Imaginethat96's notes: With school restarting, I thought this was appropriate (although this has been stuck in my head since last summer) :) Some songs that inspired me while writing this were I See You by Leona Lewis, Stay by Hurts, Just a Dream by Carrie Underwood and Echo by Jason Walker. I imagined this as a flashback or as an interview (and would love to direct this as short film someday). Last, but not least… I DO NOT OWN SLAG! Their respected owners do, so do not sue me I have no money. The most awesome MyLittleSongbird beta-ed on short notice AGAIN.

The Fearful Peace

Time flew. It always had, but it was quicker now, especially in comparison to what had recently happened. It had been over two months since people started to live their lives again, if you could still fully call it living. It was so easy to ignore them in 2009, 2010 and in the beginning of 2011. Everything was ordinary with just the added fact that there were aliens. Some knew that it was just a matter of time before we made contact; others still thought it was a cover-up for something else; but worst of all the majority of world back then just did not seem to care. New energon detectors were only installed in major or high population areas, they had rarely made appearances and the battles they had fought were far away from most people.

Panic was originally averted, but at a cost.

Now people were frightened out of functioning. Roads and airways were empty; electronic and mechanical devices filled landfill sites. From the moment of the invasion people were paralyzed with fear. NEST had assured the world that the threat was gone (something they had not done in the 2009 fiasco), but the public was still cautiously slow in returning to normal.

The timely arrival of school forced citizens across the globe to face their fears. The simple act of accumulating in a large group made humans of all occupation into tacticians in the fear that this made them into easier targets. However, the understanding of friends, teachers and fellow pupils helped reverse the affects of agoraphobia. The reality was that the most unshakable fear came from transportation.

The teachers and administrators ran the first day as they had done every year prior, specifically trying to get the impressionable minds away from what happened in the summer. They day ran surprisingly smoothly. The teens were too well behaved. Although smiling and laughter returned for the first time in a long time at the school, an undertone of sadness and fear remained. The sadness and fear fully showed themselves after the last bell rang.

Rows and rows of buses lay waiting in the parking lot. Forty long yellow school buses sat quietly in the day's sun. Those who could no longer wait to be home ran out the back doors only to stop as quickly as they could. The yellow machines had always been forty-five feet long, nine feet tall and thirty-six thousand pounds, but those large specifications would only be noticed now.

Students exited the building all in different ways. Some hung out with their friends next to their designated buses, laughing loudly and trying in vain to be cool. A few of the more mature and tired students dared to take a seat close to the front of the vehicle, but quickly busied themselves by texting or starting homework. However, these were not the majority of the reactions. Most waited quietly at the entrance to the parking lot until the last moments when the drivers had started the engines. The group of approximately two thousand slowly headed towards their only way home. Eventually everyone ended up by themselves as they made their way to their own buses.

I did not realize how much courage that would take.

My current position allowed me to see almost all of the buses. There were so many of them and they all dwarfed the people around them. "If one transformed it would be huge," was the thought that started the invasion of my mind. Even the combine in the neighbouring field created goose bumps with its size and blades. More and more thoughts came, unraveling my strength as each flashed across my mind. What if someone was inside when it changed? There is nowhere to hide if it did… The newspapers and public seminars had said to get as far away as possible and find cover, but they all implied that there was nothing else we could do… and they were right. We're helpless… hopeless.

I lost it.

I had held it together when hid in our basement for what seemed like forever. I held it together when I comforted my bawling cousins who learned their best friends were dead. I held it together when I saw pictures of my childhood home wiped off the face of the planet. I even held it together as my father made a bonfire out of every television, cellular device and computer he could find. I lost it when I had finally made my way to the open doors of the bus. The uncontrollable shaking was the only movement I could manage. I was looking right at the driver, but I wasn't really seeing him. What if he's a hologram…? Eventually another student approached. The fast, noisy breathing started just before she wrapped her arms in a hug, then the weeping began. Every tear that soaked the stranger's jacket carried with it the fear of what could happen and the sadness of life never again being the way it was.

Sooner or later every students was on their route home, all silent as stones in anticipation of home.

Days passed with less dramatics than the first, but the buses were always the most physiologically tormenting part of the school day. The ideologically stubborn administrators finally gave in, acknowledging that nothing would ever return life to exactly the way it was. In not knowing whom else to call, NEST was contacted with a request for help.

From my third period classroom, a piece of normal called boredom hung in the air. The tall corn stalks that swayed on the other side of the nearby intersection were much more interesting than the seat-work. Surprisingly, a car sped up and down the empty roads; it looked very expensive and drove as if there were no traffic laws. After some-what circling the high school, the red automobile drove randomly around the parking lot. Time seemed to have stopped, even though no one else had noticed. Parked in front of the library, the Ferrari faced what looked like a newly installed light post, but instead of a light bulb, the top looked like an odd satellite-receiving dish.

It was an energon detector.

After a few stop and go motions to check the calibration of the car -whom I would later learn was the Autobot Dino- sped off. Leaving me in the dust, stunned and contemplating what I had seen.

Finally, we have achieved the closest thing to peace, yet we are more afraid than ever. As always, time will fly and change will be inevitable. The only certainty is that we now coexist on Earth with loyal allies to all people of every race, colour, sex, language, religion and nationality. Truly, this time we are not alone...