Thank you guys so much for all the reviews and all the love! Once more I have more followers than I do reviews, but this story is getting more and more readers on a rapid rate and that makes me extremely happy and warm inside! I know that you all really like this story, and I am trying my best to deliver. I know I don't update as often as I would like to, but I still update!
Reviews:
Alice Gone Madd: Things really haven't been going for her lately!
ThisIsHope: Thank you! I'm really glad you liked that line! I love Bumblebee too! He's the sweet and cuddly but protective kind of mech. And above all, he's nice and he's good!
Valkyrie 497: Thank you! And I agree with you completely, that movie never had a voice of reason. I'm really glad you find her relatable, I try my best to do so. Thank you for reviewing, Val!
Jimmy 144: Thank you so much!
ZabuzasGirl: Thanks so much! Here's the long awaited update!
ManyGamePlayer: Almost! You'll have to read to see what really happens!
Bee4ever: You know she will! She just needs time to take it all in.
Muirgen79: Absolutely! Nicole's down for whatever when it comes to family.
Rinpup14: They sure do!
Angel of Randomosity: LOL You're the first to call her Nikki! She will, it may take some time, but she will.
D112hpfan: Thank you so much! I can't really say, because that would be spoiling the story, but read and you'll see! Yeah, dads can sometimes be unforgiving, but they do it for a good reason. You're right, absolutely right, but we all feel like that at a certain time of our lives, no?
BlackArtWhiteVoice: Thank you so much! Here's the update!
Chapter 10: Burn Down The Bridges
We got into the car; Sam and Mikaela sliding in more naturally than I did. I was too apprehensive at the moment. This was a real being, capable of killing us if it decided to transform.
The mental image of the interior shifting around and the panels cutting into and through me made me cringe painfully. My heartbeat accelerated as I didn't know what to do, how to sit or how to act. I was in the backseat, the dark interior making everything very hard to see. As Sam and Mikaela closed the doors, I noticed that Sam was in the passenger seat, and Mikaela was sitting on the console.
This was scary. Extremely. As the Camaro turned itself on, the engine rumbling in the silent night, the atmosphere thickened alarmingly.
Until, Mikaela mumbled out. "My… My purse. I dropped my purse."
We were all silent. Could we ask the big robot to detour and get the purse back? She whispered to Sam a little, as if for the car not to hear her, but that meant that I also wouldn't hear her.
I was trying to sit on the seats as little as possible. The quadriceps on my legs pumped up as I tried to touch the surface of the seats as lightly as possible. This was scary. Like something out of a movie, not something that would happen to me in real life.
Giant aliens that turned into cars… Who would have thought of it?
"Um…" Sam started as the car continued on to drive. "We need to stop." He said, voice slightly quivering, sounding uncertain. "She… Uh, she dropped her purse. We need to get it back." The car didn't reply, it simply continued to drive on. "Please?" Sam pleaded.
Without a warning, the car started turning to the right, slowing down as it did so. And when we came to a complete stop, Sam glanced out the window and seemed to spot something. He opened the door and got out, his feet crunching the gravel beneath him. Since I was in the backseat, and the Camaro didn't have any windows for the backseat passengers, I had to incline my head to see what he was doing.
Even though it was night, I could clearly see that he was picking up Mikaela's stuff that had fallen out of her purse. He stuffed the objects back in as he scrambled back into the car. While he was handing Mikaela back her purse, the door shut on its own, and the car proceeded to drive somewhere.
The atmosphere was getting thicker by the minute, as the car exited the lot of the facility. What surprised me more was that the car noticed how tense everyone was, and it put light music on the radio, driving normally through the city, even though it was empty at this godforsaken hour. Even though the streets were empty, he didn't seem to be in too much of a hurry.
Nobody dared speak. But we all had the same question in our heads, echoing in our minds.
Where was he taking us?
But I worried not for that question only, but for what mom and dad would say? What they would do? Would the whole army of the United States of America rain down upon us, just to find us? Anything was possible when a mother was frantically looking for her children.
And knowing our mom…
Suddenly, we started entering a tunnel. Despite it being late at night, there were cars in here, albeit old sedans and even older station wagons. We weren't riding in anything better. This was a rusted old piece of crap, even though it was a Camaro. It was outdated, and the new Mustang was already out, whereas the new Camaro was not.
But enough of me rambling about cars… I was not in a car anymore, but a living alien.
Mikaela finally broke the silence in the car, as I could see Sam turning his head slightly towards her. She hadn't moved an inch from the center console. I could guarantee she was stiff from not moving and from sitting in a very uncomfortable position. "This car's a pretty good driver." She mumbled quietly.
"Why don't you go sit in that seat there?" Sam whispered quietly, just so his voice could carry over the distance between them, and ultimately, to me. The 'Bee-otch' air freshener, which hung from the mirror in front of the windshield, wavered ever so slightly as the car rode over small holes and bumps. The disco ball, hung from the same place the freshener was, reflected the light from the tunnel lamps. The soft music sung quietly.
"I'm not going to sit in that seat, he's driving!" Mikaela hissed at the end, her voice spiking up in fear.
"Yeah. You're right." There was short moment of silence before Sam answered again. "Maybe you should sit in my lap."
In that moment, I forgot we were in an alien. But just for that moment. In the next moment, I remembered, but I still wondered where in the world did Sam get the idea she would sit in his lap?!
"Why?" She asked.
"Well, I have the only seatbelt here. You know, safety first." He said, taking the black seatbelt into his right hand.
"Yeah, you're right." She muttered, sliding over the console and straight into his lap.
Ah, smooth Sam. Smooth.
I never thought I'd see it.
"See, that's better." Sam prompted, getting comfortable with Mikaela's weight being on him. He must be enjoying it.
"You know, that seatbelt thing was a pretty smooth move." She said no mirth in her voice.
Sam chuckled in turn. "Thank you."
"You know what I don't understand?" Mikaela became talkative all of a sudden. I guess it meant that the car wouldn't lash out on her for talking, and she was relieved for it. "Why if he's supposed to be like this super-advanced robot, does he transform back into this piece of crap Camaro?"
The moment she said 'Piece of crap Camaro', the car slammed on the brakes and put itself into park, sliding across the pavement sideways.
Oh no.
My heartbeat picked up in the backseat as I tried to figure out what he was going to do next. Was he going to go suicidal? Kill us all? Transform with all of us inside it and kill us with the metals piercing our petite bodies?
God please no, no, no, no.
"Oh, no, that doesn't work. See?" Sam said as he unlocked the door and he and Mikaela came out. I knew that the car wanted us out, but as I started to climb up to the console, the car started moving. "Come on, Nicole, get ou-Wait!" Sam was cut off as the car started spinning its wheels, doing a U-turn. It was as if the car offended because Mikaela called it a piece of crap.
Could cars even be offended?
Apparently, they could.
My heartbeat resounded in my ears. Was it going to take me somewhere to torture me?
What was it going to do to me?
"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" I yelled out at the car. "Go back, now!" I bellowed.
The car seemed to disapprove of my behavior. "Feisty. You're lucky I like you."
"Take me back immediately!" I roared.
"Calm down." The radio replied as the car suddenly got on its right wheels, driving on only the two of them. I fell to the right side of the car, my body pressed against the leather unwillingly.
"I want out right now!" I contemplated using my power to get out of here and destroy the interior, but then everything started to change.
The interior was no longer outdated. It was modern, new. As a blue light, like that of a scanner, passed through the interior, it began to shift.
There was a display in front of me, instead of an old 70's radio. The seats were bigger, more comfortable and everything felt and smelled new.
Just what happened?
My breathing stalled as I looked over with wide eyes at what was happening. The car fell down on all fours, making a quick U-turn, not caring about the law, as it drove back towards where it left Sam and Mikaela.
"What… The hell did you do?" I gasped as I looked over everything. I wanted to touch all of the new stuff, to figure out in what kind of a car I was in, but fear restricted me. I didn't know if he liked to be touched.
"Thought you'd appreciate the makeover."The radio replied in a cool, confident voice. It wasn't his voice, though.
Did robots even have voices? Or were they all the same?
The car stopped right in front of my brother and his friend.
Sam gasped as he looked over the lines of the car. "What?" His eyes were wider than mine. "Holy…" He gasped as he opened the door, this time letting Mikaela sit in the passenger's seat as he sat in the driver's. "What just happened?"
"Don't ask me." I replied. "I know as much as you do." Which was nothing.
"Where are we headed? Home is that way." Sam said gesturing towards the tunnel we had just exited.
"No idea. Ask the car." I replied. I didn't like this. I wanted to go home and buy a Ford and ditch this crap.
Or maybe not a Ford. That black robot was a Ford.
"So where are we going?" Sam asked, feeling more at ease with the car. What was with him? That car could have killed us ten times by now!
But he didn't.
Which was odd.
Why didn't he?
"I'm takin' ya to a lightshow." The radio replied to Sam's question. What lightshow was he talking about?
"What kind of a lightshow?" Sam asked as the Camaro, or what I thought this car still was since I hadn't seen the exterior, started to go up a hill, to the very top of it. It wasn't long before, in the dark night, a white building could be seen, and it was no other than the Griffith Observatory. I tried to connect what I heard to what I saw.
Lightshow, observatory?
Perhaps there would be a meteor shower? There was no forecast, though. I was missing something.
"A special kind of… lightshow." The radio said, connecting two different audio clips. It started to swerve gently on the road and the headlights focused on the gate in front of us. The car slowed down as it broke through the gate, the rattling sound of metal lightly echoing in the night around us. The rumble of the American V8 also echoed as the car accelerated towards the highest point of the road, and then just stopped. "Out." The radio commanded in a single word.
The doors opened on their own, the message perfectly clear to everyone. Sam and Mikaela got out, unbuckling first, and when they both got out, the seat moved forwards on its own, making way for me to pass through and out of the car. As my feet met the asphalt beneath, a wave of relief washed over me, knowing that I was out of the car. I moved away from it as the doors closed on their own and the seat went back into place. Watching it all happen was interesting, but scary.
Cars didn't do this.
It was unnatural.
As I stood dumbly to the side of the car, I noticed how it was no longer the old 70's Camaro. It was now a new type of car, a concept of some sorts. I rounded it, looking at it from every side, and I noticed the words Camaro on the side panels of the car. It must have been a new model, one that wasn't even in production.
It was painted a beautiful, rich yellow color and had two gloss black stripes going over the hood and bumper. The roof was intact by the stripes, being completely yellow, and the car had no sunroof. It kept the bumblebee colors on it, and the design was stunning. It was a car that screamed aggressive all over it. From the edged front, to the serious-looking rear. Silver and large twin exhausts decorated the rear of the car, along with the small spoiler, and the beautiful five spoke silver rims were accenting the yellow color. For a moment, I wished this car was mine.
Before any more thoughts could enter my mind, I heard crunching noises behind me, and I turned around, only to see Sam and Mikaela moving up behind me to catch my attention. "Any idea why it brought us here?" Sam asked me, but also asked Mikaela, as we formed a sort of triangle between us.
"No." I shook my head. "What was 'a special kind of lightshow' supposed to mean?" I asked. The two of them thought for a while, and then Mikaela got an idea.
"I think-" She started, but got cut off when weird noises began to echo through the air. It was as if a plane was passing by, but it was different. This was faster, less aerodynamic. It didn't even sound like it came from the planet.
We all looked up to the starry sky, searching for the object that was causing the cacophony. It was steadily growing louder, as if it was approaching us. If this car was the reason we all died, I'd haunt it for the rest of my ghostly life and make its life a real misery.
Our heartbeats picked up the pace as we really didn't know what was going on. Was some kind of extraterrestrial object going to crash into us? Would we all perish into a thousand pieces or were we going to die painfully?
Why were we even here?
And then, Sam moved to the front of the car, Mikaela tagging along with him, because he noticed something in his line of sight. He looked up into the air in a different direction, and as I followed suit, I saw four flaming balls coming down to Earth.
We were all going to die.
I was petrified once more, too many times for one night, as I noticed some of the meteors deviating from their course as they flew over the large white building of the Griffith Observatory. I walked back, trying to get away from all of this madness, but I had nowhere to go. Just before the meteors flew over my head, I noticed that Mikaela had grabbed Sam's hand, looking for safety.
And once more, I was the third wheel.
Sparks flew when the meteor passed over our heads, and we had to cover our ears with our hands because of the sound and the force that it flew over. When we all looked at the direction where it was going to land, and not a moment too soon, we heard the crash of its landing, a blinding white explosion coming from the place.
"It crashed!" I said in the moment, declaring the obvious unwillingly. It was a spur of the moment kind of thing. I looked behind me towards Sam and Mikaela, and waved them over to come to me. The three of us ran on the asphalt before starting to trudge through the high grass towards where the meteor crashed.
"Holy shit…" Sam gasped as all of us stopped trudging and just stood dumbfounded, watching the grass burn because of the flames the meteor created. We could barely see anything but the light the fire gave off. There was a large ball of some sort, and while I at first thought it was a real meteor, a space rock, it was not. It glistened in front of the fire, the orange light reflecting off the curves.
Meteors weren't metal.
What was this thing?
We were all silent as the meteor-metal-thing started to transform. The external parts of it shifted one on top of the other, until they created a sort of door. The metal meteor left quite the trail on the ground behind it. A couple of dozen feet penetrated the ground, for sure.
We held our distance from the transforming, metal meteor, even though it looked more like an alien pod than anything else. Once the pod opened up, the metal panels shifting, a large dark silver being came out with two blue eyes on its head.
Holy shit!
I backpedaled through the grass, my eyes not leaving the blue creature's ones, as the creature turned around to look at us, hearing our shuffling through the grass. We all froze in fear and uncertainty.
What was it going to do to us?
But then, it turned back around and started to run away from us, far, far away. Its powerful footsteps shook the ground beneath us, and I wanted to run for cover, run home, and forget all of this had ever happened.
After it disappeared into the night, the adrenaline and fear left me, causing my knees to shake.
"There's more of them." I muttered with my lips quivering. Did the government need to know this? Did they already know this?
"We have to go back." Mikaela piped in. "What if the car left us here?"
There was a split second silence between all of us, and then we all bolted in the direction of the Camaro, fearing that it had left us here in the dark to slaughter us. Nobody would hear us scream here. We were all alone.
As we ran through the tall grass, I fell into a hole that I couldn't possibly see, and the fall threw me off balance and sent me spiraling into the ground. I fell harshly on my knees and elbows, wincing as pain laced up my arms, burning at my knees and elbows. Regardless, I got up back up on my feet and followed Sam and Mikaela back to the paved asphalt.
The Camaro was there, waiting patiently for us, as if it was simply a normal piece of human machinery, nothing more than a car. My brother and Mikaela were out of breath by the time they got to the yellow car, but I winced every time my knees bended. I didn't get to look down to see if I was bleeding, but it hurt too much to think that I wasn't.
The Chevy's engine turned on, the V8 rumbling softly as the car edged forwards slowly, its doors clicking open, letting us come in."Hop in, little fellas." The radio said as we all stumbled inside. We didn't know where to go anymore. This time, Mikaela was the one to go into the backseat and I was in the passenger's. The dark interior was a cocoon now. At least, it felt so.
The car started to exit the Observatory, going somewhere unbeknownst to us.
"Where do you think it's taking us?" I said in a cautious and uncertain voice. My knees and elbows started to burn as the adrenaline left my body completely, leaving me to deal with the pain. I did not let Sam and Mikaela know. I wasn't a crybaby.
"I don't know." Sam replied in awe, watching the steering wheel steer on its own.
"I hope it's home." I lowly added, glancing at my wounded knees.
Written:
03.05.2015.