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Welcome listeners to season two, Episode
one of Fast Food Horror. Our first

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episode is entitled The Last Rider,
authored by E. J. Miller and

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narrated by E. J. Miller. What the hell do you do when

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you have no choice? When your
path leaves you no option, You can't

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turn back, and the only choice
is forward. But forward is just unsure

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and terrifying. That's where I'm stuck, Stuck in a path where my only

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option is forward. Ask for help. I can't go to anyone for help.

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I can't go to my manager,
He'll think I'm nuts and fire me.

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I can't tell a co worker they'll
think I've snapped and go to my

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manager, and again I'll be fired. Tell my wife, do you know

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how hard it was to tell or
I lost my job when the factory closed,

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the only viable employer in the county
that we could lose our savings,

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our car, our house. If
I didn't find something similar in pay and

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quick, this would upset her so
much. I don't think she could or

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should go through that pain again.
So no, I can't tell her this,

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not this. So I'll tell you
not like you can answer me back,

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But maybe by just saying it out
loud, it'll help. Like I

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said, I lost my job of
twenty five years a few months ago when

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the factory shut down, no warning, the only employer in the county paying

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a good wage. It wasn't a
great job, it wasn't even a good

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job working on the assembly line.
But it paid the bills and the wife

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and I was able to buy a
nice house on a four acres plot a

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few years ago. We had a
car, and we were getting by just

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like most. When I told her
I lost my job, it put a

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strain on our relationship, on our
marriage. I can't tell you the number

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of fights we got into the sleepless
nights. She was so scared that everything

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that we had worked for would be
stripped away, the prospect of having no

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prospects, a future that looked so
bleak. I couldn't blame her for feeling

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that way. I was scared too, so when this job opportunity dropped in

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my lap, I jumped at it. The local school district was short bus

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drivers, and as luck would have
it, I had my CDL, I

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got my bus and passenger endorsements,
past my background check, and poof,

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I was a bus driver. The
pay was about the same as I was

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making at the factory. The hours
were good and regular, and the possibility

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that my job would be shipped over
seas and the school would be shut down,

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well, that wasn't going to happen. This is where the story begins

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and the help I need the advice. Because I was low man on the

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totem pole. I got the route
no one wanted. It didn't go through

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some high crime area. It wasn't
on a route full of delinquents either.

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It was the long, hilly route
that circled the far outskirts of our town,

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through the farmland in the woods.
It was a bus full of kids

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whose parents worked the land or just
plain and enjoyed the seclusion of having no

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neighbors. The route took longer than
most, and the constant changing of hilly

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grade on the roadway must have deterred
the other drivers for wanting it, not

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to mention that when the weather turned
bad and the nights long, it was

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more than a challenge, or so
I told myself, But I was happy

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to take it. It was a
job that paid. It was a job

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that would allow me to care for
my wife and myself and allow us to

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keep our home. There are seven
mirrors on a bus, six of which

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are important to actually driving. The
traditional rear view mirror is useless for a

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bus driver as you can't see the
vehicle behind you with it. All you

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can do is watch the students with
it. Because the roadway was challenging,

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I rarely used the rear view mirror
anyways, until the end of that first

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week. I was tired. It
had been a long five days. The

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sun was just peeking over the hill
topped horizon. The moon was visible in

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the east with a smattering of stars. As I started to make my way

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out of the hills and back into
town, I had lost count of the

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number of students that had got on
the bus at the school and had gotten

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off at each of the stops.
I was pretty sure my bus was empty

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as the route was done, but
I called out just to make sure anyone

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left and looked in my rear view
mirror for any students, not expecting to

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see anything but orange seats, which
is when I caught it in the second

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to last row, only for a
second. A small head of long black

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hair with pale skin on a thin
frame peeked out from behind the seat before

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retreating behind it. I was startled. I thought everyone had gotten off.

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Apparently I was wrong. Hey,
I called out, did I miss your

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stop? No response, I can
circle back to your house as soon as

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we get to town. It's no
big deal. No response, no sound.

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There was no place to safely stop
until we got to the gas station.

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Just as I entered town. I
kept going only five minutes till I

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got to the station, glancing every
few seconds in the rear view. Maybe

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she fell asleep and that's why she
wasn't responding. I was told in training

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kids at a habit of that happening, being so tired from the long day

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and being lulled to sleep during the
drive. I drove down the last of

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the hills and through the wooded area
that comprised the border of our town and

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pulled into the station parking area.
I made my way to the rear of

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the bus, slowly so not to
scare the child, and nothing, not

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a soul. The second last seat
was empty. I started at the last

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row and slowly made my way forward, making sure to look under each seat

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on either side. Nothing. I
was alone. I chalked it up to

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being tired, and I didn't think
of it until the following Friday, when

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after my last stop, I caught
movement in the rear view a long,

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dark haired slight frame with pale skin
moving from the second last row seat to

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the third last row and disappearing out
of view. Hey, I called out,

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no response, I saw you in
the back. No response, no

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sound. I gritted my teeth and
again drove down the last of the hills

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and through the wooded area into the
station parking area. I knew I wasn't

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nuts. I rapidly made my way
down the aisle to the third last row

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and found silence and nothing filling the
space on either side. I again started

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at the last row and slowly made
my way forward, making sure to look

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under each seat on either side,
listening and looking nothing. I was alone.

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I had a plan. The following
Friday, after my last stop,

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I turned my cabin lights on the
interior lights of the bus. As I

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made my way back into town,
I made a conscious effort to drive slightly

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slower and repeatedly glanced regularly in my
rear view mirror, trying to better monitor

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who or what was behind me.
A few long minutes into my drive,

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the cabin lights flickered before going out
leaving only the emergency red lights illuminating the

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interior, and I saw her.
I say her because of the long hair

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in what appeared to be a long
white shift she wore. She moved from

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row three to a seat in row
four in a blur. There was no

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shoulder to safely pull over to,
but I didn't care. I stopped the

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bus, turned on my exterior flashers, and ran to the fourth last row,

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where I found nothing. I was
alone, alone with my thoughts and

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the remainder of my plan. I
made my way back to the terminal,

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which was now empty of co workers. As I was usually the last bus

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back, my terminal manager would leave
just as I pulled in and left me

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to lock up the building. After
I did my end of day safety checks

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of my bus, I secured my
bus, gave it a quick once over,

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and made my way into the terminal
and right to the computer. All

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buses are equipped with on board cameras
that download to the terminal computer. For

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fourteen days. No one monitors them, but the video was recorded and stored

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in case there is an incident to
be reviewed, like now. I found

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my bus file folder on the desktop
and clicked on the video from that day.

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I began watching at two times of
speed. There are five cameras on

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the bus. Camera one is on
me, Camera two is on the door,

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camera three is midway back, and
four and five are at the rear.

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I focused on four and five and
waited. Almost towards the end of

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the feed, I saw the lights
flicker, then all five screens were lit

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by a red ambient glow. I
sat forward in my seat, leaning closer

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to the screen, waiting for her. And there she was, A thin,

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gaunt figure in a white shift appeared
to the left on screen four and

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five, long stringy black hair cascading
over her shoulders, obscuring her face.

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She made her way across the aisle
as I remembered to the fourth row,

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peering behind the seat. I rewound
the video again and again. I wasn't

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crazy. There she was just as
I saw her. She never gets on

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the bus and never gets off.
She just appears, then she's gone.

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I sat with this thought, trying
to figure out what to do with this.

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Who do I show? Do I
show anyone? What? Or who

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was she? And why is she
on the bus? And then the other

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thought entered my mind. She has
appeared at the end of each week and

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advanced one row every week. Why
is she appearing and what happens when she

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gets to the front of the bus. I went to turn off the computer.

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I glanced at the computer screen.
The screen wasn't filled with my empty

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bus, but instead, her face
filled all five screens. Gaunt, pale,

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and ashen. Eyes of ember red
glowed behind a curtain of black hair.

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She seemed to be looking directly at
me, and I did not like

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the feeling I was getting. I
gripped the arms of my chair tight.

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I could feel the hair on my
arms. Standing straight up, I had

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to remind myself to breathe. I
glanced out of the terminal window to my

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bus. No one was there.
I glanced back to the computer screen.

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There she was. I glanced back
out to my bus, No one was

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there, and then back to the
computer screen. There she was, staring

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straight into me. I quickly turned
off the screen. There are eleven rows

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on a bus, and she has
moved one row a week. She is

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at row four. I have seven
weeks to figure out till she makes it

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to the front of the bus and
me. I don't know her intentions and

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I don't feel it's good. I
can't turn back. I can only go forward.