Rose couldn’t just wait around to find out.
Adrenaline coursing through her veins, she slid down the windshield and made quick work of shuffling to the edge of the car hood. She could now see into the bus.
That was when she first saw Derrick Tillman.
Unlike Lloyd, he was on the shorter side and not at all lean. He was muscular—tattoos lined the muscles visible from the short-sleeved shirt he wore with jeans. He was undeniably younger than Lloyd.
And he was also undeniably much angrier than the man.
“Hey!” Rose yelled.
Neither man seemed to listen to her as Derrick lunged down the aisle at Lloyd.
They were shouting but she couldn’t hear exactly what they were saying.
She thanked years of exercise and somewhat decent balance and threw herself up and through the emergency exit. By the time she was standing inside of the bus, the men were already exchanging hits.
“Stop,” she ordered, closing the space between her and the scuffle. “What are you guys doing? We have to go!”
Lloyd was closer, so Rose used every bit of her strength to pull him backward first. The move worked and he groaned as he broke from the fight and hit the floor.
The bus lurched in tandem with the power shift.
Rose yelled back to Lloyd to run.
This time, he listened.
Derrick, however, swayed.
Rose’s interference in the fight had left him off-balance. He was going to fall. Rose, the only person left behind, started to reach out on reflex.
But that was when she saw it.
That was when she saw his face.
His expression.
His…rage.
And it made her pause.
It was a brief whisper of a moment. The space between two breaths.
Yet, it made all the difference.
Derrick hit the ground. Rose reached for him again. She hooked her arm around his, and pulled him up. It was a sloppy attempt made even more awkward by the disparity in their sizes. Still, they stood and started moving.
Rose was at the opening first and let go to drop down onto the hood of her car. Lloyd was still there. He reached out to steady her but she was turning around to face the bus, her hand already outstretched.
But the bus wasn’t there.
And neither was Derrick Tillman.
* * *
Now
ROSE SHIFTED.JAMES SAWit in the change of her posture as she came to the ending of the story. He felt it beneath his hand too. Like her body had given in to absolute and unwavering defeat.
