Dreams and living nightmares...

A raging fire burned in the distance.

Peeking around an unseeable bend of the road—the same road where the red and white bus turned—a flame edge beckoned the small boy who was watching, inviting him to come see the unseen.

Thick blooms of smoke poured up, becoming wider and more dense with every second that passed, only dissipating as they spread into the sky. Akio, the lone boy standing on the pavement, watched as the plumes wafted in his direction. Locked in fear, his body not wanting to move an inch, until he heard the screams, a tingling ran up his spine.

Jolted from his entrapment, the bellowing screams of children dragged him from the view ahead, echoing in his mind, reaching the lost part of himself in that moment.

Akio's tiny feet started to move towards the rising plumes when fear no longer held them still in time. The smacking of tiny feet on the compacted tarmac reverberated through the small legs of the young boy, his shoes wanting to pound into the earth itself as he pushed to get ahead and around the bend.

Slam after slam, his muscles in the brief bout cried out for additional oxygen as the pain intensified. He could taste blood in his mouth from the exertion of his lungs going past their limit, trying to keep up with his body's demands for more. The short distance felt like an eternity. Every step he took made the path ahead of him feel longer than it should have.

The wind picked up the darkness in the sky, pulling it his way, the frigid air whispering past his forward momentum.

He could now taste the smoke on his tongue.

It was seeping down his throat and filling his lungs, the thickness swirling around, then back out, over and over. The light morning gust pulled more of the smoke's noxious fumes towards him, more of the toxic smog for him to breathe, making his head lighter and his lungs heavier as they strained for the sweet air of the day he awoke to not long ago. Sharp coughs rang.

*Coughing.*

A tiny arm rose up, shielding Akio's mouth. He peeked over the short sleeve of his white shirt, now soaking into a light grey. The eternal pathway was now finally coming to an end. Akio could now clearly see the bend in the road as the amber glow flickered along the edges of the tarmacked road and pathway. Small embers drifted around him, catching Akio's eyes and flicking up and away into the sky against the darkness in front.

More and more embers graced his presence, some falling on his white shirt, singing the areas where they landed, the dying embers wanting to live just a little longer. A small hand smacked them into the darkness of death, not giving them the chance to spread and set Akio ablaze.

*Smack.*

Violent bellowing cries intensified to the point of breaking, up and down from young boys to girls, mixed together in a disgusting symphony of fearful calls for help.

No longer driven by instinct, dread finally returned, filling Akio's heart.

As he moved to the right of the crashed bus, he saw the front melding into a small tanker truck, the capsule on the back bent and leaking, and the yellowy orange concoction spewed out. The shells warped into each other, making a conjoined, mutated vehicle nestled in the growing flames. Only the colour of the bus remained intact; the smashed windows down the sides of the bus were blown out, and the coming of flames reached deeper and closer up the bus's inner crumpled shell.

Akio's eyes shifted to the children at the back of the bus. The large pane of glass was hanging on, slightly cracked in one corner. He saw the children attempt to slap their weakening hands, unable to damage the glass any further. The small form rushed forward, slapping the palm of his right hand against the sheet metal on the back of the bus, and began to call out. The children's fearful looks softened when they saw and heard a voice they had heard so often before.

*Bang, Bang.*

Akio: Move away! I'm going to try to smash the glass. 'Calling.' (Looking around.)

Frantic eyes flicked around, searching for something. They stopped on a glistening piece of metal just a few metres in front of the small boy, in the direction of the growing flames. He moved forward, lurching for the pipe, and then forcefully backwards, not of his own accord, no longer in reach of the metal bar he so desired.

An explosion drowned out the faint murmurs of the children, jerking Akio back onto the tarmac with a horrifying thump to his whole body. His head violently hit the curb, and he fell into unconsciousness. He couldn't hear anything as the ringing overtook his mind, and the feeling of someone watching him drifted with him into the darkness.

--Shack at the back of Akio's home.--

The rotting wooden door slid open, and the ripped panels fluttered slightly. Someone was standing in the open doorway, the moonlight illuminating the tall form, watching the young boy as he slept under the ragged duvet. The unknown hand moved to his waist, thumbing something as the unclasping of metal slid on leather.

The door slid closed as a belt snapped together.