The robot was still in its crate, and from the lack of bloodstains or dead bodies, they all assumed nobody had tried to steal it. Small mercies.
The crate was about a meter tall, and half as large, which reassured Tsuna a little. From the was Spanner had described his machine of death, he had expected it to tower at two meters at least. And this way, they could transport it on its wheels without being too conspicuous.
The bus stop was completely deserted, but that meant nobody was there to hear the blond's questions. Still, Tsuna asked him to wait some more until they were all safely between the walls of their home before explaining what had happened during the conference.
The bus home arrived early for once, which was welcome. Apart from the driver, it was empty, which Tsuna thought was odd. It was 6.30 pm and a Thursday, surely people would be coming back from work at this hour, no? But once more, he didn't look a gifted horse in the mouth and settled quietly in the back of the vehicle. His Intuition had been buzzing aimlessly nonstop since the incident during the lecture, so he didn't pay any mind to it.
It was only ten minutes later that he really began to worry. "Isn't that the wrong road?" Asked Shoichi as he looked out. Indeed, the countryside they saw was not the same as they had seen that morning. "Did we take the wrong bus?"
"I don't think so." Replied Hayato before turning towards the front of the bus. "Hey, mister driver, is this the bus to Napoli?"
The driver didn't so much as hint that he had heard the question, so Hayato asked again, louder this time. Still no reaction.
The silveret's short temper led him to go directly to the front of the bus to talk some sense into the rude driver. But when he finally got close enough to look the man into the eyes, he only blinked and turned towards his companions. "Fuck, I think we have a problem, guys."
As if finally hearing his words, the bus suddenly stopped. The teens all gathered next to Hayato to see what the issue was and why they were no longer moving. That's when they had a good look at the driver for the first time and understood why the Storm was so concerned.
The driver was a robot.
A well-crafted one, at that. From afar, he would not look strange at all, but from up close, you could see that his eyes were unnaturally still, staring fixedly at the road, and that his 'skin' didn't have the various shades and colors that real flesh sported.
"I think we should get out." Muttered Shoichi in fear. There was something very wrong afoot here, and he didn't want to stay to see what it was. Never mind that they would have to make the trek back home by foot.
The door was easy to open -Byakuran just pressed the button near the driver, who didn't bat an eye, literally- and they all left the vehicle as one. They took a look at their surroundings.
They were on an empty, and clearly unused road, with a forest on one side, and endless fields on the other. Apart from the dirt road beneath their feet, there was no trace of civilization around. The sun was slowly setting over the tall trees, and the growing shadows only made the scene even more eerie.
It was the perfect setting for a horror movie, thought Tsuna distantly (and he blamed Kyoya for his familiarity with that type of movie. The Cloud loved watching them, sneering at the 'foolish herbivores' that got killed off one by one, and mocking silently the lack of realism when someone was butchered. But since everyone watched these movies together most of the time, Tsuna had refused to allow the raven to buy more accurate ones; I-pin and Lambo were fine with watching sprays of red paint fly over meters, but they were still too young to see anything more graphic -former baby hitmen or not).
Chapter 24: That doesn't have public transportation
Start from the beginning
