Monsters and Maidens

“Is anybody able to move?” Rick’s voice echoed out through the clearing and into the forest, swallowed up by the stillness that lingered heavily in the air.

The man approached the nearest person he could see. She was a young woman with long blond hair spilled around her head like a halo. Her face wasn’t familiar to him, not one of his students, but there was a familiarity to the soft arch of her brows and glasses that framed her closed eyes. She was lying on her side and was very still.

A wave of hesitation coursed through Rick as he knelt next to her. There was no blood to be seen, no obvious injuries. He reached out to touch her exposed shoulder with bated breath. The coldness of her skin made his gut tighten. His fingers turned towards her wrist, pressing with his index against its underside. He waited. Nothing. Rick’s lips curled. He moved his fingers to lightly press against her jugular. Another second of silence. No pulse to be found.

The young teacher’s own heartbeat quickened as he looked away. He pushed the nausea down and moved on to the next one before he could dwell on it any further.

This one was a young male, groaning, clearly still alive. Rick didn’t see any blood, either. That was a good sign. “Hey,” he said. His hand touched the young man’s shoulder to draw his attention as he knelt to take a closer look.

The man was pale and shaking slightly. Either cold or something else, perhaps shock. The messy red hair and pale skin made it clear he was one of the Dodson brothers. The glasses and nervous smile put him as not the troublesome one.

“Hey.” Rick’s voice rose with a little more insistence. “I’m going to check your condition. I want you to make a sound if you can hear and understand me.”

There was a sharp intake of breath and a whine. The young redhead turned slightly and nodded. “Ok.”

“If it hurts, tell me.”

The young man’s body was frail and thin. Rick recalled the name of the young man. Barry Dodson, the younger brother of the more troublesome Mark Dodson. A sigh left the teacher as he moved Barry to lie on his back. The action made the young man wince as the teacher began to rigorously check for injuries. A quick glance over the thin body and whip-like arms only had scratches and bruises. Rick noticed swelling in the right ankle, but nothing appeared broken or out of place.

“It hurts.” The young man tightened his face as he twitched.

His eyes kept returning to the bus, to the people, to those that were crying or wailing. The young man kept shivering, his eyes becoming lost and distant. Rick couldn’t leave him like that.

“Barry, I’m going to need you to take this.” The teacher handed him his phone. “And I want you to keep trying to call for help, ok?”

The young redhead stirred, trying to move and letting out a pained whine. “But the others…”

“You’re hurt. You might make it worse if you exert yourself. This is how you can help. We need to call for help. Do you understand how important this is?”

A small nod followed. Rick moved onto the next one.

He flinched. This one had not been as lucky. Rick recognized the uniform- it was the driver. The large pool of blood and ghostly pale complexion told the story well enough. The young teacher felt himself unable to step closer. Grimacing, Rick turned to the next one, stopping as a new shriek came from inside the bus.

The chemistry teacher pushed the sounds away and focused on reaching the next potential survivor to confirm their condition. He couldn’t let himself dwell on things. Others could help with the grief and the panic. He had to help with the wounded. He had to push forward, push forward, or let himself enter a spiral he was not sure he’d be able to escape.

Four more were confirmed dead. Rick didn’t check the exact cause. A quick confirmation of a pulse had been enough. He just moved on to the next as soon as it appeared there was no beating heart. Fortunately, the dead were outnumbered by the living. The ones closest to the bus were in a better condition, alive for one. A few did not wake, but still breathed. Broken bones and bruises were frequent, some worse for wear than others.

They’d been lucky that the crash had slowed thanks to the branches from the monstruous trees. Trying to imagine how much worse things could have been otherwise was a nightmare Rick opted to put down for some other time.

“Where the fuck are we?” The voice was loud, grating, and obnoxious. But it spoke the question everyone had been quietly asking one another.

A crowd was forming near the bus, of the people who were barely wounded or still able to move. Things were becoming heated. An argument was about to break out if it hadn’t already. Rick ignored the crowd and kept to his task. His mind kept bouncing back to the crash, the green flash of light. Had he seen anything out of the ordinary on the way down besides the massive trees? Had there been any signs of something else but a sea of green?

The task at hand kept him focused, and more importantly, useful. Arguing would bring nothing, crying would bring nothing. He shifted to the next victim. And the next. And the next. Slowly, he was circling around the vehicle in a circuit of ever less healthy people. Those that had been able to stand or move had mostly woken up already. With every confirmed death, his gaze turned to the woods.

There was a definite lack of a road nearby, no signs of civilization to be had. In any direction. Just trees, massive trees, and more trees.

The looming giant spires of wood surrounded them, caging them into some forgotten corner of wilderness that felt as if humanity had not been there for hundreds of years. The air was cool and quiet, oppressive. The gloom of the shadows amongst made it hard to see too far away. That certainly didn’t help the mood at all. Rick was quite certain he’d never heard of forests with trees that were twelve meters thick and ten times that or more in height. There was a creeping fog of dread that trickled down his back the more he allowed himself to think about it.

The young teacher pushed himself to ignore that as best he could, and to focus on his work, turning to the latest student he’d checked up on. The sophomore was breathing and waking up. His name was… Rick frowned, Charlie? Yes, one of his students. A rather amicable young man, he often sat near the middle of the classroom. He had dusty brown hair, was bespectacled with light silver frames, and fortunately had sustained no apparent heavy injuries other than a bump to the arm.

“Is May ok?” were the first words that came out of Charlie as soon as he’d woken up.

Rick mulled over the question. May, May… Hagan? She was Charlie’s sibling… cousin, was it? He glanced at the bus and the people there, mentally going through the list of those he’d checked on. “Her arm’s broken, but other than that, she’s alive.”

“Thank God,” Charlie said, lips tightening and shaking his head. “That’s reassuring either way. Where are we?”

Rick’s lips thinned in turn, and his voice lowered to a whisper. “I don’t know. But we need to find some way to contact help, there’s no cell reception down here.”

The young man nodded as he shifted slightly. His gaze shifted, sweeping around them with hawkish focus. A look of determination emerged as he took Rick’s hand to stand up. “I’ll look for the road.”

“Do you even know what path to take?”

“That one.”

Charlie pointed over Rick’s shoulder and towards the forest in what, for a second, appeared to be a random set of trees, as massive and non-distinct as any other. It wasn’t until Rick noticed the trail of broken branches and glass that he realized why the young man had chosen that direction in particular. Glancing at the bus, the people there were becoming louder- some faces looked red, and people were getting physical.

For a second, Rick considered going instead. His gut tightened in response. Could he even trust himself to be alone with his thoughts?

“Should I check at least?” Charlie’s question snapped him out of the sense of looming dread.

Rick let out a tight nod. “If you’re able to move without issue…”

“If I find the road and call for help, will you pass my chem final?”

The words made Rick’s head snap at the sophomore. It took him a second to form the mock glare. The teacher blinked for a split second before he relaxed. “No.”

Charlie let out a little chuckle, feigning disappointment, checking his pockets and pulling out his phone. “Damn, at least I tried.”

Had he been recording the conversation? Since when? Rick glared somewhat, unable to stop from feeling somewhat impressed. “It shouldn’t be that hard for you.”

“Can’t blame me for trying.” The young man’s right arm was littered with black and blue bruises. It was fortunate they weren’t more than a bother. “I’ll be back in half an hour, tops. The road shouldn’t be too far off. We weren’t going that fast, anyway.”

Rick opened his mouth to speak. Words formed in his mind, ones that lost their way attempting to reach his lips. His mind returned to the thought of the forest, the looming gloom, the silence. Hesitating, he nodded a little, pushing the feelings down, of how wrong everything felt. He’d seen the flash of green, and the surrounding forest was alien, almost hostile. Everything inside his chest told him this wasn’t the right place; it told him of a certainty there was no road to be found.

That it should be him checking the woods, that there was nothing to be found but danger.

But checking was necessary, as was seeking help. The sooner the better. It was crucial. “Be careful.”

“Will do.”

A sinking feeling clenched around Rick’s stomach the moment the young man had vanished between the trees.