Dimensional 1

They were traveling along in a large travel bus. Ryan was going to Dallas for a job. It wasn't anything special, it was just a driving/delivery type job. It paid fairly well though. He had made his mind up between work to live and live to work and decided he'd do whatever job he liked that made good money. He wasn't going to try to be a astronaut or anything. He didn't like the stress of things like that.
He'd decided he was just going to travel around and live in various cities for a year or two and see which one stuck. He mostly just starred out the window looking at passing buildings or cars. It was getting late. The sun was setting and it was quite beautiful.
He began to look around the bus more. Just a lot of random people. He spotted a few different young attractive women and wished he could get to know them. There was some guy talking to himself with unkempt hair. People pointedly ignoring him. Some people sleeping others playing games or texting.
There were a group of young men in the back speaking loudly saying rude things about everything.
It was another half hour to Dallas. He really didn't have anywhere to go for the night. The job was already set up but that was starting monday and it was saturday. Maybe he could get a motel. He had money saved up. About five thousand which wasn't a lot but enough to get a apartment for awhile. All he needed was a studio. Although stupidly he hadn't looked for apartments yet. He had a laptop though and could search for one online.
He began to close his eyes when suddenly the windows all flashed bright white. He shot up looking over his seat just as time slowed down. All around him the other bus passengers looked around shocked but moving slowly. Glowing sparks zigzagged through the air. The windows were all blindingly white. Nothing could be seen. There was a slow creak and a feeling of weightlessness as the bus seemed to leave the ground.
What the hell is happening? He thought panicked. Just then the bus bashed into the ground and the feeling of gravity came back hard knocking him into his seat. Time sped back up and he heard people scream. They were all up and alert like a flock of birds heads turning around looking out the windows.
The wheels of the bus skidded over terrain rocking violently up and down. The white in the windows faded to darkness.
“Stop the damn bus!” he shouted. The bus driver yelled “I'm trying!” The bus rocked and skidded in circles over and over. Ryan held on to the seat bracing himself. Finally it tipped over people screaming as it did. It landed on its side with a thump. Many people fell from one side of the bus to the other.
He thudded into the grounded window just as a briefcase slammed into his back and the middle aged couple from the seat across from him. H was smothered by them. He could smell them. Ryan sort of braced their fall and took the brunt of the force.
“uh sorry” the man said and they adjusted to climb off of him. Violently stepping on him at one point. Ryan winced in pain. While he layed at the bottom as his hand felt through the broken glass of the window to wet grass. Wet grass? When had it rained?
He got up and looked around. The only lights were from the bus. People were milling around picking things and people up. One woman was crying. He climbed along and looked at people making sure they were ok. No one really needed him so he climbed out of the bus. As he did he noticed the bus driver had a large head wound. Blood poured down her head. He picked up a shirt and gave it to her.
“Wrap it around your head” he said. He didn't really know any medicine and was not the take charge type so after that he left the bus. Outside the quiet night air greeted him. Moist and semi cold the wind poured through the trees.
Some other figure was kneeling down next to the bus. Ryan said to him “It was sunset not the middle of the night” the figure spat “yeah” he said “This ..” looking up at the night sky he could see the silhouettes of pine trees. “This isn't Dallas.” he continued. “It was dry and hot, now its cold and moist”
“Yeah its screwed up” the guy said. “I'm going to look around” Ryan told the man. The man said nothing and Ryan left wandering into dark forest. His eyes barely adjusted to the moonlight. He starred into the darkness and felt the darkness watching him. He picked up a large stick and walked around.

Thinking about smacking whatever came at him. He was middle height but squarely built with large shoulders and fancied himself at least somewhat tough. He circled the bus looking for signs of anything. Finally he reached the tire marks from the bus. He tried to trace them but there was not quite enough light. He went back to the bus. A few more were outside. He said loudly to no one “I haven't seen anything. Were is a flashlight?” One tall guy with curly hair said “Oh I got one in my pack” he knelt and took it out of his backpack. “Here” he said as he gave it to Ryan. “Thanks” and left back to the tracks tracing them.
He noticed the guy was following him. So he told him “I'm trying to trace the tire tracks”the guy nodded and said “That's a good idea” they followed the tracks up a hill until they stopped in a large muddy mess. Then they looked around the grassy hill. “Nothing, the bus landed here out of nowhere”
“totally strange” the other guy said. “Maybe it was aliens” he continued.
Ryan felt a bit of a thrill at the possibility. He was very grounded in reality but liked entertaining ideas like aliens , ghosts and such. He just didn't believe in them. But part of him wished it was real. “Lets get to the top of the hill see what we can see” They marched up the grassy hill their shoes getting partially stuck in mud.
“My names David by the way” the guy said. “I'm Ryan” he responded. They got to the top of the hill and looked around. The moonlight and the bright stars illuminated a vast forest all around them and mountains in the distance. David whistled. “Aliens” he muttered. Just then they heard shouting. It was directed at them. Down the hill they could barely make out a figure walking from the bus to them.
“Come back here!” she was saying. “Stay by the bus!” They began to walk back towards the bus. The bus was on its side at the bottom of the grass hill at a tree line.
The woman waited as they came to her. He put the flashlight beam on her and saw a 20 something girl in a dark coat. “We need to all stay near the bus” she said as they walked back to it. “I was scouting around.” Ryan said. “Looking for a road or something”
“We need to stay by the bus” she repeated. “Does anyone know what happened?” he asked. “No” she said. “Aliens” david told her. “We were abducted and then dropped here.” he felt around himself “We probably all got devices implanted inside us” Ryan actually started to agree “maybe” she shook her head “no” David asked “What time does your phone say?” she pulled it out and turned it on. It was 7:36pm which was the time it was suppose to be. He spied her name Jenn “But its clearly the middle of the night” Jenn shrugged her shoulders. “It's not getting a signal” she said.
“Yup, we are in the middle of nowhere.” David stated. They got back to the bust on its side. A crowd had formed outside the bus. Most of the people were laying around but a small group were standing around talking. Ryan said “Hey everyone, I followed the tire tracks and they led to no were” he continued “ There's no roads around here. We climbed a hill and saw nothing but forest”
Then he walked by them and went inside the bus looking around. They were all talking to each other. A man about 40 years old asked someone to count everyone. It turned out there were 30 passengers. Two were seriously injured and no deaths. Some guy grabbed Ryan's arm when he passed “You sure there's nothing out there?” he asked aggressively. “I saw nothing” and tore his arm free.
The 40 year old guy named Charles said “Alright I guess we will wait the night then look around. We can use the bus as a shelter.” some went back into the buss and tried to find someplace to rest. Others stayed outside.
“I'm too awake to sleep.” Ryan said to himself. “Me too” Jenn said and he turned to notice David and Jenn were near him. So he slumped down and leaned against the bus. They did too. Then David pulled off his backpack and took out some snacks passing them around. They stayed like that chitchatting and speculating for awhile.
He learned Jenn and David both went to college. David for History and Jenn for cosmetology. “How you going to get a job with a history degree?” he asked David. “Well I could use it to be a professor .. or write a book” he added “It will make me more credible

“I suspect your going to have to either go back to college to earn a degree in something with available jobs or do something menial like myself” Ryan said cynically. “No, not at all” David replied. “Anyways college is about finding out who you are” Jenn agreed.
Ryan had never gone to college so didn't know what they were talking about. His parents had never spoken of college and never saved any money so he never really thought about that. Although he sometimes harbored great unrealistic ambitions.
Finally they tired and tried to nap. Although he never really slept. Eventually the sun rose and Charles wanted to organize groups to look around. Charles wanted to go to the top of the hill and look around on his own.
Ryan got up and so too did David and Jenn. Just then they heard high pitched screams. They raced around to find the crazy guy curled in a ball screaming to himself. They told him to quiet down then left. He kept speaking quickly to himself in multiple pitched voices pausing sometimes to listen then speak. It was pretty unnerving.
“Shut the fuck up” said one of the young guys. Ryan just sort of left not wanting to deal with this. Charles seemed to be trying to mediate it. “Lets go back to the top of the hill”
They walked back up the hill. A few others were as well. They reached the top and looked around. Still vast swaths of pine forests.
“This is clearly not Dallas.” ryan said declaratively. “Maybe we're all dead like in that movie” David said “yeah, like we died in a bus crash”
“Who the hell knows” Jenn spoke.
They began to just sit around up there. Others came and gathered looking around at the mountains and woods. “Wow look at that” someone said. He pointed at a huge dragon fly perched on a small bush. They all tried to get close to it but it flew away buzzing by Jenn's head she yelped.