We made it my friends, to chapter 2. Due to some complications that definitely did not involve me idiotically forgetting to save a document, some of my edits were lost, but MountainGirl's edits are still there so happy face.

I'm not going to tell you that you have to review this chapter. I just want you to know that I know where you live. Even you Michel.

Enjoy the chapter.

When Miku came to her senses everything was dark. She felt around in the dark and found she was lying on the roof of the bus, which had flipped upside down.

"How on earth did I survive?" Was her first thought, "Where is everyone?" was the second. She got to her knees and felt her head. There was a huge lump, but no further damage. Her eyes were adjusting to the dark now and she could make out shadowy shapes in the faint moonlight.

She was about to get up to leave the bus when she looked out the upside down window and saw a large dog shape. Before, Miku had forgotten that she was in the middle of the woods on the first of June, but her breath became suddenly painfully aware of that. She was unsure whether to scream or not. Her brain had just about convinced itself that the dog shape was just a strange shadow when it came to life. It moved toward the bus with breathtaking speed.

Miku saw the glint of teeth in the moonlight and started to scream. A hand covered her mouth and someone pushed her to the ground. Miku's scream was stifled and the dog shape collided with the bus, not where Miku was, but with the upside down hood. The thing went to work on the engine, tearing it out and chomping it repeatedly with powerful jaws.

Miku looked to the side and saw Gumi, lying low to the ground. She held a finger to her lips, then took her hand away from Miku's mouth. Miku did not attempt to scream again. Gumi nodded her head toward the emergency exit at the end of the bus and the two began to crawl toward it. It didn't take the dog shape long to finish destroying the bus' engine. It then started on the rest of the control panel. Miku kept thinking it would look up and see them inching their way along the floor of the bus, and every time, she wanted to move a little faster, but Gumi didn't let her. Why was she moving so slow?

Gumi's eyes darted back and forth. Where was her bag? She couldn't miss it, it was pink. The dog shape was finishing the front of the bus, but now they were nearing the end of the bus. Gumi pulled the emergency lever and the door opened. She hopped out, then helped Miku dismount. Then she saw it. Her bag, way up at the front of the bus where she was sitting earlier. Right where the dog shape was. It was running out of things to destroy and started ramming the sides of the bus.

"What are you doing!?" Miku hissed. "We have to get out of here before that thing notices us."

Gumi's feet wanted to go, but her head held her back. She teetered as if on the edge of a cliff, then turned to Miku. "You go, I'll catch up with you."

"What?" Miku panicked. "Don't leave me! I need you!"

But Gumi was already gone. Miku looked back in the bus, but Gumi wasn't there either. She looked around, feeling the same indecision that had plagued Gumi not a moment ago, then she turned and ran into the unnatural fog that now half obscured the road.

Kaito stumbled through the fog. Blood was running down his left arm, which hung at his side. He hurt it when he was thrown out of the bus. He must have flown pretty far though, because he couldn't find the bus anywhere, nor any of its inhabitants. Someone must have survived the crash other than him, and he knew he had to find them.

"Luka!" he stopped and looked around frantically. "Luka? Is anyone out there?" Kaito took another step and fell into a ditch. He caught his fall on his bad arm and collapsed. It was the ditch that ran along the side of the road to catch the rain and snow in winter. Kaito winced, gently running his fingers along his arm to try and gauge the damage.

He got up again, which was a chore because of his arm, then, not having the energy to try and climb back up to the road, continued along the ditch. As he went along, the channel deepened and the walls grew steeper. He soon realized it was a bad decision to stay in the channel. It gave him an ominous closed-in feeling, like something was about to grab him and drag him into the darkness. He kept looking over his shoulder. It was too late to try and get back on the road. He could have turned back, but every time he tried, he felt a bad energy coming from that way that made him keep moving forward. His feet continued to trip over each other, slowly onward.

Suddenly, he heard a voice crying out somewhere ahead of him. "Luka?" Kaito's feet stumbled uneasily into a run, "Luka!"

He stopped. There was a girl lying in the ditch, but it wasn't Luka. This girl had a bow in her blond hair, and she was much younger, he recognized her from the bus. Kaito ran to her. "Are you ok?" he asked, relieved to find anyone who survived the crash.

"Ow!" she moaned. "My head feels like hell."

"Have you seen anyone else from the crash? Have you seen Luka?"

"No." The girl sounded crabby. "Stop talking your hurting my head."

"Sorry." Kaito helped the girl to her feet. She was scrunching her eyes up to stop the pounding in her head. "What's your name again?"

"Rin."

"I'm Kaito."

"I thought I told you to stop talking,"

"Sorry." Kaito looked around anxiously. "We should find the bus, that's where everyone else probably is."

"Yeah," Rin said, unclenching her eyes a bit. "I need to find my useless brother."

"Oh right, your twin."

"Who's Luka?"

"My fiancée." Kaito smiled, but Rin could see his eyes were tormented by worry.

"That' beautiful woman with the pink hair sitting next to you?"

"Yeah."

Rin looked down and noticed the blood. "What happened to your arm?"

"I don't know."

"Let me see it." Kaito let Rin roll up his sleeve. "You've got a cut," she said.

"I can see that."

Rin glared at him, "We'll have to rip up your shirt to make bandages."

"What? It's not that bad."

"That's what they do in all the movies." Rin grinned. "The hot guy always rips up his shirt."

"No," Kaito said indignantly. "I'm engaged."

"Fine." Rin held up her hands, "If you don't want my medical expertise, that's fine I guess." Kaito rolled his eyes. "But-" Rin continued, "You might want to listen to this. We're in danger."

"Yeah I know, we were just in a car crash."

"No," Rin beckoned to Kaito, and the two leaned in as if Rin was sharing a piece of gossip at school, "I saw something out the window, like a dog but much larger, and with bigger teeth, and covered with blood, just before we crashed."

"Are you trying to scare me?" Kaito asked suspiciously, "cause that's not going to work."

"Ok, maybe it wasn't covered in blood," Rin admitted, "but it was there. I didn't see it for very long, but I think... I think this wood is haunted."

"That's stupid," Kaito said. "You don't have to be scared. We'll find the bus and the others, and we'll call and get help."

"I'm not scared." Rin crossed her arms. "And that's not going to work. There's no reception here."

"There's reception everywhere nowadays," Kaito said, reaching into his pocket for his phone and wondering why he hadn't thought of that earlier. His phone wasn't there. "Let me see your phone," Kaito said to Rin, holding out his hand,

"It's gone," Rin said. "That was the first thing I checked for when I woke up."

"Someone's bound to have their phone," Kaito said. "Let's get going." He started forward with new determination in his steps. The ditch didn't feel quite so ominous now that he wasn't alone.

"I reserve the right to say I told you so," Rin said, following Kaito into the fog.

Len was hopelessly lost. He'd woken up in a ditch a few feet away from where the bus was, but by the time he crawled his way out of the ditch, everyone was gone. The bus also looked like it was shoved through a paper shredder. The front was torn and the engine lay a few feet away like a broken heart. He'd waited a little, to see if anyone would show up, and while he was waiting, he saw a shape in the forest. It looked like a girl with pigtails. Thinking it was Miku, he ran off into the woods to follow the shape, but it must have been an illusion, or a weirdly shaped rock, because it led him nowhere but through a hopeless maze of trees.

The fog was dense, but even so, it shouldn't be as hard to see as it was. The fog seemed not only to dim the light but the senses. Len kept thinking there was something watching him, kept seeing eyes and the faces of people he knew, but whenever he looked twice, they were gone. It was exhausting.

He was a boy. Boys don't get scared. He was just annoyed, and jumpy, because who wouldn't be after a car crash like that, he didn't even know how he'd lived. The whole bus was upside down. Len picked up a long, pointed stick and brandished it like a sword, then he looked around embarrassed. Why? No one was around.

He kept the stick with him as he went on. It made him feel safer. Maybe he would still find Miku somewhere in this wood. She would be scared, and he would comfort her, then he would lead her out of these woods. Maybe she would like him better then.

As if in answer to his fantasy, he saw a girl standing in front of him. She looked looked like she was crying. She had blue pigtails.

"Miku?" Len asked. The girl turned and Len saw that it was indeed Miku. Her blue eyes were flooding over with fear, but when they saw Len, they flashed brightly. Miku ran to Len and flung her arms around him, sobbing. Len was shocked, but pleased. He returned her embrace and patted her comfortingly on the back with the hand that wasn't holding his makeshift sword. "It's okay," that was all he could think to say.

"I'm so glad I found you Len," Miku sobbed, "I was ever so worried."

"Uh- yeah. I'm glad I found you,"

"Stay with me forever Len."

"I will,"

"Forever?"

"What?" Len pushed away, "Um, isn't that what married people say?" he asked Miku. Miku stared at him blankly, saying nothing. "Is there something wrong?" Miku shook her head. Len waited for her to say something, but she didn't. Len couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. "We should go, we still need to find Rin," he said, looking over his shoulder at the woods behind him. He was wondering if the best way out was the way he came: but he'd tried that already.

"You're going to stay with me forever."

"What?" Len looked around at Miku again. She was staring at him with the same innocent expression. "What's wrong with you?" Miku didn't answer. Len raised his eyebrows but didn't say anything. He moved toward Miku, planning to take her hand, but as soon as he stepped forward, there was a loud bang. Miku fell to the forest floor, a red flower was blossoming on her throat.

Len looked wildly around, and out of the fog emerged a shape. It was Gumi. She was holding a gun with experience and her face was streaked with dirt and blood. Her eyes were cold as she regarded Miku's dying form.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Len yelled, he knocked Gumi's arms away so they fell to her side. Gumi looked up, as if coming out of a trance. "You just shot her you crazy- She-"

"I saved your life," Gumi said, her voice quavering, "That thing," she pointed at Miku venomously, "That thing doesn't deserve to live."

Len couldn't believe what he was hearing. Gumi seemed like such a nice girl on the bus. Quiet sure, but no murderer. "Get away!" he shouted, stepping forward and punching Gumi in the face.

Gumi suddenly looked like she was about to cry, "Wait, I was just trying to help."

"She was nice to you," Len said, jabbing his stick at Gumi to get her away from Miku's dead body, "She shared her food with you."

Gumi blinked. "No it didn't."

Len stared at her. Was this girl insane?

There was the sound of crunching leaves from off in the fog. Gumi readied her gun and Len raised his stick. "What are you guys doing?" The shape of two pigtails emerged, followed by blue eyes and a surprised face.

"Miku?" Len asked, "How?"

"Yeah, how and why am I dead?" Miku pointed at the dead Miku on the forest floor.

Gumi's face grew grim. She took Lens stick and used it to push the dead Miku's mouth open revealing razor sharp teeth and a long slitted tongue. Miku gasped a little. Len's face grew very pale.

"You didn't notice that?" Gumi asked.

"No," Len said. "She never talked when I was looking at her,"

"And you didn't find that strange?"

Len blushed, "Well- I was- I didn't."

"How are you still alive Len?" Miku asked.

"She looked just like you!"

"Except for the teeth and the snake tongue!"

"I didn't see that!"

"Stop," Gumi said quietly. "We can't fight right now guys. We need to get back to the bus."

"Are you kidding?" Miku asked. "What about that dog you and I saw?"

"The what?"

"You missed it Len, it was like a giant dog thing. Tore the engine apart."

"That's what destroyed the engine? Let's not go back to the bus."

"The dog isn't there anymore," Gumi said, checking how many bullets were left in her gun.

"Did you kill it?" Len asked,

"No, it chased me and I lost it. I shot it a few times."

"That's where the blood on your face came from,"

Gumi grimaced and nodded. "It didn't seemed fazed by the bullets."

"Where did you get that gun?" Miku asked,

"It was in my bag." Gumi slung her pink backpack off her back and pulled out an ammo cartridge. "This is my last one. I only brought two."

"But how did you get it? The dog-"

"Len opened our window, remember? I went around the side of the bus, and from there I was able to reach in and grab it."

"How are you able to use a gun?" Len asked.

"Military school?" Miku guessed.

"Before that. But also that," Gumi sighed. "I don't want to talk about it."

"Sorry."

"It's okay."

"Have any of you seen my sister?" Len asked.

Miku and Gumi both shook their heads. Their conversation faded into silence, punctuated by the clinking of metal on metal as Gumi slotted bullets into her gun. The sounds echoed in the empty mist. When she had finished, she noticed that everyone was looking at her "What?" she asked innocently.

"What are we gonna do next?" Len asked.

"Why are you asking me that?"

Miku shrugged, "You're the one who seems like she knows what she's doing the most."

"No to mention you just saved my life." Len added.

"You've got the gun."

"I don't know what's going on here any more than you do," Gumi said. "I don't know what that thing was." She pointed at the ground and Miku screamed a little. "What is it?" Gumi looked down. Fake Miku's body was gone.

"Where did it go?" Len asked. Gumi just stared at the empty patch of grass. "Things don't just disappear," Len half meant the sentence as a question.

"Maybe it was never there in the first place," Miku wondered aloud. "This fog seems a little unnatural to me. What if it's some kind of gas? They use that in chemical warfare, don't they Gumi?"

Again Gumi didn't answer.

"She wasn't a hallucination," Len said angrily. "I touched her, she was real."

"Girls with snake tongues don't exist in real life."

"Well neither do giant demon dogs. Besides, if this is a hallucination, why are we all seeing the same things."

"Shut up," Gumi said. Len and Miku quit bickering and looked at Gumi. "I don't know if it's a chemical gas," she explained. "Just because I'm going to military school, doesn't mean I know everything there is to know about the military. I do know that when you're lost, the best thing to do is to stay put until someone finds you."

"Great," Len threw up his arms. "We're all going to starve."

"We can't stay here I think," Gumi said. "But we have to stay together, and we have to look out for each other. We should head back to the bus."

"But that's where-"

"If it was real, it's not there anymore," Gumi said,

"We should hold hands," Miku said, "so no one get's lost."

"That's stupid," Len scoffed,

"But practical," Gumi took Miku's hand, then extended her other hand to Len. She smiled again. "Let's go." Len dubiously took Gumi's hand. The green haired girl smiled encouragingly again, then lead them off into the fog, trying with all her might to hide the fear inside her heart.