Today's Reading

Before long, several faint red lights appeared through the bitter gale as a square, boxed pattern, gradually revealing the multiple taillights of a large semitruck as the bus steadily closed in.

The driver glanced into his overhead mirror at his handful of passengers, all lulled to sleep by the bus's interior heat and the powerful vehicle's slow, methodic rumble.

Traffic began to move, and the bus began to accelerate again, passing a neon-green sign that read NARROW BRIDGE AHEAD.

Even from a distance, it was clear the driver of the oncoming vehicle was traveling too fast for the conditions. Too fast to notice the road abruptly narrowing at the aging girder bridge. Unaware or unconcerned that, unlike asphalt, metal bridges could not trap heat. Instead, the girders iced rapidly in extreme weather, pulling heat from what little asphalt there was and allowing snow to thicken over its surface. Just enough to prevent traction above a certain weight and speed.

It was the tires from the oncoming SUV that met those conditions under a sudden stomp of the brakes. Causing the vehicle to slide— suddenly and uncontrollably—across the narrow road's double yellow line and into the lane of the approaching semitruck directly ahead of the bus.

The truck's driver was as crisp as one could expect at three in the morning. Reacting reflexively, he attempted to remain in his lane by forcing the nose of the truck through the diminishing space left between the sliding SUV and the bridge's right-side railing.

Almost instantly, the semitruck's cargo trailer pitched violently, causing a slow-motion slide across the width of the entire bridge, and leaving no escape for the large bus immediately behind him.

In an instant, the bus driver was nearly standing on his brake, in an uncontrolled slide as he fell back into his seat and rapidly pumped his foot up and down upon the pedal, applying quick, repeated jolts of momentary traction. It was the proper braking procedure, but it was not enough.

At thirty-five miles per hour, the sheer weight and momentum of the passenger bus could not be stopped, and it plowed headlong into the cargo trailer. Smashing into it as though it were a brick wall, and the bus a slow and unstoppable train. The giant windshield was obliterated on impact, and the rear of the trailer shoved violently forward and through the bridge's protective side railing.

Inside the bus, the passengers screamed as they were jolted from their slumber into a scene of panic and chaos. Two near the front shrieked at the swirling carnage in front of them before a blast of bright sparks and shattered windshield imploded, raining a curtain of pebbles over the first several rows of seats in glittering destruction.

Then came the sound. Through the destroyed windshield came a thunderous bang as the bus continued its violent slide, followed by the screeching of heavy metal of thick girders as they twisted, snapped, and finally tore loose.

The giant vehicle stopped, and for a moment teetered over the edge. All breathing stopped. Briefly.

Before the bus's two front wheels gave way and eased forward over the edge. Causing the undercarriage to scrape mercilessly over the bridge's asphalt and slowly extend out into open air. Sliding, gradually at first...then quickly, and then all at once, plummeting just over twenty feet to the frozen river below.


CHAPTER THREE

The screaming resumed. And continued throughout the fall. Through the bus's entire plunge and sudden impact, where it was met by an explosion of ice and water through the missing front windshield.

The driver, strapped in his seat, was pinned by the force of the icy water. And behind him, horrified passengers screamed at the wall of oncoming water before them.

The first half of the bus was filled in seconds by near-frozen water swirling with glass, while just outside, a thick layer of ice from the frozen river could now be seen surrounding the vehicle. It scraped against the glass until several windows shattered inward, creating a second deluge into the bus's interior.

The roiling water reached the mother and son, who were both paralyzed and buckled where they sat, only beginning to fumble with their tangled belts when besieged by the river water.

Able to free herself, the mother turned to search for her son— desperate and frantic—only to see him immediately disappear from view.

She stood up, screaming his name, and quickly found him in the arms of the man from the store, who now pulled the boy up and over the headrest as if he weighed nothing, thrusting him up the rising floorboard toward the back of the bus. He then grabbed the woman and did the same, pushing her forward in front of him and yelling over her shoulder at an older couple struggling at the rear.
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