Field Investigations

Chapter 2: On the Bus

"Hey," I said, swinging my feet back and forth as I looked out the window at the Hudson River below. We'd been on the bus for about an hour already. I wasn't sure how I got on. The last thing I remembered, I was passing out in the school hallway. "You told me I'd get explanations once we 'covered some distance'. We've got to be at least fifty miles away by now, and I don't even know your name."

"Kenna," the masked woman sitting across the aisle said.

"What?"

"You asked for my name. I'm Kenna Rainer."

"Oh, I'm -" 

"Isabel Vega. I know." Oh, right. They already knew who I was.

Too bad I didn't. Not really. I mean, I remembered most of the important things about myself, like my name and my family, but when I tried to reach back for some information, I drew a blank. I couldn't remember how I got on this bus, for example. The last thing I remembered was passing out in the school. I'd already asked about a thousand times, though, and it was clear the woman wasn't giving me any answers.

The traffic slowed to a crawl and the bus rattled to a stop. We'd probably be on the bridge for a while. It was cold on the bus, even with my navy blue jacket on. I sighed. This was going to be a long ride, wherever we were going. 

I cursed my stupidity. I'd sworn after the incident with the online lottery ticket that I'd never let myself get scammed again. Here I was, though, sitting in the back row of a school bus next to my kidnapper.

The bus was silent for a while as we sat and listened to the symphony of honking horns outside. I tried to enjoy the view through the windows, but a ten foot high fence on the side of the bridge and the fact that I was being kidnapped took away from the my appreciation of the serene picture.

"So, tell me a bit about yourself," Kenna said.

"What?" Let me get this straight. I was kidnapped and brought onto this bus against my will, and now my kidnapper is asking me to talk about myself?

"You know," she said. "What you like to do in your free time, that kind of thing."

"You actually expect me to have a casual conversation right now? Here on this bus going somewhere I supposedly can't know about with a random person - no, worse than that, a kidnapper - who won't make anything clear?"

She took a deep breath like she was about to respond, but before she could there was a loud bump that sent us both flying forwards in our seats.. 

"What's going on?" For once Kenna was asking that question, not me.

"I think... I think that car just rear ended us." I looked behind me at the bright red convertible pushed up right by the back window. The man in the driver's seat stood up in the car and started shouting. I couldn't make out any words, but it was clear from his tone and gestures that he was upset. 

He wore a leather jacket over a grey plaid shirt, neither of which quite matched his dark brown sweatpants. The hair on the top of his head had almost all fallen off except for a few stray clumps that seemed to stick straight up like he'd been struck by lightning and was just on his way to the hospital. 

He climbed out of the car and stood in the middle of the road right in front of a dark green Jeep. The honking got even louder as the cars ahead began to move forward with him still out of his car in the middle of the road, but I could just barely hear sirens in the distance. 

"Good," I said, somewhat relieved. "The police are on their way. They'll figure this out."

Kenna pulled her mask down, frowning grimly. "They'll never get to us with all this traffic," she said. "And that's a good thing, because if they got involved in this..." She ended her sentence there, as if she didn't need to say any more for me to understand. She didn't; I understood fine. I wasn't sure if she remembered that she'd kidnapped me earlier, though. Of course I wanted the police to get involved in this. 

She must've noticed my expression and realized what I was thinking. "Trust me when I say that if the police got involved, it would be bad for both of us." I didn't trust her, but I didn't think I had much of a choice here. I wasn't about to get into an argument with a probably-unstable kidnapper.

"What should we do?" I asked. "Ignore that guy?"

Kenna didn't respond. She looked up at the ceiling, lost in thought for a second, before running to the front of the bus.

She turned towards the driver and bent down as if they were having a whispered conversation. I stayed as quiet as I could, trying to make out what she was saying over the mayhem outside. I couldn't quite catch what she said, but it sounded like she was talking about some sort of... field? I must have misheard. Unless that was where we were going?

After a minute, she walked back to the seat across the aisle. She seemed satisfied about something. 

"What's going on?" That must have been the thousandth time I asked that question today. 

"Just wait. We're fine," she said. "Probably." I heard her add under her breath. 

"Wait for what?" I asked.

"You'll find out firsthand in a second, so I guess I might as well tell you before." I wasn't sure I followed that logic, but I wanted to hear what she'd say. I didn't interrupt. "We're waiting for the Field." Well, that cleared things up. I mean, what the heck is a Field? I was about to ask her that when I felt a ripple of heat spread through the air. 

"What's goiiiing ooonnnnnnn...." My voice was distorted as the heat slowly shifted into a freezing cold, the kind that feels like a sort of icy fire. Then, as suddenly as the temperature had changed, everything returned to normal. I looked down, but instead of seeing my legs I, all I saw was pavement moving away from me. I looked over towards where Kenna had been, but again all I saw was the pavement flying by and the river out beyond it. I had to be imagining this. 

"Don't worry," I heard Kenna say. "You can close your eyes for a minute if you want. The Field will pass any minute now once we're through all this traffic."

And that's when I finally understood. We were still in the bus, but somehow, in some way, the bus didn't physically exist anymore. We were quite literally driving through the other cars on the bridge.