“AJ… are you awake?”

AJ cracked his eyes open, looking around to find Nick standing before him through his shades. “Déjà vu…” he thought to himself, thinking that them swerving off the road to avoid hitting some kid was nothing but a dream.

“I am now.” AJ finally replied, raising up a little to discover that the bus had stopped. “Why’d we stop? Are we here already?”

Nick’s eyes widened a little, “Shit, Kevin’s gonna kill me.” he muttered to himself.

AJ tore of his glasses and stared at Nick in puzzlement. “What do you mean Kevin’s gonna kill you? For what?”

“I wasn’t suppose to let you go to sleep for this long, I was suppose to wake you every so often because you aren’t suppose to let someone with a head injury go to sleep, they could slip into a coma, or become brain dead, or…”

“Whoa Nick, slow down!” AJ interjected. “Why weren’t you suppose to let me go to sleep?”

Nick took a moment to calm down before he finally asked in a small voice, “You don’t remember anything?”

“Look Nick,” he said as he went to massage his forehead in hopes to ward away the headache he woke up with, “I don’t know…” he stopped in the middle of his sentence when he felt a lump on his forehead, accompanied by what he assumed was dry blood. He groaned when it all came back to him, “My god, I thought this was all a dream…”

Now it was Nick’s turn to look confused. “What?”

“Is that kid still here?”

Nick turned back to see Billy following Brian, Kevin and Howie off the bus. “Yeah, but not for long.”

AJ sighed heavily as his head lolled back into his seat, “How I wish this was all just a dream, and we were really at the hotel wrapped up in warm blankets.” he shivered as he finished his sentence, for once feeling how cold it was all of a sudden.

AJ rose from his seat and followed Nick out of the bus, immediately wrapping his arms around himself when he was greeted by the bitter cold air. “Did we decide to take this kid to the North Pole or something? Jesus, this temp has got to be below zero or something.”

Nick shivered as they began to walk over towards where everyone else was, “There’s a snowstorm coming.”

“A snowstorm?” AJ repeated. “You’ve got to be shitting me.” As he looked around he noticed that the town was indeed really small, almost desolate. There were hardly any people walking the streets and everything was eerily quiet. Not only were the houses small, but so were the establishments. “What kind of town is this?”

Nick shrugged, “Hell if I know. Paul just said that it was a small town that was along the way that we could take the kid to. Looked almost nonexistent on the map.”

“Nonexistent?” AJ repeated once again. “Okay, what makes them think that there’s a damn police station in an almost nonexistent town?”

“There should be a police station in every town.”

“Nick, take a look around. There’s hardly anybody here to commit a crime.”

“Now you’re just over exaggerating.”

“I’m serious Nick! These people are so… monotone it’s not even funny. I could probably walk up to somebody, push them to the ground, and no one would even care to notice.”

“I would love to see you test that theory.”

“Whatever dude.”

AJ and Nick finally caught up to the rest of the group, who was busy looking around for the police station. “There’s gotta be a police station…” Kevin voiced out.

AJ took it upon himself to do something none of them thought to do, ask around. “Excuse me ma’am.” AJ called out to an elderly woman who was walking pass. “Would you be able to direct me to the police station?”

“I’m sorry sweetheart, the police station isn’t for miles from here.”

AJ‘s brow crinkled in confusion, “There’s no type of law enforcement in this town?”

“Law enforcement? Heavens no, this town is so small that we all know each other, we’re practically family here. There’s no need for law enforcement for no crime is ever committed.”

AJ continued to stare at the older lady, not expecting his suspicions to be proven correct. “Thank you ma’am.” he said softly as he walked away from her and back to his group. “There isn’t a police station here.”

They all looked over at AJ, “How do you know?” Brian asked.

“I just asked a lady and she said that the police station is miles from here.”

Howie shook his head, none of this was making sense. “How could there not be a police station in this town?”

“She said this place is really close knit, everyone knows each other so there’s never a crime committed.” he looked over at Nick. “Still think I’m over exaggerating?”

Nick rolled his eyes, “Whatever.”

“Well then, what are we gonna do?” Brian asked no one on particular.

No one answered though. Nick sighed heavily, “Well, while you guys think of something, I’m gonna go to McDonalds and get myself a cup of coffee instead of standing out here, freezing my ass off.”

They all watched Nick walk away to the small McDonalds that was only a few feet away from them. AJ shook his head, “You mean to tell me that this town has a McDonalds but no police station? Someone tell me there’s something wrong with this picture.”

“You think there’s something wrong with a town because they have a McDonalds instead of a police station?” Howie asked as he came up from behind AJ, all of them following Nick into McDonalds. “I never thought I’d hear that come out of your mouth.”

They all walked into the small establishment, dumbfounded at the fact that there was no customers there and only three people working the fast food joint.

“Hi, welcome to McDonalds, may I take your order?” the young male addressed Nick in an nonchalant voice.

“Yeah, can I get six coffees and…” he looked down at Billy, “You want anything?”

Billy looked up at Nick and over to the large menu that was above. He pointed to the meal he wanted. “And a… cheeseburger happy meal please.”

As Nick stayed back to pay for what he ordered, the rest of them quickly made their way over to a table and had situated themselves.

“Do any of our phones work yet?” Kevin broke the silence.

They all dug into their pockets and took out their cell phones, finding that it was still the same. “No…” they all muttered.

Brian looked back at Nick, who was grabbing what they ordered and putting it on a tray. “Don’t they have phones here?”

No one said anything in reply. Kevin simply rose from where he sat and walked over to the counter where Nick still was. “Excuse me, do you guys have a phone we could borrow?”

“A phone?” the guy asked, confused at the fact that this stranger was asking to borrow a phone. “What for?”

Kevin sighed heavily, not saying anything in reply because his anger was getting the best of him. Instead, he grated out “Never mind.” and had helped Nick to carry over their order to the table they all sat at.

“What happened?” Brian asked in a small voice, noticing the anger that radiated off his cousin.

“I’m assuming these people don’t have phones either because that guy just gave me this duh look and asked me what I needed it for. I didn’t even bother to explain to him the reason.”

Nick shook his head as he began passing out a cup of coffee to each of them, handing the happy meal over to Billy. “Man, feels like we’ve entered the Twilight Zone or something.”

“Well, what do we do then?” Brian questioned.

“How many times are we gonna ask that question?” AJ groaned. He looked up to find all eyes on him. “I’m sorry,” he said softly with a sigh, “this headache won’t go away and this cold ain’t helping either.”

Howie took the lid off of his coffee and began to blow the steam away from his hot brew. He stopped when he noticed his breath came out in a frosty mist. “Whatever we decide to do, we better get moving before that snowstorm hits.”

“Why don’t we just stay here for the night and wait the storm out?” Paul suggested.

Nick quickly shook his head, “If that’s the case then lets just leave now because I really don’t want to stay the night in this town, no freaking way dude.”

“Well, what about the kid?” Brian asked softly.

All eyes fell on Billy, who was mindlessly eating his happy meal. Kevin sighed heavily as he began to massage his temples, “We’re gonna have to take him with us, there’s nothing more we can do until we reach the city.”

They all agreed and got up from where they sat, taking their coffee with them. As they walked out of McDonalds, they all began to shiver when they met with the blistering cold that was now blowing around them. They all quickly made their way back to the bus, rushing to get inside and warm themselves up.

Brian walked up behind Billy and placed a reassuring hand upon his shoulder, “Looks like you’ll be stuck with us till the next city kid.” he said with a warm smile.

Billy looked up at Brian and didn’t say anything. He watched as the five guys’ walked further into the bus, none of them noticing the malicious grin Billy now had on his face.