I lead the group up my gravel driveway, navigating with the weak light emitted from the streep lamps above. We turn right up the street, heading towards the main road. My head whips back and forth, checking for any possible enemies. "Wait, just where do we plan to go?" Georgia voices the question that has been nagging at all of our minds. "We need to get to somewhere busy, so no one can find us." Hannah states. "Okay, then, I know just where to go." I call.
We half-run-half-walk up the road until it converges with the A606(the big road). I cross over the street, looking out for cars. There's not really any vehicles on the road at the moment. Unsurprisingly, really - it is half three in the morning. We reach the curb on the other side of the street and I take us into the bus shelter. It's so dark that, at first, I think it's empty. "Here we are" I say "What?? It's three thirty, how often do the buses run at this time of night??" Hannah asks "Good question..." I remark.. "Uggh" Lily moans "I'm shattered. If we're gonna be waitin' around here for the next few hours, I might as well get a bit of kip." She leans down against the wall of the shelter. Suddenly, she's screaming, a really high pitched one that pierces my ear drums. She jumps up as if she just sat on a hot poker. "What?" Annabell squeaks "There's .... someone.... in here..." Lily shudders. I'm about to tell her to stop being so stupid, but then we all here this low, rumbling groan from the corner "AAAHH!" We wail. Remembering the torch in my pocket, I flick it on. The beam of bright light shines on a crumpled mass of a person "OOF, mind where yer pointin' that thingy" The heap complains "It talks!" I hiss. "Well o' course I do. Now if yer don't mind, I'll be off, if yer gonna be 'ere" And with that, he rose from his awkward position and walked off into the dark distance.
There's a few seconds' silence, then we all burst out laughing. "Why didn't he want to murder us as well, then?" I wonder aloud. "Maybe tramps are nice!" Sophie suggests brightly. We all just giggle harder "What? It was an idea!" She protests. Just then, we spot a vehicle trundling down the road towards us "THE BUS!" Annabell announces. We heave a sigh of relief and flag it down by waving frantically. Thankfully, it pulls into the bay and grinds to a halt. The electric doors judder open and we step inside. The lights on the bus are all on, illuminating the rows of padded seats. "Where to then, ladies" the driver asks creepily. He's leaning across his barrier-thing and grinning strangely. His pudgy face is pressed up against mine and he smiles, somewhat evilly. "Ohmygoodness!" Georgia yelps "He's one of them!" I understand at the same moment as her and so bring the torch up in a violent arch. It conks him right in his temple and he slumps back into the seat. I never realised I had it in me. There was one hitch with this though.... "Crap, who's gonna drive the bus?" Hannah asks. Without warning, Sophie hops up into the seat,"VROOM! I can drive, I've driven before!" Sophie yells, eagerly. "Urrr, Sophie, you're 12 years old, how can you have driven before?" I ask "I drive quadbikes all the time!" She replies "Well..... there not Quite the same, are they?" Lily says "Hush, you guys, I can drive, it's a pushover" Sophie shrugs us off.
In the end, we agree to this crazy notion. Abruptly, we hit the next problem with the plan,"Guys, my feet don't reach the pedals...."
Oh dear.
"Someone needs to press the pedals and I can steer and work the gears" She states. Reluctantly, I say I will. I crouch down in the space between her feet " This looks soo wrong. " I say "Wait, which pedals are which?!" I yell before Sophie can fully turn the key in the ignition. "Left is the clutch, the middle one is the accele-- wait, the break and the one on the right is the accelerator" Oh goodness, this is not going to work, I think. With a 'click' the key turns and the enginge roars into life.
"Right, press the accelerator down a bit" Sophie instructs. I do so "Now press down the clutch while I put it into gear" I obey and switch hands. Sophie twiddles with the joystick to her left "Quick, press the accelerator!" She commands. Following the instructions, I lean on the pedal on the right. With a lurch, the bus takes off. Sophie makes loud noises whilst driving, "Vroom vroom! Brum brum brum!" She swings the steering wheel round and round madly "Careful!" I shout over the noise of the engine "Aahh! Sophie, watch out! We nearly smashed that '30' miles an hour sign over!" Annabell yells. We are driving in the middle of the road now, and I pray that no one is coming. "Whoo, that was a close one!" Sophie giggles "What happened?" I demand "oh, nothing!" comes the reply.
"AAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!" everyone wails in unison "What's going on?" I feel the bus make a sudden lurch to the left and hear a huge Crunch. I look up in time to see the bus careen through the thorn bush "SOOOOOPHIE! Please don't kill us!" I cry. The terrain has changed to a grassy cushion beneath the wheels and I see that we're in the field that runs parallel to the road. "Stop the bus!" I yell "you're the one that has to press the pedal" Oh yeah, I forgot. I shove the pedal down and we stop extremely suddenly. Georgia, Hannah and Lily fall forward into a pile at the front. At least we've stopped.....
"This was the stupiddest idea ever!" Georgia says " Now we're in a random field, not knowing where the city is or even how to get to it with probably a hundred people after us! And I doubt we'll get the bus going again. This is gonna be a loong night...."
