Is This Seat Taken?

He pulled out his phone; and dialed his father's latest number. After three rings there was a click.

"Dad are you—"

"Please note that international calls may incur additional charges. Press 1 to—"

He pressed one and began tapping his feet. The phone rang once again.

"The number you have dialed requires additional credit to complete the call. Please add funds to your account and try again."

~Well, whatever, not like he would've answered anyway,~ he thought to himself, before opening his gallery out of habit. He selected the latest photo; his parents standing next to a monkey, with a forest in the backdrop.

"I told you something bad would happen if you left," he whispered to himself, before swiping away.

He navigated to his Wi-Fi settings. "Please be on," he whispered, scrolling through the network list. A moment later, he stopped on one named "Sanchez WiFi".

He and the bus driver had an odd friendship centered around meat pies. The old man was adamant that steak and kidney was the best, but Gray still brought him Pepper Steak whenever he got the chance anyway. It was a good friendship; he gave pie and in exchange got free Wi-Fi on his bus rides.

He opened Google and searched 'Amazon alien invasion'.

Thousands of live footage videos appeared. He picked the first one.

The video took a moment to buffer.

["Shhh, shhh."

There were chickens a few meters ahead of the cameraman; walking in front of a forest. The cameraman was hiding behind what looked like a shack house, and a young boy could be seen below him, just barely in frame.

The footage was shaky.

For a few seconds nothing happened, the chickens were just pecking at the floor. But then, the man pointed at one of them.

"Help! Help!"

For a moment, Gray couldn't tell where the sound was coming from. But it became obvious, when the chicken floated into the air, and a shadow-like figure appeared out of nowhere. It had thin, slender limbs, and the chicken acted as its head.

"Help! Help!" it screamed.

"Papa, o que é isso?"

"Shhh."

Just then, the creature turned to look at the camera.

"Fugir!"

There was a loud shriek, and the video cut off.]

"That looked straight out of a horror movie."

Gray shuddered at the voice, throwing his phone on the ground.

"Relax, I'm not going to peck you." It was Joshua, he had his hands raised and was trying to hold in his laughter. This earned him nasty glares from a few of the other students in the bus.

"I didn't hear you coming," Gray replied, standing from his seat to grab his phone. Joshua grabbed it first, before offering it to him.

"Peace?"

Gray gave the boy a glance, before taking back his phone.

He didn't hate Joshua, but he had a problem with overly extroverted people. He found it tiring to try and match their energy. Plus, he wasn't exactly in the mood to make friends right now.

"What do you want?" Gray asked, dusting his phone off. A new crack had been added to the right corner.

"The other seats are all taken. Can I have this one?" Joshua asked with a smile.

The seats right across them were empty, however before Gray could protest, Joshua sat down.

"Where was that? It looked like a rainforest," he asked, staring at Gray's phone. Gray gave him an annoyed glare in response.

"Sorry, ran out of data, and I'm kind of bored," the boy added.

Gray sighed, before nodding. "It's the Amazon. Or a village close by at least."

"Why the Amaz—"

Another glare stopped the boy's questioning.

"Got it, I won't pry."

For a moment, they both remained quiet, as Gray watched videos from other places around the world. In Japan, a massive fire had erupted in one of the shrines; the odd thing was it had a humanoid appearance, and regardless of how much water they threw on it, it wouldn't die out.

Australia had spiders the size of tanks swarming their roads, and South Africa had been plunged into darkness. It seemed that each continent had its own share of troubles.

Still, all these places had one thing in common. They had a massive ship hovering in the air, all the same colour and design as the one here.

"Just like an apocalypse novel, huh?" Joshua asked. The bus engines roared to a start at this point.

"Y-Yeah," Gray replied. The other boy had sounded a little too excited. Well, Gray himself had been excited just a moment ago, though the difference was that he had powers.

~Wait, is he also a…~ he studied the boy's face, as if the answer would pop up on his forehead.

"I noticed what happened in class. And I saw you running earlier," Joshua added, moving a little closer.

"And the girl in the bus over, I saw you guys staring at each other before she ripped the window out," he continued.

Gray remained silent.

"I know you guys got…" the boy said, before scooting even closer and covering the side of his mouth. "I know you guys got powers."

Gray wasn't particularly surprised that someone had figured it out, it wasn't supposed to be a secret anyway. However, something about this itched him the wrong way.

"Do you…" he asked.

The bus began moving. It seemed that none of the other students had been saved, or if they had, then they didn't come here. He felt a little guilty for being relieved at that. He didn't want to have to handle the stress of caring for injured students on the bus.

"No, not yet. But I will. If this is just like the novels, then there's going to be other opportunities. I don't know what criteria they used to give powers initially; I'm sure it has nothing to do with latent talent." He paused abruptly, before looking at Gray.

"No offence to you."

"None taken," Gray replied.

As the bus took a turn onto the main road, Joshua continued blabbing on about all the apocalypse novels he had read, and the different routes their MCs took to survive. His eyes had a faraway excitement to them… too much excitement.