Free Ravage: An Apocalyptic Horror Novel by Iain Rob Wright

the bus that’s
hell.  It’s everything outside the windows.”
    Nick looked out of those windows and saw nothing but
trees and fields.  It was a pleasant view, but he could imagine the things
the woman had witnessed on the main roads and in the towns.  He understood
what she was saying.
    “Seen some nasty stuff, huh?” he said.  “Me too.”
    “I was at the hospital,” she said, staring out of the
window blankly, “to pick up my sister.  We live together and her car isn’t
running.  She was working the night shift – she’s a nurse… was a
nurse.  I was supposed to pick her up this morning.”
    Nick could see from her faraway gaze that she was
remembering something ghastly.  It was a fair guess that it involved the
fate of her sibling.
    “I’m sorry,” he said, remembering the sight of James
dead on the kitchen floor.  “I’ve lost people, too.  I think a lot of
people have.  It’s all…very wrong.”
    “She was always a bit of a mess, you know, my
sister.  Never could seem to get her life in order; always sponging off me
and wasting her life.  I always figured she would find her way eventually,
once she had grown up a little more.  Now she won’t ever get the chance.”
    Nick nodded.  “Dave told me he picked someone up
from near the hospital.  Is your name Pauline?”
    “Yes.  Pauline Ross.  Wish I could say it’s a
pleasure, but…well, you know?”
    Nick nodded and tried to smile.  He knew how the
she was feeling.  While he had been running on adrenaline for the past
couple hours, too panicked to properly grieve his losses, this woman had been
sitting on this bus, alone with her grief.  The reality of the situation
was crushing her and Nick knew that once he took the time to slow down and
think, his grief would crush him also.
    Just the thought of thinking about it is making me
afraid.
    He looked around the bus at some of the other
passengers, trying not to dwell on things that could wait for later. 
There was a grimy-looking man in navy-blue work overalls at the rear of the
bus.  He had thick dreadlocks and was staring at the floor while picking
at callouses on his hands.  In front of him, a couple rows ahead, was a
teenaged boy in a bulbous, yellow jacket.  Like Eve, he was gazing out of
the window and watching the world whiz by. 
    Lastly, there were two older ladies, sitting together in
the middle rows and nattering to one another as if they were on an ordinary
journey on an ordinary day.  Acting that way was probably their way of
staying calm; the stiff upper lip of the older generation.  Nick did not
blame them at all.
    Better to fake sanity than to accept insanity.
    The vibrations of the bus’s diesel engine started to
lull Nick into a restful daze.  Now that he was finally safe his entire
body began to throb.  His blood felt like crude oil in his veins, pooling
at his feet and making them swell.  Through the window, he watched the
countryside break apart as they passed by a small industrial estate.  The
various factories and workshops were all dormant, their workers not managing to
make it in today.
    “Looks like things are going to get a tad rough up
ahead,” Dave shouted back from the front of the bus.  “Everybody hold on
to their arses.”
    Nick got up from his seat and stumbled his way to the
front.  When he got there, Dave’s expression was impassive, staring dead
ahead.  Nick peered through the windscreen to see what was up ahead.
    More car wrecks littered the road and there were
pedestrians everywhere.  There was a motorway service station, just off
the upcoming island, that was currently ablaze.  Nick could only assume
what had happened there.  An outbreak – of whatever was making people
crazy – must have occurred at the rest stop, and the weary travellers trying to
grab a quick burger or make use of the restrooms would have been taken by
surprise.  Those who had managed to flee had found their way back onto the
roads, which only