Part one

Can anyone help me? I'm on a bus that refuses to stop, and I don't know where I am!

Okay. I'll admit it. I'm an idiot.

I fell asleep on the bus like a dingus, and now I don't know where I am.

I really, really, don't know where I am.

​

I reach into my pocket and try my phone. 17% left… I should be okay.

I load up Google Maps, or at least, I try to. I tap my finger against the screen impatiently as the bus rumbles softly through an unfamiliar part of the city.

*Could even be a different city..? How long were you asleep Yaz?*

I study the time displayed at the top of the phone for the first time.

…Oh God, I've been sleeping for over an hour! What the hell is wrong with me?!

I decide to give up on Maps and just go straight to my Contacts. The phone dips to 16% as I'm scrolling to my Mom's number, I tap it, and raise the device to my ear...

...The phone beeps, then crackles, and then just goes silent. I can't even tell if she's picked up.

I try for a second time, but the calls don't seem to be going through.

​

My breathing gets a little shallower. I'm starting to freak out a bit now.

​

I allow myself a tentative glance around the bus. I've never been a confident girl. The idea of admitting to someone that I've been idiot, and gotten myself lost… it makes my skin crawl. Yes, even to these strangers. If you're an introvert like me (am I using that correctly? 'Introvert'?) then you'll be able to empathize. I'm well aware of how pathetic it is. But I hate talking to strangers. Worse if I have to admit some fault as I'm doing so.

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There are three others on the bus, not including the driver. A young woman a few years older than myself, maybe in her early twenties, near the back; and a few rows ahead are a man and his daughter sitting in strained silence. I don't want to talk to them, they're giving off a really weird vibe, and the thought of waking somebody up… That's mortifying. So I remain in place. Shifting uncomfortably.

​

I stare out the window at the scenes beyond; willing, hoping, *praying* that I'm going to see a familiar statue or landmark. I'll recognize a street sign, or something, and I'll be able to make my way home.

…But there is nothing. Only the grimy walls of rundown buildings. Tents constructed across the sidewalks beneath flickering streetlights.

​

The longer I wait, potentially, the worse it gets, but I can't bring myself to move. I just stare at the scenes beyond as the sun starts to set in the distance. The world outside is cast in a faint, dusty red, and I realize I'm running out of options.

​

*Yaz. Get a grip. People make mistakes. You have to speak to the driver. Just go and ask them where we are and if we're going back the way we came. Go on.*

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I spend the next five minutes rehearsing what I'm going to say in my head, and then, with a deep breath, I rise to a stand. Body now in motion I step into the aisle and stride down the length of the bus; the front drawing closer and closer as my heart pounds.

​

I stop by the driver and quietly clear my throat. "Excuse me", I begin. "Sorry to bother you-"

The driver interrupts with a grunt and taps the little sign by the wheel. 'DO NOT TALK TO DRIVER', it reads.

I squirm, but press on. I have to. "I'm sorry but I don't know where I am. I've missed my stop, are we going back-"

Another grunt, louder this time, and the driver knocks the sign with his knuckles more violently.

I freeze. I hadn't prepared for a reaction like this.

After a another long moment more, and all without even taking his eyes from the road, the driver grabs a glossy-papered printed bus route from a rack to his left, and slaps it down on the counter.

I stutter out a quick thanks and grab it up, returning humiliated to my seat.

I pass by the girl and her dad as I do so.

​

Something compels me to glance up from the floor, and I do so. I meet the girl's eyes.

She's about the same age as me. And she looks… She looks *frightened.*

The man looks straight ahead. He doesn't look like he could be her dad, to tell the truth.

…*And his hand is on her leg.*

​

My concerns with the driver are suddenly lost beneath a much thicker layer of panic.

I try to rationalize the situation as I pass them by and sit down back into my seat, but, I can't. I think the girl is in danger. And as the only one who knows it's now on me to do something about it.

My heartrate seems to double in my chest.

I put my hand in my hands. I run them through my hair. I try to ignore what I saw and study the glossy bus-route. It's useless. I don't recognize the map, nor any of the stops. The place I got on isn't even listed. I stuff it away and look out the window. My leg jitters and I peer back down the aisle at the man and the girl.

…Is he sitting closer than we was before, or am I imagining it?

*Oh my God. Oh God. What do I do?*

And what if I'm wrong? What If I've misjudged the situation entirely and I cause a huge scene? I think I would just about die from the humiliation.

…But the clock is ticking.

​

I imagine myself watching the news tomorrow. I see a headline about a girl who befell some terrible, twisted fate..

I clench my hands against my knees. Something is going to happen, I can feel it. Something bad is going to happen if I let it.

I try to put myself in her place. If I was being harassed, if I felt threatened or in danger, what would I want someone to do? What would I want them to do…?

​

…'Something', is the answer that comes to me. I would want them to do: *something*.

​

So before I can psyche myself out I rise once again to a stand. I expect to feel the blood drain from my body, but instead I am caught in a wave of adrenaline. I stride into the aisle, a little closer. And I call out loud, way louder than I had planned: "Excuse me!"

The man remains facing ahead, but the girl swivels in her seat to look at me. "Are you okay?" I ask her, and she shakes her head.

"DRIVER!" I shout to the front, "There is a girl in trouble on your bus! She's in DANGER!"

The man beside her jumps right out of his seat at once and spins to face me.

…I get a much better look at him. I was right, though, he doesn't look anything like the girl.

…Not that there's much that's even physically weird about the guy. He looks terrifying normal.

Normal except for his eyes.

Like a shark's, they stare blankly right through me, at nothing.

​

The tension in the bus pulls tighter.

​

I am holding my breath.

​

The man seems to realize he has made an unfortunate mistake but drawing such attention to himself, and for one terrible moment I think he's going to come after me. I double-down my efforts and raise a shaking hand, a hand that ends in a pointing and accusatory finger.

"K-Keep your distance! And stay away from her!" I warn him, in a voice that threatens to leave me altogether.

​

Something bizarre happens next. Something really, really weird, but the stress of the situation won't allow me to process the events for a little while yet.

​

The driver, without speaking, and *without stopping the bus,* rises swiftly from his seat. Emotionlessly he strolls down the aisle and unceremoniously grabs the man from behind, around his arms. The predator barks with frustration and struggles, but the driver, despite being physically smaller, doesn't even break a sweat. He drags the flailing man back through the bus, pulls the lever to open the bus's door, and to my shock, throws him out.

He throws the man right out into the street.

Then he sits back in his chair, closes the door with a soft hiss, and resumes control of the wheel, as if nothing had even happened.

​

I stand there for perhaps a minute more, though I have no idea of the times, really, until I stumble back into my seat in a daze. The second I do so the girl springs from her seat and rushes down the aisle into the free one next to me, with a huge smile of relief on her face.

She squeezes me tight in a hug. "Oh my God", she mutters, "thank you girl. Thank you so much".

I hug her back, my pulse slowly starting to steady. "It's okay! I'm actually freaking out a little to be honest! Wow, I've never done anything like that in my whole life. Wow".

"Well I'm glad you did", she says, pulling back and smiling at me. "He came out of nowhere. I fell asleep for a while, which I know was dumb, but when I woke up he was just sitting right next to me. There were so many empty seats… I didn't know what to do. I froze up, I guess".

"You fell asleep too..?" I ask her, frowning. I glance to the back of the bus. Despite all the clamor, the sleeping young woman I clocked earlier still hasn't moved. Still fast asleep. She slept right through it. "There's something really weird going on here. I was sleeping too, which I never normally do in public… I woke up and I didn't recognize anything through the windows. I'm totally lost, to be honest".

"Me too!" she says, staring right at me. "What the hell is going on? And did you see what the driver did! The driver grabbed the guy and just… just threw him off a moving bus..? That's not something that happens!"

"I know!" I pause. "I know".

We exchange another look, and some of the tension eases. "…I'm Yaz, by the way. It's nice to meet you".

"Leah", she replies, with a grin and a nervous little laugh. We're both kind of on edge here, to be honest. And can you blame us?

If only my brother was here. Ryan. He's a year younger than me, but he's so smart. Street-smart, at least. He'd know what to do. Ugh. I hope he's okay. The last thing I said to him was really rude…

…An irrational fear that I may never see him again passes through me and I shiver, doing my best to dispel it. He'd be handling this whole situation a hell of a lot better than me. I've never really known how to talk to people. I'm already deeply self-conscious about my interactions with Leah. I hope I'm not coming across too weirdly.

…I don't have many friends.

But regardless, I'm allowing myself to get side-tracked. I need a plan. I need to think like Ryan would.

Hmmm…

"The bus has to stop eventually, right?" I ask the girl. "It'll be a depot, or a station, or *something*. We'll either get on another bus, or… or there'll be a taxi we can take. I don't have loads of money, but we could definitely cover some distance in the right direction".

Leah asks where I live, and I tell her. With a smile of pleasant surprise she tells me she actually lives like two blocks over. We bond further, but our conversation is cut short as the bus plunges into a sudden tunnel in the side of a hill.

…The tunnel is normal at first: little yellow lights in the ceiling speed by, casting dim, scanning beams of gold through the windows and over the seats in regular waves…

…But the lights fade.

​

Leah and I grow silent as we stare out the windows.

The lights disappear, one by one, until we are driving through pitch dark.

​

Black.

​

The bus speeds along, showing no signs of slowing, but there is nothing to be seen through any of the windows. The vehicle rumbles, and my pulse races, and we speed on through the dark.

"What the hell is happening? Where ARE we?" Leah whispers to me, but of course I have no idea.

I have no idea at all, and I don't think I'd be able to speak right now even if I had something to say. All my efforts are currently focused on fighting a rapidly growing, pounding sense of dread. One that beats like a drum as it threatens my constitution.

I have lost all sense of how fast we might be going, the only confirmation that we are moving at all is the ever-rumbling and bumping of the bus engine against my feet and back.

"Wait", I murmur to Leah, "look ahead! There's a light!" And sure enough a tiny pinprick of light far ahead flickers into sight, and then it rushes towards us. Growing and growing.

In fact, it's growing faster than the bus is actually travelling, I'm sure of it... The effect is of something massive and glowing hurtling right towards us. And compared to the pitch darkness of the tunnel it is bright as hell- I cry out in alarm and screw my eyes tight shut- in part due to the light sensitivity, and in part due to reflex…

…And even through my closed eyelids I can tell that the bus has exited the tunnel, as my surroundings are washed in a dusky orange light.

​

…The bus rumbles…

​

…and Leah grabs my sleeve. "Yaz!" she says urgently, "Yaz *look!*"

Tentatively, I do so; I open my eyes… and gasp in horror.

​

If I thought my previous surroundings were unfamiliar, then they were nothing on this.

​

Dark, desolate and deep-scorched plains of gritty gray stone extend far out to the horizon in every direction. The pains are littered with crumbled clusters of concrete, and the iron-beam skeletons of curious buildings: long since swept away in the winds as dust. I shoot a look behind through the bus's back window, and am greeted by the sight of the rapidly receding tunnel.. extending out from the base of a jagged black mountain. "Holy fuck…" I mutter. "This is… this is…"

I don't have the words. I don't know what to say.

The sky is a cloudless sunset-orange, and unless my mind is playing tricks on me, the shadows across the plains don't quite seem to line-up with the angle of the sun, a low red ball that hangs deliriously above the far black mountains.

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…And in the distance, in the very far distance… is something moving. Something colossal and alien; I cannot make out the intricacies, but it shambles slowly through the wastes on four seemingly mechanical legs… One heavy footstep at a time…

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*…What the hell am I going to do..?*