No one spoke, as the passengers stared blankly at the dead bus driver, still in too much shock over the situation to fully comprehend it all.

A voice suddenly broke the silence. "How are you gonna get us off?"

Frank looked up, to see most of the passengers looking at him. Glancing at the handkerchief he still held to his temple, he was relieved to see only a little blood, and he wiped at the wound again before lowering it.

"I need to work on a plan, after I find out what we're dealing with," he told them.

"You mean you don't have a plan yet?!" another voice exclaimed.

Frank felt slightly irked as he tried to figure out who'd spoken. "Have you seen the movie?" he asked.

"I haven't."

Frank looked at the young woman with the baby, as she stared into his eyes, looking very scared.

Frank felt sorry for her. She must be terrified for her daughter, he thought, seeing the pink clothes the tiny baby wore. "It had a happy ending," he found himself saying.

"The people got off the bus," someone told her.

She smiled slightly at that. "Then you just follow the movie, right?" she said, a note of hope in her voice.

Frank sighed, deciding to be honest. "I don't think the man responsible will let it be that easy. He wants me to fail."

At that, a man jumped out of his seat. "You mean to tell us someone is doing this to get revenge on you? We're about to die because of YOU?!"

Frank stood when the man took a step towards him, and a few of the other men grabbed the guy before he could go any closer.

Jake looked over his shoulder, annoyed that he had to stay where he was.

The men got the guy to sit back down, and his glare at Frank turned into a look of sadness, as if he couldn't believe what he had just been about to do.

"I'm sorry about this," Frank told everyone. "I'm going to get you all out of it."

Suddenly his cell phone rang, and he quickly answered it. "Donovan."

"'Donovan'," Lazarro mocked. "You say that as if you think you're the President or something."

Frank rolled his eyes. "What's the deal, Lazarro?"

"Deal?" Lazarro snared. "There ain't gonna be no deal. Everyone is gonna DIE!" he yelled.

Frank had to fight the urge to punch something. "You know what I mean!"

"Yeah, I do," Lazarro laughed. "The deal is this: there are bombs all over that bus, and I have the capability to set off any one that I choose. Go under 50 and they all go off. How much gas is in that sucker?"

Frank took a deep breath. "Is there anything, anything that will make you end this?"

Lazarro laughed again. "Sure, I can end it all right now with the touch of a button!"

Frank's blood started to boil. "Anything that will make you let these people go!" he clarified, through clenched teeth.

"Humm…humm…" Lazarro pretended to think. "Nah."

"Look," Frank said. "I'm the one you want. If you let these people off the bus, I'll surrender to you."

Lazarro started to laugh. "Yeah right! I let them off, and you surrender. Sounds like a plan, except that either a bunch of cops will accompany you and shoot me full of holes, or you'll jump me and shoot me full of holes. No, no, Frankie boy. The promise of your death will be fulfilled, on that bus when it blows!"

*click*

Frank looked at his phone, in surprise. Lazarro had pretty much told him nothing new. With a sigh, he realized that this was one hostage negotiation he might lose. And not only would he lose the passengers, but Jake and himself too.

********************

"Michael Lazarro," said Cody, sitting at his computer in the van. "That's what Frank said the name was, right?"

"Yeah," said Monica, watching Alex pace.

"Jake said he'd call back!" Alex exploded.

"Maybe he can't," said Monica, wincing as she realized how that sounded.

Alex dialed Jake's phone, and held her breath as it rang. "Jake! You didn't call back!"

Jake held the phone to his ear with his shoulder, as he drove. "I kinda couldn't, Alex…I'm driving the bus."

"WHAT?!" Alex yelled.

Monica and Cody jumped up, in fear over Alex's reaction to whatever Jake had just told her.

"What?!" Cody asked her.

Alex listened for a minute, before telling them, "Jake's driving the bus, the driver had a heart attack."

"Oh no!" said Monica.

"Did Frank talk to Lazarro again?" Alex asked.

"Yeah. He didn't get anywhere," Jake told her.

"Is there a camera in the bus?" Alex asked.

"Frank!" Jake called. "We should see if there's a camera in here."

Frank walked over to him and looked around, checking to see if one was in the same place as in the movie. Hearing noise, he looked at the passengers to see some of them looking too.

"If you find one, do not destroy it!" Frank told them. "It'll give Lazarro an excuse to blow this thing."

Jake, seeing that Frank wasn't having luck finding one, said, "There's gotta be one here, otherwise we could get the people off without Lazarro's knowledge."

Frank nodded. "He probably hid it somewhere we'd never find it."

"But it has to be in a place where he could see all of us and the door," Jake reasoned.

"True," said Frank, looking along the ceiling.

"Oh crap!" Jake suddenly yelled, dropping his phone.

Looking at the road, Frank saw that they were approaching a stoplight. It turned yellow before their eyes, and would be red when they reached it.

"Everyone hold on to something!" Frank yelled, grabbing hold of the rail near the door.

Jake cringed as they approached the light. He started beeping the horn, to alert the drivers of the unsuspecting vehicles.

As they zoomed through the light, cars continued coming through the intersection, expecting the bus to stop. Jake had to swerve around a car that came out of the right side street, and almost hit a car coming from the left.

The people in the bus screamed madly, sure they were about to die: if Jake didn't hit someone, it would be a miracle.

Jake was close to panic, positive there would be an accident, one which would end all their lives, as the bombs would explode from the impact. He swerved around a minivan, and suddenly there was clear road ahead of him.

He got the bus back under control and looked in the rearview mirror, expecting to see a pileup behind them. He couldn't tell if there was one or not, as he looked back to the road.

"Did I cause an accident?!" he shouted.

Frank was holding on for dear life to the front seat of the bus, having been thrown there thanks to the wild ride. He stood up, and made his way to the back of the bus, looking out the back window.

With a sigh of relief, he turned around and walked towards Jake. "Anyone hurt?" he asked, along the way.

Everyone shook their heads or said no. Many of the people looked panic-stricken.

Frank stopped next to the girl with the baby, who was clutching her crying daughter in a death grip. "You two all right?"

She looked up at him, shaking. "Y-yes."

Frank touched her arm, in sympathy, and made his way to Jake.

"Well?" Jake asked, sounding like a nervous wreck.

"No accident, Jake," Frank said. He looked at his subordinate closely; he'd never seen Jake look so scared. "You okay?"

Jake nodded, too vigorously. "Yeah."