Date: Fri, 12 May 2023 00:45:05 -0700 From: Juxepe Albi Subject: Nightlife in L.A. - Chapter 5 - The Bus Stops Here Chapter 5: The Bus Stops Here Adrian narrates: The accident had been unavoidable; the driver had a fatal heart attack as the bus rounded the curve, and the bus left the roadway, tumbling down the side of the mountain and onto the rocks at the water's edge. I had had a premonition of this accident in a daydream; and I knew what we had to do. Jace, Gary, Dr. Ben, Dr. Ches, and I quickly appeared at the scene. Just as we arrived, a gasoline explosion at the water's edge decimated the remains of the bus and all who were inside. The right side of the bus had been scraped off on the rocks, and the bodies of the those seated on that side, and those that had fallen onto them, were strewn from half-way down, to the bottom of the cliff. Most were practically dead already. "Hurry, get them to drink; it's their only hope," Ben shouted. "Quickly!" "Help me!" a boy just at my feet cried out. I bit my wrist and held it to his mouth. "Drink!" I commanded. "My friend...." he urged, indicating a boy lying across his legs. I didn't think that boy had a chance, but hurried to him, holding my wrist over his mouth. Although he looked unconscious, he managed to lick the blood running down my arm twice or three times, when I urged him to do so. The five of us managed to get blood into all of them----fifteen boys, obviously from a local private school. "Will they make it?" Jace asked no one in particular. "Only time will tell," Ches answered. "We have to get them away from here before anyone sees them. After that explosion, I doubt there will be enough evidence to determine how many were actually still on the bus. We managed to zap them out just before the incoming tide covered the entire surface of the beach below the place where the wreck had occurred. "This is the largest number of people we have taken in since our arrival in this country," Ben remarked. "I hope we don't regret it. Some of them may not like the idea of what we did." "You think they had rather be dead?" Gary asked. "I don't think so. The oldest one can't be more than sixteen. Kids that young would want to live, no matter what!" "I hope you are right," Ben replied. We had to take them to the docs' clinic, where there were enough beds for them. "Luckily, it's a holiday week," Ches remarked. "No one will be coming to work for the next seven days. That will be long enough to determine how successful we have been." The next two days passed quickly, with the doctors checking every few hours for signs of cellular regeneration of their injuries, or of rigor mortis. By the fourth day it was pretty obvious that all had survived; the question was, would they be sane? That was another risk. On the sixth day, I was doing the inspections, when someone spoke. "Hello. Is anyone here?" It was the boy who had asked me to help his friend. "Well, hello," I replied. "It's you," he said. "You saved me." "Yes, and your friend, too," I replied. "Where is he?" he asked anxiously. I pointed to the bed just across from him, and handed him a half-glass of "juice." "Drink this quickly; it won't taste too good," I said. He did. "My vision is clearing; but, when I woke up, I could barely focus," he said. "Wow, it got better as soon as I swallowed this stuff. It's awful, what is it? "Probably a head injury," I replied, "but I don't see an injury." "I didn't mean that; but yeah, about that..." he looked at me. "You told me to drink blood from your arm. We saw a movie about that just two days ago; does it mean what I think it means?" "What do you think it means?" I asked. "I'm a vampire now?" he said with a broad smile. "I'm afraid so; but a Strigoij-viu, which means you don't have to sleep during the day, and won't be harmed by the sun," I replied, handing him another glass of "juice.""The other choice was to let you die; but I don't know how you feel about it." "Cool!" he said, "So Sully will be one, too?" "Sully?" "Yes, that's my friend, I'm Chuck," he informed me. "Hey, this glass doesn't taste bad at all." "Oh...," came from behind me. "It looks as though your friend is waking, too," I said. "Sully!" Chuck called. "Chuck?" the other boy called. "Where are you?" "Over here, look past your feet," Chuck said. "Across the aisle." I handed Sully a half-glass of "juice," telling him to drink it, which he did. "Yecht! It tastes like iron filings!" he said. "And you have tasted a lot of iron filings, I guess?" I said, jokingly, handing him a full glass. "It won't taste so bad this time." :I need some help, here,: I Sent, to nobody in particular. :They are waking up, at last.: Some of the worst cases had required some stitches; but most stitches were removed as soon as their cells began to regenerate. The worst case was a small boy with flaming red hair. I went to his bedside to check on him. We had been really worried about him. He was lying there with his eyes open. "Hey," I said. "How do you feel?" "I'm alive!" he squeaked, his voice cracking. "Is it a surprise?" I asked, handing him his "juice." "Yeah, I saw my arm nearly ripped off and there was a huge gash in my chest," he replied, drinking the "juice." "You look all right now," I remarked, looking at his chest, completely free of blemishes or scars. "Yeah, so I guess that movie we saw wasn't as fantastic as we thought, huh?" he asked. "Not so much," I replied. "Is that O.K.?" "I'll say!" he replied. "Alive is better than dead, in my book! Phtooey! What is this stuff?" I handed him a full glass. "It won't taste so bad this time," I assured him. "You will have to drink one glass of this every day." "It's not blood, is it? It sure doesn't taste like blood," he observed. "No, it's a blood substitute developed by two scientists a few years ago," I replied. "Does that mean we won't need to bite people?" he asked, with a grin. "That's exactly what it means," I replied, sticking my tongue out at him. "I'm Xander Gillette, but they call me Razor," he offered. "I'm Adriano Filotti, but I go by Adrian," I replied. "Enchanté," he said, giggling. "Likewise." The next day, we all teleported to our home in the hills, and assigned rooms to the boys. The clinic would be open again the next day; and they had to clear out to avoid being seen by any of the doctors' employees. We had few neighbors near our home, which we had named Conac Filotti, a four-storey mansion on heavily wooded grounds; and none of the neighbors' houses were visible from ours, and vice versa. There was an eight-foot-tall stone wall all around the property; and similar walls surrounded the neighbor's houses. The woods and undercover bushes were dense on the whole hillside; and there was lattice-work and netting over our yards, making observation from above impossible, as well. So our outdoor pool and our cook-outs were not subject to observation by our neighbors. "How many were on your bus?" Dr. Ben asked. "Sixteen, including the driver," Chuck replied. "That's all? Sixteen?" Ben asked again. "That's all," Sully said, confirming what his friend had said. "Then no one was lost?" Dr. Ches asked. "Guess not," Sully replied. The boys had already been informed of their condition; that is, that they were now vampires and would not be able to rejoin their families. We were surprised to learn that none of them had families and that the bus was from a fostering facility in Long Beach. The remains of the bus had been found the next day, but there was no evidence that anyone had been on it. The denizens of the water had seen to it that not a single piece of flesh or bone from the driver was found. The media had it that they were all lost in the wreckage and the ocean. There was very little coverage of the incident other than that. It was really lucky for the boys that there was actually nothing in their lives for them to miss. They had been on a holiday excursion up the coast; and there were no relatives for the foster facility to notify. "Four guys didn't get to go on the trip," Stan, a tall, thin boy remarked. "If they had had a choice, they would have come with us, even if they had known what would happen. It's awful at that place." "Awful, how?" I asked. "They do things to us," he replied. "Things that hurt us." "In a few days, after you have learned how to use some of your new abilities, we will go and check on them," I said. "What new abilities?" he asked. Gary jumped into the conversation. "Oh, things like to become invisible, teleport, mind-speak, use mind control, change your appearance, fascinate or sort of hypnotize people..." he told them. "Hunh-uh!" one of the boys said. "Unh-huh!" Gary replied. "I shit you not! Wait until you find out I'm telling you the truth." He vanished, then returned. "Wow!" they all said at once. "That's how we will go to see your four friends," I told them. "They will not be able to see us. If your friends want to come with us, they can. Jase's and Gary's younger brothers live with us; and they are still regular humans, both thirteen years old. We had to rescue them from their fathers. We will arrange for your friends to be 'adopted' and reportedly sent to England. You'll see." Chuck, Sully, Razor, and his friend, Garbo were able to borrow clothes from Jace, Mikey, Gary and Russ, their sizes being just about equal; and we squeezed into my S-10 extended cab to go clothes shopping for everyone----all their clothes having burned in the explosion. They were not able to claim anything from the Long Beach place, since they were supposed to be dead. The others coöperated with them, giving them sizes and requesting certain colors and styles. We decided, after much discussion, to get just basic things with one outfit each; so that they could go pick out what they wanted for themselves. We basically just bought some boxer-briefs, a pair of jeans each, and some t-shirts for them, and more complete wardrobes for the shoppers. Everybody had to have a dark suit, Father's orders; that meant dress shoes, white shirts and ties. One of Father's friends owned a tailor shop; so we went there for the suits. Everyone had to be measured. We would get the dress shoes there, too. When we got back to the house, we put the camper on the S-10 so everybody else could go at once to the tailor shop. It took quite a bit longer, since we stopped at the mall and bought more clothes for the rest of them. We snuck into the Long Beach facility that night, and found that it was just as bad as the boys had said. Their friends begged us to take them away from the place; and I assured them that it would happen in a day or two. I was amazed that they took our zapping in and out so well. The second night we had a cook-out. The doctors joined us, as did my father and some of the Elders of the Authority group, who were seated apart from us in the atrium. Our "good deed" was being reviewed by the Elders, to determine if we would be disciplined. It was a relief when Father came to me to explain that, since the boys were orphans, and no family involved, there would be no discipline imposed. They even agreed for us to take the four remaining boys and educate them in our private school. We had retrieved all the necessary information from the records at the facility; and the adoption paperwork would be delivered early the next morning----at the same time, the boys would be removed from their care. My family was growing; all the newbies would be considered to be under my care; although Drs. Ben and Ches would help me, especially with the "juice" supply. I had only found out at the cook-out that, through our family investments, I was a partner in the company where it was produced. It was a large pharmaceutical company based in upstate New York. I was to become much more familiar with it in the near future. Please consider supporting Nifty with your donation to https://donate.nifty.org/ Funds used to continue these free stories