Chapter 2

As soon as we finally got to the back of the bus, Derrick sat down as close as he could to the window and set his backpack on the other side of him. “Just because we have to share the back of the bus doesn’t mean I have to share the same seat as you.” he said, glaring up at me.

I just rolled my eyes and sat down in the other seat. I was already beginning to feel a headache coming on and I knew that the fact that Derrick was in the seat beside me wasn’t going to help it at all. I put my earphones in and cranked up my iPod, leaning against the wall of the bus on my side and sinking lower than the back of the seat in front of me.

~

Three hours or so into the ride, and we had still yet to talk to each other. Occasionally, we would send a death glare in the direction of the other, but that was it. The rest of the bus was beginning to settle down, those who weren’t talking to the people around them were beginning to nod off. I had gotten a few text messages from Brad and Troy apologizing for deserting me but I was too mad at Derrick to reply to any.

The bus had finally gotten to the open road and it was pretty much smooth and speedy sailing except for the occasional slow down due to a wreck on the side of the road. The fresh snow and ice had made the road more treacherous than usual and we had already passed at least a dozen wrecks, nothing serious, just a few fender-benders caused by loss of control on the occasional ice patch.

I myself was about to fall asleep when a sudden screeching and the blaring of the horn from the semi behind us made everyone on the bus silent and alert. The next second, there was a loud bang. At least, that’s all I heard. In the same moment, I was launched forward out of my seat, feeling the back of the seat in front of me collide with the front of my body. At the same time, the back of my seat pressed me even further into the seat in front of me as everything went dark. It felt like my world had collapsed itself around me. I tried to move, but when I did, a tidal wave of pain washed over me more powerful than I had ever felt before.

I tried to scream in a horrific mix of terror and pain but nothing would come out of my mouth. I don’t know how, but I knew that my body was twisted and bent, most likely in ways that it wasn’t meant to. I felt like the seats around me were trying to squeeze me to death. I tried to scream again, this time I made a sound, but it was far from a scream; it was more like a mix of a gurgle and a rasping sound.

I could hear the screams of the rest of my classmates ahead of me. I could make out the voice of Mr. Franks shouting out orders as the screams of terror melted to more of outbursts of hysteria. I could hear Tracy Marx and April Meyers, the girls who had been sitting in front of me, both screaming for someone to help them. They were stuck. The next second, I could make out the footfalls of people walking off the bus. They were leaving us. I was all alone, probably inches from death, tears running down my face when I heard a small moan to my right. There was only one other person who could’ve been in a bad of situation as I was, and that was Derrick.

So this was how it was going to end, trapped in the back of a crushed bus, unable to move or scream, with Derrick Trenton dying next to me and the shrieks of Tracy and April in my ears. The tears came rolling even harder as I thought of that word, dying. I was too young. I shouldn’t be dying now. There was still so much that I would never get to do, to see, to know. I cried tears for me, tears for my mother, aunt, and friends who would never see me again. I cried for countless minutes, hours, days, months, years. I couldn’t tell how long I had been lying there, suffering. Suddenly, I heard the sound of sirens approaching. Not much longer, I could hear people pulling at the metal around me. We were being rescued.

I could hear them cutting away to free April and Tracy first. I heard the rescue team asking Tracy and April what was hurt and such. They both exclaimed how their legs and lower halves were pinned and both had managed to pry their own arms free earlier. I could make out from what they were saying that only one of Tracy’s legs was stuck while April was more concerned since she couldn’t feel either of hers since they were so pinned. I could hear April crying. She was a star athlete and the thought of a major leg injury scared her more than anything else. Tracy was more worried about her wrist that had swollen up and was turning blue.

As soon as they were freed I heard Tracy shriek, she must have finally seen behind her. They must have rushed April off of the bus because I never heard her reaction. Within a few more minutes, I could feel and hear the rescue crew getting closer to me and Derrick. Things were becoming harder to hear and make out. Most sound was washed out by the sound of my blood pounding in my ears.

I tried once again to call out, but this time no sound came out at all. But I wasn’t about to give up. I kept trying again and again until I could finally get the word ”help” out; it wasn’t loud, just a strained whisper, but it was better than nothing. As my rescue got closer and closer, I would say it more frequently until at last, as if a door in my darkness had opened, I was free. The first thing I saw was the face of the fireman who had released me from my prison.

After more minutes of pulling and tugging metal and wreckage, he reached in and pulled me out of my nightmare. Even though the fact that he had moved me made pain wash all over my body once again, ten fold, I managed to weakly smile and whimper a small “thank you”. I doubt he heard me. I could barely hear myself.

As he carried me off the bus, I happened to see them free Derrick out of the corner of my eye. I rolled my head to get a better look at him. Once I had, I regretted it. My stomach wrenched at the sight of his twisted body. I tried to tell myself that the reason his eyes were closed and he hung so limp in the other fireman’s arms were simply because he was tired, or maybe even asleep. But my conscience told me otherwise.

My deliverer carried me off the bus and around the front, toward the ambulances. He lowered me onto a stretcher and I was immediately strapped down, had a neck brace applied and an iv inserted all while being wheeled toward the ambulance by two paramedics, both already buzzing around me, working so fast that they seemed like a blur.

I heard Brad and Troy’s voices as they apparently came running toward me, but were told to stay back. At least they sounded okay, or at least in better condition than I was.

I was loaded onto the ambulance and I felt it start to move down the road. That’s when I noticed, everything else was beginning to get even more blurred. It was almost as if the world had gone out of focus and was getting darker at the same time. Another shockwave of pain ran up my spine, this time I managed to let out a small whimper and I felt my body try to draw-up on itself but the straps of the bodyboard held me in place. The paramedic in the back with me was leaning over me, saying something to the one in front, but I couldn’t make it out.

Slowly, the darkness at the edges of my vision slithered its way over all my vision. Within seconds, everything was dark.