THE LAST BUS RIDE ........ PART III

continued from previous post....

Why the hell haven’t we arrived yet, what’s the cause of this delay, conductor? Conductor?? Driver? I shouted with all my might but I can hear only my own voice and that never ending screaming of the bus. I was afraid to death now and I stood up and tried to look where the driver was and in that moment I realized that even the bus was having no headlights. It was moving in pitch black road with not even a single trace of light. Suddenly the whole bus was filled with a smell.

That awful smell started smothering me and choking me. It was disgusting, pungent and was making me ill. I started getting dizzy and felt like puking. It surrounded me completely and I was dumbstruck and perplexed and couldn’t figure out the source of that smell and why I can’t feel the presence of anyone else in that bus and why both the driver and conductor were not responding and why the bus was moving without any headlights. It was like a nightmare, and I was hoping that I would awake safely on the other station and would leave this bus and would laugh on my random imaginations but somehow I knew that everything was happening in real. It wasn’t a dream and there was no explanation of all the events that were happening around.

I opened the flash light of my phone and suddenly my mind was blown with sensation of such sheer stark horror which I think no one has ever experienced in their life. It was fear, plain crude fear, fear with no other emotions attach with it, no uncertainty, no assurance, no mockery, just fear and the reason of that fear was I was alone in that whole bus. There was no one, no passenger, no conductor and somehow I summoned to peek in the driver’s cabin and the magnitude of my fear increased ten folds when I realized there was no driver. The bus was running on its own on a road I don’t know, going where I have no idea and whether I will come out alive or not.

Suddenly I realized the nature of that smell. It was that of human flesh. Burnt human flash, burnt to a very serious degree and at the very moment I realized it along with the continuous screaming of bus I can clearly distinguish another sound. In fact a mixture of various sounds, and these were the sound of screaming. Scream for help, scream for getting away, scream even for an abrupt death and lastly some screams were plain scream, scream just for the sake of screaming as if you were not able to cry for help or ask for anything but can only summon enough strength to scream.

Don’t know how or because of what, suddenly I came back to my senses, I realized that I have to leave this bus as fast as I can otherwise there is no chance of me getting back alive. I don’t know how I will do that or what I will do after leaving the bus but at that time only one thing was on my mind, abandoning this god forsaken bus. The screams continued, the smell became stronger with every moment and I summoned all my strength and knocked myself out of the window of that moving bus hoping to land alive. Injuries were not in my mind, staying alive was my only aim at that time.

I landed hard and that hurt, but the joy of getting out of that bus compensated all the injuries and pain and luckily I landed on a muddy surface and rolled over to some distance but still I damaged my body badly. I didn’t even bother to look around where I was and I just started running blindly in the opposite direction. I don’t know why I was running, where I was going, from what I was trying to escape but at that time the only thing that was in my mind was to run and to get away from this place as far as I can. At that time I realized that when I jumped the speed of bus was very slow in comparison to its usual speed and when I look ahead in the direction of the bus I saw that the area was illuminated by some strong energy source.

I felt intense light radiations piercing my eyes and hurting them and simultaneously I felt great amount of heat from somewhere. I looked ahead and saw the same bus, burning, fire all around it and slowly moving towards the end of a bridge. I was transfixed, I can neither move nor think nor analyse what was happening and can’t decide what my reaction should be. The bus suddenly accelerated with a great pace, lost its balance, hit the side wall of a bridge, broke it and went down burning. A loud sound like thunderclap came and I was not having the courage to go there and look what happened to the bus.

I started running again. Running with no aim, no plan in mind where to go. I just ran and hoped that I will reach somewhere safe. I ran and ran. I ran without getting tired, didn’t giving any heed to all the pain that my body was going through. I ran for don’t know how long but it was a significant amount of time. After some time my body started giving up, the motivation was gone, everything appeared bleak, I lost all the hope. I didn’t want to sit there as didn’t know somehow I was having this feeling I can survive only by running. My throat was burning; face was red showing lack of oxygen and energy. My eyes were closing, darkness and darkness and I was lost in oblivion.  

I opened my eyes slowly and felt that my whole body was still paining. It took a lot of effort to open both the eyes properly and I felt the warm sunlight on my face now. Everything was bright and shining and alive again. I looked around and found that I was at some small tea stall covered inside a blanked. A man came with a cup of tea in his hands and told me that a truck driver found me unconscious on side of the road near a field and took me here thinking I caught cold and need some warm place. Some few more men gathered around and they asked me what happened last night.

I, at first, hesitated a bit, thinking they will laugh at me and will consider me as a fool but then  I decided to tell them everything whatever happened last night. The strange man, the bus, the conductor, the fellow travellers, how everyone vanished, that awful smell and how the bus burnt and fell over the bridge. They all were listening with pensive faces, listening carefully to every word that I was saying and showing not a single sign of distrust. As if they understood everything but no one interrupted, their eyes were focused on me and I kept on describing everything.

“Consider yourself very lucky sir” One of the man said after I had finished.

“The thing that conductor told you about that bike rider is correct, a man indeed died in a horrible accident, which was, in fact, a murder plot and his ghost indeed roams around the street with the same old bike. Though we don’t know whether he has harmed anyone or not yet but you had so far the closest encounter with him and still you are alive” said another man with a big moustache.

“But, most of all, by god’s grace or by some miracle you survived that haunted bus, few years back there was a fight between drivers and conductors of two buses over passengers and the driver and conductor of the other bus locked the first bus from outside somehow, and set it to fire and made sure that fire will continue burning slowly so that the bus will burn on road, the bus continued burning with all its passengers screaming and crying for help. The driver realizing that the bus is locked from every place and there is no chance of everyone getting out by windows decided to move it fast if in any case this will stop the fire, he collided with the side wall of a bridge and the bus fell. No one was alive. Everyone died the most painful and smothering death. Ever since this, many people have seen that bus on the same road with no drivers and no passengers. It is burning and it fells over that bridge again and again. Various people have seen that but guess you are the first person who has taken a ride in it.” Said the first one.

I was utterly aghast. I wasn't able to say anything now. Tears rolled into my eyes. I thanked god because only he can save someone from such a horrible event. The men around me were trying to make me comfortable by saying positive words and by their body languages but I realized that I would never be the same after this. Life will continue and soon things will be back to normal. I will definitely travel again but I will surely consider hiring a private vehicle or travelling by train. I was done with buses now. That ride was surly my last bus ride and I was lucky that I completed the journey and came back alive.

THE LAST BUS RIDE......... PART II

......... continued from the previous post

“Sorry sir, didn’t mean to offend you, take your ticket” and a broad, tall figure appeared in the outlines of flash of an old torch light. The conductor, as it appeared from his dressing sense, a man of 35, looked nothing unusual than the way conductor generally looks. Always frustrated, in a rush, annoyed as people are always complaining to start the bus, the quarrel at the last seat, where he wants 6 people to sit but the other 5 always rebel and abuses the conductor. But, there was something strange in his face. His dark and defected face was of the kind that makes you uncomfortable just by the mere sight of it. His low pitched and heavy voice was adding to the effects. I gave him a 100rs note, he asked for change and I responded negatively. Frustrated by this, he remarked slowly yet made sure that I would listen “Travelers always assume we will give them all luxuries, good seats, a nice and timely ride but they would never think about our misery. We can’t expect a little change from them and they would expect a luxury ride in 40rs from us”.

I, annoyed by his sarcastic and acidic remark and disgusted by his face told him that I will take the change later and he flashed his light again and took me to a vacant seat. In the tiny luminosity of that small torch, somehow fighting with a much larger opponent, the vast darkness, I got a view of the whole bus. It was a very old and small bus, rusted, seats were tempered and not in a very good condition, many parts of the bus were loose and coming out and I was mentally preparing myself for a very noisy and uncomfortable ride. I couldn’t yet figure out my fellow travelers but nobody appeared to me as young, urban or even slightly belonging to a good financial class. All were men and women, villagers most of them, peasants and farmers, some having little child with them. All of them as the travelers usually look not washed or not dressed properly and the faces of kids reflected some sort of gloominess and never ending hunger and desperation. Whole together, it was a very gloomy and bleak atmosphere in the bus, no one was chatting, the kids were silent too, not by there will but by some untold rule that was forcing everyone to keep quiet and maintain the powerful darkness and stillness.

 Unlike the usual atmosphere of bus, I am used to travelling, the up downers relaxing and talking with each other, people talking loudly on mobile phones , as they can’t hear what the other person was saying because of noise of the bus, but still they’ll continue the conversation somehow ,screaming and disturbing the whole bus. Students, either chattering or watching something on mobile or just playing with it dumb faced. Alone travelers, either sleeping or lost in thoughts of deep introspection and contemplation. The rich and affluent giving disgusting face to every other person and reproaching their decision of taking a bus.  Girls, mostly fully covered in their summer suits or with some other cloth with only their eye visible and everything that they were thinking can be read from those eyes. The timidity, a little fear, slight discomfort and the urge to reach their destination as fast as they can but realizing at the same time that they are bound to this bus to reach their destination and they can’t help it.

But today everything was different; everything was lost in silence and a sudden strangeness. Everything was peculiar and was having an air of discomfort. The whole atmosphere was deprived of energy, of motion and most of all of life. Everything was as still as death and I was analyzing everything and cursing me to travel this late and making resolutions that I will always catch the evening bus and somehow assuring myself that once the bus will start everything will become normal with the motion and I will be at home in no time.

After some time, the bus started with a sudden jerk, gradually it paced and the journey began. I can feel the sublime beauty of night, with cold breeze touching my face like soothing me and assuring me that everything will be all right. Suddenly, I was back to the appalling reality from this reposeful dream when I realized that the reason of my calmness was the source of my turbulence now. This complete silence in a bus, not even a single sound, and no movement, as like everyone was even holding their breath just to maintain this silence.

“Why the hell it is so quiet here” I thought not able to comprehend this strange atmosphere in which I had willingly trapped myself.

The bus was moving very fast now, and every part of it was making noises in a perfect harmony. But that harmony was not creating any pleasant music, but sound of screaming, annoying and scary noises, which was very sharp and unnerving. The seat was very uncomfortable as if there was no foam at all, pure steel which was very cold and the posture in which I was forced to sit was contributing to my discomfort, frustration and pain.

The conductor was nowhere to be seen. The bus was moving, cutting the furious wind in a struggle of showing absolute resistance to the power of wind and their collision can be heard clearly. It was noisier inside than a pneumatic drill machine. Suddenly the conductor appeared out of the darkness.

“Your change, sir” He said, in a tone of doing me a favour. I also didn’t bother to say thank you and gave him a look which I was sure won’t be visible to him due to darkness.

“The man with whom you came sir, were you familiar with him”? The conductor enquired suddenly.

“No, I had taken lift from him to reach the station” I replied, wondering why he is asking such an irrelevant question.

“Rumours say that a man died on a similar kind of bike in a horrible accident few years back and now his spirit roams on empty roads looking for preys” The conductor said in a tone which no matter how I tried to take it as a joke but couldn’t deny its seriousness.

“Be careful sir, streets are not safe, particularly in nights, I wonder if you remember his face or if there was a face at all” He said in a manner of telling something indirectly which he himself feared to tell clearly.

He disappeared again and there was the same screaming bus, furious wind, and never ending darkness. I was now on the verge of praying; god please move this bus fast or please insure that I will reach home safely. The road was now illuminated by some lights, probably of some shops or some strange houses but what was puzzling me was that there was not even a single other vehicle. Though it was late but not that late that there won’t be anyone travelling by road. I looked at the road more carefully and suddenly my thoughts were transfixed, I can feel a single drop of thread running from my head downwards and a strange sensation that made my whole body unstable and shiver. It was not the same road which the bus usually takes, it was something new, it was something hitherto I haven’t seen and suddenly various bad and frightening thoughts originated in my mind of my possible doom.

They must have changed the route again, it’s been long since they have done this but guess tonight is different or may be the bus travels by a different route in night. I tried to calm myself and started to make some plausible explanation for this sudden change of route that would convince my mind. If I ever escape from this bus alive I would write an animated story on this, I thought, adding some fun into my tensed thoughts that were running faster than the bus itself and were making more noises in my head than the loose noisy parts of the bus.

I guess everybody is either sleeping or their voice isn’t audible in this annoying sound of the bus. The very feeling that I was seating alone in the seat which gave me a very pleasant comfort in the beginning was making the situation worse no. Perhaps if someone was sitting here with me, I may have talked to him and could convince myself that everything is normal. I tried to look in the backside of the bus but I can still figure out some shadows and peach black colour, nothing else. Where the hell that stupid conductor vanishes time by time, I thought.

I thought to call someone at home to pick me up, as I don’t want to hire any auto now or taking a lift again was the last thing on my list. NO SIGNAL, my phone silently declared as if ashamed of its inability to serve its master when its help was required most.  Damn this telecom companies, they will boast of signals everywhere, will allure us by giving senti ads “ wherever we go, we follow”, sends stupid messages of subscribing to know the updates of what is going in tina’s, mina’s or rina’s life or what happened when some miss riya joined gym or subscribing to all the dumbest and stupid things of life, will call you at night and will try to convince you of shifting from pre-paid to post-paid but when you need the network most, they will always betray you as that shameless friend who always cries for a party when you achieve something but never helps you when you are needy.

“ Curse them all, I hate this, when will this god-damn ride stop” I said angrily but inaudibly or perhaps my voice was also overshadowed by the screaming bus. I thought the best idea to escape is to put the hands free on, start a loud song and close my mind and try to have a nap. It sounded weird to me, trying to get a nap by listening to a loud song but that sounded the best counter to loud noises of the bus. If not nap then at least the song will derail me from this awful nervousness.

I picked some loud English songs, made a playlist, closed my eyes and was lost in thought. For a long time I don’t know I was in a limbo, the song, unclear lyrics, sound of bus everything got mixed up into my mind when I finally woke up I was having no memories of my decision to take a nap in the bus but suddenly in a flash of second everything came to me and I felt the same dread again. I looked in my mobile and was more perplexed than frightened when it showed 2:30 am. What the hell. I must be at home way early. Did the bus stopped for something. Perhaps a tyre puncture or some engine problem. There got to be a reason for this delay. ......... to be continue

Stay tuned for the last part, meanwhile do share your views and feedback !! 

THE LAST BUS RIDE......... PART 1

“Auto….”  I screamed as loudly as I can but still that damn auto didn't stop.

“Damn it, that stupid Murphy’s Law always holds, these annoying drivers would continue disturbing you when you don’t need them, and today when I finally need them, no one would stop”

Some more minutes passed and now my frustration was increasing with every second. It was getting late. I had to reach bus stand anyhow by 9 pm and it was already 8:30 pm. The road was almost empty, not a trace of any motion could be seen and I, who always consider myself, as the daring and risk taking guy, was somehow trying to remain calm and stable in this inner turmoil to satisfy my inner ego. I have heard various stories about this path to highway and particularly how dangerous it is in night and I always discarded them as nothing but source of amusement and imagination of certain naughty people.

I was now reproaching my decision of leaving for home town late. But the urge to go home as soon as I can and the temptation of spending more time there, having dinner with family and funny chit chats, had blinded my conscience for a while and I can’t do much now other then blaming myself for showing such a hurry  and impatience.

“Could have slept early and taking the morning bus would be the right and less risky decision”, I thought.

 Though I never preferred taking lift from any stranger, may be because of my ego of not taking favour or my nature of not disturbing others and a small trace was based on the story I have heard of people taking lift and later robbed , kidnapped or even subjected to syringe of AIDS by  the driver. But I was having second thoughts on the idea of taking a lift and I decided to venture for it today.

It was a cold night and I was sweating and shivering at the same time now. Travelling with bus was nothing new for me. My home town was only 2 hours by bus from this city, but I was never this late. I was not even sure that there will be buses after 9 pm.  Suddenly, a sharp noise broke my thought process; a man with a very old and noisy bike was coming.  He was covered fully in an old and dark blanket with some other woolens and not even a single part of his body was visible. I reluctantly asked for lift, he stopped. I asked him whether he would give me lift to the bus stand. He responded with a positive nod, without caring to utter any word.

The bike started again with its annoying screaming like voice and I was not sure which thing was causing me goose bumps; the strange rider, the silent and chilled wind, or the sudden strange voices that were breaking the stark silence of night at regular intervals.  The coincidence that this stranger agreed to carry me to bus station was also contributing to the unusual fear and insecurity in me, but I was helpless in the situation. Somehow, I was holding my breath and praying to reach station safely.

“And what made you to venture late at night for station, sir”? He asked in an expressionless yet strange tone with a rural accent, his voice a little uncomfortable and timid, which usually happens when villagers talk with any urban person and becomes a little self conscious of their manner.

“Holidays started and I wanted to be at home as quickly as I can” I replied, trying to sound confident and comfortable.

 “Avoid travelling at this time sir, roads are not safe, you must have heard stories about the roads here” He said with a very strange tone that almost scared me.

“Are you talking about the haunted experience and encounter with ghosts that people had on this highway?” I enquired as casually as I could.

“No sir, the dead always lives in peace and didn't harm anyone unless provoke to do so, it’s the evil in human which we must be afraid of, peoples are frequently robbed here and harmed by robbers and thieves, so the farther you stay the safer you would be” He replied.

“So why are you travelling that late, you not afraid of thieves and robbers, what makes you so safe” I commented in a sarcastic manner, little annoyed by his remarks and advise.

“I have my reasons for travelling that I can’t avoid and have to gone through all such risks” He replied in a tone of not pulling the topic further.

We didn’t talked much after that, just a little, the road as it appeared like a deserted city, not a single noise of even any creature. Darkness was on its peak that day, it was like someone sucked light intentionally and covered the whole sky with a dark blanket. But, darkness, which generally is portrayed as the primary source of horror was in fact the least reason for this tonight. It was something else, it was something unusual, which existed, but can’t be described in words. Though I have roamed late nights various time in streets, both with friends and alone, have studied till dawn without giving a single thought about the time or darkness, have sit on roofs late night gazing the stars and thinking about the vastness of the sky and the beauty of the silence that comes only with night and the tranquillity it gives to mind and the way it boosts positive thoughts and give peace to our running life, a sudden stillness which relaxes the very single muscle of the body, I never consider nights as scary but they were always the example of beauty and a serene stillness to me.

But tonight was different. It was not beautiful, it was not serene and it was certainly not at all relaxing. The silence mixing with the stark darkness and loneliness was turning into something else, a source of a feeling akin to being lost and depressed devoid of any hope of finding the path again. In addition to all this agony, the worst thing was what broke the silence, the small spurts of chilling wind and the hissing sound that they made in the ears was enough to scare me. I never ever experienced such a horror; I who used to make fun of horror movies and used to jeer the scary scenes and characters was getting uncomfortable just because of this combination of darkness and silence. 

As it happens with us generally, all the horror movies which hitherto were more like a comedy movies, suddenly started flashing into my minds, and my mind started making various pictures from the darkness and started hearing various sounds that I, somehow knew, was originating in my own mind. I was trying to think about something else, what would I do when I will reach home or the beautiful girl that I had just seen today in college and how I would approach her and befriend her. Even such beautiful fantasy failed to make any permanent place in my mind and I was back to the scary thoughts again and again.

Lost in thoughts, timid and squeezing up my body to as less as I can, I somehow continue to struggle in that treacherous voyage where nothing was different and scary yet I was scared. Suddenly, the sound of motorcycle was lost and for a moment everything halted as if power has been snapped.

“Here is the station sir and there is your bus” said the biker.

I, stupefied for a moment as we had reached much early than the usual time, took some time to respond but all I could say was “thank you”.

“Take care sir, I wish you reach home safely and in a single piece, there is no guarantee of it when you travel by a bus” and he started laughing. Though, there was nothing unusual in either his tone or his joke but somehow his joke sounded like a sarcasm or allusion to me for some bad omen and his laugh sounded hysteric and gave me goosebumps. I still couldn’t figure out how we reached station so early and the most frightening fact was that, I don’t remember his face and I don’t remember if I have seen his face or there was a face at all, all I remember is something covered in blanket and something dark inside but I can’t figure a shape out of it.

“Good bye” He said, his bike screamed again with full intensity, and he was lost in darkness again and at that time I realized that his bike didn’t have any headlight and we crossed all the roads in darkness.

“The road was empty, who needs light anyway, we men can drive with the help of our instinct” I thought, comforting myself with strange logics that I formed so that my mind won’t started thinking about anything paranormal.

I entered into the bus and realized I was entering into a dimension of next level of darkness. Nothing was visible, I can figure out some shadow figures sitting on seats silently and even I was not confirmed about it. Suddenly, a sudden flash of light perplexed me as it went straight into my eyes and I shouted angrily “remove it from my face, what nonsense”.

Stay tuned for the next part to see what happens in the bus, meanwhile feedbacks and suggestions are welcome !!