Justin shivered as he awoke, slowly opening his tired eyes. He pushed the curtain to his bunk open & squinted slightly as his eyes adjusted to the light. He noticed the bus didn�t have the usual rocking motion as he slid from his bunk to the floor below, adjusting his boxers. He went from one bunk to the next, in hopes of finding someone else awake. When that failed, he went to the front of the bus. In the driver�s seat, he saw James, appearing to be in a frozen state. He had a look of fear & shock & it appeared as if he were holding the bus in a turn. But when he looked out the window, he saw everything else was frozen too. The cars were stopped, a few were slanted in turns, but no tires were turning.
�Guys?!� he yelled as he ran to the back of the bus, praying they would be there. They were, but frozen as well.
They all had been frozen in positions indicating that they had been thrown from the turn the bus was frozen in. Justin had begun to think this some trick the guys were all SOMEHOW pulling off. But when he saw JC frozen in mid-air, almost a lunge position, he knew it was no trick. He quickly left the room & went into the hall, grabbing his duffel bag from the spare bunk. Since he apparently had no one to hide anything from, he did his clothing change there in the hall.
He knelt down to tie the shoes he had thrown on, but stopped when he heard an odd sound. A creaking sound that resembled a human groan. Not bothering to tie his shoes, he ran to the front of the bus, grabbing his cell from the couch. There he opened the door & walked outside, almost falling as his feet his icy road.
�Ice? But this is June...� he thought to himself. �How is this possible?�
He walked from the bus after he shut the door with his hands & walked along the highway, noticing that there was indeed ice. It was everywhere on the highway. There wasn�t a sound anywhere to be heard from what he could tell so far. He walked until on one of the hill tops, he spotted what appeared to be an abandoned house. He looked around for some possible way to climb up the icy mountainside, when he noticing something odd about the ice... It didn�t glisten from the sun. He brought his hand to it, almost expecting that when he ran his fingertips across it, to bring his hand back & see a bit of water, but instead he saw nothing. It hadn�t even felt cold.
�If it�s not cold or wet to my touch, then why did I almost fall when I took my first step down?� he thought as he began his careful climb up.
A few times he almost slipped & fell but sure enough, he made it to the top, now standing a few yards from the house. But now he was even more confused. Instead of ice, he saw spring grass. Looking down at the highway, there was still ice everywhere but up here, it was green.
�God, what is going on?� He was so confused he didn�t notice the girl with the blonde hair approach him from behind.
�Welcome Justin..� she spoke softly. �My name�s Caitlin.�
He spun around on his heels & looked at her. �With my back turned to you, how did you know who I was?� he asked as he stepped closer to her.
�You�ll find out soon enough,� she replied. �Come with me..�
Justin watched her walk away to the house & a few moments later, he walked after her. �Wait up a sec here,� he said. �What�s going on? Why is everything so mixed up?�
Once they stood at the doorway, she walked inside without turning to him to answer his questions. He walked in after her, the door shutting behind him. He looked from the door to her. �What is going on?�
�If you�re sure you want to know Justin... you�re dead,� Caitlin answered before she went into an adjacent room.