“C’mon, it’s time I let you know something.” The bus driver said, he waved us over and rolled his eyes. I glanced at Cynthia on instinct, she shrugged and we all proceeded to follow the bus driver. What was his real name anyway? The bus driver kept looking around, back and forth, his eyes narrow. We hiked deeper into the forest, the wild branches and bushes catching on our socks. All was silent except for the crackling leaves and twigs, and all of us huffing and puffing from the long trek. After a few minutes the bus driver stopped, EJ almost bumped into him.
“Right.” The bus driver said, “I suppose you have been wondering why all of you have been selected to be transported on a bus to a location that is not your own home.”
“Not really,” EJ muttered, although the forest was too quiet for him to not be heard.
The bus driver expressed no emotion whatsoever and proceeded, “You are unique individuals. Every fifty years a new generation of kids is given powers. Powers that seem useless at first, but are far from it. An organization was made to assist those kids, in order to teach them how to control their powers and use them for good. But the organization also needs to protect those kids, because some people would want to discard anything that might get in their way. For example, those idiots in the white van probably were out to kill you.”
There was silence, all of us glanced down at the forest floor, remembering how oblivious we were while being an inch from death.
The bus driver glared down at us, “In other words, don’t trust anyone, not even the person standing next to you.”
Once again the bus driver had pushed us down into a pool of traumatic truth.
We were no longer oblivious.
The bus driver glanced around the forest once more, then grabbed onto a tree branch and twisted with aggression. Then he pushed the branch-lever down and waited. I peaked out from behind him and watched for something amazing to happen. Nothing happened. The bus driver sighed and kicked the base of the tree. Then faint sound of clinking and clanking rang throughout the forest. Slowly, but surely, a wooden circle door materialized out of no where. The bus driver banged on the lower part of the door as more of the building emerged. There was more clinking and clanking, then the door squeaked open. The bus driver stepped up onto the frame of the door, the rest of us had to pull ourselves up. I stood up and took a step away from the door. The room was dark, lit by a dozen candles scattered around the oval shaped room. The walls were most likely made out of mud and the floor slanted down. Papers and notes were stuck to the walls and ceiling. Four tunnels were at the far end of the room. The bus driver steered us to the third tunnel, the sound of our footsteps echoed throughout the dark room.
“Where are we going?” Bri demanded.
“You’ll find out soon enough.” The bus driver said without turning back.
As we marched on the light at the end of the tunnel began to grow until we emerged from the cold and melancholy room to a slightly brighter room. A long wooden rectangular table was in the center of the room, like the entrance room there were maps and notes taped up on the walls. Chairs of different colors and sizes were pushed up against the table. There was nothing on the table, no papers or files, not even a vase of flowers. Another room was through a doorway to my left but other than that there was nothing in the room. The bus driver marched us through the doorway and into yet another room with four tunnels.
“What’s your name?” Cynthia asked the bus driver as we trudged through the tunnel on the far left. I realized I was started to get used to calling him “the bus driver”.
“Howard.” He replied briskly.
EJ paused, “Well, what do you want us to call you?”
“Howard.” Howard repeated.
That was all the conversation until we made it to the end of the tunnel. At last we had come across a room that had people in it. A woman with red hair tied up in a messy bun, strode across the room carrying a pack of files, “Myra! You got the sixth one ready yet?” She called back. A second woman, supposedly Myra, appeared and leaned out of a door frame on a maroon rolling chair, “Can’t you give a girl some time! Geez.” She then rolled back into the room from which she came. There were filing cabinets and cardboard boxes full of papers. Two lamps in the far corners lit the whole room. The woman was bustling around the place, she didn’t even notice that we were there.
A third woman with inky black hair and skin the color of coffee came running into the room carrying a stack of books and talking rapidly to the first woman, “Meg! I printed out the handbooks, I decided to go with the five by four ‘cause why -”
“Shush!” The first woman exclaimed. She was staring at us, a smile was on her face.
The woman with black hair glanced at us, dropped all the books in her hands, and gasped.
“THEY’RE BEAUTIFUL!!!” She exclaimed.
“Huh?” I blurted out.
The first woman spoke, “Hello! My name is Meg, this is Serina. We are part of the organization.”
Bri paused then asked, “So, it’s just called ‘The Organization’?”
“Yep.” Meg replied.
“Really creative.” Bri muttered.
Serina ignored Bri’s comment, if she even heard her, and moved on, “Here are the handbooks, made by me, they have everything you need to know about everything, did I mention that I made them?”
Meg rolled her eyes and whispered, “Yeah, a couple times.”
Serina handed each of us a copy of the handbook and smiled as we flipped through the pages.
“Theres no need,” Howard said, “I already told them everything.”
Serina’s smile faded.
“Well, now you know everything about your powers, The Organization, and have the handbooks, we can send you home.” Meg said.
I relaxed, Finally, I thought. Howard beckoned us back through the tunnel, soon we were out of the hideout and back into the forest. We boarded the bus and sat down, this time closer together. Howard was about to pull out of the forest and onto a road when I spotted something running towards us.
“Wait!” I yelled at Howard as the thing got closer. As it got closer I could make out more details. A person, a girl… Leah. She hadn’t been at the hideout, she ran into the forest almost a moment before the bus driver called us over. Leah had been in the forest the whole time.
“Where have you been?” Leo asked as Leah climbed onto the bus.
She was breathing heavily and her hands clutched her side as she breathed, “I’ll… tell you… later.” Leah slumped down into a seat.
Charlie handed her his handbook, “Here,” He said, “it has everything you need to know.”
Leah stared down at the handbook, she started to say, “Oh I don’t need-” Then she paused and went with, “Never mind, thanks.” as she took the handbook from Charlie’s grasp.
Then Howard pulled out of the woods and proceeded to take us home.
But the weird thing was that Leah didn’t say a word the whole time.
