Chapter 2

"Put Serena on the phone!"

Mr. Miller rushed over and handed me the phone. I took it and pressed it to my ear.

"Serena?"

Ms. Lewis’s voice was cracked and raspy, strained from all the screaming.

"Listen to me. You and Tara stay on that bus. Do not step one foot outside, do you hear me?"

"Our car is stuck further back in the traffic jam. We can’t get through, so we have to wait for the emergency crews. Promise me you won't get off that bus."

"I know, Ms. Lewis," I replied calmly.

"I’m not going anywhere."

"Good, good. Keep an eye on Tara for me. You’ve always had a level head on your shoulders. I trust you."

The call ended.

Silence fell over the cabin once again.

Holding the phone, I remembered that in my past life, Ms. Lewis had made the exact same call.

Back then, the bus had been packed. I was throwing my body against the doorway to keep everyone inside while Ms. Lewis announced over the phone that a makeup exam was guaranteed, pleading with us to wait for rescue.

After that call ended, Chloe had sneered at me.

"Quit being such pathetic cowards."

That was what she had said.

*Pathetic cowards.*

Facing a lethal, blinding dust storm, having the basic human instinct to survive was branded as "being a coward" by her.

Back then, I didn't have time to process the insult because I was too busy holding the door.

Hearing those words echo in my memory now, the fury that had been suffocating me across two lifetimes flared up violently in my chest.

Just as the screen went black, a sudden pounding rattled the bus door.

*Bang! Bang! Bang!* Desperate, frantic thumps.

Mr. Miller rushed to open it, and a gust of biting sand rushed into the aisle.

A boy tumbled in, collapsing face-first onto the rubber floor. He was covered from head to toe in thick dirt, deep bloody gashes tracing across his face. His school jacket was shredded, exposing raw, oozing skin underneath.

It was Zach.

He was the biggest kid in class, pushing two hundred pounds. He usually lost his breath just jogging, but right now, he was curled into a ball on the floor, shivering uncontrollably.

It took all of Mr. Miller’s strength to slam the door shut against the howling wind.

Tara scrambled forward immediately, frantically pulling wet wipes from her backpack to clean the blood from his cheeks.

"Zach? Zach, what happened to you?! Where is everyone else?!"

Zach lifted his head. His round face was paralyzed with sheer terror, his eyes bloodshot and wild.

"Something went wrong... everything went wrong..."

His voice shook violently, his lips quivering out of control.

"So many people tripped... someone got blown away! I saw it with my own eyes! Kevin fell and smashed his head against a rock. His face was covered in blood! I tried to grab him, but the wind was too strong... I couldn't hold on!"

"And then?" Tara’s voice began to tremble too.

"And then I couldn't see anything! Nothing at all!"

Tears spilled from Zach’s eyes, cutting two stark, pale tracks through the grime on his face.

"The sand hitting my skin hurt like hell! All I could do was drop to my stomach and crawl forward! I couldn't see a damn thing!"

"I heard people screaming... I heard people crying for help... but I had no idea where they were!"

He curled tighter into himself.

"I’m too heavy... the wind couldn't lift me... that’s the only reason I managed to crawl back..."

"I don't know about the others, but I heard them screaming. More than one person!"

His voice suddenly pitched up into a bloodcurdling screech:

"My admission ticket is gone! My driver's license is gone! Everything is gone! The wind tore my backpack right off my shoulders! I lost it all!"

He began frantically digging through his pockets, turning his jacket inside out, only to pull out a few crumpled napkins and half a pack of crushed crackers.

He slumped onto the floor, completely hollowed out.

"Three years of high school... down the drain. It’s all ruined..."