Chapter Memories

Josh climbed out of his pod. He was so tired he couldn’t keep his eyes open. He dragged his feet while his untied shoes dropped off as he went to his bedroom window. It appeared to be a beautiful day so he opened it. There was a fresh breeze that instantly filled the room. He sat on the bed as some small sparrows were chirping their song while perched on the windowsill outside the screen. While lying supine feeling so comfortable he barely had enough energy to pull the covers over him before he fell into a light sleep.

He was sitting in class when he heard Sheri’s voice screaming outside the class in the hallway. He turned his head thinking what is she doing out there. He tried to get up but couldn’t move. He was in bed now trying to get up to help Sheri. She was screaming, but he couldn’t move. He tried to lift his legs and his arms but they felt glued to the bed. It was like he was experiencing sleep paralysis. After a minute it cleared and he stood up next to his bed in a daze, He must have been dreaming he thought. Then a similar sound came from outside his window. He looked out. The back yard of his home was fenced in.

Something scurried across his yard and caught his eye. There was a covey of quail running across it. The leading bird jumped up onto the fence separating the properties and then seemed to be screaming at the rest to follow along. One by one they mounted the fence disappearing as they dropped down into the next yard. Josh was quite amused and relieved by watching them. He laughed at himself after briefly mixing reality, the quail and a dream of Sheri screaming. “Whew.”

He scratched his head thinking about the dream where Sheri was in the hallway. But it wasn’t Sheri at all, it was the teacher. Now he remembered. When he opened the door it came open with a blast pushing him down and she was standing there looking at him. But it wasn’t her, it was an ant-like virus robot, but it wasn’t that either. It was an ant-like virus robot with Miss Ursbrook’s face on it! That is what happened, or did it he wondered with foggy confusion. He determined he must go back and investigate. He went back to his pod and got in.

When he appeared in class his friends were studying together.

“What are you doing back? You should be resting,” Sheri said with concern.

Josh startled to find them there, “Oh, I just wanted to check on something to satisfy my curiosity.” He walked over to the door and jiggled the handle. He found it unlocked.

Yancy looked at the girls, “Dude, I think you may have a concussion from getting your bell rung. It happens to football players all the time and they are wearing helmets.”

“Come on guys. While I was at home I heard you screaming,” he pointed at Sheri with a confused look on his face. “You were in the hallway trying to get the door open.” Now Sheri got a worried look on her face. “But it wasn’t you. Don’t you see. It was a virus robot with Miss Ursbrook’s face on it that pushed open the door. It did hit me, but it just knocked me down. I didn’t hit my head. She is a virus. I remember it clearly now. She was angry because I locked the door and she wasn’t expecting that when she arrived. She grabbed me and one of her antennae did this to my head.” He felt his bruise.

“Josh think about what you are saying. It sounds a little wild you know,” Yancy was trying to stay with him.

“Maybe not. We saw the viruses and how Mike destroyed them. So why would we have trouble believing his story?” said Sheri. Molly agreed.

Yancy’s voice sunk, “OK, let’s say everything you remember did actually happen. What can we do about it?”

“We should all agree if I’m right that there is something terribly wrong here. At the very leased, why would they hide what is going on from us?” Joshed searched their faces for agreement.

“I can’t disagree with your logic. What do you suggest we do?” Yancy perked up giving Josh some comfort.

“Two things I can think of. First, at minimum, two of us should be here early tomorrow to see her enter the room. Second, I want to visit Mike’s location and have a discussion with him. We know she went into his room. You Yancy saw it with your own two eyes. We need to get him to explain why that would have happened. He may be a double agent here. He could be the malignancy sending out the viral seeds we have seen. The Miss Ursbrook’s if you will.”

“He has a lot of good points,” said Sheri.

Molly, “I can be here tomorrow morning early. What time did she arrive.”

“I encountered her fifteen minutes before class time. She seems the rigid always at the same time type. So I would say we should be here a half hour early to cover any variations she might have,” Josh looked at them for affirmation.

Sheri, “I’ll be here.”

Yancy, “Yeah, me too. I can’t go with you to see Mike though. My dad would blow a fuse if I did and he found out.”

“I’ve got to go now,” said Sheri. Molly joined her. They both disappeared from class.

Josh looked at Yancy and said “Thanks. See you in the morning,” and he pressed his exit button.

Yancy sat by himself and wondered whether it was safe to go home now. Then he pushed his button and exited.

At 07:30 AM the next morning the group started popping into class one after another. First Yancy, then Molly, Sheri and Josh came at the same time.

Sheri said, “We are all here. What are you expecting to see Josh?”

“I don’t know. I just thought it would be wise to recreate the conditions that I experienced yesterday.” He walked over and tested the door. It was unlocked.

“Didn’t you say it was locked yesterday?” Molly asked.

“I thought about that. I decided that she might be alerted if the door was locked. Every other day she entered at that time and she was alone and the door was unlocked. I thought it was best to allow her to enter under what she perceived as a normal entry. I don’t know that it will show us anything. But if she does walk in and she appears half virus looking it would tell us a lot. It is possible that the locked door threw her off and somehow it affected her ability to be seen as the teacher. After this test is finished we should consider reproducing the exact circumstances from yesterday with the door locked again. Now we wait.”

So they sat and went over their assignments while the clock ticked quietly forward. Josh felt something in his pocket and reached in. It was the zapper he had programmed as his accessory. He had forgot about it. He wondered if the other zapper was still in the closet. Before he could check, the door handle turned slowly.

It opened all the way inward and Miss Ursbrook entered surprised to see all of them already seated. She said, “Last minute homework?”

Yancy, “Uh, yes, that’s it. We decided to work together on these problems you assigned. They were tough.” He winked at Josh sitting next to him who smiled at his quick thinking. Sheri turned and smiled at Yancy.

“That’s good. Teamwork has a place in your education. But it won’t be tolerated while you are testing.” She went straight to the front and placed her bag on the desk. She didn’t speak again. The room slowly filled in over the next 15 minutes until she stood and said, “I’m being told the problems I assigned to you for homework were hard. Does anyone have a question about the assignment?” She looked up and at the class. Her eyes panned the room. “No questions. Very good. Let’s start with some new material then.” So it went for the next six hours.

Josh had substituted gazing out a window to thinking about the virus robots. He kind of felt it was dangerous but also a little exciting learning about them. He passed around a note to Sheri, Yancy and Pete asking if anyone wanted to take to the closet and spy on the teacher again. He couldn’t get the note to Molly without raising the teachers suspicions. Pete looked at it first and turned to Josh and nodded. Sheri nodded and Yancy leaned over and whispered to Josh, “I don’t know about this.”

Josh whispered back, “We need someone to guard the class door. Not everyone needs to go into the hallway.”

Yancy gave him a thumbs up. When he looked back at the teacher she was giving him the evil eye. She sternly said, “Your friend must have fully recovered since you two are back to holding private conversations and interrupting my class.”

Yancy, “Oh uh, sorry.” So the four of them planned to scurry to the closet when she wasn’t looking at the end of class.

The teacher continued with her lesson until the end of class time when she said, “I will see you tomorrow. Your assignment for homework is posted.” She turned and gathered her belongings on the table behind her.

Most of the students had their fingers on the button waiting her to finish and they were gone in seconds. Josh signaled the time had come and they slipped into the closet. He stood at the rear where he could reach up and feel around for Mike’s zapper. It was still there and he placed it in his other pocket. This gave him a reason to over ride Mike’s warning about coming to see him again. He could return it to him.

The teacher pressed the release button to unlock the door and went through it not noticing anyone left in the room. They heard the door shut and quickly peered out to see her leaving as a large ant-like robot walking away on the ceiling.

“OK, who wants to follow her with me?” Josh looked at their faces.

“I’m in. It’s time we found out what is going on here,” said Pete.

“Me too,” said Sheri.

“Yancy will guard this door then. What ever you do, don’t close this door and always stay partially inside. You can lodge a chair between the door and the frame so you can sit and watch if you want.” Josh looked for Yancy’s acknowledgment..

“What if viruses craw down the hall toward me? What if you don’t come back?”