Chapter Text
Your mother tells you she loves you and wishes you a good day at school as you head out the door to get on the bus. You don't tell her you love her back or thank her for her wish or everything she's done for you. You just close the door behind you and walk to the bus waiting on the corner.
But you didn't know this would be the last time you'd see your mother. If you did you probably would've just stayed home that day.
As I get on the bus I take a seat in one of the middle rows and just look out the window as the bus driver starts to the next stop.
The high school bus driver, Mr. Reed was a big man who was known solely for drinking his coffee from an old jelly jar.
I looked behind us as we turned and saw the elementary-middle school bus just behind. The high school bus was supposed to pick up much before the elementary-middle school bus but Mr. Reed didn't care.
As we came up on the next stop I looked out the window and saw my friend Dean and his younger brother, Alex sprinting to the buses. Dean made it on the bus just in time and I watched as he walked down the aisle, scanning the bus in the process. He saw me and made his way towards me and sat beside me.
He was slightly out of breath from running. Dean wasn't the most fit, he was really skinny and tall, almost no muscle but his green eyes and light brown hair made up for that. We've been friends since middle school, when he was much shorter than now. We never had feelings for each other because Dean had his sights set on Astrid, a girl a grade above ours - a senior. I on the other hand didn't care much for the guys at our school, there were a few good looking ones but I was far too shy to try to strike up a conversation.
I look at Dean as he sat, catching his breath when I saw Niko, a quiet boy who people nicknamed "Brave Hunter Man" because of the rumors about him living in the foothills with his grandfather where they didn't have electricity and hunted for their food, leaned over the seat across from ours and pointed to Dean's shoe - it was untied.
When I looked over at Niko I saw he was sitting with someone. Quite unusual because Niko was a very reserved person. But when the other person turned their head to look at the interaction I realized it was Heeseung Lee. An equally quiet boy, it made sense for them to be sitting together.
Heeseung Lee is one of the few good looking guys and the only one whom I've really talked to. We've been lab partners a few times and from our short interactions I knew he was a nice guy, far too shy for a guy with a face like his. Similar to Dean he was tall and skinny but he had black hair, pretty doe eyes and a sharp nose.
After Dean tied his shoelace he pulled his minitab out from his backpack and tried to turn it on but the screen stayed black. "Did you forget to charge it?" I asked. "No, it was on the charging plate before I left," he said, confused. "Weird," I commented before we started hearing a small tink sound.
It was like rain but if the rain was made of small metal pellets. Then the sound increased, it was no longer small tinks, they were louder. "Holy Christ!" Mr. Reed screamed and suddenly the TINKS became BAM, BAM, BAM. The roof of the bus was starting to dent from the force of whatever was raining down on us. And then the windshield was becoming less and less clear as cracks started to run through the glass. I looked out the window and saw what was making all this damage, and it was hail. Hail in sizes ranging from small pieces to no-way-that's-hail. I started freaking out, this is in no way a simple hailstorm.
Suddenly I was thrown to the window as Mr. Reed started swerving on the road and he took us to the parking lot of our Greenway superstore. There weren't many cars because it was only 7:15 am.
I turned to look at Dean and it was like I was watching a movie. Everyone was flung around as the bus started spinning. My stomach felt like I was on a rollercoaster and I was going to throw up. But then I was flung forward, hitting the seat in front of me. My ears were filled with a loud metallic screech and then I was out of my seat, getting thrown around in the bus. The sickness in my stomach came back when I didn't hear any screams, just grunts and thuds. Somehow, that was worse than hearing screams.
I was thrown one last time as my back hit the roof of the bus. Although it was no longer the roof, it was the wall - the bus was on its side.
Now, the hail that was simply thundering on the roof was now coming at us at full speed through the broken windows. And then the screams started.
I rushed to stand and get against the roof, staying as flat as possible as to not get hit. But, it didn't work all that well, I was still getting hit in my legs and abdomen. I looked around me and saw a part of the windshield that was still see-through and saw that the elementary-middle school bus was hurdling toward the front of the Greenway. I knew Mrs. Wooly, the bus driver, would do anything to protect her kids and she did, she crashed right through the doors of the Greenway.
My thoughts were interrupted when I heard a blood curdling scream. I turned and saw Josie Miller, covered in blood, sitting in the open, getting hit relentlessly by hail and helplessly pulling on a bloody arm that was caught between two seats. I remembered she was sitting next to Trish Greenstein. The blood Josie was covered in was not hers but Trish's. Jesus.
I saw Brayden, an asshole who always boasted about his dad working at NORAD, was trying to turn on his minitab and film Josie. What an asshole. Then a large chunk of hail hit Josie right on her forehead, creating a giant gash, blood starting to spill over her face.
I was about to go help her but Niko was faster than me and quickly grabbed her and pulled her to bring her under a seat. Then, people started to try finding a way out.
Astrid rushed to the front of the bus, trying to kick out the windshield. I took a deep breath and ran to help her. I heard her yell "Help me!" and I turned to see who she was yelling at and I saw Dean under a seat, shocked out of his mind. He didn't even respond.
She gave up on him and yelled to Noah Simonsen and his friends, "We've got to get into the store!" and she ran to the back of the bus. I followed telling her, "But if we go out, the hail will kill us!" She ignored me and tried to help Noah get the emergency exit open. Then, I saw out the window that Mrs. Wooly was backing up her bus to ours. Thank God.
But then I realized the bus was quickly filling up with smoke and spilling out the broken windows - the bus was on fire. People started screaming and panicking even more while some were rejoicing at the fact we were getting saved. Mrs. Wooly managed to get the door open and I saw her standing there, ax in hand, shouting, "Get in the godforsaken bus!"
We all hurriedly crawled through the small exit and I looked around me and didn't find Dean. I gasped, turning to Niko, "Niko, Dean's not here!" I cried. He turned and went through the exit without hesitation and after a bit, he came crawling back through with Dean. I tried to get to him but Mrs. Wooly and Noah helped him get into a seat and then Dean threw up on Noah. If this were any other situation I would've laughed.
Mrs. Wooly rushed back to the drivers seat and sat me in a seat, next to Heeseung. I looked back at Dean and he looked an utter wreck. Then I started coughing and coughing, black gunk started appearing on my sleeve as I coughed. My body trying to get rid of the smoke I had inhaled.
I looked around the bus and saw Josie against a window, Astrid trying to stop the blood from her gash, Brayden still trying to power up his minitab, and Niko sitting up front, coughing like I was. And I turned to look at Heeseung and we met eyes. We could tell the other was scared and in shock. I didn't realize I was shaking until Heeseung put his hand over mine. I saw he had a big bruise beginning to form on his arm from getting hit.
Then, I was blinded by a bright flash of orange and I realized that our bus had exploded.
"Well," Noah said. "That was close."
Dean laughed. I almost did too.
Then, Brayden stood up and started ranting about how we should all sue the Board of Education for what just happened. He was clearly in shock like the rest of us.
I looked back around the bus and counted - Dean, Noah, Josie, Astrid, Brayden, Heeseung, and Me. There was around 17 kids on the bus and we were all that was left.