I hadn’t a clue how she could concentrate to write even a sentence. After I warmed up and my senses returned, I was a nervous wreck. We were driving a school style bus, top heavy, on icy windy roads in the middle of a pitch black night.
She was fine with it, Del was fine with it. They didn’t seem to notice. It was like, since the soldiers were driving we must be fine.
There was no expertise when it came to the road conditions.
One soldier overheard me expressing my concern.
“We can’t stop,” he said. “Not for any extended amount of time. After fifteen minutes the fuel line will start to freeze up, especially if we’re low on gas. No worries, this is the third trip this week.”
“Yeah, but isn’t it getting worse?” I asked.
“Um… yes,” he replied. “But as soon as we get into Virginia the weather stabilizes some.”
That was good to hear but it didn’t lessen my nerves. I wished we hadn’t consumed those remaining little bottles.
I told Lacey that, too. Not that I was a drinker, but I needed one. It would help with how nervous I was. Every bump set my heart racing.
“Do you really need a drink?” she asked.
“Is that a rhetorical question, like questioning the reasoning?”
“No. Do you?’
“Yeah, but we drank it all.”
“The little bottles,” she reached down to her backpack, the one she brought from her house, unzipped it and pulled out an oval bottle that was pretty much full. “It’s a little frozen.”
From behind us, Del whistled. “Holy shit it has to be in the negatives if it’s frozen.”
“Shake it, you should get some.”
I looked at the bottle with a picture of John Wayne on the label. “Duke Bourbon, Wow.”
“That is Davis’ special stash. I can’t believe he left it behind. Go on.”
I uncorked it and drank straight from the bottle. It had a rich, almost pure vanilla flavor.
“Need a straw?” Lacey joked pulling out a kid’s green fun straw.
I laughed, “No, I’m good. Why did you take that?”
“It was Jana’s when she was four. Wouldn’t drink anything without it.” She put it back in the pack. “Memories.”
The Duke Bourbon did the trick. It not only calmed my nerves, after several gulps it also warmed my chest, I believed it made me slightly intoxicated.
I returned it and Lacey shoved it into the bag.
We talked for a while, keeping my mind off of the roads. We talked about our first meeting with Callie, how wrong we were about her. We laughed about how silly we seemed thinking we were going to die.
It wasn’t long before it started getting light and I breathed out in relief.
I could tell we had made it farther south. While it was frozen outside, it just didn’t look as icy.
I asked the one soldier, “How much longer?”
“About three more hours.”
To me that was a long time and I was getting tired. Once I relaxed, exhaustion hit me.
Noticing the empty row of seats across the aisle, I grabbed my blanket and pack and moved over. I lost my balance and felt the rush of the booze.
“You okay?” Lacey asked.
“Yeah, a little tipsy and I’m gonna try to sleep.” I leaned with my back against the side of the bus and made a make shift bed.
I had just closed my eyes when I heard someone announce we had crossed into Virginia. I opened my eyes again, looked across to Lacey. She smiled and I gave her a thumbs up.
Then it happened.
The course of events, were embedded in my mind forever. There was a tremor, ever so slight, but with the roads being slick, the bus swerved. It was out of control, only a moment and the bus filled with the eruption of concerned moans from everyone. It was followed quickly by sounds of relief when the bus straightened out.
I looked at Lacey again. She had her hand on her chest, shook her head with a partial smile and a look that said, ‘whew that was close’.
Deciding I wasn’t going to sleep, I sat up. The moment I did, someone, I don’t know who, it didn’t really matter who it was, yelled out, “Shit!”
I felt the brakes engage, but they did nothing.
I gripped the seat in front of me as the bus swerved left to right, not slowing down until the bus turned and started a sideways, high speed glide down the highway.
I reached out my hand to Lacey, everything in our way was behind her. I watched as we careened toward the collapsed overpass blocking the road ahead.
Our fingers touched, I tried to pull her to my side, but it happened too fast.
Closer.
Closer.
Impact.
The side of the bus smashed into the concrete and went airborne, flipping upside down, and landing hard on the roof.
I held on as best as I could, but the force of the hit, loosened my grip and I tumbled. Like the second hand of a clock, the bus spun around and around. Items flew at me, bodies flew at me. How long did we turn? Somewhere in the midst of it all, I must have lost consciousness, because I didn’t remember when we stopped spinning, and if we hit something else.
All I knew was a loud ringing in my ears brought me to awareness, and I was somewhere in that bus buried beneath baggage and bloody limbs. Some of them moving, some of them not.
A man’s arm was across my throat, choking me. I lifted it, gasped, coughed and tried to edge my way out.
Was I hurt? I didn’t feel badly hurt, just the loud ringing in my ears.
As I turned to move and bring myself to a sitting position, I noticed it.
Oddly, it rested on my stomach. How it happened, I didn’t know
Lacey’s notebook.
The picture of her family was somehow still clipped on the cover that was splattered with blood.
Twenty-eight people were on that bus.
Soldiers, elderly, men, women and children.
The accident was horrible, a tangled mess of wreckage.
A lot of people had injuries. Many had serious ones, including Del who broke his leg and hip.
Surprisingly, for horrendous as the accident was, only three people died.
Unfortunately… Lacey was one of them.
THIRTY-TWO – Aftermath
It was a strange effect that overtook me. I didn’t expect it… calmness.
I was focused on finding my friends. Maybe I was a bit callous as well. People reached out to me asking for help, but I couldn’t help them. I had Lacey and Del to find.
The bus was completely upside down, windows broken and glass everywhere. After I stood, that’s when others did, too.
Some cried, some screamed. I… looked.
Clutching Lacey’s notebook I visually searched.
It seemed everyone ended up in the back area.
“Lacey, Del,” I called out. It was hard to stand. Every time I got my footing, someone moved on the floor, or stood up groaning. “Lacey! Del”
“Is there anyone that isn’t hurt?” a man called out.
“Lacey! Del!”
“Ma’am.”
I looked over my shoulder.
“Can you help us?” the soldier asked.
I ignored his request and called out for my friends,
Del responded finally. “Here.”
His voice came from behind me, I spun and searched as he called out again.
He was pressed against the side, one of his legs was still under a person.
“Del,” I said.
“I’m good. I’m fine. I scooted out. I think I broke my leg.” He spoke with strained words.
I peered down, his pant leg was bloody and his shin bone poked through the fabric. “You think?”
You hurt?” he asked.
“No. No I don’t think so.” Quickly, I tuned into my body to see if anything was painful. I didn’t feel any injuries.
“Lacey?”