Chapter 7: The Wheels On The Bus Are Falling Off
There were many reasons why Zack was glad he was in the driver's seat and not in the back with the rest of the kids. For starters, there were no seat belts in the back (yes in the year 2040 they still never added them) so whenever he hit a bike, or swerved to avoid a two headed cat, everyone in the back fell out of their seats. Also their bus was not meant to hold forty-six people and a bunch of supplies, so he was thankful to be in his very roomy driver's seat. True, it would have been nice to talk to someone on the long ride to a safer area, but there was time for all that later.
By now he had decided that it would be safe to assume that all the grownups--or at least all the ones living in his town--where gone. They didn't pass any corpses on their drive from town, leading him to believe that the Ralams didn't attack at midnight--which was something that happened more than not. They did however pass a few other kids creeping down the streets and a few even tried getting Zack's attention, but he didn't stop. If they didn't know what was happening that wasn't his fault, and if the grownups never returned, the kids would eventually catch on.
True, he probably should have been a little nervous about what would happen if he awoke the next day to find that all the adults had returned, and were angry about him stealing a school bus, robbing a few stores, and smashing just a couple of stop signs. But really who could blame him? If he would've just sat tight and waited what would have happened if the grownups never returned, and he could have lost his only chance at survival.... At least this is what he would argue if anyone did return, but by now Zack was hoping they didn't.
He was able to navigate the bus out of the city shortly after leaving the hardware store, allowing him to stay on, relatively straight, country roads that were easy enough to drive on.... True, it got boring after the first hour or two, especially since he had no idea where he was actually going, causing him to turn at any given point, and occasionally double back on a road he had just visited. But at least it was better than biking....
Finally at 6:27, after everyone said they were tired and hungry for about the hundredth time, Zack figured it would be safe to stop for dinner before dark. By now he figured they were a good distance from town, though the barren deserted farm fields weren't really his idea of a good enough cover to stay long at.
As you could imagine, being the very responsible children they were, dinner consisted of two carrots, a protein bar, and a nice little cup of yogurt for dessert. In no way was it a full on raid of sugary foods, raided from both grocery store and hardware store checkouts. In no way did this total unguided raid, that definitely didn't happen, lead to everybody jumping and screaming on the rest of the remaining short portion of the trip.
True, a trip away from town should take more than a few hours. And really shouldn't have ended anytime soon, but because of all the excitement, no one noticed that a box of nails was left out, why there was a box of nails out in the first place, Zack frankly had no idea. But when the bus was driving away it rolled right over the box of nails.... Which did no harm to the bus at all, so really the entire predicament just seemed rather odd to Zack.
Anyway it was getting pretty dark, but despite this, none of the group seemed to care and just kept shouting, cracking jokes, playing a cliche song by R. E. M. on repeat, and doing a lot of other loud things that shouldn't be done while trying to keep a low profile. This was their first big mistake.
As anyone knows it would be too good of a day if all that went wrong was getting chased by a wrongly named guard dog, getting kidnapped and mocked by girls, and... well actually those are the only bad things that happened to Zack so that's why a giant RipJaw must have decided to attack them.
So--as anyone knows--when trying to avoid RipJaws the best thing to do is not make noise and try to avoid rubber due to the fact that those are the two things they eat. No, they don't eat noise, I mean they eat the things that make noise and rubber... Just to be clear they only eat living things that make noise... and those rubber bike horns, because--as just stated--they eat rubber. So as you could imagine a bus with rubber wheels and screaming children would be like having a giant neon sign flashing 'free food.' Not really though RipJaws can't stand light.
The beast charged at the bus in a part run, part fly, kind of way, oozing its toxic slime as it went. Pity the kids didn't notice till it was already hanging on the side of the bus. Which caused a lot of kids to scream and run to the other side--stepping on someone's phone in the process and cutting out the music right around the same time Lenny Bruce was mentioned for the second time. Luckily the large motor vehicle didn't tip since the weight of all forty-five kids' was about equal to that of the hulking RipJaw's.
Zack barely had to turn around to see the monstrosity climbing up to the top of the bus. "Everybody hang on!" he exclaimed. Not like he really had to tell them. He tried to blow the creature off by going really fast, but sadly the bus could only go sixty. Fifty when loaded with dozens of kids and a hungry RipJaw.
In response to his efforts two giant pairs of claws ripped through the ceiling.
Not knowing what else to do, some kids loaded guns and tried shooting through the roof. (Because apparently in 2040, kids are trained marksmen ready to shoot at a moments notice, Zack blamed Call of Duty.) On the bright side, it worked and the bullets shot straight through the ceiling... instead of the other alternative of the bullets bouncing harmlessly off the roof and ricocheting back at the defenseless kids.
The only problem was that the bullets just seemed to annoy the beast, barely breaking the skin at most points. Before long the beast had ripped a large chunk of the ceiling off, viciously clawing at it. Zack's heart skipped a beat, thinking how easily it would be for the wicked creature to tear through them, and their flesh that was far softer than a bus's ceiling. Thankfully before the RipJaw could make another move, Jane, being the apparent best shot, loaded her crossbow with a wicked sharp arrow and fired it straight at the RipJaw's chest.
The arrow flew from the bow chord, impaling itself directly into its target, and causing the monster to blow back momentarily, dragging its claws down the rest of the back portion of the ceiling as it did so. This gave a few other kids a chance to load more crossbows, which were now randomly scattered across the panic-stricken bus's floor.
It didn't take long though for the monstrosity to get its bearings back, ripping the arrow out of its chest, roaring from the pain, and spraying toxic slime everywhere. Obviously--despite how sharp it may have been--the arrow didn't go in very far. That or perhaps this particular RipJaw was from Mortal Kombat, as Derrick tried to reason later, and could endure countless fatal blows.
For a whole fifty-four seconds there was not a single sound besides that of the bus rolling down the road, because Zack knew better than to stop driving, that and he was technically on a highway of sorts and he could have sworn he read something about hitting an animal and never stopping, in Gary's drivers manual.
Like bats--the RipJaws are pretty much blind, luckily--unlike bats--they do not have echolocation so they rely on the small bit of vision they have, to hunt. Typically in the dead of night. Since their eyes are incredibly small though, they can only handle a little bit of light or their eyes will stop working all together, creating just a big blur.
Luckily for them the bus was very bright.
Zack watched through his back mirror as the RipJaw tentatively tried sniffing through its vampire bat smushed in nose--causing Zack to wish he took a shower that morning--its weird fish-fin like ears flexing and contorting in the oddest of ways, as it slowly stuck his head in closer to the bus. Zack could only assume that the monster must not have been able to focus very well, for it kept blinking its small, close-set, beady eyes. Not to mention that the knockout liquid that Zack could only assume was on Jane's arrow, had to be starting to take effect.
After what felt like forever the RipJaw finally detached one of his arms from the ceiling, reaching it around to grab the other end of the bus's roof, presumably to hoist itself in. Before it could do this however Mike screamed, "FIRE!" and the five kids shot their arrows at the RipJaw's limbs, and flaps of skin, or wings, that ran down from its wrists to waist area. Someone tried to go for its head as well, but missed. Even still, Zack knew that the RipJaw couldn't keep this up forever.
To everyone's great relief the arrows finally weakened the beast enough, causing it to blow off the back of the bus, but not before it grabbed the back left wheel ripping it right off with the last of its superhuman strength.
Now you would probably think that the lack of a back wheel would cause the back of the bus to slant down making it drag so the RipJaw could catch up and eat them all. Well, on a 2017 bus that would probably be the case. Though, in Zack's dimension, this kind of thing happened a lot on, out of city, field trips during the RipJaw's mating season. So schools started making buses with sixteen wheels to avoid this kind of issue. Not because they cared about the students' lives though, but because they just got sick of buying new buses.
The bus now only having half a roof and fifteen wheels amazingly still rolled fine into the night, and some joker was even able to get the phone working again, fast forwarding to the 'And I Feel Fine' part.
* * *
"Is everyone ok," Zack finally asked, once everyone came out of their shock of not being dead, for like the twelfth time that day--himself included.
"Well, aside from being slimed on, I think we'll live," Jane replied, shouting over the extra wind that was now blowing through the new sunroof.
"--maybe..." Derrick interjected.
Zack, obviously not daring to stop, just glanced back to assess the damage and noticed that there was indeed slime everywhere. The bus's floor was littered with spare arrows and food cans, and he could tell that a few of the younger kids had been crying, and were now trying to hide from any other monsters under the seats or blankets. Besides that though everybody seemed fine and after a good hour or two people started falling asleep, despite all the extra noise coming in through the hole in the roof.
Although Zack could still tell that a few people stayed up and were cradling crossbows and guns, a sullen looking Tony hiding in the back being one of them.
It was then when Jane pulled up her pop up chair A. K. A. portable throne by Zack's seat. "So...?" she started. "Which one of us would be considered the leader then?"
Zack looked at her blankly for a brief moment, before returning his gaze to the road, figuring that the sooner he could spot potential threats the better. That, and he just wasn't one for overly long sequences of eye contact. "Seriously?" he finally asked. "We, like, just got attacked by a RipJaw and you're wondering who the leader is? Its blood hasn't even dried on the floor yet."
"First off. Gross analogy."
Zack shrugged. Personally he was rather proud of it, and its poetic sense.
"Secondly. Yes, yes I am. You know I have to admit we would have been killed if it wasn't for your idea to take the bus even if your driving does make me nauseous--"
"That might just be because you swallowed some toxic slime," he replied, causing her to laugh sleepily. "It's a bad joke, don't courtesy laugh, it doesn't deserve it."
"Either way, it was a good idea, but then again you were sitting around in a dog cage earlier today. Personally I feel like that is a little odd."
"Ha, ha. Whatever."
"So do you miss your parents then?" she asked, changing the subject, rather randomly, giving Zack no time to think up a proper answer at all. Whatsoever. Perhaps this is what the girl wanted.
"Na... Not any more than I do any other day. They, erm... died when I was five," he slightly joked hoping not to make her feel bad. It was a lie of course, the whole, whole of it but it was a good enough one, for the time being anyway. Besides, Jane seemed nice enough sure, but he didn't owe her the truth. Especially not when it concerned his parents.
"Oh. I'm so sorry I didn't know," she added sincerely.
"That's ok, it's not like I really knew them anyway, none of the boys really did, we all used to live in a group home downtown. But hey it makes the whole grown up disappearing thing a lot easier." Eager to change the subject he asked, "So I still don't understand entirely how you were so prepared for this to happen?"
"Um.... Sometimes when I'm bored I come up with apocalypse survival plans. Most of the first steps for anything unexplainable is taking control of that hardware store."
Zack looked at her blankly again. "You mean to tell me that, out of all the things to do, you seriously thought to come up with apocalypse survival plans? Ever consider American Girl dolls?"
Jane returned his gaze, obviously offended by his stereotype. "Say's the guy who wound up in a dog cage! Besides, with aliens already invading, plus the fact that the world had a mini zombie outbreak a few years back, survival training's really not the biggest waste of time. Not even mentioning the mutant monsters or the asteroid that hit twenty-eight years ago," she commented, having an amazingly vast knowledge of past events, that left Zack speechless.
"....Ok. Fair enough--But how did you become so handy with a crossbow, you couldn't have possibly imagined that you would need that?" he asked doubtfully.
"Actually my dad was eaten by a RipJaw when they escaped the old lab, so I figured that learning how to use a crossbow was a good idea, but hey now I guess we're even in the inconsiderate accidentally bring up each others dead parent department," Jane rambled quickly, barely stopping to take a breath, although Zack could still sense a bit of pain in her voice. "So do you have any idea where we're going then?"
"Ah... Not really actually, I was just hoping we would spot a good area where we could, like, set up tents or something."
"Wait! We couldn't bike somewhere because it wouldn't be safe-- which in all fairness it wasn't--but now you're telling me you expect us to sleep outside in tents exposing us to any beast that wishes to eat us in our sleep?!"
Zack started to come up with an explanation on how it's not like they had anywhere better to go, but was interrupted by Jane as if she read his mind.
"No, No, No, my uncle... Hubert is rather wealthy and owns a nice little farm estate only a few more hours from here, and I'm sure he would not mind a few kids, he never met, staying at his house while he's gone. And lucky for you I even know where he leaves his extra key," she added rather proud of her helpfulness.
"Well--I guess that that would be ok. Though I mean--" Zack started, pretending to just be minorly satisfied, but in truth was rather glad that he would not have to be sleeping outside.
"Your welcome. Jeez, is it so hard to say thank you? Not thanks or any other shrug off form of gratitude, but a nice earnest thank you? You guys are so weird when it comes to that."
Zack was about to reason that girls were weird when it came to everything else. Including the issue concerning forms of gratitude. But then he decided against it.
* * *
The rest of the drive to Jane's uncle's house was long and boring, due to the fact that Jane's directions really weren't the best, especially since Zack could barely see any of the road signs in the dark, and had to turn around multiple times. That and, shortly after she gave Zack directions, Jane fell asleep along with the other kids that hadn't at first. Leaving Zack to stare out the window and drive down the old country road sitting in silence, and trying not to fall asleep himself.
And There you have it. Chapter Seven! Because I got 10 followers! Thanks so much everyone, and I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Next ones coming out when I reach 100 votes so don't forget to pop on a star! Thanks....