Atticus checked his watch. "Guys, we got 20 minutes until the bulldozers come!" he realized. "Come on, let's roll!"
Arnold took a rope and a hook and helped them off the roof to safety as the rain stopped, but thunder still rumbled.
"Going down." Patch said.
"By the way, Helga, it doesn't affect you that Patch is talking?" Arnold asked.
"Patch can talk?" Helga asked. "Huh, guess I haven't noticed..."
"Seriously?" Patch asked. "How could you not notice?"
Helga, Atticus, Patch, and Arnold made it to a stop and a familiar bus came up, much to their reluctance.
"Sorry, we couldn't find a cab." Cherry said to them.
"Get in," Gerald said before seeing Helga with them. "Helga? What's she doing here?"
"No time to explain, Gerald," Arnold replied urgently. "We got exactly sixteen minutes to get back to the neighborhood to stop the bulldozers."
"Behind the yellow line." Murray warned them.
"Yeah, yeah, just get to driving." Patch said.
Murray didn't even phase out that a dog talked to him and drove his usual speed. The others were by Murrays' side while Cherry was curled up on a seat, leaning her head against the window, her eyes were shut and her mouth was half open, making strange noises.
"Murray, could you please go faster?" Atticus asked.
"I do 25 miles an hour," Murray replied. "No exceptions, no discussion."
"But people's lives are at stake!" Arnold cried out.
"It's not my problem." Murray still refused.
"The thing is, Murray, we're kind on in a hurry," Gerald urged. "A whole neighborhood's about to be torn down and we have a proof that can stop 'em from doing it. We have to get there in fourteen minutes."
"I'll get you there when I get you there, which, according to my schedule, will be in about 44 minutes." Murray droned.
'Does nothing faze this guy?' Patch thought to himself.
Murray ignored Arnold and Gerald's protests.
"Don't you care that every building from 33rd to 39th Street is going to be demolished?" Atticus asked, disappointed.
That got Murray's attention however. "Did you say 33rd to 39th Street?"
"Yeah, why?" Patch asked.
"Hey, that's where Mona lives!" Murray realized before actually speeding the bus up for them. "Hang on to your goodies, kids. We got a neighborhood to save."
The kids and puppy flung back as soon as Murray sped up.
"Huh?" Cherry snorted, slowly waking up. "What...?"
"We just motivated Murray to go faster." Patch and Atticus smiled.
"Is there anything we can do?" Gerald asked.
"Yeah," Murray replied as he kept going super fast, above his speed limit. "You can get down on your knees and pray this hunk of junk holds together long enough to get us uptown in one piece."
"Already on it." Patch said before beginning to praying that they would make it.
"Look!" Arnold pointed to a blocked road from FTI men who were going to ambush them.
"This guys sure is persistent." Atticus said.
Cherry yawned and came over, rubbing under her glasses. "What'd I miss?" she asked, slightly mumbling from sleepiness.
"Oh, nothing much, except for that!" Patch pointed to what was in front of the bus.
Cherry yawned, rubbing her eyes, and saw, then let out a gasp. The drawbridge was now starting to rise. Gerald started to pray in a different language.
"I didn't know you were religious." Arnold said to his best friend.
"Neither did I." Gerald muttered back.
"We can make it." Atticus said.
The bus jumped over the open space between the two bridge halves. Murray hits his head hard and passes out. Arnold panicked and tried to wake him up, but the driver wouldn't and his fake leg was also stuck.
"Oh, no, he's passed out and his fake leg is stuck!" Patch panicked.
Gerald tried to free Murray's leg. "I can't budge it!"
"Oh, perfect." Helga scoffed.
"Let me give it a try." Atticus said.
Gerald backed up.
"Guys, I'm all for help, but we're in a bus WITH A KNOCKED OUT DRIVER!" Cherry reminded them.
Arnold then had an idea, remembering something from earlier. "Gerald, you'll have to drive."
"Him?" Helga scoffed.
"Me!?" Gerald gawked at his best friend. "Are you crazy!?"
"He's right, Gerald, you'll have to drive." Atticus said after getting Murray's foot off the gas pedal before Patch puts a little pressure on the gas pedal.
"I'll get the peddles since your legs are too short." Patch offered as he leaned against the pedals.
"Are you guys crazy!?" Gerald gaped at them for their suggestion.
"Gerald, you're the top-scoring Runaway Bus player at the arcade," Arnold encouraged. "You can do it!"
"That's a game!" Gerald refused. "This is real life!"
"You can do it, Gerald, I know you can." Arnold assured his best friend.
"Why do you always have to do that, why you always have to look on the bright side?" Gerald grilled his best friend. "'We can save the neighborhood, we can find the document, you can drive the bus'."
"Somebody has to." Arnold shrugged.
"Oh, man..." Gerald got up on the seat. "Get ready, Doggy!"
"You got it, but I can't do these pedals by myself." Patch informed him.
"One of you also has to get Murray's leg off the gas pedal!" Gerald yelled out.
"His leg is already off the gas pedal." Patch told him.
"It is?" Gerald asked.
"Yeah, I got it." Atticus showed.
"Well, someone take the brakes then!" Gerald sounded rushed as he gripped the steering wheel.
"I guess I'll take the brakes." Helga said.
"BRAKE!" Gerald cried as soon as he saw a grubby old man pushing a cart filled with cans.
Helga then put pressure on the brakes. The man avoided the bus, but the bus hit the cart.
"Clutch!" Gerald cried.
Arnold used the clutch.
Sheck was nearly with them, smiling evilly to the heroes. "You take the low road, and I'll take the high road~"
"Are we almost there?!" Patch asked.
"I'm trying!" Gerald growled, under a lot of pressure due to driving the bus.
"Sorry." Patch apologized.
They drove and drove and drove, until there was a section of the highway missing.
"Guys, we can't make it!" Gerald cried.
"Maybe we get out and jump out!" Helga suggested.
"No, use the truck!" Arnold suggested, seeing a truck stopped at the missing section of the highway. "We can jump the hole!"
"Jump the hole!?" Gerald glanced at his friend. "Arnold, that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard!... Let's do it!
"Hey, what happened?" Murray asked, waking up.
"It's okay, Murray, we're jumping the ramp." Arnold replied.
"Ramp?" Murray asked before looking. "What ramp?" Once he saw the ramp, he passed out again.
"Ah, great..." Cherry deadpanned. "Terrific! Fantastic! Best day ever!"
"Hopefully we'll be able to make it with the speed we're going." Patch said.
"Get ready!" Gerald told the others as he continued to drive over the ramp.
Patch began to pray while keeping pressure on the gas pedal. The bus jumped off the ramp and was flying over the boarding house and it landed successfully on the other side.
Cherry looked very sick and started to wither, collapsing onto the floor of the bus, but not exactly passing out like Murray. "Oof..."
"You okay, Cherry?" Atticus asked.
Cherry gulped, looking very sick now. "I don't even know anymore..."
"Well, don't worry, we're almost there." Atticus said.
"We better be..." Cherry slowly shut her eyes. "Dying is more painful than I thought it'd be..."
The bus crashed through a destruction barricade and they were getting nearer their destination.
"Now what?" Gerald wondered.
"Grandma!" Arnold gasped.
"What about your grandma?" Gerald asked.
"I thought she was in jail." Atticus said.
"She was in jail." Arnold pointed to show his grandmother was in a bulldozer.
Grandma started to knock over everything else that was going to destroy the neighborhood.
"Yes, Grandma!" Arnold cheered for her.
"You know she's going back to jail, Arnold." Patch commented.
"I know." Arnold replied.
"Um, guys, there's a bulldozer heading straight towards us!" Atticus warned them.
"Hang on!" Gerald told the others.
The bus fell onto its right side, crashing in the process and stops. People came out to look at the bus. TV reporters and the mayor had also arrived. The bus was in a wreck and everyone was worried that no one could have survived that.