writers_loft | The Four Mages Begins. (Reply)

Chapter 1

It was a bright Monday morning and Hunter was running late for his bus, as usual so he quickly grabbed a handful of toast and ran out the door with his bag over his shoulder, soon reaching the stop in time to catch the bus before it left without him. He paid for his ticket and sat down at the back of the bus, greeting his friends as he did. There was John and Becky sat at one side of the bus, cuddling together and laughing about some joke that had been said between them, and then there was Aimee sat on her own on the other side of the bus looking out of the window. She glanced around and smiled as Hunter sat down next to her “Hey there, and how are you this morning?” she asked as Hunter took his bag off, “I’m ok thank you, how are you on this fine morning?” replied Hunter, looking out at the bright blue, cloudless sky overhead. “Oh I’m ok thanks” smiled Aimee watching Hunter silently as he got comfy in his seat next to her.

As the journey progressed, Hunter and Aimee got to talking about plans for the weekend, John and Rebecca joined them soon after and plans were made to meet in the nearby city and go catch a film and maybe go for a meal afterwards, Aimee thought it sounded kind of like a double date but she didn’t voice her opinions because she would probably just be laughed at. Talk then progressed on to which film they would go and see; there was an in depth debate about the two films that were the current favourites at the cinema. In the end they all chose to see “Jason’s Rejects”, the newest film out, it was a comedy with a touch of horror in it.

When they were approximately fifteen minutes away from college, there was a sudden glint in the corner of Hunter’s peripheral vision and as he looked out of the window, he saw a car heading straight at him which collided head first into the side of their bus, causing it to turn suddenly and roll down the road, crumpling as it did so. There were screams from the top deck of the bus as it flipped over and over again, bangs and extremely loud crunches also came from upstairs as people collided with windows and connected with poles which snaps their bones as if they were made of nothing. Hunter tried to grab hold of the nearest bar, but as the bus kept rolling, he soon lost his grip and was sent crashing around the bus, pain exploding in his arms and legs as he was thrown around like a rag doll.

Aimee had been thrown down the bus as it had sharply turned over and gone into the roll, she had been trying to get back to the rest of her friends, but to no avail, she just wasn’t able to get a hold of anything as the bus rolled and rolled continuously. All of a sudden, Aimee’s leg connected with a pole, there was a loud snap and an explosion of pain and she saw black as she lost consciousness.

John was also one of the first to lose consciousness, as he was thrown around the bus as if he weighed nothing; he banged his head on the floor as the bus completed its second roll, knocking him out instantaneously. His body was smashed around for several more minutes before it became lodged in between two seats that had been torn up and piled in one corner of the bus. Seats were flying everywhere as the massive bus collided again and again with the road, causing massive amounts of damage to the rock heard concrete underneath, as well as severely damaging the bus and causing many severe injuries to the helpless passengers.

Rebecca had been separated from John when the bus had been hit by the car, and now she was trapped underneath approximately four torn up seats and a couple of crumpled poles as well, she tried to get free but was unable too, until the bus completed its final roll with a final crunch into the road, the seats and poles were lifted off of her, but she was hit on the side of head, a pole connecting smartly with her temple, the pressure point knocking her down again as she gave one final look around and then blacked out. Hunter landed on his back with a sharp crunch, but he was sure nothing had been broken, he also hit his head and darkness engulfed him as he tried to get up to check on his friends.

The vehicle had landed on its roof and there was complete silence for several minutes. Then, very slowly, everyone regained consciousness, John had a few minor bumps and cuts on his head and arms, Hunter was just a little dazed but would be fine, Rebecca groaned and slowly tried to sit up with johns assistance, Aimee however was crying and asking for help. Hunter carefully went to see how she was, he was still feeling a little rough from when he had fallen onto his back after the bus had stopped rolling, and he had a huge headache because of the several times he had hit his head, and what he found was not good.

Aimee was laid with several cuts on her arms and also a bump on her forehead, but the main thing he was worried about was her leg, one of the bones was sticking out ever so slightly and she was bleeding too. Hunter sat down next to her and took her hand “everything is going to be ok Aimee, I promise” he said while looking into her eyes, “I know, but it hurts so much” replied Aimee as a sob escaped her lips and tears trickled down her cheeks. Hunter quickly took his shirt off and ever so gently wrapped it around her leg where the bone was protruding in the hope that it might help stop the bleeding or at least slow it down, he then went back to holding her hand and quietly talking to her so that she stayed calm. John and Rebecca sat a short distance away comforting each other. John then carefully stood up and moved down to the front of the bus. He shouted in surprise and moved back towards the others.

“The driver is dead” commented John as he sat back down “by the looks of it, he was killed instantly during the first roll, and there is no way out of the front doors because they are smashed in and cars are blocking them”. Hunter then looked behind him at the emergency door and noticed that the same had happened it as well, and as john got up to look at the emergency exit upstairs, there was a loud creak and a crash as the bus fell a couple of meters as the top deck of the bus gave in and collapsed. Several loud screams came as some survivors upstairs had been crushed and their lives extinguished, the realisation that the same thing could happen to them at any moment, maybe not from the bus collapsing anymore, but maybe from a fuel explosion or something similar, no one was sure if they would make it out alive, but they were certain that now they were trapped completely with no immediate way to escape the bus that could so easily become their tomb.

Hunter tried to keep these thoughts from circling around in his mind as he looked at John and asked “Is there anything near the driver that we can use to ease Aimee’s pain a little, maybe bandage this leg a little better?”, at least while they were in there, they could maybe try to think of a way out and could also help Aimee from been in too much pain, John quickly moved down to the drivers area again, been careful not to impale himself along the way, and rummaged amongst the wreckage, he soon produced a small first aid kit, he rushed back over to Hunter, gaining several small scrapes along the way because he wasn’t taking care with his footing.

After several intense minutes filled with hisses and short screams from Aimee, her leg was bandaged up and she was sat in a better position so that the weight was off it but there was nothing they could do to put the bone back into her leg, that would be the hospitals job if they ever got out of the bus. Hunter still sat next to her and kept her company, holding her hand and keeping her close. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, the bus began to move. Hunter held onto Aimee quickly to make sure she didn’t fall on her leg and John wrapped his arms around Rebecca, who had been sat further down the bus near a sharp spike of metal that had been sticking out. There was a loud bang and everything went black.