Kael and Sabrina sprinted toward the yellow school bus with everything they had left in them. Jamie's bloody face still lingering vividly in their minds, refusing to fade no matter how hard they tried focusing on survival instead.
They wanted to mourn him.
They really did.
But the situation didn't allow them the luxury of grief. Behind them, the rhino-like alien was still charging after them, its massive frame tearing across the road with enough force to make the ground tremble beneath their feet. Every thunderous step sounding closer than the last.
The moment they reached the bus, both of them grabbed the handles and yanked the folding doors open with panic-fueled strength.
With haste, they rushed in like late students racing against the final school bell.
Sabrina immediately threw herself into the driver's seat and shoved the keys into the ignition with shaking hands.
Kael slammed the folding doors shut behind them before stumbling into the seat directly behind her, breathing heavily as sweat rolled down the sides of his face.
"Why did the school have to be so damn cheap? Start already, you old hag!"
Sabrina twisted the key repeatedly, but the engine only answered with strained screeches and violent coughing noises. Smoke puffed from the exhaust outside while the entire bus trembled uselessly without starting.
Kael's attention stayed locked on the approaching alien through the dusty rear window.
It was getting closer.
Its horn shining beneath the sunlight like a sharpened spear designed purely for slaughter.
"Sabrina, the rhino's about to hit us!!"
His voice cracked with urgency.
Sabrina glanced toward the creature while desperately twisting the key again and again, her breathing becoming uneven.
"I'm trying, but it won't budge!"
Fear flooded through Kael's body like freezing water. Adrenaline surged through every nerve while Jamie's final wish—started feeling painfully impossible.
Doubt crowded his mind.
Then suddenly—
An idea sparked.
The school bus driver always used to smack the ignition area with a hammer before starting the engine. Kael used to think the man was only pretending the bus was broken so he could pocket repair money from the school.
But now...
Now it finally made sense.
A tiny fragment of hope flickered back into his eyes.
"Kick the ignition first before turning the key!" he shouted.
Confusion crossed Sabrina's face immediately. The suggestion sounded insane, but at this point they were out of options.
So she lifted her leg and slammed her foot into the ignition panel.
SLAM!!
The metal rattled loudly.
"Harder!" Kael yelled, his eyes darting wildly between Sabrina and the rapidly approaching alien outside.
SLAM!!
She kicked again, harder this time, her shoe denting the metal inward.
"Again!"
Veins bulged along her neck as she gritted her teeth and drove another brutal kick into the casing.
CRACK!!
A deep fracture spread across the ignition panel.
This time even Sabrina could tell something had changed.
Without waiting for Kael to say another word, she grabbed the key again and twisted it.
VROOOOM!!
The engine roared to life.
The entire bus vibrated violently as a deep mechanical hum echoed through the cabin floor.
"Go, go, go!"
Sabrina instantly shifted gears and slammed her foot onto the accelerator. The tires spun wildly against the rough road before finally gripping hard enough to launch the bus forward.
For one brief second, relief washed over them.
Then disaster struck again.
BANG!!
The rhino alien slammed its massive horn directly into the side of the bus.
Metal screamed painfully.
Its horn pierced through the wall while the rest of its enormous body remained outside, running alongside the speeding vehicle like a nightmare refusing to let go.
"Keep your eyes on the road!" Kael shouted as Sabrina kept panicking between looking ahead and glancing backward. "Don't stop driving! Just keep going!"
Kael stared intensely at the creature.
The alien kept forcing its horn deeper into the bus, bending thick metal inward inch by inch. Loose screws burst from the walls while the side of the bus groaned under the pressure.
At this rate, it was eventually going to break through completely.
Then suddenly, his father's voice echoed inside his mind like a distant memory.
"Whenever you're in a difficult situation, search your surroundings. There's no problem without a solution."
The words awakened something inside him instantly.
A problem-solving instinct.
The same mindset that always surfaced whenever he tackled difficult mathematical equations in class.
His eyes rapidly moved across the creature's body.
Its head was lodged inside the bus while the rest of its body remained outside as the vehicle sped forward violently across the rocky road.
Then the image shifted in his mind.
The alien suddenly reminded him of old execution methods—criminals trapped between structures while their bodies remained exposed outside.
It was gruesome. But useful.
"Instead of cutting off the head..." Kael muttered under his breath, realization flashing across his face. "We cut off the body."
Luckily, Sabrina heard him even through the roaring engine and grinding metal.
Understanding immediately lit up her eyes.
Without hesitation, she jerked the steering wheel sharply to the right, forcing the side where the alien clung dangerously close to the trees lining the roadside.
Branches scraped violently across the bus windows.
Ahead of them stood a massive timber tree.
Sabrina clenched her teeth hard enough to hurt and pushed the bus forward at full speed.
Then—
SMASH!!
The side of the bus scraped violently against the thick tree trunk.
The impact ripped the alien's body clean away from its trapped head.
Blue goo exploded everywhere, splattering across the windows and rusted metal walls.
The severed head remained jammed inside the bus while the creature's massive body tumbled lifelessly across the road behind them.
Sabrina looked back nervously, her breathing uneven.
"Did... did it work?"
Kael leaned heavily against the bus wall, chest rising and falling rapidly as he stared at the detached head still lodged inside the twisted metal.
"Yes," he said between breaths. "It did."
For the first time since the nightmare began, both of them erupted into celebration.
They shouted loudly, overwhelmed by adrenaline, relief, and disbelief all at once.
They had killed an alien.
And strangely enough, the victory filled them with pride.
The prey had finally cut down the predator.
It was ironic and satisfying.
It didn't undo the deaths. It didn't erase the horror surrounding them.
But at least one of those monsters had finally paid for the innocent lives it took.
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
Hours passed as they continued driving through the city.
The bus engine hummed endlessly while ruined streets stretched before them like the remains of a dead civilization.
Kael now stood near the driver's seat, silently staring through the windows.
The excitement from earlier had long disappeared, replaced by growing unease after witnessing the abandoned streets outside. Entire sections of the city looked lifeless—empty roads, broken vehicles left in the middle of intersections, shop doors hanging open while papers drifted across the streets with the wind.
No people. Just silence.
"Are you sure we should still check on your parents?"
Sabrina asked carefully. Earlier, they had discussed what to do next. Kael insisted on going to his parents' house to see whether they were still alive.
Judging by the state of the city though... Hope felt dangerously thin.
"Yeah, we should," Kael replied quietly. "I know you're trying to spare me the pain if they're already dead... but I still believe they're okay. They come from a hunter lineage after all."
The words sounded more like he was convincing himself than Sabrina.
And she knew it.
Kael loved his parents deeply. They weren't just family to him—they were the center of his life. Losing them would break something inside him permanently.
Sabrina understood that kind of pain all too well.
"What about you?" Kael asked after a moment. "Don't you wanna check on your uncle?"
Sabrina scoffed softly, her expression darkening immediately.
"I honestly don't care whether they live or die," she said coldly. "Whatever happened to those scumbags, they probably deserved it."
Bitterness sharpened every word.
Sabrina never had a good relationship with her uncle.
After her parents died under suspicious circumstances in their sleep, her uncle wasted no time claiming their fortune and dragging Sabrina into his home afterward. Ever since then, she had spent years watching him burn through her parents' money on politics, luxury, and useless garbage while treating her like an unwanted burden.
It was as though the world had decided losing her parents wasn't enough punishment on its own.
So no—
She didn't care about them.
Not even a little.