It was a great day at Skool so far, which was to say, it was also a boring day. The Dib was gone (of course), so no one bothered Zim, with the exception of Miss Bitters, which was a given.
It was lunchtime when Zim ran into trouble. He had just come from the lunch line, when the Dib's sister appeared out of nowhere, took him by the neck, and shoved him up against the wall, causing his lunch tray to clatter noisily to the floor.
"I know what you did," she growled.
"I have no idea what you are talking about, little Gaz thing," Zim stated loudly. Then, in a lower voice, he said, "There is nothing you can do about it."
Gaz took him and slammed him against the wall a second time. In a voice only loud enough for him to hear, she said, "You killed Dib."
"I did." There was no emotion in his statement.
Gaz growled again. "You will pay," she threatened. "Maybe not today, or even tomorrow, but I will get my revenge, and you will not come out alive."
"Step aside, little Gaz," Zim said darkly. "You toy with matters above your own understanding."
The two glared at each other silently. The tension between them was strong. Then, after a few moments of silent glaring, Gaz let go of Zim. The alien rubbed his neck where she had been holding him, then picked up the remnants of his lunch and made his way to his seat.
The purple haired child stared after the Irken, then turned and walked back to her own seat. The other children in the cafeteria look back and forth between the two, confused as to what had just happened.
- -
Zim stood over his planning journal. In this journal were blueprints and plans to conquer Earth; all failed, of course. With a sudden urge to start anew, Zim had ripped out all previous workings, to make room for his much newer and better plan.
In class, they had been studying a horribly destructive called small pox. At first, Zim had dismissed the teachings as irrelevant, but as they advanced in their lesson, he grew intrigued.
The disease had been caused by a virus called "Variola". When inhaled, even if just a particle, a person could become infected. At first, that person would start feeling feverish and nauseous and weak. Then, a rash in the nose and throat would develop, eventually spreading all over the body. Pus-filled pocks would form on the persons body, and the person's skin would blister as if on fire, and fall off.
Unfortunately, this deadly disease became eradicated in 1979, a human known as Janet Parker being the last to die of it in 1978. Although the small pox wasn't around anymore, Zim was pleased to find that Variola samples had been sent to two labs: one in America and one in Russia, though the latter has long since destroyed their samples.
What Zim planned to do was get a hold of a sample. Then, because the deadliest type of Variola, Variola Major, only had a thirty percent death rate, Zim would modify and enhance it, so that not only would it be powerful, it would have a one hundred percent death rate.
He calculates that once the finished product was released, the humans would have no idea how to deal with it. Well, at first. That's why it needed to kill as quickly as possible, and spread even faster, to ensure the humans didn't have enough time to figure out how to deal with it.
True, it seemed like a tough plan, and admittedly, a lot could go terribly wrong, but Zim was confident that with enough caution and skill, he could pull it off.
Zim cackled. He almost wished he hadn't killed the Dib-worm so that the puny human could witness his ingenious plan.
Zim wasn't at Skool the next day. Same as Dib's disappearance, no one seemed to pay any attention to Zim being gone. Well, no one but Gaz.
Since she had no classes with him, she hadn't known he wasn't there until lunch, where she had been planning to bully him a bit.
As the girl sat down, she wondered where the alien had gone off to. Gaz sneered at no one in particular. He probably had been too afraid to show up.
She immediately dropped the sneer, mentally kicking herself. She was acting like Dib. She was not Dib. Not even close.
Gaz felt her appetite drain away, so she picked up her tray and went to go throw it away.
Zim pressed himself up against the wall, listening for noises. The only sounds audible to him were the creaks and groans of the old disease control center. He blinked and felt his eye lids protest against opening.
It was night time. The flight to Georgia had taken a while, and had worn him out, but he was not about to let himself become tired on an important mission such as this.
The Irken invader began to dart down the dim hall soundlessly. Most Irken were very light weight and fleet-footed, which made it easy to sneak around. Unless, of course, the things you were trying to sneak around had excellent hearing.
Zim sneered. Humans did not have good hearing. Inferior dirt monkeys.
He stopped to look at his map of the control center. According to the map, the virus storage compartments would be up ahead. The alien dashed forward, and after a few minutes of running, came upon a large rusty door. A sign was plastered on it, but was too faded to properly read.
Zim pushed open the door. It made a sharp squeak that caused him to cringe. He looked behind him to make sure no humans had heard and were rushing to see what it was. Satisfied no one was rushing up behind him, Zim grabbed a random object out of his PAK and lodged it between the door and its frame, then slipped inside.
It was dark, even with his optical implants. Zim squinted his eyes as they barely adjusted to the darkness. He could only imagine how dark it must be for humans. The invader rummaged through his PAK for the flashlight he had stowed away earlier. He pulled it out and flicked it on, then flashed it around. He was in a small corridor that led to another door a little ways down.
Zim proceeded with caution. He walked slowly, staying alert in case he triggered any alarms. As he approached the door, the Irken found that he had not set off any alarms. He gently reached for the door handle and turned it, only to find it locked.
The Irken growled, silently cursing humans and their stupid need for locked things. He dug his finger into the lock and started to pick it. He heard a small satisfactory click, and pulled his finger out, then opened the door.
He stepped into the room, and immediately noticed how chilly it was. Zim grimaced as he flashed his light around the cold room. Ice and boxes were stacked up against the surrounding walls. The Invader walked up to a smaller pile and opened one of the boxes. Inside of it were many small vials. He picked one up and shined his light on it. The label on it read "Variola".
His squeedilyspooch quivered, almost like a human's heart would race with excitement. Zim almost dropped the flashlight right then and there and raced out, but stopped himself. If he was to do this correctly, he needed to do it cautiously and precisely.
Zim stashed the vial in one of the safety compartments in his PAK, as to ensure it didn't accidentally open or break. If it did, he would surely be doomed to a horrible fate.
He closed the box back up and exited the room. Zim made sure to lock the door again. After he locked the door, the Irken made his way down the dark hall, and slipped back through the space between the door and its frame. The alien picked up the object holding the door back and stashed it in his PAK, then darted down the hallway, back the way he had come.
Zim climbed out of his Voot Cruiser, and jumped down to the floor. The long flight back to his base had made him even more tired than he had been. The only positive things about the trip had been him getting the Variola sample successfully, and GiR not being there to irritate him and botch things up.
The Irken slowly made his way to the ground level sector of his base, willing himself not to curl up on the stairway and fall asleep. Zim skipped the last step, and walked through the living room and kitchen. He climbed into the toilet and pulled the lever.
The platform inside slowly swirled as it began to descend. An eternity seemed to pass before the disk quietly slowed to a stop. Zim hopped off and began to sluggishly walk down the pink hallway. He took a left and then a right, then stopped at a section of the wall.
He slipped his glove off and held his hand up to a scanner, which beeped three times before the wall slid to the side, revealing a dim hallway, which opened up into a fairly wide laboratory.
Zim walked over to a freezer on the wall and opened it, then stored the vial inside. Finally, too tired to make it to a more comfortable place, Zim seated himself in one of his chairs and promptly fell asleep.
A lone escape pod drifted through the emptiness of space. An Irken female sat inside, just barely alive. She was scrawny from lack of eating, and her PAK's batter life was on it's final stand. If she didn't acquire help soon, she would die there.
The Irken's skin was pale from little exposure to light. Her uniform was a faded purple, the cloth worn from when she used to scurry around inside the small space in a panic.
She tapped the screen on the center console. True, the pod had no maneuvering abilities, but it had a function for calling others, if they were in range. The Irken dialed the extension code for the Armada's main ship- The Massive.
Calling the Massive was her last hope. If the Armada wasn't in range, she would be using the last of the pod's battery on a futile request for help. It was a long shot, but it was the last resort.
The Irken sat in anxious anticipation as the pod sent out the signal. It took a few minutes, but soon enough, the Tallest's faces appeared on the screen.
Relief washed over the female Irken. "My Tallest," she rasped. She hadn't used her voice in quite a while.
"I am requesting... help. I am currently isolated in an escape pod."
The purple eyed Tallest skeptically stared at her. "What are your coordinates, soldier?" the red eyed Tallest inquired.
"Em.. Two hundred degrees latitude, nine hundred degrees longitude, fifty degrees depthtitude," the female answered.
Both Tallest nodded. "Someone is on their way. What did you say your name was again?"
"Tak, my Tallest."
Author's Note: Gah, sorry for not updating the story for so long. I've been busy and tired bluh bluh. Also, please inform me if any of the small pox/coordinates are incorrect? Blah. Also, sorry for the short chapter, I'll work on making the other chapter a bit more lengthy!