Me again! :3

So, yay for me, my holidays have just started, (whoot whoot), I'll be able to put a little extra into this. I'm still looking for a Beta reader to help me improve my writing, so if you know of a willing person, let me know, k?

And thanks for the reviews! They make me feel all squishy inside!

As always, I own neither the Transformers franchise nor the band Prime Circle. If I did, I would be rich.

:3

RnR pwease!


To say Arabella was cold, was an understatement. She was freezing. Stumbling through the cave system, she finally found a familiar looking string of lights, straggling through the halls in search of dry clothes. She was barely able to do anything due to the hypothermia that was starting to set in. Struggling her way into dry clothes and into her bed, she didn't notice the warm body that had climbed in with her before passing out.

Will had heard her when she came back due to the sound of squelching shoes and teeth chattering. In her hypothermia induced state, she didn't notice that he had gently directed her towards his bed that was already warm. Grabbing another blanket, he tossed that over her before getting in with her. It was basic survival training to stop a person from freezing due to hypothermia. He didn't use the correct way of stripping down to the skin to do it, but soon her shivering stopped as she fell into deep sleep, her body still pressed tightly to his.

Will hanged on to her, a bit uncomfortable at the near alien feeling of having a woman's body so close to him. In the camps they had always been separated, men in one hanger, women and children in another. Pulling her closer he finally drifted off to sleep as well.

xxxxxPCxxxxx

The hours passed swiftly and soon Arabella was waking up. She was lucky. She got into a confrontation with a decepticon and would probably come off with a cold. It, on the other hand, thought she was dead. She smirked when she had thought back to how she escaped.

It was an ingenious idea that started as an accident in their third year of survival. James had accidently fallen into the waterfall and Arabella had jumped in to try and save him. They both failed, but when they went over the edge, they fell into a cave. Tying a rope to the one rock to find their way back, they explored and found that one of the tunnels led back to their caves and took precautions accordingly.

They got shop mannequins.

Dressing them up in their typical hunting gear, they placed several close to the entrance, so that when you are in a spot of trouble, you fall into the cave and you push out a mannequin that breaks into a million pieces at the bottom. They never had to use it before today and she had been thankful for it being there when she had needed it. There were still five more mannequins left should they need to use it again.

She had never actually expected to use it, but was endlessly thankful for it. She was actually able to hear the Seeker step closer to the edge, and laugh as he flew up and away. She amazed that he fell for it.

She shifted and realised she wasn't alone in her bed. Actually opening her eyes, she noticed she was not in the main cavern. Instead, she was in the infirmary, Will's bony figure trying to lend her the warmth he could afford. She smirked. She would have probably have died in her sleep if it weren't for him.

Shifting out of the bed, she got up and moved through to the kitchen, still wrapped in her blanket, heating a thick chicken soup she had been able to make earlier in the year. She would probably never be able to make another pot like this one, as the ingredients were simply strokes of luck. Making her way back to the infirmary, she woke Will with the steaming bowl of soup.

"Here. Chicken soup is rumoured to heal all illnesses." She stated sagely as she sat in a blanket wrapped pile. He rubbed his eyes, taking the soup. Sitting up blearily, the soup made contact with his tongue.

"HOT! HOT! HOT!" He sputtered. Arabella laughed.

"Careful. It's hot." She stuttered out between laughs. He gave her a death stare before blowing on the soup before eating it.

"So, what happened out there?" He asked. She simply took another spoonful.

"Tell you later. Chicken soup is best warm." She stated before taking another spoonful. The thick soup was actually quite filling. It warmed her from inside out, and with the aid of the blankets, she knew she was in the clear from any bug in the foreseeable future. When she had stacked their bowls, she told him what happened.

"So that's the story. I have enough food here to go underground for 5 months at the moment. I'd suggest staying inside for at least a week before going foraging again, just to be safe. But as soon as we have your body nourished again, I'm putting you through such a strenuous training that you are going to hate me more than you hated your first drill sergeant." She promised him. He scoffed.

"Please. There was no drill sergeant worse than Stephens." He swore. She cocked an eyebrow at him, in an 'Oh, really?' manner. He took note of it and said nothing. He knew there was no one that could have been worse than Master Drill Sergeant Stephens.

xxxxxPCxxxxx

He took it all back.

There was a drill sergeant worse than Stephens.

A three weeks after their conversation, she struck without warning. He had been dreaming of a laughing Annabelle running through a meadow when the dream was ripped from him in the most dramatic fashion.

By an air horn screaming next to his ear.

He had been dragged through the worst three weeks of his life. He had to run, no, sprint, all the way from the main chamber to the storage room and back. Walking, that took 15 minutes. He had to sprint that several times every morning and had to do it with weights. Every day, the weights would become a little heavier.

After the morning sprints, he had to do other body exercises, like push ups, sit ups, and good Lord knows what else. He lost count with how many he did, trying his hardest to please his slave driver.

Calling Arabella a slave driver was not a mild understatement, but a serious one. Every time he wanted to give in, she made him see reason to do ten more. They usually came in threats and they all had the same theme.

If he couldn't do this, he would never see his family again, or protect them.

His overall diet was devoid of meat, consisting only of fruit, vegetables and water. He was allowed a 15 minute breather to get his heart rate back to normal. During the first three days, he was starting to question his manhood when she not only did them with him without fail, but with the 20kg weight strapped to her back the entire time. Not only that, but she added weight to hers as well. He pushed these thoughts out of his mind and replaced them with thoughts of his family.

The exercising only happened until 9 in the mornings, considering the fact that she dragged him out of bed at 5 every morning. The rest of the day was filled with, 'Survival 101' as she coined it, and weapons training afterwards. She was an excellent teacher. She would demonstrate where possible and he tried to absorb as much as he could. The session was always split into three sections: shelter, medical and foraging.

She would start by giving him a scenario and asking him what he would do in said situation. After he gave it his best shot, she would correct him where necessary. She would be quite harsh about his mistakes, because, quite frankly, one mistake and he could die and probably will die. But she did something he had never seen before. She made him teach her what she had taught him by pretending that she had never heard the stuff before.

It made him understand everything, allowing him to figure out for himself why he needed to do what he had too, and also made everything stay up there longer. Every day she would build on what she had told him the day before. His grasp for surviving in the wild grew quickly, as did his weapon handling skills.

He was a crack shot with a gun, no doubt about it, but something simple and silent like a bow and arrow? Not a chance. But teach him, she did. She taught him how to make his own bow, his own arrows, his own quiver to hold them, his own spear, his own rope and leather, and most importantly, how to properly use all of the above.

By the end of the third week, muscle mass had proudly sprouted over Will's previously thin frame. Sure, he had been buff in the Army, but now? He was twice as ripped, simply from building the muscles he knew he would need in the future. His endurance has tripled, as had his mental capacity for surviving in the wild. It was time to put his skills to the test.

"Come on, Will!" Arabella called, grabbing her quiver and bow. "We're going hunting!" They needed to stock up for winter, and they needed to do it fast.