The Bus
By Josie Schultz
Rubbing my eyes, I sit up, realizing I had fallen asleep. I blink slowly as everything comes back in a flood of memories.
I was with my best friends on a road trip. We all wanted to travel away from our small town, and this was our chance. We had bought and refurbished a minibus, making it exactly as we wanted. The windows had blinds, and we removed some of the seats to open it up. It was divided into sections for us to share. I had shared the back area with Luke, who we deemed the comedic relief and planner of the group. Donovan and Brooke shared the middle, where Donavan would listen to Brooke's consistent yapping. Lastly, Juliette and Chase shared the front; they were like the angel and devil on your shoulder, but it's only devils. Since nobody else wanted to take the role, Chase was our driver. We didn’t have a set destination, just a few areas we wanted to visit. After that, we would have to think of other places.
As we set our trip in motion, we picked out some entertainment, stocking up on board games, playing cards, books, movies, and various other entertaining things. Later, we would realize how pointless these things would be.
Barely an hour in, and the boredom was getting to us.
“Luuuuuuuuukeeee, I’m bored." I had said, dragging out his name and emphasizing my intense boredom, dramatically leaning on him in the process.
“What do you want me to do about it?” He jokingly rolled his eyes, smiling as he spoke.
“Not a clue... maybe we could play one of the games!” I sprung up after I remembered we had our random assortment of games. Quickly sifting through, I threw out names for Luke to pick something. Finally, we decided on chess, which we both had a very vague understanding of. The game didn’t really go anywhere as we playfully argued at each other's made-up rules.
As we got deeper into the game, the others started watching, amused by our interesting tactics and lack of knowledge regarding the rules.
“You can’t take my king without declaring war!”
“Since when?! I can do what I want, and my knight wants to fight your king.”
“Fine! Rock paper scissors. Right now.”
“Rock…paper…scissors…shoot!”
“Ha! Checkmate, my knight killed your king." I had won rock paper scissors, ultimately winning the game as well.
"What even was that game??” Donovan hesitantly asked.
“The best game ever!” “The worst game ever.” Luke and I replied at the same time, looking at each other and laughing.
We had passed a few hours with our silly game, and the sun was starting to set. Chase started pulling off to a public campground for the night. It was the perfect little spot for us, with a place to start a fire and cook a simple meal. We had brought hot dogs and other easy foods, making it a quick process. We were all just talking and having fun, but in the shadows, there was something. Something different. Something weird... it was just there, unnoticed by us. Waiting. Stalking.
“Oh my god, guys, we should play a game!!” Brooke suddenly suggested. Everyone seemed down, so we decided on a classic: hide and seek tag. We quickly gathered some stray sticks and picked them blindly to determine who would seek first.
"Why am I always the first one to be it?” Luke complained as he pulled the shortest stick.
“Quit complaining and start counting.” Brooke retaliated.
As soon as he started, we all scattered. I stayed close, taking the risk of assuming he would forget to look nearby. I was under the bus with a decent view of where everyone else was heading. Donovan ran straight to a tree, climbing high enough that he couldn't be seen, or gotten, easily. Chase and Brooke went to some nearby bushes, laying flat near them and covering themselves with leaves, quietly arguing that the other stole their spot. Juilete was the only one I couldn’t see, but she had gone a little deeper into the woods behind us, probably just behind a tree.
“... Twenty-eight... Twenty-nine... Thirty... Ready or not, here I come!” Luke was quick to start looking, wasting no time on contemplating where we could be and immediately heading towards rustling. As he got to the bushes, he tagged both Brooke and Chase; it was almost an immediate find.
“SEE YOU GOT US FOUND!” Brooke playfully yelled at Chase, to which he instantly responded, “THAT WAS OBVIOUSLY YOUR FAULT!!”
“You guys argue too much,” Luke complained, looking for the rest of the hiders. As he looked around, he passed both me and Donovan a few times. Growing impatient, he started calling out for us menacingly.
A loud, bloodcurdling scream pierced through the air, making everyone freeze instinctively. Slowly returning to their senses, Luke, Chase, and Brooke realized it was likely me or Juliet who screamed. I quickly came out of my hiding spot, joining the group to figure out what was happening. The screams continued again, and Juliette emerged from the forest's edge, stumbling over herself, trying to get away from... something.