The sky was silk yet the sun has not shown itself for the city morning. It was too early, too early for one to think of jump starting the busy hours of the day yet the driver took a sip from his old vacuum flask. With his feet resting just above the wheel, he was pretty much in his comfort zone. A newspaper spread open on his lap, those little black print on that gray plane have made him drowsier. His eyes were half-red from reading and a single sip wasn't helping him stay up. Blurred vision he pondered until he pulled the lever behind the wheel. The wipers swept the fog clean off the glass in swaying motion, it was clean. He smiled to himself.
A loud knock on the glass door was enough to catch his attention while he pressed a button for the entrance. It was a man with a corporate attire complete with a phone on his hand pressed onto his ear and a black case on the other probably filled with folders and papers. He stepped inside the bus, poising himself to leave money on the box while maintaining balance of all the things on his hand, he was probably a master of multi-tasking. Coordinated, he walked toward the seats to find himself as the first passenger. Consistently blabbing on the phone about how much he hates his boss and how pissed off he was when his co-worker got promoted instead of him, the man propped himself on the cushion. His voice was contained inside the air-conditioned bus much to the disappointment of the driver who gestured to clean his ears with his finger.
After a few seconds another person stepped up on the short piece of stairs up the bus, it was a schoolgirl, probably a freshman from high school. She seemed aloof, her hair covered half of her face which she fixed gently with a single stroke of her hand. She had a pin attached to her sweater with the logo of a white dove drawn using thick black lines and a shade of striking white. Followed by identical twin boys who are racing for the seats they want, the noise inside the bus has gradually increased. They wore the same private school uniforms which was startling as to why they are riding on a public bus. A few more minutes, a tiny hand reached out on the side bars, the handles for support. A caring voice escorted the hand to the right direction. Slowly stepping one foot up the edge, the boy fumbled as he felt like everything is so new to him. Grasping tight on the hand that guided him, he gave his trust on that hand even he can't see.
Crossing rows of empty seats, the guide and the blind boy chose the seats just a few rows away from the driver. Right next to window, the guide left the blind boy with a pat on the head as he distanced himself from the other passengers by choosing to sit at the back row. A few more minutes, a man carrying a large bag designed in camouflage tried to get on the bus. He looked really pale and restless. Lifting the bag first into the entrance, he couldn't get himself to even inch it in. About to give up and turn around, a hand tried to help him carry the bag for him. He was reluctant at first but the guy who offered him help had a bright smile on his face. The good Samaritan wore clean glasses, a collared shirt neatly tucked in is his khaki pants, and to complete the look, he had that good morning nice guy smile and a brown pocketbook with the golden print on the cover entitled "Holy Bible".
"It's fine bro, I got this." he insisted pulling the belt of the bag closer to his direction. The weight of the bag was all forced onto him, it was obvious he had to force keeping a smile on his face. Nervous laughter was all that he could make as he made it past the short stairs up the bus. Carefully, he placed the bag down on the first row of the bus as he motioned his hand to direct the pale owner to the first seat just behind the driver. Continuing his streak, he smiled at him as he placed money on the box more than enough for paying one passenger.
The man tucked the bag between his legs, pushing it underneath the chair he is sitting on. He had his two hands in front of him clasped in a prayer, they were shaking. His eyes were closed deep in thought as he murmured "Please, help me." in the most silent way he can, repeatedly to himself. This ritual was broken as he looked to his right to find the Good Samaritan in his own prayer, slightly louder than the noise from a faulty air-conditioning system. He heard some of his words along the lines of 'help me Lord to be a witness to this man.'
"Hey, where are you heading?" It was a sudden question the pale man was not ready for.
"...a—nywhere... this bus takes me" he answered in an unsure whisper of breath.
"I hope you know where your life is heading at this moment." the Good Samaritan continued, not even hearing the pale man's reply. The pale man's heart thumped a harder beat when he heard of the words of the man beside him. Where am I heading? He asked himself.
"Whatever you're going through right now, always think first about the consequences you will face for every decision you're going to make."
The pale man shot a look back at him as if what the man said applied to what he was currently thinking of at that exact moment. He nodded slowly in agreement yet he didn't feel like it was the right way to react.
"Brother, if you ever feel like you need someone to just help carry the load for you, you know where to go..." he continued pulling a pamphlet out of his pocket but just as he was about to hand it across to the other side, a man wearing a coat dashed in along with two girls who were wearing the same pins as the aloof schoolgirl who got on the bus first. The man laughed with poise in his distinct voice that sounded as if it came from the radio.
"...and then she finds out that they were dead all along, I mean, seriously, all that build up just for that twist ending? Come on!" the subject they were talking about became very audible to the others who are already inside.
"I know. It's like so ridiculous, I hate movies like that...it's like...a big waste of time." the blonde girl twirled her hair while she tried to construct a proper sentence. "Well, it's obviously one of those movies that you don't really go to the cinemas for when you're so busy doing something else" the other said suggestively to the man. Catching on to the idea, the man gave his most disturbing smile and said, "A naughty little girl you are I see". That was a convincing Yoda impression.
Picking up the pamphlet from the floor, the pale man noticed the look on the Good Samaritan's face. It was disgust. That same look that everyone he knows gave him all the time. His wife, his dad, his mom, his older brothers, his cousins, his grandparents and his friends, they were all the same.
"These sinners know not of what is ahead of them." the Good Samaritan sighed. Sinners. The pale man's eyes twitched at the sound of the word. Sinners. He could only stare at the piece of paper being given to him. In his eyes were a spark of anger that has long been in the middle, waiting for that one final blow of misalignment.
"You sound familiar" the aloof schoolgirl told the man with a distinct voice who was across her seat. "Oh do I? Probably the same voice that makes you scream Oh, Romeo! every night." he answered in lewd humor. "You know you can get arrested for that" she replied calmly.
"Relax honey, I was just referring to my late night radio show that you probably listen to with your boyfriend when he's sleeping over while your parents are away on a holiday trip to the Caribbean." his voice sounded even more scripted, just like what she heard on the radio.
"Um hello, why are you talking to her?" the blonde girl with the same pin snapped her hand in front of the man with a distinct voice. "Isn't she that freak whose hobbies include talking to herself in front of the mirror in the girls restroom?" the other one whispered audibly.
"Hey, weirdo, has your reflection talked back to you yet?" the blonde giggled along with her friend at her attempt at insult.
"Yeah, actually she wanted me to ask you, how was your 5th abortion?" the aloof schoolgirl fixed her hair with one single hair flip. It was very obvious, the reaction of the blonde was priceless.
Prepping up her tongue for a comeback she said, "Well you can tell her to get the fuck off and mind her own business because, honestly? Honestly? The only person that knows she exist is you and I would have killed myself if I was her!" She fumed as she clutched her friend's arm and forced her to leave with her.
"Hey, where are you guys going?" the man with a distinct voice asked.
"We be leaving" the driver announced as he looked at the rearview mirror. His voice sounded hoarse with a hiccup at the end.
"Well enjoy talking to that bitch, she's so Pro-Life, she still talks with the dead!" she screamed her veins out as they stormed out of the bus. She was pissed. No doubt.
The bus started moving, leaving the two girls who went down the bus out of the view at the windows.
"There goes my sloppy seconds, really sloppy. You're a cockblock you know that?" the man with a distinct voice said to the aloof schoolgirl. He fixed his coat making slight grumbles.
"We have a kid on board, maybe you can watch your language, please?" the Good Samaritan pointed at the blind boy by the window. The disgust on his face was pretty insulting.
"Oh go fuck yourself, please?! I'm pissed and there's nothing wrong with that, preacher. I'm going to say whatever I want to say cause I can and I have every right to do so. I have a voice and YOU'RE not going to stop me from using it. What, you're going to quote me with your Biblical fairy tale verses against using my tongue not for the glory of the one Almighty?" reading from the Good Samaritan's attire, he could tell that he was one of those self-righteous conservative pricks who deny of themselves their right to their own choices in life. He loathed those types of people.
"Um hey, I'm actually on an important call, could you at least..." the businessman who was still on the phone stood up but he was cut short.
"Oh, fuck you too! Fuck all of you! Wow, this is the best day ever!" he punched the steel bar for support near his seat. After one loud thud, he squeezed his hand trying to not make it seem like it hurt.
"You need to calm down, bro" the Good Samaritan approached the man.
"Step away from my private space, Bro. If I hear one more word from you, I swear to God..."
"I'm just sayin'"
"I swear to your inexistent god..."
"I'm just saying, you need not attack my religion. You're a media man, you should be using your influence to..."
"Now you're trying to tell me how to run my job? Great! What's next? You want me to go to church with you? And listen to some beloved 'reverend' tell me what I should do with my life or some big fish will come along, keep me in his belly for 3 days and spit me out a life I did not plan for myself?"
"I did not say that. And I'm surprised you know of that story."
"I am an educated man, thank you very much. I don't go against your religion without even studying about all those Word. So please, I don't want to waste my time on a debate with you, you stupid fuck, so get back on your seat before I break the 6th commandment"
"Are you threatening me?" the Good Samaritan wasn't having none of it.
"Are you threatened? Well if you are, you better know what you're supposed to do to defend yourself, sit the fuck down and please just leave me alone. Let me have my morning ride in peace. Yeah, I used 'ride' is there anything wrong with that? Your savior actually rode an ass if you know what I mean"
"I can't have you mock my God right in front of me"
"We're really going there, huh? What do you want from me? Why won't you just sit the fuck down like everyone else?"
"You need Jesus!"
"Oh gosh, here we go" the radio man scoffed.
"Brother, you have so much anger in your heart, that's a playground of the Devil. Right now, he has you bound in his chains and there is only one thing that could set you free. He is the Truth. And the truth will set you free. You can sit down and bare all of your ideas, your problems on that microphone every night, but it's not going to be enough, there' always gonna be something missing in your heart" the Good Samaritan pulled out his pocket Bible.
"Was that a fucking sexual innuendo? Because if that was, please, get away from me. No, whatever it is, just get the fuck off cause I'm getting tired of telling you to get the fuck off cause it seems to me, you don't know what it means when someone tells you to get the fuck off. Next time, go home and use Google, type in 'Get the fuck off' and I'm pretty sure it's going to give you links to a hundred accurate definitions on how to get the fuck off. Oh you probably wouldn't accept it cause that phrase was never used in that fantasy novel of yours." he gave the Good Samaritan's hand a backhand and the Bible was sent flying across to the other side, right on the feet of the aloof school girl who was getting scared at the increasing tension around her. The man stood up and pushed the Good Samaritan away from him.
Contact. The Good Samaritan held his hand with a shocked expression on his face.
"Okay, man seriously, just leave him alone so everyone can be at peace and I can continue my call, please? Just a favor, this is an important client I'm talking to" the businessman stood up again, this time, annoyed and tired at an early morning bus ride.
"Shut your mouth you business twat!" the Good Samaritan all of sudden shouted at him which shocked everyone. He went back to his seat near the pale man who seems to have both of his ears covered with his hands. There was a terrified look on his face.
"I'm calling the cops" the not-so-good-after-all Samaritan pointed at the man with a distinct voice behind him. "Go ahead, you fucking loser!" retorted the man.
"You sinners don't know where you're heading, no one even helped me calm this madman down, worthless pricks" the self-righteous man murmured to himself while slightly looking at the pale man in disgust.
As he was about to press in the digits, the pale man suddenly grabbed the phone and threw it to the windshield. He was already holding a gun in his hand, waving it around, and pointing at each one of the passengers. He stood at the center shaking, "Everyone shut the fuck up!" the pale man went to the driver and pointed to his head, "Keep driving, if you stop I'll blow your brains out!"
He stood with anger spelled all over his face. Pointing the gun at the aloof schoolgirl that let out a whimpering noise, he announced "I didn't want to do this. But you have to understand. I want my life back."
"What do you want?" the radio man suddenly lost his distinct voice in trembling fear,
"We'll give you our money, put the gun down" the Good Samaritan crawled back further away from the pale madman. Bang! The striking sound of the gunshot echoed inside the bus. The schoolgirl screamed her lungs out.
"I said shut the fuck up!" he breathed in heavily. Pointing the gun, which fired at the roof, back down to the man with a distinct voice. "I don't want your money, it's not enough. I want my job back. I want my marriage back. I want my wife back. I want my daughter back. Is that something you people can give?!"
"If you put the gun down, maybe we can talk this through, man. There's no need for this" the man with a distinct voice said while he was crouched down on the floor along with the rest trying to hide from the line of sight.
"Talk this through? That's funny how you were supposedly able to talk it through with this hypocrite right here" he pointed at the Good Samaritan who was shaking in fear crouched just beside the man he was in an argument with a few minutes earlier. They looked at each other with the same fear in their eyes, finally a common ground.
"You're all a bunch of hypocrites who think you're better than everyone else just because of your ideals, your beliefs, your achievements, your moral standards and you think you can just step on other people cause it makes you feel better about yourselves. You think speaking of the truth can set you free? Well look at what it did to my life. I told the truth and I lost my job. The only thing that I can hold onto. The only thing that is giving me worth."
"Look man, that's good, spill it all out, all you need is someone you can talk to but there is no use for violence here." the man with a distinct voice tried his best cliche lines to calm the madman
"How dare you even tell me that, do you people look at yourselves in front of the mirror? Do you even hear what you people are saying?"
"If you don't want anything from us, why are you doing this? What do you want us to do?"
He took one deep breath, "You have contact with the media, call them up and tell them you are being held hostage on a moving bus. I just want my job back and everything will be back in its proper place."
"That's crazy, keeping us hostage already makes you the scum in this, nothing will ever be back in its proper place you know that. This makes you a criminal and criminals don't get to do what freemen are able to do outside of the bars." the man with a distinct voice choked on his words.
"You are doomed to hell with what you're planning to do" the preacher whispered loudly.
"Then I will take you all with me." the pale man waved the gun pointing to each one of them. Each of them moving their head away whenever the gun meets them face to face. "This thing right here is armed with explosives. I'm sure this would give you the taste of hell even before we actually get there." he kicked the heavy bag, nudged it in front of them so they can all see what is next for their lives.
"Hey man, I have kids, I have a family... just like you, just like everyone on this bus and I can understand if you're going through tough times. We go through them too. Alright? It's normal, these are just trials, I don't know from where but these trials are always gonna be here, and we just need to face them." the radio man pleaded.
"Why all of a sudden flip sides? You know what's wrong with you? You talk too much!" With one pull of the trigger, a bullet blasted into the air. Bang! Screams filled the contained air. The bus swerved at the sound of panic. In brief chaos, they all opened their eyes to see that the man with a distinct voice is lying on the floor with one of the twins on top of him bleeding from a wound on the shoulder.
The pale man's eyes grew wide at the sight of the innocent bleeding from the work of his hand. Heartbeats. Faster and faster.
He noticed that the speed of the bus is gradually decreasing. Running back past the yellow line he pointed his gun to the head of the driver. Red light. It flashed in front of them. An intersection. There was a big truck ahead with a warning, flammable. "Don't fucking stop the bus!". The driver's eyes were about to blow up in tears as he kept catching his breath. Green light. A sudden relief.
Yet his eyes grew wide from what is on the road ahead of him. With the truck beside them they were about to pass the intersection moving forward when all of a sudden, a loud explosion from the left threw them all off out of balance. In slow motion, the pale man looked back at the passengers with fear not because of what he did but because of what he saw inside. There was a white light that spread mightily blurring his vision before it was vacuumed out to the left side windows facing the flames that forced their way in breaking into glass.
The flames slithered like it avoided a presence unseen to the blurred state of their vision. Spinning, they felt their bodies worthlessly scrambled like a blender as the bus rolled sideways crushing cars underneath it.
It was hell for a moment for only hell could measure up to what they've seen.
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