SEASON 6 - EPISODE 2

One Way

Written by Marner

You unlock this door with the key of imagination. Beyond it is another dimension; a dimension of sound, a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind. You're moving into a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas. You've just crossed into the twilight zone…

Screech. Stop! Screech. Beep. Beep. Beep. Screech. Stop! Stop! Stop! These thoughts, these sounds continue to repeat in my head. Stop! Stop! Stop! Everything moves so fast. It continues to move without stopping. The fear is terrible. I would be shaking if I had any control of my body. I'm being tossed around this small space. The pain is growing with each roll of the bus.

It comes to crashing end. The water pours into the bus rapidly. I struggle painfully to move. I glanced down. My hand is caught, right between the knuckles of my index and middle finger. I pull, and pull, my finger out from under the small cylinder object. It tears my flesh and causing a large wound with blood. I try to move but can't go too far. My legs are pinned.

I glance forward. Everyone is dead around me. I see the conductor still strapped into his driving chair. His cap is missing. He insisted on driving me out of his way. He wanted to take the turn off his route to take me home. I shouldn't have agreed to ride this bus. I shouldn't have come on this trip, but now I'm stuck. I'm stuck and about to die.

I see the flames develop and move closer to me. The engine has blown. The flames crawl over the roof of the bus. They crawl over the rushing water. I feel the flames touch the top of my back. I give out a painful scream. I sink further down into the water. I feel the burning of my flesh. My legs still pinned. My immobility is causing my death.

I give a pained scream. I sit up abruptly. I'm sitting on a black bench at the bus stop. I stare around my surroundings. Its midday and the birds are chirping. I feel myself breathing heavily, almost panting. The woman sitting beside me stares. She thinks I'm crazy. I wait for my heart to slow its beating.

This is Marian Jones. She has been waiting for her local bus to get home. However this bus' route does not follow the routes commonly found on any map. This bus is stop leads directly into the Twilight Zone.

The bus should be any minute now. A few have passed, but neither was the one that would take me close to my neighborhood. I straightened my back and stretched out. A young man is standing off in the distance. He glances at me for a brief second. He turns away just as quickly. I twist my back attempting to stretch it out. I hear a low audible crack and resume my previous position.

I feel my phone vibrating in my jacket pocket. I quickly glance around my surroundings. Standing up and walking a foot away from the bench, I pull the phone out of my pocket. I glance at the cover screen, my mother, and swiftly answer it.

"Hello," I start off peacefully.

"Where are you? You're father and I have been worried sick about you! Why didn't you bother calling! When you didn't answer we became worried." I could hear the anger and panic in her voice.

"I'm sorry ma, I was uh-"I trailed off not wanting to tell her the truth.

"I don't care! Just come home now!" She demanded bitterly.

"Okay ma, I just have to wait for the bus." I close the phone and walk back to where I was sitting.

I ignore the stares of the people surrounding the bus stop. I know they're staring at me curious. They are curious about my phone call. For some strange reason, for the short time we've been together, we have become friends. Everyone waiting for the bus to come by suddenly becomes friends. Since we're friends that means they're entitled to know the small details of each other's life-my life. After all that's what friends do.

I sit and try to ignore them anyway. After a while they'll go back to what they were doing. They'll forget that I had ever received a call. In time, they'll even forget they saw me at this bus stop. After all this isn't a common stop for me. I don't usually venture out this far from home. I just wanted to be with him. I couldn't resist his touch, or his kisses.

I pull out my Ipod and decide to listen to a few songs. I want to try and block out these people out. I hardly know them and I don't think they should be curious about my life. I hate bus stops.

……………

I glance down at my Ipod. Already close to an hour has passed. I shake my head irritated. This is why I hate buses. They never arrive when they're supposed to. I could kill the driver if I had a mind to. I begin playing with my thumbs. The boredom is settling in quickly. I would leave and call my mother to pick me up. However that would just be murder. She would tear my head off for coming this far into the city.

I close my eyes and listen to the song Living Dead Girl by Rob Zombie that has just come on. It's always been one of my favorites and I never understood why. My mother also never understood my taste in music either, nor did my father. I didn't care though. I had to break their normal standards for living. After all I was their daughter and it was my job to.

I force my hanging head to stare ahead. There it is; a large blue and white bus. It's over large headlights were turned off. It's getting close to mid-afternoon. I'll be lucky if I make it home before nightfall. I wasn't sure why but seeing this bus sent shivers down my spine. It turned into the small bus stop. I glance at the front window. A large sign says it's the purple route. I had studied my schedule prior to

coming. I had to wait for the yellow route-dammit. I watched as the people waiting boarded. A few stared at me curiously for not doing the same thing.

I waited for the bus to move again. The driver did not close his door. He merely left it open and stared down on me. I guess he felt bad or something. He took the key out of the ignition and walked off the bus. He began doing a quick check of his bus. Making sure everything was in order. I watched him as my only source of entertainment. He was slightly overweight with brown balding hair; the usual norm for a bus driver. He wore a blue and white uniform to try and make him look professional.

He paused by the back of the bus and blazed up a cigarette. He turned to stare at me again. I could see guilt in his eyes. I have a quick flash memory of his being strapped in the driver's chair-dead. I force it out of my head as he begins walking towards me with the ease of a middle aged man. He smiled to show his kindness. I just continued to stare at him curiously. I turned my Ipod on pause to hear him talk.

"Listen, I could give you a ride. You know if you need it." His voice was deep and raspy. Probably from all the cigarettes he'd been smoking.

"I'm not on your route though. I live out in the outskirts of the city. You know, by the river," I responded. My voice was far too feminine.

"My route goes close by there. Taking a few minutes out of my usual schedule won't kill me."

"You don't mind," I ask surprised.

"Not at all, believe me I know what it means to lend a kind hand once in a while. Besides, the yellow route won't be here for a few more hours anyway. What do you say?"

"A few more hours," I question myself.

I thought about it for a brief moment. I turned to him and nodded. I sighed and stood up, and hit play on my Ipod. I walked towards the bus and paused. I wasn't sure but I didn't want to continue moving forward. I didn't want to get on the bus, but I knew I had to. I forced my feet to move. I slowly walked up the three steps and entered. No one acknowledged me. They were now too busy with their own lives to care.

I took a seat in the back of the bus. I didn't want to sit up front-I couldn't. The song One Way Ticket by the Darkness began playing on my Ipod. The driver moved swiftly back onto the bus and closed the door. With a sharp kick the bus began moving. Feeling the rough movements of the bus didn't ease my fear. It did the exact opposite.

……………

Stop! Stop! Stop! Screech…Screech…Screech. Stop! Oh dear god, please stop!

The bus tumults forward into a roll. I want to close my eyes but can't. It just keeps rolling and rolling. This was my entire fault. He just had to take that turn. That turn to go close to my house. The bus finally

stops moving. Everything is the same, but something is different. Something changed…the baby. The baby is crying. I force my hand painfully free and struggle towards the crying screams. The mother had somehow got trapped under the seat. I'll never forget seeing her body contorted to that painful position.

I try to make it out. I try to escape. I turn to look at the front of the bus. It explodes and the flames engross. I turn around and try to cover the crying baby. I know it'll be pointless but it's worth a try. The flames quickly hit my body and surround me. I let out one last painful scream.

"Stop!" I shout loudly.

I glance around. I'm still on the bus. Everyone is staring at me. I carefully sit back down. It was just another dream. It was just another dream. The song, now on my Ipod, is Strawberry Fields by the Beatles. I shake my head and force myself back to reality. The bus was at another stop. I glance out the window. We're pretty close to the outskirts of the city. A small group of people began boarding. The last to come on is a woman…a woman and her baby. The memory of her contorted into that position flashes through my mind. Now I was worried.

………..

I tried to keep my mind of the dreams I'd been having. I'd always had them but now they wouldn't stop. I tried to keep my glance out the window. However, I couldn't help but turn my eyes to look at the woman and he sleeping baby. They looked so innocent sitting there together. She pulled out a newspaper and began reading. I knew this was the last stop before the turn off.

The bus pulled to a stop. Most of the people stood up and began huddling together. They could hardly wait to get home to their loved ones. Once the last few people were about to get off, I turned to look at the woman. She was still sitting there on the bus. I stood up and moved to the seat behind her and the baby. I was closer to the back exit and to the baby this way. I knew it was probably just my paranoia. But I had to be cautious. I knew I should have said something-anything. I remained silent as the bus began moving again. I listened to the new song Thick as Thieves by Dashboard Confessions.

I felt my heart begin to pound. The bus made a sharp turn to the left. My turn off his normal route was coming. Only three more turns. I stared down at the sleeping baby. The woman turned to stare at me angrily; her way of protecting her baby from potential predators.

"Sorry," I muttered.

She went back to reading her paper. I kept my glances outside. I had to stay close to the baby. In case something should happen. We made another turn onto a dirt road. I felt a trickle of sweat fall from my forehead. I did my best to keep my mind off the possible doom. Another turn, we were getting close now. One last turn and then…

I couldn't think about it. I just forced myself listen to the song. Another turn and we were on another dirt road. My parents bought the house by the river two months ago. They wanted to get away from the crime in the city. So, they forced me away from my friends and my life to live with them.

I closed my eyes to try and remember my ex boyfriend. He dated me and treated me kindly. Then after last night he pretty much kicked me out of my house. That was why I took the bus instead of having him drive me home. If I were to die it would be his fault. It would be all their faults. We made the fatal turn, the turn off to my house. I turned my stare to the baby and smiled. He opened his blue eyes and looked back at me.

Stop. Stop. Stop!

I didn't have to look to know that the oil tanker was coming too fast. It was coming from a different turn in. The driver was probably drunk. I stood up and grabbed the baby rapidly. I held him close to me as the oil tanker impacted the bus. I felt the bus rattle and shake from the strong impact. It didn't take much for the bus to lose its balance. I sat back down and tried to protect the baby.

STOP! PLEASE STOP!

I heard the cries and screams of the few passengers on the bus. I was amazed at how calm I was. The bus was tumbling down the side of a small hill. I heard people being forced out of their seats. I heard one person's bones break. I held the lump in my throat trying not to vomit. The bus continued moving, and finally landed in the small portion of the river near this road. The baby was safe in my arms even though I wasn't.

Oh dear god, please stop!

I glanced around. The bus was upside down now. I heard someone outside screaming for any survivors. My hand wasn't trapped this time. It was my left leg. It had somehow gotten caught on a broken bus seat. I forced myself free with great effort and pain. I had to keep the baby alive. I made for the back exit. I grasped the red handle. The door didn't budge. The force of the water was holding it shut. I forced my bad leg up and kicked the window for the back exit of the bus. I heard the engine rumble and crawled through the broken glass. The baby was well protected by his blanket and me.

Screech…Screech…SCREECH.

I made it out just as the bus began exploding. I held the baby close to my chest. I closed my eyes as the flames touched my back. I screamed as the flames burned my skin. The baby was safe in my arms and the short distance from the bus. I collapsed to my knees on the river bank. The flames stopped and I collapsed. The man ran towards me in panic. He pulled the crying baby from my arms. My body began going numb and I was glade. The pain was about to stop.

…

I closed my eyes to let the darkness creep in. This had happened before and I knew it. It had happened several times before. I was forced to do this again to try and save a life; to save at least one life-if only I could remember it in time. I was meant to repay society for being such a horrible daughter, to correct my past of drugs and trouble. The darkness engulfed me and it was over.

…….

Stop! Screech! Screech! The violent motions of the bus as it rolled off the hill. I held the baby tight to my chest. The bus came to a stop and I managed to free my trapped leg. I struggled to open the red handle to the exit but it would not open. I had to use my bad leg to break the window. I managed to make it a small ways from the exploding bus. The flames still caught me. This was my entire fault, all their fault. The baby was safe, but I was…

I sudden woke up screaming. I was at the bus stop waiting. The small black bench meant for people to sit on and wait. I heard the morning birds chirping cheerfully. It was a nice sunny morning. Why did I have to be stuck waiting for the bus on this day of all days.

If ever you get stuck waiting for a bus perhaps you'll think twice before boarding the wrong one; because maybe, just maybe, you'll receive a one way ride into the Twilight Zone.