1:23pm, Wednesday, 12th
"Oh wonderful." The woman laughed out loud. "So not only is our driver reckless, he's also delusional." She placed her hands on her hips and turned away.
"I'm not delusional, I swear. I saw him, he was—"
"He was what?" The woman snapped, turning back to the driver.
Before he could reply, the lady beside Winn spoke up.
"Instead of arguing, shouldn't we be finding a way back to the road?"
"You're right. You're right," the driver said quickly.
"Me and this guy"—she gestured to Winn—"will go ahead and see if we can stop any bus. You should start bringing everyone's bags out." She stood up, waiting for Winn to do the same. "Let's go."
Tunde needed to be buried. Maybe later. When they got back to the road. When they were safely in another bus. He pushed the thought away and stood, following the woman down the narrow trail that led away from the wreck.
"I don't think we crashed too deep," she said as they walked away from the cluster the other passengers had formed, their voices drowned out the further they walked. "The road should be just around here somewhere. Look," Winn followed her fingers to where the tires had left a clear trail in the dirt. "We just have to follow the tracks."
"Okay," Winn muttered, careful not to step on twigs.
"I'm Judith, by the way. What's your name?"
"Winner but everyone calls me Winn."
"Nice to meet you. Though this isn't exactly the best circumstance." She chuckled.
Winn glanced at her properly then. She wasn't tall. At least not as tall as him. Light-skinned, brown braids falling down her back, and brown leather slippers on her feet. Definitely not the ideal shoes for trekking.
Judith must have noticed him observing her shoe. "These are emergency shoes." Winn brought his eyes back to hers. "You know, something to just slip on incase you need to run a quick errand."
"Oh, no. I wasn't... I was just..." He stuttered and took his eyes back to the tracks ashamed but Judith laughed it off.
"I know. No one was really expecting something like this," she gestured to their surroundings, "to happen. What a clumsy driver."
"Maybe he did see someone."
She scoffed before replying, "He was drunk. No other explanation to that. He was seeing things."
Winn shrugged. "Yeah, well, he sounded pretty convinced."
"Oh wow. You believe him," she said sparing him a sideways glance. "Where were you headed?"
Winn glanced back at her. "School."
"Hmm." She nodded. "Makes sense." She said like his reply convinced her that he was gullible. Which he definitely was not.
The driver was convinced he'd seen someone. And Winn didn't want to toss him under the classic "drunk or delusional" bus. What if the man had really seen something?
Judith laughed, and Winn glanced at her, confused.
"Inside joke," she said, waving it off. "I mean… what if we actually get lost?"
Winn frowned. Yeah, that wasn't funny. "That'd be embarrassing."
He kept walking, eyes forward. Behind him, Judith was still chuckling at her own joke.
The fact that they still hadn't made it back to the road was unsettling. The sun slipped behind a cloud, and the atmosphere dimmed.
As he lifted his head, a sudden gust of wind rushed past them, cold and sharp and he raised his hands to cover his eyes.
He heard Judith walk up behind him and then pause.
"We should've gotten to the road by now," she said, now focused. "Did we miss a turn?"
Winn looked down.
The tracks were gone.
"The tracks…" he whispered.
Judith followed his gaze, then turned to look behind them.
"This has to be a joke," she said, and took off running.
They were following the tracks, he made sure if it because he didn't take his eyes off them, except... "Wait!" Winn yelled, breaking into a sprint after her.
The wind blew again, harsher this time, throwing sand and dry leaves into his face.
"Judith!"
He spotted her a few feet ahead and skidded to a stop beside her, breathing hard.
"Where the hell is the road?" she asked.
"I'm sure we just—" Winn paused, scanning their surroundings. "I'm sure we missed a turn."
"No. We didn't."
The trees around them were wrong. The bark looked rough and slimy. No branches jutted out low enough to climb. All the leaves sat high above them.
Winn realised that the ground was covered in decayed brown leaves. No grass. No path.
"Maybe we should head back," Winn said carefully.
Judith didn't answer. She was already pressing her palms against one of the trees, trying to pull herself up.
"What are you doing?" Winn asked.
She pushed harder, lifted herself slightly, then slid down and landed hard on her backside.
Winn rushed to her side. "Are you okay? You can't climb these. The bark is slimy."
"Yeah, I noticed," she said, staring at her hands, now smeared with dark grease-like residue. "What kind of place is this?"
"Let's just go back. Meet the others."
"Right."
She stood with his help.
A twig snapped behind them.
Both their heads turned at the same time.
12:50pm, Wednesday, 12th.
Her heart was the only thing she could hear. Loud. Violent. Slamming against her chest.
Her head rested against something cold and hard.
With a groan, she opened her eyes.
First thing she noticed was a massive tree pressed into the bonnet of the bus. The windshield was shattered, a thick branch spearing through it. To her left, the driver slumped forward, unconscious, his forehead resting on the steering wheel.
And then it came back.
The call.
The blade.
The crash.
Gas.
The smell hit her nose and her stomach twisted.
She felt like vomitting.
She fumbled with her seatbelt until it unclipped. Free, she leaned toward the driver and tapped his shoulder.
"Sir… sir!"
Pain shot through her left arm. She gasped and looked down. A shard of glass was lodged deep in her skin. Blood pooled and ran down her arm, warm and nauseating.
Should she pull it out?
Carefully, she brought her other hand to graze the skin beneath where the glass was lodged but she couldn't move any closer as pain shot straight up to her brain like a needle poking at her.
"Francis?" a small voice called from behind.
She turned.
A little boy stood over his brother's body on the floor of the bus, shaking him. One arm lay twisted at an impossible angle. His eyes stared blankly at the ceiling.
She didn't need to move closer to know.
In her peripheral vision, the driver stirred, groaning as he sat upright and took in the chaos.
"Is… is everyone okay?"
People began to move, groaning, crying, asking who was hurt.
"The gas tank is leaking!" someone shouted from the back.
Panic erupted.
"Open the door!"
"Get us out!"
"We're going to die!"
Someone slammed against the door. It didn't budge.
"Okay! Everyone calm down!" the driver yelled, unbuckling his seatbelt. "I'll get the door open!"
He climbed awkwardly toward the back.
Phina turned to her own door and yanked the handle.
Nothing.
Again.
Still stuck.
She tried standing, but something heavy pressed down on her foot.
"Ah!" She looked down. The front of the bus was bent inward, metal crushing her foot into the floor.
She was trapped.
"Help," she said weakly.
No one heard her.
Using her right hand, she tried lifting the metal. It didn't move.
The back door burst open and people poured out. Fresh air rushed in, along with the stronger stench of fuel.
"Help! I'm stuck!" she screamed.
The driver finally noticed and ran back to her window.
"My foot," she said through clenched teeth. "I can't get out."
He tugged at the door from outside. It wouldn't open.
"Is someone still in there?" a man asked, stepping into view.
She recognized him immediately. The man she'd accidentally punched earlier. The one who'd seen the blade.
"Her?" he scoffed. "She caused all of this. Leave her."
The driver turned on him sharply. "I'm not leaving anyone. If you're not helping, move."
The man snorted and walked away.
He wasn't wrong though.
"Let me help," another voice said.
A young man stepped forward and joined the driver. Together, they yanked and pried at the door, metal screaming in protest.
The smell of gas grew thicker. People shouted for them to hurry.
With one final, desperate pull, the door gave way.
They dragged Phina free just as flames erupted beneath the bus.
She barely had time to stumble away before the explosion tore through it, heat and sound swallowing everything behind them.
Silence followed.
And then screaming.