I am sitting passenger on a bus full of strangers. On all sides of me I see faces I don’t know. The bus is traveling down a highway. We aren’t traveling very fast because the highway is packed with buses exactly like my own.
I don’t know where I am going but I do know I was told I needed to go somewhere. I have a wife and child to support and the only way I’m going to do that is by riding in this bus; along with everyone else till we get wherever it is we are going.
-BAM- A crash is heard and nothing else. I look behind us in the direction of the crash and see one of the buses smashed to the size of a small car slowly sliding to a stop. It pushes several other buses aside as it slides.
Nobody says a word, nobody reacts, nobody stops. The other buses recover and we continue our slow creep forward. I suddenly begin to feel doubt in our choices. I begin to worry.
-BAM- Another bus suddenly reduced to rubble, nothing resembling of itself other than its color and the remains of its disfigured face.
Again we all sit silently, moving forward. Nobody speaks to anyone else. I try and seek the source of the impact to the two other buses but I can’t see anything past the rest, slowly moving forward unburdened by the chaos that had just taken place.
-BAM- Just like the times before; nobody responds.
Am I the only one seeing this? I begin to worry for myself, the people around me, my family. Who would take care of my family?
I recognize everything I am doing, everything my fellow passengers are doing, is wrong. We are going the wrong way. We don’t even know where we are going. We are all just following the same highway to satisfy the instructions of someone else.
-BAM-
I begin to speak up, I tell my nearest co-passengers of what is taking place all around them. None of them even look up at me. Their dead-to-life stare looking forward and nowhere else. Suddenly one of two in front of me looks concerned.
-BAM-
She turns to the man beside her. He’s middle aged, balding, wearing a suit that looks like he has worn it hundreds of times before.
“See, I told you something was wrong!” She pleads, “We need to tell these people, we need to stop this before it’s too late!”
He remains silent and continues to look forward.
-BAM-
She begs with him again, this time he briefly looks to her and speaks before returning his view forward.
“No way, we can’t tell anyone. If we do we will never get there”
-BAM-
The crashes are getting closer, more frequent. The crowd of buses remain undeterred as we continue our creep. I begin to imagine my son and my wife’s faces. I wonder how I could get to them, if I will get to them. I worry they too may be on one of the many other buses.
Suddenly my bus takes a turn onto an exit. For a moment I’m struck with relief. I begin to recollect myself and take heart that we have arrived to our destination.
Ahead on the exit shoulder I see a coffin, and before it a woman all in black. Her arms raised in the air she woefully orchestrates to the audience before her with words of pain. My heart begins to sink for her.
My phone rings and I answer; it’s my boss. He tells me I am needed elsewhere immediately. He tells me there is no time to go home first; no time to delay.
I answer with one word only, “Ok”.
