Unfamiliar Territory [Book One]

Chapter Twenty-Eight | Guardian of the Otherworld

"Hell!" I shouted as I woke up. Sitting up in the seat made me curse again as my body screamed back at me in protest. "Why the..."

I was inside a bus. A bus riddled with dirt, debris, and dead bugs. As I moved around in my seat, I could just make out the junkyard through the grimy windows.

It was the bus I had failed to get to. The one that was out of my reach as I lied in the mud and water. The storm had passed and the sun was high up in the sky. I didn't want to think about how long I had been out of it this time.

I sniffed a few times. The smell was still foul, but not the overbearing intensity it was before.

"Better to not worry about it," I grumbled, standing up with a groan.

I checked the seats as I walked down the aisle. Some were torn--most covered with several layers of dust and dirt. All empty. I moved slowly down the stairs, peeked out the bus through the jammed door, and then stepped outside.

There didn't seem to be anyone around. I took a cautious step away from the bus, when something occurred to me.

"I can walk!?" I exclaimed, feeling my leg and looking down at it.

All at once, all thoughts and actions froze inside me when I saw the gauze tape wrapped around my thigh and the new ratty, long-sleeved, t-shirt with a literal solid blue rat on the front.

"Where did all this come from? How did...shit."

I heard a sound. A slight creaking of metal from the bus behind me. I spun around and was met with a girl standing on top of the bus, looking down at me with a quirky, sort of amused, kind of look.

"You!" I shouted.

"Yo," Kat greeted with a casual wave.

"You did this to me!"

I backed away a few steps as Kat jumped down gracefully to the ground, shouldering her red backpack. "I'm the one who fixed you, yes."

She walked over to me, and I walked backwards. It felt like déjà vu. Besides the fact that she was wearing a new, faded, shirt that had the words 'Surprise and Lies' written down the front of it, it was just like that time outside the asylum. Predator and prey.

"Mouse was the one who shot you, remember?"

I stopped retreating. "Funny you should use that word. I'm having some problems with that whole remembering thing. Maybe you know what I'm talking about?"

Kat stopped her approach. The amused twinkle in her eye was gone and her green eyes looked away from me for a moment. "Yeah, I know what you're talking about."

"Good, then maybe you can start telling me just what the hell is going on," I said through gritted teeth, raising my hand above my head. "Cause I've had it about up to here with all the bull-"

"I heard you last night," Kat said, holding up a hand to silence me. She locked gazes with her powerful eyes. "You don't need to repeat yourself."

I held my tongue for a moment. At first embarrassed that she heard me ranting to myself, and then furious that it hadn't been to myself at all, as it turned out. "You were there?!"

"Yes."

"How long?"

"I think I caught up to you shortly before your walking stick broke."