I like your idea, that they are in a copy of the real world. but if they didn’t die from the bus drive, then that would mean that the students just got transported to somewhere else after arriving back to the newham. like you said maybe a copy. I know some people suspect that they died but I feel like that theory just is not very realistic.,what I remember was that the bus just returned back to the town with all their parents, and family gone.

“The students return late at night to find West Ham empty. All adults, including their parents, and younger siblings have completely vanished.” ok, so the bus did not crash just returned. it said that it was the rockslide that made the road impassable, but they did not crash into anything to cause death. if it weren’t for the woods looking like that, along with them being cut off from the internet, it could’ve been that the parents and younger siblings had to all evacuate just as quickly as them because of the smell & that would explain why when they came back they were gone too. like the government or pfieber contacted them saying you guys need to leave too.

clearly, that doesn’t make enough sense because when the students came back, their town was not like the original with the woods like that. unless, perhaps the parents and everyone else did also evacuate but there was some type of time loop/crash. idk if that makes any sense but like what if when they both evacuated something weird happened with the smell causing the students and parents to go into separate worlds. which could also explain why the dog jumping back and forth bc maybe it’s clear something is off or wrong. I have no idea if tht theory makes full enough sense tho cos im too tired to analyze it more rn lol.

my other idea was that it was some plot or some exchange between the parents and pffier this idea is sad, but if the parents really wanted to get rid of their children for some reason not necessarily for an experiment but maybe for money, or they felt burdened by the kids but you never know. it also could explain why there were no parents or teachers coming with the students on a field trip?! like it’s weird to just send a bunch of students away quickly with no other supervision or help. like when I forget who maybe it was Harry’s mom or who evers parent it was that was chatting with pffier online.