CHAPTER 55: The Last Straw

"Attention, unit SB-32," commanded the voice of Blank, in the wee hours of a particularly rainy morning.

"Go ahead," replied a mechanical voice, responding to a radio message.

"Time to conclude your mission," Blank said. "Load up and come home."

"Command confirmed," the mechanical voice replied.

"Good morning," greeted Cream, stepping onto her bus at seven o'clock on a very warm, rainy Thursday morning.

"Morning," replied Mr. Payne, her bus driver. He was a middle-aged man, about five feet four inches, with green eyes and brown hair which was slowing turning gray. His skin was somewhat wrinkled, and he had no beard or mustache. His shoulders were not very broad, and he had little muscle on his body. That's not to say he was fat; in fact, he had very little fat as well, but despite that, his arms and legs were a bit more broad than one might expect. "Might want to get comfortable. We gotta take a detour this morning."

"Okay," Cream said. As she was the last person on the bus every morning, she was seldom in her seat for more than ten minutes in the mornings. As she sat down, she noticed something a tad bit unusual: virtually everyone on the bus was either asleep or very close to it. Indeed, as she pressed her cheek against the window and looked out into the rain, she felt herself beginning to feel very drowsy. This was not unusual, as she was very used to being half asleep as late as her third class. But there was something else... As her eyelids began to grow heavier than usual, she began to notice an odd smell. She lifted her head off the glass and looked to the front of the bus. Mr. Payne didn't seem to notice anything unusual, and he was glancing into his rear-view mirror every few seconds. Cream, nearly asleep, called out weakly, "Mr. Payne, do you smell that?"

"Yeah, the A/C's tore up and it's been making that smell lately," Mr. Payne called back. "You sound kind of tired. If you want to take a little nap, I'll wake you all up when we get to school."

"Sounds good to me," Cream said, yawning widely. Looking around, she noticed no one, except for a bee about her age, siting near the back of the bus, seemed to notice she was saying anything, although on any other day, everyone would have noticed someone calling out to the bus driver from halfway toward the back of the bus. She wasn't really sure why this mattered to her, but for some reason, as she began to drift off to sleep, something in the back of her mind told her it mattered. Something else in her mind also told her to fight for all she was worth to stay awake, but the temptation to sleep was too great, and she succumbed to it at last.

Don't fall asleep! shouted Charmy's voice, which rang through his head. Come on, stay awake! You know you won't wake up! You're too much of a heavy sleeper! COME ON! The bee had been sitting in his seat for nearly thirty minutes, fighting not to fall asleep, which he'd been very close to doing ever since he'd climbed onto the bus. He was resorting to the voice in his head, his own, not to fall asleep. It was working, but by this point, staying awake was a sheer test of willpower, which was rapidly running thin. His head was bobbing, his eyelids heavy, his jaws becoming tired from yawning every five seconds. He found it highly unusual that he was so tired from the moment he stepped onto the bus; he found it just plain crazy that everyone was asleep all at the same time. This was the reason behind his fight to stay awake. He knew something was wrong, although what it was escaped him. All he knew was that if he fell asleep, there would be trouble; he had a very funny feeling that there would be trouble either way, and he did not wish to be unconscious when it came.

"Mr Payne, do you smell that?" called out the rabbit in a seat in the middle of the bus. Charmy looked up; he recognized her. She used to hang out with the pink hedgehog who had always been chasing Sonic around everywhere. But what was her name? He couldn't recall; his mind was too clouded with other things, such as the voice ordering him not to pass out.

"Yeah, the A/C's tore up and it's been making that smell lately," the bus driver was calling back. "You sound kind of tired. If you want to..." His voice trailed off. Charmy's head fell, his eyes closed. His wings drooped unenergetically, and he fell into the half-conscious state between sleep and waking.

WAKE UP, DAMN IT! shouted a voice in Charmy's head, this one sounding oddly like Espio's. Charmy, startled, jerked awake again, looking around. Had he just heard...? Was it possible that Espio was watching...? His brain addled and almost completely incapable of conscious thought, he would have believed it if someone told him that Espio was still alive and hiding right beside him, although in his subconscious, he believed he had just recalled Espio's voice from a time when the chameleon had become agitated by Charmy's snoring and had attempted, with no luck, to awaken the sleeping bee.

"...to me," the rabbit in the seat toward the front had called out. Charmy blinked a few times, shook his head, and looked up at her. She looked around and noticed him staring, but thought nothing of it.

No, don't go to sleep, repeated the voice in Charmy's head, this voice belonging to the bee rather than his deceased comrade. Charmy listened, still fighting to stay awake, although he noticed he was beginning to lose his already loose hold on consciousness. The rabbit up front had pressed her cheek to the window. Charmy attempted to call out to her to stay awake, and that something bad was going to happen, but he was simply too tired and too weak to even open his mouth. He could barely hold his head up any longer. He gave in and leaned his forehead on the window, the voice in his head protesting vehemently (WAKE UP YOU BASTARD! it shouted). While he had given up trying to keep his head up, he still made one last effort not to pass out, pinching his left arm with his right hand. However, it was the weakest pinch he had ever attempted, and proved to be a waste of his time and effort. Finally, his hold on consciousness slipped away, and he dozed off. The last thing he remembered seeing was a dead-end sign on a street corner.

"Ah, I needed that," Tails sighed in contentment, finishing off a large ham sandwich. As he sat and rested, recovering from a long day of school and a very nearly-avoided fight, his phone rang. He growled and got up to answer it, unaware that this call was going to ruin his day, and a lot more besides. "Hello?" he answered in a tone that completely contradicted how he felt about phones at the moment.

"This is Jack the Rabbit, Cream's uncle," the voice on the other side said. "Is this Tails?"

"Yes," Tails replied. "How are you today, sir?" Tails had met Cream's uncle about two weeks before, and he had proved an imposing enough figure, whether it was by accident or design, that Tails addressed him with utmost respect.

"Not good I'm afraid," answered Jack. "Cream isn't there, is she?"

"No," Tails replied, this question catching him off guard. "Why do you ask?"

"You're telling the truth?" Jack asked, ignoring Tails's question.

"Yes," Tails said. "I have no reason not to."

"I was afraid of that," Jack said. "I was halfway hoping she'd chosen today to skip school... I don't guess this has been on the news yet, but I got a call from Cream's school about five minutes ago. They told me her bus never made it to school this morning, and they hadn't been able to get in touch with it. The county had about six of their people trace the bus's route looking for it, but no one found anything."

"Whoa, hold on," Tails said, throwing respect aside. "Are you telling me her bus disappeared?"

"That's about the best way to say it," Jack said. "Listen, my wife doesn't know yet, but I'm going to have to break the news to her pretty soon. I'm going to let you go right now because she's due to get home any minute. If you hear anything, you call me, you hear?"

"Yes sir," Tails said. Jack hung up his phone without saying good-bye; Tails knew he would do that, as Cream had told him before that he did that to everyone. Immediately after he hung up, the fox picked the phone back up and dialed Amy's number to let her know.

"Damn it, am I EVER going to get a shower?" Rouge growled as her phone rang. She wrapped a towel around herself and turned off the shower she had been a half second from stepping into. "Three people want to sell me something, Amy gets in an accident and needs a ride, then we have to have her car towed to a shop... I need to just shut off the ringer on that thing!" She stormed over to the phone and picked it up, exercising a huge amount of patience not to sound like she felt. "Hello."

"I don't suppose you heard Cream's school bus is missing, did you?" Amy's voice asked.

"No," Rouge said, startled. "When did it happen?"

"Today," Amy said. "I just found out from Tails. He got a call from Cream's uncle, asking if she was there."

"Amy, don't take this the wrong way," Rouge said, "but why did you think of me to tell this to first?"

"Remember when I told you Vector told me and Tails about how groups of up to fifty people would go missing at a time?" Amy asked.

"You think it's related," Rouge said. "Well, can't deny the possibility... Tell you what. I need to let you go, because I need to make a phone call."

"Okay," Amy said. "I hope to God I'm wrong about this whole thing."

"You and me both," Rouge said.

Crap, I took a shitload longer with this one than I wanted to. College keeps a guy busy, mmhm. Ah well. I'll get used to it. Read it, review it... Wait, you already did read it if you're reading this... Well then, guess you know what comes next. I hope you like.