Graduation is a month away. The seniors have decided to take a trip to a newly open wax
museum. As the bus pulls away, it begins to snow. Not an uncommon occurrence for
this sleepy, small northern town. An hour passes, with another hour to go, and the snow
begins to fall harder. It's a complete white-out. Yet, they hardly notice, with their games
and chatter in the back. But the driver notices, a moment too late.
The bus crashes, veering off a steep ditch and rolling several times before coming to a
destructive halt. Without seat-belts, the students are unable to protect themselves from
the crash. Only three students survive.
They must fight for their lives to find protection, in an area they don't know, surrounded
by snow and blood. Something lurks in the shadows, ready to strike and control its prey of
women. Will they live, or fall to darkness?
Well, this was just annoying as fuck. No one can sit down like a normal young adult and behave, can they?
No, they'd much rather spread rumors and scream and whine and pick fun at others. There were few seated
properly, Mikkel and Mihael included. The twins, one boy and one girl, sat together in the farthest back
seat of the bus. Mihael frowned, furrowing her brows at the sight of one of the popular redheaded girls rub
sensually across the lap of the football star.
"Whores, all of them," whispered the male twin, Mikkel, while glancing to his sister.
Mihael blinked, turning to look at him instead of the sexual display. "I'm glad you agree." Of course
they did. They were twins; they agreed on just about everything. Especially how boring and
annoying this long ride to the wax museum was. "Why did we even decide to go?" mumbled
Mihael, glancing out the window, which she was seated next to. Snow was falling from overhead, coming
down harder by the second, but she wasn't entirely concerned with it. "Because it's the
last thing we have to do as seniors, then we'll be free. Now shut up so I can listen to this."
Mihael narrowed her eyes at him, plucking one of his earbuds so she could put it in her own ear. She
settled in the seat, listening to his music to drown out the noise of the other students.
Uhg, this is the last volume I brought with me...
Erica Hanson
At the front of the bus, in the seat directly behind the bus driver, Erica sat. She was one of the only ones who brought their book bag. Not only was it always unnecessary
to bring your bag on a field trip but at this point in the school year there was no reason to even have it at school. All of her work was done and turned in a week ago.
School was only a time obligation now. Still, through force of habit she continued to lug around her notebooks. Her more practical reason though was that it held all of her manga.
She was keeping to herself, as usual, and was reading a set recommended to her by some friends online called Strawberry Panic!. She had the cover pressed against her legs, the top of the
pages on her knees as she flipped through. She didn't really care about this Wax Museum, but could not get her mother to excuse her from it.
Laughing loudly, Caitlyn couldn't help but smile at the sight of her friend rubbing against one of the jocks crotch. Well she has liked him for a long time... The prep giggled loudly now, causing the girl sitting next to her to turn her head. "Don't give me that look Janet!" Caitlyn complained. "You know I like to laugh at things. I mean this other day, when I was out with Claire... or was it Trish? Anyway..." Starting off on one of her mammoth tangents of some kind of ridiculous story, Caitlyn let her brain switch off to talk about some kind of tale that painted her in a good light, forcing everyone's attention to herself.
With a flourish of her hands, Caitlyn finished off her story. "... and that's when Josh just picked me up and kissed me hard in front of the whole school!" Giggling again, Caitlyn couldn't help but look forward to this trip. Sure the whole idea and destination was lame, but getting out of school to hang with friends, particularly as the whole school year was nearing an end... "But then again Janet, you haven't kissed a boy yet so what would you know about anything?!" Peals of laughter echoed above the general sound of the bus as Caitlyn amused herself as per usual.
"I'll kill her. One of these days, I'll just shove my foot so far up her ass she'll be sucking my toes for a
week. You know I rea-""Mihael. If you don't shut up I'll do the same to you." The
female twin shot her brother a disgusted look, then returned her attention to the preppiest, bitchiest, most
annoying person in the state. Caitlyn Roscoe. "But I can't stand her, Mikkel. I really can't."
He sighed, shaking his head. "Just deal with it. School is almost over and then you'll never have
to see her again. Stop bitching." Mihael mumbled beneath her breath, but turned her attention
to the window. Snow was falling harder now. It was impossible to see more than a few feet ahead.
A sudden jerk disrupted the entire class. The driver grunted, gripping the steering wheel and struggling to
remain in control. Mihael gasped sharply, clinging onto her brother's arm tightly. Mikkel's eyes widened as
he stared ahead, watching the guard rail approach at rapid speed. Luckily, at the last minute, the driver was
able to steer clear of it, to avoid impact. The bus settled back into its proper place on the road. Gritting
her teeth, Mihael gazed at her brother, and he frowned back at her. It was getting a little dangerous to be
driving out in this storm, but the driver seemed determined to get there. No matter what.
Erica Hanson
Even from the back of the bus to the front, Erica could hear the usual roar of jock laughter and the pretentious laughter of cheerleaders and stuck up rich chicks.
She ignored them, just like she always did. In return, they ignored her. Erica never thought herself not pretty enough to be part of their cliques or anything.
She just did not share their interests. She had skipped every dance of the school year, including prom, opting instead to stay home. When the bus bumped she stiffened,
but relaxed soon after. Erica was paying no attention to the storm outside. She was wrapped up in her book, shutting out the outside world.
Oblivious to her surrounding, only caring about herself and what was being said around her, Caitlyn laughed once more as someone else took a swing at Janet. "If only you were more like me Janet! Everything would be so much better that way, you could afford all the nice clothes I can buy and you could..." Mid sentence, Caitlyn was interrupted by the swerving of the bus, nearly knocking her out of her precarious seating position.
Screams echoed their side of the bus as all the girls seemed to worry over what was happening, fear of crashing running through their brains. "What the hell!" Caitlyn screamed. "Can the driver not drive or something? Maybe we should take over the driving for him?" Smirking to herself, thinking she was the wittiest person in the vehicle, everyone around Caitlyn gave a hesitant laugh, the weather conditions scaring the majority now.
"Hey, isn't that my iPod?""No, it's mine.""Mikkel you asshole, it's mine!""No mine is blue.
Yours is purple.""No, mine was blue.""Mihael! Mine is the same color as my birthstone. It's not
yours.""Idiot! We're twins! We have the same birthstone!""Ohh...fuck."
The twins both had a grip on the device, struggling to maintain a hold on it while not falling out of
their seat from their battle over the iPod. Mihael blew a raspberry at him, while Mikkel jutted his
foot at her. The jerk of the bus didn't seem to bother either one of them, as they were quickly back
to fighting like twins typically did. It wasn't until the bus jerked a second time that the worry returned,
but at that point, it was too late for anyone to do anything but hold on.
Again, the steering wheel jerked beneath the driver's hands. The smooth leather of the wheel
slipped from his grip, making it unable to hold onto. He tried, but failed, to regain control as the bus
slid on the snowy ground. The tires spun noiselessly, twirling the bus 180 degrees before the back
collided with the guard rail over a slope on a hill. The heavy bus crashed through the railing,
making it impossibly easy to topple backwards. For a moment, the bus teetered on the edge.
Before anyone could realize what was happening, it tilted backward, down the steep slope of the
hill, tumbling over and over before it came to a hard stop at the edge of a dense forest.
Erica Hanson
"Unnf..." Erica groaned, trying to move. She ached all over. It was all such a blur having happened so fast. Suddenly they were tipping over and tumbling.
She tugged her arm free from where it was caught and took a sharp intake of breath as she felt something cut through her forearm. Gritting her teeth she sat herself up.
The bus was on it's side, the tree that stopped their descend had indented the roof of the bus, almost wrapping around the trunk. She pulled herself up and with shaking legs stood on the side of the bench.
She reached up and grabbed the now horizontal driver seat. Her left hand now covered in blood slipped for a moment, but she held on with the other.
She got that sick gut feeling of motion and tried again. She pulled herself up and braced her legs against the back of the driver's seat and the seat behind it.
With all the strength she had she grabbed onto the side of the window. The glass had all been smashed out, leaving none on the edges to cut her hand on.
She pulled herself up and out of the bus, sitting on top of the vehicle to catch her breath, clutching at her wound.
Her eyes fluttering to adjust to the light, Caitlyn could feel her body aching all over, pain shooting through her arms and legs and particularly across her chest and stomach. Putting her seatbelt on at feeling the bus starting to lose control had been a lifesaver for the girl as her head slightly turned from side to side, trying to get a picture of what was going on. Groaning as she turned to the girl she was sitting next to, Caitlyn tried to mutter the girl's name though her voice felt hoarse from the screaming as they spun out of control. Instead of seeing her friend unconscious or looking around too, Caitlyn nearly cried out as her hands leapt to cover her mouth, dragging broken and ground up glass across her cheek and hands.
Cold, glass eyes stared back at her as her hoarse scream was muffled between fingers, her body quickly flinching back to feel cuts formed by her movement across her left cheek. "Oh god... Oh god... Oh god..." Caitlyn kept murmuring trying to undo her seat belt. The main thing was that Caitlyn couldn't help but think how lucky she was not to have turned out like Janet. As the buckle clicked, Caitlyn braced her legs to stop herself from falling, glad for all her cheerleader training. Nimbly as quickly as possible for the stiff, bruised girl, Caitlyn clambered past the still body next to her and out the window at the top. Grimacing as her palm pressed against a small cut of glass in the bus window as she pulled herself over, Caitlyn sat at the side, ripping a part of her shirt to wrap round her hand to cover the small wound as it bled on. Her eyes gazed around to see another girl sitting on the bus. "Er... Eri... Erica? Erin? Whatever, is there anyone else?"
The twins had lost their grip on the music play at once. Mikkel's hands came up protectively as
Mihael hid her face in her brother's shoulder. His arms wrapped around her slender torso, shielding
her from harm as the bus tumbled several times before coming to a stop. Before she knew what had
happened, the bus settled. Mihael's eyes opened slowly, having closed upon the first twist of the
vehicle. She felt something hard pressing around her, something heavy. With trembling hands she
pushed, realizing that her bloodied palms were coming to rest on her brother's shoulder.
"Mikkel, get off me," she whispered, shoving him forward. His weight was heavy, like a ton on her
back. Groaning, she placed her hands on the ground (or what she thought was the ground - really it was
just the side of the bus) and pushed up. His weight jostled enough that she could roll away. "Mikkel.
Mikkel, get up," she told him, feeling dizzy and faint. She could feel warm liquid trickling down her
cheek, blood clouding her vision and making the world red. For the second time, there was no response. "Damn it, get the fuck up!" she screamed. Suddenly, she was up, kneeling over his battered,
bruised body. His eyes were open but there was no life in them. Blood trickled from the corner of his
mouth. With wide, tear filled eyes she stared at her twin brother. "Get up," she whispered, her
voice hoarse. "Get up, Mikkel. Don't fuck with me. Mikkel!"
Erica Hanson
Erica looked behind her, seeing another girl has pulled herself up onto the turned over side of the bus. It was Caitlyn,
the cheerleader, "Yeah...I'm...I'm here." Erica answered, standing up and walking over on the bus with shaky legs,
"Are you okay?" She asked, "Do you know if anyone else...um...made, it?" The reality of it sank in when she asked the question about more survivors.
People had died. From the looks of it, most had died. She was starting to feel sick.
She heard a rising voice and the sounds of movement. Carefully she crept along the bus, looking down the windows and seeing the other students,
dead. She spotted Mihael kneeling over what Erica recognized as her brother, "Are...are you okay?"
It felt like such a stupid question when she said it aloud, but she had no idea what to say. What were the right words for a situation like this?
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