The screaming resumed. And continued throughout the fall. Through the bus’s entire plunge and sudden impact, where it was met by an explosion of ice and water through the missing front windshield.
The driver, strapped in his seat, was pinned by the force of the icy water. And behind him, horrified passengers screamed at the wall of oncoming water before them.
The first half of the bus was filled in seconds by near-frozen water swirling with glass, while just outside, a thick layer of ice from the frozen river could now be seen surrounding the vehicle. It scraped against the glass until several windows shattered inward, creating a second deluge into the bus’s interior.
The roiling water reached the mother and son, who were both paralyzed and buckled where they sat, only beginning to fumble with their tangled belts when besieged by the river water.
Able to free herself, the mother turned to search for her son—desperate and frantic—only to see him immediately disappear from view.
She stood up, screaming his name, and quickly found him in the arms of the man from the store, who now pulled the boy up and over the headrest as if he weighed nothing, thrusting him up the rising floorboard toward the back of the bus. He then grabbed the woman and did the same, pushing her forward in front of him and yelling over her shoulder at an older couple struggling at the rear.
“Get one of those windows open! Above the ice!”
The older man, perhaps in his sixties, stared back in panic. As if trying to understand.
“The window! Get it open! Now!”
The man’s eyes focused and he jumped, using each headrest to pull himself up the narrow aisle until he reached the last row of seats and lunged over both seat cushions on the left-hand side to grab the two bright red metal handles. He yanked as hard as he could, then pushed.
Nothing.
He pushed again, harder. Watching as the ice outside crept insidiously from window to window. Closing in on the same window he was trying to open.
“Other side!”
The stranger behind the mother and son continued shouting as he pushed forward, even while they repeatedly slipped and fell back into him.
The older man now raced to the opposite side and yanked the window handles up. This time throwing his weight against the glass and sending the large pane flying out.
“Go!” the stranger ordered. “Get out and help pull them through!”
The older man didn’t hesitate. He scrambled out and onto the river’s frozen surface. Slipping at first, he managed to spin around and grab his wife’s outstretched hands.
Inside, mother and son were still being pushed forward, scrambling up the slippery aisle, but no longer making progress. Prompting the man behind them to yell over the noise, “Climb over the seats! Over the seats!”
The icy water reached his legs and lower back with a paralyzing sting.
If there was any fortune at all, it was in the temporary rotation of the bus, allowing the last two windows on the right side to remain above the water line. But not for long, because he could feel the entire vessel continuing to sink downward. And it was accelerating.
The young boy made it over the last seat, scrambling to and out of the window with helping hands from the outside. The bus continued to sink, and the thick layer of ice continued rising toward the only open window.
“Hurry!” the man shouted, and heaved the woman forward with both hands, sending her over the last seat.
Outside, the older man and his wife wrapped hands tightly around the woman’s and pulled.
The entire bus was almost underwater, with the ice finally reaching their escape window, allowing the couple to retrieve the woman by sliding her out belly-first onto the ice’s surface.
It was then that a giant cavity of air escaped, and the bus suddenly plunged, and the open window was abruptly slammed back up and closed.
“No!”
The older man scrambled from the outside to pull it open again, his fingers tracing around the frame, searching for a gap to pry free. Finding nothing, he waved to the stranger trapped inside. “Get back! Get back!”
The older man turned and cocked his leg and foot back as far as he could, sending a powerful kick into the center of the pane.
A small crack appeared.
He pulled back again, kicking harder. Another crack.
It was sinking too fast.
“Damn it!” he yelled, and kicked again. This time the crack broke open with a small hole. Again and again he kicked, enlarging the hole as the entire pane slowly began to disappear from view. His last kick missed, instead hitting the outer frame as the window finally sank below the frozen ice and water.