Don chuckles at Tom's comment.
'I would, but they're really expensive, and anything of mine that costs that much is bound by my infernal bad luck to be broken within a week.'

++eep, I bugger off to play Halo-2 for one day and the game gets to 7 pages without me. I'm afraid i'm going to have to drop out, can't keep up with this pace. Have fun!++

oog: Aw.... 'Tis a shame. We haven't even gotten anywhere. But alas, it is your decision, Jarot.

The bus continues its descent. Eardrums beg to pop. The rain seems to have lightened to a sprinkle.

"Looks like it's stuck on the side of that mountain," notes Janny as they descend. "It might clear up yet. Joe said it would...."

Mike sighs, "Meh, oh well. I was hoping for a better show than that. Now where was I..." He flips out his book again and continues to read.

Uneventfully, the bus rumbles along, passing through the fog, mist, and rain. The bus ascends once more, almost reaching the next peak. Thunder still booms and cracks from behind them. Finally, Janny smiles and turns the bus to the right, nearly missing the turn in the fog. The bus jostles the passengers roughly, waking those who were asleep.

"Phew... that took forever, but as soon as I hit a turnaround, I'll park it until this badboy blows over, okay?" she promises, looking back over her shoulder.

For a half hour, traveling faster than before, and on the level, Janny searches for a turnaround, crossing bridges, passing trees, and navigating the road less traveled. She has all but given up when the fog lifts just enough to see an area ahead large enough to three-point-turn the mini-bus.

"FINALLY," she grins, turning to look back again. "Here's that rest stop I promised...."

But when Janny turns her head full-front again, she gasps, frozen, for a moment, not knowing what to do.

Between the bus and the open area, stands a figure... in the middle of the road, shrouded by mist.

OOC - Jeepers Creepers anyone?

Mike snaps his head up when he hears the gasp and looks out the front of the window not sure he's seeing what he's seeing...

turn...

He squints his eyes and sees the fog blowing past the figure... it has to be a real man, the fog is flowing around him...

Turn!

He drops the book and tries to force his body to cacth up with his much quicker mind...

TURN!!! YOUR GON...

"ONNA HIT HIM!!!! TURN THE BUS!!! TURN!!!"

Jared reacts slightly slower. "What the heck? LOOK OUT!"

Karolyn is slow to react as well, looking up blearily from her typing to see what everyone is yelling about. At the back of the bus, she can't really see the figure in the road.

Huh? Someone in the road?

Don wonders what all the yelling is about, until he too catches a glance of the man.
'Jeebus! Watch out!'

oog: Never saw Jeepers Creepers, actually....

GM Magic: *ca-click!* Since you would not have survided the accident otherwise, you are all magically seatbelted, whether you want to be or not. It would be a pity to lose anyone so early on....



Janny's hands clench on the wheel as she slams her foot onto the breaks - a bad idea - and lays on the horn, which peirces through the sound of mist and water and deisel engine.

The figure turns its head, looking up, with two brilliant green circles afixed where its eyes should be. They seem to glow in the headlights. You think the figure may have raised its arms over its eyes at the last moment... you think perhaps that Janny couldn't swerve in time to miss him. Such details are fuzzy in your minds.

The bus' backwheels begin to hydroplane as Janny cranks the wheel to readjust for her sliding, but she can't seem to slow or control the bus. It begins to turn sideways in its slide, but there is nowhere for the backwheels to go.

"Oh sh**!" are the last words to echo in your ears before it happens.

The underside of the bus grinds against rock just before it suddenly drops onto its backend, shattering the glass from the emergency door and crushing about a foot of itself like a sodacan.

Janny continues to lay on the horn , which is nothing but a dull background noise in your minds as the bus continues on its merry way... which happens to be backwards, onto its roof.

Glass shatters out from the bus as the ceiling is crushed a good three feet down towards your upside-down heads before the bus begins to slide. It's uncertain to say for how long the bus slides, as blood rushes to your heads and your hearts, which have nearly stopped, pound in your throat and ears.

Somewhere during this eternal and hellish ride, you hear one more noise, before being jolted to a stop, then swung harshly forward. It is a rather dull noise, considering everything else, but it still catches your attention... when the front of the sliding bus smashes against a very large, very stationary chunk of boulder.

The engine dies, as does the left headlight. The right one flickers... then dies, staying alive long enough for you to see that you have, indeed, come to a stop, smashed into a giant rock... if you are still concious.

Finally the sounds start coming back.... the sound of the rain falling lightly on the underside of the bus, the sound of your own frantic and labored breathing, the sound of your quivering heartbeats... and the sound of rotating tires, still spinning round and round into the darkness.

Very quietly, and shaken, Janny's voice quivers: "Is everyone...?"

Alright? Alive? Dead...? It's hard to say what she meant to say, but she never finishes. The realization of what's happened catches up to her and awes her into silence.


Damage assessment: Due to the shattering glass, you all have minor cuts on your hands and faces. Whether or not you've passed out is entirely a personal call.

It happens almost like a dream. Like he does when he's riding shotgun with one of his parents driving and something unexpected happens, Mike drives his right foot into the floor in front of him on some imaginary brake as if it's going to help. Mike totally loses track of the guy cause he knows the bastard is fodder and he doesn't want to see something like that, no impressionistic bus art for him today, no sir.

It's an odd feeling hydroplaning... You can feel the movement, but it's not quite like car movement, it's almost like your flying. It drops his stomach and he turns his head in that adreniline rush of slow motion accidents tend to bring about, locking eyes with his friend with a sorrowful look on his face trying to will him to hold the hell on. And as the bus driver calls out the words that translated to him, 'This ride isn't over...' he digs his nails into the arms of the seat and holds on for dear life... cause there isn't anything else he can do now.

He feels the griding of the rock on the underside of the bus more than hears it and ponders in his mind, "How can it hit ground? Oh god... the back wheels are over the cliff..." He clenches his teeth and shuts his eyes tight as he's vaulted upwards as the bus drops over the edge. His hands clench tighter when the back end smashes into the ground and his head slams back against the seat. Not to comfertable, but it could'a been worse.

Curse that slow motion effect... as if this near-eternity of hell hadn't gone on long enough he stares in wonder as his sunflower seeds seem to float upwards out of the bag, and then the bag it'self seems to take flight right up towards the celing. "That can't be good..." Out of instinct alone he leans his head forward wonding just how far that celing is gonna come down once they... SLAAAAAMMM!!!

He expects to go flying towards the tin can collasping celing and feels a hard pull knock the wind right out of his gut. "Seat belts... safe lives... and disembowel.." He hears the glass shatter before he turns to see it, a lovley dagger of shiny wonder en route to his head. He can already feel smaller peices digging into his skin in various places, shallow but painful, but this one means to impale his neck... or if he tries to lean back far enough maybe it'll miss him. ...and go right to Jared. Unacceptable.

Instead of trying to move, he accually swings his right arm over and tries to push Jared back into his seat as best as he can, the motion of doing that brings his face right infront of the spiraling translucent spear. He shuts his eyes and leans his head, hoping to... well, not really knowing what he's hoping to do, just trying to keep it from his friend but with all this glass flying around it'll probably be a wasted effort. He can feel the damned thing tear into his cheek and he cries out, jerking his head about which accually saves his life. The glass leaves a burning trail upwards, over his eye lid but not accually deep enough to cut his eye, and scrapping up out of his eyebrow... that'll be a nice peice of nature to bring home to Mom... 'Hey Ma! Look what eye got!' ...he must be insane to think of a pun at this moment.

And then the rush wears off and time speeds up to normal. The screams of everyone around him and even those coming from his own mouth bore into his head as he feels the bus sliding, sliding, mudd and water splashing in from his broken window and getting him quite messy. He feels warmth under his hand and realizes he's still trying to protect Jared... from what, he doesn't know, but he keeps his arm there anyhow like some sort of restraining harness.

He clences his teeth, expecting another ride as he hears another grining sound and then he is tossed forward in his seat, smacking the top of his head on the back of the upside down seat in front of him. Charming being so tall... Everything goes hazy for a few moments as he tries to get his orientation to come down from the top of the cliff they fell off.

He takes a deep breath and staves off the feelings of fear and panick... he tries to gather himself for a moment:


Motion check... okay, the bus has stoped.

Body check... Left side of face hurts like a bitch...

Left eye check... Can still see, but vision is red. Crap... blood in the eye STINGS...

Arms hurt in a few places... think I got glass under the skin... gotta get those out...

Whole body aches... usually after being tossed about like a rag doll. Nothing feels broken... yet.

Belly really hurts... damned seatbelt did a number on me... that and were hanging by it."

He grunts and fumbles his hands about his belly, trying to find the release. He pokes it once and nothing happens, "Bah! Damnit!!! Stupid blind pedestrian! Turn I said!!! Miss him I said!! This is a full blown case of BULLSH-WAAAAAUGH!" The seatbelt lets go at this oppertune moment and hes dropped on his head, arms taking the blow as he rolls onto his back on the most uncomfertable crushed roof. "Ow."

He takes quick stock at all the hanging people around him and wonders who else survived it. Then he remembers his friend and shoots up from the ground, "Jared!! Hey Jared! You okay man!!" He places his hands on his upside down friends shoulders and gives him a shake to try and get a response.

OOG: Crap. I'm gonna be gone for the rest of the day, and don't have the time ATM to play out something, so I'll be unconcious, ka? Someone be nice and drag me and my stuff from the wreck, ka?

"S***," Laurie hisses as the bus jackknives, digging her nails into the armrest on her side of the bus seat. It becomes "Holy s***," as the back of the bus in crushed, and a simulataneously pious and profane, "Oh, Jesus, mother******* save us!," as the front of the bus is crushed. Every other hit and sound from there on out
is "OhGodOhGodOhGodOhGod." Half delirious, she wonders if Pastor Frank would be proud or appalled. Her eyes are squeezed shut; she's not sure exactly what happens, she just expects not to see the end of it.


When she opens her eyes, she unclenches her hands. One stings. She realizes she's cut into left her palm with her nails. The right hand has blood under the nail, too, but it doesn't hurt at all. Then she realizes. It wasn't an armrest she was clutching. It was John's arm.

"Oh, God. John. Are you ok? Am, am I ok? What happened? Is everyone all right?"

Even hysterical, mother-hen mode kicks in.

Jared remembers little of the accident himself, as a sudden jerk knocked his head against the side of the bus. He coughs as he wakes up, shook by Mike. He looks around, and everything is blurry. Well, why not? His glasses are missing. He feels around his face, and finds them barely hanging from one ear. He grabs at them, and puts them on. He immediatly lets out a despairing groan, as there is a crack running down the right lens, obscuring his sight some.

He feels over himself, one hand holding the glasses to his face. He feels alright, though one of his arms has a burning sensation. He finds a splinter of glass in it, and yanks it out. Immediatly his arm bleeds a bit, but not severly.

"Yeah, i think im fine. Give me a hand, i dont think i can get out of this easily...."

"Watch yer head man, try and come down on me without killing either of us eh?" Mike gets under Jared and instructs him to push on his back with his arms to take some pressure off the belt. Once he does, Mike undoes the seat belt and down comes Jared right on top of him. "I know you care and all, but mind getting off my spine Bro?"