Charlie and the Travellers

Episode 2: The Ride

The Ride

It was a Friday. Charlie just got off from work in downtown Bern. He gazed at the grey skies outside the bus he's riding as the rain poured hard.

He's a newly hired 'associate writer' in a cheap metropolitan newspaper, which he could not take at all. Anyway, he's got no choice. Who is he to complain, like he always says. After studying in a university almost a year ago, he hasn't landed any jobs yet. He was always turned down, as a writer, the job he aspires. But he knew later on that fixing a coffee for your immediate superior is really 'the' stepping stone, and that's not a joke. A newly 'grads' dilemma. His professors says in his college years that he is an exceptional writer, but he hasn't joined or wrote in any of the existing publications in his college. That might have helped him land 'the job'. But he was such a loner. It was almost like he was hiding something from everyone.

After the 30-minute bus ride, he got off and the most unimaginable thing happened.

Lighting struck a motorcycle running directly from his right side view. Well, it wasn't really lightning but that's what it seemed in Charlie's eyes. Apparently, a power cable from the light post suddenly broke off from the the post itself. The deadly bolt of electricity instantly ejected the man riding the motorcycle. Charlie, in a blink of an eye, is between the bus and the motorcycle. The vehicles are parallel to each other.

Charlie is pinned to the bus.

It all happened so fast. He's got no reflex to do anything at all, even to shut his eyes off. His back is on the bus' body as the motorcycle sandwich him, almost lifting him from the ground. All he could think of is: he's toast!

He is going to die and the motorcycle is doing it's best ramming him into the bus as if the vehicle has it's own life. He tried to fight it but it seems the vehicle got a good hold of him. The bus is still running with the raging motorcycle.

The bus then skid and halted.

Charlie bumped the left side of his head, hard, on the wet glass door of the bus, shattering it. He almost lost his consciousness right then and there. The raging machine wanted to make he will because it hasn't stopped yet and further pinned him to the bus. It accelerated and struck him so hard for the last time. That led him to slide between the tire and the bus' lower body.

That gave shrieks to the bystanders who witnessed the gruesome accident.

Charlie is still alive.

He panted. He is losing consciousness. He sees a lot of people, blurred. Rain is still pouring as his blood, too, pours from his head, and from everywhere. He can smell it, taste it. He's got his whole body numb now. He couldn't feel anything, not even the motorcycle laying on top of him. The vehicle have already stopped running. He squinted his eyes looking at the monster motorcycle, in black, which is giving off this smoke that is suffocating him. Then, his eyes turned into the motorcycle's side mirror.

There, he saw this bloodied young man who has nothing but promises. That struck him. He puked blood then went blackout.

-----

"The next thing I know is I'm in the hospital, hearing phone rings, buzzers, soft tones from monitors, nurse's gossips," said Charlie as he browses his cellphone.

Agatha sipped her coffee. This is a week after Charlie roused himself from his bed. He was traumatized obviously. He would talk but she sees something in his brother's eyes. She knows there's more to his story. She cares alright but she is more curious, more and more each day. Then this day came, she bribed Charlie with a little coffee treat.

"Charlie, you know I love you, right? But, I just can't get this off my mind, you were in a coma, and the doctors were saying you ain't going to recover, that you ain't going to come back, but you did," Agatha said as she remembers her relief, but with fear.

Charlie barely looked at Agatha, his eyes wandered off to the people passing by, to the cars then to the coffee shop's bar then to his coffee cup. "I don't know Agatha, I don't know." Then there's this silence that almost ran for a minute.

Agatha broke this, "I th..." Then Charlie interrupted with his most tired eyes, still looking on to the nothingness of his coffee cup. "All I know is that someone's got to tell me what happened and what's happening. And it's out there."

'It's out there?' Agatha asked herself.

"I am afraid Agatha," Charlie said with his blank stare.

"I am too," Agatha replied, looking deeply into Charlie's eyes.