WITHIN THE FOG

CHAPTER 2: IT IS THERE

After a while, we finally arrived at the spot. We noticed the noise within the enclosed bus. I tried my best to get in even though the bus window is way too high for me to reach.

"Damn it." I muttered under my breath.

"Why am I so small?! Lucky ass bastards tall as hell!"

I saw one of our female classmate peek from the bus window on the second floor, she stared at me while holding back her laughter.

"If you aint tall enough to get in, then at least stock up those soft things and (maletas) in your sides then jump up!"

"Well thank you smartass, I didn't think of that."

"You're welcome dumbass."

I did as what she instructed me to do. And when I successfully entered inside the bus where only blue lights are on to keep us away from the dark, had I realized the situation worsened than before. Everyone is hungry, tired, and crying. I know for myself that this situation won't last long... But would it really? We are not even familiar with this place. No food no water. Just ourselves.

As I looked around, one of my classmates.. a girl? came up to me with a stern face.

"Why did you come back, just the two of you? Where's the other guys?" Yulia asked me straight to the face with an obvious dark circles under her eyes. Apparently from crying too much.

"We are here to tell everyone that we have not found a single person in the camping site, but we did found a map about this place. Apparently, there's a river near the camping site and crossing it will lead us to the city."

"Seriously? Are we supposed to wait here all night until we get rescued? What if a wild animal comes and tries to get in? They should have sent fewer people to call for help instead of sending you two back here. There's not enough people to protect the injured ones!"

"It will be alright, calm down. This is not the right time to argue right now. And a matter of fact, we got some items here to protect us."

"What items? There's not even a single trace of food in this bus!"

Hashim then interrupted us.

"Actually.. There is."

We both looked at him with surprise and utterly confused face.

"What do you mean, 'there is'?"

"There is food in this bus. An emergency food and food that got taken away because it's not right to eat during the trip. Though, we can't possibly access it right now because.."

"Stop being a b***h and tell it straightly!"

"The key is in one of the pockets of the driver. We cannot open the vault below the floor of the bus without it."

"Where exactly is this vault you are talking about? I haven't seen a vault in these floor!"

"Of course you won't. It's covered by the carpet."

Pulls the carpet to reveal the vault.

"See now?"

I looked back at where the crushed driver is in.

The tree is so big and the body is crushed to the point only the blood and some flesh of the driver can be seen.

"Well.. It won't hurt to at least try to look for the pocket.. Right?"

I quickly turned myself around as I might puke out after seeing all the splattered blood and flesh on the floor, seats, and windows. f**k.

It's a miracle I didn't faint when even just seeing my mother creating a hole in her ears to the point it bled made me nauseous. She told me it's only for making more space for the earrings to go in smoothly but my mind didn't want any of that s**t.

Upon my reaction, Andrej; one of my classmates that were injured. Stood up and stepped forward. He tapped my shoulder and looked at the mess infront.

"How vulgar."

Vulgar? Really??? That's all he can say to this... This extreme s**t?

I see his left arm still bleeding and swelling, its obvious from his pale face how painful it is. But then without any further word, he dive his right hand in that squashed flesh of body and searched for the key through the juicy soft tissues that splatters to the floor per movement.

"Mothercracker where is it— where the f**k is it?"

I straighten up my body and stood behind Hashim. I don't want to see anymore of that..

Which apparently is a bad idea as when Andrej pulled out the key... A flesh flew right over my head to my front— "Pucha, Kadiri!!" I quickly sat myself down in the bus chair on my side looking away from the floor and the front.

As I am calming myself down, they had opened the vault revealing the snacks, canned goods and alcohols.

"Well at least we can distribute this to everyone, but this won't last a day or two."

"That's more than enough time for everyone to rest and heal till those guys come back here. If not, we would follow them afterwards. May they still be injured or not, this place isn't worth to stay on."

"Hm. Where's the girls anyways? Are they not back yet?"

"Nope. They had gone back to the tunnel saying they'll walk back all the way there to get some signal for help."

"That's a really foolish thing to do, have they gone mad or something?"

"They're mad. Mad enough to do that, so calm your ass down and let us all wait for them to come back."

They sat down on the empty seats, frustrated.

Since the smell extends all the way through the back, I tried my best not to puke. I stood up and looked at the stairs that were clogged by the camping bags, these are bags that was filled with some heavy equipments, tools and other things inside because the storage units below the bus are already filled with large tents, sleeping bags, etc.

I looked around, my classmates were already cared for by our teacher, and the girls on the upper floor were probably taken care of by the nurse which joined us in case of any trouble in the camping.

I feel uneasy, I can't seem to shake off this feeling like we are in danger, we actually ARE in danger... But something much greater... Something MORE dangerous.