The Mind of The Daleks

Chapter One: Bus

Episode 1

Part 1

The white light of a strong late-afternoon sun beat down, flooding the dusty street into every corner and reflecting off the windows of buildings and cars. A gleaming and almost-new bus pulled up to the curb at the place marked by the turquoise sign and its brakes screeched in protest as it came to a halt. With a clunk, the doors swung open.

Isabel Thompson had been leaning against the sign, listlessly waiting. With a jerk of her hand, she readjusted the bag on her shoulder and climbed up into the bus. She was young and very pretty, with the olive skin and dark hair of a Latina and the scuffed, unpretentious clothes of a worker; her eyes, a soft brown flecked with shards of green, were large and opened wide as if to keep the world at a distance.

The driver, a plump and pretty middle-aged woman in a baggy sweatshirt, gave the bus pass that Isabel displayed a cursory glance and remarked in a cheerful voice; "We're kinda full today. There's plenty of room, but you might not get your usual seat."

"That's fine!" Isabel nodded to her in the friendly way of those who see each other every day but haven't gotten around to sharing names. She made her way down the dirty center aisle past the crowded feet and legs of other passengers until she found a narrow space on a seat where she could squeeze in.

The doors clunked shut again and the bus gave a lurch and a groan as it got under way with the deceptive slowness of a very large vehicle.

Isabel settled into her seat and gazed out the windows at nothing in particular, her mind elsewhere. She had seen the same trees and cars and buildings and graying cracked roads every day for the past eight and a half months and knew by heart the tumbleweeds and sage brush that grew tenaciously in any dirt that they could find. With a yawn, she turned away and pulled a magazine and an MP3 player out of her bag.

The bus was always packed at this time of the day with business people returning home, manual workers hardened but untouched by long and exhausting hours of physical labor, and college students whose class schedule coincided with this particular bus run. But today it was more crowded than usual even for rush hour. Isabel glanced up over the top of the article that she was only reading with half her mind and did a tally of her fellow passengers. All the usuals were there, from the heavyset professional who always seemed to be in some financial emergency to the obviously well-to-do female physician who probably only travelled by bus to minimize her carbon footprint. A few people she hadn't seen before; there was a young woman in scrubs sitting across the aisle, eyes closed and circled with dark rings - probably a new nurse at the University Hospital, an energetic group of youths who sat in the back talking loudly in very Americanized Spanish, and a business man in a sharp suit was sitting near the front and yelling into his cell phone on the subject of car repairs.

Isabel smiled wryly and returned to her magazine. Hopefully, she would be able to buy a car of her own soon. She was interested in her fellow travelers on the bus and had always been popular and a bit of a party girl, capable of making friends under practically any circumstances. But bus travel does not show people in their best light; it has the demoralizing affect of making the most interesting people ordinary and cranky. A car would give her the freedom to choose her own company.

But that would have to wait. For now, Isabel was content to save her money by riding a bus to and from work every day until she could afford to buy a car. It didn't take much of a chunk out of her day and saved on gas. And occasionally there were interesting people among her fellow travelers; like the person waiting at the next stop.

The bus screeched to a halt again with all the automatic precision of a drunken elephant. Two people shuffled up the steps and edged themselves and their heavy bags down the aisle, looking for seats. The bus was almost full now, and only about four or five places still vacant. The first of the new arrivals, a small and wary-looking young Latino, made his way to one of these near the back. The other spotted Isabel, smiled, and promptly went to the seat facing her.