Dark Search

  It's not a hick southern town, and it has grown a bit, but it's still rather small.  At least to me it is.  I've lived there all but a couple of years of my life, and for me, life there was basically the same as it always had been.  Not much big happens in the way of disasters around there.  As a matter of fact, not much is about all that happens in a big way, but a few nights ago something did happen, and it happened in a big enough way; to the town, but mainly to me.

  It was a little past midnight, and I was walking down the street a couple of blocks from my house.  On the corner is a convenience store that doubles as the local bus stop.  I could see no one about, except for the store clerk through the window, and a customer who was just leaving.

  I had just passed the store when a bus passed me, and it did so more quickly than I suspected it should have been, considering the stop was less than fifty feet away.  Behind me I heard an unnerving screech of wheels and an incredible crash.  I turned fast to see the bus had turned onto its right side, but was still moving down the street.  It came to a halt at the actual stop area, which I later thought was kind of funny, in my own strange way, but at the time I saw nothing that struck me as the least bit amusing.  I found out later exactly what had happen.

  The bus driver was not familiar with the area and didn't notice the stop until he was almost upon it.  He noticed, as well, the truck driver, who had fallen asleep, speeding down the intersecting road toward the bus's left side.  The bus driver had hit the breaks and made a sharp turn left hoping to keep the front of the bus out of the way of the truck.

  The truck driver had awakened with a start, saw the bus, and turned his truck to the right.  The bus turned onto its side and slid into the truck which pushed the bus back into the bus stop that stood on the corner.  The back shield of the bus was forced inward, and that very fact is the key to most of what followed.

  A fire had started somewhere at the front of the bus and was growing slowly.  At first, I just stood and stared at the wreck.  The store clerk ran out of the store and did nothing but stare as well.  That's when I realized that somebody should probably be doing something to help them, so I came to my senses and shouted to the clerk to dial 911.  He didn't hear me at first, but the second time I shouted he looked at me, nodded, and ran inside.  I saw that some of the passengers were trying to get out through the hole in the back.

  Two people stumbled out of the door-sized opening, and I ran to see if they were okay.  They were fine, but when I looked through the opening, I saw something that I never thought I would ever see in real life.  I saw bodies lying limp across the sides of the right row of seats, as well as across each other.  I was in a state of shock until I saw that some of the bodies were still moving, and the fire was making its way across the top side of the bus where the paper advertisement continued to try to sell whatever product it was intended to sell.

  I made my way through the opening and helped up a woman who was crying out for her baby.  Quickly I thought, 'there's always one', then I looked around for the child expecting to find an actual baby, but all I found was a small boy, of about four or five years old, laying on a window.  I picked up the boy and carried him to the walk that went around two sides of the store.  I laid the boy down and was about to check to see if he was still alive when I heard from in the bus a shout for help.  I said to the woman that I'd be right back and ran again to the bus and inside.

  Near the front, a woman, trapped beneath her particularly large husband, was desperately trying to get out from under his mass, so I grabbed one of his arms, and pushing my foot against the side of the seat, managed to lift him up enough for her to get out from underneath.  As the woman assisted me in dragging her husband out of the bus, I noticed that someone else was coming around and saw me.  Before the young well dressed fellow could say anything I told him that I would be back in a minute.  The wife and I pulled her husband by his sweaty armpits to the walk and laid him near the boy who seemed to be regaining consciousness.  I asked the mother if her son was alright, she said she thought he would be, I said okay and went back in for more.

  The well dressed fellow was half way up on a broken leg when I returned, and as I helped him up, I saw that the fire was now inside at the front of the bus.  I had not yet seen the bus driver, so I hadn't thought about him until I saw that his seat had caught fire, then I wondered where he was.  I started helping the well dressed fellow out when the clerk ran in.  I told him to help this guy out, and he took him off my hands.

  I crawled across the seats to the front and found the driver laying on the double doors.  I guessed that he was relatively new to bus driving because he was a thin man, younger than any bus driver I'd ever seen.  Not to say that all bus drivers are older and overweight, it's just that I'd never until then seen a bus driver who wasn't, with the exception of those old men who couldn't get fat if they tried.

  Anyway, I hefted the guy across my shoulders and went across the seats.  The large man's wife was at the opening to give me a hand again, and we got the driver to the walk as the clerk went back toward the bus.  Since the young boy was fine, his mother was then seeing to the large man, and the well dressed fellow was leaning against the building and protecting his own broken leg.

  As I again returned to the bus, I marveled at how well this group of passengers were staying calm and working together.  The clerk was dragging out an unconscious elderly woman.  The woman's head was lolling, her neck obviously broken.  It didn't take a coroner to know she was dead.  I entered the opening and saw that the fire had spread to the first couple of seats, and though most of the smoke was exiting through some open windows, I could feel that I was inhaling some of it.

  It seemed that we had gotten most of the passengers out and still had time for the rest, so I decided to do a quick count of who was left, but after counting only two people and knowing that there were more, the overhead lights blinked quickly then went out except for one that stayed dim and buzzed continuously.  I went to whoever was closest to the front and found a middle aged man.  I heard someone entering the bus.  I looked and saw the clerk again and told him to come help me with the guy.  Like the fat husband, the middle aged man was heavy, but instead of blubber, he had muscle.  The clerk and I hefted the man and, with difficulty, dragged him to the walk.

  The clerk and I went back to the bus, hopefully for the last time.  The clerk lifted a young woman, probably in her late teens, across his shoulders and carried her out.  After he left I checked the seat and saw this time an actual baby.  A boy probably only a year old wearing a pair of blue jean overalls.  I almost sickened at the sight of his small head bleeding on the wall of the bus.  I wagered that he was the child of that young woman.  A mother so young to lose a child so young.  Very sad.

  I didn't realize that I was just staring until the clerk came in again.  He stood by me coughing and looked at the baby.  I told the clerk to take the baby out, that I would check for other passengers.  He complied and said he thought the baby was the last.  I guessed he was probably right, but because of the dim light, we could have possibly overlooked another baby, maybe one that was luckier than that one.  He took the baby out, and I started looking closer into shadows.  The fire had spread almost to the middle of the bus, and the smoke became thicker.  My coughing worsened, but I persisted.

  In every seat that wasn't already on fire, I turned over carry-on bags and felt in the places that I couldn't see, and to my half relief, I found no remaining passengers.  I say half relief because I was afraid of the possibility that I still might have overlooked someone.  I was about to make another search, but something near the front exploded.  I later heard that it was a can of hair spray that luckily was almost empty, but at the time I didn't know what it was, and I didn't much care.  The explosion had spread the flames further, and all I knew was that I needed to get out of there.

  My coughing made it more difficult to climb over the seats, and a couple of times I missed a seat with my hand and almost fell.  I finally made it to the last seat, which I missed as well, except as I first noticed that I missed, I coughed and fell forward.  My chest hit the side of the seat's back, and I almost fell head first into the wall, but I extended hand to prevent my fall.  Expecting my hand to hit the wall itself, I was surprised when my hand slipped out from under me.  I fell into the area behind the last seat and landed on the broken remains of the tinted back wind shield of the bus.

  I expected the fall to be much harder than it was.  Something soft was beneath the remains.  As I pushed myself up, a white face appeared before me.  It was another young woman, a quite beautiful young woman in a sort of depraved way, and she was still breathing.  She had been overlooked before because she was wearing a black leather jacket over a black T-shirt.  Her arm and her black hair had covered her face; she had been completely hidden, but why, I wondered, was she behind the last seat on the bus?

  I found myself admiring her features, oddly enough, until I felt something hitting the back of my right leg.  I looked back to see what it was.  From somewhere, liquid was steadily pouring onto my jeans.  I didn't know exactly what the liquid was, but I'd seen enough movies to guess it was gasoline.  I never fails, you know.

  I grabbed her jacket by the collar and pulled her forward.  I got a glance at the flames and saw that a glance was about all I could spare.  I pulled and pushed until she was just out of the bus, then I was about to crawl out when I saw that there was a small black leather back pack where she had been laying.  I reached for the bag, and as I clutched the straps, another can of hair spray, or deodorant, or cheese, or whatever the hell it was exploded spreading the flames very close to the yet identified and potentially flammable liquid that was rapidly soaking the legs of my pants.

  I crawled out with the back pack and lifted the young woman's body from beneath her back and legs.  As I came into a standing position, faltering a little from coughing, she started coming to.  She opened her eyes a little and barely made out the words, 'who are you'.  I started running forward as best I could and was about to tell her my name when there was yet another explosion.  That explosion wasn't the pop of some aerosol can.  That explosion was from the liquid that did turn out to be gasoline.  My first realization was the fact that my lower pants legs caught fire, and that it smelled distinctly of burning gasoline.

  The force of the explosion threw me forward, but I did my best to land in a manner that would keep her safe.  I managed to turn my body enough, while I was in the air, to land on my shoulder instead of on top of her.  My flaming pants quickly began to feel hotter than I could stand, so when I landed and stopped sliding down the asphalt on my back, I laid her down and headed for the nearest puddle of water that remained after the rain from the night before.  As I rolled in the water, I finally heard the sirens.

  I wondered exactly how long it had been.  It seemed like it took longer for us to get everyone out than it should take for anything with a siren to get there.  I looked to the store to see if everyone there was okay.  While I was rechecking the bus, those able were pulling those unable to a safe distance from any potential explosions.  Good move on them.  I saw lights flashing against the sides if the building then looked behind me to see a fire truck coming straight toward me.

  I came to the sudden realization that the puddle in which I chose to put out my pants was in fact in the street, so I decided to move.  I got to my feet and jumped out of the way into the grass behind the fence of the business behind the convenience store.  I then remembered that I had left the young woman in the street.  I stood and looked over the low fence and saw that the fire truck had stopped right before running over her.  She wasn't moving.  She had awakened while I was carrying her, and her not moving worried me a moment, then I remembered that we were thrown for an almost literal loop, and that calmed me...  oddly enough.  Seconds later, ambulances arrived and they started loading up the people.

  I was wet, filthy, and tired, and all I wanted then was to go home, shower, and sleep.  I crossed the street behind the collection of emergency vehicles and started home.  After a block I noticed that I still had the back pack.  I figured they all would end up in the local hospital, so I'd return it to her the next day.  I went home, showered, and slept.