X1.1.6 - Bus Stop to Nowhere

  "I don't want to go to work." Roa complained, scratching his head as he sat up.

  He found himself in the middle of a cold road, surrounded by an endless expanse of gray sand. He stared at the sky and jolted up. Sitting with his mouth open, he marveled in awe at the spectacular sight of thousands of shooting stars. His heart sank, however, when he realized that he wasn't home.

  It resembled Earth's moon, that place, except he had no trouble breathing the brisk air that entered his lungs. He stood and moved his arms around. Things felt different. The gravity was light but stable, the colors and hues of everything were much less vivid compared to the previous world. He waited a moment, expecting some strange shift in the sky or gravity, but, to his great relief, nothing changed. A nauseating churn twisted in his stomach, rising sharply with an unbearable heaviness that spilled over. He stared at his last meal, splotched onto the street.

  "Chocolate banana pancakes. Well, at least this reality isn't tearing itself apart" he said, looking around.

  He had successfully survived his jump to the next world. He sighed and sat back down, placing his head between his knees. He began to cry. The many strange, reality-shattering events he had gone through finally caught up to him, all at once. His heart overflowed with a cascade of feelings rushing through him, filling his chest. A million thoughts ran through his head, saturating him with doubt. He looked around; nothing but empty vastness, in every direction. He felt infinitely far away from home.

  "What if I never make it back?"

  Sniffling, he opened Nirvana's instructions, which read:

  "JUMP 3: BOOTH 42, GIVE VIAL TO WAITRESS. TAKE BUS. GET OFF AT STOP AND WAIT".

  The last word was underlined and circled several times. Roa squinted his eyes, noticing something in the distance. Dragging his feet, he made his way in that direction.

  "I could have just minded my own damn business. Not have asked so many questions" he shook his head, kicking a pebble off the road.

  He reached what looked like a restaurant. It had no walls or roof, just two long rows of red booths. There wasn't even a floor, for that matter, as the gray sands filled every nook and cranny of the place.

  The air hung still. The silence was suffocating. Roa's heartbeat quickened, the only sound in the heavy stillness, as he approached the entrance. There stood the strange host, dressed in a crisp white suit, cradling a menu against its chest. Its head was a skull, cold and empty. It turned slowly, its hollow gaze locking with Roa’s as he stepped inside. The boy’s eyes opened wide, fixed on the unsettling figure. With a fluid motion, the host extended its left arm wide, a strange, welcoming gesture, as if greeting the unlikely, confused guest.

  The establishment was empty, no customers or staff anywhere. The boy followed Nirvana's instructions, and a waitress, one almost as weird as the host, showed up out of nowhere with some food. He hadn't ordered anything but since the menu was a series of blank pages, he did not dare ask for recommendations. He pulled out the vial and handed it to her. She looked Human, except her skin was bright purple, and sticking out of her forehead was a single, straight horn. The loud, annoying sound of her chewing gum with her mouth open, suddenly stopped, her eyes growing wide at the sight of the flask. Her hand snatched it from his, like the tail of a scorpion, striking and recoiling.

  "Bus 1, all the way to the end."

  She dropped the food carelessly onto the table, causing the plate to wobble and sauce to spill, then walked away. Not seeing a kitchen anywhere, the boy stared until she made a left onto the road and continued somewhere. He leaned down and sniffed the meal. He had no idea what it was, but it smelled like lasagna. It looked like some sort of hamburger, except the bread was spongy and soggy, while the meat was bright green and crunchy—and triangular.

  “I better eat. Who knows where I’ll end up next,” he said, as he sighed, sinking his head into his palms again, his cold fingers massaging his temples.

  The clanking of the spoon as it swirled in his cup of coffee, or whatever it was that he was drinking, reminded him of the diner back home. He was lost in thought for some time again as he rested on the soft, cushioned seat of booth 42.

  He remembered a raccoon chasing a fox crossing the street, as he and Eralay entered the lonely establishment that afternoon. It had a bright yellow sign that read ‘LOVE'S DINER’ glowing in the darkness of the tall, rustling trees above. A bell rang as the door swung open, revealing a well-lit room filled with tables, as the greasy smell of fried food greeted them.

  Two customers, sitting at the last table lifted their heads above their newspapers, their eyes narrowing as the two came in. They sat at the bar, glancing at the menu’s many colorful pictures and dishes. The sounds in the kitchen stopped. Two cooks popped their heads out of the kitchen door, glanced at each other, and disappeared, as the clanking of pots and pans resumed. The old lady finally came out, wobbling back and forth like a penguin as she approached the bar. Roa remembered a strange feeling seeing her for the first time, as if his heart had skipped a beat, for some mysterious reason. She gave them both a thorough look and smiled.

  Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

  "Whatcha having, kids?"

  “Go ahead and order, babe, I’m going to the restroom,” he said, standing up.

  The old lady’s eyes narrowed, following the boy.

  As Roa whistled in the stall, his eyes caught something on the walls. Graffiti sprawled everywhere—most of it nothing more than nonsense and obscenities; some of it, however, stirred a strange, familiar curiosity in him.

  "FREE YOUR MIND" read one.

  "XOXOXO WHERE DREAMS COME TRUE" read another, followed by a series of random numbers and ‘Xs.’

  A sharp pain shot through his head, followed by a wave of lightheadedness.

  "WANT OUT? SEE THE PANSIES."

  He paused at the threshold, taking a moment to regain his balance. That last piece of graffiti lingered in his mind. He turned to the old lady for directions, but before he could even utter a word, the proprietor cut him off. She gazed straight into his eyes with a suspicious look.

  "You want to go see the waterfalls, huh? They sure are beautiful! Tourists love them. Let me draw you a map..."

  The boy looked at her confused. On the sheet of paper, however, she began writing something that made Roa's eyes open wide.

  "YOU ARE IN DANGER. DON'T TURN AROUND! The men behind are looking for you. Go to the field of pansies. Follow the road, pass the gas station, west into the woods, all the way to freedom, to the X."

  The last letter was large, taking up half of the page, and circled repeatedly. She then took the note to the kitchen where she burned it on the stove.

  The two lovers followed the old lady's advice until they reached the field. With no plan, her advice seemed like a good start. Roa remembered standing there, frozen at the impossible sight of the edge where the land ended, and the infinite sky began.

  A loud slam brought Roa back to booth 42, and to the present moment. The waitress' hand slamming onto the table caused his spoon to fall off.

  "We're closing in five minutes," she turned around, popping a bubble as she chewed on her bubble gum.

  Roa sighed and eventually stood up. He walked out as the host bowed at him, its skull falling on the ground, plopping onto the gray sand in the process.

  At the nearby bus stop, stood another strange character. He wore a brown hat and a long, brown trench coat, his hand on a brown briefcase. He looked Human, no odd features becoming apparent as the boy stared. His posture was straight, and he glanced at his watch often. Excited to see someone normal there, Roa began to ask some questions. The man, however, calmly looked at him without responding, turning back to look at his watch. His shoulders slouching forward, the boy sighed, awkwardly standing there next to him, waiting for his ride to who-knows-where.

  "I'm waiting for bus number 1. How about you?" he tried again.

  The stranger turned and finally spoke.

  "Bus 777."

  A long bout of silence followed.

  "How long have you been waiting?"

  "Around 2000 years, but it should be here any minute now. That's what the sign says, and the sign—is always right,” he said, pointing up.

  The young man raised an eyebrow and turned, his gaze fixed on the confusing jumble of words and numbers on the sign above the bus stop, searching in vain for Bus 777.

  "I've been waiting for the bus after my father waited for the bus, after his father waited for the bus, after his..." the man went on and on through countless generations, until the boy eventually tuned out his words.

  After several hours, Roa grew impatient, then worried, then scared that he too would be stuck there for a long time. After all, he didn't really know Nirvana's motivations. What if she lied? What if she got him stuck there, on purpose? After all, it was her fault he had gotten separated from Eralay. After a few more hours, around the time that he had driven himself insane with doubt, a bus finally pulled up.

  "And he waited for the bus, as his father waited for the bus," continued the man. "But, you'll see, in my lifetime, the bus will come for sure, and that will fix EVERYTHING!" he paused, nodded vigorously and smiled, "it is written on the sign." Then, he continued listing the remaining ancestors that had waited for the damn bus.

  The driver, a heavyset man with neon green skin and large bags under his eyes, swung the door open violently, causing the vehicle to wobble. He looked exhausted, his oversized belly pressing against the steering wheel, spilling out of a uniform that was clearly too small for his frame.

  "Bus 1?"

  The driver groaned.

  "Does no one read these days?" he said, pointing up to the big red, flashing number above.

  The boy from Earth stared out of the window, his body swaying with the motion of the vehicle. A concerned expression reflected in the glass, catching his eye. The annoying man in the coat, with his high-pitched, overly friendly voice, faded into the distance, much to the boy's relief. The road stretched straight ahead, as the flat landscape was punctuated by the occasional crater. A large planet with colorful swirls appeared in the black sky, rising slowly from below the curved horizon.

  "Definitely not Earth," he huffed, as his eyes began to grow heavy.

  Suddenly, the bus jolted to a stop as the driver slammed on the brakes.

  "Last stop. Get out!"

  He woke up disoriented, pain pulsing in his forehead where it had slammed against the back of the plastic seat in front of him. For a moment, he thought he was on his usual commute home from work. However, as his eyes caught sight of the strange green man and the odd, unfamiliar landscape outside, a wave of sadness washed over him. He stepped off, finding himself once again in the same surreal landscape that had greeted him after his jump into this world. The large, colorful planet now hung on the opposite side of the sky. Roa surveyed his surroundings, he noticed faint lights flickering in the distance, frustration bubbling up as he squinted his eyes.

  "Did we circumnavigate the whole planet? That's that damn restaurant from before! It would have taken me less time walking. What kind of directions are these?" he said shaking the piece of paper.

  His anger grew for the pink-haired girl, the source of so much of his troubles, until a familiar sight calmed him. A small Exit, the size of a normal door, stood in the distance, away from the road in the empty, silent wilderness. He walked briskly, hoping with all his heart that the next place would lead him back home. However, while he had no clue what was waiting for him on the other side, he did not want to risk spending two thousand years there, waiting for the solution to come to him; so, he closed his eyes, and jumped.

  Find out tomorrow in the next exciting chapter of The Greatest Fight!

  X1.1.7 - World Jumping

  Tuesdays @ 07:00EST, Thursdays @ 16:00EST, Saturdays @ 02:00EST (skips last publishing day of the month).