Nightshift 63: Bus 3

[seekingmystrength]

With the blond's outburst disturbing not only the peace and quite of the trip back, but the trip itself by way of a detour into a damn tree, Kurogane's patience had worn thin by well before the sun had begun to set. No amount of alcohol would have helped temper his mood either. Stuck on the side of the road with the night drawing ever closer... it was almost as though Landel had intended for something like this. That man knew what happened were they not back in the building by nightfall, and a good number of them knew the same.

Probably not the blond idiot.

Though his patience was all but gone, his attention to the situation was heightened with the threat of darkness closing in. Each passing moment put them closer to another attack like before, and if there was where the night was to begin, he wasn't going to be trapped in any vehicle, moving or otherwise. That decision kept him on edge, watching between the window and the bus's back door beside him and waiting with the only remaining patience he had to spare.

"Be ready," was all he'd said to the girl beside him, knowing or at least hoping that she understood what was soon to come. He wasn't sure if she'd been there the time before, but as a ninja she should have known enough to expect anything with the tension aboard.

The moment he caught the sun's final dip beyond the horizon, he was out of his back seat and unhinging the emergency hatch for a quick exit to the ground, expecting that Tsubaki would be close behind. "Come on!" he barked back before starting around the bus at a quick pace. The town was long gone, but the chance stood that the Institute would be not too far ahead of them.

Comments

[thecamellia]

No! Don’t let us get stuck out here!

Of course, not even the strongest of well wishes could stop the inevitable. Minor though it’d been, the bus crash had left them trapped, and all the while the staff tinkered with the engine the sun sank closer to the horizon.

Tsubaki felt each passing second acutely, like the beat of a drum in her ears. Not again, she said to herself, but even as she thought it she knew, like Kurogane, that it was too late. The light was dimming as night swept over them, and they were too far away from the building to escape it. She didn’t say anything at Kurogane’s warning, it was clear she comprehended his meaning by the way she dug her fingers into the seat in front of her, the skin around her eyes tight.

As she knew from experience, once the transformation happened, it happened quickly. All at once there were screams, and movement, and the deafening howl of the wind.

And Kurogane, who had sprang up almost too fast for her to follow.

She saw what he was heading for at once: the emergency escape. In less than a second, he had worked the door open and let in a cold blast of air in his wake. She was right behind him, clambering over the seat to meet him in the doorway before he darted away into the dark. The moment her feet hit the ground, she turned, pulling the door open as wide as it could go. "Come on, everyone!" she shouted. "Get off the bus, hurry!"

[seekingmystrength]

Hearing Tsubaki's call to the others gave Kurogane pause for only a moment before he continued on.

She would... he thought to himself.

He'd been there too long, long enough that for some time he'd been overlooking how others were fairing. He'd had no choice but to. To keep himself and to keep those he knew from getting killed, he couldn't let himself get distracted by everything he faced.

[gone here]

[thecamellia]

The people onboard the bus were doing what most divided individuals did--acting and reacting in a thousand different ways, from running, to shouting, to pushing, to even remaining in their seats. Tsubaki lost sight of what was happening toward the front of the bus when people started storming out the back. Then it was all just a flash of faces and swooping shadows as birds started attacking all around her.

It wasn’t just her bus, either--on the other two, people were screaming and fighting their way to escape, only to add to the chaos on the road as prisoners fled from the monsters.

“Hurry, find your way out and get to cover!” she called again, inching back from the emergency exit before the fleeing passengers could knock her down. It was hard to see, but she knew if she stayed stationary she would only draw down one of the birds--that was not something people still getting off the bus needed to run into. Bending her knees to make herself smaller, she slid a little further along the bus’ side.

_{[to here]}