"I’m not going to tell those people anything," Marvin said. "They’ll lynch us if they hear any of this. You try it, and they’ll just accuse you of being in on it, mark my words." He stood up. "I’m going back to the bus and taking it as far from this place as possible."

"We already tried this before. Why would it turn out different this time?" Suzanne asked.

"I don’t know how they managed to screw with the highway, but there’s got to be a way out. I’ll go off the road this time, if necessary. You two can come along, but don’t you dare tell anyone about Spooky Mike here or I’m leaving you behind." The anger in his voice was palpable, his jaw tense and jutting out. Suzanne thought about a counterargument but realized that there was no obvious alternative. Or rather, the only alternative was to stay, which was out of the question. She looked at Cecil, who shrugged.

"He’s right. If we get out, fine, then that’s that. We leave with a story we can sell to the tabloids. If we don’t, well-," Cecil said.

"We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it," Marvin said brusquely. Suzanne and Cecil stood up. Mike remained sitting in the loveseat, not moving, apart from turning its head slightly between them as they spoke.

"Alright. I’m not staying here," Suzanne said. Marvin marched out the door without looking back. Suzanne turned to Mike and said, "bye." She wasn’t sure why she bothered, but it seemed impolite not to do it.

"Goodbye, Suzanne," the white being replied. Suzanne glanced at Cecil.

"I’m with you," he said. They left the house.

When they got back to the bus, a couple of the other passengers were milling around outside. A chorus of complaining voices went up when they saw the trio returning, mostly directed at Marvin, who held up his hands and raised his voice to announce what they were going to do next.

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"Sorry folks, this is some sort of giant abandoned film set. Nobody’s in." A few passengers objected, claiming that they were familiar with the area and had never heard of anything of this size being present. The mood was volatile, and Suzanne worried about how much worse it could get. "Yeah, I know, I drive here as a job, remember? Maybe it’s the military’s and they kept it secret. I don’t know, okay? We’ll get on the road again and look for the exit," Marvin said to the small crowd of irate passengers.

The grumbling died down somewhat, and eventually everyone had filed back into the bus, and they were off again. Suzanne and Cecil looked at each other briefly before sitting down. She watched the strange city roll past as the bus accelerated. Soon they had left the last houses behind and were on the open road again.

Outside, the landscape rolled past. Suzanne stared out of the window, hoping to see a road sign leading anywhere, anywhere at all, as long as it was away from Haven. Suddenly, the bus came to a shuddering halt as Marvin fully stepped into the brakes. The maneuver threw her forward in her seat, and Suzanne braced her arms against the front seat to avoid being slammed into it head first. Some others weren’t quick enough, apparently, and cried out in pain.

Suzanne stood up and pushed her way through a small crowd of other passengers that were mobbing Marvin, who was shouting back. Behind the windscreen was the reason he’d stopped: a huge gray wall blocked their way. She couldn’t see the top of it from her spot right beside the window. How had Marvin missed it until the bus almost collided with it?

"That wasn’t here just a moment ago! The thing just popped up out of nowhere! What, you think I’m blind?" he protested loudly. He restarted the motor that had gone out and put the bus in reverse. As they drove backwards, the wall changed. At first it seemed to bend slightly so that the vertical wall became a very steep slope, but after a while the whole thing had folded down so far that it became clear that what they thought was a wall was simply the road itself. As they backed up even further, any sign of an incline disappeared. In front of them was nothing more than an empty road. Marvin stopped the motor. "I just can’t believe this," he said wearily, putting his head in his hands.

"Marvin, can you open the door please?" Suzanne said. He looked up at her and nodded, looking defeated. The door swung open.