at each other to hurry.
    “Pick up the pace, shorty!”  one of the boys huffed as he passed Josh.
    Up ahead, the children ran to the main road, making far too much noise in Josh’s opinion.  They were going to attract attention with all the screaming and yelling they were doing. His own friends were toward the back of the pack, Sam falling further behind every second.
    “Stop, Roger!  Stop, Troy! Arturo!  We’re going the wrong way!”  Josh cried out.  “Come back!”
    Josh stopped, trying to calm his panicked nerves. He held tightly to the little girl’s hand. She didn’t fight with him, staring blankly ahead.  Taking deep breaths, Josh tried to organize his thoughts.
    The neighborhood around him was silent.  It was a work day and most of the people in this poor section of town were at their jobs.  Also, a lot of the houses were derelict.  The world around them was nearly silent except for the pounding on the back door of the bus, the ticking of the bus engine cooling off, and the birds in the trees.  In the far distance, he could hear horns honking and the sound of guns firing.
    Above the town, the sky was growing dark with thick rain clouds.  Without the sun, the day felt colder and he shivered in his hoodie.  His friends argued as the other students ran toward the main street, leaving them far behind. Roger pulled at his hair as Troy and Arturo yelled at each other.  Sam was the first to turn back. He trudged toward Josh, his big body heaving with exertion.  Finally, the three members of the Zombie Hunter Club turned back, running as fast as they could.
    Josh kept an eye on the bus as his friends sprinted toward him.  He could feel the muscles in his back tensing as another shiver of fear flowed over him. Looking around at the neighborhood, he made his plan.
    “Dude, what are we doing?  Everyone ran that way! And zombies are in that bus!”  Troy said, pointing at the bus and the figures moving inside of it.
    “I know. But they’re running toward the main road. The zombies that came off the highway are over there! They’re not thinking straight.  We need to take these back roads to the community center.  Everyone is at work right now. People aren’t at home.  Less zombies this way.”  Josh pointed down the long strip of road leading to a slow curve lined on both sides with juniper trees and old,