Well, here's the next chapter of this ficcy. Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed the first chapter! I appreciate it!

2. Just Call Me Cade

She couldn't have been any happier when her neighbor came to pick her up at 9:30am, right on the dot. She was being taken up to Lysk's, a farm where she had agreed to purchase an old used truck from Mr. Lysk. It was a twenty minute ride to the farm since they had to take mostly back roads to get there. Her neighbor dropped her off and said, "Hey Kristen, call if you need anything."

"Thanks for the ride Mrs. Denise, and if anything should happen you know I'd call you first."

"Are you sure your parents are going to like that truck? I mean…don't you think you should spend your money on a nice new vehicle?"

"I already have a car, I just want a project truck you know, my boyfriend's birthday is this weekend…he's been looking for this type of truck for a long time. Sure it needs a little TLC, but he's a grease monkey, he can do what needs to be done to fix it."

"Why don't you just submit it to that show called Overhaulin'?"

"He wants to do it himself."

"What happens if he gets deployed?"

"Then I'll just hold onto it for him."

She sighed, "Well, at least it runs. And hopefully you'll get your money's worth out of it…but chores await me back at home."

"I can stop by later and help you out if you want."

"That would be appreciated. I'll keep an eye out for you so I know when you get home."

"Alright, see you later."

"Be careful Kristen."

"I will."

"Okay then, good luck with the truck."

She smiled, "Thanks." And she shut the door and watched as her neighbor drove away. Once she was gone, Kristen turned towards the house and walked up to the front door where she knocked.

Mr. Lysk answered the door and smiled, "Hey Kristen, how are you doing?"

"Very good Mr. Lysk…I have the money for the truck."

"Do you? Well then let's see."

Kristen produced an envelope from her back pocket and handed it to him. Mr. Lysk proceeded to open it and he took out a wad of cash which he counted. He grinned, "Well, all $800 is here. I'll go and grab the keys. Do you have the title to the truck and everything?"

"Yup, and it's all insured."

"Good, good," he remarked as he stepped back inside briefly and reappeared with the keys in hand, "Here you go Kristen."

"Thank you very much sir," she stated as she started to walk away. She stopped, remembering something and turned back to him, "I know the gas gauge is broken, does the truck have enough gas in it for me to make it home?"

"How far do you got to go?"

"Just back to Dayansville."

"Well, this truck is pretty good on gas mileage. You'll be alright; I just filled her up yesterday."

"Okay then, thanks again Mr. Lysk."

"No problem Kristen," he remarked as he stepped back inside, closing the door behind him.

Kristen grinned as she walked to the front of the property where her truck was waiting. The truck itself was over thirty years old, it was a black, rusty 1979 GMC Sierra, but Mr. Lysk had put on his own modifications, which included a lift kit and, made the vehicle almost impossible to get into without having to jump. Kristen went over to the driver's side where she tugged the door open and literally climbed inside. She was five-foot-seven, so she wasn't exactly short, but the truck was still high off the ground. Once inside, she closed the door and fastened her seat belt. She had test drove the truck once before and she knew it ran. However, she was also aware that the turning signals, taillights, brake lights, and blinkers didn't work. But since she was taking the back roads to get home, she figured she wouldn't have to worry about getting a fix-it ticket from the police.

Excited, Kristen inserted the key into the ignition and the truck roared to life when she started it. She chuckled at how loud it was, especially considering it had two mufflers. Luckily the vehicle was old enough so that she didn't have to worry about a noise citation. Kristen put the truck into drive and pulled forward…she forgot the speedometer didn't work either. Sighing, she figured she would have to maintain a safe speed as she pulled out onto the road and started home.

Her route home was rather scenic. She had to drive through a forest most of the way until she turned on to her road where the forest abruptly ended. However, as she drove through the forest, she got thinking about how nobody lived out here. If anything were to happen, it would be nearly impossible to walk anywhere to get home. She had been down this road several times and new that if anything happened, the nearest sign of civilization was five miles away. And she lived in bear country. She had seen a couple black bears in her lifetime, but she had also heard stories of hunters and campers who had been out in these very woods that were attacked by bears. Kristen sighed though, happy that she had a set of reliable wheels to get her home.

That was until the truck made a loud grinding noise and suddenly became harder to control. Kristen pulled over and growled, knowing what was wrong. She shut off the truck and slammed her fist on the dashboard. "Mr. Lysk you're a dirty liar!" she growled, "Like hell you filled this up yesterday!"

Angrily she pulled out her cellphone to call Mrs. Denise and tell her she had ran out of gas, but got a female robotic voice saying, "I'm sorry, service is not available in the area from which you are trying to call. Please move to another location and try again later. Goodbye!"

"Ah, stupid AT&T!" she yelled, shoving her phone back into her pocket, "You never have service anywhere…"

Hesitantly, she got out of the truck and walked around, looking for a signal on her cellphone, but gave up after about half an hour. She returned to the truck where she got in and turned on her blinkers, they at least worked in the front. Kristen wasn't about to start walking five miles to any house either, especially since she didn't know if a bear or some other wild animal would come out of the woods and get her or not. She simply sat there and waited for someone to come by so that she could wave them down. Her neighbor was also keeping an eye out for her, so if she didn't pull in to her driveway, Mrs. Denise would know. She sighed heavily as she glanced at the time on her cellphone.

10:46am.

Barricade wasn't sure what to make of the message when he received it. Most of the information was stuff he already knew…he just couldn't figure out who sent it. The message was signed from some Abbie…which was a human name. He didn't understand why she was acting like a Decepticon…he didn't understand why she was waiting for orders…and he didn't understand why she had sent the message to him of all Decepticons.

He sighed heavily, angrily, he knew he had to figure out who this Abbie person was before she caused any trouble or accidentally gave away information to the wrong person. The message he had received though had taken him forever to decode, it was encrypted, but it had a Decepticon signature, making the decoding process slightly easier. It was clear that she knew what she was doing…at least for the most part.

Abbie had given him one important clue though, which was her IP address. All he had to do was trace the message back to that address and he could hack into the computer, figure out who it belonged to, and then go after that human and exterminate them before they caused a problem that couldn't easily be fixed. He began the trace and immediately came back with a result.

209.11.158

Effortlessly he hacked into the computer with that IP address and immediately looked for the name of the owner. He was a little surprised when he found the name to be Kristen Hise. He found out they lived in the small town of Dayansville, Vermont and her home address. Luckily for him he had been stationed in New York City. He didn't need permission to leave his post and he figured he would only be gone for a little while…

After all, a little excitement sure would be nice.

When the sun began to go down and the shadows grew longer and creepier over the road, Kristen felt panic slowly begin to prick through her veins. She looked at the time, it was almost eight o'clock. She had figured awhile ago that her neighbor had gotten distracted once she got home and completely forgot about her. Mrs. Denise was elderly, so that wouldn't surprise her. Kristen was just disappointed that nobody had drove by…at all. She knew not a lot of people travelled this road, but she didn't think there were days where this road saw no traffic at all. There was no way she could get a hold of anybody…and her parents were away visiting friends until the next day.

She drummed her fingers nervously on the steering wheel, praying that she wouldn't have to stay the night in the forest. Her blinkers had been off for a few hours, she didn't want to risk running the battery down in the truck. Kristen attempted to start the truck, it sputtered as if pleading for more gas but it didn't start.

"Stupid bitch of a truck," she swore as she turned it off. She didn't have a flashlight, she didn't have a blanket. And she watched with nervousness in her eyes as the last few rays of the sun began to disappear in the forest treetops.

Not knowing what else to do, Kristen took out her cellphone and texted one of her friends, "Help! I'm stuck on the Second Road without any gas…" She went to send the text message, but since she didn't have any service, she got an error message.

"Perfect," she sighed as she rolled up the windows and locked the doors.

The last thing she wanted to be tonight was somebody's dinner.

Barricade pulled up at the Hise residence, but he could tell by the way the lights were off that nobody was home. The garage was closed up and the house looked locked up. To be sure, he scanned for any energy signatures, but didn't find any. Figuring he would try again in the morning, he pulled away from the home and went up the road. He turned onto another one looking for a place to bunker down for the night. He had travelled a long way and was in need of a recharge.

Headlights. Kristen could've nearly screamed for joy. She immediately turned on her own headlights and blinkers and jumped out of the truck. She stood in front of it and waved her arms frantically, knowing that she had to capture the other driver's attention.

Barricade frowned when he saw the distressed woman in front of him. He had only been travelling for about ten minutes and he already had stumbled on something he didn't want to be involved in. He was tempted to drive on by, but he was curious to know what had happened. And it didn't help that he had chosen a disguise as a police car. This human would expect him to pull over and help. Groaning, he turned on his lights and pulled over on the opposite side of the road from the girl.

Kristen was a little surprised when she saw the red and blue lights begin to flash, but at this point she didn't care who the help was coming from. At least since this was a police officer she knew that she would be getting help and hopefully not a ticket. She waited until he rolled his window down and he asked, "Is there a problem?"

Kristen noticed that he didn't sound very happy and she warily replied, "Yes, I ran out of gas and I don't get service out here on my phone. I've been here since 10:30 this morning."

Barricade sighed, "Alright, I'll give you a ride back into town, will you be able to come out here tomorrow and get your vehicle?"

"Yes sir, I'll arrange something."

"Okay, get in the back, I'll take you home."

"Thank you," she said as she grabbed her keys out of the truck and carefully got into the backseat of the police car.

He pulled back onto the road and glanced at her in the rearview mirror, "What's your name?"

"Kristen Hise…I live in the other direction."

Barricade felt his holoform grin as he debated what to do with her. He turned the vehicle around and headed back the way he had come. "Where do you live?" he asked, even though he already knew.

"Just keep driving straight until we get to the end of this road, then take a right. I'll let you know when we get close to my house."

"Alright," he responded, glancing at her out of his rearview mirror, still deciding whether or not he should kill her.

Kristen looked at the back of the officer's head. She couldn't see too much since it was dark, but when he had first pulled over, she noticed that he was very good looking. He had short black hair, a pointed nose, and she could tell from his shoulders that he was muscular and well built. He looked to be about six-foot-two…age wise he looked about twenty-seven.

His car was really nice too. She had never been inside of a police car, but the seats were comfortable and nice. There was a thick plastic between the backseat and the front seats. There weren't any door handles though…so the officer was going to have to let her out.

Barricade decided that he would let her live for now at least…he still wanted some questions answered. He wanted to know how she knew how to contact him, how she knew that information about Sam Witwicky and the rest of the transformers, especially considering that she lived in Vermont and the attacks had taken place in Mission City. He wanted to know where she had gotten the name Abbie from, and finally, he wanted to know how much she knew about the Decepticons current campaign. He would monitor her closely for a little while until he had these questions answered. Then he would decide what to do from there, once he had the answers.

He would be fair, but only for now.

Kristen saw her house coming up and stated, "That's my house up there."

"Okay," he replied and began to slow down.

He pulled into her driveway when he got there and Kristen watched as the officer got out and opened her door. She unbuckled her seatbelt and glanced up at him, but she felt a chill run down her spine. She didn't realize how dark and sinister looking he really was until she got close to him. Kristen was almost afraid to walk by him, but she managed to find the courage to get out.

"Thank you for the ride um…" she trailed off, not knowing his name.

"Cade," he replied, "Just call me Cade."

"Thank you then Cade," she remarked. And she turned and headed inside the house. As she walked inside, she heard him get back inside his vehicle and drive away. She let go a suppressed shiver once she heard him start down the road and she quickly went inside her house where she turned on the lights and locked the door.

She waited a minute or two as she calmed down…she hoped she would never run into that officer again. Her stomach growled suddenly and she smiled, realizing that after going all day without eating that she was really hungry. She had to go to the bathroom too…and she wanted to give Mrs. Denise a call. So she proceeded to go to the bathroom and get a quick bite to eat, then she sat down in a chair in the living room and pulled her cellphone out of her pocket so that she could call her neighbor.

"Hello?" Mrs. Denise answered.

"Hi Mrs. Denise, it's Kristen."

"Kristen!" she exclaimed, "I forgot all about you! I'm so sorry! I had company waiting for me once I got home and they stayed all afternoon."

"It's alright, I made it home."

"What time did you get home?"

"…Just now," she was a little reluctant to say.

"Oh no! What happened?"

"I ran out of gas on the Second Road. A police officer happened to come by and he gave me a ride home. So I have to go back out tomorrow and put gas in the truck so that I can get it here."

"You were stuck out there all day?"

"Um…yeah. It's okay though, don't feel bad. I could've walked home but I was too afraid too."

"Well, let me make it up to you, I'll take you out there tomorrow evening to get the truck. I'm busy tomorrow morning, but if I forget, don't be afraid to call and remind me. I'll even pay for gas too."

"I just need the ride; you don't have to pay for gas."

"I'm paying Kristen, don't say otherwise."

"If you say so."

"Well, I'll let you go; I've got some cleaning up to do. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Alright, thanks Mrs. Denise."

"It's not a problem, goodbye."

"Bye," Kristen stated as she hung up. She then sighed and decided to call it a night. Getting up, she couldn't help but glance out the window. It almost felt as if she were being watched. She shrugged it off though as she turned off the lights and went upstairs to her room.

There was a small bathroom, a bedroom, and another small room up there that Kristen made into her 'office.' It used to be her sister's bedroom, but her sister had long since moved out, so she took it for herself. Her parents had the downstairs, which was nicer.

Kristen went into her room where she turned on the light and shut the door behind herself. She changed into her pajamas and then turned off the light. As she crawled into bed, she glanced over at the small window that was in her room and noticed the moon wasn't out. She sighed and attempted to dismiss the feeling that she was being watched. She couldn't and she pulled the covers over her head and fell asleep.

Barricade grumbled when he was awakened from his recharge at two-thirty that morning. He had parked himself in the entrance of a field, within sight of Kristen's home. He could monitor everything that she was doing from that position. And any car that drove by would just think that he was checking their speed.

But it was another encrypted message that he received that had awakened him. He wasn't sure who it was from, so immediately he decoded it and read:

To: BC911

Thank you for the ride today. It was nice to see you again. I am still awaiting my orders…

-Abbie

And so ends this chapter. I hope to get the next one out soon...until then, please review!