The rest of the passengers flowed around Suzanne, approaching the impossible road/wall ahead. She watched as some pawed at it with their hands; a few were staring in open-mouthed disbelief, while others looked angry, as if the bizarre phenomenon offended them on a personal level. Some hung back, as if worried the thing might fold backward and squash them all like a brick dropping on a troop of ants. A dozen conversations were going on simultaneously. Suzanne saw Marvin walking towards the wall and extending his hand to touch it.

People were looking at Suzanne expectantly. She suddenly felt very exposed. Although she didn’t expect a reaction as hostile as what Marvin had predicted, they would likely judge her until they found out the truth for themselves. "Let them," she thought. She’d always loathed secrecy.

"I went inside one of the houses earlier," she began. No need to mention Cecil and Marvin, for now. She noticed more of the crowd falling quiet and turning to her as she spoke. "There was someone inside. I thought it was just a mannequin at first. You know, like those things they use in stores to show clothes. This person looked like they were wearing a mannequin costume." She winced as Rory Fleisher suddenly laughed loudly and shrilly; he stopped abruptly when his father grabbed his right ear and pulled his head down to his level.

"Be quiet, and let the lady talk," Tobias Fleisher hissed in his son’s face. The young man stammered apologetically until his father let go again, but Suzanne caught a flash of furious anger on his face before it dissolved into a fearful expression. Fleisher motioned for Suzanne to continue without saying anything.

"So the mannequin kept asking me if I needed anything, and I said I just wanted to get out of this weird town. They never answered that one. They just kept asking if they could do anything for me. I got fed up and made a sarcastic joke about wanting fried turkey and champagne, and they walked into the kitchen and brought me some. They somehow made it in a few seconds." She noticed Marvin observing her quietly, trying to keep his face blank, but unable to totally conceal his worry. The crowd were all quietly listening now. She half expected more of them to laugh, like Rory had, but they were, after all, standing beside a road that had folded up into the sky; that was just about as insane as the story she was telling.

"I got pretty creeped out and ran out of there. Then we went back there together," she said, looking directly at Marvin, who was still unwilling to join the conversation. "That time, the mannequin said that the house was mine now, because I’d chosen it. And, they knew my name. I don’t know how, I never told them." Suzanne decided to gloss over the fact that they had ended up locked in a brawl; it wouldn’t help to bring that up now.

"We tried to get them to explain what this place is, its history and so forth. They claimed they didn’t know, or of any way to get away from Haven. They called themselves a servant, and said they’d do whatever the owner of the house asked for, to the best of their ability. That includes making food out of thin air. Don’t ask me how, they just could. It almost sounded like they wanted us to settle down here, and never leave again. We came back to the bus after that." She looked at the crowd. Most of them looked stunned and confused. A few were exclaiming and swearing, but not many. A few smiled disbelievingly and chuckled, but it didn’t look genuine to her; they had ample evidence of very strange things going on.

"Look, I don’t want to be here. I bet none of you want to be here either. I was on the way to my dad’s funeral, and I can’t stand the idea of my mom worrying where I am, or missing the funeral altogether. I know you have questions, a million of them, but I’m not the one to answer them." She waved a hand at the road/wall.

"Who could even do something like this? I don’t know what’s going on here, but I’d bet anything it’s not just some sort of prank. We are being kept here, and the only answers we are gonna get are back in the city. Of that I’m sure now."

"You bet there’s gonna be answers! I’ll beat it out of them, and then we’re gonna see who’s getting pranked," a large man with graying hair and a mustache shouted from the back of the crowd. A few more voices joined in approvingly to this; Suzanne held up both hands.

"No, don’t get violent. That’s not going to work! We-", she started, but Marvin interrupted her.

"I pulled a gun on the thing when we met, and it just reached across the room faster than I could look and grabbed it from me. I don’t think it would’ve made a difference if I’d shot it. Suzanne here bashed it in the head with a rock over and over, and it didn’t even seem to notice. Didn’t leave a scratch. I don’t know what it’s made of, but whatever it is, it’s not a guy in a suit. It’s, I don’t know, some sort of machine. And there’s more of them, it said, probably at least one in every building in the city. Three of us couldn’t do a thing to just one, even with a weapon. You’d just break your arm if you tried to take a swing at it." Suzanne had a sinking feeling in her stomach as Marvin recounted the one-sided fight. She was glad he’d apparently decided to join her in being honest and forthcoming about what they’d seen, but wished he’d said it in a less blunt manner. A few of the passengers were visibly disturbed by the violent episode; an older lady was crying openly.

"They don’t want to hurt us," Suzanne shouted over the upset crowd. "Yes, we got into a fight, but we started it. It didn’t even fight back, it just held us and took everything we dished out until we were too tired to go on. They were completely peaceful, as long as you don’t get violent."

"Did you say they made you food earlier? Did I hear that right?", a calm voice asked. Suzanne realized Tobias Fleisher had addressed her.

"Yeah, that’s right. I didn’t try the food, but it looked real enough," she replied.

"I don’t know about you, but I didn’t bring dinner with me. I could use a bathroom too, to be honest. Getting old, ya know." He winked at her. His son stood beside him and glowered.

"I’m hungry," Rory said.

"It’s getting late; the sun’s going down already. There’s no point in staying out here. I say we go back into the city and figure out what to do next there, before we’re all too hungry and exhausted to think straight," Cecil said, finally joining the conversation. She nodded at him; the young man had seemed a bit socially awkward and somewhat overly formal to her in the short time she knew him, but she appreciated his calm and logical manner of thinking.

"Yeah, we might as well drive back now. Unless someone has a better idea?" Marvin asked the crowd, mostly rhetorically. Nobody seemed to disagree. What else could they do at this point anyway, Suzanne thought. Marvin turned towards the bus and started walking, muttering something angry under his breath the whole time. The crowd started following him, and Suzanne followed them.