Ravage: An Apocalyptic Horror Novel(19)

Fair enough. Guess there’s no reason for us to be bosom buddies now that our life-and-death experience is over. She can go back to being a stroppy teenager and I can go back to being an adult.

Nick rose up from his seat and switched over to the other side of the bus, taking a seat just in front of a middle-aged woman in the tattered remnants of a grey blouse. A colourful scarf lay on the seat beside her. It was covered in blood that seemed to merge with the floral pattern. He smiled at the woman as he settled into the threadbare cushion in front of her.

“Hey,” she said to him wearily. “Welcome to the hell bus.”

Nick chuckled, but it contained no mirth; it was a mere social instinct. “Well, I for one am glad to be a passenger. Beats being where I was before Dave picked me up.”

The woman nodded. “It’s not the bus that’s hell. It’s everything outside the windows.”

Nick looked out of those windows and saw nothing but trees and fields. It was a pleasant view, but he could imagine the things the woman had witnessed on the main roads and in the towns. He understood what she was saying.

“Seen some nasty stuff, huh?” he said. “Me too.”

“I was at the hospital,” she said, staring out of the window blankly, “to pick up my sister. We live together and her car isn’t running. She was working the night shift – she’s a nurse…was a nurse. I was supposed to pick her up this morning.”

Nick could see from her faraway gaze that she was remembering something ghastly. It was a fair guess that it involved the fate of her sibling.

“I’m sorry,” he said, remembering the sight of James dead on the kitchen floor. “I’ve lost people, too. I think a lot of people have. It’s all…very wrong.”

“She was always a bit of a mess, you know, my sister. Never could seem to get her life in order; always sponging off me and wasting her life. I always figured she would find her way eventually, once she had grown up a little more. Now she won’t ever get the chance.”

Nick nodded. “Dave told me he picked someone up from near the hospital. Is your name Pauline?”

“Yes. Pauline Ross. Wish I could say it’s a pleasure, but…well, you know?”

Nick nodded and tried to smile. He knew how the she was feeling. While he had been running on adrenaline for the past couple hours, too panicked to properly grieve his losses, this woman had been sitting on this bus, alone with her grief. The reality of the situation was crushing her and Nick knew that once he took the time to slow down and think, his grief would crush him also.

Just the thought of thinking about it is making me afraid.

He looked around the bus at some of the other passengers, trying not to dwell on things that could wait for later. There was a grimy-looking man in navy-blue work overalls at the rear of the bus. He had thick dreadlocks and was staring at the floor while picking at callouses on his hands. In front of him, a couple rows ahead, was a teenaged boy in a bulbous, yellow jacket. Like Eve, he was gazing out of the window and watching the world whiz by.

Lastly, there were two older ladies, sitting together in the middle rows and nattering to one another as if they were on an ordinary journey on an ordinary day. Acting that way was probably their way of staying calm; the stiff upper lip of the older generation. Nick did not blame them at all.

Better to fake sanity than to accept insanity.

The vibrations of the bus’s diesel engine started to lull Nick into a restful daze. Now that he was finally safe his entire body began to throb. His blood felt like crude oil in his veins, pooling at his feet and making them swell. Through the window, he watched the countryside break apart as they passed by a small industrial estate. The various factories and workshops were all dormant, their workers not managing to make it in today.

“Looks like things are going to get a tad rough up ahead,” Dave shouted back from the front of the bus. “Everybody hold on to their arses.”

Nick got up from his seat and stumbled his way to the front. When he got there, Dave’s expression was impassive, staring dead ahead. Nick peered through the windscreen to see what was up ahead.

More car wrecks littered the road and there were pedestrians everywhere. There was a motorway service station, just off the upcoming island, that was currently ablaze. Nick could only assume what had happened there. An outbreak – of whatever was making people crazy – must have occurred at the rest stop, and the weary travellers trying to grab a quick burger or make use of the restrooms would have been taken by surprise. Those who had managed to flee had found their way back onto the roads, which only caused cars to swerve and crash around them, or mow them down completely. The whole scene was a disaster-zone as the healthy fought desperately against the sick and burning husks of automobiles continued to pile up like twisted sculptures.

“Think we can make it through?” Nick asked Dave.

“I don’t know. The motorway entrance is totally blocked, but I might be able to stay on the island and get round onto the A road.”

“Do your best. If we get stalled then we won’t be able to get moving again. Those crazies will be all over us.”

Dave took a deep breath and held it. He stamped down on the accelerator, choosing speed over caution. If any of the people out there on the road managed to get caught up in the bus’s wheels they would grind to a halt and have no escape. Speed was their best option.