The autobus through the night

The poorly maintained and rickety bus jolts over a particularly vile stretch of road, waking the protagonists with a start and waking them from their dreams.

Kurt Steinhaur was dreaming of The war. Barbed wire and bullets. Never goes away.
Emaneul Faranc was dreaming about lions again, and he thought they spoke to him again.
Hal was dreaming of nothing. Hal's dreams have been timeless voids for months now.
Roland Drew was dreaming of "...And the Oscar nomination for Best Director goes to..." Middle-aged, distinguished Roland Drew, who has shaken up the film industry with his gritty series of films showing that reality is stranger than fiction, more visceral, more tangible than what came before. And all based on his own famous exploits..."
Richard Pimms was dreaming of flashes of light, the barely-audible whine of capacitors charging as photographers capture the grisly scene. Blood. Her body arranged just so. Skin like porcelain.

Fuddled by the long journey, nobody knew exactly where they were, and looking out the windows they see only darkness and sheets of torrential rain spreading against the murky glass.

A flash of lightning turns the night sky white, but reveals only muddy hills and gullies cutting the land like post-mortem mutilations of a corpse.

Looking around the bus, there are only a few other passengers, some of whom arerecogniseable from the small crowd at the railway station, listening to the conductors apologetic explanation that the train was not going to be running, and directing everybody, with a sinking feeling, down towards the replacement bus.

Things had a got too hot for Kurt in Berlin, he thought - "Punching out an SA troop leader in my local bar wasn't the smartest move I ever made. Still, I don't like Nazis, especially ones who spill my beer as they lurch the up to the counter bawling for service like they own the place. I figured I'd head east for a few weeks until the fuss had died down and the Brown shirts found someone else to get aggrieved about. It wouldn't take long. Two weeks should see me right. Lose myself on a tour of the Carpathians, visit a few castles, soak up some history."

Manny is running away from a disaster in the circus. He was a lion-tamer but his animal went bezerk and mauled the audience. He thought the lion spoke to him in human words before the attack, but he thinks he is going mad. He's trying to find his love - Anya - who is with another circus and avoid the fall out from the lion-attack

The back routes are cheaper. Ideal for the traveller on a budget, and a "magical mystery tour" holds more promise for excitement and inspiration. Hal is heading for Romania, specifically, the Transylvanian region - in the hopes of capturing the true feeling of the area before heading back to England to write some proper rip-off fiction.

t's time Roland Drew saw some real adventure. Those talentless sissies in Hollywood have no idea. The bridges being washed away is the perfect start, hopefully this is the beginning of something interesting at last!

Richard needs to get to Russia, he's poured through enough damn books, now's the time to pick up the trail.

It looks like most of the passengers from the station have already been dropped off somewhere along the way whilst they slept, at whatever village was their destination. Some of the remaining passengers look like they were also woken from slumber by the potholes in the road.

Kurt looks like the policeman he used to be A solidly built man in his thirties dressed in a dark suit, coat and hat. Manny looks like a tramp, there is little trace of the showman. He has a lop-sided moustache, unkempt hair and dark eyes blinking back out of deep sockets. Hal is an English gent. Average height, average build, slightly bookish, has a touch of the aristocrat about him. He wears clothes that are of high quality but are long past their best. Roland resembles Inspector Vernon in Nine to Nine, Umberto in Ex-Flame, Tony Vaughan in The Racketeer, Walter Goss in Fireman, Save My Child -Slicked back dark hair and the kind of clothes well to do people are sold for going 'outdoors'. Richard looks older than he ought to, his face scoured with worry lines, hair brushed in a side-parting almost as an afterthought, three days stubble growth on his chin.

At the front of the bus, the driver concentrates on keeping to the road. Now awake, Kurt lights up a cigarette. Manny looks out the window, trying to stare beyond the horizon. Hal takes out his notebook and after a few minutes of failing to jot down any ideas settles for doodling in the margins. Roland takes a look out of the windows, then strike up a conversation with the guy who looks like a cop. Richard gazes out the window, trying to establish where we might be, but soon gives up due to the driving rain and darkness, so pulls out a leather-bound book with a Russian title, and try to read in the dim light.

Kurt says to Roland: "Zigaretten?" and offers him a coffin nail.