Chapter Text
“There. How’s that look, Dad?” Lizzy’s bored voice sounded as the pink-eyed drone glanced lazily over. The Teacher Drone looked up from his papers, adjusting his glasses as he squinted across the classroom. The desks neatly arranged in rows across the room shone pale in the semi-darkness, illuminated only by the stale fluorescent lamps and the cold blue chill of the frosted windows. The only real splash of colour, unfiltered by the constant blue hue of everything, was his daughter’s bored pink eyes. She stepped back from the large banner she had set up and raised one eyebrow slightly as she waited for a response.
“PARENT-TEACHER CONFERENCES
AKA: “THAT EXPLAINS A LOT”
SUPPORTED GRADES: 1.01 - 12.08 [BETA]”
The banner proclaimed, the fabric rippling a little as air passed through the ventilation system behind it.
Teach stood up, slowly making his way over to get a better look at the banner. His footsteps sounded heavy on the floor beneath him.
He nodded approvingly. “Thanks, Lizzy, it looks great. It helps a lot.” He smiled. “Are you going to find Doll now?” Teacher asked, tilting his head as Lizzy began tapping at her phone screen.
“Mhm, and we’re gonna meet back here before the interviews start. Just seeing where she’s at…”
Teach nodded, making his way back over to his desk, picking up a spare mug that was, regretfully, empty. Hopefully, there was still some antifreeze left over to top it up with, before the interviews began…
“You want anything from the staff room?” Teacher asked his daughter as he shuffled his way towards the bulky bunker door.
“Nah, I’m good.” She responded without looking over. She sounded bored; an impatient anger symbol displayed on her visor as she waited for her friend to respond. Teacher paid her attitude no mind; Lizzy was often preoccupied like this.
The door slid open with a hiss, and Teacher stepped out into the school halls, the echoes of his footsteps resounding behind him as he made his way to the staff room. His classroom was, frustratingly, the furthest from the place, which made it a nightmare to get to in the daytime when the halls were packed with drones. But now, in the hours of the night, it was empty, with an almost ominous feel about it.
Antifreeze… Good for the processors, stops the frost from freezing up your systems… Long history of adding the right flavour components to it, to ensure drones enjoyed drinking it…
Teacher thought to himself as he made his way down the hall, taking his time and avoiding the iciest pathways.
Not hard to make, always plenty of it, it actually has an interesting history with drones…
The more he wandered, the more he thought, the calmer his surroundings felt. He could distance himself from the fact that he’d have to confront a dozen or so parents about their child’s poor grades…
History of the drone education system… Now that’s an interesting one…
Teacher hummed to himself as he stored one information file in the back of his mind and pulled out a new one. If there was one thing about his job, at least he never ran out of things to ponder over; the entire curriculum was stored in his own processor.
…But of course they had to make it imitate the human education system…
Nearly there now. He checked the clock in his HUD; he had plenty of time left.
Good. I’ll be right on time… thirty minutes early.
A loud clatter nearly sent the Teacher leaping out of his own metal plating. The sound of rapid footsteps quickly followed it, and Teacher spun around towards the noise.
Nobody should be in here- Not yet at least.
“Hey- Who’s there? You know you’re not expected to show up for another half-hour?” Teacher called, his monotone voice bouncing down the hallway. In response the footsteps just got louder and more frantic.
“Help!! Help me!” A panicked cry that sent shudders racing down Teacher’s chassis, and he froze.
Did the Disassembly- no, they can’t- they were captured-
His feet shuffled on the ground beneath him, confused on which way they wanted to go, before an ear-splitting shriek pierced the quiet, snapping Teacher’s systems back into reality. He broke into a run, his feet pounding beneath him. The scream cut off sharply, but that didn’t stop Teacher from continuing to race towards the source of the sound.
He rounded a corner and nearly ran face-first into another drone.
“Gah- sorry-! Are you oka-” He cried, skidding to a halt as the blue-eyed drone quickly backed up to give him some space.
“Woah- wo-o-oah- woah- what’s gotten you running so fast? You got a murder drone after you?” The drone… What was his name… Tim. Tim chuckled.
“What… What about the screaming? Did you not hear that?” Teacher stammered as he tried to catch his breath.
Don’t even need to breathe, why-
“Screaming? Do you need your audio pro- processors looked at? Everything is… Perfect over here!” Tim replied, a bright smile on his face.
“I swear I heard-” Teacher started, before going silent as Tim seemed to flicker right before his eyes.
Something was very wrong here.
Teacher began to back away, his thoughts flipping through various information files for whatever this was. It seemed familiar, he just… Couldn’t quite place it.
Tricks of the light? A power outage? No, nothing else flickered- some kind of virus or malware? Is he overheating? Only murder drones can overheat like that-
Tim watched him back away. His eyes narrowed a little, but the wide smile on his face never left. “Oh, Teacher. You could have avoided this.” he sighed, resigned.
Teacher tilted his head, feeling a chill run through his core. He took another step back-
Something squelched under his foot. Taking his eyes off Tim for a moment, Teacher glanced down to see the floor stained in splatters of shiny black oil. His chassis stopped cycling for a brief moment and he felt his eyes go hollow.
“What did you-” His voice rose into a cry as he whirled his gaze back to Tim, flinching back with a yelp as the other worker was now only inches away from his face.
“Curiosity, killed, the cat. Teacher Drone.”
That wasn’t Tim’s voice. This voice was new, it was… well. Robotic. It was flat, it was monotone, and much higher pitched than Teacher had ever heard from Tim. The worker before his eyes flickered again; this time he disappeared entirely in a flash of blue light before being replaced by a single, piercing, yellow beam of light that seemed to stare right through the Teacher. It was a camera; a ring of crooked spikes surrounded its lens, and it appeared to be supported by various poles. Teacher took one last step back from whatever this thing was, before something slammed into him from behind and sent him flying across the oil-slick floor, landing with a thud against the wall on the other side of the hallway. Error messages flashed across Teacher’s screen, and he squinted through them, propping himself up on one elbow. “I-”
A monstrosity faced him on the other side of the hall. More cameras, each appearing makeshift, with messy painted hazard stripes. Crawling down from the ceiling were several oil black tendrils, snaking their way to the floor, but leaving enough space for the huge, scythe-like claws that were taller than a drone. A cruel, twisted blade gripped the floor below the monster, several spikes scraping the tiles with a piercing screech. Teacher gasped, trying to scramble away from the creature- but all he could find was that he had nowhere to go. The monster was watching him as he realised this, and Teacher knew it was only a matter of time before the thing got bored of watching its prey struggle. The worker closed his eyes against the rising terror in his chassis, waiting for the final blow-
“Down here, quick!” A loud voice echoed down the hall, and the sounds of many footsteps followed. Teacher dared open one eye, to see the beams of flashlights leaping up and down the hallways.
The Worker Defence Force! Or rather, what was left of it… Teacher went limp with relief, picking himself up as the panicked gazes of the WDF came into view.
“We heard screaming from around here- is everything okay?!” A drone cried, and Teacher nodded. “Yeah- it came from-”
He pointed towards the creature, before blinking to see that his gaze fell on an empty hall. Even the oil had been inexplicably cleared, leaving the floor spotless.
Teacher’s voice shook as he spoke.
“There’s something in the bunker.”