The air stilled. Everyone held their breath and dared not to move in fear of the bus tipping again.

My breathing, however, came out uneven as my heart rate increased at a frightening speed. My neck burned, but I couldn't move to adjust it. The bus still didn't either, and I silently thanked God for that.

Everyone knew that someone would have to take action to try and get us all to move the bus to its original position. But no one dared volunteer. We were all scared, that fact was obvious, but if someone didn't come up with something soon, we might all end up seriously injured.

Miguel shifted beside me in an attempt to rise and I blanched when I realized what he was about to do. I tried to stop him from volunteering but the least movement in my neck caused me pain so instead I prayed Miguel had an effective idea in mind that would get us all out of here.

I felt him struggle in an attempt to turn and face us without causing too much movement that would prompt the bus to fall over. "Everyone, try and push the bus so it lands even on the right side!" Miguel shouted loud enough for people to turn their heads towards him, but they still remained in their positions, not moving an inch.

"Do you want to be trapped here till we die? Do it!" he yelled and the anger mixed with fear in his tone snapped everyone out of their trance. It took a lot of effort from all of us to sway the right side of the bus without applying much pressure to the left. I even caught sight of the redhead Miguel was ogling push struggle to help with the landing.

Everyone, including I, forced the bus' right wheels to touch the ground with all the strength we had left. The bus groaned a little and I nearly collapsed in relief at that heavenly sound.

With more efforts from each of us, the bus finally fell on its right side and everyone collapsed to the floor at the sudden jolt. Without any second thoughts, we all rushed out of the bus and flooded the road. I walked around the bus to examine it and figure out what exactly had happened to it.

However, I wasn't expecting to see what I saw. The bus' wheels on the left side had slipped into a huge pothole in the ground. The tyres had been burst and the side of the vehicle was deeply dented.

What kind of accident was this? I had no idea, but I had an inkling that it wasn't a normal one. There was no plausible reason as to how the side had gotten dented and how the tyres had gotten anywhere near the pothole.

Hadn't the driver been aware that there was a giant pothole on the left side of the road? If he had, then why didn't he avoid it? And if he hadn't, then how the hell had he missed it? The thing was wide and deep.

With a sinking heart, I averted my eyes from the scene and watched as the tourists showered numerous questions on John the tour guide who seemed as baffled with the situation as we were.

Miguel came from behind me and rubbed the back of my neck. I flinched at the contact.

"Hey, hey. Relax, amiga," he soothed, trying to get me calm so he could work his magic on me. I shut my eyes and forced myself to relax when his fingers expertly began to ease the pain in my neck.

"Thanks," I breathed out when he was done and smiled gratefully at him, though traces of the pain still lingered and made me slightly uncomfortable. But I forcefully tried to block the feeling and rolled my eyes when Miguel smiled back and winked.

Diverting my attention to John and the troubled tourists, I took a deep breath before tuning in to their frantic yells.

"...need you to calm down, everybody!"

"He needs help," I muttered and tugged on Miguel's arm, who nodded and followed me as I made my way towards the center.

It wasn't by sheer bravery that I jostled calmly through the crowd, but by experience.

I'd been through so many severe, near-death incidents in my life that the number of times wouldn't fit on a single hand. I didn't know if fate wanted me to die early or get me traumatized before I did, but since I had other people with me this time around, I forced myself to remain calm and in control of my emotions.

"Please just relax," John said, desperately trying to cool off the audience.

"But I have a home to go to!"

"We all have homes!"

"I'm starving!"

"My family is waiting for me!"

"It's almost sundown and I've got an appointment with my pills which are at the hotel!"

"This shit can not be happening to me right now."

"We could call a tow truck?"

"There's no signal here, you idiot."

"Hey! Why don't we get the bus driver to fix the bus and take us home?"

"Because he's freaking dead!"

More shrieks filled the air as the frightened tourists attacked each other and at the same time, fired concerns at John. The place was literally in chaos.

When I finally reached the middle of the crowd, I held up an arm and yelled, "Hey!" but they proceeded to argue as if they hadn't heard me just yell.

"Hey!" I shouted again, and yet still didn't get the response I expected.

Frustration boiled within me as they continued to ignore me. And not wanting to bash each of their heads against the bus to get them to shut up, I shouted louder instead, "Hey, everybody!"

At once, silenced erupted the atmosphere as the tourists all turned to glare at me. I ignored their patronizing gazes and spoke up, "I know you're all scared but arguing with each other and firing all your concerns at our tour guide is not going to get us out of here."

"Spare us your feminist heroism," an old man sneered, "and save your lectures for another lifetime. We're all tired, hungry, and we need solutions."

"I'm not lecturing you. I'm trying to help us find a way out of here," I seethed inwardly, hating it when people questioned my motives without me having to fully explain myself.

"Now listen, our tour guide doesn't know what happened. It was an unfortunate event and we can't blame him for it, nor push all the pressure on him. That is not going to get us out of here." I glared at the crowd, daring anyone to contradict before continuing, "What we need to do is dispose of the driver's body and find some shelter in the woods before it gets dark."

Murmurs of disapproval rang in my ears after I had spoken. Whatever the big deal was, I didn't see it. It was just plain woods.

"There's no way I'm stepping into those woods without protection," the same old man from before spoke up again. "Why can't we just camp around the bus?"

"And risk being unprotected?"

"Well, I'm still not going in there."

I sighed in exasperation. "Then you can choose to die out here."

That shut him up. But he was thoughtful for a moment before speaking up again. "But it's a full moon tonight. There's a reason why they call this place the Black Woods of Lycanthrope and I ain't ready to point out why," the old man retorted, and I seriously felt like strangling him.

"I'm not superstitious," I told him with a slight change in tone at the word 'superstitious'. "I don't believe that there are any sort of werewolves. Besides, didn't the history say that the werewolves don't come around humans, especially outsiders? Because they are wary of us?"

Knowing I had him there, I didn't bother to waste precious time anymore. "However, if we stand here and chat like we have enough daylight to do so, then I might as well believe that there are some sort of wolves around here."

There was silence before, "You may be right, ma'am." A man, having a small scar coated with blood marring his brow spoke up, "But we can't risk the elderly and some of the kids going into those woods tonight or any other night. You might not believe that the werewolves exist, but added to the fact that they might have minor injuries, there might be real danger."

I considered his statement for a moment before replying, "You're right, it might be dangerous for them, and especially those with major injuries from the sudden accident. Those people can stay in the bus and create a fire there to keep warm and take care of themselves. But the rest of us have to camp in the woods because the space in the bus might not be enough for everyone to sleep in since those severely injured would need a lot of space to rest."

Facing the man who had brought up that suggestion, I smiled and nodded to show my appreciation. "Thanks for pointing that out."

The man just shrugged and returned my gesture with a half-smile. After he confessed to being a doctor, I then asked if he could be the one to lead the kids, the few elderly and the severely injured people inside the bus and be in charge of them. He agreed before leading an approximate number of eighteen people to camp in the bus.

Satisfied so far with the progress, I turned my attention back to the rest of the group filled with mostly young people and counted the numbers. We were twenty-one in all and in my point of view stood a better chance at surviving.

Except for the old man, who had refused to join the others in the bus and had instead chosen to stay with the group about to camp in the forest. I asked him why he would choose to do that if he was so sure that werewolves existed in the woods. He replied with a glare and stated that there would be enough protection from all of us in order for him to survive.

That hypocrite of an old man. I couldn't help but wish he'd just die there.

Quietly and strangely obediently, they followed me into the woods and stopped when I got to a perfect spot surrounded by trees and bushes.

"Alright." I clapped my hands to get their attention. "We're twenty-one in all so we're going to divide ourselves into seven groups, three members in each. We all have to cooperate in order to get out of here alive."

"First group." I pointed to tall, fit-looking man and asked for his name.

"Gabe," he replied.

"Well, Gabe, you'll be in charge of the first group. You'll be having-" I asked a young girl and the annoying old man for their names, "-Maddison and Joseph in your group. You guys go look for firewood and set up your things anywhere you feel is okay. But first Gabe, please, help John get rid of the driver's body."

☆~☆~☆

After what seemed like hours of supervising. We were finally settled safely in the for the night. Miguel, John and I were in a group. The rest were chatting around their fires and eating little leftover snacks anyone found in their lunch bags.

Just as I'd expected, the breeze that night was cool and chilling. The fire illuminated on our faces, making it a bit freakish. Yet it did keep us warm, so who were we to complain?

Joseph had been right about one thing, the moon was full tonight. It was huge and round, glistening brightly above our heads and sending weird shivers down my spine, as if it was silently telling me to anticipate some action tonight.

For the third time that night, I reached up to my neck with my right hand and rubbed the back and sides of it, trying to soothe away the ache that still remained throbbing since the incident.

Fighting to ignore the sensation, I released my neck, linked my fingers together and stared at the fire intently for a minute or two before John nudged me on the shoulder to get my attention.

"Hey, thanks for helping me out," he said, smiling gratefully at me.

"No worries. You looked like you were about to tear your hair out," I stated and chuckled when I remembered the expressions he'd had on his face.

John grinned. "Would've done it if you hadn't jumped in," he admitted and I couldn't help but admire his features as he stared at me.

He was handsome, there was no denying that, and he looked like he was in his middle twenties. I could see his bright steel-blue eyes shining in the moonlight. His hair was midnight black and his muscles were lean but nicely sculptured. His smile was charming and I couldn't help but return the warm gesture.

Miguel cleared his throat. "I know you queridos are probably stripping each other's clothes off with your eyes now so please, why don't you find somewhere private and-"

A piercing scream that suddenly echoed out of the blue and throughout the woods cut Miguel off in mid-sentence. I jolted to my feet not long before John and my partner did.

The scream continued for another five seconds before it abruptly stopped. After a minute or two of wondering what the hell was going on, I narrowed my eyes towards the woods when I heard the thumping of frantic footsteps and gasped when I saw a figure running towards us from a distance.

As the figure drew closer, I recognized it as Maddison. She was sobbing nonstop and I could bet that her face was red and moist from all the weeping.

"Shh, it's okay. It's okay," I tried to soothe her by placing an arm around her shoulders and rubbing her back when she had gotten close enough. "Just tell us what happened."

Maddison raised her head to look at me in the eye. "I-It's Joseph," she sobbed.

I frowned. "What did he do to you this time?"

"N-no he didn't d-do anything," she tried to explain.

"Then what happened?" Miguel asked, as confused as I was.

"He...he's dead. Something attacked him and now he's d-dead!" Her sobs got louder as she buried her face in my chest.

Gasps rang out and people began panicking after she had proclaimed Joseph's death. I lifted my eyes from her face to look into Miguel and John's shocked ones.

A tiny voice uttered in my head as I clutched Maddison tighter.

Looks like you got your wish.

☆~☆~☆