It was officially the first day of summer.  No wind in the air, just blazing hot heat. It was the last trip of the year before graduation and joy was filled in the air.
“Okay students, calm down it’s time to go into the bus,” said Mrs. Mathews, the red headed teacher. One by one the students got into the limited space between the rough, brown leather seats, complaining on how uncomfortable it was
“Is it just me or does the bus driver seem a little strange? Also what is that disgusting smell?” said Eliza. Eliza glanced back at the bus driver and saw that he was glaring at her reflection, slowly moving as the sun hit the mirror. Feeling uneasy she hustled towards the back of the humid bus.
“He does seem a little weird,” whispered her friend Sam, “In fact i think he is drunk! I smell alcohol! I think I should go and tell the teacher!” whispered Sam.
“NO! Don’t do that, you may ruin the entire trip for the whole class!” said Eliza. Sam looked at her with a worried glance then gave out a sigh of defeat, “Fine.” Both Eliza and Sam got into their warm, sticky seats that were caused by the humidity of the heat wave.
“Hey check that out,” Eliza excitedly whispered to Sam, “Look at who's sitting next to whom!”
In last row of the bus there was a boy who was 5.6 ft., brown hair with hazel streaks and brown eyes. He was wearing a green t-shirt and drawing in his sketch book with a pencil. His name was Caleb. Next to him was a girl about 5.3 ft., light brown hair and hazel eyes, wearing a navy blue dress Her name was Aubrey. Both Caleb and Aubrey haven't spoken to each other since the beginning of the year due to the fight over an awful prank.
The bus started moving at a steady rate, everyone cheering and enjoying their conversations, but as everyone was talking; no one realized that the bus had just turned away from the right course! The bus started moving a little bit faster, but no one seemed to really mind. Suddenly the bus was moving extremely fast and it started to shake and wobble. Caleb took his sketch book and closed it and put the pencil in his pocket.
“What is going on,” shrieked Eliza!
“Stop the bus,” yelled Mrs. Mathews, “STOP THE BUS THIS INSTANT!” When the bus driver heard this he smiled at the mirror and started going faster.
“I’m scared,” murmured Aubrey. Caleb glanced at her, but before he had a chance to speak the bus swiftly turned crashing into the side of an old, rusty bridge, flipping into the water. The students and teacher started screaming and crying as they hit the water. Caleb quickly looked around him and saw the window. Grabbing both sides of the metal to the glass window he tried to pull it open, but it wouldn’t budge a bit. After a few seconds he kicked the window as hard as he could, allowing the glass to shatter. He had saw Aubrey next to him trying to hold her breath and pulled her up to the surface with him. As Caleb had tried to go back down to the surface he had noticed something… the bus was not there anymore… it had sunk down to the bottom.
Caleb and Aubrey swum to the ocean shore, pulling up to the wet sand, lying there for a minute.
“Why did you save me,” asked Aubrey, “don’t you hate me; I mean you haven’t talked to me since we fought last time?” Caleb looked down at her and gave a sigh of regret, “No, I don’t hate you. Plus even if I did I would’ve still saved you. When my father killed my mom, I couldn’t do anything, but helplessly watch it happen and so I swore if I am capable of saving a life I will do it.”
“Oh, I’m sorry and thank you for saving me.”
“Ya, well you're the first know, so no need to apologize. Anyway let’s go look for a phone we can make a call out of.”
They slowly wobbled up and looked around the land for a minute. Trees, bushes, sand, and rocks. There was no sign of anyone else.
“Where are we? This doesn’t look anything like Knoxville,” said Aubrey
“I don't know but I will find some way to get us both to safety, let’s start walking maybe we will be able to build a place to stay before the night falls,” he replied. Slowly making their way through the rocks and bushes, they walked onward.
“I can’t walk any more, I’m hungry and there is no sight of anyone here” said Aubrey. Aubrey was desperately trying her best to keep up, but she was too weak to keep walking.
“Don’t worry. Anyway think of the bright side, we could be stranded here alone,” he replied. Aubrey shook her head in unison, “Ya your right.” Caleb and Aubrey, realizing that they most probably don’t have much time left, quickly went around searching for left over pieces of metal or any branches lying around. Aubrey had gone away from Caleb for a few minutes to go search for some more twigs when she suddenly heard a noise. Quickly turning her head she slowly gave out a sarcastic laugh, “Ha ha… ha ha ha, that was very funny Caleb, you can come out now.” There was no sound, but suddenly something moved quickly.
“CALEB!” Aubrey ran back jumping over vines and tree branches. As she ran twigs were scratching her arms and leaves were slapping her, but she ran right past them, “CALEB!” Not noticing a branch camouflaged with the dirt, she tripped and fell to the floor. As she was rushing to get up something jumped and grabbed her. Aubrey quickly covered her left hand and screamed as loud as she could.
“Aubrey, hey Aubrey it’s just me… Caleb.” Caleb quickly helped her up and took her away back to the shore.
“What happened out there? Why did you scream? Are you ok? Are you hurt? What happened,” Caleb, worried, kept asking questions without allowing Aubrey to answer.
“Shhh! Caleb I have to tell you something, but before that let me answer your questions. 1) Yes, I am okay. 2) I only got a few scratches, but it’s fine, and 3) we are not alone here!” Caleb looked at her for a second, allowing what she just said to sink into him. With a gasp he yelled, “What do you mean!”
“Quiet your voice, I think someone is listening to us. What I mean by us is that we not alone is that someone is out there… I heard them!” Aubrey desperately tried to make Caleb understand. After a minute Caleb told Aubrey to wait and went into the woods. Each second feeling like an hour, made Aubrey feeling even more worried. After what seemed like forever Caleb returned with a sullen look on his face.
“You're right, we aren’t alone. Come and take a look at this.” Caleb grabbed Aubrey’s hand and led the way into the woods, slowly making sure that that she doesn’t trip. Caleb pointed straight ahead, “Look…” Aubrey’s eyes widened as quickly as she blinks and she suddenly gasped at what was straight ahead of them.
“Should we go in?” Aubrey tentatively looked around to see what else was around them.
“Ya, let’s see if there is some food and a phone we can use.” Both Aubrey and Caleb walked towards the house hoping for some food and a place to stay and call their parents. When they have reached in front of their house they noticed that no one was there.
“Let’s go in” said Caleb. As they walked into house they heard screeching on the wooden floors and cobwebs were all over the corner of the walls.
“I don’t like this, this looks scary, let’s go and find another place” said Aubrey.
“Look it’s a phone, I could maybe call my dad” said Caleb. Caleb went towards the phone and suddenly he heard a noise! Looking towards the ground he saw it was just a small, ugly grey/black rat running around.
“There is no service! What a useless place,” said Caleb. Then suddenly a man walked in front of them
“No one invited you in! So why do you complain!” the man said.
“Who are you,” Caleb asked, but suddenly Aubrey grabbed his arm, “Wait … I know this scent… when I walked into the bus I smelled this scent…. It’s the scent of… of… ALCOHOL!” Realization slowly crept over their face
“You … You  ... You're still alive?? I thought you were dead,” said Caleb
“No the two of you are supposed to be dead, I planned this all along, I had crashed that old smelly bus to the bridge on purpose and the moment the bus crashed I had jumped out with all the money! None of you are supposed to be alive so it my job to kill the both of you to fulfill what was meant to happen in the first place! Now COME HERE!”
Caleb pushed the driver to the floor, grabbed Aubrey’s hand and ran to the door; just then the bus driver got ahold of Aubrey, grabbed her, and threw her down to the floor. He took a knife out of his pocket ready to stab, Aubrey quickly turned around and covered her left hand. Just as the driver stabbed the knife down, Caleb ran up and pushed the driver to the floor. In desperate need Caleb quickly took the pencil out of his pocket and stabbed the bus driver right in the neck. Pushing the bus driver away, Caleb grabbed Aubrey’s hand and ran through the misty night, bumping and hitting every twig and rock they passed by. They soon slowed down as they reached the shore.
“Oh my gosh! Did we kill him?” Aubrey was at the verge of tears.
“I don’t know, but Aubrey can I ask you a question?” Caleb sat right next to Aubrey and grabbed her left hand. Aubrey flinched.
“Well… I think you know what my question is,” Caleb said with a smile on his face.
“Ummm… well where should I begin,” Aubrey asked
“From the very beginning,” Caleb said, emphasizing on the word very.
“When I was twelve my mother died. It was a really hard time, and we were going through a lot. One day I went into the kitchen I saw my dad about the pour burning hot water on himself. I pushed him away and the water fell on my left hand. I can still move it, but I have no feeling whatsoever.”
“So why do you cover it,” Caleb quietly asked, squinting through the dark to try and see her.
“Because before my mom died she held my hand….she held my left hand, so it has the feeling of her still on it, so I want to protect it forever,” Aubrey answered very sadly and quietly, “I really miss her.”
“Ya, I know how you feel. I miss my mom too.”
“Hey Caleb… do you think we will ever get saved?” Caleb looked at Aubrey and quietly said, “I don’t know… I honestly don’t know”