A tap on the glass woke Jess. She sat up and winced. Her head felt like little demons were dancing around with their cloven hooves. After blinking to clear her vision, Jess looked out the window. A police officer was looking in at her. Heart in throat, Jess rolled the window down a little. Was he going to take her back to Richard?
"Hel-" she cleared her throat. "Hello, officer."
"Morning miss. Everything all right?"
She nodded. "Yeah. Fine."
He frowned at her. "You sure? You look a little roughed up."
"I took a tumble down some stairs yesterday," she lied. "I was visiting a friend. She wanted me to stay over, but I have work today, so I had to come back last night. I guess I pulled over and fell asleep."
"It's ten thirty now," the officer said, looking at his watch. "I think you're going to be late."
Jess closed her eyes, a pained look coming across her face. "My boss is gonna kill me. Thank you officer. Really."
He nodded and touched his hat. "No speedin' now. Just cause you're late doesn't mean you don't have to obey the law."
Jess nodded. "Right. Thanks again."
The man nodded again and walked back to his car. She waited until he'd pulled back out onto the freeway before reaching for the key in the ignition. A pitiful mew from the seat next to her got her attention.
"Quinn!"
She pulled the cat carrier into her lap and looked inside. The little black kitten was huddled in a corner. Jess's eyes filled with tears.
"Poor baby." She pulled the kitten from his carrier and cradled him to her chest. He purred like mad as she stroked his silky fur and let her tears fall. "I'm so sorry baby. You must have been scared to death. I'm sorry. Mama's sorry."
A little rough tongue licked her cheek and Jess buried her face in his fur and inhaled his kitten scent.
"You know how to make a girl feel better," Jess said when she was calmer.
Quinn was still purring, asleep in her arms. After a moment more comforting herself with the kitten's purr and silky fur, Jess put him back in his carrier. Quinn settled down and went back to sleep. Jess put a few crunchy food bits in the carrier in case he got hungry.
She sat for a long time, staring out at the desolate landscape. The last thing she remembered from the night before was headlights coming at her. Had she somehow avoided an accident and then driven herself out to the dessert? She didn't even know where she was. Which way was Mission City? Probably behind her, she decided. She should keep going forward, but her eyes fell on Quinn's sleeping form again.
"I can't take you with me, kitty," she whispered. "I don't know how long I'll be on the run, and I'm going to have a hard enough time feeding myself and Indigo, much less you as well. I know you won't be comfortable living in a car anyway. I won't take you back to Richard, and Liam is in jail, so that leaves one other place."
Wearily, Jess started the car, did a U-turn, and started back toward the city. She put on Nightwish, but softly. Her head was till pounding from multiple assaults. Jess stopped at the convenience store she came to. She bought aspirin, water, and some snacks. She checked Indigo's gas meter and was surprised to see it still at full. As she waited for the aspirin to kick in, she munched some chips.
"You're a good car, Indigo," she said.
When the throb in her head quieted to a dull ache, she started the car again and made her way toward Chris's house. She prayed that no one would be home. She wanted to drop Quinn off and be away before anyone, especially Chris, could ask questions.
There were no cars in the driveway as she pulled up to the house. Jess left the motor running as she took Quinn in his carrier, with the extra food up to the door step. She set her kitty down, trying hard not to cry.
"I'll come get you when I'm settled somewhere," she whispered.
Quinn looked at her with his big green eyes and mewed piteously. Jess's heart broke.
"Don't do that, baby. We'll be together again, I promise. Now be a good little boy for Chris and his family."
She ran back to Indigo, trying to shut out Quinn's cries. She climbed in the car and pulled away, tears spilling down her cheeks. "Bye Quinn," she whispered.
She drove to Liam's garage next. It was open, his other mechanics were hard at work. Jess hoped they might be able to raise bail for Liam. She didn't know who else would get him out of jail. And with her gone, he wouldn't be in danger of going back again. Jess took a shuddering breath and tightened her hands around the wheel. This was it. She'd leave town now and try to make a new life for herself away from Richard. All she had to do was lie low until she was eighteen, and then no one could make her go back to him.
Flashing blue and red lights in her rearview, and a couple short blasts of a police siren brought Jess back to the present. She looked at her speedometer. She was going the limit.
"Not again," she sighed as she pulled over on the quiet neighborhood street. "Two cops in one day."
The police car, a black and white Dodge Charger with police stripes, stopped behind her, but the officer stayed in his car. He looked as if he were busy at the lap top next to him.
"This sucks," Jess muttered.
"Miss?"
Jess jumped and looked at her window. There was no one there. She looked in her rearview. The officer was still in his car. He'd spoken into his loudspeaker.
"Miss, please exit your car."
Jess's hands tightened around the steering wheel.
"No way," she whispered.
The guy was in a uniform, and the car was clearly marked. He couldn't be some kind of bad guy trying to bluff her, could he?
"Miss, please exit your vehicle," the office said again.
Jess made a decision. She put the car in gear and stomped on the gas. The officer had good reaction time. He was following her a second or two after she'd sped away, sirens blaring.
"We've got to get away , Indigo," she said. "I won't go back to Richard!"
The Corolla seemd to have a life of its own as Jess raced through the streets of Mission City. She skidded around corners more sharply than she thought possible without rolling and wove through traffic with a skill she wasn't sure she possessed. Throuhg it all, the police car stayed in sight of her.
"We need to get to that desert road again," she said, her eyes scanning for the turnoff onto the highway. "I'm hoping we have more gas than he does. If so, we might be able to get away. As long as he doesn't call for back up."
She saw the turn off, cut across three lanes of traffic, and sped down the onramp. As soon as she hit the freeway, she floored it, pushing her speed past 100. She let out a wild whoop.
"Remind me to thank Uncle Liam for such a wonderful car," she yelled over the roar of the engine.
Something exploded in the road ahead of Jess. The wheel was jerked from her hands as the car swerved to avoid it. The police car screeched to a halt behind her. Jess started out the window, disbelieving. A huge metal scorpion crouched in the road, snapping its pincers. A cold sweat broke out over Jess's body.
"Oh my . . ."
She was jerked back against the seat as her car took off without her direction. Behind her, in the rearview mirror, the police car transformed into a huge black and white robot. The metallic scorpion was gone.
"Indigo!" Jess screamed.
Suddenly they were airborne, tossed high as the scorpion exploded up from the sand beneath Indigo's tires. Jess screamed and clutched at the handle over her door. They stopped suddenly with a metallic clang, a good ten or more feet off the ground.
"Brawn!"
"I've got 'em Prowl."
Jess looked out her window and found herself staring into a huge steel blue optic.
"Can you transform?"
"No," Jess whispered.
". . . No . . ." Indigo said, by way of his radio.
Jess stared in terror at the radio.
"No help for it then," the owner of the huge blue optic said.
They were lowered to the ground and Jess watched a smaller orange and grey robot join the black and white one. The scorpion had disappeared again.
"It's my parents all over again," Jess cried, nearly hyperventilating. Her accusing eyes looked at the car stereo. "You're one of them. Those monster robots."
" . . . No . . . Jessie . . ."
"Look out!" she screamed.
The scorpion had appeared again and grabbed the orange and grey robot, Brawn, by one leg and was swinging the hapless robot around and slamming him into the ground. Another police car, this one all black, showed up. Jess had only an instant's relief before the black car transformed and the two police cars-turned-robots were grappling together.
Jess held the steering wheel in a white knuckled grip.
"We've got to get out of here," she cried, her voice tinged with hysteria. "I don't want to die here!"
Indigo's engine revved and he jolted forward, slamming Jess back in her seat. The scorpion, distracted by their sudden movement, tossed the orange robot at the black and white one, then dove beneath the sand.
Jess pulled her knees up to her chest and clenched her eyes shut. She screamed as Indigo swerved wildly, but didn't dare open her eyes. She heard and felt Indigo's tires hit pavement and opened her eyes.
"No! Indigo, no! Turn around. Don't go back toward the city!"
Jess was thrown forward as Indigo slammed on his breaks and skidded in a half circle, ending up facing back out into the dessert.
". . . Jessie . . ."
"Don't talk to me. You're not supposed to talk. You're supposed to be a car! Cars don't talk!"
Indigo's engine revved, sounding threatening in Jess's ears. More deliberately this time, Indigo took off, only to stop a few feet later. The orange robot staggered backward across the road, hand to pincers with the scorpion.
"Come on, you overgrown slag heap!" the orange robot yelled. "You're not even trying!"
The scorpion snarled, a horrible metallic sound that made Jess clap her hands over her ears. In a surprisingly quick movement, the orange robot grabbed one huge pincer in both his hands and twisted.
The scorpion screamed as the pincer tore loose. He loosed a succession of lightning strikes with his tail, that the orange robot either dodged, or block with the pincer.
"Brawn, stop toying with him," the black and white robot said.
Jess looked for the other cop car robot. He was laying on his back in the sand, smoke rising from his body.
"Finish it. We need to find Optimus."
Jess watched as the one called Brawn caught the scorpion's tail on the next strike. In an impressive show of strength, the smaller robot heaved on the tail and slammed the larger scorpion onto its back. Then Brawn heaved again, swinging the scorpion through the air to crash down on the smoking black robot.
"Let's go," Brawn said to his taller companion.
"Not so fast!"
Red laser bolts slammed into the sand around Jess, Indigo, and the other two robots. Three jet planes screamed overhead. A limp form was suspended between two of them. The three jets landed, transforming as they did so, just beyond the two fallen robots.
"Indigo," Jess moaned, "I want to get out of here."
Indigo started creeping forward, but stopped as a laser bolt from the lead jet burned a hole in the road in front of him.
"Where is Optimus Prime?" the lead jet asked. "We hold one of your number hostage, Autobots. Deliver your leader to me and I may let the hostage live."
"Fat chance, Deceptiscum!" Brawn yelled. "We're gonna make scrap metal outta you!"
Indigo revved his engine and shot past Brawn and Prowl.
"Indigo, what are you doing?!" Jess cried. She stomped on the break but nothing happened. "Indigo!"
The Corolla slammed on his breaks and skidded to the side. At the same time, the door popped open and Jess's seatbelt came undone. She found herself thudding into the sand and rolling. When she looked up, she was somewhere between the two groups, closer to the fallen robots. Indigo was speeding toward the jet robots.
"INDIGO!"
A flash of silver was all the warning Jess had before a skeletal silver robot, about three or four feet tall, tackled her.
"KillFleshbag!AutobotFriend!Die!"
Jess screamed and tried to get the thing off her. She rolled and kicked, felt something warm and sticky slide across her cheek, her back, her arm. She slammed her palm into the thing's chest, only to howl as bone splintered against metal. Then she was being lifted. Five feet. Ten feet. The thing holding her screeched and let her go.
"Jessie!"
She hit the sand, saw stars. A familiar voice was calling to her. Gentle hands rolled her to her back. She thought she recognized Chris's face against the encroaching blackness. And behind him, looming . . .
something large . . .
sunlight reflecting off metal . . .
Jess closed her eyes and gave up consciousness.
