I stepped it up a notch, not with more use of my power, but by raising the volume of my voice. “Out of the way!”

He got out of the way. That and me drawing nearer made it easier for the next person to come through.

“Bus!” I called out to Jasper. “Get moving! Side door to the right of the building! South side!”

People looking back at the bus and back to me had more pressure to deal with. That was easier. They got clear of the bus’ path.

The one who had given Jasper the finger, though, he had just a little bit more to prove. I put my hands on him. I pushed him, and he resisted.

I pushed him with my aura, small, closer to center, a pulse of intimidation just for him, to break his posture and resolve. My hands pushed him the rest of the way. He landed on his ass.

He wasn’t wholly out of the way, but Jasper was able to drive up on the sidewalk. His door was open and the stairs leading up to his seat were there. I hopped up, grabbing the bar that the driver used to climb into the seat, hanging off the side.

“Things okay?” he asked.

“They’re about to be not okay,” I said. “We’ve got four or five minutes, probably. I want to be gone by—”

Jasper’s two passengers, Mar and Landon, were at the window behind Jasper’s seat. They were looking out and over my shoulder.

I turned to look. In the crowd, a man was standing there, shuddering. People were backing away from him.

He wore a black hooded sweatshirt and black pants, and he stood so the hood hid his face. His arms were at his side, vibrating. Head, arms, body and legs all moved like he had a paint shaker wedged up his ass, moving more violently by the second.

Building up to something.

“Take cover!” I shouted the words.

Some people did. They ran, they sprinted for mailboxes, for trees. But it was too open an area for everyone to find something.

I threw up my personal forcefield, shielding Jasper, my arm out toward the windows the other two were looking at.

The man in the crowd exploded, showering the crowd with chunks of bone, flesh, and a mist of blood. More than should have been contained in a human body. Some of the windows in the bus had cracked, and my forcefield was down.

The people over the square of grass, around the fountain, on the sidewalks and the streets surrounding the explosion all stood, calm.

Streaked with blood, they looked around, every single head turning left, then turning right. All in unison.

“Drive,” I said.

Jasper stomped on the gas.