A Dawn of Burning Skies - A Novel (1-4)
I had awoken with a jump, and for a moment I did not know where I was. Then everything came flooding back in. We had been in the bus for two days, living in it while the driver kept on driving. Food was thankfully available at each stop, but for how long we didn’t know. Cars were bumper-to-bumper on every single road so progress was slow. I had lost count of how many towns we had passed. Last night I had fallen asleep next to Adrienne while we still travelling toward a mountain range in the distance. Looking around to see what had aroused me, I noticed that most of the others were still sleeping. Then I saw that we had just crossed a bridge and slowed down to a halt on the side of the road. The driver stood up and looked back into the bus, and I waved to him. He gestured for me to come forward.
"I saw a fire in a house behind those trees o'er there," he said while pointing with a stubby finger at a cluster of trees a hundred metres away. Only then did I realize that it was raining. How he’d been able to spot the smoke in that rain I didn’t know.
"You stay here and watch the bus. I'll go see if anyone needs help."
I grabbed his arm when he turned to go.
"Don't you need me to come with you?"
"It's not dangerous, I'll just be checking to see if anyone needs help. I'll be quick," he promised.
I nodded slowly and he opened the door and stepped out. After a few seconds he had disappeared into the trees beyond. I could still only barely see the smoke rising beyond the trees because of the rain. Some children had also awoken.
Suddenly I was hit by some unseen force and thrown to the floor. A flash of light engulfed the bus for a moment, then it faded to a red hot haze. As I pulled myself up using a metal railing, I saw where the explosion had come from. The house. I rushed out the door and jumped outside. My mind raced as I ran towards it. Had he been gone long enough to have entered the house? Could he have survived such a blast?
I could feel the searing heat from the angry flames hitting my face as I closed in on the burning heap of rubble that was once a house. I pushed through the low-hanging branches of the trees to get a better view. The heat was overwhelming, even twenty metres away where I was standing.
Looking around and not seeing the driver, I shouted his name a few times, but there was no response. Getting closer to the house was not an option, as it would be suicide. I kept on looking at the house, peering into the flames, but I did not see him or anyone else. I would never see him again.
I skirted around the house to try and see what might have caused the fire or the explosion. Unfortunately, I was so blinded by the flames I couldn’t see anything. It was hopeless, I decided, and trudged back to the bus in the mud that was now forming because of the rain.
Curious faces peered out of the windows as returned. I slowly climbed the steps and stood at the front of the bus. Adrienne was there. Looking around at everyone, I saw their scared faces, and I sympathized with them. This... all of this... it just didn’t feel real. I mean, how could this have ever happened? None of us could imagine this.
We were on our own now. We also didn't know where to go. Sure, we knew the general direction he was driving in, but we still didn't know where exactly. Our only hope was finding some official-looking guy who could tell us where to go.
“What happened?” she asked me, softly laying here hand on my arm.
“He’s dead,” I answered, looking at the ground. “The driver. He saw a house on fire and stopped to see if he could help. It exploded while he was inside.”
A few girls started crying, no doubt affected by having to wake up with a bang with news that your only hope for safety was dead. As I looked at them, I knew somebody had to hold them together and lead them now. Somebody had to make the decisions.
“Listen up everybody,” I shouted over the crying. “Hey, listen up! It’s not going to help us to sit here and, well, cry. I know what’s happened, but what’s done is done. Let’s make a plan to save ourselves now, and then we can worry about other things later. Any objections?”
A hush had fallen over the bus.
“Good. Does anyone know how to drive?”