A bus crashes on they way home from a trip. The survivors wait to be rescued when strange things start to happen to them.
The bus ride was drawing to an end, and even though it had been a really interesting, educational, and fun trip with work, most people agreed it would be nice to get home again. One person who didn’t share that feeling was Jonathan, who would rather be off on an adventure at all times and quickly grew restless when nothing new was happening. Two others who wouldn’t have minded the trip lasting a bit longer were Sven and Johanna. They probably thought no one had noticed, but the fact that they disappeared into the same hotel room after the last night’s dinner hadn’t escaped many. Nor had the way they couldn’t seem to take their eyes off each other, despite their efforts to look indifferent.
I sat in the back of the bus watching them shift in their seats and sneak glances at one another, and couldn’t help but smile. My gaze wandered over the rest of my colleagues, and I noticed Erik watching Johanna and Sven. When he looked at Johanna, he just looked sad and defeated — but when his eyes shifted to Sven, they were full of jealousy and hate. Everyone knew Erik had a thing for Johanna, but this new, strong dislike for Sven was something I hadn’t seen before. Had something happened during the trip, or was it just jealousy? Oh well, things would probably sort themselves out once we got back to everyday life.
I felt tired, leaned back, and closed my eyes. It didn’t take long before I drifted in and out of shallow sleep. I’ve never been able to sleep properly on buses, trains, or planes, no matter how tired I am. Eventually I must have dozed off, but I was jolted awake when the driver swore loudly from the front of the bus. A split second later came a loud bang — the whole bus lurched violently — and to my horror, I saw us speeding toward the guardrail.
The rail slowed us down briefly, but as we entered a curve, the pressure became too much and the barrier gave way. The bus plunged down the slope and into the forest below. What felt like an eternity followed as we crashed through branches and trees before finally coming to a stop with a violent jolt against a pile of rocks.
Only then did I notice the screams — panic and terror from my fellow passengers. I was gripping the seat in front of me so tightly that my knuckles were white, and my fingers ached.
I felt my phone vibrating in my pocket, which reminded me that we needed to call 911 — the emergency number. But I had no idea where we were. It didn’t matter; I grabbed my phone and tried to call, but the line immediately dropped. No signal. My coworker Simon, who sat nearby, saw my failed attempt and pulled out his own phone. He looked at me questioningly.
“Before we crashed, I had full signal,” he said. “I was watching Netflix — now there’s nothing. Weird.”
He scratched his head, then got up and stepped over to me.
“You okay? Are you hurt?”
I shook my head and stood up. “No, I’m fine. But we should check how everyone else is doing.”
“Yeah.” Simon looked around, then turned back to me. “What the hell just happened?”
“No idea.”
More people were starting to move now, looking around, checking themselves. Everyone — except Lena. She sat motionless in her seat, her head tilted against the window and the backrest in front of her. Something about her posture looked wrong. A bad feeling settled in my stomach as I reached forward and took her by the shoulders, easing her back against the seat. Her body was limp. Her eyes were wide open but glassy, empty — no response at all. I checked her pulse, found nothing, and felt nausea rise in my throat.
“Is she dead?”
Johanna’s voice was trembling.
“Yeah... I’m afraid so.”
At first Johanna just looked shocked, but soon she broke down, crying hysterically, speaking so fast I couldn’t understand a word. Her thick Värmland accent was hard enough to follow under normal circumstances — now it was impossible. Sven went over to comfort her, but she pulled away, and when he tried again, she pushed him off roughly. He stumbled backward into a seat across the aisle, stunned.
The rest of the passengers were reacting in all kinds of ways — panic, shock, blank stares. Some were frantically trying to help others, while some just froze. Luckily, no one else seemed seriously injured, just bruised and shaken. I asked Simon to help me move Lena to the back of the bus, and he didn’t hesitate. Once we’d laid her down, we covered her with her jacket and went forward to check on the others.
Through the window, I could see nothing but blackness, though I could hear rushing water nearby — a river or stream, maybe. I was thankful the bus hadn’t gone farther; in early spring that water would be freezing, and we’d never have survived it. I shook off the thought and made my way toward the driver. He was still sitting in his seat, both hands gripping the wheel.
“You okay?” I asked carefully.
He nodded slowly. “He just ran out in front of the bus. I didn’t have a chance to stop.”
“Who?”
“A man. He just stepped right out onto the road in front of us. It was so strange — he just stood there, staring straight at me. Didn’t even try to move.” The driver shook his head, looking down. “He just stared… I had no chance to stop or swerve.”
“What happened to him?”
The driver turned toward me, his face pale.
“I ran him over.”
I looked up the slope in the direction we must have come from — and froze. Something was glowing faintly among the trees. A flickering light moved slowly down the slope toward us, then vanished about fifty meters ahead of the bus. What the hell was that? It looked almost like a swarm of fireflies.
“My phone’s still dead — can you try calling 911?”
The driver pulled out his phone, frowned, and showed me the screen. No signal there either. We must’ve landed in some kind of dead zone.
The next few hours were spent tending minor injuries, talking, and trying to figure out what to do. We eventually decided to stay put and wait for someone to notice we were missing and alert rescue services. Two people went outside to build a fire a little ways from the bus so it could be seen from the road.
There was one problem — no one smoked, so no one had a lighter. After some rummaging around, Simon remembered he had a box of matches left in his fishing backpack. Sure enough, he found them, and together we gathered branches and twigs and got a fire going. Everything was damp from weeks of rain, but after some effort, we had a good blaze going. The fire’s warmth felt amazing in the cold spring air.
One by one, everyone came out of the bus to stand by the fire. No one spoke. Most just stared into the flames, lost in thought. Even Anna — who could never stand silence — stood quietly, eyes fixed on the fire.
We stayed there the whole night, taking turns collecting wood to feed the flames. Watching the sparks drift upward, I thought of the strange swarm of “fireflies” I’d seen earlier and asked if anyone else had seen it. Everyone shook their heads except the driver, who nodded.
“It disappeared over there, down the slope,” he said, pointing.
By morning light, we could finally see our surroundings. It was, surprisingly, a beautiful place — a river rushing by just twenty meters away, pine-covered slopes, and a meadowy clearing not far below where the fireflies had vanished. We’d been incredibly lucky to survive the crash, everyone except poor Lena.
Scanning the area, my eyes caught on something — a dark opening in the hillside above the meadow. A cave. I waved Simon over and pointed it out. He nodded. “Looks like a cave, all right.”
“Should we check it out?”
“Of course!” he said with a grin.
Johanna looked skeptical. “Maybe you should wait here. We could be rescued any time, and you two shouldn’t go off playing cave explorers.”
“We won’t disappear,” I said. “Just a quick look. You can come along if you want — might take your mind off things.”
She looked away stubbornly, but when Simon and I started walking, she called out, “Wait! I’ll come too.” She apologized for snapping earlier, saying the whole situation — and losing Lena — had been too much. Getting away for a bit might actually help.
When Johanna joined, Sven stood up too and followed. He smiled at her flirtatiously, but she looked more uncomfortable than interested now. They were both married, and I guessed last night’s ordeal had killed whatever spark there’d been between them.
The sun was rising through the trees, and I could feel its warmth on my face. Mist hung over the water, and a cool breeze carried that crisp scent of early morning. For a brief moment, I forgot everything — the crash, the fear — and just existed, feeling the peace of the moment. Then I snapped back to reality and realized I’d fallen behind. I jogged a few steps and gave Simon a playful shove when I caught up. People at work called us “Chip and Dale” — we were close friends, and I could always be myself around him. Johanna was the opposite: nice, but overly proper and rigid, the type who needed a theme even for after-work drinks. Sven, on the other hand, was quiet, withdrawn, hard to read — almost emotionless. How he and Johanna had ended up together during the trip was beyond me.
At the cave entrance, Simon and I peered inside and then at each other, both grinning with curiosity. Johanna looked uneasy; Sven was, as usual, unreadable. I turned on my phone’s flashlight. The cave was clearly man-made — the floor was mostly even, though worn by time. It formed a long vaulted tunnel, and we couldn’t see the end.
“Gotta take a leak before we go in,” I said.
I stepped a few meters away to a bush. Simon joined me, and then Sven followed. Johanna sighed.
“Why do men always have to pee in groups?” she said, crossing her arms. “Can’t you hold it when things get exciting?”
She turned her back toward the cave. I shrugged and glanced sideways — and holy hell, Sven was... well-endowed. Simon noticed my reaction, looked too, and his eyes went wide.
Sven zipped up and walked back to Johanna. Simon and I followed, both trying not to laugh.
“Well,” Simon whispered, “now we know what Johanna sees in him.”
I stared at him for a second before we both burst out laughing.
Johanna and Sven looked puzzled as we returned, still chuckling.
“So, when are we going in?” I asked, and stepped inside.
The cave went deep, turning right, then left again. About fifty meters in, it opened into a domed chamber. At the far end stood something — a tall, black obelisk, about three meters high and a meter wide at the base, narrowing toward a blunt pyramid-shaped top.
It was jet black and glossy, like obsidian. I reached out and touched it — and instantly pulled my hand back.
“What happened?” Sven asked.
“I don’t know,” I said. “It felt warm — alive, somehow. Not cold like stone should be. And then…”
“Then what?” Johanna asked.
“It felt like… it was looking inside me. I don’t know how to explain it. It was really unsettling.”
Sven gave me a doubtful look, then stepped forward and pressed his hand to the obelisk. Unlike me, he didn’t pull back. He closed his eyes, a smile spreading across his face, and let out a soft, almost pleased sigh before removing his hand. He looked at the obelisk with something like reverence.
“What did you see?” Johanna asked eagerly.
Sven didn’t answer — just looked satisfied, then turned and walked out of the cave without a word.
The three of us who remained just stared after him.
“You two?” I asked. “Want to touch it?”
Both Simon and Johanna shook their heads. Johanna turned quickly toward the exit. “Let’s get out of here. This place gives me the creeps.”
We didn’t argue. On the way out, Simon glanced at me. “You really saw and felt all that?”
“Yeah. And it felt… invasive. But I wonder what Sven saw — he looked almost blissful.”
We chatted idly on the way back, but I couldn’t shake the feeling from the cave. When I touched that stone, it had felt like something alive had looked through me — or into me.
Before I knew it, we were back at the fire.
“Hey, you with me?” Simon asked. “I’ve been talking the whole way back, but you’ve been somewhere else.”
“Sorry,” I said. “I can’t stop thinking about that thing in the cave.” I shivered and zipped my jacket up fully, stuffing my hands into my pockets.
Sven stood off to the side, that strange smile on his lips. His gaze was fixed — on Johanna. He was staring openly now, and she looked uneasy.
I sat down by the fire, leaning back against a rock. My eyes closed, and I drifted off to sleep again.
When I woke, my neck and back were stiff and sore. It was daylight — I guessed I’d only slept a few hours. Simon appeared beside me, grinning, holding out a steaming mug of coffee.
“Morning, sleepyhead. Time to wake up.”
The smell of fresh coffee perked me right up.
“Thanks!”
“I thought only teenagers could sleep like that,” he laughed. “Didn’t know forty-year-olds could too.”
“What do you mean? I’ve only slept a few hours.”
“If you call twenty hours ‘a few,’ sure,” he said. “You’ve been out all afternoon, all night, and most of the morning. I was actually starting to worry.”
I blinked in disbelief. I never slept that long — ever.
“What’s going on over there by the river?” I asked, pointing toward a group of people gathered on the shore.
Simon sighed. “Well, Johanna seems to have crowned herself our leader. Sven’s her loyal guard dog, doing whatever she says. Not sure what’s gotten into them.”
Down by the shore, Johanna was barking orders while Sven stood by her like a bodyguard. Some people seemed to follow her eagerly; others protested. The driver just shook his head and walked away.
A little while later, two coworkers I barely knew came over.
“You two are to build a shelter by the fire — big enough for everyone.”
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me. Build a shelter.”
“You can’t just order us around.”
“Johanna decided it’s your job,” one of them snapped. “She’s in charge now. So get to it.”
They turned and marched back toward the river.
Simon and I looked at each other, baffled.
“What the hell happened while I was asleep?”
“Yeah,” he said. “I’m wondering that too.”
He rubbed his chin, thinking, then continued. “Johanna disappeared last night — we think she went into the cave again. When she came back, she was different. Confident, commanding. She started organizing everyone, telling them what to do. At first, people went along — it felt good to have someone take charge, I guess. But soon, she started ordering people around too much. And Sven…” “Sven made sure everyone did as she said.”
At first, people did as she said—probably because they were relieved that someone had finally taken charge and started to organize things. It felt like they were part of something good. But soon the protests began. Many thought she was acting too much like a boss. Sven had gathered a few supporters who stood by his side, and together they made sure everyone followed Johanna’s orders.
Everyone except the bus driver, Tomas. He flat-out refused to let anyone tell him what to do. No matter how they tried, he wouldn’t budge. They even threatened to beat him and throw him into the river if he didn’t obey. Still, he stood his ground. Now he’s more or less an outcast—though I think a few secretly agree with him, even if they’re too afraid to say so.
I just sit there, stunned, my mouth hanging open like a fish out of water as I listen to the story.
“Jesus, what a mess,” I finally say. “So… where do you stand in all this?”
“I think we should keep our distance,” he replies. “The atmosphere here is starting to feel really scary.”
As we’re talking, I notice Johanna looking up toward us. She gestures for a few men to come over and says something, pointing in our direction. Moments later, four men stride purposefully toward us, their faces grim.
We decide to stay put and see what they want. When they reach us, they form a circle around us. The one who seems to be in charge—Olof—steps forward, his expression hard.
“Why haven’t you started building the shelter like you were ordered to?” he shouts.
It’s strange—this man yelling at me has always seemed so quiet and kind whenever I’ve seen him before. Now he’s loud, stern, and frankly unpleasant.
“No one here orders me to do anything,” I reply. “If you want something done, you can always ask.”
Olof takes a quick step forward, and before I can react, his fist slams into my gut. I double over and collapse to the ground. Simon tries to rush to me, but two of the men grab him, and a third starts punching me where I lie, gasping for air. Olof stands there with his arms crossed, watching. Fortunately, the man hitting me isn’t very strong; the blows hurt, but I realize I’ll probably get away with just some bruises.
They let Simon go and walk off laughing toward the beach, where Johanna greets them with an approving nod. Sven catches my eye, runs a finger across his throat in a threatening gesture, spits toward us, and then turns back to the others, laughing.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Tomas charging down the hill toward the beach. He stops in front of Johanna and her gang and starts shouting.
“Have you all gone completely insane?” he yells. He points at Johanna. “And you—what makes you think you can act like some damn dictator and order everyone around?”
“You little bitch! And you,” he points at the men, “you miserable bastards—think you’re big and brave now, ganging up four against two? You’re nothing but cowardly rats—cockroaches that should be crushed under a boot!”
Johanna and her gang first look stunned, but their expressions quickly twist into hate. Johanna points at Tomas.
“You’ve really done it now,” she says coldly. “Get him.”
All eight men rush at Tomas. He tries to run but doesn’t make it far before they catch up and shove him to the ground. They start kicking him furiously. Only when he lies completely still do they step back. Tomas is still breathing, but it’s shallow and rasping.
Johanna turns to Sven and says something. He kneels beside Tomas, places both hands around his throat, and squeezes. Tomas thrashes weakly, his legs kicking in panic, until his body finally goes limp. Sven lets go and stands up, turning toward Johanna.
Johanna looks around at the group.
“Is there anyone else who refuses to obey me?”
Sven smiles—a sick mix of pride and reverence.
No one dares say a word. Shocked and terrified, everyone just starts working on their assigned tasks.
Then Tomas’s body begins to shimmer. A swarm of glowing sparks rises from him and drifts toward the cave, vanishing into the darkness inside—just like the lights we saw right after the crash.
Something clicks in my mind. I turn to Simon and whisper,
“Tomas said a man stepped out onto the road before the bus crashed—just stood there staring until the bus hit him.” Simon nods.
“When the bus was down in the ditch, both Tomas and I saw those same sparks—like fireflies—coming down from the road and into the cave.”
“Do you think the obelisk did something to them?” I ask. “Maybe it’s what’s making everyone go crazy?”
Simon scratches his neck, glancing at the beach, then at the cave. “Yeah, sounds likely. But what can we do?”
“I don’t know,” I say, “but when it gets dark, we sneak into the cave. The obelisk looked kind of glassy—maybe we can smash it with some big rocks.”
“Think that’ll work?”
“I have no damn idea,” I admit, “but if we don’t do something, we’ll be dead soon anyway.”
“Fair point,” Simon says. “Let’s do it. But for now, let’s build that shelter before they come back and beat us again.”
I nod, and we start gathering whatever materials we can find. Johanna’s gang keeps an eye on us, but when they see that we’re working, their interest fades.
By evening, we’re drenched in sweat, sore from carrying, lifting, and building—not to mention from the beating. Johanna’s inner circle now carries clubs made from branches and patrols around, making sure everyone stays in line.
Sofia from accounting and Anders from IT are about twenty meters to our right. They’ve liked each other for ages but have always been too shy to act on it. Everyone at the office knew, but no one ever managed to push them to make a move.
Now they lock eyes. Anders steps forward, pulls Sofia close, and kisses her. Passionately. Intensely. We watch, surprised but happy for them. But soon they’re tearing each other’s clothes off, making love wildly on the sand in front of everyone as if the world around them doesn’t exist.
Everyone gathers around, staring, fascinated. I notice that no one’s looking our way anymore. I tug on Simon’s sleeve and nod toward the cave. He glances around and nods back.
We slip away into the darkness, quickly and quietly. No one follows. Soon the night swallows us completely.
At the cave, we each pick up a rock and stop to stare into the blackness ahead.
“Let’s end this madness,” I whisper.
“Yeah,” Simon replies. “Let’s do it.”
We step inside. Once we’re far enough in that no one outside can see the light, we turn on our phone flashlights. The tunnel twists once, and then we see it—the blue glow of the obelisk, pulsing softly. There’s a faint humming sound, deep and steady.
We move closer, though both of us hesitate, glancing nervously at each other. It’s not far—maybe thirty meters—but it feels like miles.
A wave of nausea hits me, and that same horrible sensation returns—that something alien is trying to crawl inside my body and take control. Simon looks terrified.
“It’s inside me,” he gasps. “Something’s trying to control me.”
“Come on,” I shout. “We have to stop it!”
But before we can move, a voice rings out behind us. Johanna.
“And what do you think you’re doing?” she sneers. “You’re in the wrong place—and you’re going to pay for it.”
She nods toward us, and her men start advancing, clubs raised.
“Now or never,” I tell Simon. I look at the obelisk. “Let’s smash the damn thing.”
Simon yells in agreement, and we charge forward, slamming our rocks into the obelisk with all our strength.
A crack appears. We’re about to strike again when the light grows brighter, the pulses faster. The sound rises to a deafening roar. The entire cavern fills with blinding blue light and a high-pitched whine that feels like it’s tearing through our skulls.
I grab Simon and pull him behind a large boulder, shielding our ears. The last thing I see is Johanna standing before the obelisk, arms outstretched as if to embrace the light, while her followers crouch and cover their heads. Then—an explosion of light. Everything goes black.
When I wake up, it’s silent and dark. Simon is breathing beside me. I start to move when I hear it—a low, deep vibration. It grows stronger, closer, until the ground itself seems to hum. A reddish glow appears in the tunnel, moving toward us.
Shapes emerge. At first, I think they’re people—but no. They walk on two legs, but they’re taller, thinner, wearing some kind of space suits. Two long arms, and two smaller ones on their chest. Their knees bend backward, like a bird’s. A thick, forward-curving neck with a single large eye and a mouth below it. No real head.
I lie still, pretending to be dead.
They move among the bodies, inspecting each briefly before moving on. Then one stops and turns toward me. It approaches, leaning over me. In its hand is a gun-like device. I freeze, certain I’m about to die.
It presses the device against my neck and pulls the trigger.
But I don’t die. Instead, warmth floods my body. The pain fades. My muscles relax. A strange calm fills me. The creature wraps me in a metallic blanket and does the same to Simon.
Just before I lose consciousness again, I see a six-legged robot enter the cavern, moving toward the obelisk. Then everything fades.
When I wake again, I’m in a hospital bed. Simon’s beside me. Outside the door, I hear voices.
“We don’t know how it happened,” one says, “but all their injuries have almost completely healed.”
“We examined their blood—there’s… something moving in it. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“What was it?”
“I don’t know. It looked like nanorobots—but as far as I know, those don’t exist. And the bodies didn’t react as if they were foreign objects. When I studied them more closely, it seemed like the robots were made of protein—possibly matching the host’s own DNA.”
“So the body treated them as if they belonged?”
“Exactly. And then, when they finished their work, they dissolved and disappeared.”
“And the dead ones?”
“That’s even stranger. The bodies look burned—from the inside out. Like the tissue combusted. I’ve seen phosphorus burns in Ukraine, and this… this was different. The burn started in the bloodstream and worked its way out.”
“Fascinating,” the other voice says. “Keep studying. As for these two—they seem fine. Discharge them this afternoon.”
Relief washes over me. But how could I ever tell anyone what really happened? No one would believe me. After some thought, I decide to keep it to myself—and to ask Simon to do the same.
Later, after a few more tests, we’re discharged. Simon agrees: no one would believe a word of it. He’s not even sure he believes his own memories.
Outside the hospital, I ask about the others. Anders and Sofia survived, though badly burned. Johanna and her gang are all dead. About half the rest made it.
I nod quietly. “I need to go home and rest. See you tomorrow.”
“Yeah,” Simon says softly. “See you.”
The story started out to be pure fantasy. The one of creatures and ghosts. But the twist at the end verified that it was not. Perhaps a true encounter.
Only one thing that I would change. There are no man-made caves except for movies. A cave is a cave and a tunnel is a tunnel. But if the cave is not like any other kind of cave formed a naturally, I would just leave it like that. A strange kind of cave that seems unlike any other.
Nine New Novellas, Part III is a collection of nine sci-fi/paranormal stories to complement the nine in Nine New Novellas, Nine New Novellas Part II and Nine New Novellas, Part IV.
In the second book in the Ember Reign series, Megan and her friends decide to investigate a haunted mansion to discover it was once a secret government laboratory dealing with extraterrestrial biological entities.
The bus ride was drawing to an end, and even though it had been a really interesting, educational, and fun trip with work, most people agreed it would be nice to get home again. One person who didn’t share that feeling was Jonathan, who would rather be off on an adventure at all times and quickly grew restless when nothing new was happening. Two others who wouldn’t have minded the trip lasting a bit longer were Sven and Johanna. They probably thought no one had noticed, but the fact that they disappeared into the same hotel room after the last night’s dinner hadn’t escaped many. Nor had the way they couldn’t seem to take their eyes off each other, despite their efforts to look indifferent.
