Tranquil Fury (2 page)

What happened next only took a matter of seconds. They would barely remember seeing the lit flares, nor would they recall the military signs on the motionless truck. The scream from the bus driver made them all look forward, and that was when they saw the headlights in the other lane. All but Zack watched in disbelief as they saw the other truck go by, watched it slam into the stalled vehicle. An explosion filled the tunnel with flames. A brilliant flash of light, a sonic boom, everything went dark.

Chapter 2

John found himself lying in a field, a cool breeze sweeping over him. He sat up to find himself feeling completely deflated, as though somebody had kicked the crap out of him, and it took some time for his eyes to adjust to his new surroundings. A sea of grass opened up before him, tall and sweeping. Gazing up towards the sky, he observed three distinct suns; a red light low in the sky, a large yellow sun in the noon position, and a bright blue dot between the two. Dumbfounded, he rubbed his eyes only to find the same three circles. He turned and looked around to find more confusion. First was the school bus. The cab was missing, and with no front wheels to support the bus, it was resting on the pavement from Route 89, on a downward angle. On closer inspection, he saw the left hand lane of the highway, and the exposed mountainside inside the tunnel. Above the tunnel was the weather-worn exposed rock of the mountain, but the side that was in line with the front of the bus was perfectly smooth, as if somebody had cut it with a laser, and there were also no sharp edges on the bisected bus. It was obvious that the odd configuration of bus, road, tunnel, and mountain did not belong in the large grasslands that he now sat.

John heard a moan, saw Lauren sit up, and went to her, “Are you okay?”

Lauren had a confused look, “I think so. What happened?”

John just shook his head, “Not sure.”

Lauren looked around, “Where are the others?”

Logan was lying on the floor under Lauren’s seat, and Eric, who had been sitting behind Logan, was partially on the floor, as the space between the seats, was too small for him to completely slide off his— both were emerging from an extreme state of disorientation. As the two helped their fallen classmates into an upright position, they observed the chaos at the back of the bus—broken windows jagged metal holes bulleted the bus sides, while some of the seats had tiny smoldering flames. Zack, distracted by the attention to his project, had failed to witness the event, was lying crumped over onto the project he was working on. The large plastic case he had balanced on his lap at the time of the accident, had partially melted from the intense heat, and had adhered to his body. Following a brief examination, John found him to be unconscious, only suffering severe burns.

 “Can you please get Zack out of here?” John called in Eric’s direction.

Eric, along with Logan, lifted Zack, and carefully moved his limp body towards the missing front of the bus. And it was at this point that they came across Ryan, lying on his back like a discarded rag doll, his mangled wheelchair dangling from the open emergency exit door. He did not appear to have any broken bones, but pools of blood were beginning to form under his legs. John tried to revive him, however, Ryan did not move.

 “Get out of there, so we can move him,” Eric barked.

 “NO!” replied John, “You can’t move him. We have to stabilize his back and neck first.” He pulled out the Leatherman tool he always carried, made a couple of cuts in Ryan’s pants, and then handed it to Eric, “Take apart one of the seats! We need a flat, moveable surface. Find me a jacket I can wrap around his neck.” Many of those on the bus were aware that John had completed several university medical classes, and was clearly the most qualified to help, “Lauren, see if the first-aid kit is under the front seat. If so, please bring it to me.”

Eric grabbed the Leatherman tool, and with Logan’s help, began to take apart one of the seats. John ripped open the blood soaked pants to expose the bleeding, and applied pressure using whatever could pass for dressings. When the seat was free, John told Eric to clear the emergency exit, and to slide the makeshift backboard through the door, and under Ryan.

“Lauren, go to the end. Eric and Logan, get on each side. I will gently push him, while you three pull him onto the board. His legs are going to hang over the end, so Lauren you will have to steady them.” After what seemed like an eternity, Ryan was eventually loaded onto the board, and brought to the front of the bus’s hull, so that John would have space to move, and he went into action. “He has some really bad cuts on his legs that need stitches. Lauren do you have any sewing needles and thread in your purse? Lauren, what’s wrong?”

Lauren handed John the first aid kit, “He’s not going to die, is he?”

 “He should be fine. Do you have a sewing kit?”

 “Yes, I’ll get it.”

As John was cutting more of Ryan’s pants, he called to Eric, “I need you and Logan to hold Ryan down. He might be unconscious, but this is going to hurt. I have to stop the bleeding, or he’ll go into shock.” It was about an hour later, the damage to Ryan’s legs was treated, his breathing once again rhythmic and calm. Following a quick examination of Zack, John concluded that no bones had been broken, but the melted plastic and burns were too horrific for his limited expertise, and medical supplies.

John looked at Eric, “We need something to keep them warm. Do you think you could cut the fabric off some of the other seats? So we can use them as blankets.”

Lauren walked over to John, and handed him a bottle of water, “Here, have a drink.”

 “No, we should collect all the food and water. Put it into a community pool. We may need to ration it, until we can find…” John stopped, scanned the grasslands from horizon to horizon, there was nothing in sight, “We really need to ration everything we have.”

Lauren persisted, “Look, with this heat, and how hard you have been working, you are not thinking smart. We can’t afford to have you pass out from heat exhaustion. Please take a drink.”

John knew she was right, and took a big gulp of water, spilling some onto his shirt. That was when he saw his broken glasses, with the big round frames in his pocket. He immediately recalled his mother and father, tears forming in his eyes.

 “John, it will be okay.” While Lauren tried to reassure him, her trembling voice lacked the necessary conviction.

Eric returned with the seat covers, and laid them on top of Ryan and Zack, and Logan had brought back some wood that had fallen off the tunnel roof. Eric walked by John, and held out his hand, “Here I found these. You might need them.” It was a pair of his regular eyeglasses, the same pair that had ‘disappeared’ the week before. Eric then went over to Zack, rifled through his pockets, looking for his lighter, and once he found it, he tossed it to Logan, who was gathering some dried grass.

With a small fire going, everybody gathered around it, and after several minutes of silence, Eric finally spoke, “Anybody have any idea what happened?” Logan, Lauren, and John were all quiet. Eric repeated the question, “Anybody? Where are we? What should we do?”

His head bent forward, John stared at the grass, yet he felt everybody’s eyes on him. Looking up, he was unsure of what to say.
What the hell? Uninhabited grasslands, three suns in the sky, this is not Earth. What can I say that will make any sense of this? Limited water and food, two injured
. John gathered his thoughts, “My best guess? That accident opened up some sort of wormhole. When it formed, it consumed everything in its area of effect, the bus, tunnel, and even the mountain, pulled it all through, and then brought it here. I know that seems ridiculous, but those three suns in the sky, they are all the evidence I need. We are not on Earth. As for where this is, I have no idea. I don’t even think we are in our own solar system.”

 “How the hell could that happen,” asked Eric?

John shook his head, “I don’t know. I really do not know. The theory behind a wormhole usually involves a massive amount of focused energy generated by a dying star. But there is no other explanation as to how we travelled from there to here.”

 “John, how do we get back,” asked Lauren?

 “Get back?” John wiped a tear from his eye, “We don’t. Not unless we can find somebody who has interstellar space travel capabilities. You can check around that mountain and tunnel if you want. See if you can find a pair of ruby slippers sticking out from under it. If you do, we simply put them on, and wish our way back home. I hate to be the one to break this to all of you, but getting back is not an option. Without space travel—or, maybe another wormhole, we would need an amazing magic trick. Hell, even then it could take forever to find our solar system.”

Lauren cupped her face in her hands, hoping that if nobody else could see the tears forming, that they would go away.

Logan looked at John, “There must be somebody here who can help us?”

 “Those possibilities are limitless. We could be the only people on this planet. On the other hand, bloodthirsty savages could occupy it. If anybody or anything lives here, I doubt that it is a post-industrial age. The skies are clear, and there are no signs of vapor trails left by jets.”

 “Could there be aliens here?” Logan asked with an odd expression on his face.

 “Aliens, monsters, nobody, I really have no idea,” replied John.

Eric got up and scanned the horizon, hoping to see somebody or something. It had not changed from the last time he looked, “Then what do we do?”

John replied, “We either wait here, or we go looking for somebody. All of the rescue books would say that we should stay at the scene of the accident. However, those first responders are back home, in what is left of that tunnel. I don’t think they will find us here.”

Between sobs, Lauren managed to eke out, “I don’t want to be here!”

Frustration and shock began to gnaw at each of them. Eric looked at Lauren, “Call your mother, have her come, and pick you up.”

That was the last straw for Lauren. With tears streaming down her face, she got up and headed to the bus, crying louder as she got farther away.

Logan had a stunned look on his face, “You don’t have to be a bastard Eric.”

 “I’ll apologize when we get home.”

Logan headed off to comfort Lauren, but was unclear how he was going to do it.

Eric looked at John, “Then we build a signal fire?”

“Do whatever you want Eric.”

 “Look, we need to figure out a plan. Don’t you go having a hissy fit on me as well.”

 “We don’t have enough wood for a fire. And even if we did, I don’t know if there is anybody to see it,” replied John.

 “Then we need to find them. Which way should we go?”

 “I have no idea. If you wanted to do that, then you should head into one of the sunsets or sunrises. The climate going north would get colder, decreasing the chances of finding a wide population of people. On the other hand, heading south would result in warmer weather. On Earth, warmer climates are typically more populated, but here, it increases the chances of us stumbling into a desert or wasteland. However, by the looks of it, this land is so incredibly flat, and with no landmarks to focus on, you could spend days just wandering. And how would we carry Zack and Ryan?”

Eric was getting discouraged, “What if I head out by myself, try to find somebody and bring them back here?” He looked up into the sky, “Which sun should I follow?”

 “Take your pick. I have no idea.”

 “John, we need to do something. I’ll go and find somebody to help.”

 “In three days without water, your body will start to die. If you should find water, or get some moisture by eating grass, or something similar, you would have less than three weeks to find somebody before your body begins to consume itself. You would be able to travel about 500 miles if you’re lucky, assuming that you don’t get lost. And of course, even if you were to find somebody, by the time you got back here, we would all probably be dead.”

Eric began to get increasingly apprehensive, “Well then what do we do?”

John continued to wipe more tears from his eyes, “Eric, I don’t know what the right answer is. I only know what happens if we do something wrong.”

 “We have to do something…” Eric kicked the ground in frustration, and headed towards the bus, leaving John to contemplate on his own, and when Eric reached the tunnel, he immediately began to climb the side of the mountain. John began to think of his mother and father at home, wondering what had happened. Sitting at the kitchen table not knowing if their son was killed, was abducted or something else, and started to cry uncontrollably.

The first sun set an hour later, the twins returned to the dwindling fire with more wood, and their backpacks. Lauren took a seat next to John, and proceeded to wrap her arm around him. Her eyes swollen, she pointed to Eric in the distance, “There must be some irony in that? Mount Eric is climbing a mountain?”

 John wiped his nose with the back of his hand, “He will probably fall off, and I will have to glue him back together.”

After Logan had built up the fire, he pulled out two sandwiches from his backpack, which he then offered to them. John considered launching into the ration speech again, but was too hungry and accepted the offer.

“John. Is it really as bad as I think it is,” asked Lauren?

Before John could answer, they heard rocks sliding off the mountain, bouncing off of the metal tunnel. Eric came rushing after them, sliding down, pointing to the south. They all stood up and glanced behind them, and in the distance, they could see something heading towards them.

It took Eric thirty minutes to rejoin the group, “Logan, Lauren, hide in the grass beside Zack and Ryan. If they make any noise, cover their mouths. John, you and I are going to do the talking. Give me that knife-tool thing, just in case.”

The four foot, ten inches of John, looked up to Eric, “What am I supposed to do?”

Eric replied, “I may not be the smartest in the group, but I do understand teams. Until we get out of this, we need to deploy our best offensive line, according to what we are facing.” They started to walk across the grasslands, but John kept a few steps back, hoping that if anything bad happened, he could outrun the giant, whose shadow he now walked in.