Cobra
The Day Before:
The School Nurse, Freda, was well liked by the school staff, and loved by the children, so nobody paid any attention when she escorted a personal guest and his two very large bags into the nurse's office. Her visitor maintained a pleasant smile, but one could tell he was uncomfortable around children as he tried to avoid eye contact with the children they passed in the school hallways.
Once they were safely behind the closed doors of the nurse's office, his friendly demeanor dropped, and his surly personality shown through. "Don't open that," he instructed Freda when she set one of his bags down.
"Of course not. I know what you are carrying."
"Good," He said, as he pulled protective clothing out of one of the bags. Before long he was fully dressed, wearing the orange protective uniform of a Cobra Hazard Viper.
"I took the list of subjects you sent me, and I have their body weights listed on this chart," She offered him the paper. He examined it, then set it beside the tank of blue chemical he had just removed from a highly protective case. "One of the desired subjects, Jack Darby, is playing hooky today, but the rest of the students are here, and I have set up times for each of them to come by for their inoculation."
"Good, who is first?"
"Esquivel… he is the oldest boy of a large family. Are you sure you only want one of them?"
"Only need one. You seem to know a lot about the children. Did you research the subjects, or do you actually care about them?"
"I love working with children, this has been my dream job."
"And you are still fine with the plan?" the Hazard Viper asked, his hand gripping a pistol, in case it turned out that Freda had second thoughts.
"Everyone has to die sometime, and what greater gift could I give to these children than to die for the greater glory of Cobra."
The viper smiled under his hood. He always found it amusing when he encountered Cobra operatives who believed in their own publicity. On top of which, he thought most of the "Fred" series of Crimson Guardsmen were among the most pompous of them all, even when they were in the form of blond female school nurses.
The Viper checked the weight listed for the Esquivel boy and measured out the desired dose of the blue chemical. "Once we give this to him, we need to keep him under observation here for about an hour. The dose is suppose to take full effect tonight, but if it occurs too soon, it will be obvious early and we will need to put him down."
"I understand."
One by one, the children on the list came into the school infirmary, and one by one she gave each of them the shot that had been carefully measured out by the Hazard Viper, and one by one each child left the office feeling just as healthy as they had when they came in.
When everything was done, the Viper packed his equipment and suit back up into their cases and was ready to leave. "Remember," he told her, "leave your CG uniform in your office closet to be found when they come in to pick up the pieces. Get out of town before sundown, Cobra is sealing the town off then."
"Yes. I am traveling directly to Terror Drome 2 for evac and reassignment. Good Luck."
"Same to you," he said and the two undercover Cobra operatives each went their separate ways, each hoping and fearing what this operation would bring.
"It is already too late to call it off, Destro," Cobra Commander said, when he heard the footsteps of his closest and most trusted friend/rival/enemy behind him. He did not turn around, instead he watched the sun set through the window of Terror Drome 1, his armored fortress away from home.
"I wish I shared your confidence that this plan will work," Destro said. Above all else, he recognized that the Cobra Commander was a brilliant man, second to none in some things, but many of the man's plans were borderline insane. He wasn't quite sure this plan did not cross that boarder.
"No, I am not sure. That is why we are doing this operation as a test," Cobra Commander said, apparently in one of his more amiable moods, as he often was before the planned deaths of countless people. "Keep in mind, Destro, I have done extensive research on this subject."
"Hrumph… You watched a bunch of movies!"
The Commander laughed. "More than just that, Destro. You make it sound so simple! No, much more than just watching movies, and reading all of the theoretical research on the subject. I have gone beyond all of that. For this test, we need a small, isolated location, without any trees or other cover that could hide someone when it comes time to sanitize the experiment. This location also needs to be near an abandoned government facility, so we can press the blame for the outbreak on the United States government in the press… all the while the people in power who matter, will know that it was really us, and the power that Cobra now possesses! All of those requirements bring us here, to Jasper, Nevada. The perfect location."
"So small, it wasn't even on my map," Destro said.
"Just as well. It won't be on anybody's map in a few days."
"Those poor fools," Destro said, with a genuine hint of sympathy in his voice. "They have no idea what they are in for."
"No they don't, they have no idea they should be afraid, do they? Don't worry about that, Destro. I will give them a fighting chance, by making them afraid," the Commander turned to one of his subordinates, "Televiper, wait until midnight, then activate the Terror Drome."
"Yes, sir!" The Televiper answered. Come midnight, he would activate the Terror Drome's secret function, and the entire instillation would emit a subsonic drone that would instill a subtle layer of fear over everyone within the Terror Drome's range… a range that currently included all of Jasper, Nevada.
