There was a loud popping noise and then the bus careened off onto the side of the road. Cabinets were thrown open from the force and plastic dishes clattered to the floor. Four of the passengers and the driver were lucky enough to be able to brace themselves for the suddenness of what happened, one unfortunate passenger was sleeping in a bunk and tossed out, hard, onto the floor.
“What the hell?” He questioned as he stood rubbing his arms and head. “Has the driver been drinking?” he questioned the other four who were sitting white faced at the back of the bus.
One finally managed to shake his head. “Tire exploded,” the tall dark-haired one managed to say.
“Well let’s hope he can fix it with the spare quickly so we can get back on the road.” The man who fell off the bunk said. His eyes rested on the faces of all the others, their eyes open wide, their faces white with terror. “Ease up; it’s just a flat tire.” He laughed at his friends and then turned as one of the guys pointed towards the driver. He turned and looked; gasping in shock when he saw the driver slumped over the steering wheel, a pool of blood gathering at his feet.
“This is why we need separate buses!” He shouted in dismay. “Then another bus could stop and pick up the person on the unfortunate bus.” His anger flared, he did not want to be where he was. He looked around, where exactly was he? There were no familiar landmarks out his window nor were there any city lights. “Where the hell was this guy driving us?”
Finally, one of the others got over the shock and stood from his seat and moved over towards the other. “He said that the highway was closed, something to do with a pile-up, this was the detour.” He shrugged, his dark hair falling off his shoulder. He took a moment and pulled the loose hairs back into his ponytail. “The important thing now, A.J. is to calm down; we need to think of the next rational step.”
The one called A.J. ran his hands through his now blond hair. He was frustrated; he had plans in the next city they were traveling to. Well his plans weren’t definitive, but he knew once he got there he could find some young, eager fan from the crowd and invite her back to his room. Now he was stuck with four living and one dead guy. Not easy to find a place to release frustration, the bus seemed smaller and smaller as the seconds ticked by. “What are we going to do now?”
“Hello,” an unknown voice called out to the five. “We saw what happened and came to see if we could be of some assistance” The guys turned to face the person climbing slowly onto the bus.
“It seems we’ve had an unfortunate accident,” the older dark-haired one responded. “My name is Kevin, this is Howie,” he pointed to the man who fixed his ponytail earlier. “Brian,” he pointed to the man who moved closer to the front whispering over the body of the dead driver. “Nick,” He said as he pointed to the young blond still sitting hands clenched to the seat behind him. “And A.J.” he pointed towards the man pacing back and forth on the bus.
The stranger moved closer to Kevin and held out his hand after wiping it on his jeans to clean off some of the dirt that was apparent. “Name’s John.” He shook firmly with Kevin and then held his hand out towards A.J. as he paced back towards their direction. A.J. paid no attention to the hand outreached towards him and turned back around and went the opposite way on the bus. A good distance away he turned again and addressed John.
“You said you could help? We’ve only got to change the tire and get back on the road,” he paused before adding in a lower tone. “And we need to do something about Russ’s body.” He hung his head somewhat ashamed of himself thinking about his own needs when their driver, their friend, lay dead in the driver’s seat.
“Well I don’t know about fixing the tire, you have three that are blown and there’s a smell of leaking radiator fluid coming from under the hood?”
“What!?” The blond jumped from his seat in the back and ran off the bus. The others watched as he went around the bus and looked at all the tires then went watched as he stood in front of the bus taking in deep breaths. Slowly the others went outside to join him and confirm with themselves what the stranger, John was saying. The guys kicked dirt, threw their hands in the air and yelled expletives as realization sunk in that they were not going anywhere fast.
“You all are welcome to come back to the town with me where we can get you rested and the mechanic can come out and take a look, see what can be done.”
“I think we should call our manager.” A.J. said flipping open his phone. He looked down at the bars in disbelief. There was absolutely no signal where he was standing. He moved further away from the bus, but still nothing. “We are in a dead spot, fucking ridiculous!”
“So where is this town?” Brian spoke finally, where there were people there was likely to be another phone. Some way they could contact their crew and let them know why they had not arrived yet. John turned away from the bus and started walking, the guys followed, their heads hanging down unable to believe their luck.
Author's Chapter Notes:
My first A.J. as a main character fic. *crosses fingers*
