Brent stared at the bloody bat still dirty with pieces of the Turned on it. He was making some pretty confident guesses that he wanted to stick it where the sun wasn't going to shine and had very little aspirations of Joey sticking a bat up there. Brett replied awkwardly, “No, I think that we're okay. I get kind of stressed out sometimes, like pretty much anytime the stupid Turned are around us, and it makes me do dumb things sometimes. I am sorry, I didn't mean anything by it. I think you're actually a pretty cool kid.”
Joey nodded, sitting back in his seat, and one by one they filed out of the Humvee, making a quick, half-moon circle around the vehicle with everyone looking in a direction trying to make sure that they had not brought any unwanted attention to themselves. Joe looked up at the top of the buses and these were all what appeared to be touring or school sport buses and they were much taller than your normal, run-of-the-mill yellow school bus. Joe knelt down making sure that Joey had been correct and unfortunately, he was right. There was no shortage of darkness coming from beneath the bus with the wheels tilting back. I guess it gave them one more way to not have to worry about the dead or at least a direction in which they would be possibly coming from.
Yassa, who typically didn't need much help from anyone, took a few steps back putting his rifle strap over his shoulder and resting it behind his back got a running start and raced forward towards the closest bus. Everyone watched realizing it was not going to be one of those quick missions where you actually make plans beforehand and you don't have to worry every three seconds about someone dying.
When he got close, he leapt onto the front tire, gripping the rearview side mirror and putting his hand out, gripping on to the side of the windshield, pulling himself up, trying his best to keep his balance while never moving and after a second when he was feeling safe, he knelt down, jumping one last time, wiggling and fighting to pull himself all the way up to the top.
When he got up to the roof, he stayed low, taking a look around and surveying what was in front of him. Yassa looked over the edge of the bus and asked, “Who's climbing and who’s jumping?”
Ellie who was fine not getting a concussion from falling off of the bus walked around to the side of the Humvee grabbing a rope out of the back and threw it up to him. Ellie said, “Sounds like a hard no to me, Yassa.”
Nobody moved an inch and Yassa’s shoulders slumped a little thinking this is going to take a minute. He said, “Just give me a minute I'll get it tied off.”
Joey leaned over, whispering to Ellie, “I think he's nuts. He didn't know if there was anything up there that was going to kill him and he just jumped right up there. I think it's crazy.”
Kya said, “I don't know if he's crazy, but he's definitely agile. You definitely would not have caught me jumping up there doing that.”
A moment later, Yassa said from the other side of the buses, “Give that a shot. I have it tied around some bulldog statue, and I don't think it's going anywhere.”
Joey, who probably weighed the most out of the entire group, including Joe and Yassa, gave it a good tug and like Yassa walked over using the wheel to start off his climb. He was smart and wanted to get as high as possible to take as much distance out of the equation as possible. Everyone watched, and he might have been the heaviest, but he was also the strongest, and he effortlessly pulled himself up one pull at a time until he made it up to the top of the bus. Ellie was getting ready to start her climb as well and when she did was thrown off balance as Joey began pulling her up, making the time go in half. He repeated the process for Kya and everyone else went one by one until the entire crew was standing on top of the bus.
Ellie patted Joey’s shoulder, winking, impressed he was barely out of breath. They all looked at the courtyard to the college, trying to decide where in the hell they should start. Jon said, “I've never been here before, but I think it might be smart if we get out of the open. This many of us standing here and sweating is going to start drawing some attention that we probably don't want or need.”
Nobody needed to be told that a second time. Everything he was saying was deadly true and he would not want anyone else to be lost on this trip. They walked along the line of buses sticking out like a sore thumb against their brightly painted colors to match the schools which they had traveled from. When they got to the main door, Ellie saw a visitor’s map section and happily grabbed a handful of them, giving one to everyone in their group. Joey had his finger running down the middle of it and Ellie said, “I swear to God, Joey, I love you like a brother, like a brother who isn’t even annoying, but if your finger doesn’t get off of the cafeteria right now I’m going to make you go back and wait in the Humvee.”
“You wouldn’t do that
