Passing Roads

Angela pulled Andre along and sat on the seat just behind the bus driver

Angela pulled Andre along and sat on the seat just behind the bus driver. Her mother and Lisa sat on seats that faced opposite towards the windows and then silently looked at the three seats in their sights. No one sat opposite to them. Adrian and Lucy, despite them talking and enjoying their time when they were sat at different places, as they both wanted to sit at the windows. Even though the bus was empty, apart from the driver, Mark decided not to take a seat and stood up holding onto the pole. May muttered something to herself as she passed him to find a seat behind a glass frame. She then gestured Andre to come and sit next to her. As he refrained, shaking his head, she then started punching the seat next to her. "If you damage the seat, you have to pay for it!" the bus driver complained. Andre feeling despaired then decided to sit next to her. The bus then took off, with only these eccentric travellers who were planning their next destination: Austin, Texas. The bus trip was going to be long, that's when Lisa then decided to ask the woman all the hard questions.

"I'd just like to--"

"My name is Shawn Lane, and I'll tell you everything about the incident." The woman interrupted. "I know… I might as well tell you everything to save you the trouble for asking" Shawn said, only to have a miserable tone in her voice. She looked down at her hands, which were resting on her lap, playing with her fingers before taking a long deep breath. "My husband Robert Lane is a land surveyor of the Chihuahuan Desert, across the border of Texas and in Mexico. One day he decided to use the tour service of the desert to explore the desert with his co-workers trying to figure out why many sandstorms were occurring in the outback. I tagged along, taking Angela as well because she really wanted to see what her father did for work. The people who booked the times for that tour also came, I remember a lovely Australian man Darren, a Swedish car-model Sophie and Penelope, a nurse who took one of the patients she cared for to the desert. In the bus, her patient a very old man told tales and legends of the Chihuahuan desert. He was a little cryptic however, saying that God was punishing us with rapid sandstorms due to all the sins we've committed and yet have not faced retribution. During the trip, the bus suddenly just stopped as the bus was hit hard with all the sand storms. However the sandstorms suddenly stopped. The surveyors including my husband took a look outside the bus. They travelled far into the distance, I saw them running back. A giant black scorpion with great big claws and a large tail began chasing them. The scorpion was gigantic; I can almost say 10 times larger than this bus we're travelling in right now. Almost bigger than the buildings that stands tall in Austin's metropolitan put together. Unluckily, the scorpion killed the surveyors including my husband, for some of them the large claws crushed them. For others, they were sucked into its mouth by powerful winds. For my husband… The stinger of the beast impaled Robert. I ran outside, and couldn't believe the killings and the massive size of the scorpion. I then began running on the road, with my daughter Angela to run for the next city. But for everyone else, who still remained on the bus, the scorpion crushed them into pieces. From a nearby city, I took I rode a bus with my daughter to get to Austin to report the news."
"Then that's when… you were ridiculed by the public." Lisa interrupted, looking down upon herself. "I'm so sorry to trouble you for your loss."

Lucy, from peering on the passing roads outside the window then stood up from her seat and approached both Lisa and the disheartened Shawn and pressed her chin with her index finger. "I couldn't help but overhear. But don't you think it's strange that people haven't been suspicious for the loss of these people?"
"Maybe this event hit hard for those that didn't have anyone that cared for them." Shawn said, covering her eyes and shaking her head in distraught.

"But even if that may be the case, the driver should have signed in or something when he finished his job! Shouldn't the tour company be bothered by his long disappearance?"

"I contacted them… Wait, I just realized now that something's wrong." Shawn exclaimed.

"When I contacted them about our schedule, the booking told us that the bus driver came back alive."

"But he couldn't have, the scorpion crushed the bus right?" Lucy said. "Then something suspicious is going on then… Who would do such a thing though?" Andre intersected. Lisa gave a little gasp, but it was unnoticeable towards anyone, apart from Adrian who had been watching her reactions all this time. "It's ironic isn't it? Surveyors are workers hired and are from the Government. However, when they disappear the Government doesn't care about their whereabouts." Shawn said, laughing at her statement.
"It must have been hard for you to face humiliation from the public like that. But don't worry, we'll set it out so the country will spew in their coffees and be sorry for making fun of the truth." Lucy said, in hope of enlightening Shawn over the matter. She then reached to her pockets in her yet again new clothes. This time, she wore a jacket over her usually short dress, with platform boots. When she felt something in her pocket, she then looked up and nodded her head smiling.

"I assume they still run those tours for the Chihuahuan desert don't they?" Adrian asked, raising his voice to make sure Shawn had received the message. "Yes they still do."

"And no one reported missing cases?" he said, shaking his head and raising his eyes. Shawn took a small breath and exhaled it in discontent, closing her eyes. "No one even takes it seriously anymore, not after I went public with the so called "False Scorpion" story. I thought you knew that…"

Adrian then realized this and put his hand across his face feeling remorse. "I'm so sorry Shawn."

"It's okay. I'm just curious on why you people want to know about the incident so much. It's like you are hunting the thing."
"We are actually… That's why we want you to take us to the place where you booked the trip. We plan on going on a tour ourselves." Adrian said with a small smile on his face.

"B-But, you'll just get killed!" Shawn stuttered.

"We've got no choice, we are going to confront the scorpion because we have to." Lisa replied.

"Are you positive with this? You can't be serious!"

"Don't worry about us Shawn, nothing is going to happen to us. Besides, we really want to help. We don't want anymore people to disappear because of this scorpion and we don't want you to go through anymore public ridicule anymore." Lucy said, comforting Shawn.

Adrian, Lucy, Lisa and Andre felt that their confrontation with Scorpio was imminent, however Socrates felt more joy talking to Angela, still holding onto that red balloon from the airport, to the bus travelling past the scenery on the way to the Metropolitan of Austin, Texas.