The Event: expect the Unexpected (4)

Hey! Welcome to Part 4 of this series. I'm glad you enjoyed the last one. So, U know the deal eh? If you like it, share. (Tweet button to the right, bunch of share buttons under each post - facebook, blogger, etc). If you don't like it, drop a comment so I'll know what's up.
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Also, I'm not one of those to apologize for not posting after a while. Just enjoy the read, and don't forget your drink. Its gonna be a fun ride!
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The BOY

“Sir, please don’t tell my Mom”, Hiko pleaded. “She’s going to ground me for a month! Please!” he begged further.

The bus driver gave him a vicious look, and said “No! I will tell your mother. I will make sure Principal Naoki knows, and I’m sure she is going to suspend you for at least two weeks. For goodness’ sake, you punched a tooth out of the boy’s mouth!”

Hiko knew he was in for it at this point. He had no other option, except the one that dominated his cerebrum.

Before he could implement the devious plan that was occupying his thoughts, he heard a rumbling sound from behind the bus. The bus driver looked at him again, and as if he could read Hiko’s thoughts, shouted at him: “Don’t go anywhere!”

Hiko strained his neck to see what was going on as the bus driver went to inspect what was going on. Then he heard the rumble again, much louder this time. Then…

CRACCKKKKK!!!

The road split in two! And the crack in the road kept coming – coming for the buses, coming for Tohoku Elementary.

Image obtained from this link.

“GET INTO THE BUS!  NOW!” the bus driver roared. Hiko jumped into the bus faster than one could say Jack Sparrow. The bus driver leaped into the driver’s seat and floored the accelerator.

“SEATBELTS ON! NOW!!” the bus driver roared again. Hiko didn’t need anyone to tell him twice – he slapped the seatbelt on as the bus driver sped off. Hiko was sure that the bus was going at 80mph now – well above the speed limit for a regular car, let alone a school bus. He saw the children in the bus looking back, and he followed suit. He saw it happening. 

One of the two buses behind his was sinking. They saw the driver of that bus rev his engine, but the crack had caught up with them. The bus began to fall back into the huge chasm that was being created. In a last attempt at survival, the driver abandoned the children, jumped out his bus and tried to save his life. At that moment, Hiko’s bus driver made a left turn, and the sight was taken away.

The children kept looking back in terror. What made them more horror-struck was when they didn’t see the second bus make that same turn. It was gone.

Shaking. Shaking. Violent SHAKING.

At that moment, Hiko realized what was happening. He had seen this in a movie once. Realizing that this was no movie, he shouted: “EARTHQUAKE!”

The MAN

Shou looked at the kid that pleaded with him. “He’s not even as remorseful as he should be”, he thought. He rained threats on the kid. “This kid has no idea what he has gotten himself into, does he? He took out his friend’s tooth!” Shou mused. He was about to send another barrage of threats when he heard the distinct rumble behind the bus. He went to check it out. He saw the kid trying to move away, and screamed at him: “Don’t go anywhere!”

Image obtained from this link.

He looked ahead, but he could not believe what his eyes told him. The ground was opening, and the crack looked like it was heading for them! He saw two cars aligned at 80° angles to the ground inside the ditch created, and they were falling – falling headlong into the crack! He could make out a person’s figure in the backseat of one of the cars, her arms flailing and banging, trying to get out of the car. He watched motionlessly as the cars were swallowed by the ground. A loud cracking sound and the quivering of the ground jolted him into action.

“No way THIS is gonna happen to ME!” he thought. He turned and ran to the driver’s seat, revved the engine and moved the transmission at the same time. The car lurched forward and sped off. He grabbed the steering to steady the bus, and shouted to the children behind him: “SEATBELTS ON! NOW!!”

He kept his foot on the gas pedal, and then stole a look at his rearview mirror. He saw another bus sinking into the ground behind him. A bus from Tohoku Elementary. 39 kids and a bus driver just died behind him.

“Oh HECK NO! Not happening! Not to ME! Not to my kids!” he thought. He took his foot off the gas pedal, pushed the transmission one step down, pulled the handbrake, and turned the steering hard to the left. The tires made a loud SCREEEECCHH as the bus drifted into the left turn. He pushed the handbrake down, slammed the gas pedal and moved the transmission one step up. The car jerked and jumped forward like a little boy who got stung by a soldier ant on his behind. “Who says one can’t learn driving skills from ‘Need for Speed’? I certainly did”, he thought.

He felt a huge RUMBLE, and the car shook violently like a leaf in the wind. One of the kids in the bus screamed “EARTHQUAKE!” He retorted “Really? You just realized that we were in the middle of an earthquake? Tell me something I don’t know!”

 The safest place he could think of was the military base thirty minutes away. “They’ve got underground bunkers and the roads are reinforced against earthquakes. We have to get there fast”, he muttered under his breath. He made a right turn in a manner similar to the earlier left turn, and barely saw the small black Hyundai speeding towards him.

Instinctively, he made a left turn to avoid the car. The combination of the drifts and sharp turns made the car somersault sideways.

BLAM! BLAAM!! BOOOOM!!!

The WOMAN

Kiyoshi felt another speed bump. “Oh no! Not my TIRES! Tadashi is in more trouble than he knows – he’s making me puncture my tires!” she thought. Her thoughts distracted her from seeing the distinct yellow of the school bus hurtling towards her.

She reflexively steered the black Hyundai she was driving to the left.

BLAM!

Image obtained from this link.

She had crashed into a tree on the side of the road. She was dazed, and everything looked fuzzy. Then, POOOF went the airbag, thumping her head against her car seat and knocking her unconscious.

***********

The quivering of the ground roused her back to consciousness. She looked at her body; no major damage. She could feel her hands and legs; her nose and ribs hurt badly however. She put a hand to feel her nose.

Blood.

She tried to shout, but all she could let out was a moan. She stumbled out of the car after unhooking her seatbelt and used her shirt sleeve to wipe off the blood on her nose. Her ribs hurt more now as she stood. “I’m probably bleeding internally”, she thought. Then she saw the yellow bus that she had swerved to avoid, on its side, and partially sunk into the ground. It was a bus from Tohoku Elementary. Another RUMBLE of the ground. She could make out the big lettering on the back of the bus, now turned sideways: AF16B9.

“Tadashi! My Tad!” she thought, as she ran toward the bus. The ground vibrated some more. The bus slid deeper and deeper into the ground. Her nose caught a whiff of some smoke. “It’s coming from…it’s coming from the bus! The bus is going to explode!” she thought.

She ran faster. Her ribs ached more. They shifted and ground against themselves inside her as she tried to increase her speed. She whimpered, but didn’t slow down; she had to get her son from that bus. She arrived at the foot of the rift that was swallowing up the bus; it was bigger than she had imagined. At that moment, the earthquake seemed to reach its peak with the loudest and most violent quivering she had ever experienced. She hit the ground before she knew it, and watched as the bus slid and jostled itself into the ready throat of the chasm. Then she heard the explosion from the belly of the ground.

“Tad! Tadashi!!” she cried. “TADASHI! MY BABY!!” she wailed. The mental and physical pain racked her mind and body, and it gave way: she coasted once more into the sweet nothingness of unconsciousness.

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.... (still) to be continued.

Are you enjoying the story? Lemme know what you think of the design and story in the comments section!

(P.S: All images that are not mine have links to their source. Tryna avoid plagiarism and all that, you know...)

Graphic Design Blog, remember? I couldn't find a good place to put this in the story, so...
Original Graphic/Logo for Tohoku Elementary. Opinions?