2: The Butterfly Effect
When she got on the bus, she found, to her annoyance, that Brett was sitting beside Casper. She sat behind them instead, beside Danny.
At least, until Sam got on the bus. He grinned at her, and said, "Mind if I sit here?" He then promptly sat on her lap.
She pushed him off, shot a look at Casper, and moved to the back of the bus, where she found an empty seat.
"Wait!"
Everyone looked out the window. Drew quickly took a photo, just as a black guy came running out of the main doors, his arm reached out to the bus.
Zack.
Everyone applauded and cheered when he got on. "Yo man, what kept ya?" shouted someone.
"I'm really sorry," Zack said. "Really, really sorry."
"Hey, don't lose your head," said Casper. "Sit down."
As Zack started walking down the aisle, the bus moved off.
Scientists talk of the Butterfly Effect. What they mean by this is, it is possible that a butterfly flapping its wings can cause a storm several thousand miles away. In other words, sometimes the smallest things can have enormous consequences.
Meet the butterfly.
His name is Ted, although that's not important. What is important is that he is a nine year old boy who likes killing insects and bugs.
Oddly enough, his latest target really was a butterfly. And he was going to kill it.
And every action has a reaction.
The bus was now speeding past a wooden fence. Ted was on the other side of it.
Zack had paused, still on his feet, to talk to Leo.
No one had the faintest idea of what was about to happen.
Ted was proud of his construction. He had found a length of rubber, and had tied it between two trees, making a giant catapult. He decided to test it out.
By a lucky coincidence, a butterfly had alighted on the wooden fence at the bottom of his garden. He watched it for a moment, then went over to the house. He picked up a fallen brick, and carried it to the catapult.
He took aim.
Zack and Leo were still talking. Zoë was eyeing up Zack – there were rumours that she had a crush on him. Brett and Casper were horsing around, particularly making faces at Alexa. Phoebe sat two seats behind her, trying to stay unnoticed. Jerry was resting his head against the window, looking out, trying to ignore Seb. Seb was opposite, trying to engage him in conversation. And Sam and Danny were in a heated argument about which Star Wars film was the best.
Drew sat at the back, looking around all her friends, dotted around the crowded bus. She smiled.
And all hell broke loose.
The brick suddenly burst out of the wooden fence. It smashed through the window, and went straight through Jerry's head, splattering his brains everywhere.
But the brick didn't stop there. It carried on to the other side, and hit Seb in the face. With a scream, Seb fell back against the window beside him. He broke through the glass, and fell out. Now half his body was in, the other half was hanging out the window. The bus driver was now alerted by everyone screaming he looked round in horror.
"Watch the road!" yelled Casper. The bus driver looked back again, and was only just in time to swerve out of the way of an oncoming lorry. Unfortunately, the side of the bus scraped along the side of the lorry.
Sparks flew.
Seb's screams were abruptly cut off.
"No!" cried Alexa, tears running down her face, as Seb's legs and waist fell back onto the seat.
The rest of him had been removed.
It's not certain whether it was a coincidence or not that Ted chose the exact moment that the bus was passing to fire. But if it was a coincidence, then another one was about to happen.
A construction worker dropped his cigarette. Not, in itself, a remarkable event. But he dropped it because he saw a bus with broken windows and screaming teenagers zooming past the site.
And he dropped it into a stream of petrol.
No one had noticed the leak. It led to a van, with several sharp pipes protruding from the back.
And it exploded.
"Stay calm!" Phoebe urged Alexa. She had stood up and moved to beside her to comfort her. She didn't like her, but she did like Seb. And everyone liked Jerry.
Suddenly, they all heard an explosion. The last thing the driver saw was a long, gleaming pipe lancing towards him.
Then he died.
The bus veered out of control.
"Grab the wheel!" Danny yelled to Sam. Sam shook his head.
"Oh, for Christ's sake," muttered Zack. He strode to the front.
The second pipe shot at them.
This time, it headed down the middle of the aisle. It passed straight through Zack's chest, and on to Phoebe. Phoebe tried to duck, but just too late – the pipe went through her head.
Now the bus was veering round, into the construction site. There was another explosive bang, and another pipe flew at them from the side.
It was headed directly for Brett.
He saw it, and ducked. Sadly, he didn't warn Casper.
"No!" Drew screamed, as her boyfriend was skewered through the brain. Brett turned to look at Casper.
The fourth pipe hit him in the back of the head.
"Everybody get out of here!" yelled the site foreman. He then ran for it.
He knew he couldn't stop the bus.
The bus was completely out of control now. It was careering wildly through the construction site.
It crashed through some scaffolding.
Two concrete bricks dropped.
Alexa had sprung to her feet now. She was desperately looking for a way out, but the aisle was blocked by several dead bodies.
"Alexa!" Drew screamed. "Sit down!"
Alexa turned to look at her.
And she was squashed by a concrete block.
The second block fell a small distance away.
There was a steel wire, stretched between two poles, obviously to make sure the wall was built straight.
The block crushed one of the poles.
The wire snapped free and flew to the bus.
Zoë screamed. Alexa's blood had sprayed over her. She leapt to her feet.
The wire sliced through the top of the bus.
It also sliced Zoë's head and shoulders off.
Not only that, it cut through one of the upright poles that people can hold on to in the bus. The pole was already loose from the continuous jolting of the bus.
The pole fell like an axe on Leo's head, cleaving it in two.
And now, the final act. The van, when it had exploded, had fired a piece of burning metal high into the sky.
It now landed on some fuel canisters.
The fireball blasted in through the window.
Danny's window.
He let out a yell, and Sam did too, before they were both consumed by the flames.
Drew screamed. The blast had by now disintegrated the whole front half of the bus. Now the fireball was coming down it.
Drew cried out, but even as she did so, the searing wave hit her.