Friday 15:55 - Charlene

Charlene slowed the bus down to a stop, leaving the engine turning over.

She'd delivered most of the passengers to their homes or wherever they wanted to go in town. There was only one left on board now: an elderly man who had introduced himself as Mr Addiscome and who had moved to sit in the front seat just a few feet away from her driver's cab. Charlene had suggested taking him home first, but he had insisted on waiting until last. Maybe he was extremely brave, but Charlene suspected that he simply wanted the company.

The streets of Marrenforth had become increasingly crowded, some of them impassable with the mass of zombies, abandoned cars and general chaos. Ferrying the passengers to their homes had taken far longer than she had expected. During that time, Mr Addiscome had talked... and talked and talked. She had learned more than she ever needed to know about him, his sister Grace who now lived in Australia, his grandson Sammy, his bad back which he had been on the way to see the Doctor about today and much, much more.

With only one passenger left – excluding the dead ones still hammering on the doorway to the upper deck – Charlene could no longer put off the question of where she herself would go.

She lived alone and her family were all up in Scotland. Her original idea had been to go home and wait things out but, as the day had gone on, she had become increasingly convinced that there was no point. The outbreak was past the point of being contained. The passengers had all been grateful for her help, but she suspected that in most cases she was simply allowing them to choose where they were going to die.

That wasn't hat she wanted for herself. No. She wouldn't hide, wouldn't cower in fear and simply wait for death. She'd take the bus and drive as far away as she could. Maybe all the way up to Scotland. If the company complained, they could stop it out of her wages!

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But first...

First she had to get this guy home, and that was proving difficult.

She'd tried several routes, and all had been blocked one way or another. The main road through town was cordoned off with what had clearly originally been a police barricade with official vehicles and barriers blocking the road. Some of the officers now staggered around amongst the undead, the rest had presumably fled. The vehicles remained across the road, many of their lights still flashing, so that way was impassable with her bus.

The back road she was on now was the only route left to the old man's home. Unfortunately, it was blocked by a seething mass of zombies some way ahead.

The bus was heavy and sturdily built. Charlene was a good driver, she'd controlled the vehicle through snow and ice. If she put her foot down and accelerated, she could probably drive straight through the crowd of undead.

Or she might end up stuck in the middle of them, maybe even overturned. Easy fodder for undead jaws.

Driving through them would be a risk. Then there was the fact that these zombies had once been people. She knew intellectually that they were now dead, flesh-eating monsters, but that didn't make the thought of driving straight at them any easier. Especially after all her training and experience as a professional driver.

The zombies in the street had noticed the bus and many were now heading towards it. She had to make a decision quickly.

Two choices. The risky option was to go straight ahead and attempt to drive through the walking corpses, take Mr Addiscome home, then leave Marrenforth on her own.

The sensible option was to turn round and drive straight out of the town. Take Mr Addiscombe with her and head for somewhere safe. Drive and drive for hours with the talkative passenger as her constant travelling companion.

"Mushrooms are the worst," she heard the old man saying. "I used to love mushrooms. But I can't eat them now. They go straight through me. Last time I had a mushroom omelette, well, let me tell you..."

There really was no choice.

Charlene pressed her foot hard on the accelerator pedal and the bus charged forward towards the massed undead.

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