Free Nice Day to Die by Cameron Jace

means. I heard a girl say it to a boy in school. Still, I am afraid that if I kick them in loompas, they’ll still laugh.
    Two minutes in.
    I can a school bus dragging another bus in the rear view mirror. I guess they replicated the idea of the jeep. Why not? But they are barely keeping up with the minimum speed. Their bus could break down, hopefully not before the three minutes.
    There is also a bus with faces glued to the window, watching us. They are all tattooed and ear-pierced with smirking faces as if waiting for something. Their tattoos are all the same, as if they belong to a gang. The tattoo is of someone riding something, maybe surfing. No, it’s the picture of girl riding a flying skateboard.
    The tattooed boys and girls creep me out. Why are they so calm and silent?
    Thirty seconds to explosion.
    The world around me is a mess. Fights over buses, buses colliding, crazy outranked running in the streets of the Playa. I think I just drove over something. No!
    A girl panics behind me and tries to choke me with her hands, pulling me back against the pole. I struggle to keep my hands on the wheel. This will mess up everything. What is she thinking?
    “We are going to die!” she screams at me. I see her in the mirror, but I can’t speak. My throat hurts. She has big hands.
    I am not going to take my hands off the wheel.
    Leo is shooting at the other buses trying to crash us. He doesn’t see me, and I can’t talk. The other outranked are all fighting each other or counting.
    “We are going to die. You hear me?” she screams in my ear.
    I know. I know. We are going to die. What’s the point of killing me before we die? What’s the point of reminding me? This girl is so panicked.
    I finally manage to push her away with one hand, keeping my other hand on the wheel. She falls back. I don’t know where, and I don’t care.
    Back to driving position.
    Leo looks back to me, giving me a sign that he is going to the back of the bus. He suggests I keep driving until he fires a shot or something. In the mirror, I see him walk the aisle to the back, pushing anyone who tries to stop him. He fires a shot to break the rear window open. He jumps out into the Jeep. I lose track of him, but there is a world war going on back there. Everyone is headed for the Jeep, even those who wanted to get on the bus earlier.
    Leo has a war to fight on his own back there.
    I don’t know what to do. Ten seconds to detonation. This bus is going to explode. This is not my bus anymore!
    What should I do? The other buses are too close. Any explosion could affect me as well.
    Suddenly, I hear many shots. Did Leo kill anyone? I wash the thought away.
    “It’s heating up,” says Timmy. “Seven.” He is counting down. He is certainly entertaining the viewers.
    Something bumps against the bus’s door.
    It’s Leo with the Jeep. The Jeep looks like it is in a zombie movie. Outranked on top, biting each other, hitting each other, some of them dragged to the tail, hanging from a rail. Everyone is protecting Leo though, so he can drive. I wonder what is happening to the other buses. I get closer to the door of the bus, leaving the wheel behind. Leo is barely keeping up with the speed. He can’t lend me a hand, both busy, one driving and the other shooting into the air.
    As I stand at the edge of the bus’s door we hit a bump in the road. The uncontrolled steering wheel shifts. The bus sways to the left, increasing the distance between me and the Jeep. I can see the hot asphalt underneath. I can’t jump. The Jeep is too far now.
    “Four.” Timmy’s voice echoes in my head.
    I am going to die, just as the girl predicted. I can’t jump and even worse, the bus I am on is slowing down since no one is pushing the gas pedal.
    Leo steers the wheel to the left,  tangent to the bus, looking at me with that intensity in his eyes, almost parting his lips.
    “Jump, for God’s sake,” they scream from the Jeep.
    I close my eyes and jump.
    “One.”