"Hey, why'd you open the door?!" a man inside the bus bellowed at the driver. But with Strings looped around his neck, the driver didn't dare say a word. He desperately tried to signal the others with his eyes.
There were quite a few people on the bus: fourteen young, pretty girls, all looking terrified, and five desperadoes who looked weary from the road. One of the men was bandaging a chest wound in the back seat. Two girls lay at his feet. One had her skirt pulled up and was unconscious; the other was dazed, her head covered in blood.
The girl who had appeared by the bus window a moment ago was now pinned to a seat, a bald man's foot pressing down on her head. Three others were spread out in the middle of the bus, close to the trembling girls.
When Xu Huo appeared, the girl beneath the bald man suddenly fought back and knocked him off balance. She opened her mouth and silently cried, "Help!"
"Smack!" The bald man slapped her down, grabbed her by the hair, and hauled her up. "Think becoming an Evolver makes you some kind of hero? I can kill you however I damn well please!"
He was saying this for Xu Huo's benefit. The bus doors were already shut, and the curtains over the windows at both ends had been drawn. In the enclosed space, the three men who weren't injured stood up.
Xu Huo glanced over them. "We don't know how long we'll be stuck here. Why don't we sit up front and talk?"
He wasn't asking for their opinion. It was a demand.
One of the men, tall and burly with long hair, flicked his hair back. "Who the hell are you to put on a show in