THE LIVING SCHOOL BUS
An Original Listener Terror
Written by Layla Rowe, age 11

Young Jenny Brooker was so excited and so nervous at the same time – she was nerv-cited. Jenny was a sixth grader and it was the first day of middle school. She sprinted down the stairs, dropped her backpack, and scarfed down her yogurt.
“Whoa there kiddo, why are you going so fast?” said Jenny’s dad.
“Sorry, dad, I´m just so excited and kind of nervous for my first day of middle school,” said Jenny.
“Ok”, her dad said laughing. “You might wanna head out, your bus is almost here.”
Jenny waved goodbye, grabbed her backpack and walked out the door. She was sitting down at her bus stop when she saw the bus coming her way. The outside looked scaly and green and it was going up and down — almost like it was breathing! She stared at the bus scanning it up and down, trying to understand what she was seeing. As she looked closer she saw two black circles that looked like they were meant to be eyes. As the bus pulled up to her stop, she hesitantly walked up to it — still frightened of the monstrous look on the outside — and worried of what could be on the inside.
As the doors opened, it sounded like someone breathing a sigh of relief, but bigger and louder. When they opened up all the way, it revealed a fleshy-like interior. Every step that she took was followed by a gross, squishing sound. When she sat down on her seat it squished, her legs beneath her shorts could feel the slimy texture of it. Jenny got a chill up her spine when she laid down, because on the ceiling there were six rib cages, each with lungs and a heart inside them.
Jenny couldn’t believe what she was seeing and started coming up with reasons for how this was happening. She ended up settling on the bus driver being a Halloween fanatic. But then the bus started moving, and when it did, the hearts started beating and the lugs were moving up and down. And as they did, it seemed as if the bus did too — Jenny bounced up a little bit for every breath the bus took. Then the bus driver let go of the wheel and it started turning on its own.
The bus drove them into a secluded forest area where the bus driver led all the students outside of the bus. Then the bus driver scanned all of the kids like she was shopping for a ripe banana. She then grabbed a tall, skinny boy and lifted up the front hood of the bus. When Jenny looked inside the front engine, she saw a mouth with super sharp teeth. Then the bus driver shoved the tall, skinny boy straight into the creature’s mouth. Everybody shuffled back into the bus and continued with conversation as if nothing happened. When the bus started again, Jenny felt like it was going faster than before. It was almost like the creature ran on humans as fuel.
This cycle continued over and over again until the end of the school year.
So many children went missing on that bus…

Coming Soon to the Micro Terrors Podcast!