Chapter 10:
The Last Day of School
The First Day:
Sierra took the bus to school that day. She was supposed to of gotten a ride from Vince, but he had not returned home the previous night. His parents were really worried, but the Police had not seemed very interested in looking for him. If anything they seemed distracted by other things.
Speaking of distracting, she had felt uneasy and fearful all night. The feeling continued now that she was at school, to the point that she had to watch herself or she would snap angrily at people.
Speaking of people, the hallways were only half as full as they should have been with students getting ready for class. From what she was hearing the teachers say, not all of the bus drivers made it in to work that day, and even then, a few of the buses had not yet returned from their morning pickups. A few of the teachers had also failed to come into work.
If that alone didn't make this the weirdest day of school, the look of the four people who entered the front door did. There was a blond man wearing mostly black, with red goggles on his toboggan and a long case on his back, beside him were two women, a red head wearing what looked like a military grade leotard, and a woman with white and black streaked hair wearing a black corset and green cargo pants. The two women made no attempt to hide the guns they were carrying, but Sierra figured they must be okay since they were being escorted into the building by a police officer who was wearing a stained and tattered uniform and looked like he had not gotten any sleep all night.
"You two go set up in the Nurse's office, while I check in with the Principal," the red headed lady said.
The blond man and other woman both nodded and came over to Sierra, while the red head continued to follow the Policeman.
"Hey, Kid," the blond man said to Sierra, "Can you show us the Nurse's office?"
"Yeah," Sierra answered and began showing them down the hallways. The Nurse's office wasn't that far from the Principal's office, so they wound up staying fairly close to the policeman and the redhead.
Both groups of people were holding their own conversations, and neither of them were talking to Sierra, so she picked up bits and pieces of each conversation, neither making any sense to her.
"Apparently someone thought one of the infected was a drunk and put him in the tank with a bunch of other winos. Things got worse from there. The whole damn police station is now overrun."
"Don't worry, we've sent two of our agents beyond the communications black out to bring back help."
"We are going to need it. Things are getting out of hand fast. We have people patrolling the streets in their cars telling people to stay in their homes, but you know they aren't going to listen!"
"I swear to you, they were thirty feet tall, at least!"
"Sure they were. Are you sure your report is accurate, and you didn't just watch Shawn of the Dead?"
"You saw the videos I brought."
"And are you including the 30 foot tall robots in the official report?"
"Hell no!"
"Because its crazy, right?"
"No, because I told them I wouldn't. Besides, are YOU going to be in the official report?"
"Hell no."
"There you go."
"Here is the Nurse's office," Sierra interrupted, the blond and zebra haired woman.
"Thanks," the blond man said.
"Why don't you come in with us… uh?" The woman asked.
"Sierra," Sierra answered, following the two into the nurse's office.
"Great," the woman answered, "You can call me Agent Helix, and this is Low Light. Scarlett will be back with us shortly."
"Have you received any cuts or bites in the last 24 hours?" Helix asked the girl.
"No," Sierra answered, that and about a dozen other questions while the blond, Low Light, searched the office.
Agent Helix had Sierra roll up her sleeves and checked the girl for any injuries. "She's clean," Helix finally pronounced.
"Holey shit!" Low Light said. He pulled out the only thing that was hanging in the closet, it was a red uniform jacket with silver buttons and a silver Cobra outline on the front. "We may have found the starting point of the… incident."
"Did anything unusual happen in the Nurse's office yesterday, that you are aware of?" Helix asked the girl.
Sierra shrugged, "A few students were called to the office for some sort of vaccination. I didn't get one."
"I will wager that none of the students who did are here today," Agent Helix mused.
"You mean, they started with the children?" Low Light said. "That is sick!"
"What else do you expect from Cobra?" Helix shook her head. "Sierra, would you mind acting as our nurse?"
Sierra shrugged again, "I guess. What's going on?"
"There is an infection going on out there. We want to fortify this school to use as a base of operations, but in order to do that, we need to check everyone inside to make sure none of them have been infected."
"What kind of infection? Is it airborne?"
"No, it is transferred by body fluid, which is why I checked you for cuts."
"So, its like, an STD?"
"Uh… not exactly."
"I know I'm just a nurse and I'm not suppose to understand it," June Darby said while looking at the blood close ups on one of Ratchet's computers, "But I just don't understand it. I mean, after all those years of medical school, I have never seen anything that looks even close to this."
"I know," Ratchet agreed. I look at it, but its all just… Biology to me, and makes no sense. You have been up all night, Nurse Darby. Maybe it would help if you got some sleep."
"That's just it, Doctor, its NOT Biology. No biology that I have ever seen before," she gestured again at the enlarged image of the virus they suspected was the cause of the zombie infection. The only unidentifiable element in the blood samples recovered from the hospital emergency wing. "Maybe its alien."
"Why not," Blukhead interjected, "Everything else seems to pop up on this planet."
"Considering what we now know about this planet," Optimus Prime added, "It is little surprise that this world seems to attract evil from faraway places."
"Its hardly from another world," Ratchet scoffed, "Its chemical makeup clearly ties it to this planet. Still…"
"What is it you see, old friend?" Optimus Prime asked.
"I must be blind!" Ratchet exclaimed, "I was so blinded by the fact that it was organic biology that I didn't see that it isn't constructed like biology—"
"That is what I have been saying," June said.
"No," Ratchet agreed, "Its constructed like cyber-biology! It has more in common with a Scraplett's nanocondria than it does any Earth virus!"
"Are you saying this plague is Cybertronian in origin?" Optimus asked, fearful that he may have inadvertently brought yet another doom upon humanity.
"Not at all! What I am saying is that someone constructed this as an organic machine using properties similar to our own cybertronian cyber-biology. That is why Dark Energon could have had a influence in its creation."
"Could you use our Cybertronian technology to manufacture a cure for this plague?" Optimus Prime asked.
Ratchet looked startled by the suggestion. "No. That level of nano-reconstruction would require someone with a different skill set than mine… maybe Perceptor, or Jhiaxus but even then there is no guarantee that anything we construct using our own technology would have any effect on something created using organic components."
"Hey, guys," Miko interrupted, "You know we are all missing school here, right?"
"No school today, not with everything that's going on out there," June said.
"Yeah, but what about all the people who did go to school," Jack asked. "For that matter, what about all the people in the town who are at risk from these zombies?"
"So what?" Bulkhead said, "That's no concern of ours. If there are no Cons involved, I see no reason for us to get involved."
"But we could help them," Jack insisted, "We need to protect as many people as we can."
"It's not like the humans are helpless," Arcee said, "They are sending their own team in to help too."
"Bulkhead is right," Optimus Prime said, "This is not our war… but Jack is also correct. This is our home, and we must protect it, and its people. Ratchet, ready the ground bridge."
Sierra helped, the Joes by acting more as a receptionist and secretary than anything else. She would page the people to be checked, and the Joes would inspect them for injuries or illness. Those who could possibly have been infected were quarantined in locked classrooms.
It took several hours, but the entire population of the school was checked, with only a handful needing to be quarantined, of those only half turned out to of been infected.
"Thanks for your help, Sierra" Scarlett said, then turned to her companions when they joined her in the school infirmary. "How is the outside looking?"
"Could be better," Agent Helix said, she had spent the past couple of hours outside with the sleep deprived policeman, while Scarlett and Low Light inspected the students and staff.
"We positioned the buses and available cars into a partial barricade," the police officer added. "What will happen next?"
"Soon parents will come to pick up their children. The ones who want to stay, can and we will add their cars to the barricade, the ones who insist on leaving…"
"They can take their chances," Helix finished. "What about the infected in quarantine?"
"We keep them contained," Scarlett said.
"Have you heard the noises they have been making?" Low Light said, "Its just a matter of time before they break down a door or window. Besides, they died already."
"But…" Scarlett started.
"Ill take care of it," Helix said.
"Do it quietly," Low Light said.
"Right," Scarlett agreed. "Gunfire would alarm the children."