Prologue

City buses transport over 3.5 million people daily in the United States alone. For all of these people, a bus ride to work or to home or to the mall is just a mindless transition between one destination to another. They spend their ride listening to their mp3 players, chatting on their phones, reading their magazines or cramming for the day’s school exam.

However, on this particular day, Emmalise Stocking was quite alert on the bus ride home from campus. She attended the West Virginia University Institute of Technology, where her main focus was biology and chemistry. She was hoping to be a pharmacist one day and worked hard to achieve her goal. She had a successful day in class and wore a small smile on her face as she looked around at the bored and dead faces around her.

A typical bus full of civilians- an old man leaning against the person next to him completely asleep, a middle-aged black woman in a nice business suit chatting loudly on her cell phone, a young girl no older than 16 reading through a magazine, a man seemingly in his mid-twenties listening to his MP3 player and slowly bobbing to the tune…

Emma sighed and shook her head. She looked forward to getting home and finishing up her leftovers from the pasta dish she made the night before. Tomorrow there were no classes so she’d be free to do some sightseeing or even stay in and watch a movie or two in her pajamas.

There was a warning… but it came on so fast it hardly seemed fair to call it a warning. A loud shrill buzzing pierced the sound barrier, making everyone drop everything in their hands and cover their ears. It brought several people to their knees, screaming. Emma was one of the few that remained upright, her eyes wide in horror as the darkened sky of the evening was shrouded in blinding light. This was the moment that finally sent Emma to her knees as the shrill buzzing and the blinding light became more and more prominent, blocking out every thought of a great today or a laid back tomorrow.

Emma could tell people were still screaming, despite the fact that her eyes were closed and her ears were covered. She remained as still as she could, even as the bus bounced and tilted side to side and even as the large windows shattered as the piercing screech grew even louder.

And, as suddenly as it came, it went. All was still and all was quiet.

And Emma Stocking opened her eyes…

The people inside the bus were too in shock to move quickly enough. The people outside the bus were shocked, too, but not at the same degree. For most of them were more angry than shocked. Who would drop a bus in the middle of a busy sidewalk?! Irritated grumbles were emitted and friendly bystanders asking if everyone was okay. No one thought to ask how the civilians in the bus were doing, because no one ever imagined people were able to even fit in such a small vehicle. The bus barely came up to the onlookers’ waists and it was suspected to be a prop or statue from a nearby office building.

“Hey! Watch where you drop these things!” An angry businessman shouted up to the nearby skyscraper with a shake of his fist.

Inside the bus, Emma slowly raised her head and looked at her fellow passengers. They were shaken up but everyone looked unharmed. The business woman lifted the phone back to her ear and shouted “Lisa! Lisa, I was just in an accident! The whole b- the… Lisa?” She cursed under her breath and went to dial the number again. “What the FUCK? The call won’t go through!”

“Well heaven FORBID your damn call won’t go through!” A nearby middle-aged man yelled. “What the hell, woman?! The bus just crashed! Let’s get the hell out of here!”

“Yeah, fuck you! Who the hell do you think you are telling me what to do you…”

The young man who had been listening to his mp3 player was softly touching the shoulders of the people around him, asking if they were okay in a soft voice. Emma’s eyes were drawn to him and his act of kindness amidst the chaos. When he reached out to touch the young school girl, who had been looking through a teen magazine, she immediately let out a shriek and took hold of him. Without showing any form of malice, he wrapped his arms around her and simple held her as she trembled in shock. This struck Emma as something to behold as it was so uncommon to see such compassion between strangers.

“Oh. Oh no. Oh God, no! No! No no no! What IS that!?” Another voice was suddenly becoming louder and louder as she spoke. The business woman pointed a shaky finger towards the shattered windows. Everyone who had recovered followed the direction of her finger and gazed through the open area. There were mere splinters along the sides of the bus, remnants of the windows that had blasted during the wreck. And, through the now open frames, the world outside was no longer blinding but the same darker evening sky. The same beautiful orange to pink skyline, the trees, the buildings, the sidewalk… but something was different. Something was very different.

Loud muttering could be heard as the people outside began to gather around the bus. Due to being shaken up from the wreck, it was fair to say the passengers really didn’t notice the difference right away. But when it clicked, it clicked hard and fast.

The people standing outside of the tiny bus could finally hear small shrill noises coming from inside. One man began to approach the bus with curiosity and others followed. One woman on her cell phone, calling the police about the incident, suddenly changed her tone “Wait! I think I hear voices inside. Someone may be hurt. No, I know I said it wasn’t a normal bus but maybe it’s used in a circus show? No, I AM telling the truth! Please, it’s not just me standing here…”

Everyone inside the bus grew completely silent, too shocked to move or to speak. Standing outside of the bus were beings over 20 feet tall and fast approaching. Emma let out a small gasp before quickly placing her hand to her mouth. Where are we? What happened? What is this place? What happened to us? What’s GOING to happen to us?

Were these people nice? Was it their fault that they were there? No one knew the answer to those questions and so they remained stock still, completely unsure of what to do.

The curious man placed his hand on top of the small bus and kneeled down to peer inside the small windows. His eyes widened as he suddenly met the gaze of a dozen or more tiny pairs of eyes.

No one in the bus breathed… a similar vision passed between all of the passengers as they recalled watching Jurassic Park all those years ago… ‘It can’t see us if we don’t move’.

The sirens in the distance got closer and closer and still no one breathed. The giant outside the bus didn’t move either. He didn’t know what to think. Was this a trick? Surely these tiny creatures weren’t real.

Emma couldn’t tear her eyes away from the intense blue globes that trailed between her and everyone else in the bus. However, her ears picked up the sirens that were fast approaching. The sound of squealing tires moving closer could also be heard. Her breathing quickened as panic began to set in.

The tired screeched to a halt, the sirens went silent… and that’s when all hell broke loose.