“Get back on the bus.” Paul told Brian as he slowly made his way out of the door, flashlight in hand. He looked out into the desolate open road and found a kid standing there under a street light.

“Kid!” Paul called out, “You alright?”

There was no reply. Paul stepped out of the bus and slowly made his way over to the kid, who he remained under the street light. “Hey kid.” he called out again. “Are you hurt or something?”

He slowly turned to address the man that was calling out to him. He remained silent, but this time he just stared at Paul. He held his hands out, inspecting his body, then finally shook his head to let him know that he was okay.

“What were you doing out in the middle of the road?” Paul asked as he now came face to face with him, realizing that he wasn’t a kid, but perhaps an adolescent.

He looked around for a moment, as if pondering the question, then finally shrugged his shoulders.

Paul eyed him up and down, he seemed harmless. “Do you not talk or something?”

Slowly he nodded his head, never breaking the stare he had on Paul. Paul began to feel a little uneasy with the way the boy was just staring at him. “Why don’t you wait right here while I go grab a phone to call for help okay?”

Paul turned around and started to make his way back to the bus, where he found Brian, Howie and Kevin peering out by the door while Nick was looking out the window.

“One of ya’ll call for help.”

Brian was the first to pull out his phone to dial 911. He gave a puzzled expression when he found it to have no dialing tone. “That’s weird… no dialing tone.” he informed them.

Howie pulled out his cell phone as well and gave it a try, coming up with the same result. “Same here.”

“Well, try to call management or something.” Paul suggested.

Howie shook his head as he placed his cell phone back into his pocket, “There’s no reception out here… wherever the hell we are.”

Kevin’s brows knitted in confusion, “How can there be no reception, aren’t we in an area with coverage?”

They all looked over at Paul, who in turn tried to avoid all their stares. “Johnny informed me there was a snow storm that was raging in the original path we were suppose to take. They made it through but advised me to take an alternate route.”

“And you weren’t going to tell us this?” Kevin asked in a loud voice, clearly displaying his anger.

“Look, it was either that or we risked driving through that snow storm. Johnny them are lucky they even made it through.”

“So how far are we from the city?”

Paul remained silent, knowing that the answer to his question would only anger him more, “We’ve still got a way to go.”

“Shit.” Kevin muttered in an exasperated tone. “So what do you suggest we do then?”

“I say we take the kid with us.”

“Are you crazy?” Nick voiced for the first time. “You want a complete stranger to come on our bus to ride all the way to the next city to get help?”

“Look,” Paul said as he grabbed a folded map near his seat, unfolding it and setting it out before them. “We’re here.” Paul explained as he pointed to the map. “There should be a small town not far from here, maybe a few miles more up give or take. We’ll just give the kid a ride to the town and we’ll let the cops handle it from there.”

“But you’re still missing the point of letting a stranger onto our bus.” Nick replied.

Kevin sighed heavily, “Nick, it’s either we take the kid with us or leave him out here in the cold. That snow storm will be making it’s way towards us soon and I honestly don’t want to leave him out here. But if we don’t hurry up and do something we’ll all be caught in this storm.”

Nick looked back out the window at the boy who still stood under the street light. He felt uneasy about letting a stranger ride on their bus into a town nearby, but Kevin was right, they couldn’t leave the kid out here in the cold.

Paul hopped off the bus and made his way back over to the boy, “Hey… um, if you wanna, we’ll give you a ride to the nearest town to get help. It’s not far from here so we’ll be more than happy to help you by any means.”

He stared at Paul, then glanced over to the side to see guys peering out the door at him. He looked back at Paul and nodded. Paul mustered up a genuine smile and started walking back towards the bus, the boy trailing not far behind.

Paul walked onto the bus, turning around to make sure the kid was behind him. Brian, Howie, Kevin and Nick had walked back into the big area of the bus, giving the kid room to walk through.

“How old is this kid?” Nick whispered to Brian, which he got a shrug as his reply.

The boy just stared at all of them as he got onto the bus. He quietly situated himself in front of their little dining table, now finding interest in fidgeting with his hands.

Kevin walked over to Paul and had pulled him more towards the front of the bus, away from everyone else. “Does he not talk?” he asked in a whisper.

Paul shrugged, “Asked him that and he just nodded, didn’t say one word to me the whole time. But I need ya’ll to get out as much information as you can from him so we can give it to the police once we get there.”

Kevin glanced back over at the kid and just nodded.

“Hey Paul!” AJ called out, walking out of the bathroom, holding a paper towel over his forehead. “Where in the hell is the first aid ki-” he stopped his sentence when he saw the kid for the first time, sitting at their dining table.

All eyes fell on him, even the boy’s. “What’s going on?” AJ asked softly to no one in particular.

Nick decided to take it upon himself to explain everything. He rose from where he was sitting and pulled AJ towards the back of the bus, away from them and told him everything that happened. Meanwhile, Kevin sat across from the young boy, giving him a warm smile.

“Hey.” he started off, receiving no reaction from him. “I’m Kevin.” He waited for the boy to say anything, but everything remained silent. “Do you have a name?”

The boy looked up and stared into Kevin’s deep green eyes. He turned to the window and had blown on it, creating a misty frost. He slowly rose his finger and began writing on the window.

Kevin strained to read what the boy wrote, but finally saw the name. “So, your name is Billy?”

Billy turned to Kevin and slowly nodded. Kevin tried to read his eyes, but there was nothing there to read. There was nothing in his eyes, everything was blank and… lost. “How old are you Billy?”

Without lifting head to address the question, he rose his hand and held up the number one first, then three.

“13?” Kevin asked again, to make sure he understood him, to which Billy nodded to confirm the question. There was just something about this kid that made Kevin feel a little uneasy, but he couldn't pinpoint what it was. When he looked deep into the boy's eyes, he simply looked lost and confused.

“Are we good to go?” Paul hollered from the front, starting the bus when he heard no reply. Their bodies were rocked back and forth as the bus made it’s way back onto the road, and now they were making their way to the small town that was only a few miles away.