Harper was the first to notice the hissing sound coming from one of the air conditioning vents up ahead. It still wasn’t any sort of proof of wrongdoing, and each of the three faintly hoped inside that a possible leak was why the bus was taking a different route, hopefully to get fixed. But one looming question, dangling over everyone’s minds, was “why didn’t the driver say anything?”
The three had fallen silent, and were nervously looking at each other, silently pleading for someone else to be the one to step up. Eventually, Tina caved, and got up to make her way over to the front. The bus was now on a highway leading away from the city center, and with it at a higher speed, it took more effort for Tina to safely walk her way up there. When she arrived at the front, she wished she hadn’t; the bus driver, who earlier had seemed like a nice enough woman, was now wearing a gas mask. With her worst fears confirmed, Tina panicked and looked behind her, ready to shout to Harper and Ava that it was, in fact a gas of some sort that they had been breathing in. But by the time she turned back, Ava was already slumped over in her seat; the short Asian girl was always something of a lightweight, and it clearly didn’t take much of the sleeping gas to knock her out. A frantic Harper, having already leaped to the same conclusion as Tina, was up on her knees, trying in vein to open up one of the emergency windows.
“They must have been locked from the outside” thought Tina to herself. Without knowing how much of the weird gas she must have breathed in, and her accelerated heart rate sure to not do her any favours, she knew her only option left was to confront the driver.
“Hey, what’s going OAHAHAN!!”
Tina had attempted to put on the bravest, most intimidating face she could, but was caught completely off guard when the driver casually stuck her hand out and wriggled it into her side. Now realizing just how lightheaded she had become, Tina fell to the floor instantly, clutching her ribs.
“Nice try, little miss ticklish.”
As the driver went back to focusing on the road, Tina tried in vein to control her laughter, but it was no good. The ticklish jolt had made her breathe, breathing took in more of the sleeping gas, which made her lightheaded, which made her more sensitive to the lingering feeling in her sides. The world around her was starting to go faint; she looked up and saw Harper, yawning against her will, sliding over top of Ava’s body for an unintended nap. And as her own eyes started to close, the last thing she remembered was the driver pulling down a handheld radio, and speaking into it.
“Yeah, I’ve got her. They’re all out… We have an extra passenger, though… no it actually worked out really well… I learned of a neat weakness we could exploit… don’t even need to hurt the little millionaire…”
The last word sent a pulse of confusion into Tina’s head that her brain couldn’t afford, and she drifted off into a deep sleep on the floor of the runaway bus.
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