Tick, tock, tick, tock...
The ticking digital clock gave time a voice. With half a minute left in the countdown, the road ahead of the bus changed.
The headlights came on. No new memory platform appeared; the bus named Past drove into a pitch-black tunnel.
Ordinary Gao Ming walked to the front of the bus. He tried to speak to the driver, but the man behind the wheel said nothing. Ordinary Gao Ming tried everything he could think of, but never mind getting any information out of him—he could not even see the man's face.
"Where are you taking this bus? Say something! Who exactly are you? Why are you in my past? In my memories?"
The bus traveled silently through the tunnel, like a fish diving into the deep sea.
"No more platforms. We should be close to the last stop, right? But what's with this tunnel?" Ordinary Gao Ming struggled to think, but could make sense of nothing.
The lights inside the bus flickered once. The digital clock seemed to struggle to tick on, and the bus kept slowing down.
After the clock hand moved one last time, the countdown ended, and the bus slowly stopped inside the tunnel.
The light in the driver's compartment suddenly went out, followed by the lights in the passenger cabin. Ordinary Gao Ming ran to the back of the bus before all the light disappeared.
He hoisted the corpse with the Posthumous Photograph on his chest onto his back. Whatever else he was, Corpse Gao Ming was still Gao Ming.
Compared to the unknown dangers in the darkness, his own corpse was a little more reassuring.
"We're the only two passengers left on the bus." Ordinary Gao Ming rummaged through his schoolbag, hoping to find something useful, and unexpectedly spotted the Black-and-White