Chapter Text
It was a peaceful Thursday as a bus drove down a road, full of chattering students.
This was part of the school-organised Class Bonding Day, where the students chose one activity to participate with their classmates in and the class of 2 Adaptability chose bowling as their activity, so now they were heading to a known bowling place to do so.
Suddenly, things turned dark fast when the bus unexpectedly tilted and flipped on its side.
The metal scraping against the asphalt road made a horrible high-pitched screeching noise as the bus slid across the road before everyone in the bus blacked out.
Someone slowly blinked awake, the smell of gasoline and smoke filled their nostrils before everything came flooding back.
"GAH!" The person yelled out unexpectedly, sitting upright as their eyes flew open.
This person was Bryan. Also the only person who wore a full uniform to the trip when it was perfectly okay to wear PE attire instead. Kinda strange thing to point out, but what else was there?
Bryan breathed heavily as the realisation set in fully. The bus crashed and I apparently did not suffer as many injuries I thought I would, Bryan thought, noticing he had managed to only gain a few minor cuts and scrapes on his exposed arms and legs. Looking around him, Bryan didn't see anyone around, which made Bryan feel like panicking right there and then on the spot.
What happened to everyone?! Did they die?! No, people don't just fade away physically when they die, this isn't a game. Wait, but then what happened to them?! Just as Bryan was about to full on panic, he suddenly heard a groan to his right. Bryan immediately turned his head towards the unknown sound. It sounded like it had come from under a piece of metal. Bryan managed to stand, making his way over to the source of the sound.
There were a pair of white school shoes sticking out from under the piece of metal. Bryan immediately moved aside the surprisingly light piece of metal, to see a tall, gangling boy who Bryan immediately recognised as his boisterous and noisy classmate Ethan. "Crap, are you okay?" Bryan immediately asked.
Like Bryan, Ethan didn't have a lot of injuries on him, only being some scrapes. "Wha... Bryan? What the hell happened?" Ethan asked as Bryan helped him to his feet.
"The bus crashed. Are you okay?" Bryan asked, wondering if Ethan might've broken something. Well, he had already seen Ethan successfully standing, so that didn't seem like the case.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm okay." Ethan said, dusting off his black shorts and looking around. "Wait, where the fuck is everyone?! Is it just the two of us?!" Ethan exclaimed as he realised the lack of their other classmates.
"...I think it is." Bryan said slowly. At least he wasn't alone.
Ethan smirked. "Hey, that's kinda gay." he joked, before he noticed something. "Wait, maybe not. I see an arm and someone's foot." Bryan looked in the direction where Ethan was pointing, and indeed, one behind a broken-off part of the bus, was someone's foot, and further away from them, someone's arm poked out from a part of the wrecked bus hidden to the two boys.
Bryan immediately ran over to the closer person, while Ethan moved to the other person, and noticed who the person was. Kaden, one of Bryan's best friends, was laying on the ground, clearly unconscious, and had sustained almost no injuries.
Bryan grabbed Kaden's shoulders and tried to shake him awake. Kaden's eyes opened slowly. "Huh... Wha?" Kaden mumbled.
"Kaden! Can you hear me?" Bryan called out.
Kaden's eyes blinked sleepily, before opening all the way. "Bryan?"
"Yeah, it's me! Are you okay?" Bryan asked as he let go of Kaden's shoulders and moved Kaden into a sitting position.
"Yeah, other than the fact the bus crashed."
"That's good to know. Ethan! Who's the other person?"
Ethan glanced back at Bryan and Kaden. "We should leave this person here, she's not important." Ethan said.
"Ethan! That's still a person! And wait, did you say she?" Bryan said. That surprised him. He admittedly wasn't expecting a girl, but life is full of surprises. He stood up and went over to Ethan, and noticed who the person was. It was Megan, who was the class loner, and Bryan knew Ethan didn't care less about her. Bryan immediately shot Ethan a look. "Just because it's Megan doesn't mean we should just leave her here!" Bryan said.
"But what if…" Kaden started, but was silenced with Bryan narrowing his eyes at him.
Ethan let out a heavy groan. "Fine..." Ethan shook Megan lightly by the shoulders, which woke her up immediately.
"What-" Megan started.
"Bus crashed." Ethan immediately finished.
Bryan sighed and facepalmed.
"Hey, I checked around the wreck, and there's no one else here, just us." Kaden suddenly interjected.
"Is our stuff at least still here?" Megan asked.
"Yep, but everyone else's stuff is just gone." Kaden said.
After retrieving their belongings, Bryan said, "Don't you think we should call someone?"
"Already on it." Megan said as she tried to dial emergency services, only to lower the phone as the only reply was a dull drone. "No one's picking up." she slowly said.
"Well, there's gotta be someone who does!" Ethan exclaimed, dialling a contact he randomly pressed, only to get nothing. "Why on earth is no one picking up?!"
"Now that I think about it, this road had a bunch of cars earlier. Don't you think someone would've seen us crash?" Kaden said.
"That's true. Something's off." Bryan said.
"I don't know what the fuck is going on, but we gotta move. We can't just wait here for someone." Ethan said.
"Well, I see a shopping centre right over there. Maybe we could find someone to help us?" Megan suggested, pointing. The boys followed her gaze and indeed, there was a shopping centre.
"Better than nothing, I guess. C'mon, let's go." Bryan said, walking towards the shopping centre, Kaden following suit. Megan went after them, followed by Ethan.