The bus rolls along in silence through the city’s dark streets. Thirty two seats filled with seventeen people, but only thirteen were awake. There are nine females, three of which are asleep, and eight males, including myself.

I analyze the people in my head. Mostly adults, the youngest was maybe twenty. That’s just a rough guess though, she could pass for two years older or younger.

My mind drifts to the friends I could make here, the laughs I could cause and the hugs I could reap. Maybe my future wife is sitting in these very seats, waiting for me to come up and say hello. I reach to my coat pocket, fingering the inside of the cold barrel, before clicking off the safety with my index finger.

Pressing my head against the window, the sounds of the city pierce my ears. A phone rings. A young woman, no older than 35, answers it. She’s talked friendly, as if to a loved one.

I stand up.

The loud bangs, amplified by the metal bus, shock my eyelids.