Dying to get home

Jerry Goldsmith - The Demise of Mrs. Baylock

That Tim Burton was directing another version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka and Helena Bonham Carter as Mrs. Bucket was the last intelligible thing to pass through Geoff's mind, having read it in the paper that the person sat next to him was reading, when he was woken by the sudden jerk and flickering lights of the night bus signalling the last stop on the route. Apparently he had somehow fallen asleep on this cold, uncomfortable bus at an unmentionable hour of the night as it wound its way through ever more remote towns, villages, hamlets and localities. The passenger with the newspaper was now gone - in fact Geoff was quite alone on the bus, as the penultimate traveller briskly ducked out and disappeared into the night. In a daze, Geoff followed all the reflexes his years of bus training had conditioned in him and quickly exited the bus, the driver pulling away into the blackness with equal haste. As the roar of its engine faded into the night Geoff was left to survey his surroundings, silently cursing his rush to get off the bus at this unknown location, and beginning to wonder what his next step might be. Around him was little to see, especially in the thick darkness that lay unbroken in every direction, and in Geoff this added to the growing fear that he was suddenly and by his own violation utterly lost and without hope this night. The other passenger had disappeared more quickly than even the bus, as if Geoff had seen no more than a shadow flit into the night. Now even the bus was only a memory in the darkness that extended in every direction before him. Geoff looked about, and looked about some more, perhaps for some clue to his whereabouts; some sign of a direction he could take, some indication of hope - yet he could find none. He wasn't even sure where the road lay that the bus had taken, as he had turned so many times and taken so many steps unknowingly in his desperation to find his bearings. Now underfoot there seemed to be soil, maybe some sort of crop or scrub. His only way out was to choose a direction and start walking - but who knew what strange obstacles he might encounter? What treacherous route he might unwittingly take? And what beasts, or worse, people might prey on him this night?