Jake groaned as the bus came to a rumbling stop. He only had almost five miles to go and they would be nearing the town. But, he was lucky that they had made it even this far. He turned to Heather.
"Okay. I think we are about five miles away. I'm going to start walking as soon as I wrap my ankle."
"Hold on, wait a moment! You're hurt. You are not going to go out there all alone! There are wild animals out there," Heather protested.
"Well, who else should do it? Do you want the kids to go out there or me?" When Heather remained silent, he continued. "Now, if help does not come, I need you to instruct the kids to walk back. You know how to get back, don't you? She nodded. They will see it, don't worry." Jake added when he saw Heather's worried face.
Jake slowly wrapped his ankle with the bandages he salvaged from the bus's first aid kit. Then he left the bus, and began to walk, with his walking stick.
"Mayor, Mayor Green!" Jimmy said loudly as he burst through the doors of town hall.
"Yes, Jimmy?" He responded, in an exasperated sort of voice.
"Sir, we spotted your son's car about 10 miles out of town. It was in a ditch, apparently there was an accident and there was blood on the seat. I am guessing that he started to walk back to town, but we couldn't find him."
Johnston's heart dropped at these words. "Any sign of the school bus?"
"No, sir."
"Put a Patrol car on all main roads into town. If the bus or Jake comes there probably is going to be a need for medical care. And keep an eye out for the convicts."
Jimmy nodded at the mayor's words and went back to his car.
Jake had been walking- or rather limping- for about 25 minutes... It was a slow, painful process, but he was almost there. If he got up this hill he would be able to see the town, and then it was only a mile to actually get there.
Suddenly, he heard a twig snap. Instinctively, he whirled around, only to see no one. He was about to go on when he felt a blow to his head. Suddenly, he was ambushed by at least five men, wearing orange jumpers. He was getting kicked and punched from every direction. Then it stopped. He couldn't move. They were holding him down. He pulled and twisted his body, but one man holding his arm down twisted it, and Jake heard a crack. The sound of a bone breaking. He immediately stopped.
"W-who are you? What do you want?" Jake asked, wincing as he talked. The pain was intense.
"Shut up" One man replied, before kicking him in the chest. Jake groaned, but said nothing after that. Finally, the men seemed like they were going to go. Jake had to concentrate to keep from blacking out, and his vision was getting pretty hazy, but he saw that they had taken his wallet, his watch, and his jacket. He was thankful that he hadn't brought anything valuable, other than his money.
They stood up, as if to leave. Jake thought he was safe, but felt the exact opposite when one of the men brought out a gun. Jake heard the men whispering.
"Give me the gun we stole from the sheriff; I'll kill 'em."
"We can't kill him, 'cause then we'll be murderers." This went on for a couple of minutes.
"Lets just shoot him, and let him die, on his own, that's not murder, cause he was alive when we left" Jake inwardly laughed. Apparently, this man wasn't too bright... But, the others couldn't be either, because they nodded. Thankfully, this worked in Jake's favor. Hopefully, though, he wouldn't bleed out before he got to town.
One man came up to him, and raised the gun. Jake's heart pumped wildly.
He pulled the trigger and the sound cut through the silence like a knife in a cake.
"Ms. Heather, I'm hungry!" a little girl whined.
"Stacy, I'm sorry honey, but we have to wait for help to come. We don't have any food." Heather said, wishing that she had SOMETHING for the kids.
Then, she remembered that she had packed a lunch… but hadn't had the time to eat it. She reached in the bag. She felt two sandwiches, a bunch of grapes, a bag of pretzels and a jumbo size packet of MnM's, her favorite. She knew she had nineteen kids with her today, so with her, it was a perfect twenty.
Heather split the sandwiches into three pieces each, the pretzels into four piles, the grapes in five piles and the MnM's… The MnM's. She was so hungry. Then she looked up.
She saw nineteen little faces looking at her, with big hungry eyes. She sighed and separated the MnM's into five little piles. The kids lined up and she gave them a piece of her lunch. She saved herself one little pile of grapes. God, she hoped Jake was alright and coming with help already.