Where I live I have to catch a bus pretty much anywhere, obviously, I could get a car but the prospect of driving has never been of interest to me. For this reason, I’m pretty in the know about the bus system and, often find myself on the late buses home. I’ve gotten to know the majority of the drivers who operate the routes I take. Put it like this, I know the usual driver’s name and can spot if there’s a newbie on their crew, but I don’t know their shifts or their mother’s name—nothing like that.
About a year ago, I started a new job in the city centre which is about 10-12 miles away so I have to catch a bus for nearly its entire journey every day. It was then that I started noticing the number 36. While appearing normal at a glance, over the passing months I started noticing more and more bizarre aspects of the bus.
For one, the driving was always perfect, not just a good driver, it felt like it always managed to go the exact same route second for second, inch for inch. I once saw it go over a pothole that had formed and watched as it did not react at all to the jolt and thud it should’ve as it hit the hole at that speed. It felt like an unstoppable force, a weight seemed to permeate from it so much that looking at the thing gave me the same feeling as standing at the base of a skyscraper and looking straight up.
Another thing was the people on it. As the bus never stopped I didn’t get a really close look at them, but I always felt very strange about them. They didn’t seem to look right and although they were doing very normal things they never seemed to do them quite right. I saw a man click the button, get up, and then just sit back down again, while random and innocuous, when I saw him do it every time the thing passed it started to get a bit on the disconcerting side.
And finally, as I mentioned, it never stopped. Not that it didn’t have passengers on it, as a matter of fact, the bus almost looked completely full every time it passed. I only realised this after 6 months of it regularly passing at regular bus intervals when I, with a start noticed I had never once seen it stop. I started looking closer at the bus stops we passed. It seemed like the bus had the exact same route as my own, only there was never a 36 listed on the stops. None of them. I even downloaded every bus app I could find, but upon searching I was only greeted with the familiar empty screen showing me all too well what I already knew; It had no stops.
More than this, I never saw it stop at a light, even roads I knew were the busiest at rush hour. It seemed to glide through the streets unwavering or unslowing. It wasn’t like it ran red lights either, it just happened that whenever it was near, the flow of traffic was so that it would never need to stop. I actually laughed upon finding this, like seeing a Mr. Green Light advert happening in its true fashion, only this dissipated quickly, leaving me unnerved.
Now to say this is strange is an understatement, but it wasn’t what put me in the state of terror I now find myself in. You see, one night must’ve been about 3 am maybe, I found myself in town and unable to get home, I was out of money, my card had just declined at the bar I was at and my next paycheck wasn’t till Friday so a taxi was out of option. The final late-bus was at 2 am so I couldn’t even catch that back. With no other option, I would have to walk.
About an hour into my walk, I was feeling extremely exhausted. It’s not an easy walk from the city centre to home and I knew it was going to be getting light by the time I’d be anywhere close to home, this was when I was interrupted from my thoughts as my phone had long since died. I saw the stop as I turned the corner. Every glass panel smashed out, every seat broken out of their holders, sprayed with years of graffiti and tags built up upon each other until there wasn’t a single part of the original frame colour showing. I stopped for a moment, wondering why there had been no move to fix the stop, it had clearly been there years without repair and it was then that I came to a sudden and dreadful realisation; I knew for certain there was no stop there, nor had there ever been. Like I said, I know this route like the back of my own hand and I also know that there was never a stop there.
It was as I had this realisation, that a bus slowly rolled up next to the stop, and opened its doors. Looking at the number I realised; it was the 36. That familiar vertigo feeling washed over me and my legs started to feel weak.
I took this impossibility in for but a moment before coming to the abrupt decision to walk over and climb aboard. It was strange, despite the fleeting fear I was feeling there seemed to be this… pull for me, although maybe my fatigue and drunkenness had clouded my judgement. There was still a large apprehension in my mind despite this, but the bus still seemed as full as ever and I was not in mind walking another 2 hours in pitch blackness when an opportunity for a 40-minute bus ride was right there in front of me.
Entering the bus, the air was stale, it was like stepping through a fog gate but without the fog, a strange density which rested uneasily in my chest. I got out my wallet and placed my swift card on the reader. It beeped, and although I didn’t like how it sounded, it cut through the silence harshly, and it felt all too much like making a noise by accident while trying to hide. This put me on edge in a very unexpected way, but I didn’t have long to dwell on this feeling.
I turned to walk down the aisle to a free seat. Turning to face the crowded bus, I froze in true abject horror. What stared back at me, or should I say, alluded to staring at me. They had no eyes, but they were most definitely staring at me, no ears but pretended to recoil at my screams, no mouth, yet salivated and drooled obscenely through that strange fleshy contortion of a human face. They looked like optical illusions, those pictures that, when viewed from a certain angle can appear to be following you round the room but once you view it from the other side it looks like a malformation of what is supposed to be.
From the outside of the bus I was still in this illusion, still seeing them as was intended for the illusion to work, but stepping on, front facing to them I knew they were anything but. thirty fleshy mimes blindly looked at me from that crowded place, there was a half second of pure silence where time seemed to stand still as I froze with fright and attempted to choke down this grotesque view, but this was shortly interrupted, as the familiar ding of the stop button rang out, and every single thing on that bus rose to their feet, unwaveringly still, unbreathing, their drooling turned into a thick viscous stream flowing and foaming, dripping obscenely onto the floor and seats. I had sudden flashes in my mind, visions of them descending on me like a horde, ripping and tearing, turning me into a bloody, gut stricken pile of torn flesh for them to add another passenger to that awful bus. Turning on my heel i darted back off the bus before the driver had time to close the door. I had very quickly decided that a two-hour walk would be an infinity better than spending another second on that bus. I ran. Simple as that. With my fatigue gone, adrenaline fueling my body, I took to the street and bolted as quickly as possible, picking paths I knew were not my usual route home.
I didn’t get a good look at the bus driver, but the one glimpse I caught of him gave me a splitting headache just trying to picture it again. but, I do remember one thing though - he wasn’t like them, and I don’t know if that makes me feel relieved, or filled with pure dread. I like to think he chose to give me time to assess my situation and come to a decision before closing the doors, god knows he had time to during my panic, perhaps he gave all of those aboard that choice at some point when it was quieter, more empty. When they might’ve not noticed a strange face at the back row, or a strange driver, patiently waiting for them to take a seat…
I still see that bus going about its way, although now whenever it passes, its passengers are always staring at me, though I know now that is but an illusion, and they would be looking at me no matter where I was. I think I might get driving lessons soon.