My ears rang like the sound of cicadas on a hot summer evening—high pitched and distorted. Everything was dark.

Pain pounded through my head. My brain pulsed against my skull in time with the blood rushing through my temples. My eyes fluttered open. The headache was so nauseating that my vision blurred like I was underwater. Foggy shapes moved around me like phantoms.

Where am I?

I could feel scratchy fabric against my back. I forced my eyes open again, and a blur of colors waved into focus. A string of purple and green Mardi Gras beads hung from a rear view mirror, swinging back and forth lazily.

I was still on the bus.

An icy gasp of wind howled into the vehicle, and a hand gripped my shoulder as a face came into view. His mouth moved, but the ringing in my ears was too loud. I couldn't make out anything he was saying.

Blinking a few more times, my vision finally cleared enough to recognize the face.

Jake.

His scruffy beard and messy mop of hair were unmistakable.

"Are you all right?" his voice came through, but it was muted and distant. "Alex, are you all right?"

I tried to answer, but pain surged through my head like a tidal wave. My mouth swelled with hot saliva.

Oh fuck . . .

In a rush of panic, I shoved Jake out of my way, pulled myself up and stumbled out of the bus. My legs gave out beneath me, and I gripped the side of the door to keep myself from falling over. I gagged, and then energy drink mixed with acid powered up my throat, bursting out of my mouth like a water balloon exploding.

"Oh my God," I groaned, grasping my head. I braced myself by the knees as I dry-heaved twice. After gagging once more, I was sick again.

My body shivered and shook as I clutched my ribs. My tongue and the roof of my mouth burned as I spat onto the ground, trying to get the bitter taste out of my mouth. Drool clung to my chin. I wiped it off on the back of my hand. Another blast of wind barreled past me, numbing the surface of my skin.

"Jesus Christ," Jake muttered next to me. "Fuck."

I panted, leaning against the bus as I tried to regain my composure. The pain in my head throbbed behind my eyes, but the vomiting had helped to dull its intensity. "I think I'm okay," I managed to say between shivered breaths.

"Alex, sit down." Jake pulled my arm, and my body immediately responded. I collapsed onto the ground, my back against the cold metal of the bus. I leaned my head back, gasping for breath.

"What's your name?" Jake asked me. I tried to focus on him, but I couldn't make out any features of his face other than his eyes—deep brown and staring at me. They glowed and flickered with a faint trace of light.

"Alex," I finally responded. I paused for a second and pushed my hair out of my face. "I mean, I can't remember who I am, but you keep calling me Alex, so I assume that's my name."

Jakes's thick eyebrows curled in confusion and concern, and I couldn't stop a grin from sneaking across my face.

"You asshole." Jake punched me in the shoulder lightly. "You're such a fucking shit."

"Alexander Pierce," I said.

"How old are you?"

"I'm twenty-two. Going to be twenty-three on the thirty first." Cold air bit at my skin. I dug my fingers into the dry dirt at my sides. My head spun. I wasn't ready to get up.

"Where are you?" Jake continued questioning me.

"I don't know . . ." My mind froze, and I looked up at the sky. Clouds streamed over it like advertisements tugged behind planes at the beach. The moon peaked out for a second before flickering behind darkness. "Somewhere in Montana," I finally responded.

Jake nodded. "What's the date?"

"It's Saturday . . . October twenty sixth." My teeth chattered, and pain pulsed through my skull. "How long have I been out?"

"Only about ten minutes," Jake replied. A gust of wind blew his dark hair into his face, and he quickly pushed it back. "You're bleeding a bit, man." He wiped at the side of his head.

I reached to my hairline and felt something sticky and warm. When I brought my hand back, dark red streaked my fingers. I swallowed down another wave of nausea. My teeth chattered in my skull. "Is Liz okay?" I managed to ask. I could feel my body quivering.

"Liz is fine," Jake said. "She's checking on Reggie and Veronica."

I clenched my teeth. Why hadn't Liz stayed with me? Didn't she care if I was okay?

I pushed the thought away. "Are they okay?" I asked instead. I shook from the cold. It couldn't have been more than thirty degrees out. If I'd've known I was going to have to go outside, I would have at least put a shirt on.

"I think so." Jake pulled his black sweatshirt off and placed it over me. "Stay here."

He darted off, and I leaned my head back against the bus. I knew I needed to get up, but my entire body felt weak, and I couldn't stop my hands from trembling. The world spun around me and undulated like I was drifting through swells in the ocean.

"Are you guys okay?" Jake's voice echoed in the distance. He couldn't have been more than twenty feet away, but with the wind carrying it he sounded much further.

"We're all right," Reggie replied. "A couple bangs and bruises, but we'll be fine. Is Alex okay?"

"I don't know, man," Jake said. "He doesn't look so good. He was answering questions and talking all right, but I think he hit his head pretty fucking hard. He puked a couple of times."

"Oh, fuck," Reggie replied.

Their voices drifted off as I closed my eyes.

| | |

"Hey, Alex!"

"What?" My eyes shot open. Jake was leaning over me.

"You can't fall asleep, okay, man? You might have a concussion."

"Sorry," I said.

"Put this on." Jake handed me my denim jacket. I'd had it for about five years, but I still wore it almost every day. He must have found it with my stuff on the bus. I gave him back his sweatshirt and pulled my jacket on. He offered me his hand and helped me to my feet.

"I'm going to help the others." Jake made it three steps before turning back to face me. "Seeing if there's a way to push the bus out of this ditch."

I nodded to him, and then he spun on his heel and jogged off. I put my hands in my pockets and leaned back, grimacing. My head pounded. All I wanted to do was lay down and fall asleep. I looked up toward the road, but other than the bus's headlights and the light coming out of the windows, the night was completely dark. I couldn't even tell how far we'd gone into the ditch.

What happened to the pickup truck? My memory of the crash was hazy, but I didn't think we hit it. Liz swerved, and then we went into the ditch, but where had the truck gone? Even if we hadn't hit it, surely it would have pulled over. It didn't make sense, unless . . .

Voices echoed from the other side of the bus, interrupting the thought I didn't want to finish.

I stumbled over to meet the others, examining the side of the bus for damage as I went. Remarkably, there were no dents or scratches, just the horrible paint job that marred the bus's side like a gaping wound. Veronica had declared one night, after too much tequila, that our bus needed a name, and it needed to be purple, because that was her favorite color. The next day, as a joke, Jake and I had spray painted the words "The Scream Machine" across the side of the vehicle in bright purple and silver. At the time, I thought it was hilarious and beautiful, and we ended up leaving it, but now, looking at the violet monstrosity just made me nauseous.

"Veronica, can you get in and put it in reverse while we try to push it out?" Reggie asked as I rounded the front of the bus.

"Why me?" Veronica put her hands in the pockets of her thick, purple sweatshirt.

"Cause you're the smallest, babe." Reggie leaned in and planted a kiss on her forehead.

"Okay, fine. I'll do it." The wind tugged at the strands of her lavender hair that had escaped from her hood as she pulled the driver's side door open and climbed in.

"If it starts to slip towards us, hit the brakes," Reggie called to her.

"Can I help?" I asked.

Liz nearly jumped where she stood, and Jake and Reggie turned to face me.

"Are you sure you're all right, man?" Reggie asked. "You took a pretty hard hit to the head."

"It's just a bit of a headache." I shifted on my feet. I tried to catch Liz's eyes, but she was looking at the ground. "Once I get moving and doing something I think I'll be okay."

"All right." Jake nodded. He lunged against the front of the bus, and Reggie and Liz leaned in next to him.

"We're going to start pushing, Veronica!" Reggie called.

I leaned in next to Liz. "Are you okay?" I asked lowly.

"I'm fine," she replied, focusing on her hands as she gripped the bumper of the bus.

"Ready?" Jake called. "One, two, three!"

The tires squealed as they spun to life, spitting leaves and dirt into the air. My feet slipped in the loosely packed dirt as I pushed as hard as I could.

It didn't budge.

"It's not working!" Veronica called to us as the wheels stopped spinning.

No shit.

"Let's try it again," Jake said. "One, two, three."

I leaned with all of my weight, digging my feet in behind me.

Nothing.

"It's no good," Reggie said when we stopped pushing. "We're ten feet off the road. We aren't getting it out."

Veronica leapt down from the bus, her Converse kicking up dust as she landed. Tiny twigs snapped beneath her feet. "Does anyone have any cell service?" she asked. "Maybe we could call someone."

I pulled out my phone and checked it, even though I already knew there wasn't any service. The screen lit up, and I was greeted by zero notifications and the friendly "no service" reminder.

"Nope," Jake sighed.

"I've got nothing," Liz said.

Reggie shook his head.

Veronica looked at me, her hazel eyes pleading for me to give her good news, but I shook my head as well.

"What are we gonna do?" Veronica was trying to hold herself together, but her voice faltered. "How are we gonna get out of here?" She clenched her hands into tiny fists by her sides.

"It'll be fine, babe," Reggie said. He went over to her and rubbed her back lightly.

"How will it be fine?" she whined, shoving Reggie's hand off her. "We're stranded on some back road in the middle of nowhere in Mon-fucking-tana!" She sucked in a few gasps of air, like she was trying to snuff out a candle that someone had lit inside her lungs. Her eyes shot over to me. "If Alex hadn't broke the WiFi, we wouldn't be stuck like this."

"It was an accident," I grumbled. I'd already apologized enough for what had happened.

"Well, maybe you shouldn't have been using the router as a fucking coaster."

"Veronica, that's enough," Jake said. "It's not his fault, and we aren't stranded. Someone will drive by eventually. We've just gotta flag down the next car that passes. I'm sure it won't be long. You and Reggie go get warm on the bus and see if you can get some sleep. I'll watch the road."

Reggie nodded and led Veronica back onto the Scream Machine.

Jake's phone flashed as he turned on the flashlight app. He accidentally shone it in my face, so I covered my eyes.

"Sorry." He pointed the light at the ground, then looked to Liz. "Don't let him fall asleep." Without waiting for an answer from either of us, he turned and hiked up the ditch toward the road.

Liz leaned against the bus and took a pack of cigarettes out of the pocket of her leather jacket. She pulled one out and put it between her teeth. Her hands shook as she attempted to light it. Every time she got the lighter to flicker on, it immediately snuffed out.

"Here." I took the lighter from her and held down the ignition. She breathed in, and the tip of the cigarette glowed red.

"Thanks," she said. Smoke plumed out of her mouth as she stared off into the woods, avoiding eye contact with me. I breathed in heavily through my nose. I loved the smell of cigarette smoke.

"Do you want one?" Liz held out the pack to me, still avoiding eye contact.

"No, I'm okay," I said. I'd been trying to cut down on the amount that I smoked, sticking pretty much to just weed. Cade, the vocalist for Wolfpack, had been practicing screaming with me, so my throat was pretty rough from that, on top of the strain of performing. I pulled my jacket tight around myself, shivering.

I need to put on something warmer.

"I'm sorry," Liz finally said.

"It's not your fault."

"I should have been paying better attention. I should have seen that truck coming sooner."

"That asshole was driving like a fucking maniac," I said. "He was right in the middle of the road, and he didn't even pull over. There's nothing you could have done."

"I should have told you to wear a seatbelt."

"I'm okay," I said. "Just a bit of a headache."

"I still feel bad. You were unconscious, and . . . "

"Look, Liz. It's not your fault. No one is blaming you. The bus can still run. It's just stuck. As soon as someone comes by, we'll be able to get out of here. We probably won't even be late for the show."

Liz nodded. Her blue eyes shimmered in the light. Was she . . . crying? Liz never cried.

"Alex, I just thought of something."

"What?"

"I don't remember when the last time I saw a car before that truck was. I don't remember seeing any. Not even one."

I froze as her words sank in. She'd been driving since midnight. How could she not have seen a single car? It was the middle of the night, sure, but not even one?

How long was it going to be before someone drove by?

I stared off into the woods in front of us. The headlights illuminated tree after tree until everything faded to darkness in the distance. Branches shifted and moaned with the wind like arms with thousands of tiny, pointy fingers.

Something flickered and glimmered behind one of the distant trees. My heart pounded as I focused in on it, my eyes stretching wide. I wasn't sure if it was a pair of eyes or just a leaf. Sticks snapped in the distance, the sound echoing through the forest like a rock thrown into a well. A dark shape moved between the trees.

My eyes watered and burned from staring. I blinked.

It was gone. Just my eyes playing tricks on me. A weird reflection from the headlights. Or maybe it was some sort of animal.

Wolves. Bears.

A chill traveled down my spine. The unsettling sensation that we were being watched latched on to the back of my mind.

"Maybe we should turn the headlights off and get on the bus," I suggested. "We don't want to run the battery out."