Copyright © 2017 by Sirra Arris
Cover artwork copyright ©2017 by Bad Creative Books
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, please write to the publisher at the address below.
65, Victory WaySatellite townCalabar, Municipality, Calabar asirraelive@yahoo.com goldpenciluk@gmail.com
Ordering Information:Quantity sales. Special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, and others. For details, contact the publisher at the address above.Orders by U.S. trade bookstores and wholesalers.

PROLOGUE

The four o'clock bus was filling up quickly, thanks to the annual influx of academy students around this time. With July being the start of the school year, the new admissions were required to resume a week earlier, with the exclusion of prefects.
Students filed into the bus with backpacks and cellphones in hand, occassionally lifting their heads to search for preferred seating positions. The air blasting in from the windows felt different on the skin. It was dry and cool; a stark contrast to the usual, blistering heat of Dokano.
The lungs in Juuro Kabashi's chest came together in warm embrace, as he took in the green scenery from his window seat. He preferred seats towards the middle, so if anything happened upfront or at the back, he'd have a higher chance of surviving.
In spite of his pessimistic tendencies, there was plenty for him to smile about. He had gained admission into the prestigious Dokano Academy, after passing the entrance exams for that year, and today was resumption day.
Of the available six hundred points, He'd scored five hundred and sixteen, and was second only to another score of five hundred and nineteen. Also, his eighteenth birthday was a little over five months ago, and he was still basking in the euphoria of being legally allowed to drink beer.
Up ahead, the ticket inspector called back the last of the new entrants, a lanky lad with sandy brown hair, and the bulgiest eyes Juuro had ever seen. He informed the passenger that he had maxed out his bus pass credit, and would have to pay anew for this particular ride. An argument soon broke out between the two, with the lad dissing the inspector, and promising to employ him for less than the price of the bus pass.
This angered the chubby inspector, who'd never quite developed the thick skin required for this job, in all his years of service. As a result, he went red in the cheeks, and began taking steps to evict the owing passenger.
Before he could get to him however, the kid pulled out a wad of notes, which acted as a wall between himself and the inspector. This made the bus erupt in laughter, a laughter that continued well after the engine had started, and finally died down when the bus began to move.
Juuro wondered if this shared sense of camaraderie was the general mood at his intended destination. Everyone in the bus seemed so happy and at ease with each other, except for his seatmate, who had plugged in earphones, and gone to sleep as soon as he boarded.
Returning his gaze to the window, he observed the beautiful coast lines, and fine grained, beach sands on the way. It was a port city, in a country of the same name. Its sparse population could be chalked down to the fact that it had exited a severe recession in the last decade; a period rife with guerilla assasinations, political upheavals and counter upheavals. However, it was also on the verge of an economic renaissance, and had repositioned itself as a destination for business, and a growing educational sector.
Its most famous landmark; The Dokano academy, prided itself on being the foremost centre of learning in the sub-Saharan region. With high, albeit strict standards applicable to its learning and living environments, he hoped nothing would get in the way of him having fun.
The bus jerked a bit as it drove past the Eastman properties billboard, veering off the clean, tarred road and onto a bumpy, sandy one. The road was flanked on either side by a combination of dust-covered thorny shrubbery, and towering oak trees that cushioned the rays from the high noon sun. As it trudged down the dusty terrain, the bus began to make a grating, screeching sound before grinding slowly to a halt.
Thin wisps of smoke escaped from beneath the engine's hood, as both driver and inspector jumped down to diagnose the source of the halt. Juuro looked down at his smart watch, hoping this wouldnt be more than a slight delay, as today was the last day for registrations. The bus was still about an hour away from the campus, so he decided against getting too anxious.
The ticket inspector climbed into the driver's seat, awaiting orders to either switch off the engine or keep it running. By now, most of the students had exited the bus to stretch their legs, and see what the problem was. They had resumed their discussions from within the bus, while a handful formed a semi-circle behind the driver, discussing engine specifications and possible remedies to the current problem.
‘Turn it on!' yelled the driver.
The inspector, doing as he was told, turned the key clockwise in the ignition. However, the engine only belched out a thicker puff of smoke.
‘Turn it off! Turn it off!' the driver yelled again.
The ticket inspector again did as he was told and switched off the ignition, prompting a loud, metallic rattle from the engine, and a slight jerk, before going completely cold. He then went on a rant about poor maintenance culture, as Juuro watched in amusement, still seated inside the bus, next to his sleeping seatmate.
‘How long since you last serviced this bus?' The inspector wailed.
‘This is exactly the sort of thing i hate. You guys divert funds required for maintenance and... .'
‘Shut the Bleep up!' said the red eyed, ginger bearded driver.
‘It's just an issue with the bearing, I'll fix it and we'll be outta here in the next hour or two.' He said, to the disappointed groans of the students behind him.
‘Next hour or two?' asked the short, bald student closest to the engine's hood.
‘We have to finish our registration within the next hour' he said, looking at his watch.
‘The radiator is hot, needs sufficient time to cool down, so the top gasket doesn't get blown' said the bulgy eyed kid from earlier.
‘Yeah, yeah whatever, Give me a thirteen spanner there' the driver said to the inspector in a muffled voice.
‘It's a fifteen you'd need, and it's a two man job' said the bulgy eyed kid.
‘The hell do you know about spanners boy?' said the driver.
‘My father owns an auto repair and customs shop, that's enough certification' said bulgy eyes, as he took off his maroon school jacket, and got under the bus with the driver.
‘I don't see any thirteen spanner here' said the inspector.
He shook his head, while opening the pigeon hole to search for the spanners.
The earlier jerk seemed to have woken up Juuro's seat mate, as he began fidgeting in his seat.
‘Hey brah' he mumbled in a raspy, almost musical accent.
‘How's it going? I'm Kukana, but most people call me Cooks' he said, squeezing Juuros hand in a steel gripped handshake.
"I'm good man, I'm Juuro, nothing fancy"
He wasn't sure if the red coloration in Cooks's eyes were as a result of sleep, or whatever it was his jacket reeked off, but the bloodshot hue looked too unnatural to be sleep-induced.
‘What's happening brah?' asked Cooks,
‘Car stopped for some unknown reason, we might be here a while'.
‘Fresher?' Cooks asked.
‘Yeah, you?'
‘Sure mate... Listen, you and me…We're going to change the world.' said Cooks, with a bright smile and dimly lit eyes.
Juuro laughed at the grandiose claim, while staring straight at the chubby blonde's wide, dumbo-like ears.
‘What a weirdo', he thought to himself.
‘I'm from Ballaran, Ilbury, but grew up switching between Northern Pozonin and Tremojka.' said Cooks.
‘That's cool,' Juuro replied.
‘I'm from Riva's Cross, Nijora. Grew up in East end of Obenda though. Only just moved to Dokano about four years ago' said Juuro.
There was a brief silence as the car seemed to have been kickstarted.
‘Major?' Juuro asked.
‘I'm in education'
‘Why that? It's not very lucrative, is it? ' Juuro inquired.
‘Love working with kids' Cooks replied with a satisfied tone.
‘I'm in Marketing Management' chimed Juuro.
‘Oh that's great, nice one mate' said Cooks, as they shook hands again, before returning to their travel induced naps.
The bus gave a mechanical roar, and revved into action, to the applause of the students outside. They all boarded the bus, and everywhere was noisy and happy again. Soon enough, the bus left the dust path and was fast approaching the Tor Damisa Bridge, with the green scenery giving way to a massive expanse of blue, on either side of the bridge.
High waves made heavy, barrel roll movements in the body of water below, while the wind played macabre music against the bus's windows. Juuro opened his eyes briefly, likening the riverine location to the maximum security prisons he had seen on television.
As he closed his eyes to sleep once more, he was startled by the wild swerving movement of the bus, amidst high-pitched screams. It had somehow veered off the straight path, and hurtled on towards the railings of the bridge, before smashing right through it.
In a flash, the bus was airborne. A feeling of mass panic permeated the entire bus, especially among those who couldn't swim. The bus was at least thirty feet from the water's surface level, and must have made at least two flips in the air, before slamming into the water.
As the bus sank, its insides rapidly filled with water from the open windows. This wasn't a problem for Cooks who was a first class swimmer, and was already half way out, via of one of the windows. Juuro was one of the unfortunate few who couldn't swim, but he knew he would have to learn on the spot, if he was going to have a fighting chance at survival.
He followed Cooks, but found it hard to keep afloat. Water had begun to seep into his lungs, leaving him with a choking sensation in his throat. His eyes welled up with saline tears, as bubbles escaped his mouth in an attempt to scream. By this time, those who could swim, were making their way to the top for air. The rest, continued their descent into the darkened depths of a soon-to-be-certain watery grave.
He tried to claw back some air, as the water filled his lungs, but it was to no avail. Time seemed to slow down, as he felt the river's icy caress on his face. He had always imagined what things would be like in his last moments.
In his head, the imagery of his deathday had always been one of him on a plane, with the knowledge that it was destined to crash in a matter of seconds. He'd always asked himself what he would do in such a situation. Would he attempt to contact his loved ones? Would he swallow his pride and cry out to a divine power he never believed in? Would he try to remain calm in his personal belief that nothing existed after this life? He didn't have time to choose, as he could still feel his body fighting against the pull of the river's magnetic darkness.
The light at the river's roof grew dimmer, and he felt a painful throbbing in his ears, as he slipped into a blurry state of unconsciousness, right before the bus hit the water floor.
When he came to, he was lying on the middle of the bridge next to Cooks, who seemed shaken by the entire incident. He sat up straight; a shivering, red eyed mess, holding onto a drenched set of headphones. ‘Were it not for the graveness of the situation, it would have been an almost funny sight to behold.' Juuro thought to himself.
‘Ay, WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED MATE!' Cooks screamed.
Juuro was none the wiser, he had just woken up and hated being screamed at.
‘You tell me, I just got here' ‘All i can remember is the bus sinking beneath me, and then I blacked out' Juuro blurted.
'Mate, All i can remember is being unable to get to the top. It's like there was some sort of water ceiling …no, a water prison of some sort, and none of us could get through.
I'm running out of air right? And then I look down and see you struggling to come up, so i go down to help. But then you were covered in some weird kind of blue light, and then i passed out"
Cooks stopped for a bit, furrowing his brows in full concentration.
‘Wake up and there absolutely no sign of the others or the bloody bus mate' he said, while still shaking.
There was another pause, and the boys stared at each other in tensed silence, until they were interrupted by the rippling waves of the water beneath them. It was as though a massive cooker had just been turned on, and the entire body of water had reached its boiling point in that instant.
The sky had darkened in a matter of seconds, and the once fluffy white clouds had given way to jagged patches of grey. To the left of the bridge, a water tornado reminiscent of Juuro's childhood bath memories, had begun to form. The memory was of one in which he would stick his hand in a bucket of water, and... THE END. TO READ MORE, PLEASE GO HERE https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/1DC8OMK80D9IW
CLICK THE BLUE NOMINATE BUTTON IF YOU WOULD LIKE A FREE COPY UPON ITS RELEASE. FOLLOW @BadCreativ3 on Twitter for updates