Things were working out better than Starscream thought they would. The humans quickly proved themselves, the ones who survived capture. And he found that a little fear, a subtle threat, and maybe a weapon drawn every now and again were more than enough to keep them in line.
They were pathetic yet efficient.
He scanned in each of their faces, registered their vocals and stored them into his hard drive. Starscream got clear readings of them all except for one. A young femme who always spoke in whispers with her voice low, as she seemed intent on silence. However, she had to speak eventually, and then his readings would be complete, his slaves properly categorized and cataloged.
Darkness, light. Light, darkness. Awake, eat. Work. Eat. Sleep.
Alexis' life was now a repetitive loop that never seemed to vary. A week had passed but the tasks remained the same, the food as well, canned vegetables and fruit that made her stomach ache for something more substantial. They were at least able to eat that because Chris had a can opener on his key-chain.
And yet...
It wasn't long before her dreams became wants, needs, total obsession with food, with comfort and with the thought of sleeping in her own bed.
She thought of Pot Roast with potatoes and carrots. The beef so tender she barely needed to chew. Her down comforter that was soft and pleasing, even a pillow that would have done wonders for her neck. Before, she dreaded going back to her house. For that meant she would have to sort through things and face the emptiness and the unavoidable, undeniable change that was her life. However, leave it to life, a thing that seemed to love dishing out jokes, to push something else on her. Something that was making what she was going through even before her capture to amplify or dim depending on what she was going through at the moment.
All the work started when the one whom she now knew was named Demolisher, ushered them into an even larger room than they had already been in. Giving them orders, his imposing form and demanding voice left them with nothing to do but what he said. The giant mech saying he would crush them if they refused was also a good incentive.
They started clearing out the room. They took things, moving them where the looming metal beast told them to. Another day he brought large boxes with him, electronic blueprints as well, which impressed Alexis with their complexity, not that she had time to dwell on it. They were expected to build the things shown on the alien PDA, some sort of intricate parts that once again had the computer geek in her awed.
She found she could do it easily enough and even enjoyed working with her hands and keeping busy. Anything to keep her mind off what was going on. However, Michael was unable. Even if he knew how to, his hands were too small. Most of the others were having difficulties as well. Alexis tried to explain and tried to help out. But when Demolisher figured out that they couldn't do it adequately enough they were sent back to picking up and moving things.
Alexis managed to keep Michael near her side by telling him to make it look like he was working while she managed to build enough of the joint looking mechanisms for both. She would talk to him and tell him stories and try to keep him occupied. The boy interrupted occasionally with a question, usually one she didn't want to answer.
"You think we will ever get out of here?"
"Yes."
"All of us?"
That was where she would pause and her mind stutter. Truth, lies, optimism, pessimism, an answer, or just empty silence.
"Sure, honey. We'll get out of here," Lois said. She, Chris and Leonard had been the only ones besides Alexis that were capable of making the devices. That day they were sitting by one another, conversing now and again. However, depending on which Decepticon was on duty watching them, sometimes they couldn't talk that much. "They can't keep us forever," the waitress reassured.
Alexis found her mouth opening to argue. She clamped it shut when she realized what she was about to say. Sometimes it was better to say nothing.
An echo sounded off across the room, and something was dropped before being followed by a loud thud and a dull moan. Leonard got to his feet.
"Carla!" he yelled, taking off faster than she would have thought possible for someone his age.
Alexis put her stuff down. Carla had collapsed. A broken box beside the older woman was spilling out what looked to be some sort of glassware, pieces and bits shattered about.
That was when Sideways went into action, the horned robot that was too watchful, too quiet for Alexis' taste. The Decepticon pushed Leonard out of the way with a brutal tap that had him flying backwards across the floor. Luckily, he was stopped and caught by Deedrick and Jared. Both held to him as Leonard tried to get up and go back toward his wife, but they wouldn't let him.
"Carla!" He struggled against them. "Let me go!"
Sideways stood over the fallen woman. His head twisted, staring at her in a rather bored manner. But then he straightened and his hand went to his side. A weapon appeared that he grabbed and leveled at Carla.
"Stop it! You can't do that! You can't!"
The ground shook behind her, and Alexis knew more of the other robots were coming into the room. But that information barely registered over all the voices. The last one she found had been her own. She had been totally unaware that she opened her mouth until she heard herself shouting.
Starscream was displeased. He was forced to stop his security installation when he had heard everything go silent in the room next to him. That is before the fleshlings started to raise their voices with pleading and begging. The Seeker was all set to ignore it when one voice caught his attention. He put down his nero-wrench, his gears and servos leading him to the outer room. Barricade followed.
"What's going on?"
"More of Sideways' efficiency in action," Starscream said sarcastically.
"Stop!"
It was the voice again, the one that had him moving in the first place. He filtered all the rest of the human feedback out and centered on the one, his optics finding who he was looking for.
Alexis was shaking. She was sure of that. Alexis trembled even more when she realized the Starscream one was actually staring at her. His inhuman eyes focused on her, ripping apart at her very being, leaving her feeling more wobbly, unsure and just a little panicky.
"And why, human, should this weak fleshbag be spared?"
It took Alexis a couple of moments to realize that he was talking to her. When it finally registered, she found all her words were gone. Alexis' coherent reasoning circled around inside her faster and faster until it stopped completely. Thoughts and memories built, flashing and whispering to her, emotions surged. Blending. Spreading. Burning. And then all she felt was anger.
Starscream watched the female creature. Her heart rate was building. She was lacking even more color in the flesh than the other humans, and she was trembling with her head downcast and turned away. He felt pleasure that he could incapacitate her so. He was ready to walk away and let Sideways continue when right before his optics there was a transformation. The girl stood up straighter. Her breathing evened out and then her head moved up, eyes clamping on his optics.
"Because there is really no reason to kill her. She just needs to rest."
"Rest takes time," he started, ready to motion at Sideways to finish. "And I am not patient nor feel the need for incompetent organics to take up space."
"I'll do the work for her until she is able again," the female said, her voice strong with urgency. Another emotion broke through that interested Starscream more than the first, defiance.
It was the first true show of it from any of the humans. Yes, they ran, raised their vocals and shouted things, but none of the humans had really confronted any of them yet. He wondered what made the femme creature so different, what made her less fearful and so bold.
He was staring at her again with hard calculating eyes that she so desperately wanted to look away from. However, she wasn't going to. Alexis had been through enough in her life and was so sick of it all. If the giant robot wanted to kill her, so be it. At least she would stand her ground. Diana would have been rallying behind her if she was still alive, if she had survived the crash. Alexis blocked out those thoughts. An easier task when the booming voice spoke once more.
"You are dismissed, Sideways."
Alexis watched as the weapon was folded away in a flash of movement. Leonard was let go and he rushed to his wife. Sideways left the room disgruntled, obviously displeased that he had been stopped.
However, it wasn't over yet.
"Triple the humans work. If she doesn't do it, dispose of them both," Starscream told Barricade.
He looked at the femme again. Enjoying the way she flinched at his words before she turned away. The tiny sparkling came up to her as he wrapped his arms tightly around her body. The Seeker's view obstructed from what had been growing intrigue on his part.
"Way to go, Alexis!" the boy said as he released her. Grabbing onto her hand, he pulled her away.
Alexis. Starscream's neural processor repeated the designation. His optics took her in one more time before he left the room.
