Regression City USA part 3
Amanda tried her best to keep the class under control, but that proved a lot more difficult to do that she had originally anticipated. Although the class still had their teenage minds their toddler bodies weren’t making things any easier, many of the students wanted to call their parents. More than one child had gone into a state of what could only be described as depression, by curling up in a ball in one of the corners of the classroom. Amanda also noticed a couple of the students had suffered “accidents” and she wondered if she wouldn’t have one soon as well.
“Ok listen up!” she squeaked in her lisping voice, “We are all little kids right now,” she continued, “at least in our bodies anyway.” She waited to hear any response, but all that came was the whimpering and some of the sniffling from several of the crying students. “A few of you soiled yourselves already,” she stated as she glanced around the room, some of the kids could be seen blushing or trying to cover up “But at the moment I think we can all understand, so I want everyone to start by taking off their pants or skirts and covering up as best that they can with their shirts.” A few of her classmates began to follow her instructions, but several glanced at her with odd looks on their faces. Amanda sighed, “Most of us are too little right now to hold it for long, and since we can’t leave the room until the Professor gets back we might as well rig up some diapers in case we need them, besides it might help keep our minds off of what is going on.”
Linda was feeling a lot better since Kevin had finished covering her wounds but he had still asked her to stay laying down, at least until he and Rebecca returned after seeing if they could find a way off of the eighteenth floor of the office building. Carla had offered to stay behind with Linda in case she needed anything also the child-sized reporter seemed hesitant to leave the injured woman who had saved her life’s side. Linda was worried about Carla, the shock and trauma of the crash as well as the startling physical transformation she had undergone seemed to unhinge her a little, she was acting more and more childish as time went on. “Carla?” Linda asked, “Yes?” the girl responded distracted, “Are you ok? You seem a little off?” Linda questioned. The girl shrugged at the question “I dunno, I feel all funny is all.” She said letting the subject drop. Linda nodded her head, the trauma and the transformation had triggered a regression in the woman, she had studied psychology in college and she knew that it was a natural defensive reaction to high stress.
Rebecca crawled as deeply into the rubble of the stairwell as she dared, “I can’t get in any further!” she called back to Kevin as the two continued their search for the way off of the eighteenth floor. Kevin sighed as he reached in to help the smaller Rebecca out of the hole they had found, “Don’t worry about it, there has to be a way out of here.” He told her trying to reassure her even if he too felt more than a little despair about their situation as well. “I don’t get it,” Rebecca partially whined, “Why hasn’t there been any attempt at rescue?” she asked Kevin, “Well, we have to assume whatever happened to us, happened to everyone, so the entire city is probably in chaos, on the bonus side,” he continued his reply, “at least I don’t think things can get much worse.” He brushed some of the dust and dirt off of himself as they turned back into the hallway, “We need to find some food, and something to drink though, it looks like we might be here a while.” He stated, “There is a snack and soda machine near the break room.” Rebecca replied as the two began to head back to the office room where Carla and Linda awaited.
Kevin, Carla, and Rebecca helped Linda to stand, the woman was very unstable on her feet and had to steady herself by placing a hand on Carla and Kevin’s shoulders to walk, she was still very weak from the explosion, “Where are we going?” Linda asked her three child-sized companions as they slowly moved to the door. “It looks like we will be stuck in here a while,” Kevin told her, “So Carla and I decided to move everyone to the employee break room down the hall, we can get food and drinks there, also it’s probably a lot cleaner and less damp than here, I don’t like the idea of moving you yet, but we don’t have much of a choice.”
It turned out that the break room would be a godsend, not only did it have a cabinet stocked with Aspirin and Aleve, but there was also a first aid kit and one of the workers had left a clean shirt, probably to change into after work, in a small closet in the room. “Ok, the first thing we need to do,” Kevin began as they laid the still injured Linda down, “Is to find a way to open the machines, I don’t think I have the strength left to break them open so that might take a while.” Kevin continued to give instructions, more to himself than anyone else, “Then I need to use some of this alcohol and clean Linda’s wounds out again to stop any infections.” After they had Linda settled in as comfortably as possible the trio of Carla, Rebecca, and Kevin went to look at the machines to see what they could accomplish, “I don’t see what we can do with this one,” Rebecca said as she looked at the mammoth machine, she hadn’t ever thought that these things looked this big before, she couldn’t even reach the buttons, “Unless someone knows how to pick a lock.” She looked at Kevin and Carla who both shook their heads, “Well,” Carla interrupted, “I’m physically the oldest next to Linda, maybe I can break it open using a chair or something.” Kevin nodded as he ran off to find the pre-teen a chair. It took Carla six tries to finally shatter the glass on the snack machine, and thirteen to break the plastic case of the soda machine but now they had access to food, liquid, and were warm and dry, aside from the physical alterations they had undergone it looked as though they would be ok.
Albert moved through the school, he had found everyone was in the same predicament, many of the teachers were only teens and children themselves and utter chaos was reigning, the phone lines were down so there was no way to call the students’ parents and inform them what had happened. The rejuvenated professor had gone all over the school to gather supplies for his students he even had the hindsight to stop by the home economics class, who was being held together by an eight year old formerly called Miss Laurence, and picked up a package of diapers, used in their yearly “parenting” project. He made his way to the office of the school, the principal wasn’t in and the secretaries were children like almost everyone else, the assistant principal had panicked when the wave hit and nobody could even find where he went, it took a few minutes before Albert could find the intercom and key in a broadcast to all the classes, “This is Professor Carver,” he began, “I know many of you are scared and don’t know what to do right now, neither do I, but the phone lines are down and we have all undergone some type of transformation, I want everyone to try to remain in their classes, and any teachers still in their mid teens should come to the office immediately so we can work this problem out.” He clicked off the receiver and sighed, he knew that this all had something to do with his machine; he also knew that unless he covered that fact up he would be in very deep trouble.
To be continued...