Smile Route 66 -- a story by AmbatuTron

They called it the Goofy Bus.

It had a bulbous yellow hood shaped like a cartoon face—round cheeks, a wide grin, and two headlights that blinked like eyes. Every morning, it pulled up to the curb with a honk that sounded like a clown’s laugh. Kids loved it. Parents took pictures. But no one ever asked where it came from.

Until one October morning, when the bus arrived five minutes early.

Jared was the first to board. He noticed the smile was… wider. The eyes were glassier. The driver, usually a cheerful old man named Mr. Delaney, was gone. In his place sat a mannequin in a driver’s uniform, its head tilted, mouth stitched shut.

The doors hissed closed behind Jared. The bus lurched forward.

No one else got on.

The windows fogged over. The seats stretched longer than usual, like the aisle was growing. Jared tried to stand, but the floor felt sticky—like gum or… skin. The overhead lights flickered, casting shadows that didn’t match the shape of the seats.

Then the bus spoke.

Not through speakers. Through its smile.

“Welcome aboard, Jared. You’ve been selected for the Smile Route.”

The windshield showed no streets. Just a tunnel of yellow fog, lined with floating stop signs that read STAY SEATED. Outside, shapes danced—children with hollow eyes, backpacks dragging behind them like tails.

Jared screamed. The mannequin turned its head.

“Don’t be late,” it whispered, though its mouth never moved.

The bus stopped at a playground. Rusted swings creaked. A girl with no face climbed aboard, sat beside Jared, and handed him a crumpled permission slip. It read:

FIELD TRIP TO THE END OF LAUGHTER Sign below to forget your name.

Jared refused. The bus growled.

Its smile peeled wider, revealing rows of yellow teeth beneath the bumper. The seats buckled. The floor opened. Jared fell—

—into a pit of old lunchboxes, broken crayons, and yearbook photos with the eyes scratched out.

He woke up in his bed the next morning.

But the school bus outside had no face.

And Jared couldn’t remember his last name.


...because this bus was invented by the AmbatuTron Command!!



THE END