Chapter 4 - Well, That Escalated

When Dante opened his eyes he was surrounded by disaster, confusion and screaming kids. He looked beside him, Bernie was out cold. He shook her arm "Bernie, you okay?" He didn't need his new friend dying in front of just like that. She eventually opened her nut brown eyes and they slowly moved to Dante. "Wha-what happened?"

"We crashed."

"Oh...oh god my head." she pressed her middle and index fingers against her temples. Dante pressed his palm against his forehead, now noticing his tremendous head pain. He closed his eyes for a second as he heard a voice in front of him. "GUYS! Are you okay?" Izzy exclaimed with extreme concern. Dante wanted to open his eyes again and re-assure her, but the stab-pains in the head just got deeper. All he could let out was a deep "Ugh." as Izzy and a couple other students helped him and Bernie out of their seatbelts. When he opened his eyes in the aisle of the bus, Dante fully took in what just happened. He felt himself hyperventilating as he walked to the front of the bus. This isn't good. This isn't good, this isn't good at all. A boy from the front of the bus shouted "Did anyone back there die?"

A series of mumbles and clear "NO'S" filled the busted bus. Dante turned to his left and saw what was supposed to be the ceiling of the bus. It was really weird standing in a bus that was on its side. This meant all the kids would have to be boosted out of the bus door like they were climbing up and over a wall or something. He looked up at the bus door. It looked jammed shut. Suddenly a ginger boy with green eyes and freckles appeared. Although his face was friendly, Dante was put off by how much taller this boy was than him. Almost a whole head. The ginger pulled out an icky, sticky substance from his pocket and stretched it out. It looked like some grosser, smellier version of that kids slime with the tutorials. "Ew, Lucky," the same boy that requested a death count spoke up "You had that in your POCKET?"

"Like I said Leon," Lucky beamed "Emergencies are it's strong point." He stretched out the slime and slung it upward. the slime stuck to bus door instantly "Stand back!" Lucky exclaimed as he stood back himself. he pulled his end of the slime and the door fell the floor (or window?) in a flash. "That's no ordinary slime..." Dante muttered.

"You bet!" a girl with incredibly messy black hair chimed in "We got ourselves an ALCHEMIST!"

Lucky flushed a small bit "By my own design." He went even redder noticing everyone's eyes on him. He then said quietly, "C'mon, let's get out of here." The process of getting everyone out of the vehicle was slow, but one kid helped sped it up. The last kids in the bus were Izzy, Dante, Lucky and two other boys: One of them had a pet mouse on his shoulder

"Hey," Izzy said pointing down where the bus driver was. "We got to help him, too."

"Oh," a bleach blonde haired boy said leaning over the bus driver, his hands firmly gripping his face. "He won't be needing it." With that remark the blonde yanked the drivers head clean off his shoulders. The other four shrieked at the sight of this bodiless, bald, bleeding, yet bright-eyed head. The blonde just smirked and locked eyes with Dante "Isn't it neat?" Dante wasn't sure what shocked him more. The decapitated head this kid was cradling, or the kid himself. He had scruffy platinum blonde hair, a devilish smile on his face...but his eyes...were fiery red.

On the bright side, everyone else got out of the bus a lot quicker. As Lucky and Izzy reluctantly helped the sadist out of the broken bus. Once everyone was out of there, Dante did a mental head count. Only 11 kids? That's the kind of class number you'd have at a special school. Then he realized something else. "Where's Kimmy?" He shouted.

A voice appeared behind him "Hey buzz I'm right here!"

He whizzed around and let out a rather high-pitched yelp.

Kimmy just giggled. "Were you worried or something?"

"I was!" Bernie rushed over and squeezed her. "What the heck? You couldn't even help us out?"

"Hang on," Dante started. "How did you just vanish like that? Everyone else was in the bus!"

"Well the next time you do it, word of advice, bring me along too." Izzy said walking over to their forming circle.

"Yeah, and me." Bernie said ruffling Kimmy's hair. Izzy just gave her a teasing look and laughed, as she was the only one in the circle that could see Kimmy's scarlet face. The moment of relief was ruined by a dark-haired Vermont scampering its way into the circle. "AAAH!" They all screamed.

"Sorry, sorry, sorry!" a boy with hazel brown hair and brown eyes with glasses ran over. He picked the rodent and stroked it tenderly. "Tootie here is just a little panicked. So am I."

"We all are specs." Kimmy said, walking over to pet the rat. "Name's Kimmy."

"Dice Tiego!" he said taking Kimmy's hand to shake.

Lucky? Dice? Who are these kid's parents? said Dante's inner voice as the five walked toward the bus, where the rest of classmates were standing. They were watching two kids fighting. One was the busboy sadist, the other, a girl with brown skin, darker brown frizzy hair, and dark spots around her cheeks and the bridge of her nose. The cold night breeze was killing Dante, but he ignored as he was suddenly interested in whatever was going on here.

"Listen everyone!" The girl said, her voice was deep yet loud, catching everyone's attention. "This boy doesn't know what he's talking about! I was at the school for it's open day, I know what it looks like and how to get there."

"I was there with you, Claire!" The sadist argued. "We all were, I'm assuming. We know what it looks like but we can't just march there like we know where we're going! I vote we stay here and start a camp!"

"I agree with Clarissa!" Dante saw a brown-haired, blue-eyed girl speak up with a thick Russian accent. "We must locate the school!"

Claire smiled at her encouraging friend before speaking again. "Follow me!"

Dante thought for a moment. Walk how many-hundred miles to some school? He'd hate to agree with the demon-looking fella, but camp sounded more logical. Kimmy must've had the same thoughts, because she yelled, "I am NOT walking to school when it's THIS dark and cold!" Her statement started a wave of protests against Claire. She just huffed and walked somberly back into the crowd. Demon boy then got in front of the crowd and began this tediously long monologue, like it was his coronation or inauguration or something.

"Ladies and gentlemen. My name is John Fernsby and I promise as long as we're out here I will dedicate time and effort into keeping us safe from the cold. They'll have to notice we're gone soon, or they'll have no drafts! So never fear; these eyes don't lie, I am a raaksha here to protect you all from the cold and hunger! My first act of that, creating a fire and getting us a meal!"

The kids cheered like this guy was some god but quickly refrained when they saw what he did next. Taking the bus drivers head (yeah, for some reason he still had that) he placed it on top of his head like some sort of crown. Everyone let out some sort of "Ew!" or plain gasps. Claire rolled her eyes like he'd done this a thousand times before. He finished his speech with this. "GIVE YOUR LIVES TO ME! YOUR LORD FERNSBY!" and with that, he turned to begin his work.

Dante wasn't sure which part of that speech he hated. The crown placement, or the fact he called himself a "raaksha" (whatever that was). Whelp, weather you loved or hated him, John was building them a fire.