The bus driver. The gas. My gaze shoots to where he’s supposed to be, only to find the driver’s seat empty.
“EMERGENCY PROTOCOL ENGAGED. WAKING ALL SUBJECTS FROM CRYOSLEEP.”
Emergency protocol? Cryosleep? What? Jacqui groans again and my head pounds as I try to look around. Am I dreaming? The bus windows are all blocked out with gray metal. I can’t see outside, not even through the windscreen, and the bus driver, whatever he is, is gone.
“PAYLOAD COMPROMISED.”
Payload? What payload? My mind races as I try to piece everything together. It suddenly feels like nothing’s making sense. I swallow hard, saliva soothing a very dry throat.
“What…what happened?” Jacqui groans, her brows furrowing as she presses her hands to her temples. “Where are we?”
More of the other women are waking up and asking the same questions. Some stumble from their seats. One woman, who is obviously more awake than everyone else, begins screaming. Her piercing cry seems to bounce off the metal walls around us.
“ENGINE FAILING. RELEASING CARGO TO REDUCE LOAD.”
That…doesn’t make sense. The Xyma bot isn’t making sense.
It’s all the thought I get to have before the whole bus jerks. Our limp bodies jostle in our seats before the movement suddenly stops. At first, it’s not immediately obvious. Not until I see Jacqui’s body rising right in front of me, held back only by the seatbelts still around her torso. It’s only then that I realize I’m floating too, lifting off the seat without effort on my part.
Someone screams. “Ayy, dios mio!” Someone else is calling for help. I turn my head to see a few women who’d no doubt released their seatbelts floating up to the bus roof, their arms and legs flailing even though it’s obvious they’re still disoriented. They hit the metal top of the bus, wincing from the cold and the impact. But I’m starting to think this isn’t a bus anymore, is it.
Gripping Jacqui’s hand, I swallow hard. It’s like moving saliva over cracked earth. My mouth feels slack and dry, like I haven’t used it in a long, long time. “Don’t unstrap yourself.”
She’s more awake now and her wide eyes find mine. “Jus, what the hell’s happening?”
I wish I could answer. I don’t like not having an answer.
“Gravity,” the woman behind us suddenly says. Her head sways as we lock gazes. “This is zero gravity.”
It feels like the floor opens up beneath me, but my feet are not even on the floor. I’m still floating slightly in my seat, only the seatbelts holding me stationary. Still, I try to dispel the fear clawing at my bones. “What could cause that?” I refuse to face the most obvious answer. “We were just on our way to Arizona. We can’t be… How would we be in space?”
The woman’s jaw tightens and I can tell she doesn’t want to say it either.
“We’re in fucking space?!” Jacqui exclaims and in the next second, there’s a hum of voices raised in panic and distress like an echoing wave through the bus.
“I know I shouldn’t have trusted that job ad. I knew it was too easy,” the same woman behind us mutters.
I gulp. There must be a way out of this. We can find a way out. “Hey, what’s your name?”
The woman doesn’t answer immediately. Almost as if she’s swallowing down a bout of the same fear swelling in my gut.
“Mikaela,” she says after a few moments and I nod, swallowing hard to get rid of a wave of nausea that rises within me.
“And you?” I direct my gaze to the woman beside Mikaela.
“Erika.”
“Okay. I’m Justine. This is my sister, Jacqui.” I glance at Jaqs only to see her clenching her fists so hard her hands have gone white.
“I’m Hannah,” the woman in the aisle seat across from Jacqui says, the fear in her eyes clear as she looks over at us. I nod, gaze shifting to the woman beside her. Her head’s bowed, breaths coming heavy as she looks over at me sideways through her glasses, her eyes darting away the moment our gazes lock.
“Tina,” she says. “I’m Tina.”
The commotion in the bus increases even though outside is eerily quiet. There’s no more Xyma bot, the driver has disappeared into thin air, and I don’t hear anything except the panic echoing inside my chest.
“Alright. Erika, Mikaela, Tina, and Hannah, any of you know what the hell’s going on?”
Unsurprisingly, they all shake their heads.
“No idea,” Hannah gulps. “This was just supposed to be a side hustle.”
“Same,” Erika murmurs. “But it’s clear this is something else now.”
“My head feels funny,” Jacqui groans.
“Mine too,” I force back another wave of nausea. “But we can figure this out.” We have to figure this out.
“Where’s the driver?!” Someone from the back shouts. “Why’s he left us here and what happened to the bus?”
The bus shudders again, and our bodies sway in their restraints.
“Don’t take your seatbelts off!” Erika shouts, looking over her shoulder. There are three women still just floating in the air, hindered only by the roof of the bus. At Erika’s warning, other gazes shoot in our direction and the fear in their eyes is pronounced. “What now?” Erika turns her attention back to me.
She has an authoritative tone to her voice, as if she was a manager or something, and I get the sense she should be taking the leadership role here. Not me. Erika doesn’t seem to be freaking out like the others and all I feel is pure panic in my blood. But when I glance at Jacqui and Hannah, they’re looking at me with a flood of hope in their eyes, waiting for my answer.
And Jacqui. Poor Jacqui. If this goes to shit, I’m the one who took her along with me. I’m the one that put her in danger. The thought makes my heart wring underneath my ribs. I swallow hard. I have to find a way out of this. But I don’t get the chance. The bus tilts. It’s slow, like being on a fairground ride that’s just starting up. It tilts till we’re all upside down, held in place only by the seatbelts digging into our hips. More women scream and Jaqs and I both grip the seats themselves, hearts in our throats.
“What’s happening? Why is it moving like this?” a woman cries out from the back.
“We’re rotating,” Tina says quietly, then pushes her glasses up with one finger as they start to float away from her face. “In space, without artificial gravity, objects tend to tumble unless stabilized. It’s like…like when you toss a book in the air. It doesn’t just go straight up and down—it spins.” She pauses, then adds even more softly, “Though I have to say, my expertise was mainly in the Dewey Decimal System, n-not orbital mechanics.”
Well. Fuck.
“Everyone just stay calm and keep your belts on!” I raise my voice, trying to project confidence, but there’s a betraying tremor underneath my tone.
I’m fucking terrified.
“Jus? I’m scared,” Jacqui whispers. Her brows dive in a worried frown as if she’s using willpower and thought to turn this all around.
I nod, pushing back my own fear. “I know, I know. Just breathe.” Maybe I’m saying it more for myself than for my sister, because my lungs are burning as if I’m forgetting to fill them up. “We’ll get through this.”
Jacqui nods. “Remember that time we got stuck on the Ferris wheel at the county fair?” she says, her voice trembling only slightly. “We were what, eight and nine?”
A pang swells in my chest at the memory, but I nod, grateful for the distraction from the worried cries of the others. “Yeah…yeah I remember. The ride had gotten stuck at the top, and we were dangling up there for over an hour.”