CH 16. Return to school
Dietrich Academy had been leveled during the Sky Net attack. As a primary target, It had gotten hit before Sky Net had moved farther into Palmdale. Dan, Katy and Miss Jacobs had been among the lives lost. The school building was gone, as were other schools. Gloria Weston, Allison's teacher, had survived and formed a new higher-IQ school in a few rooms of the still standing Palmdale High.
Getting ready for their first day back at school, Allison and Byron put on their Dietrich uniforms, Allison added her Medal of Honor, pinning it just above the Dietrich emblem on her jacket. With directions in hand to their new classroom, Allison and Byron went to the bus stop with Savannah and six other kids. Where there use to be three separate stops for various schools, only one remained. There was only one school and many fewer students left.
"Hi, Allison," Savannah said, waving to her. "I heard you've been busy."
"Hi Savannah, I'm happy you're OK. Where have you been?" Allison asked as she and Byron came up to the group.
"Mom had me stay in the factory for a while," Savannah said with a wince. "It was one of the few safe places. What's that?" she asked, pointing to Allison's medal.
"Allison got the Congressional Medal of Honor for kicking ass on those Sky Net machines," Byron said proudly. "You should see her fight!"
An older boy stared at Allison, and asked, "You're Allison Connor? Holy shit, you're what, seven?"
"Six years eight months and one day," Allison told him.
"What are you?" a girl asked, scrunching her face up at Allison.
"What do you mean?" Allison asked.
"Yeah, you look weird," another boy said.
As Allison gapped at her, Byron spoke up. "I'll tell you what Ally is," he said angrily. "Ally is the Christmas Tree pretty girl who saved YOU from Sky Net. She is stronger, faster and smarter that you will ever be, so show a little respect, huh?"
Savannah chuckled at Byron, the other kids took a step back from his anger.
"Yeah, OK, back off," the girl said defensively.
"That medal, it's only given to the biggest heros," the older boy said. "I heard radio broadcasts telling about Allison Connor's victories over Sky Net. I just never thought you'd be so small."
"Yeah, well, she'll grow up!" Byron snapped.
Allison put a hand on Byron's shoulder and said, "Byron it's OK. Calm down."
Frowning at her, Byron said, "I just don't want anyone talking bad about you, Ally. You deserve better than that."
"Ally's got a boyfriend," Savannah sang.
Allison blushed, Byron only nodded and eyed the group, daring anyone to say anything bad about Allison.
The older boy stepped over to Allison and extended his hand. "I'm Jerry, it's good to meet you, Allison."
Allison shook his hand. "Thank you, Jerry," she said pleasantly.
The bus came, bearing a few patches on the sides and plywood over a few of the windows. Seeing the bus, Allison wondered how bad of shape the school was in.
.
Palmdale High was a single floored school shaped in an 'H' At the entrance, a depiction of the school building had numbers with a legend to the side telling what each number was. One one arm and a small section of another was the High School, another was 1-4, a 5-6 section, a kindergarten/preschool section, and on the end of one arm just past the 1-4 section was listed as 'Dietrich'.
Allison and Byron headed for their section on the end. On the way, other kids stared at them. Teachers were by the doors to their classrooms to help students find the right class. Passing a first grade classroom, the teacher saw them coming and said, "Allison! In here dear. My, what did you do to your hair? And what is that you're wearing on your head?"
"I'm Allison Connor, not Allison Lynn," Allison explained.
The teacher laughed and said, "Yes, every girl wants to be Allison Connor. Come on dear, this is your classroom."
"Ma'am? This IS Allison Connor," Byron told her. "Allison Lynn has brown hair."
"We go to Dietrich, down the hall," Allison supplied.
The teacher frowned at her, studying her closely. "You are not Allison Lynn?"
Allison shook her head.
"Hey, it's the other Allison!" a girl said. Allison turned to see Allison Lynn coming with two other girls and a boy. Her arm was in a cast.
They exchanged 'hi Allison' s. Allison Connor pointed to the cast and asked, What happened to your arm?"
"Our house fell down when something hit it. We were trapped, that was really scary!" Allison Lynn said, wide eyed. "Mom got her leg broke, and Dad is still in the hospital. My older sister was away at college, so she's OK."
"I'm glad it wasn't worse," Allison Connor offered.
"Are you going to school with us now?" Allison Lynn asked.
"We got to Dietrich, down the hall."
"We have lunch at twelve, want to go to lunch together?"
"OK! See you then."
"Bye, Allison."
"Bye, Allison."
Allison and Byron kept going. They saw Gloria standing in the doorway and ran to her.
"Gloria!" Byron said happily. They met her with a hug. Becky came out to return hugs with them. Like Allison and Byron, she had her Dietrich uniform on. Allison was happy to see they were OK, and a bit sad that they were the only survivors.
"Go in and pick a seat," Gloria told them. "We have students from Junior two that are joining us."
Allison picked a seat near Becky, Byron sat on Allison's other side. Three more students came in. Two were Jerome and Gertrude from the other junior class, the third was a new student named Arnold. Arnold was a thin boy with short, sandy hair, and no uniform. He wore a plain red shirt and jeans. Seeing he was the only one without a uniform on, he cringed.
"Did I need one of those suits too?" he asked meekly.
"That's all right for now, Arnold, we'll get you one later," Gloria assured him. "Tell the class about yourself, Arnold," she coaxed.
Not quite looking at anyone, he said, "Hi, I'm Arnold. I'm eleven and since I do very good at school, My teachers said I should come here."
"Hi Arnold," everyone chorused.
"Arnold, do you play the realistic war games on computers?" Becky asked.
"Yeah, some," he said in his meek tone.
"Great! Byron is going to need a partner," Becky beamed.
"No I'm not, Ally is my partner," Byron told her indignantly.
"Can't we do girls against boys?" Becky asked.
"But I like playing with Byron," Allison complained. There was a pause, then the older kids started snickering.
"Arnold," Gloria said, holding back her mirth. "Allison, Byron and Becky are studying tactics and strategies as an elective course. If you choose to, and keep up with your other school work also, you can join them if you like."
"We were going to study the world war two Battle of Kursk next, then play a game about it if you'd like to join us," Allison offered.
Arnold shook his head. "I'm not into that stuff. I like science. Chemistry and electrical properties."
"Science is good," Becky said, smiling at him.
"Please take any seat you want, Arnold," Gloria told him.
"Hey, Allison?" Becky asked, "The real strategy and tactics I'd like to hear about is your battle with Sky Net. Did you think tactically, of did you just ... run into them one after the other?"
"I followed Sun Tzu," Allison told her. "OK at first I went after them because they shot my Mom, but after I was engaged, I went by Sun Tzu principals. Feign weakness when you're strong and surprise attack. I fled and made them group up and chase me. That also led them away from my house. When they were all after me, I turned and attacked. Next, I used Sun Tzu's principal when the enemy is larger, take them on a piece at a time. That worked well over Palmdale. By the time I found Byron, the last one I found was in his house so I got rid of it, then escorted Byron to my house so he'd be safe."
"I must say, your tactics worked well," Gloria offered. "Instead of studying the Kursk battle, then playing it, how about if after you study it, we have a class discussion of what you think should have happened?"
"I like that idea," Becky said.
"Yeah, let's do that!" Byron agreed.
"Sounds good to me," Allison agreed.
"All right, that will be Friday's discussion," Gloria said, and marked it down. "Be sure you have all your information and theories on how you think each side should have handled that battle." She then consulted a notebook and said, "I've lost many of my notes and your files are under rubble. SO, I know where Becky, Allison and Byron were, by I don't have any information on Jerome or Arnold, or Gertrude. Gertrude, do you have a nickname you like people to use?"
"Trudy, if that's OK."
"Trudy it is. How about you, Arnold?"
Arnold shrugged. "Arnies' fine."
Very well then, Artie. You, Trudy, and Jerome are going to have to take placement tests to see where you're at," Gloria said, which caused Jerome and Trudy to groan. "I'm sorry, but I don't have access to your records. If you bring your diploma's from each year in, I can start with those to save time. Allison, Becky and Byron, you're going to have to retake a few tests also. Not as many, but the last ones are gone."
Byron let out a huff and asked, "Today's going to be all paperwork, isn't it?"
"It's a necessary evil," Gloria said with a crooked grin. "look at the bright side, we get to take a trip to the school library to pick up the books we'll need. Then we go get physicals."
Another groan met her announcement.
.
The physicals were after lunch, so they all went to lunch as a class. Being the only kids in uniforms, they stuck out from the rest of the crowd. Allison didn't feel comfortable with all eyes in the cafeteria on her. Noticing a hand waving at one of the tables, she spotted Allison Lynn. Allison waved back to her. She showed her pass to the monitor and got in line behind Jerome, trying to hide between him and Byron. Arnie got behind Byron, looking like he wanted to hide also.
They meandered forward towards the serving line. A couple boys with crooked grins got up and walked down the line towards them. Allison braced herself for the 'you look weird' comments. As she held her breath, they walked past.
"Hey Arnold, the party man! Where you been hiding?" one said.
"Yeah, you skipping class to avoid us?" the other asked.
"I'm in a different class now," Arty said meekly.
"And you didn't stop by," one said in a huff. "That could be bad for you, Arnold."
"Real bad. Don't you owe us something?" the boy asked, and held his hand out.
Byron frowned at them as Arnie dug in his pocket. "What does he owe you?" he asked.
Both boys stared at Byron as Arnie let out a groan.
"You're a little squirt too, huh? I bet you need protecting. Something bad could happen to you," one said firmly.
"Give us your allowance, and we'll make sure you stay safe," the other agreed.
Byron snorted and said, "I don't think so."
"You will," the first one growled and stood up in his face. "Who knows what could happen if you're caught outside the school."
Allison turned and pushed the boy into the other one. "Be on your way," she said firmly.
The boys scowled at her. "You just made a serious mistake, ya little freak. We were going to leave you alone since you're a girl."
"Don't let that stop you from running while you can," Allison grated.
The boys looked around then moved to up to her to intimidate her. Allison lifted off the floor to eyeball them face to face. She then reached out with her physical hands, grabbed them by their shirts and picked them off the floor. Both their faces bore shock.
"We got things trying to kill us, and you like picking on people smaller than you?" Allison asked in a growl, as she scowled at each one in turn. "Let me tell YOU how it's going to be! You will not bother anyone else, or I will come bother YOU. If I even hear a rumor about you picking on or bullying anyone I will make your lives miserable. I will become your worst nightmare and there will be no escape!" she then tossed them both back to land on their butts. She settled down to stand on the floor, eyeing them.
"Who the fuck are you?" one wide-eyed boy blurted out.
"Allison Kaeda Connor, pleased ta meet ya," Allison said in a hard tone. "Remember me, because I am going to remember you."
Allison got back in her place in line as the boys scrambled up and hurried away. She also noted the cafeteria had fallen silent. Everyone was staring at her. When the chatter in the large room started back up, it was all hushed whispers. Allison knew it was because she'd used her mind hands and there was sure to be trouble over it. At the moment, she didn't care. She was not going to let anyone bully her friends.
Allison was fully expecting to have the table they sat down at out clear out to stay away from her. He settled down across from Allison Lynn. A thin boy came over to sit down and thank her for taking care of those guys. He left, and a couple more came over. After them, five girls came to sit down and asked Allison about her medal, and more came to crowd around the table to find out if what they heard on the news was true that she had single handedly destroyed every H/K over the city. Many wanted her autograph. A few kids crowded around her to get their pictures taken with her.
This time, using her mind Hands had gotten her unexpected results.
.
At John's new command post inside the now reinforced tunnels Allison had helped construct, the world map on the large table showed red spots where Sky Net had taken over. There was a lot of red on the map. What was more disturbing was a new red spot was put in Central America. Seeing the woman who put it there, John asked, "What exactly is the situation in Central America?"
"Costa Rica and Nicaragua, Sir. La Cruz in Costa Rica has been overrun with Sky Net, so has Rivas, Jinotepe, and Granada in Nicaragua. Masaya is under attack, and the people trying to flee are being slaughtered on the roads," The woman said in a hollow tone.
"Why?" John asked himself. It's not like Central America had much in the way of industry or high tech. They were not in any way a threat to Sky Net's power. It seemed like Sky Net was killing just to kill. Of course Sky Net would take any opportunity to kill people, but why there, and not get rid of the higher tech countries first?
"General, the projected radiation reports you asked for?" another woman said, and handed him the paper.
"Thank you," John said absently. He could understand China, Russia and Europe, and Australia but why attack Central America? John shifted his attention to the wind borne radiation expected from Asia. He looked at the projected clouds, their arrival time, and area of the greatest impact. They would start seeing radioactive clouds in a couple months, by six months it would cover the US and the upper parts of Mexico, then cross the ocean to cover Europe. So far, his plans to harvest everything possible before the radiation got here, and build the radiation-free farms looked like it was on track. By winter they should have enough cover for emergency crops and small livestock. He ordered all cattle to be slaughtered and processed as fast as possible to store all the meat they could before the first radioactive rains fell.
John then looked at the Central American attacks again, and back at the radiation forecasts.
He got it. Sky Net wasn't after tech in this attack, it was working to destroy their remaining sources of food next year that would not be contaminated with radiation. Since Sky Net could not defeat them militarily, it was going to try and starve them to death. John was already working on anti-radiation devices to clean the air and maintain radiation free gardens, but if North America was cut off from Central and South American food, hundreds more millions were going to die. Beside the radiation in the clouds, the endless cloud cover itself was going to lower temperatures, meaning the only places left to grow food on Earth would be near the equator. He was sure Mid and Southern Africa were also going to be Sky Net's next target.
John walked into John Henry's new communication center. He had to get word about this out as fast as possible.
.
After her lunch that she barely ate anything at due to all the attention, Allison went with her class to the nurse's office. She waited her turn to get her vital's taken. The nurse finished with Becky, then had Allison stand against the wall to measure her height. Next was the scale for her weight. The nurse frowned and had Allison step back off it. She zeroed the scale and had Allison get back on. The reading was the same.
97 pounds.
The nurse looked Allison up and down and asked, "Why do you weigh so much? You don't look like you should be more than sixty, sixty five tops."
"I have metal bones like my mom," Allison explained.
"Metal bones? Your mother has metal bones?" the nurse asked skeptically.
"Uh-huh, like my nubs here. They are part of my skull," Allison said pointing to her horns.
The nurse inspected her scalp and quickly wrote some notes on her chart. "This is highly unusual," she muttered. She then had Allison sit, and took her blood pressure.
140 over 75
"Very high for a child," the nurse noted. "Do you feel OK, sweetie?"
"Just fine," Allison replied.
Allison got to take a seat as Becky was called in to see the doctor. Byron was measured and came over to sit by her.
"The nurse looked confused when she measured you," Byron said with a grin.
"Yeah, I think she expected me to be more like everyone else," Allison mussed.
"Nope, you are the one and only Christmas tree pretty girl there is," Byron said confidently, which made Allison blush.
Becky came out and the doctor called, "Allison Connor?"
Allison went in to see an older woman writing on a chart. The doctor looked up briefly. "Hello, Allison, get up on the table, please." Looking at the chart, the doctor asked, "You don't feel bad in any way, do you?"
Allison thought about it and said, "Kinda, I lost some friends because of Sky Net, and Mom got shot in the leg. I feel bad about that."
The doctor pinched her lips together and said, "We all do, hon. What I mean is, do you feel bad inside. Any headaches, soreness, tight feeling in your chest, tingling arms? Anything like that?"
"No, I'm fine."
The doctor took a tiny light and told Allison to look straight ahead. She shown it in one eye, then the other. Frowning, the doctor did it again. "This is strange. Have you had any eye surgery?"
"No, nothing. Why do you ask?"
The doctor shown the light in her eyes again and said, "It appears you have two irises in each eye, one behind the other."
Allison thought for a second, then changed her vision so she could see in the dark. "How about now?"
"You ... How did you do that? Your inner irises just shrank back into your pupils!" the doctor exclaimed.
Allison returned her vision to normal seeing. "I dunno, I've always been able to change my vision. I can see good during the day," she then changed her vision again, "And at night."
"Incredible," the doctor said in a breath. She made a few notes on the chart.
Next, the doctor shown a light in her ears. Hearing the doctor whisper something under her breath, Allison turned up her hearing.
"I'm sorry, doctor, I didn't catch that," she said.
The doctor gasped and asked, "What did you just do?"
"I couldn't hear you, so I listened closer. Why?"
The doctor shook her head. "Your ear canal just opened up twice the size it should be! Can you close your hearing off too?" she asked in dis-belief.
"Yup."
The Doctor watched as her ear canals closed down to pinpoints for a few seconds, then returned to normal. "My dear, you are a very unusual child," she said, amazed at what she was finding.
"Thank you!" Allison beamed.
The doctor hadn't meant it as a compliment, but decided not to say anything and get on with the examination. She checked Allison's breathing and heat beat, which seemed normal, then had her cross her legs for the nerve response test. The doctor tapped Allison's hanging leg on her knee. Her leg kicked up as a loud BOOM sounded. Recoiling, the doctor ducked and looked to see a big hole in the wall. Someone screamed in the waiting room on the other side of the wall.
"I'm sorry!" Allison cried. "I almost hit you!"
Byron's face appeared in the hole. "Ally, you OK?" he asked.
"Yeah... I'm so sorry, it just happened! Is everyone OK in there?" Allison cried as she turned red with embarrassment.
"WHAT just happened?" the saucer eyed doctor all but screamed, now terrified of this girl.
"You hit my knee and a mind Hand just shot out and hit the wall. I couldn't help it!" Allison said, wearing a crimson face.
"A mind Hand?" the doctor asked weakly.
"Yeah, Ally has long invisible hands she controls with her mind. They are really strong too!" Byron explained. To Allison he said, "We're OK, Ally, no one got hit by anything solid, just bits of plaster and wood."
Taking deep breaths to calm herself, the doctor said, "I think we're done .. for the day."