Snippet #2396912

The lilting tone of the dark, folkish song coming from the young woman's earphones briefly drew her attention away from the scenery that was passing quickly by the bus window. (A clear sky, a chill breeze, distant woods and mountains. Nothing that caught her eye.) Had she not listened to this one properly before? Something about the lyrics to this particular song gave her pause for a moment, made her feel slightly uneasy perhaps. It only lasted a second. Blinking, she returned her attention to the outside world, allowing her hooded but never really closed eyes to skirt across the monotonous scenery. The dark-haired girl could have dozed off at any moment since she got on the bus an hour or so ago. But she hadn't. Perhaps she had been waiting for something of interest to occur. Whatever it was, it clearly hadn't happened yet.


A sudden lurching bump drew her attention to the fact that they'd left the main road. It was her first time riding on this particular route, but a brief, unassuming glance at one of the other passengers told her that this was quite likely to be an unusual new development. Her gaze returned to the window, observing the change in scenery with dispassionate interest while with one hand she removed her MP3 player from the pocket of her hooded sweater. It had been silent since the knock. Had the headphones been jarred loose? No, it had simply switched itself off, and no input from the young woman seemed enough to bring it back to working order. She pulled her earphones loose and pocketed the entire bundle, evidently pondering something. Had it been a long time since she last charged the thing's batteries? It most certainly wasn't. It had been charging just that morning.

That was fast.

After another brief glance at the other passengers, the young woman's attention returned to scenery. Eyes somewhat wider than before, she took in a distant lake, the buildings of a small suburban area... and the sudden, inexplicable presence of a thick white fog that threatened to obscure both of these things entirely from view. She watched for a moment longer, then looked straight ahead at the back of the seat before her, apparently collecting her thoughts. After another moment she retrieved her phone from the satchel on the seat next to her and glanced at the screen. Obviously she hadn't been expecting much, as she didn't even waste a second trying to switch the device back on before dropping it back into her bag and pulling out a small paper notebook in its place, perhaps a journal. The girl glanced at her wristwatch, scribbled a few words in the notebook, dropped it back into the bag and sat back in her seat, crossing her arms in front of her before lifting her right thumb to gnaw on it as she continued to stare out the window. Almost nothing except a few occasional trees could be seen through the fog by now. She sat, watching anyway, until after a few more minutes the vehicle rumbled to a halt.

Her eyes returned to the seat in front of her. She listened. The door opened, someone (presumably the driver) stood up and exited the vehicle. From her own seat the woman couldn't see much, until a dark shape entered her peripheral vision, moving deeper into the fog. The driver? She stayed where she was. After a few moments a passenger stood up, pulled something out of the overhead, stepped off the bus. A beat. He called to the driver, once and then again, more loudly. No response that she could hear. Other passengers were standing up now, talking to each other. Apparently the driver had taken the keys with him. Not surprising.

Kirsty stood up from her seat, glanced around her to make sure that all of her belongings were in her bag, picked it up and slung it over her shoulder as she stepped out into the aisle. A few steps towards the front of the vehicle told her that the fog was almost as thick in front of them as it was to the sides of the road. She stood for a moment, examining it, waiting to see if anyone else volunteered any information. When they didn't, and after a moment's hesitation, she asked the obvious question. Her tone was flat, almost uninterested, with only the slightest edge of anxiety.

"Where are we?"