Chapter 3
"Time to Run"
May 19, 2007
Mikaela, Kadence and a few other friends were hanging out in front of a Burger King. It's been two days since Sam bought his Camaro. First day, he got a girl (Mikaela) into it. Second day, technically last night, he got arrested and lost the Camaro. Talking about how it stood up.
The third day? He gets chased by it. On his mother's bike.
The front tire of the bike trips on the uneven part of the sidewalk and he flips onto his back, quite painfully.
Some of the girls giggle, and Kadence found herself trying to stifle one. Mikaela grimaces, "That was, uh…that was really awesome."
"Felt awesome," Sam sputtered, scrambling to stand. Mikaela asked if he was okay, "No, I'm not okay, alright? I'm losin' my mind a little bit. Gettin' chased by my car right now, gotta go!"
Mikaela watches as Sam peddles off. She turns to set down her napkin and grabs her purse, "You know what, I'm gonna go," She nods to Kadence, "Meet you there."
The red head stood from her seat, discarding her soda cup in the trash as she walked over to the parking lot. Mikaela had gone the opposite direction to get her moped. Starting up her Firebird, Kadence drove out of the Burger King. Driving down the road Sam had taken, along with his Camaro, she thought over what had happened.
Sam getting chased by his car after it had gotten stolen last night?
She parked her Firebird near the underpass that she saw Sam and his Camaro go into. It took a bit before she could cross the street to the junkyard of broken cars.
Kadence peeked around the corner to see Sam, running for his dear life from whatever God out there knows what. Turning her head, she saw Mikaela turning her scooter towards Sam.
Sam waved his hands frantically for Mikaela to get away. As last resort, he stuck out his arm and knocked the brunette off of her scooter and onto her back.
Kadence raced forward to help Mikaela get up, she slipped off her helmet and placed a hand on her back, "What is your problem, Sam?"
"Okay, there's a monster right there who just attacked me," Sam points towards a large robot who had just flipped over two cars and was running right towards the three, "Here he comes!"
Kadence and Mikaela couldn't get up, they were frozen with fear.
Tires screeched and soon, Sam's damned Camaro, driving itself, drove past, almost hitting the trio, and knocked over the metal being. It swiveled back and showed its side to the three, popping open the passenger door.
"Sam, what is that thing?" Kadence asks, reluctant to get in.
"You have to get in the car," Mikaela fought to say no, Sam continued, "G-get in the car. Trust me. Trust me!"
You were just fleeing from the car! The red head spat in her head as all three jumped into the Camaro, Kadence slipping into the backseat while Sam took the driver's seat and Mikaela, the passenger.
"Go, go, go, go!" Sam yelled, the Camaro shifted gears, turned the wheel and floored it, just as the metal being was back up and shifted into a Saleen police cruiser.
The Camaro drove through smoke and sharply swerved a little after realizing the Mustang was right on their tail. Driving down a road, the Mustang tried to get past to no avail.
Mikaela, seeing a wall ahead, screamed, "Oh God. We're gonna die. We're gonna die!"
"No, we're not. No, we're not gonna die. Trust me, he's a kick-ass driver!"
Finding out that they really are heading into a wall, both Kadence and Sam yelled, more like Sam screeched, "We're gonna die!"
They crashed through a large stained glass window. The Mustang was still hot on their tail. After doing a large U-turn, they sped off once more in attempt to lose the cruiser.
By sun down, they were ahead of the cruiser, but it was still chasing them. The Camaro took a right and hid in front of a warehouse, just as the Mustang passed with its lights flashing.
The Camaro locked its doors as Sam and Mikaela scramble for the locks. Kadence leans up from the backseat to see, and says, "We're locked in."
Sam hit the steering wheel, "The car won't start. At least we ditched the monster, right?"
"You spoke too soon," Kadence pointed ahead to see the Mustang slowly pass by again, only to stop.
Sam begins whispering to the car, and it turns its keys and quietly starts the engine. Burning rubber, the Camaro sped off as the police cruiser backed up to block their path.
Taking another U-turn, the Camaro abruptly stops and opens the passenger door, ushering the trio out, in which they did so a little roughly.
The Camaro reshifted itself and stood up. Just as Sam had said. It stood up. Like the Mustang. Except, this one, stood protectively in front of the three teenagers. The Mustang is speeding up towards the yellow being, also shifting and tackling the Camaro.
Kadence didn't have to be told twice when Sam shouted out to run. They ran the opposite direction as the Camaro and Mustang conflicted.
An explosion wracked the ground from behind them, Kadence dared to glance back and saw the Mustang had been flipped over.
The cruiser shot something out of its chest, and a smaller mechanical being came out and sprinted after the three.
The little robot caught Sam's ankle and tripped him. The teenager tried desperately to kick off the robot, resulting in his jeans being pulled off and thrown aside.
Mikaela kept running, and went straight into a shed. Kadence kicked the robot off and tugged Sam up and the two kept running. The mini robot quickly caught up and pounced on Sam, trapping him against a wire fence.
The two had a short showdown before Mikaela appeared with a chainsaw, repeatedly stabbing and hacking the now shrieking robot and soon slicing off its head.
"See…Not so tough without a head, are ya?" Sam said to the struggling head. Racing up, Sam kicked the head like a football, bunting it far away.
"Good call," Kadence said breathlessly as she stared at the decapitated and limp body.
The trio stared, breathing heavily, in the direction they've last seen the fighting robots. It was silent.
"Hey, come on," Sam grabbed Mikaela's hand, she dropped the saw and followed. They began cautiously inching forward the moment they saw the yellow robot.
"What is it?" Mikaela muttered as the robot shifted its cannon back into a hand.
"It's a robot," Kadence stared, appalled at the amazing being.
Sam added on, "But like a…like a different, you know, like super advanced robot. It's probably Japanese. Yeah, it's definitely Japanese." Sam began walking forward as the robot stopped at the top of the hill.
"What are you doing?" Mikaela said.
"I don't think it wants to hurt us. It would have done that already," Kadence said, turning her head to say in Mikaela's ear.
"Really? Well, do you speak robot? Because they just had, like, a giant droid death match!" The brunette said, fading into a whisper.
"It wants something from us." The robot stood proudly, awaiting for the trio to say something.
Mikaela looked at Sam like he's crazy, "What?"
"'Cause the other one was talking about my eBay page."
Kadence shook her head, "How did I even get in this mess with you?"
Sam looked up to the being, "Can you talk?"
"XM Satellite One…Digital Cable brings you…Columbia Broadcasting System…"
"You talk through the radio?" Kadence says.
The robot claps his hands and points to her, "Thank you, you're beautiful! You're wonderful, you're wonderful."
Sam stepped forward, "So what was that last night? What was that?"
The bot points towards the sky, "Message from Starfleet, Captain…Throughout the inanimate vastness of space…And angels will rain down like visitors from heaven! Hallelujah!" The radio clips faded and overlapped into each other, making it slightly difficult to understand.
"'Visitors from heaven…'" Mikaela muttered, then spoke up, "So you're, like, an alien?"
The yellow bot points to the brunette and nods, changing back into the Z twenty-eight Camaro. Popping the door open, the radio said, "Anymore questions you want to ask?"
"He wants us to get in the car," Sam muttered, glancing back at the two girls.
"And go where?" Kadence laughs nervously, holding out her arms.
Sam looked at them dead in the eye, "Fifty years from now, when you're looking back at your life, don't you want to be able to say you had the guts to get in the car?"
"Well," the red head scratched her head, thinking up a sarcastic comeback, "I don't think we'll live to that point when we're about to get caught up in some crazy ass shit."
Mikaela sat uncomfortably on the Camaro's console, her knees pressed against her chest, she eyed the steering wheel warily, "This car's a pretty good driver..."
Lights from the tunnel lit up the interior for a second before going dark, then light, and so on. Sam glanced at her, "Yeah," he glances at the empty driver's seat, "Why don't you go sit on that seat there?"
"I'm not gonna sit on that seat! He's driving!"
Sam glances nervously again, "Yeah. You're right. You know, maybe you should sit on my lap."
She gave him a hysterical look, "Why?"
"Well, I have the only seat belt here…Safety first."
Mikaela glances, considers and then rolls her eyes, "Yeah. Right," she shifts herself onto Sam's lap.
"See? That's better."
Kadence tapped Sam on the shoulder, he turned his head, "You know, that seat belt thing was a pretty smooth move."
The boy flashed her a smile, "Thank you."
Minutes passed of driving through the quiet tunnel before Mikaela shifted on top of Sam and said, "You know what I don't get?" Sam hummed, then she slowly turned her sentence into a whisper, as though not to offend, "If this car is supposed to be this super advanced alien robot, why is he this piece of crap Camaro?"
"Oh hell to the no!" Kadence shouted, taking more offense to that then the Camaro, who had slammed on its brakes rather harshly before opening its door to release the trio.
"Move it, ya moron!"
They stepped out and watched as the Camaro sped off in the other direction.
"Oh, now look what you did. That's four thousand dollars. Gone!" He turned to Mikaela, "That car is sensitive."
Kadence frowned, "Wonder what it's going to do?"
"We'll never find out, cause it's gon-"
The rumble of an engine startled the sweaty three before they saw a yellow and black 2006 Camaro concept pull up in front of them. They couldn't help but leave their mouths agape, awestricken.
They climbed into the leather seats, Mikaela flashing a smile at Sam before strapping her seatbelt on. And they continued on their way.
No music played from the speakers, no words were said, just the rumble of the engine as they drove out of the tunnel and into a closed off area.
The new Camaro ushered the trio out, presenting the sky, where a noise resounded through the silent air. Kadence turned her head to a whistling noise to find four asteroids heading their way. The red head catches a glimpse of Sam's hand slowly sliding into Mikaela's
Shaking the ground, the four objects fly right over their heads.
Sam grabs Mikaela's hand and tugs her towards the nearest landing. Climbing up the hill, they gape in awe at the fair-sized crater caused by a metal pod. As soon as the metal began shifting, the trio ran back to the Camaro.
They hopped back into the muscle car and drove off.
Minutes later, they found themselves in a dark, foggy alley. Kadence stared through the fog while ushering Sam out.
The fog shifted away as a red and blue flamed 1992 Peterbilt 379 drove in, its engine rumbling deeply. The Camaro behind them moved to their left as more cars entered the scene, a gray hardtop Pontiac Solstice, a black GMC TopKick C4500 and a florescent yellow search and rescue Hummer H2.
The trio of teens backed up as the truck drove quite close, then the grill began to split and the hood lifted.
A circle of shifting cars surrounded the teens, who stood gaping at the sight in front of them. They turned back to the changed Peterbilt and gazed in awe as they saw two pairs of blue eyes staring at them, mere inches away.