When Mike awoke, he found himself in what appeared to be a bus driving through smooth midtown traffic.
His mind immediately scrambled to figure out where he was and how he got there. The stabbing pain in his cranium didn't help.
He had no memory of boarding the bus or where it was going. The buildings and streets zooming past all seemed strange to him.
And then he noticed that in the bus full of people, none of them had faces.
"Where the fuck am I?" he cried.
I told him that we were in KL.
"Then how come I don't recognize any of these fucking places?"
I reassured him that he soon would.
"Wh... What the hell happened?" Mike demanded, almost childlike. He vaguely recalled the deafening sound of waves and the stench of rotting fish.
I explained everything. It was a long journey and we had time.
"So," he finally said, as the headache began to subside. "What happens now?"
I smiled. We both looked out the window in silence. The city gradually began to seem more familiar, like a place from a half remembered dream.
"Hey, I know this building." Mike tapped the glass. "That's the arcade where we used to play video games every Friday after school."
"...And up ahead is where I would wait for the bus home,"
None of the faceless passengers had rung the bell, but the bus pulled up at the next stop.
I handed Mike his aviator shades. He studied his reflection in the lenses for a moment before putting them on.
We stood up and got off the bus.
