Abducted on a School Trip

Let me tell you a bit about myself. Alan Riley, 38. Originally from Matlock, but I moved down to London after University. I got a job as a Geography teacher at a local secondary school, where I’ve been ever since. It was a fairly normal teaching job; annoying kids, annoying parents, and annoying co-workers, but I liked it. One day though, something happened. A recurring dream, but it feels like more than that. It’s too vivid.

Myself and the lovely, newly-qualified Miss Amelia Parker had taken the Year 11 Geography students, 38 of them in total, out to the coast to do some fieldwork for their GCSE coursework. Standard stuff really, and it all went as planned, aside from Josh Brown falling over and cutting his knee, but it wasn’t the end of the world.

It was half past 7 in the evening, and we still had nearly an hour until we arrived back at school for the kids’ parents to pick them up. It was dark, it being a cold February night. I looked over at Miss Parker, who was playing with her phone, looking very cosy using both his and her thick coats as a makeshift blanket.
“You okay?” I asked her.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” she replied, not moving her eyes from her book. She wasn’t one for small talk really, which was fine I supposed. After all, I was married, and I was fairly certain she had a boyfriend. I got a book out of my bag, and started reading, when I started to hear the latest One Direction song being played at a ridiculous volume.
“Turn that music off!” I shouted, turning round to try and see who it was.
“Miss said I could do it!” Protested one of the girls, Lucy Willis.
“I said no such thing!” Miss Parker shouted, still not looking away from her phone. “Put your headphones in!”
“Fine!” Lucy groaned, and the music soon cut out.

I looked around the bus at the kids. Several of them were asleep, which meant they’d only be grumpy when they were woken up when we arrived. Jamie Richards had his 3DS out and was playing on it. Yasmin Wright was studying a book, pushing her glasses back up onto her face. And Harry Robinson was sat at the back with the new girl, Sarosa. I’d thought it was a little bit strange to accept a new pupil half way through Year 11, but the Headteacher had insisted. Sarosa had both a name and an accent that I couldn’t quite pin down to any country, but her English was perfect. When I’d asked her where she came from, she’d just told me “All sorts of places”. The two of them were making out, but frankly I was too tired to do anything about it.

I sat back down to continue reading my book, which went just fine for a few minutes. But then, we heard the engine of the bus begin to stall, and it ground to a halt.
“What’s happening?” I asked the driver.
“I don’t know, it’s like it’s just given up,” he replied. “I’ll get out and have a look.” But before he could do that, the entire bus was engulfed in a blinding white light, which naturally resulted in a lot of panicked shouts from 38 teenagers.
“Calm down everyone!” I shouted. “Everything’s going to be alright!” Truth be told, I had no idea what was happening, but having the kids panicked wasn’t going to help things. Not that me shouting to calm down was likely to help. Miss Parker looked over at me, a look of worry on her face. I tried to re-assure her with a smile, but I don’t think it helped at all.

The light cleared, and everyone scrambled to look out the windows of the bus. They were in an empty room, with metal walls and floors, and a few ceiling lights lighting the room.
“Oh my God, we’ve been abducted by aliens!” Shouted Jamie.
“No we’ve not, idiot!” Shouted Lucy. “Aliens aren’t real.”
“Why wouldn’t they be?” Yasmin asked. “There’s no reason for them not to be.”
“All of you, calm down,” said Miss Parker, standing up. “We’re not going to get anywhere by arguing.”
“Miss Parker’s right,” I said. “We need to figure out what’s happened to us. All of you stay on the bus while I go out and figure out where we are.”
“We’re on an alien spaceship sir, it’s obvious,” Jamie said.
“Yes, so we’ve heard,” Miss Parker said. “Now all of you sit down while Mr Riley tries to figure out where we are.”

“ATTENTION HUMANS,” said a voice over some sort of intercom system. It sounded male, but it had no discernible accent. “PLEASE DISEMBARK YOUR VEHICLE.”
“It’s the aliens!” Jamie shouted.
“Stop being ridiculous,” said Mark Warwick.
“I believe him,” Harry said confidently. “I think it’s aliens.”
“ATTENTION HUMANS, PLEASE DISEMBARK YOUR VEHICLE,” the voice continued. “CO-OPERATE AND YOU WILL NOT BE HARMED.”
“What shall we do?” Miss Parker asked me.
“I think we’d better do as we’re told,” I replied. “Alright kids, pair up, same pairs as before, and do NOT let your partner out of your sight. Stay together. Follow me and Miss Parker.”
“What shall we do with our bags?” Someone asked.
“Leave them here,” Miss Parker replied.

We opened the doors, and Miss Parker and I walked out, followed by the driver, and then the 38 Year 11 kids. The room we were in was indeed completely empty, except for one open door.
“PLEASE PROCEED THROUGH THE DOOR,” the voice instructed us. We walked through into yet another completely empty room, but this one was much smaller, only just about large enough to accommodate the 41 of us.
“Miss, I’m scared,” said Becky Jameson.
“We all are,” Miss Parker said to her.

We stood in there for a few seconds, before the blank walls began to glow bright red. There was some panic, before a bright flash of light was sent out. When it cleared, there was more panic, as we realised that somehow, all of our clothes had vanished.