The Runaway Bus
At the factory, many workers were getting excited to ride in their favorite bus. They liked the driver, and safety conditions as well. Workers at the factory were used to riding in buses, and were always happy.
The factory didn't permit parking within several hundred feet from the building because of a fire hazard. The sparks from the torches that burned the fuels to produce electricity around the factory could jump out and cause an explosion, resulting in a chain reaction. Sparks have been known to fly as much as eighty feet, so the factory set the limit of the bus' parking to 120 feet to be safe.
The workers really didn't mind this rule at all until the day of the runaway bus. Everything had been going great for over one and two-fifths years until a thief plotted a plan. That plan was to become a substitute worker then steal the bus. The thief, Rob, was a genius. He noticed that most of the workers went into the buses early, so he thought of leaving early enough to get behind the wheel.
The factory had been running successfully since its opening. Up until this point, Rob had not found that perfect opportunity until this day. The main bus driver and all substitutes were required to take a survey of the factory's overall safety conditions. That gave Rob additional time to prepare. Rob also noticed that the driver just got paid that day, so he was going to have a lot of money as well. He had so many opportunities and was suprised that not only one, but four substitute workers were needed that day due to illness, so Rob took the opportunity. He was acting like a normal worker until the last ten minutes. He started seeing workers leave early, but he decided to wait longer.
It was about four minutes later, when Rob thought of his plan once more. Everything worked. He went into the dressing room and dressed up as the driver in disguise. He came out and headed for the bus. Little did the passengers on board know that something terrifying was going to happen.
Most of the passengers were already on the bus, but the driver finished the survey rather fast. Sue, the bus driver, did her usual thing of getting undressed and taking her paycheck with her. As she walked out the door, the bus she was going to drive took off. Sue tries to run toward the bus as fast as she could to catch it, but the bus accelerated too fast and left without her.
Inside the bus, there were sixty-six passengers, but they didn't know that the bus was stolen. Soon, Rob went faster than the speed limit, and continued to accelerate. Eventually, Rob entered the highway, and the passengers on board soon realized that the bus has been hijacked.
Since Sue had a problem with one passenger before, she put a thick metal wall inside the bus for her protection. This made getting to the thief impossible, except with a stick, and that wouldn't be too smart. The thief could use the stick to attack them rather than the passengers attacking the thief. They thought of other ideas as well.
One of the passengers had a cell phone with them and called the cops. The thief never heard the call because it was in the back of the bus rather than the front.
Eight miles away from the factory heading north-northeast, a construction zone came into sight. The usual highway speed limit was seventy miles per hour, but the construction zone called for a two-laned road that had sixty for the speed limit. The bus failed to slow down. The construction zone was only about three miles in length.
Suddenly, sirens sounded from behind, and two police cars initiated a chase. Traffic was rather dense down the highway, so that made it hard for cops to get in the right position.
I, the state sheriff, was hired two days ago, and was overwhelmed with what was going on. I didn't have much experience being a sheriff. I had to think of a way to get by the dense traffic in attempt to stop the bus.
One brave cop, Yanga, tried getting the bus to do a fish-tail maneuver [a maneuver in which a vehicle skids out of control weaving back and forth like a fish's tail usually ending in a sudden stop]. Yanga went close to the bus, but it was just too big and heavy to do the maneuver safely. I eventually joined the chase in attempt to stop the bus.
I managed to get in front of the bus and help by turning traffic lights ahead green to avoid accidents and fatalities. That idea worked quite well. If I wouldn't have done this, fatalities would be dangerously high.
I thought of a brilliant plan to get the bus to stop. The bus was about forty miles from the factory and I thought of spikes [a device used to pop a vehicles tires in attempt to slow them down]. I called the police in a town about five miles ahead.
When the police received the warning, they opened the door in which the spike strip was usually stored, but it wasn't there. They quickly underwent a search and finally found it three minutes later. They got out onto the highway, and threw the spike strips out just in time. That was a very close call; however, the bus still continued down the highway without tires.
The bus suddenly had a fuel leak. One of the hoses that controls the flow of gas had a hole in it from the spike strips. The bus would eventually run out of gas, but with the sparks flying from the metal wheels grinding on the pavement, there could of been a fire hazard. The police, who were behind the bus, eventually got up in front or on the side.
After leaking fuel for another seventy miles, the chase progressed into Nevada, an amazing 113 miles from the factory. This is where the bus ran out of gas. Now the bus had no choice but to stop. It was about another mile before the bus came to a complete stop right in the middle of the highway!
A young, three-year-old child on the bus, who had been accompanied by a baby sitter, had been playing with toys a few minutes earlier, but accidentally dropped grey blocks. These blocks camouflaged into the mat of the bus so well that they were almost invisible. Rob got out of the driver's seat and went down the back way and tripped over the toys. Police eventually entered the bus and captured Rob. I told Yanga to drive my car, and the other cop to drive the other cop car. I controlled the bus since I was the only one with the appropriate class A license. I returned all the passengers to their homes.
There were some rewards for capturing the thief. The child's parents received one hundred dollars and ten percent more pay than normal. The extra pay came from the police which was only granted for one year. I received a monstrous two thousand dollars for catching the thief. Yanga received four times the pay for a month. The other cop involved received the same benefits as Yanga.
There were some bad consequences as well from this event. The factory's manager was punished with a multi-million dollar fine that totaled $3,258,386.78, including the cost of installing a parking lot and spark repellants on the factory's torches. The factory's profits, once sky rocketing, were cut by nearly 50%, and continued to decline. The huge fine played a big role in this. Passengers feared riding the bus for years, and sales of buses declined and had losses for a month straight. Sue, who put the wall up, was punished as well. The fine wasn't as intense, but it ended up as ten thousand dollars. She was also ordered to take the wall down for better safety and repair the bus.
Anyone who remembers this event again should think twice about setting standards. I sure felt relieved at the end of that horrific chase. Only one died and two were injured, but if I didn't help with traffic lights, this number would've been much higher. The thief was sentenced 83 years in prison for all his crimes, and probably won't be out of prison until he dies from old age.
Notes on story: This was a story I typed up from a school assignment and I thought it may interest anyone. It's not of the true format I do, but, however, it gives you a general idea on how well it can get. Since the mass-upgrade of Rise of Atlantis, my quality is likely much greater than this.
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