What happened on the bridge

The Bridge

       I turned over in my seat and was no longer looking through the bus' window.I looked up and noticed my bus driver, Mrs.Hicks, looking in my direction. I then locked eye contact with her and had a "staring contest" that seemed to last forever until I finally gave up and looked away so she could focus on the road. I turned my attention back to the window and noticed we were almost to my favorite part of the bus ride, the bridge. Everyday at 4:56 we drive over the Marion Street Bridge,the longest bridge in all of Salem, Oregon. As we crossed onto the bridge everyone was scooting closer to the window to get a view of the water.

"Let me see!" I heard a little girl yell. "Get your own window!" The older girl who was sitting with her snapped back

I was about to get up and tell them to share the window since I was the bus monitor and was in charge of keeping the bus in order, but out of the corner of my eye I saw an old blue pickup truck speeding our way from ahead. I quickly headed to the front of the bus and noticed that the truck was driving on the wrong side of the road headed on a crash course with our bus. "What do they think they're doing?" Mrs.Hicks questioned. "I don't know," I replied, "but whatever it is, it doesn't look good."

The pickup truck that was moving closer by the second and the person driving it didn't look like they were going to stop or slow down anytime soon. Me and Mrs.Hicks were now starting to worry but we thought it would be best not to tell anyone else about it since they might freak out. "Should I honk my horn or try to drive past him?" Mrs.Hicks asked looking over at me. "How should I know I've never been in this kind of situation before." I responded with a worried expression on my face. The truck was getting closer and was about to crash into us so I started to walk to the back of the bus before it actually happened. I slid my phone out of my jacket pocket and started to send a text to my mom stating how much I loved her but before I could send it I heard gunshots and the squealing of tires. I turned to look out the windows and noticed both our bus and the blue pickup have stopped. The driver of the pickup truck, now stepping out of his vehicle,was holding an automatic rifle and pointing it at the bus's windshield. "I don't want to die!" screamed a girl sitting two seats up from where I was standing.I ran up to the front of the bus once again where Mrs.Hicks was so pale it looked like she had seen a ghost.

"What are you waiting for? Drive!" I ordered

"The man! He might shoot." Mrs.Hicks replied

"That doesn't matter anymore! All that matters is us getting away from..." The sound of more gunshots cut me off. I looked over at Mrs.Hicks and saw her peering over the steering wheel towards the other end of the bridge. "Everyone hold on to something!" Mrs.Hicks shouted over the sound of little kids crying and shouting for their moms.

I made my way to the back of the bus for the second time and this time I planned to stay there. The bus lurched then started to move and a feeling of relief washed over me. I looked out the bus' back door and saw that the man was holding an even larger gun than last time. "Everyone get down!" I yelled. Everyone was trying their best to either cover their heads with their book bags or trying to get under the seat but I had a feeling that all the preparation wasn't going to matter. Soon we were about fifty two feet from the end of the bridge when I heard a loud bang. I turned around and saw something flying toward us.

The object hit the bus' back tire and there was now a big hole where the floor should've been. Thankfully no one sat in the back two seats,I thought to myself. Everyone was now screaming louder than ever. I looked out through the nearest window and saw that we were headed toward the side of the bridge. "Brace for impact!" I yelled. The bus rammed through the guard rails and we were then free falling into the icy cold river below.

The sound of alarms and loud talking filled the air around me as I was being drug out of the water.

I could barely open my eyes but I knew I had been saved.

"There seems to be two people still missing!" I heard someone yell through the sound of sirens all around me.

I slowly started to sit up and propped myself against a nearby log when a sharp pain shot through my left arm.

"You shouldn't be moving around too much," I heard someone say as they were walking towards me. "we don't know how bad your injuries are."

"I'm fine," I stated. "How is everyone else?" I asked concerned

The person talking looked turned towards me with a depressed look on his face.

"I really hate to inform you but nine of the twelve people who were riding with you on the bus are sadly deceased and the bus driver is still unaccounted for."

I felt as if I would pass out but I held myself up while a slew of tears started pouring from my eyes.

"Hey," someone called out. "There's movement in the water!"

I turned to look at where the man was located and saw a familiar face being drug on to shore.

Mrs.Hicks I thought to myself.

I slowly picked myself up off the ground and ran to her side as she was being brought to shore. The nurse on scene checked for a pulse as I watched anxiously from over the shoulder of a fellow student wrapped in a towel used to dry him off. Slowly the nurse wrote something down and looked at everyone with sad eyes. Mrs.hicks looked as peaceful as ever and as if she was full of life but deep down I knew she hadn't survived.

I lunged for her body and held her cold wet corpse in my arms as my eyes started to water.

"You can't be dead," I yelled "you can't be!"

I was bawling my eyes out as someone grabbed my shoulders and was leading me away.

"No," I screamed as I pulled away making my way to Mrs.Hicks's body again "she can't be dead, she can't be!"

I was now crying so hard that I started to slobber and snot started running from my nose.

"Kid you have to leave!" The officer demanded as he grabbed my shoulders again, dragging me away towards an ambulance.

The ride to the hospital was a slow and depressing one as the thought of everyone who didn't make it was all I could think about, but when we arrived my brain switched to thinking about my mom.

My mom ran to my side as soon as I entered the hospital. She tried to hug me but accidentally squeezed my arm not knowing it was broken. I got a cast, but I still had to stay overnight so they could make sure there were no other problems.

I don't remember much about the morning when I left the hospital, but the faces of the parents whose children didn't survive still haunts me to this day.