"Look out of the left window" the tour guide asked the passengers on the bus. "What you have over here is an ancient world brought back to life". The huge tar sands dinosaur had been looming closer to the bus upon the buses approach to the tar sands museum in San Diego California. Suddenly a scream was heard from the back of the bus. The tour guide quickly ran to the back of the bus. Other passengers quickly went to the aid of the screaming woman. A registered nurse who had just taken a two week vacation in the last three years, tried to revive the elderly woman. "Oh no, it is too late, this dear woman has had a heart attack, or something. She's dead!".
The tour bus pulled up the nearest public building, a gas station and souvenir shop. There were four people lifting the deceased lady from the stifling bus. San Diego summers were very hot and today was July 5th. The Independence Day celebrations were winding down, everywhere there were spent beer bottles and firecracker wrappers. Nothing was moving, all the tourist recovering from the weekend. The zoo was quiet with very few tourists. The assistance crew of elderly gentlemen in golf shirts and safari jackets with bermuda sorts were slowly lifting the deceased woman from the bus'
It was a very peaceful Monday, the heat was survivable, this would not have killed the woman.there was a soft ocean breeze blowing through the palm trees and hibiscus. The 84 degree Farenheit temperate climate should not have shocked this woman and the air conditioned bus would not have killed her. There was something unusal going on, everyone knew it, everyone on the bus felt it. This woman's death was not natural, even though she was elderly. Her last piercing scream shocked and horrorified the crowd. The passengers all had a bewildered look upon their faces. Nobody felt secure where they were, everyone was agitated and worried. The mood of the fine and sparkling morning dramatically changed as if a portenous storm had blown in from the Taboo islands. It was the piercing scream from the woman that unnerved the people on the bus. There was nothing remotely human about the sounds. The voice which emaniated from the woman was unearthly, as if she had been possessed by a demon. Whatever possessed this woman's last word on the bus this morning was not something that sat well with the other passengers. All passengers were more than anxious to exit the bus at any cost.
"Can I get my ticket money back?" asked the overweight man with the matching light blue short set asked the bus driver. "Where can I make a phone call?" a petite woman asked in unison with the hefty blue boy. There was a loud clammer of voices and noise from the luggage being taken from the overhead seating.
At the front of the bus driver yelled "One at a time, one at a time, what do you think I am, superman?". The passengers were pushing the bus driver closer to the windshield of the bus. The was a panic starting to set in and the bus driver tried to bring order to the new-found disorder of the day. All the passengers were trying to ask the bus driver for their ticket back. Many had already left the bus and were telephoning friends and relatives from the payphone booth outside the souvenir shop and gas station. Some called for taxis to take them back to the city, and to them, sanity. Something other than this poor woman's demise was making them regret this day, and this trip to the San Diego Zoo's Tar Pits. What could it be?
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