Highway to Hell

All Characters and events in this story are mine, I created them, any similarities are purely coincidence. I'm a review junkie, feed my habit.
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Highway to Hell

1-Lost


The bus was full of rowdy teenagers as it sped down the highway, returning from a gloriously won soccer game. A little over half full, the majority of passengers were male, except for the three female managers, and the assistant coach.
They were traveling through the middle of nowhere, having to go a far distance from home to compete in today’s match. Trees rose up on either side of the two-lane highway, and it had been hours since they last saw another vehicle.
Sitting in the back right seat was Jaina, the head manager. She had dark brown hair, hung down past her shoulders in loose, wavy curls. Her eyes were a soft brown, and her skin slightly tanned. She had a well-formed figure, and could easily pass off as a cheerleader. She was dressed in a sleeveless white shirt with a low cut neckline, and a pair of tight-fitting jeans.
Beside her, in the window seat, was Aden. He had somewhat long hair, parted down the middle and left to hang freely. The back of it was cut short, running at a steady angle down to his bangs that nearly reached his chin. It was naturally a light brown, he he dyed it regularly to white, with just barely a hint of extremely pale purple. His eyes were blue, and his skin light. He was thin and built just right, agile and quick on his feet. He was the soccer team’s star player; and while he and Jaina never made their relationship official, she, neither he made an attempt to hide their feelings from one another, or anyone else for that matter.
Aden was dressed in a black, button up shirt with the top few buttons left undone. Underneath it was a white undershirt, and below that he wore an overly large pair of black pants with numerous straps and chains hanging in random places.
Sitting in the seat in front of Jaina and Aden were the other two managers, Sera and Adrianna. Sera had a head full of bright blond, curly locks reaching the middle of her back; her eyes a light blue, and her skin a pale white. She was dressed in a beige halter-top, and a pair of tight fitting khakis. Adrianna was a fiery redhead with bright green eyes, showing her Irish heritage. She was wearing a light blue blouse and denim skirt reaching about midway to her thighs.
In the seat to the left of Jaina and Aden sat Felix by himself. He had short black hair, spiked in the front and combed flat in the back. He had hazel eyes and fair skin, and wore a dark blue button up shirt left open. Beneath that he wore a white undershirt tucked into a pair of loose fitting blue jeans. He sat with his right leg up on the seat, facing the others.
Sitting in the seat in front of Felix was Connor, also sitting by himself. He had blond hair, a little shabby looking. He also had blue eyes, and light skin. He was wearing a plain green T-shirt and denim shorts.
Everyone else sat closer to the front of the bus, the coach, and assistant coach sat in the seat behind the driver.
Aden wasn’t too talkative, as the others around him were. He stared out of the window, turning to share in a bit of laughter, or respond when he was spoken to. For the most part he remained silent.
Jaina gave a slightly concerned look in his direction as she lightly brushed against his thigh with the back of her hand, letting him know her question was directed to him.
“Hey, what’s wrong? You should be thrilled with the win you guys just took.”
He turned away from the window, averting his gaze to her before he responded. “I know, I am excited, it’s just …” he trailed off.
“It’s just what?” she said.
“I don’t know, I just don’t feel right. Like I’m nervous… uneasy.”
“Well, you’ll come around.” Smiling softly, Jaina patted his thigh before turning back to Adrianna, who was in the middle of talking when she addressed Aden. Aden hadn’t been paying much attention to their conversations; he couldn’t get over his feelings of worry.
As the bus rolled down the highway it hit a slight bump, giving its passengers a light bounce and causing the busses steel frame a squeak or two. It nearly made Aden flinch. Sera was turned with her back to the window so she could speak with the others. She noticed Aden’s tensions, and thought of saying something, but instead spoke to Adrianna after giving her a poke in the side.
“Hey, you’re staying over my house this weekend right?”
Adrianna turned to her, pushing a few strands of red back behind her ear. “Yeah, my mom’s gonna be out of town and you know how she hates me staying home alone.”
“You turned seventeen four months ago, and she still treats you like a child.”
“It can get annoying, but she’s alright most of the time.”
Felix had just finished saying something, sending him, Connor, and Jaina into a bout of laughter. Adrianna and Sera turned to them, trying to catch up with their conversation.
Aden looked from his window, up to the front to see the endless road for them to travel. He was about to turn back when he thought he saw something. Staring at the same spot, he could’ve sworn the figure of a man faded in and out of view. He continued to stare, waiting to see if his eyes were playing tricks on him. No one else seemed to notice, not even the bus driver. Aden was about to turn away when he saw it again, right in the busses path. It was closer this time as the bus sped towards it, whatever it was. Again the figure faded into view, right in front of the bus. Aden threw his hands forward, bracing against the back of the seat in front of him expecting the bus to hit whatever it was.
Right as the bus would have hit it, it faded away again. From where Aden was sitting it looked like the bus stretched forward slightly, and then rippled from the front to the back.
He jumped when Jaina put her hand on his forearm; everyone at the back of the bus was looking at him. They didn’t seem to have seen what he did.
“Aden? Are you alright?” Jaina said.
He hesitated, looking around at everyone. Hs brs breathing fastd hid his eyes were wide. He looked back out of the window. Just seconds before the trees were thick with bright green leaves, but now they were brown, dead. And the sky, whwas was nearly clear with only a few clouds scattered through it, was now completely hidden from view with a layer of gray clouds.
“Aden?” Jaina spoke again.
“Didn’t you see that?” He turned to her, and the others. “In the road, didn’t you see it?”
“See what?” She was looking a little worried, as was everyone else.
The bus hit another bump, but this time Aden’s mind was racing, keeping him from being startled by it. He turned back to the front, along with everyone else. This time they all saw what they were heading for together.
Sitting directly in their path was a car, diagonal in the lane with its front end reaching into the oncoming lane. The bus driver saw it too, and swerved to avoid it. The wheels of the bus screechedit sit swerved into the oncoming lane, giving everyone on the bus a hard jerk to the right. They just barely avoided hitting the car, running partially off the road.
The car passed by Aden’s window almost too fast to get a good image. It looked like it had been there for years. Most of the windows were broken out, the ones that weren’t were covered in a layer of tan dust. What caught his attention the most shocked him more than almost crashing into it. Hanging out of the driver’s window was a skeleton, the flesh rotted from the bones a long time passed. It was about halfway out, the pelvis hooked on the edge keeping it from falling the rest of the way. The arms of the skeleton dangled down, the hands almost touching the pavement.
Trying to not run off the road, the driver cut the wheel back to the right. The bus began to fishtail; tilting onto it’s left two wheels on the verge of flipping. Everyone in the bus began to cry out, falling into the aisle and on top of one another.
Under the pressure the back left wheel blew out, sparks now flying as the rim scrapped along the pavement. This caused the bus to flip the rest of the way onto its side. Everyone fell on top of each other, still crying out in the fear and shock. Most were still unsure of what was happening. A few of the windows shattered from the impact, now leaving the passengers to tumble around on broken glass.
The bus continued to slide on its side, off of the road and towards the trees. It made contact with a single tree close to the back of the bus, about three or four seats up from where Sera, Adrianna, and Connor were now piled on top of one another. The roof crumpled in, blowing out more of the windows. The steel continued bending in until about six inches above the seats, then the bottom of the bus tore open, splitting up along the walls until the bus completely tore in half.
The back end of the bus now slid along side the front, until it hit a slow rise in the ground causing it to slow down. It finally stopped when it hit into another tree, breaking in most of the back windows and bending the steel frame only slightly. However, the escape door was now jammed shut.
The front portion of the bus continued sliding forward on its side until it hit yet another tree, impacting along the windshield. Hitting mostly glass, there was little resistance between the tree trunk and the screaming passengers. It shattered through the windshield, crushing the driver. The bus still continued sliding, shattering window after window in a straight line, crushing everyone trapped in its path.
After crashing about halfway through, the bus slowed to a stop, most of the roof detached from the rest of the bus now, and numerous trails of blood flowing into the dirt of the surrounding area. A good deal of the screams were now silenced, but the ones left had risen to terrified cries.
Aden, Jaina, Felix, Sera, Adrianna, and Connor were all trapped in the back portion of the bus. Felix was lying near the roof; Aden was on top of Jaina in between the seats. Connor had cushioned Adrianna’s fall, Sera was closer to the front, where the bus had broken.
A few of them groaned as they began to move about, crawling off of one another and standing a bit shakily.
“Is everyone alright?” Aden asked as he helped up Jaina. He didn’t get any answers, but by seeing everyone move around he assumed they were.
Sera rubbed her head; she must have hit it sometime in all of the chaos. Her path grew narrower as she walked slowly towards where the bus had broken. The opening wasn’t wide enough for her to fit through; the seats had bent against one another, closing up the space where the aisle had been.
Regardless, she tried to squeeze through. She turned sideways and pressed forward, far enough that she could see the other portion of the bus. She gasped.
“Oh god…”
The gas tank had remained with the front portion of the bus, and was leaking terribly. The driver died before given the chance to turn off the engine, so the electronics and motor were still running. Once the leaking gas reached a spark, it ignited in a rushing torrent of fire.
One of the other soccer players was trapped halfway out of the hole at the back, between the top of a seat and the bent down roof. There was blood covering the shirt over his abdomen where the torn metal of the roof had begun cutting into his flesh. He was groaning in pain, and squirming around slowly in attempt to get free. When firefire ignited the entire bus was engulfed in flames. All of the passengers left alive inside, as well as the one trapped at the back, were entombed with the flames.
Sera’s hand went to her mouth as she nearly gagged in terror. The one who was trapped was now screaming in sheer agony, as he began to burn alive.
Tears began streaming down Sera’s face as she franticly began to try and push through the small opening, maybe if she got free, she could get to him in time to save him. In so doing, she placed her hand on the broken steel and tried to pull herself through. This only succeeded in cutting her along her palm, though she didn’t seem to notice as she continued fighting to get through.
“Sera, what’s going on out there? What’s happening?” Connor asked her, being the closest. The others had gathered behind her as well, but could not see what she was seeing.
All of the screams coming from the front portion of the bus were silenced as it erupted in a massive explosion, sending a strong shockwave to the other piece being so near. Sera had the wind knocked from her lungs, and was left with her ears ringing along with the others. She fell back from the opening, being caught by Felix.
The ball of flames from the explosion rolled up into the air, through the treetops before it turned to thick, black smoke. Most of the dead leaves of the trees above the bus were burned, floating up with the smoke as glowing embers.
The stench of burning bodies began to fill the air, along with burning rubber and electrical wires. Aden and the others nearly had to cover their noses at the intensely foul odor.
Sera was trembling violently, and tears streamed down her face. “They’re all dead…” was all she said, in a soft, weak voice. Felix helped her to the back of the bus, where he lowered her to sit. She wasn’t able to stand without his aid.
Everyone else was either too shocked, or too confused to cry or mourn. They were sad and distressed of course, but right now they had to worry about getting out of the bus.
Aden moved to the opening and looked around, the top seat’s bolts looked loose. He gave it a push, making it bend forward a little with the screeching sound of steel on steel. He’d put both hands on it, and push harder. It gave more, bending further out of the way and widening the opening. Connor came up beside him and aided him this time, both of them thrustigaingainst it at once. It bent a lot further, before snapping off and falling to the ground.
Connor turned back to Sera, Jaina and Felix moving out of his way so he could see. “Can you walk?”
Sera stood slowly with a hand to the roof of the bus for assistance, wiping her eyes as she nodded. “Yeah, I’ll be fine.”
Connor continued, “We need to go find help, I don’t think any of us should stay here.”
Aden was the first to exit, stepping over the remaining seat and seeing the front of the bus for the first time. The fires were almost burned out, but the smoke was still too thick to see more than the charred black outside of the bus.
Next out was Connor, followed by Jaina, Adrianna, and then Sera. They all stood there silently for a moment, no one knowing what to say. This all happened so fast, they were still left in the haze of an adrenaline rush.