OMNIBUS

"No, no...No!" Amanda moaned as she ran to catch the bus already two blocks ahead in the darkness. She watched the red glow of the tail lights fade into the fog while she ranted curses at her job, her shift supervisor, the rain and the hole in her shoe, her life, all at the top of her lungs until she ran out of breath and bent at the waist, panting. She dropped her canvas bag on the sidewalk in defeat.

"Well, piss. I missed the last frickin' bus!" She kicked the bus stop bench then sat down hard on its wet planks. She hoped her roommate was awake or home; walking was out of the question. Fifteen miles in the dark, in the rain, on foot? No way. The bus stop was a tedious twenty-minute walk from work, and besides, her boss was already gone.

Maybe I should have taken him up on that ride? Nope. Too many strings attached.

It was time to quit Larry's Pie House in the middle of B.F.E.-nowhere-warehouse-district and find work closer to home. 

Who am I kidding? I'm broke, practically homeless, stuck in this dead end life. I'll probably work there until I die.

"Or I can just become a bag lady." She shrugged and looked around at the empty street and abandoned buildings. It felt like she was being watched from the trees in the vacant lot behind her. "On second thought...."

Amanda pulled out her cell phone and gave a shriek of frustration at the lack of signal bars. No reception; the whole warehouse district was a dead zone. She hadn't seen a payphone in years, everyone had cell phones these days, so rather than frustrate herself with a useless search for a phone booth, Amanda leaned back and let the misting rain coat her face.

She thought she heard footsteps, but the sound was distorted through the mist and faded quickly. 

There's someone out here with me.

When Amanda left work and plodded through the rain, there was another person ahead of her on the sidewalk, a shadowy form whistling an eerie, unsettling tune that echoed in the darkness. Amanda's arms broke out in gooseflesh at the memory. She'd lost sight of him in the fog, his steady pace carrying him probably to that last bus she'd missed! Damn it!

"That's just perfect. It's dark, raining, spooky foggy, which is weird because doesn't rain wash away fog?" She wiped her face and stood up. "Or is that smog? Shit. Whatever. Why am I talking to myself?" She dug in the bag for her pack of cigarettes, and finally found it at the bottom in a puddle of rainwater and spilled cherry pie. She sank back down onto the wet bench with the dripping bag cradled in her arms, and started to cry.

"That's it. I officially give up."

A rattling, chugging sound from down the road startled her and Amanda jumped up as dim headlights cut through the fog with an eerie, yellow glow. 

Hitchhike or hide? Hide. Only freaks are out this late at night. Poster child...right here.

She jumped behind the bench and crouched down as the sound drew closer.

"You don't see me...you don't see me...please don't be a serial killer...." She peeked over the bench back and saw an old double decker bus, dented and belching smoke, materialize out of the fog and come to a stop in front of her hiding place.

OMNIBUS was painted on the upper section, and the windows were steamy with condensation from the warmth inside.

That's not a city bus. Amanda shivered behind the bench, and was startled when the doors finally clanked open.

The bus sat idling, filling the air with its noxious fumes, and Amanda waited for someone to either get off or for something to happen while she focused on making herself smaller behind the bench.